My friend Hamish MacGibbon, who has died aged 88, was one of the foremost educational publishers from the 1960s to the 80s, when curriculums and the learning materials to support them were being transformed in the UK and throughout the English-speaking Commonwealth.
In 1960 Hamish, a recent Cambridge history graduate, was appointed by Alan Hill, the creator of Heinemann Educational Books (HEB), to head its maths and science editorial department. Hamish created a series of textbooks that became market leaders in the UK and in adapted forms in Africa, the Caribbean and south-east Asia, where he worked assiduously to match local educational needs.
HEB became the UK’s leading educational publishing imprint and Hamish’s lists were the most important part of its international growth. He had the ability to enable, organise and motivate his authors, editors and designers, an unflagging energy and a commitment to the highest standards. In 1979, he was appointed managing director of HEB, but became frustrated by the demands and constraints of corporate management and left in 1984 to set up a short-lived venture in educational software, with a subsequent brief and unsatisfactory return to corporate life at Collins Educational.
He went back to basics in 1986 with James & James Publishers, commissioning histories of companies, schools and colleges and deploying his entrepreneurial and interpersonal skills for 20 years. He sold the company in 2007 to devote more time to his many other interests.
Hamish was born in Hampstead, north London, the son of James, a trade publisher and literary agent, and Jean (nee Howard), a critic and novelist. Growing up in the heart of London’s intellectual life, he went to Westminster school and did national service before going to Trinity College, Cambridge (1956-59).
Both his parents, having witnessed the rise of nazism first-hand in Germany and been affected by the outbreak of the Spanish civil war, became active members of the Communist party in 1936, and remained so until the 50s. Thereafter they supported the Labour party and espoused many radical causes.
During the second world war, Hamish’s father worked in the Intelligence Corps. Late in his life he confided to his family that he had passed to the Soviet Union extensive classified information that he felt the British and Americans were wrongly withholding from their beleaguered ally. The family came to support this decision, and after James’s death Hamish wrote Maverick Spy, an account of the context and consequences of his father’s actions.
Hamish served as a Labour member on Camden council and was a governor of a number of schools and colleges. His intellectual interests included history and a passion for the cinema and theatre, and he was an avid reader of classic and new fiction. He shared with his father a lifelong enthusiasm for sailing and with his son, Seamus, unwavering support for Arsenal FC.
Hamish was a talented publisher, but he will be remembered especially for his devotion to his family and his talent for friendships. In 1969, he married Paula Connoley, whom he met while working at Heinemann; they had three children. After he and Paula divorced in 1994, he married Renata Li Causi in 1995.
He is survived by Renata, his children, Hannah, Seamus and Amy, his stepdaughter, Nina, his sister, Janet, and brother, Robert.
