Gwyn Jones Set for Quick Start

by Amanda-Jane Doran -- Publishers Weekly, 1/31/2005

London's Notting Hill provides the backdrop to an ambitious new U.K. publishing venture. Former HarperCollins Flamingo chief Philip Gwyn Jones has secured substantial backing to set up his own independent publishing house, Portobello Books.

Gwyn Jones aims to publish 20 original titles in the first year, with a strong emphasis on "international fiction and activist nonfiction," which he described as "fiery, energetic and unignorable in their cause." World environmental and conservation concerns will be featured, along with newly translated works and English fiction. While at Flamingo from 1996 to 2004, Gwyn Jones published a stellar list of authors that included three debut Pulitzer Prize winners and brought Booker winner Arundhati Roy to world attention.

Portobello Books' financial backers share Gwyn Jones's interest in issue-led international affairs and new and translated fiction. Oscar-winning film producer Eric Abraham and his wife, Sigrid Rausing, an anthropologist and philanthropist, will be co-publishers with Gwyn Jones, who will also serve as managing director and publisher. Atlantic Books, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Grove Atlantic, will work with Portobello to provide support in sales, distribution, credit control and warehousing.

Gwyn Jones has not yet signed any authors, although speculation in London is that George Monbiot and Arundhati Roy could move to Portobello. With Gwyn Jones's talent for discovering new writers and his conviction that a gap exists in global fiction and nonfiction to tempt the intellectually curious, Portobello Books could make its mark rapidly.