Jamie Byng
James Byng | |
|---|---|
| Born | James Edmund Byng 27 June 1969 |
| Nationality | British |
| Education | Winchester College |
| Alma mater | University of Edinburgh |
| Occupation | Publisher |
| Spouses | Elizabeth Sheinkman
(m. 2005; div. 2016)Silvia Gimenez Varela
(m. 2021) |
| Children | 5 |
| Relatives | Georgia Byng (sister) Sir Christopher Bland (stepfather) Archie Bland (half-brother) |
James Edmund Byng (born 27 June 1969) is a British publisher. He works for the independent publishing firm Canongate Books, where he is the CEO and publisher.[1]
Early life
Byng grew up in the village of
British Telecom and Royal Shakespeare Company), he is the half-brother of Archie Bland, print journalist and former deputy editor of The Independent.[3][4]
Education and family
Byng was educated at
cathedral city of Winchester in Hampshire, Southern England, followed by the University of Edinburgh.[5] While attending the university, he ran a funk, reggae, and rare groove night club named "Chocolate City" (after the Parliament classic) at The Venue with his first wife, Whitney McVeigh,[6] with whom he has two children – a daughter Marley and son Leo. Whitney McVeigh is the daughter of a socialite mother and her father is an American banker.[7][2] Byng and McVeigh separated in 2001, and in 2005 Byng married literary agent Elizabeth Sheinkman,[8][9] with whom he has two children, Ivy and Nathaniel.[10] Byng separated from Sheinkman in 2016 and married Silvia Gimenez Varela in 2021 and they have one child.[citation needed
]
Publishing career
After graduating, he convinced Scottish publisher Stephanie
The Pocket Canons (1998) published in partnership with Matthew Darby was Byng's first runaway success: selected books from the Bible individually packaged with new introductions by the Dalai Lama among others. In the wake of the two-million selling, Booker-winning Life of Pi (2001),[11] Canongate won Publisher of the Year at the British Book Awards
in 2003, reportedly posting pre-tax profits of more than £1 million for that year.
Byng is the initiator and chair of World Book Night,[14] an event in which on 5 March 2011 (following World Book Day on 3 March) one million books – 40,000 copies of each of 25 carefully selected titles – were given away to members of the public in the UK and Ireland. It entailed 20,000 "givers" each distributing 48 copies of their chosen title to whomever they chose.[15]
References
- ^ "About Canongate", Canongate.tv.
- ^ a b "The real Byng", The Scotsman, 2 June 2006.
- ^ Jane Martinson, "List addict prepared to tick off BT television" (interview with Sir Christopher Bland), The Guardian, 10 February 2006. Retrieved 4 September 2012.
- ^ "GQ and ei's 100 Most Connected Men 2014", GQ, 8 December 2014.
- ^ Sunday Times, 5 December 2010.
- ^ Emily Bearn, "Whitney McVeigh may have social cachet and an illustrious client list, but there's nothing superficial about her commitment to self exposure on canvas", Evening Standard, 16 October 2009.
- ^ Stephen Jardine, "Canongate .. I liked it so much I bought the company", The Scotsman, 23 September 2003.
- ^ "Elizabeth Sheinkman and James Byng". The New York Times. 3 July 2005.
- ^ "Jamie Byng news and features". Tatler.
- ^ "The Diary: Jamie Byng", FT.com, 21 April 2012.
- ^ a b Libby Brookes, "Posh and books", The Guardian, 1 November 2002.
- ^ Fox, Killian (6 March 2016). "Interview: Jamie Byng: 'Listening to letters being read out is quite something'". The Observer.
- ^ "Triumph of an odd couple", The Scotsman, 26 October 2002.
- ^ Natasha Lunn, "Jamie Byng: This Man Will Make You Read More", Red, 31 March 2015.
- ^ "World Book Night". worldbooknight.org.
External links
- Sam Leith, "The Tao of Mr Jamie Byng" (interview), Mr Porter, 22 February 2018.
- "The SRB Interview: Jamie Byng", Scottish Review of Books, 2 March 2012.
- "Porter Anderson meets Jamie Byng", The Bookseller, 29 May 2014.
- Vicky Allan, "Canongate's Jamie Byng balances the books for 21 years", The Herald, 19 September 2015.