Bookseller and prime mover behind the Booker prize, Britain’s top literary awardAlthough bookselling framed his professional life, Martyn Goff, who has died aged 91, will be most remembered for his 34 years running what became under his stewardship Britain’s premier literary award – the Booker, now the Man Booker, prize. Goff took over as administrator of the prize in 1973, its fifth year.As director of the National Book League (NBL), which had been near-moribund until his arrival in 1970, he caught people’s attention the following year by creating an innovative literary festival, the Bedford Square Book Bang, in London. Book events at the time were generally stuffy affairs, but despite appalling weather that helped turn the Bloomsbury square into a quagmire, the Book Bang attracted some 50,000 visitors. Little more than a year later, the Publishers Association, which had launched the Booker, passed the administering of the prize to the reinvigorated League. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2015-03-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publisher of military history books and husband of Jilly CooperLeo Cooper, who has died aged 79 after suffering from Parkinson's disease, was a publisher with a zeal for military history, who also enjoyed some notoriety as the husband of the novelist Jilly Cooper.Leo's hospitality was out of all... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2013-12-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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My friend Paul Westlake, who has died of cancer aged 65, was a pillar of the radical publishing world from the mid-1970s onwards. He was an advocate of workers' co-operatives and gained much experience in ensuring that the output of independent publishers reached the bookshops.In autumn 1976,... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2013-11-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Journalist, biographer and author who explored the history of property ownership in AmericaThe Scottish author Andro Linklater was fascinated by the relationship between people and land. His death at the age of 68 from a heart attack came while he was on the isle of Eigg, researching for a new... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2013-11-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Perform has hired Martyn Jones, the former publishing director for Stuff and FourFourTwo, as its global brand sponsorship director as part of the company's expansion. Continue reading at Media Week
[ Media Week | 2013-07-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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