Bookselling Research Network

Working in Bookselling Interview Series

Bill Samuel and Trevor Goul-Wheeker have, between them, run some of Britain’s biggest bookshops, and so we are delighted to have been given the opportunity to find out more about their careers in the industry.  Bill was Vice Chairman of his family’s business Foyles bookshop for twenty years until the company was sold in 2018.  In that time, he was involved in other projects such as the creation of the Emirates Literature Festival held in Dubai.  He now has a place on the board of the BA and is chair of Batch.  His wife Vivienne has always worked in the book trade, too, which is how they met.

Trevor, after working in the chemicals and biochemicals industries as a B2B marketeer, became managing director of Hammick’s bookshops in 1994, becoming non-executive director of books at W.H. Smith in 2003, and was chairman of Blackwell’s for ten years until 2019.  He served on the council of the BA for nine years and received two British Book Awards for Marketing and Services to Bookselling.  In 2012, Trevor was appointed Chair of the Business School Advisory Board at the University of Greenwich, who generously awarded him with an Honorary MBA in 2015.

We asked Bill and Trevor the same questions about their longstanding careers and their responses give a fascinating glimpse into their views on bookselling, what they love about the trade and the advice they would give to booksellers out on the shopfloor of today.