Edwards to Depart Hachette UK

Malcolm Edwards, consultant publisher and chair of Gollancz, is stepping down from the business effective May 31, Hachette UK's Orion Publishing Group reports. 

Edwards started his publishing career in 1976 as science fiction editor at Gollancz, eventually rising to the position of publishing director and acquiring such titles as J.G. Ballard’s Empire of the Sun, William Gibson’s Neuromancer, and Robert Holdstock’s Mythago Wood, among others by renowned authors including Brian Aldiss, Octavia Butler, Arthur C. Clarke, Philip K. Dick, Frank Herbert, Ursula Le Guin, Michael Moorcock, and Terry Pratchett.

Edwards moved to HarperCollins in late 1989 and became fiction publishing director in early 1991, where he edited Stephen Baxter, Tom Clancy, Clive Cussler, David Eddings, Alan Furst, James Herbert, and Peter Straub, and edited and published both Michael Dobbs’s House of Cards novels and George R.R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones. He published Stephen King’s The Green Mile as a paperback inserial parts in 1996, and was named Editor of the Year at the 1996 British Book Awards.

Edwards moved to Orion at the beginning of 1998 to take up the newly created position of managing director of Orion Books, and became deputy chief executive and publisher in 2003 alongside CEO Peter Roche. He also served on the Hachette UK board from its foundation. Orion was named Publisher of the Year at the 2005 British Book Awards. In 2015, Edwards stepped down from his executive positions and became consultant publisher to Orion and chair of Gollancz.