Company History

Company Overview

Founded in 1978 by Sebastian Walker, Walker Books is Britain's leading independent publisher of high quality books for children of all ages.

From a modest start, with just 18 titles in 1980, the company now produces over 300 paperback and hardback titles a year, more than any other children's book publisher in the UK. A sister company, Candlewick Press, was set up in the USA in 1992, and Walker Books Australia was launched a year later.

Publishing purely for children for over a quarter of a century, Walker Books offers a wildly diverse range, including board and novelty books, picture and activity books, gift sets and anthologies, fiction and non-fiction.

Renowned as a haven for the most highly talented authors and illustrators, as well as for the sheer inventiveness and quality of its publishing, Walker Books has been consistently recognized in all the major awards, winning The Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, the Carnegie Medal, the Kate Greenaway Medal (9 times), the Smarties Prize (19 times), and many more.

Some notable prize-winning books include Can't You Sleep, Little Bear? by Martin Waddell and Barbara Firth, We're Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury, Thursday's Child by Sonya Hartnett and Ark Angel by Anthony Horowitz.

Company History

Beginnings
It was in 1978 that Sebastian Walker set up Walker Books in the glamorous location of a spare bedroom in his home - along with colleagues Amelia Edwards and Wendy Boase. The aim? To produce the highest quality books for children of all ages; as Sebastian put it, "All that counts is that a child says at the end of the book, 'Again!'" It is this ethos which has been at the heart of the company for over a quarter of a century.

1980s
Walker Books' first titles, mainly non-fiction, were launched internationally in 1980. Beginning with 18 titles, they were published under a Methuen/Walker imprint - it was not until 1983 that Walker Books finally became an independent company in the UK. In 1985, Sebastian Walker shocked the book trade with a bold and innovative move by launching a new list of books by top authors in the UK's leading supermarket chain, Sainsbury's. It was a hugely successful partnership and endured for more than a decade.

1985 also saw Walker Books achieve a different kind of milestone by adopting its famous logo - of a bear holding a candle - created by Helen Oxenbury. Throughout the 1980s, the company continued to expand, moving to new offices in an old bedding factory in Vauxhall, South London in 1988, where it still resides today. Its first full decade also saw the publication of numerous books by renowned authors and illustrators such as Helen Oxenbury, Shirley Hughes, Jill Murphy, Martin Waddell and Martin Handford, the creator of the bestselling Where's Wally? series. In addition, Walker Books published many award-winning classics including Five Minutes' Peace by Jill Murphy (Best Book for Babies Award, 1987), Can't You Sleep, Little Bear? by Martin Waddell and Barbara Firth (Smarties Book Prize, Kate Greenaway Medal, 1988) and We're Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury (Smarties Book Prize, 1989).

1990s
The 1990s was a decade full of new beginnings and anniversaries for Walker Books. Celebrating its 10th anniversary, Sebastian Walker gave away 51% of the company to a trust, made up of authors, illustrators and employees. In 1997, the remaining 49% of the company was purchased by Walker Books, and it became totally independent. As an independent publisher, owned and run by its staff, with the full participation of authors and illustrators, it was able to continue to cultivate an environment where artistry and excellence were to the fore, and where the reader was always the focus.

By the time of its 15th anniversary in 1995 - which it celebrated by hosting a sumptuous party, The Crystal Ball, in a prestigious London location - Walker Books had grown in many ways. 1992 had seen the creation of a sister company in the USA, Candlewick Press, and had been followed a year later by the arrival of Walker Books Australia. The 1990s was also a period of loss for the company, as founder Sebastian Walker passed away in 1991 aged 48. Wendy Boase, editorial director and founding member, died in 1999 and to commemorate her life (in addition to that of author Henrietta Branford, who also died the same year), an award was established - the Branford Boase Award - to annually celebrate an outstanding children's novel by a first-time author and his/her editor.

A period of great artistic and commercial achievement, this decade saw Walker Books launch its long-running highly acclaimed non-fiction series, Read and Wonder, and also saw the premiere of the Maisy TV programme on Children's ITV. With stratospheric sales of the Where's Wally? series (43 million copies sold worldwide to date), Walker Books carved out a reputation for publishing timeless children's classics, including such titles as The Mousehole Cat by Antonia Barber and Nicola Bayley (named the Illustrated Book of the Year in the 1990 British Book Awards), Farmer Duck by Martin Waddell and Helen Oxenbury (Winner of the Smarties Book Prize, named The Illustrated Book of the Year in the British Book Awards and shortlisted for the Kate Greenaway Medal in 1991) and Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney and Anita Jeram. This was the company's fastest selling picture book ever, selling 150,000 copies in the first four months of publication; it has since gone on to sell over 19 million copies worldwide.

2000s
Walker Books celebrated its 20th birthday in 2000 and went from strength to strength, with Maisy commissioned for more television series, and the rise and rise of the Alex Rider teenage-spy phenomenon, which has now sold over 9 million copies worldwide and spawned a blockbuster movie, Stormbreaker. Recent major award-winning titles include Ark Angel by Anthony Horowitz, Operation Red Jericho by Joshua Mowll, Tamar by Mal Peet and Jonathan Swift's Gulliver, illustrated by Chris Riddell. 2005 saw the launch of the Walker Books website - an invaluable resource for parents, teachers and the book trade - and was also the company's 25th birthday, its silver anniversary. After over a quarter of a century of award-winning, bestselling, and innovative - not to forget special - children's publishing, Walker Books remains as individual and strong as ever.