Alastair Williams

Having had a less than impressive academic record, a spell working in a pizza restaurant and several years busking around Europe, Alastair’s route into publishing was certainly unconventional.

He co-founded Summersdale in a garden shed in 1990 with an old school friend and busking partner. Almost 30 years on, and Summersdale is now an award winning, trend led lifestyle publisher that provides entertaining, informative and innovative content in the genres of gift and humour, health and wellbeing and general non fiction, supplying some of the world’s leading retailers.

Alastair’s strategy to success is simple, yet robust, to: experiment, innovate, challenge and adapt, whilst keeping our feet firmly on the ground.

The company was acquired by the Hachette Book Group in 2017, where it continues to thrive.