Anthony Blond

Anthony Bernard Blond (20 March 1928 – 27 February 2008) was a British publisher and author, who was involved with several publishing companies over his career, including several he established himself, or in partnerships, from 1952.

Born in Sale, Cheshire, Blond was the elder son of Major Neville Blond CMG, OBE, who was a cousin of Harold Laski. His mother was from a Manchester Sephardic Jewish family. His parents divorced when Blond was a child and Blond was educated at Eton, where he was bullied. He briefly served National Service in the Army, but growing pacifism soon led to him registering as a conscientious objector. Having gained a History exhibition (scholarship) to New College, Oxford, he lost it by indulging too much in the distractions of an undergraduate life: "the joys of drink, people, parties, fancy waistcoats, foreign travel and falling in love – mostly with young men."

After Oxford, he briefly worked for a literary agent Raymond Savage, but set up his own firm in 1952, Anthony Blond (London) Ltd, in partnership with the future novelist Isabel Colegate He briefly joined Allan Wingate, but that publishing company folded in 1958, and with his own £5,000 set up a new firm.

Reported to have given the first chance to some 70 writers, Blond was particularly close to the novelist Simon Raven. Blond set up various publishing firms over the years, including Blond Educational in 1962, which he sold in 1969 to CBS, and he went into partnership with Desmond Briggs as Blond & Briggs in 1960, an informal arrangement that lasted until 1979 when Briggs retired and Harlech Television bought the company in 1979, retaining Blond as an advisor. In a management buyout Blond regained control after two years, and established his last partnership, Blond, Muller and White. Century Hutchinson absorbed this firm in 1987.

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