Trade turns out for Finlay's retirement party

The trade turned out in huge numbers last night for Transworld m.d. Larry Finlay’s retirement party, held at Searcy’s in St Pancras Station. Speeches were made by Tom Weldon, chief executive of Penguin Random House UK, and Bill Scott-Kerr, publisher at Transworld. Finlay has been at Transworld for 42 years, the last 23 as its managing director.

Attendees included Lee Child, Jilly Cooper, Bonnie Garmus, Hallie Rubenhold, agents Felicity Blunt, Sheila Crowley and Nelle Andrew, Pan Macmillan c.e.o. Joanna Prior, Bloomsbury chief executive Nigel Newton, Curtis Brown president Jonathan Lloyd, Nicola Solomon, c.e.o. of the Society of Authors, Dan Conwway, c.e.o. of the Publishers Association and Transworld staff, past and present.

Weldon described Finlay’s dedication to his authors, Transworld, and the wider book business. He also referenced his enthusiasm for each book—sometimes expressed physically—which has continued into the past few months, still buying books, even though Finlay is set to retire after the Transworld Christmas party on 14th December. "He is real force of nature, he has extraordinary energy and passion for his books. He loves his job, he loves publishing."

In an emotional address, Scott-Kerr talked about their working relationship over the past 40 years: "They say that the devil is in the detail. They actually got that slightly wrong. Larry Finlay is in the detail. My god, is he in the detail. In all things. Many of us will be familiar with the consequences of Larry’s excellent eye for detail. And as we know, for Larry, no detail is too small. Whether it is that all-important author letter or a sensitive staff memo you’ve laboured over for hours, you will remember being summoned into his office to behold the minutiae of his rewrite, annotations all across the print-out, in a spidery, illegible hand. 

"Forty years. You do get less for murder, it has to be said, but 40 years of living, breathing, being passionate about this thing we all love. Forty years of giving a damn. Forty years of being the best of the best.

"Larry, you have walked with us, led us, been our friend, our mentor, our inspiration. You’ve done a brilliant and very unusual thing - you have created a company basically forged in your own image - unfailingly positive, enormously generous, wonderfully inclusive and happily and slightly unfashionably, at least for publishing, incredibly successful. So thank you Larry for everything. You’ve been more than a trip. You’ve been amazing."

Finlay thanked authors, booksellers, agents, and his staff, particularly his past "long-suffering" personal assistants, who had to deal with a sometimes over-caffeinated boss. He also remarked on the circumstances that had led him to Transworld and meeting with a prospective writer, Claire Calman, who later became his wife. "It was a real sliding-doors moment."