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All of our lives are informed by character and experience, in varying degrees, whether through circumstance, choice or coincidence. In the case of Peter Bowron, who tragically died on 17 January at the age of just 40, his character, the very strength of it, was at the root of a great, all-too-short, life and what made him so loved and admired. As anyone who knew Peter will know, it wasn’t just the qualities of intelligence, integrity, wisdom, courage, imagination and good humour which made the man so extraordinary, it was their very abundance. And the generosity, grace and ease with which he bestowed them.
Born in Stockton-on-Tees in 1968, Peter Bowron was educated at Sedbergh School in the wilds of Cumbria where his phlegmatic spirit flourished in the face of strenuous exercise in extreme conditions and a pragmatic approach to academia. Perhaps it was here that he first saw the world for all its absurdity and seriousness and decided to deal with it on those terms in equal measure.
He moved on to Clare College, Cambridge in 1986 where he took an MA in History. Reading and books had always mattered to Peter and it seemed only natural when, from Cambridge, he took the first steps towards the book industry. In 1989 he applied to join the Hodder & Stoughton graduate trainee scheme. One of hundreds of applicants, he won one of three places available that year. He spent the next six months working across the business before winning a permanent job in the Marketed Books division. For the first time, his talent for dealing with many differing disciplines with extraordinary confidence and apparent effortlessness all at once was revealed. It was only a taste of what was to come.
A chance meeting over dinner at Frankfurt was to open another direction for Peter—the international market. Throughout his career, Peter was never phased by lack of experience. An untested area was merely another challenge. In 1993, he joined Simon & Schuster as European Sales Manager for the UK and the US. It was also here that he met his wife to be, the then fiction editor Clare Ledingham, whom he was to marry in 1997. It was to be a relationship of huge significance to Peter, with a woman whom he loved, cherished and relied upon in equal measure.
Largely, publishing is a specialist business. There are few really successful generalists. Peter was rapidly becoming the most accomplished of his generation. When three years later he was approached by Penguin for the role of Paperback Sales Manager, he took the opportunity offered, once again undeterred by any lack of relevant experience. It was the moment when his career achieved escape velocity. His arrival there coincided with the appointment of a new management team and a whole new world of opportunity. Within five years, he had been broadened his remit to encompass the operations side of the business and in so doing become the youngest-ever member of the Penguin Group UK Board.
His may have been a rapid ascent through the ranks from the moment he joined Penguin but hierarchy was never something which mattered to Peter. Getting the job done was important for sure, and well, but so was getting to know people and having fun. Indeed there are few present who will forget his brilliantly idiosyncratic version of "Islands in the Stream" with John Duhigg at a Cyprus Sales Conference.
Once again when he was approached by the Random House Group for the role of Group Managing Director, he was able to take an unsentimental look at the decision and the career implications. After nearly 10n happy and fulfilled years at Penguin he moved on to take responsibility for an even more demanding portfolio, including distribution, production, sales, IT and the fledgling digital division at RH.
Peter’s was a stellar career without doubt but the reasons for its success are less complex than the disciplines for which he took responsibility. And those reasons are to do with the man he was. Great organisational skills and decision-making abilities were ever-present but his genius with people, based on instinct and empathy, always allowed him to get the very best out of them. Then there were the fabulous contradictions that made him a fascinating conundrum: at once judgemental and willing to give people a chance; a fastidious dress sense combined with an urge to kick back and relax; a man of the people who liked the good things in life.
There is so much to celebrate in Peter’s life. Most importantly the pleasure he derived from his wife and children, Clare, Anna, John and Sally, who for him were far more significant than all his professional achievements put together. There were demands too, with Anna’s escalating medical complications, but he never allowed those to cloud the joy she and his family gave him.
One thing is for sure: his was a fulfilled life of great passions, friendships and achievements. For those of us who knew him though, the saddest aspect of Peter’s life, that we can say for certain, is that the best was yet to come.
Bill Scott-Kerr, Transworld
Peter Bowron’s early death has robbed the industry of one of its rising stars, a man whose career seemed destined to end as head of a major publisher. As group managing director at Random House Group he was already running day to day a huge slice of British publishing. Susan Sandon’s Cornerstone reported up to him, which includes Arrow, Heinemann and Hutchinson, plus all production, digital and sales right across the group. To have reached the number three job inside Random in his thirties was a clear sign of Peter’s huge talents.
He combined a shrewd judgement of character and situation with enormous ability and charm. Despite his elevated position one sensed he never took himself that seriously, and he was always ready to share a mildly subversive remark with a twinkle in his eye. He was very popular in the company, and had friends right across publishing, many from his years at Penguin and Hodder.
Often when people advance rapidly up the ladder you hear grumbles from those who they have overtaken; in Peter’s case I can safely say that I had never heard a bad word said about him, pretty much unprecedented in the gossipy world of publishing. He was a fine man and his loss will be felt keenly inside Random and across the trade.
Neill Denny, The Bookseller
Peter was fiercely intelligent, hugely talented and appropriately ambitious, all of which helped fuel his meteoric rise from graduate trainee to group managing director by the age of just 37. He was a born leader who envisioned the future and led by example—people simply wanted to follow him. In fact, Peter was passionate about people and their development. He made time for everyone, genuinely pleased to see them and immediately putting them at ease with his engaging smile, his warmth, his humility and his good humour.
Peter inspired and empowered his teams. He delighted in their success and always ensured that they got the credit they were due. One colleague told me that Peter's belief and support gave her the confidence to take her own decisions and follow her own instincts. Another observed that it was often not what Peter said or did that got things done, but what he didn't say or do. He didn't limit people's scope, he wasn't prescriptive and he didn't seek to find fault. Peter was a mentor to many and a role model to all.
Peter and I talked regularly of the future, he always had new ideas, plans and a vision. With his loss, Random House and the industry at large have been deprived not only of his current contribution but also of what he would have gone on to contribute. I have no doubt that he would have been a future c.e.o. of one of the major publishing houses and a future Publisher's Association President. But more than this, he would have helped shape the future of British publishing and with Peter Bowron on board that future would have been assuredly bright.
With Peter's passing, I have lost among other things a dear friend and trusted confidant. It was a measure of the man that he had so many friends from all quarters of the industry. But our loss is nothing compared to that of Clare, Anna, John and Sally and the rest of his close family. I'm sure I speak for all his friends when I say to them, whenever you need us over the coming weeks, months and years we'll be there for you.
We miss you already Pete.
Ian Hudson, Random House
Peter and I had lunch last Tuesday. We went to a new place in St John's Square I thought he'd like. He did. He was looking fit, well and dapper (he'd be pleased at how much everyone has mentioned his wardrobe). We allowed ourselves cabs back to work (credit crunch notwithstanding) and parted smiling, satisfied that we'd shared our predictions for the year ahead, put the industry to rights and caught up on more personal news. It was a treat we allowed ourselves two or three times a year now we no longer worked together. He was excellent company.
Favourite memories are of Pete the showman. He loved a stage, a costume, an excuse to sing—so of course the old-style sales conferences (now somewhat out of favour) gave him the perfect platform to flex his thespian muscles. Then later at the bar, on the dancefloor, on the pier in Brighton—wherever we all happened to be that season—he was the perfect sales conference host, full of bonhomie and late-night banter. But there was Peter the high-powered executive too; committed to making publishing the most professional industry it could be. His time spent contibuting to industry initiatives and committees are testament to that. He could be an impatient man. Impatient for change, for advancement, for our industry to be more efficient, less antiquated.
He loved success, not so much his own personal success, although that is part of what drove him— but he loved successful team performance, bestsellers, beating the competition, winning awards. I guess we all do, but Peter really enjoyed it, relished it: just picture the laugh, the hands rubbed together in glee, "excellent, excellent". It could have been his horse coming in at Windsor, or getting Marian Keyes to number one, or winning a Nibbie; he thrived on it. I'll miss our lunches, our annual trips to the Globe (he was a big Shakespeare man) and I'll miss seeing him across an industry-filled room and making a beeline for him—a bright spot in the crowd.
Joanna Prior, Penguin
I first met Peter when I arrived at Penguin at the beginning of 1997. He was the sales manager for Michael Joseph—and he immediately bonded strongly with the new MJ team headed by Tom Weldon and Louise Moore. His appetite for success was huge, and when they started to deliver bestseller after bestseller, Peter loved it—and his brilliance and devastating sense of humour as well as his insight made him an essential member of a team which was reviving commercial publishing at Penguin.
He soon spread his wings and became Penguin's sales director. He was as smart about literary publishing as he was about commercial and his focus and speed of thinking made him an ideal colleague when you were buying a book or planning a marketing campaign. He was also always prepared to do something outrageous—especially if it helped sell books. I remember he and John Bond going down to see a buyer (at Smiths?) on Valentine's Day, loaded with ridiculously large bunches of flowers and boxes of chocolates, and both laughing so much they could hardly get out of the door. He also had a strong thespian streak—he and John did a wonderful Smith and Jones for a sales conference video once, in terrible wigs. He used to love to go to the Globe every summer with Joanna Prior to see plays there.
He was also—before any of the rest of us had heard of it—a master of online trading, and loved to see his shares riding the various booms of the 1990s and early 2000s. He was, very slightly, a dandy, with a line in handmade shirts in bright pink and blue checks.
He was incredibly proud of his family—I remember him bringing Anna in when she was tiny, and how pleased and proud he was when John and then Sally were born. And with Clare he had one of those truly happy publishing marriages where they were both so clearly devoted to each other. He was so funny, and so clever, and an incredibly strong presence—you couldn't ignore him in a room —and it is almost impossible to believe that that presence is gone.
Helen Fraser, Penguin
I had the privilege and pleasure of having Pete as a colleague and friend for many years and remember as if it were yesterday the interview when I employed him—and where I ended feeling like the interviewee!
It was clear from his first few months at Penguin that not only would he develop as a genuine star within the industry—but more importantly and uniquely—as a future leader of the business. A combination of a sharp, commercial intelligence; a high level of integrity; and genuine bravery marked him out as of a different calibre. To use an analogy I think he would have liked, I watched him emerge and develop as "The Special One"—and I don't just mean for the suits Pete. I will never again be able to hear of his beloved football team (whom he referred to as "Middlesbrough nil"); watch people get so upset about a horse race; or hear anything by Messrs Jagger and Richards without thinking of Pete. The industry has lost a unique talent—I and so many others have lost a very dear friend.
Andrew Welham, Octopus
I loved Peter, and I owed him a huge debt of gratitude. He was there right at the start of my career at Penguin, and worked with boundless enthusiasm and vision on making my books a success.
He always gave the impression that he could make anything happen—he had such a reassuring confidence and conviction of will. A person as hardworking and talented as Peter was always going to go far, and it felt like every time I met him, he'd just been promoted again. But he stayed the same down to earth person, a lovely man, and great fun. I was always delighted to see him. Even though he moved to a different publishing house, we remained great friends, and he continued to take a proprietorial interest in my career. There was so much life in Peter that it's impossible to believe he's gone. My heart goes out in sorrow to Clare and their children—I will miss him more than I can say.
Marian Keyes, author
In an increasingly uncertain world, the one sure bet was that, at some point, a lot of us were going to end up working for Peter Bowron. It was pretty much a given that Peter was the star who shone brightest amongst those acknowledged to be the next generation of potential c.e.o.s in UK publishing. And now, unbelievably, he is gone.
As capable as he was of navigating the corridors of corporate publishing, there was an iconoclastic side to him. Peter was fearsomely bright, and you always wanted to be on his side in any negotiation. But what I will never forget is that laugh as he rubbed his hands together in glee at the thought of some wicked prognosis about the industry that was all we both knew.
If I shut my eyes, and think of him, I see Peter dressed as Napoleon wandering on stage imperiously at the start of a Sales Conference and giving a word-perfect, daringly long speech in French. Dancing (he was a very good dancer) and singing along to his version of "Islands in the Stream with John Duhigg". I hear Peter the supplier of personal finance tips and fellow supporter of an unfashionable football team. I see the voracious internet shopper with a natty line in shirts and ties. I see us both trying, and often failing, to keep a straight face presenting books at Waterstone's Head Office in the days of Kerr and Lee and Miller.
The Penguin of the late 90s was a company on a mission. You were either with us or against us. And Peter helped lead that charge—with customers, author and agents—from the front. They were incredibly galvanising and rewarding times.
It was also a time when we endlessly shared our views on what sort of industry we wanted to work in, and how we could improve on the tired old received wisdoms and hierarchies. When we were working out how to get the best out of the inevitable commercial and creative tensions. And that never ceased to be a topic of fascination amongst us all for years to come.
Peter loved the business of publishing. He respected the art, but he adored the science. There was a recent article in the trade press about an eminent editor bemoaning the "ghastly phraseology" of "building a book inhouse". Well, we tried to do that and lots of other things which represented a small part of moving our business into the early 21st century. And Peter was in the vanguard of that too.
I'm immensely proud to have known him and worked with him, and sad that we'll never see what he would have done when he had that top job somewhere.
I shall miss him more than I can say.
John Bond, HarperCollins
A memoral service will be announced in due course; the family has requested no flowers, but donations can be made to CHASE, the hospice which cares for Peter and Clare’s daughter Anna Bowron, via www.justgiving.com/peterbowron.
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