Peter Usborne

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Thomas Peter Usborne MBE (born 1937) is a British publisher. In the early 1960s, Usborne co-founded the satirical magazine Private Eye. In 1973 he founded the book publisher Usborne Publishing.[1][2][3][4][5] He studied at the University of Oxford.

Peter Usborne, founder and MD of Usborne, started working in children’s books when he found out he was going to become a parent. Soon after, in 1973, he revolutionized the world of publishing for children by setting up his own company and pioneering a new generation of engaging, innovative, illustrated books for children, which combined popular subject matter with unrivalled quality in editorial and production.

Fifty years on, Peter still claims that parenthood has been the greatest privilege of his life, and that publishing children’s books has been an extension of that. Now in his eighties, Peter still looks forward to coming to work every morning, and his roles as publisher and parent have never been more intertwined, as he now runs Usborne alongside his daughter Nicola Usborne, who is deputy MD.

Peter’s son, Martin Usborne, runs his own publishing company: Hoxton Mini Press[6]. The three Usbornes – Peter, Nicola and Martin – together run The Usborne Foundation[7], a charity founded by the Usborne family which harnesses research, design and technology to create playful media addressing issues from literacy to health. Teach Your Monster to Read[8] is an award-winning series of games that’s helped millions of children learn to read, funded by The Usborne Foundation.

Peter was awarded MBE for services to the Publishing Industry in 2011 and awarded the London Book Fair Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015. His eponymous publishing company was named Children’s Publisher of the Year at the British Book Awards in both 2012 and 2020[9], Independent Publisher of the Year at the Independent Publishing Awards in 2014[10], and Private Business of the Year in 2015[11].

A generation of children have grown up with Usborne books, some of the most famous being the Usborne Puzzle Adventure series (featuring Agent Arthur), the World of the Unknown[12] series, the Book of the Future, Poppy and Sam's Farmyard Tales[13], Sticker Dolly Dressing and the THAT'S NOT MY®[14] series of touchy-feely board books for babies by Fiona Watt (author).

  1. ^ "Thomas Peter Usborne M.B.E." usbornefamilytree.com.
  2. ^ "How I Made It: Peter Usborne, founder of Usborne Publishing". The Sunday Times. 28 April 2013.
  3. ^ Natalie Graham (14 March 2014). "Work is child's play for book publisher Peter Usborne". ft.com.
  4. ^ Joshua Farrington (6 March 2015). "Peter Usborne to receive LBF Lifetime Achievement award". thebookseller.com.
  5. ^ "Peter Usborne to receive The London Book Fair Lifetime Achievement Award 2015". The London Book Fair. 6 March 2015.
  6. ^ Press, Hoxton Mini. "Hoxton Mini Press publishes collectable photography books". Hoxton Mini Press. Retrieved 2021-09-09.
  7. ^ "The Usborne Foundation". The Usborne Foundation. Retrieved 2021-09-09.
  8. ^ "Teach Your Monster to Read". www.teachyourmonstertoread.com. Retrieved 2021-09-09.
  9. ^ "The British Book Awards 2020 | The Nibbies | The Bookseller". www.thebookseller.com. Retrieved 2021-09-09.
  10. ^ "Usborne, Nosy Crow, Summersdale winners at Independent Publishing Awards | The Bookseller". www.thebookseller.com. Retrieved 2021-09-09.
  11. ^ "Usborne crowned 'private business of the year' | The Bookseller". www.thebookseller.com. Retrieved 2021-09-09.
  12. ^ "Usborne Publishing". usborne.com. Retrieved 2021-09-09.
  13. ^ "Usborne Publishing". usborne.com. Retrieved 2021-09-09.
  14. ^ "Usborne Publishing". usborne.com. Retrieved 2021-09-09.


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