Alison Baverstock, publisher, author, and founder of the charity Reading Force
Alison Baverstock graduated with an MA in Mediaeval History & Fine Arts in 1980. A leading figure in publishing, she has built a career that also spans higher education, authorship, and literacy advocacy. She is now Emeritus Professor of Publishing at Kingston University. She has written more than a dozen books and continues as Director of Reading Force, the charity she founded to connect and support military and veteran families through shared-reading.
During her final year at St Andrews, Alison Baverstock was imagining a future in museums…until she overheard a classmate (Toni Parkinson, daughter of the author of the seminal Parkinson’s Law) discussing publishing. She investigated some more, and immediately found the industry “really, really interesting,” recognising it as a career that valued the broad knowledge and curiosity she had developed through studying history. She believes St Andrews’ flexible degree structure, which allowed her to take Fine Arts and Psychology alongside Mediaeval History, gave her a “very useful grounding for being a publisher” (as well as making her an ongoingly useful asset on a quiz team!). She founded a student society (The Arts Society), persuaded Rector Frank Muir to speak at their first annual dinner, and in the process found she really enjoyed organising events (very useful for a career in the book industry which now relies so heavily on festivals).
Alison looks back on her time at St Andrews with great affection. “I loved living somewhere so beautiful, and in particular by the sea,” she recalls. She appreciated all the opportunities to sing, including with the Renaissance Group, The Gilbert and Sullivan Society and The St Andrews Chorus.
Alison and the Gilbert and Sullivan Society: at the Freshers Fayre 1977, with Liddy Semmens and Alan Chalmers [from University prospectus, 1978]; and in The Mikado 1977 [left to right from the back, Donald Graham, Al Fairley, James Younger; Front row, Alison, and Joanna Younger; courtesy of A. Baverstock]
Among the academics who left a lasting impression were Ann Kettle, whose teachings about Edward IV and Yorkist England have stuck with her, and Chris Given-Wilson who stimulated her interest in how trade patterns underpinned the mediaeval economy.
After graduation, she began her publishing career in the marketing department, first with Heinemann Educational Publishing in 1981 and then Macmillan Publishers until 1987. She subsequently moved into publishing education, becoming a course leader at the Book House Training Centre from 1990 to 2000, before co-founding the MA Publishing programme at Kingston University in 2005.
While working in publishing, Alison noticed that the industry rarely reflected on its own practices. Publishing “didn’t think about itself very much,” she says. That observation led her to begin researching and writing about the creative industries..
Her first book, How to Market Books (1990), has since appeared in seven editions and been translated into sixteen languages. Having now written more than a dozen books, she is especially proud of this legacy, explaining that “books outlast you.” Alison has written several practical guides to publishing and authorship: Is There a Book in You? (2006), How to Get a Job in Publishing (2008), The Naked Author: A Guide to Self-Publishing (2011), and she edited Contemporary Publishing and the Culture of Books (2020). Her other focus has been books about parenting: Whatever! (2005), It’s Not Fair! (2009), and Later! (2014) along with two books about art for children published by Prestel
In 2006, Alison received the Pandora Award for Services to Publishing, presented by Women in Publishing in recognition of her significant and sustained contribution to the publishing industry.
Alison went on to complete a PhD in Publishing at Oxford Brookes University in 2011 and became Professor of Publishing at Kingston University, where she has played a leading role in the international development of Publishing Studies as a discipline. She was awarded a Principal Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy in 2017 and made a National Teaching Fellowship the following year.
Like many others, Alison met and fell in love with her husband while at St Andrews. She is very proud to be a mother to four children, and a military wife. She notes that despite moving frequently around the world, she was able to maintain her career in publishing because the industry largely relies on out-of-house contacts. She also notes that publishing is an overwhelmingly female industry, allowing women to enjoy success and opportunities.
Inspired by her own experience of communicating through books with her husband while he was deployed in the British Armed Forces, Alison founded Reading Force in 2011. As Director, she continues to lead the charity, which supports military and veteran families through shared-reading. By providing free books and scrapbooks, Reading Force encourages communication within families, whether they are facing separation, change or just uncertainty
Much of her academic research has been related to her commitment to increasing literacy and widening access to reading and books. In addition to Reading Force, she founded the ‘Well Worth Reading’ campaign in 1985, and the Kingston University ‘Big Read’ initiative which won a Times Higher Education Award in 2017. The programme, which lasted for ten years, sent a copy of the same book to every incoming first-year student before they began university.. Copies were also made available to existing students and staff, thus creating a shared-reading experience across the entire university community – and something to talk about on the dreaded first day.
More recently, Alison studied Theology for Ministry at the University of Oxford, was ordained as a deacon, and now serves as Associate Priest at St Mary’s Long Ditton. In 2024, she preached at the University of St Andrews London Alumni Club Carol Service at St Columba’s Church of Scotland in London.
Alison never felt limited by studying history. “Not at all,” she says. Instead, she believes it gave her the skills that have defined her career. “History teaches you to argue and present a case.” She believes mediaeval history is particularly valuable because the evidence is often incomplete, requiring historians to think imaginatively, evaluate competing interpretations, and tell compelling stories. Mediaeval kingship, and wider government, also provide an ongoingly useful basis for understanding how universities work.
When asked for advice for current history students, Alison says employers increasingly value adaptability over specific qualifications. She believes the most important qualities are “originality, resilience, creativity, the ability to manage change and risk, and collaboration with others.”
Although publishing remains highly competitive, she encourages aspiring publishers to consider postgraduate study to discover the breadth of opportunities within the industry. She also recommends finding mentors, describing publishers as “a generous bunch” who are often keen to support newcomers. Above all, watching her father remain in a job he disliked convinced Alison that careers need not be linear. She has been surprised by “how transportable a skill-set history is,” and encourages students to not feel constrained by their degree or initial career path: “You don’t have to stick with what you began with.
This profile was written by Sophia Kazan, MA Modern History (2026), who interviewed Alison Baverstock in July 2026.