Young to leave Transworld amid non-fiction restructure

Publishing director Doug Young is leaving Transworld at the end of May, after more than 17 years with the company, following a restructure.

Transworld said his departure was "due to a restructure of the company’s non-fiction team" and would take place at the end of May. 

Young joined Transworld in 2001 and during his time with the company he acquired bestellers such as: DJ John Peel’s memoir, Margrave of the Marshes; Paul O’Grady’s At My Mother’s Knee; Paul McKenna’s I Can Make You Thin, Steven Gerrard’s first volume of autobiography and Jamie Carragher’s Carra.

Last year he pre-empted post-truth book The Truth Spectrum by Hector Macdonald for six figures. Other books commissioned for publication this year included Beck Dorey-Stein’s From the Corner of the Oval Office, Neil Oliver’s The Story of the British Isles in 100 Places, Alan Johnson’s In My Life and Mary Portas’s Work Like a Woman.

Young also forged a partnership with Channel Four, which brought Derren Brown and Bear Grylls into the Transworld fold, and had racked up a number of titles recognised by leading prizes. He acquired four memoirs from politician Alan Johnson, whose first, This Boy, won the Ondaatje and Orwell prizes. The Secret Race by Tyler Hamilton and Daniel Coyle meanwhile won the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award, Brad Stone’s The Everything Store won the Financial Times/Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award and, most recently, Meredith Wadman’s The Vaccine Race was shortlisted for the Wellcome Prize for Science Writing. 

Transworld publisher Bill Scott-Kerr commented: "Doug has delivered great success to us over the years. We thank him for his impressive publishing knowledge and for everything he has contributed to the company during his time here. We wish him well in his future career."

Young can be contacted on djy123@me.com.