There are two internationally important events each year in the publishing calendar: the Frankfurt Book Fair in the autumn and the London Book Fair in the spring. There are others but they’re also-rans: these are the two that matter most, with London exclusively business focused and Frankfurt ever more interested in welcoming the public—and children. 

The difference is marked by the fact that you can buy books at Frankfurt; no one can buy anything at London except rights and coffee. That makes London more efficient, it is said: there aren’t any distractions. 

Both fairs hold speaking events through the day. Industry experts talk about the past (their experience) or the future (changing trends). And usually, the fairs put a country in the spotlight. In the last three years, Frankfurt has featured the Philippines (2025—I don’t think my hearing has recovered yet from the evening of traditional drumming), Italy (2024—nice wine) and Slovenia (2023—meh). London’s national focus has been on hold since 2024; previously the honorees were Ukraine (2023) and Sharjah (2022).

London also recognises individuals. Its Trailblazer Awards celebrate emerging leaders with less than ten years’ experience while its Lifetime Achievement Award honours long-serving titans: founders of independent presses, senior editors, major agents.

This year’s Lifetime award-winner was announced to a small gathering of colleagues and friends after the fair had finished for the day on Wednesday evening. Warm and loud applause greeted the recipient when he stepped up to a lectern, and then again after he had spoken for five minutes and stepped down.

I knew nothing about him, and had to look him up when I got home. It appears that he had left Penguin Books in the mid-1990s to set up his own company and has been described by a fellow professional as “the very epitome of the independent publisher: fearless, frank, feisty and totally committed to his authors and his company.”

His bestsellers have included Alan Bennett, Mary Beard and Francis Fukuyama, as well as Lynne Truss’s Eats, Shoots and Leaves, which has sold more than three million copies worldwide. In 2007 he bought the firm behind Lionel Shriver’s 2003 success We Need to Talk about Kevin, which has sold over 900,000 copies. 

His manner, as he rustled the pages of........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)