PERHAPS A GIFT VOUCHER FOR MUM?: MOTHER'S DAY
Richard Charkin Since becoming a publisher in 1972, Richard Charkin has held many senior posts at major publishing houses, including Oxford University Press, Reed Elsevier, Current Science Group, Macmillan, and Bloomsbury Publishing. He is former President of The Book Society, the International Publishers Association and the UK Publishers Association. He is a non-executive director of the International Advisory Board of the Frankfurt Book Fair, Liverpool University Press, and Cricket Properties Ltd as well as advising nkoda.com and running Mensch Publishing. He lectures on the publishing courses at London College of Communications, City University, and University College London. Tom Campbell Tom Campbell is an independent consultant and writer. He has worked with the Greater London Authority to produce the Mayor's Cultural Strategy and was Head of Creative Industries at the London Development Agency. He co-chaired the Creative Industries Council's Working Group on Regions and Clusters and is on the editorial board of the academic journal Cultural Trends. His most recent novel, The Planner, is published by Bloomsbury.
Richard Charkin's My Back Pages is an extraordinary exposition of his quite extraordinary career. There is surely no other trade book and academic journal publisher of the last half century so qualified and so competent to describe and evaluate the market's endless and astonishing twists and turns over that time. Charkin's opinionated anecdotes and reflections provide intriguing colour and pace, and are sometimes very funny, but It is his technical overview of the market over these five decades of constant technical revolution that is so absorbing, so clear minded, so wide flung, so instructive. My Back Pages should now become a compulsory text for new career entrants into the publishing world. It's that good. Sir Tim Waterstone A fascinating personal assessment of the rise and growth of publishing by someone whose lived through it and whose experience, knowledge and wisdom is second to none. Delia Smith I thoroughly enjoyed it. It is more than a memoir but a genuine history of publishing, of interest to anyone in the industry and furthermore anyone interested in publishing, especially authors and would-be authors Bob Campbell. Former President, Blackwell Scientific Richard Charkin changed UK publishing. He also, thankfully, made it more fun. Charlotte Mendelson I found it fascinating and full of interest....Your early years in the business are particularly riveting to somebody who joined much later on. Antony Topping, Managing Director, Greene & Heaton Literary Agency This book spans 50 years of British publishing, and makes them all interesting. Richard Charkin never minded stirring the pot, and clearly he is still at it. He offers a tour of the publishers where he worked, of the industry, and of the many colorful characters he came across. From Lord Archer to Harry Potter, all the stories are here, and they are told with flair in Richard's signature voice. I loved it! John Sargent, former CEO of Macmillan USA I thoroughly enjoyed this. You have a great eye for the telling details that illuminate the progress (or otherwise) of publishing from the Seventies to now, and you have so many good stories... it is an impressive achievement. Nick Clee, Joint Editor and Founder, BookBrunch A riveting account of the last fifty years of publishing by one of the industry's most successful - and boisterous - characters. Alexandra Pringle What an amazing career. I can't think of anyone else who has been active in such a wide range of sorts of publishing. I should think there will be a host of people who know you through the sector of publishing that they are in but will be interested in your experience of all the other sectors that they don't know about. Andrew L Schuller, Publishing Consultant, Formerly Editorial Director Humanities and Social Sciences OUP I can really hear your voice throughout, and it's wonderfully entertaining. Bravo. It really is a joy. Patrick Brindle, Into Content (?) Richard Charkin is a professional's professional, and no-one knows the book trade better. Jeffrey Archer
