Independent Bookseller joins Advisory Committee

Topping joins committee of publishers, booksellers and agents

7 March 2008

The former Waterstone’s bookseller Robert Topping has joined the Booker Prize Foundation Advisory Committee. Topping left Waterstone’s and went on to set up an independent booksellers - Topping & Company Booksellers – which he runs in Bath and Ely.

The Advisory Committee, which advises on any changes to the rules and on the selection of the judges, now comprises Ion Trewin (administrator, Man Booker Prizes); Richard Cable, publisher; Mark Chilton, company secretary, Booker Ltd; Peter Clarke, chief executive, Man Group plc; Jonathan Douglas, director of the National Literacy Trust; Victoria Glendinning, writer; Basil Comely, BBC TV; Derek Johns, literary agent; Gerry Johnson, managing director, Waterstone’s; Nigel Newton, publisher; Fiammetta Rocco, literary editor, The Economist (Man Booker International Prize administrator); Eve Smith (company secretary, the Booker Prize Foundation); Topping, and Erica Wagner, literary editor, The Times.

The Man Booker Prize Fiction at its finest