Bedford Square Publishers have announced that Crime Time columnist and publishing éminence grise Maxim Jakubowski has joined as Editor-at-Large, to acquire new titles both for the Bedford Square and the No Exit Press imprints. Jakubowski is a well-known novelist, critic and reviewer whose columns have appeared (along with Crime Time) in Time Out and the Guardian. He was the owner of leading London bookshop Murder One for 20 years, and also edited many award-winning anthologies, some of which featured early work by Ian Rankin, Lee Child, Mick Herron and many others. Maxim has spent several decades in publishing roles in France and at Virgin, Rainbird and Ebury Press, where he commissioned many important bestsellers and created several major crime imprints, including the now legendary Black Box Thrillers and Blue Murder. He has been awarded the Anthony award, the CWA’s Red Herrings and the David L. Goodis award as well as acting as Chair of the CWA until 2023, but still runs their Dagger awards.
The first titles he will bring to the list will include the highly controversial French prize-winner Emma Becker’s La Maison; a major media personality in France, Becker has been compared to a cross between Colette and Annie Ernaux; the king of the French locked-room mystery Paul Halter; master of Western noir Scott Phillips, previously with Picador, and Keith Donohue’s extraordinary The Motion of Puppets, which US critics have described as ‘Stephen King meets Toys’; Donohue was previously with Vintage.
Jamie Hodder-Williams said: “I have long admired Maxim’s work– he has read and reviewed incredibly broadly and knows the industry intimately. He will bring new names to the No Exit Press list and add breadth to our Bedford Square imprint.”
Jakubowski said “I am thrilled that after a long sabbatical I am now in position to acquire and commission full-length books again and for a vibrant new publisher. I have always been an editor at heart and it’s a joy to be working with authors again and Jamie and the great team at Bedford Square have made me feel most welcome.”
