When Patience Thomson was setting up her own publishing company, she knew exactly how to recruit the best editors — she found some children with reading difficulties. The company she founded, Barrington Stoke, produces books for reluctant readers, and in its 14-year history, hundreds of Oxfordshire pupils have acted as its 'consultants'.

She started it in 1996 after retiring from teaching at the age of 60.

"A chap came in to inquire about his dyslexic child coming to the school, and I told him I wouldn't be there in the autumn as I was leaving.

"He asked me what I was planning to do and I said 'I'm going to set up a publishing company'. He asked where I would get the money from and I said I didn't know.

"He turned out to be a multi-millionaire. This is something you dream about in the bath. He said, 'I'll fund you if you come up with a good business plan'."

Co-founder was her daughter-in-law, Lucy Juckes, who had worked for several years for publisher Bloomsbury, and the company's name is a combination of Ms Juckes' home village of Great Barrington and Mrs Thomson's home at Little Stoke, near Wallingford.

Mrs Thomson's frustration at the poor range of books available to slow readers was sparked by teaching at Turner's Court, a former centre for young offenders near Wallingford.

She said: "There were books available, but you couldn't offer them to young offenders. They were too patronising."

Her interest became a passion when her son developed reading difficulties.

"I was interested already, and after having a child with dyslexia I went on to specialise in basic literacy.

"At Turner's Court, I had a captive audience. They didn't get holidays, and some were there for long periods. There was only one I failed to teach to read. If you have a reading age of eight, you can get by."

After a course at Barts Hospital in London on the psychology of teaching children with special needs, she became a tutor of teachers, then taught at Carmel College, near Wallingford.

She was head of Fairley House, a specialist dyslexia school in London, when the 'miracle' investor walked in.

"I knew exactly how I wanted the books to be, and I knew they had to be by well-known authors. When I went to Michael Morpurgo, a famous children's author, he roared with laughter.

"He said 'What are you going to do that's different? It's notoriously difficult'. I told him the books would be edited by about 20 reluctant readers of the right age."

She approached Icknield School, Watlington, which allowed her to take 10 children aside.

"They started off by saying: 'I can't read this word', but soon they were changing all sorts of things. The consultants were actually better at spotting what was needed than faster readers, because they noticed everything."

The 'editors' who also come from St Birinus School, Didcot, get a letter of recommendation to show potential employers, plus a copy of the book with their name in the back.

Small details count — Barrington Stoke's typeface is designed by language specialists to minimise the mixing-up of letters. Cream-coloured paper is easier for dyslexics than black print on white, while spacing and lay-out maximise clarity and readability.

Mrs Thomson added: "Conventional wisdom is that you need words with few syllables and short sentences.

"We have discovered it's more subtle than that. It depends on the word. Things like binocular and paranoid, they can read, but words like intently, or actually, get taken out.

"I was worried there would be no consensus, but there is. And authors really enjoy being torn to strips by the children. They accept nine out of ten changes we suggest."

She was not surprised the books sold well in schools, but demand from parents has been a pleasant surprise.

"They have feisty covers and if you finish one, you suddenly think of yourself as a reader. You become gripped and then you have a relationship with the author."

Last year she wrote her own bestseller — a book for adults with reading difficulties called 101 Ways to Get Your Child to Read, voted the Quick Reads Learners' Favourite Award as part of last year's World Book Day.

Having stood down as chairman of the Edinburgh-based company last year, Mrs Thomson, now 74, heads the language editorial team, working as a consultant from home in Oxfordshire.