Usborne to run: kids’ indie toasts half century

The anniversaries abound this Bologna, don’t they? The Fiere itself is 60—though you may not be aware as the messaging around it has been ever so subtle – and Usborne turns a half-century, with the doughty publisher celebrating this BCBF with friends (and, as it happens, family) at their stand.

I know what you are thinking: 1973, a brilliant time to start a new business in the UK, with a recession driven by an energy crisis and a foreign war that was taking up all the headlines. My, how times have changed! Bee Tee Dubs, I was referring to Vietnam, not the Cod War, which was also raging in 1973. You kids may be unfamiliar with the UK versus Iceland’s battle to keep Young’s Fish Fingers on the great British menu, but for my mind it was the Royal Navy’s most heroic moment since Trafalgar. An aside to our non-UK-based readers in Bologna: Americans, fish fingers are what you call fish sticks; the rest of the world, fish fingers are what you would call disgusting.

Usborne m.d. Nicola Usborne claimed she was responsible for her publisher’s launch, somewhat cheeky as she was a toddler at the time; her dad and the indie’s founder Peter Usborne later explained that it was fatherhood that made him want to become a children’s publisher (no, you’re crying!). Publishing director Jenny Tyler reminisced about her 48 years of working with Peter (every second undoubtedly a treasure) and made the bold claim that Usborne “was the first company to make children’s publishing fun”. She’s at Hall 25, A119, if you want a word, fellow publishers.

Peter Usborne then talked of founding the company; he asked for £20,000 from the publisher he worked for at the time for seed money and was told to add an extra zero (seriously now: how times have changed). Then he talked about his first Bologna, and the publisher’s flimsy cardboard stand, which folded and fitted into his car for the journey. That’s certainly a change from today, as it’s said that the luminous yellow Usborne stand and the Great Wall of China are the only two man-made objects that can be seen from space.

Peter Usborne received a CBE from King Chucky III earlier this year for services to publishing (one wonders if the new monarch was aware Usborne co-founded Private Eye, long a thorn in the House of Windsor’s paw). Another honours list luminary has an anniversary this Bologna: the Publishers Association’s export services supremo (and surely a Guinness World Record contender for most-ever book fairs attended) Gloria Bailey MBE, who marks 40 years at the trade body. At her interview back in 1983, she was told the PA gave staff an extra week of annual leave for each decade of service. (As does The Bookseller—which explains why ol’ Horace only pitches up at the jollies book fairs?) “Don’t worry,” she said, “I’ll only be here a couple of years.” We’re glad you stayed, Lady G.