Peter Usborne, who has died aged 85, created a publishing company that changed the look and feel of nonfiction books for children. Although they were widely used in schools, Usborne books became a household brand, particularly associated with finding things out at home, through attractive illustrated, fact-filled publications that entertained children with high-quality pictures and accessible bites of information.
Before his publishing career, Peter was a co-founder in 1961 and the first managing director of the satirical magazine Private Eye. It grew out of a humorous magazine called Mesopotamia that Peter launched while a student at Balliol College, Oxford, with fellow students, among them John Wells and Richard Ingrams, as writers. On graduating, he used his best networking skills to secure funding to get the magazine launched, but left in 1965 to study for an MBA at the Insead (Institut Européen d’Administration des Affaires) business school in Fontainebleau, France.
In 1964 he had married Cornelie Tücking and they went on to have two children, Nicola and Martin. Peter said that he had wanted to publish books for children from the moment he knew that he was going to be a father. In 1969, working for a publishing company, British Printing Corporation (BPC), as assistant to the chair, he asked to change tack and work in children’s books instead. He was given a publishing role at Macdonald Education in 1970, and his launch series was Macdonald Starters, a list of nonfiction titles for very young children that combined attractive but simple illustrations with a few words of text. They were conceived for the schools market, and designed to satisfy children’s boundless curiosity and need for answers to their questions. He eschewed subject specialists and instead used writers – including himself – who were able to communicate ideas easily and to make information-sharing lively.
After two years, Peter felt he had learned enough to set up his own company and in 1973 he launched Usborne Publishing, spurred on by the birth of his son. Peter described parenting as the “greatest gift” he had ever been given. Drawing on the model he had created at Macdonald Education, using in-house writers, illustrators and designers, Peter made sure Usborne Publishing could grow fast from secure foundations. Series such as the KnowHow books and the touchy-feely series That’s Not My … (now numbering 72 titles) became staples of the list. His infectious enthusiasm for the books brought great loyalty from the Usborne staff, who enjoyed the range of creative roles they were able to take on, as well as Peter’s sense of them as part of his extended family.
The quality of Usborne Publishing books, their recognisable look, their affordable cover price and the fact that they lived up to their ambition of making learning fun ensured they became a key part of childhood for many. For those who did not have easy access to bookshops, Peter set up a scheme through which Usborne books could be sold at local community events and gatherings.
When Robert Maxwell acquired BPC in 1981, Peter swiftly bought back the small stake that BPC had taken in Usborne Publishing. In 1995 he sold 26% of the company to Scholastic. It has continued to grow and now has an annual turnover in excess of £100m.
Peter never lost his own boundless curiosity or his belief in his motto for the company – “Do it better”. He remained involved with the business, latterly as chair, working in partnership with his daughter, who joined the company in 2015 and became CEO in 2022. Peter was appointed MBE in 2011, advanced to CBE in 2022. He received the London Book Fair lifetime achievement award in 2015, and Usborne Publishing was celebrated as publisher of the year in both 2012 and 2020.
He had always intended that Usborne Publishing would have a philanthropic programme. With his children, he set up the Usborne Foundation in 2008 with funds to be granted to education and health projects. The foundation has created sophisticated tech games based on the foundations of literacy learning, and accessible for children who struggle to read; and developed a literacy-based ebook series, Teach Your Monster to Read.
Imposingly tall, even when stooped by ankylosing spondylitis, a spinal condition with which he was diagnosed in his 30s, mildly spoken and with a boyish enthusiasm for books and their readers, Peter was a benign presence in children’s publishing. His generosity as a host of memorable parties and celebrations – most recently for 50 years of Usborne Publishing at the Bologna book fair in March – helped to generate huge affection for him and for Usborne.
Peter was born in Hampstead, London, the son of Thomas Usborne, a senior civil servant, and his German-born wife Gerda (nee Just). The family moved to Weybridge, Surrey, when Peter was a child and he was sent to school at Summer Fields, Oxford, and then Eton college; and from there went to Balliol.
His marriage to Cornelie ended in divorce in 1995. He is survived by his second wife, Wendy (nee Browning), whom he married in 2012, by Nicola and Martin, and by five grandchildren, Jesse, Caspar, Max, Olive and Hazel.
• Thomas Peter Usborne, publisher, born 18 August 1937; died 30 March 2023
