Editor, publisher and literary agent Philippa Brewster dies aged 74

Editor, publisher and literary agent Philippa Brewster died on 15th October 2024, aged 74, at her Cornwall home with her partner Hilary Fairclough beside her.

Brewster’s career started at Routledge & Kegan Paul in 1971, where she was working within the emerging academic fields of film studies and women’s studies. There, she commissioned authors like Christopher Frayling, Griselda Pollock and Dale Spender, before founding the feminist non-fiction imprint Pandora Press in 1983.

Pandora published politics, history, biography, memoir, health, travel writing and cultural studies, including books like Jeanette Winterson’s debut novel, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, which won the 1985 Whitbread Award for a First Novel. “We were all part of the women’s movement”, Brewster later explained, “We represented it, but we also informed it”.

Brewster joined Jonathan Cape in 1991 and in 1993 moved to I B Tauris, where she built the visual culture list. She also instigated and championed academic publishing on popular TV series, including "Doctor Who", "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Sex in the City".

She joined Georgina Capel Associates in 2000 as a literary agent, while continuing to commission for I B Tauris, and was awarded the Kraszna-Krausz Foundation’s Outstanding Contribution to Publishing award in 2014 in recognition her publishing career.

Philippa was resolute, independent, fiercely proud and supportive of the people and projects she believed in. 

Her obituary read: "She was an excellent and instinctive editor – empathetic, acute and generous to her authors who admired and benefited from her literary intelligence. She had a precise commercial acumen, never losing sight of the reader, but never compromising her integrity either. She inspired respect and loyalty in all who worked with her, creating opportunities not only for her authors but also for her colleagues, enabling and supporting the burgeoning careers of many."

Jonathan McDonnell, the former m.d. of I B Tauris, has described Brewster as "a force for good in every way”.

Her funeral will take place in Penzance on 5th November. For details of the service contact candida@pearlmanandlacey. A memorial service for Philippa will be held in London next year.