The Book People Ltd was a UK online bookseller founded in 1988. It went into administration in 2019 and was formally dissolved in 2022.

History

The Book People started business in 1988, initially in the

Guildford Guildford () is a town in west Surrey, around southwest of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The name "Guildf ...

, Surrey area. It expanded rapidly, and by 1990 the company had 140 distributors around the country. A mail-order catalogue was followed by an online store in 1998. In 2002 the company opened offices in

Haydock Haydock is a village within the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens, in Merseyside, England. At the 2011 Census, it had a population of 11,416 Haydock's historic area covers the Haydock electoral ward and a section of the Blackbrook ward. Haydo ...

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan county, metropolitan and ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of List of ceremonial counties of England, 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Merse ...

and, with part funding by the

Welsh Government , image = , caption = , date_established = , country = Wales , address = , leader_title = First Minister () , appointed = First Minister approved by the Senedd, ceremonially appointed ...

, a customer service centre and warehouse in Bangor. In 2007, The Book People won the ''Direct to Consumer Bookselling Company of the Year'' Award at the ''Bookseller'' Retail Awards. The company's founder Ted Smart received the

Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...

Group Award for Outstanding Contribution to Bookselling. A management buy-out of the company took place in 2014, with support from

Endless LLP Endless is a British private equity firm. It is headquartered at 3 Whitehall Quay, Leeds, with an office at 102 Park Street, London W1. In 2017, Endless bought Jones Bootmaker, saving 840 jobs according to BBC. Endless has also invested in Wes ...

, a UK-based equity investor. By February 2016 the company was employing over 600 staff. On 17 December 2019, the BBC reported that The Book People had gone into administration.

PricewaterhouseCoopers PricewaterhouseCoopers is an international professional services brand of firms, operating as partnerships under the PwC brand. It is the second-largest professional services network in the world and is considered one of the Big Four accounti ...

(PwC) were appointed administrators, with the company continuing to trade while Endless LLP looked for a buyer. In August 2020 the company name was changed to TBP Realisations Limited. No buyer was ultimately found, and the company was formally dissolved in March 2022.

Business activities

The Book People ordered titles in bulk directly from publishers and suppliers, forgoing the right of return. In conjunction with Scholastic the company hosted online bookshops for

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

's ''TV Book Club'',

CITV CITV (short for Children's ITV, also known as the CITV Channel) is a British free-to-air children's television channel owned by ITV plc. It broadcasts content from the CITV archive and acquisitions, every day from 6 am to 9 pm which ...

's ''

Bookaboo ''Bookaboo'' is a children's television series created and produced by Lucy Goodman of Happy Films and co-directed by Ian Emes. The show features puppets, celebrities, picture books, songs and animation. The recurring protagonist is a world fa ...

'', and the ''Big Book Babble'' programme. Between 2008 and 2014 it hosted a biennial ''Queen of Teen'' award for authors of

teen fiction Adolescence () is a transitional stage of physical and psychological development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to adulthood (typically corresponding to the age of majority). Adolescence is usually associated with the te ...

. Winners were

Louise Rennison Louise Rennison (11 October 1951 – 29 February 2016) was an English author and comedian who wrote the ''Confessions of Georgia Nicolson'' series for teenage girls. The series records the exploits of a teenage girl, Georgia Nicolson, and her best ...

(2008),

Cathy Cassidy Cathy Cassidy (born 13 June 1962) is an English author of young adult fiction. She was born in Coventry, Warwickshire. For a number of years she lived near New Galloway in Scotland where she started writing her novels, but has since returned to ...

(2010),

Maureen Johnson Maureen Johnson (born February 16, 1973) is an American author of young adult fiction. Her published novels include series leading titles such as ''13 Little Blue Envelopes'', ''The Name of the Star'', ''Truly Devious,'' and ''Suite Scarlett''. ...

(2012) and

Juno Dawson Juno Dawson (formerly James Dawson; born 10 June 1981) is a British author of young adult fiction and non-fiction. Dawson's notable works include ''This Book Is Gay'', ''Mind Your Head'', ''Margot & Me'', ''The Gender Games'', ''Clean'' and ''Me ...

(2014).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Book People Book selling websites Companies based in Surrey Retail companies established in 1988 1988 establishments in the United Kingdom Retail companies disestablished in 2022