John Blake

John Blake with an old friend.

Born in Bristol, a year before the outbreak of WW2. 

Educated at Bristol Grammar School and, after a National Service stint in the RAF, at Hertford College Oxford. 

Joined New English Library in 1964 (then owned by NAL) and in 1969 moved to Penguin, where I found a job in Export sales reporting to the legendary Michael Hogben. 

Stayed at Penguin for 13 years, outlasting 5 Managing Directors, but could not see off Peter Mayer and when in 1982, the new MD of Transworld, Paul Scherer, offered me the job of Export Sales Director, I stepped into the shoes of Mr Roy Kibby. TWP was then owned by Bantam and I found myself for the first time playing from the same deck as the scourge of British publishers, the exiled Welshman, Alun Davies. As Alun said at the time of my joining Transworld: “Roy Kibby is not exactly a hard act to follow.”

Despite the best efforts of Alun, from the mid-eighties TW hit a fantastic purple patch which lasted for most of the remainder of my working life until I retired in 2003. 

John Blake and fish.

John with David Love.

With Brian Davies

In Mexico, during his (brief) tenure as British Consul in Acapulco.

Blowing his own trumpet.