Bloomsbury's Helen Ward retires after 44 years

Bloomsbury UK sales’ head of cookery, lifestyle and illustrated non-fiction Helen Ward is retiring this June after a 44-year career in the book industry. 

Ward began working with books in 1980 at her local independent bookshop North-West Books in Limavady, Northern Ireland, before joining W H Smith High Street, first as a book department manager, then buyer.  

Following the introduction of the National Curriculum, she became W H Smith’s first Education buyer, setting up a new Education book range from scratch, developing an own-brand strategy and implementing the range, which is still in existence today, across the chain. 

After stints as a buyer in Scholastic’s Children’s Book Clubs and Fairs division and as Adult Fiction buyer at W H Smith High Street, she moved into publishing. 

Her first in-house publishing role was with Oxford University Press (OUP) as its first key account manager for Children’s Trade and Education, soon stepping up to cover a children’s trade sales director’s role. After 10 years at OUP, she joined Bloomsbury as senior sales manager for education. Her work to take Bloomsbury titles into the wider school supply market and open accounts contributed to the education team winning the IPG Award for Education Publisher of the Year in 2019. 

In the same year, she transferred to Bloomsbury’s adult consumer sales team and in 2022, she was appointed to the new role of head of non-fiction and cookery sales for consumer and special interest titles, taking sales into Waterstones. 

She was recently appointed head of cookery and lifestyle sales and illustrated non-fiction, working closely with Bloomsbury’s lifestyle division. 

Brigid Nelson, UK group sales director, said: “Helen represents an epoch in our industry that has seen considerable change; from bookselling prior to the abolition of the Net Book Agreement, major shifts in how consumers purchase books with the arrival of internet shopping and most recently the global pandemic.  

“As a hugely popular and respected colleague, Helen will be sorely missed not just by her colleagues at Bloomsbury, but the many people she has worked so collaboratively with along the way.” 

Ward said: “From the moment I started my Saturday job in a bookshop, I was hooked on the world of books. I’ve been fortunate to meet many wonderful authors and illustrators, work with some truly inspirational people and make life-long friends. It’s been a blast. 

“I will miss my colleagues at Bloomsbury enormously, but I am looking forward to having more time for cooking, travelling and (of course) reading more books.” 

Ward retires at the end of June and Marianne Laidlaw joins the Bloomsbury UK sales team from Hachette in July.