Industry pays tribute to ‘legendary’ ex-Orion sales director Dallas Manderson after death aged 66

Industry colleagues and friends have paid tribute to Dallas Manderson, former sales director at Arlington Books, Century Hutchinson, Random Century and Orion Publishing Group, who has died from complications arising from Parkinson’s disease aged 66. 

Manderson, who was a trustee of the Desmond Elliott Prize, is survived by his wife Emma, and his mother. There will be a private funeral in his native Northampton.

Malcolm Edwards, who was deputy c.e.o. at Orion Publishing Group until 2015, told The Bookseller: “Not long after I joined at the beginning of 1998, Parkinson’s was diagnosed, while he was still in his early 40s. It is to his enormous credit that he never allowed it to affect his working life, and were it not for his gait in his later years no one would have suspected his affliction."

Edwards paid tribute to "his kindness, first and foremost, his care for his staff and his polite implacability as a negotiator, which was greatly appreciated by colleagues when fighting off an attempt to change their pension terms".  

“The linings of his jackets were greatly admired, as were the fine fabrics," he added. "The fact that you needed to put on polar gear to brave his freezing office was possibly less generally appreciated, and the less said about his loud singing on some mornings the better. His sales conference speeches were always the highlights of the events.”

Anthony Cheetham said Manderson was “the very acme of the perfect sales director”. “No challenge was too great, no ask too daunting to overwhelm his enthusiasm or temper his stock response that ’Thunderbirds Are Go’”, he said. 

“Among his finest hours was the undertaking to deliver a 10,000-copy subscription sale for The Bible Code by Michael Drosnin without revealing the title, the author or the content of the book, solely on the promise of a major serialisation in a Sunday newspaper. No problem. It was duly serialised in the Mail on Sunday and made it to number one on the Sunday Times bestseller list.”

Author Ian Rankin said that, for him, Manderson defined a “long and lovely era in English publishing,” describing his “steel-trap of a mind wrapped in layers of winning eccentricity.”

“His sales conference talks became the stuff of legend, but away from the limelight he was charming, insightful and inspiring, always professional yet always a friend. He will be missed by all who knew him,” he said. 

Paul Donovan, executive director of Allen & Unwin described him as “a great bon vivant” who loved to entertain and to be entertained over a fine dinner, and “a gentleman and a fine book man,” while Jo Carpenter, former group key account director at Orion Publishing Group, said he was “a hugely charismatic and brilliant sales director uniquely driven by looking after staff, authors and books as much as he was by results”.

“I first met Dallas 40 years ago and worked with or for him from then on quite simply because he was one of the best people I’ve ever met,” she said. “He taught me almost everything I know about publishing and selling and everything I know about listening, humanity and friendship.”

Christine Berry said she and Manderson were in their early 20s when “a quirk of fate" led them both to work for Desmond Elliott at Arlington Books in 1977. 

She said of their decades-long friendship: “Dallas has been the most wonderful colleague and beloved friend. Like so many others whose lives he has touched, I have had the benefit of his care and compassion, enjoyed his wonderful company and seen first-hand the extraordinary qualities that made Dallas such an exceptional individual.

Anna Valentine, current managing director of Orion Publishing Group, said although she only worked with Manderson for a brief time “I feel so very lucky to have started my publishing career at Orion at a time when [he] was leading the sales team.”

“He was a legend within the industry, and was a consummate professional and gentleman,” she said. “His passion for our authors and their books was infectious, and I’m grateful to have benefited from his wisdom and strategic grasp.”

In a tribute for The Bookseller, journalist Liz Thomson wrote: "Urbane and witty, and a polished public speaker, Dallas wasn’t perhaps quite as confident as his public persona suggested. He and Emma lived high on the hog, taking guilt-free pleasure in life’s bounty – which was fortunate given the increasing constraints of his illness and his relatively short life – but sharing it with others. He never failed to demonstrate care and concern for friends and colleagues suffering a rough patch. Many in the trade and beyond will have very fond memories of him, and Dallas will be missed. He added colour and distinction to a trade that now has little of either."