Publisher

I can’t think of anyone who was more influential in the British book trade over the last 40 years than Tom Maschler, who was publisher at Cape from 1960 to 1990 and is still working with the children’s list on a part time basis. The list of great authors he published at Cape is so impressive that one is tempted to say that at one stage it could provide you with almost all the important modern literature from Britain and the Americas. What makes Tom especially interesting to readers of Books for Keeps is that he combined the talents of being publisher of both adult and children’s books. The 10% of his memoirs dealing with children’s books concentrate on his most successful acquisitions (Cape had already published books by Joan Aiken, Arthur Ransome, Hugh Lofting, Erich Kästner and others). The two most important names are, of course, Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake. Tom, who had a reputation for being at times very difficult to work with, was much cherished by both. (A long letter from Dahl to him at a time of crisis is included in the book.) Other great successes include John Burningham, Nicola Bayley, Babette Cole, Roberto Innocenti and that amazing book Masquerade by Kit Williams which sold 600,000 copies in Britain alone and must have sold much more in the United States. Many of them, including the delightful Posy Simmonds, are still devoted to him and will no doubt miss him very much if and when he finally retires completely to his house in the South of France.