Hamlyn was my second job in publishing, for after nine years with Herbert Jenkins, the firm was taken over and I was let go (the term 'redundant' not being used in those days). When word about this spread I was approached by Philip Jarvis, one of the team of three who ran Hamlyn (the others being Paul himself, and Ralph Vernon Hunt) and I joined as Philip's PA. Again in those days to be a PA meant 'deputy', even amanuensis, but nowadays it is often used for secretarial staff. At that time, in 1964, Hamlyn was one of the most vigorous forces in British publishing, doing exciting things and publishing wonderful books in colour. Paul was the creative genius, Ralph ran the best sales machine in Britain and Philip made things happen. They were the founders and dynamo behind the force that was changing the face of British publishing. As I joined, Hamlyn was bought by IPC in a sensational agreed takeover and whilst I was there, Hamlyn was given the various other IPC book publishing companies such as Newnes and Odhams, to run and integrate. With that act lay the seeds of destruction because it changed an entrepreneurial business into a corporate organisation. Although deputy to Philip Jarvis, it soon became apparent that he couldn't deputise, and I didn't have a role and couldn't play the politics that were necessary. But suddenly there was a severe management problem, and as I was the only spare body, I was overnight transferred to the new company Music For Pleasure. Music For Pleasure, called MFP, was the first mass market budget record label in Britain. Paul had brought all the flair that he had in creating new book markets for books to the new enterprise. But little else. Everyone within Hamlyn had thought that everyone else was dealing with matters, and there was no-one in charge of many aspects of the new business. For an example, as MFP was a joint company with EMI, each thought that the other was dealing with arrangements for royalties on the records, and neither had budgeted for any. I moved in to be in charge of sales, and had to take radical action (a euphemism for asking some people to stay after 5.30pm and then having them clear their desks and depart). When the national launch took place 78 LPs were released simultaneously at 12s. 6d. (63 pence), and this was a sensation reported on television and in the press. We then found that the national delivery system was in chaos, and nobody knew what shops had ordered what records, and where they were. As we then found, although there was a very simple invoicing system, with all the records listed on one side of a sheet, there was no accounting system and no way to access the information (and customers were screaming for delayed supplies, misdirected consignments and so forth). I sorted the matter out by arranging for the large, showpiece book showroom to be stripped empty during the night, and trestle tables and temporary workers to be there the next morning. Each table was given one or more letter of the alphabet, and the temps sorted for three days, fifteen hours a day, and then were able to keep the paper mountain under control. We had got things in order, but the show room was the pride and joy of the powerful sales team at Hamlyn, and they were not happy bunnies. When things settled down at MFP I was again a free hand, in senior management, and regarded as an object of suspicion by the staff, but with nothing to do. By that time the IPC publishing companies were supposedly to be brought together, and I was put on the small planning team. Paul wanted to know nothing about it. Integration There were two aspects to the integration; the command by IPC to have all their book publishing businesses that were spread over a multiplicity of buildings, in a single one, and deciding whether in bringing companies together everyone would be wanted. There were at that time in the London area, only about four or five buildings available that could house the number of staff there were, or were going to be. All were in frankly unsuitable locations, but I decided that the one at Feltham was the best, especially because it was well positioned for Heathrow Airport. On one of my visits I took with me a camera and I lay down on the green two or three hundred yards away facing the centre at Feltham and took a series of photographs, which made the building look handsome, placed in a parkland, and so forth. These were presented to Paul who agreed to the renting of the building, but swore that he would never use it himself. It was in fact after the signing for the building that I decided that there was no future for me with the company and planned my departure (which took place before the announcements of the move of all the staff). In the outcome, Hamlyn were only in the building for about two years. During that time some of the problems of consolidation came home to roost, and for the first time ever the Hamlyn business made a loss. A massive loss. But because we had acquired what had been an empty building we had negotiated an extremely advantageous rent, and putting the building on the market with the fixed original rent produced a magnificent benefit. The other aspect of integrating the companies was staff reduction, and in one meeting with Philip Jarvis we produced a listing of key names of people who no longer fitted. It was over the next two years that some wonderfully talented people who had helped the growth of Hamlyn left, and it seemed that everyone on the list ascended, and after a while few enough of talent remained, but all those who it had been planned to let go were in positions of very senior management. My office at Hamlyn was off another office in a large open plan floor. One day as the telephone rang I noticed through the partition windows that people seemed to be heading towards the exit door. The caller was a girl I knew and was distancing myself from, and maybe I had not been specific but she certainly wasn't receiving the signals. 'Hello Lionel, I'm glad that at last I've got you, we need to talk', she said. It was then that I noticed the smoke; the building was obviously being evacuated but nobody (later I wondered why) had thought of me in my office off another. 'I'm sorry, but I can't talk now; I have to dash - it looks as though the building is on fire', I replied. She was vehement, as I saw the clouds of smoke start to billow: 'You keep giving me excuses as to why we can't talk; if you don't make time for me now we are finished.' It was obviously a time for making a decision, one of life's turning points. I put the telephone down, and ran through the smoke to the exit. It only took a short time to ascertain that the fire that caused so much smoke to billow through the air conditioning outlets was of no consequence, but I was free again. When I left Hamlyn I was quoted in the trade press that 'I wanted to return to publishing'. I did so by setting up Arms & Armour Press in 1966, but that's another story. Back to Greenhill Military Book News No. 90 Table of Contents Back to Greenhill Military Book News List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 1999 by Greenhill Books This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com