Paul Hamlyn Foundation

Paul Hamlyn
Born	Paul Bertrand Wolfgang Hamburger 12 February 1926 Berlin, Germany
Died	31 August 2001
Occupation	Publisher, philanthropist
Title	Baron Hamlyn
Spouse(s)	Eileen Watson Helen Guest
Children	2

Paul Hamlyn, Baron Hamlyn, CBE (12 February 1926 – 31 August 2001) was a German-born British publisher and philanthropist.

He was born Paul Bertrand Wolfgang Hamburger in Berlin in 1926 and moved to London with his Jewish émigré family in 1933. His father, Richard Hamburger, died when Paul was 14. Shortly afterwards he changed his surname to Hamlyn, which he picked out of the telephone directory. His brother Michael Hamburger (1924-2007) was a poet and translator.

He began his publishing career in 1949. In 1965 he set up Music for Pleasure records as a joint venture with EMI. He transformed Paul Hamlyn Group and Octopus Publishing Group, now owned by Hachette Livre, into major UK publishing houses. His success was developed on the idea of publishing eye catching, glossy books in colour that appealed to a non literary retail market. In 1961, for example, he published Marguerite Patten's seminal domestic cookery book 'Everyday Cook Book in Colour', a great success that established Hamlyn in the cookery retail market. The 'Everyday Cook Book in Colour' had sold in excess of one million copies by 1969. Hamlyn used colour at a time when it was unusual and expensive for book publishers to do so accessing printers in Czechoslovakia for the purpose. It was one of several innovations that included selling his books in retail outlets such as supermarkets and hardware shops, in addition to the usual literary outlets.

He was awarded a CBE in the 1993 Birthday Honours and made a British Life Peer on 23 February 1998 taking the title Baron Hamlyn, of Edgeworth in the County of Gloucestershire.

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