A regular volunteer at St Mary-at-Finchley church has won Publisher of the Year

Joel Rickett, Managing Director of Ebury at Penguin Random House, and one of St Mary-at-Finchley regular volunteers, has won Publisher of the Year. The winner was announced at The British Book Awards on Monday 13 May at Grosvenor House London.

Rickett is currently a Server and Eucharist Minister at St-Mary-at Finchley Parish Church and sits on the Heritage Records Group as part of the Give me shelter! Church and Churchyard Project.

Ebury publishes authors including Yotam Ottolenghi, Mary Berry, Rick Stein, Michael Rosen, Sir David Attenborough, Steven Bartlett (The Diary of a CEO), Arnold Schwarzenegger, James O’Brien, Caitlin Moran, Monty Don and Brené Brown. Recent bestsellers include The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy, and the ‘Bored of Lunch’ cookbook series.

Industry magazine The Bookseller noted: “It’s rare to have a non-fiction-only publisher shortlisted at the British Book Awards, let alone winning the title Publisher of the Year. However, the stellar results are the culmination of a five-year overhaul of Ebury under managing director Joel Rickett and publisher Andrew Goodfellow.”

“What Ebury achieved in 2023 is so impressive,” added the judges. “It’s an exceptionally strong team that’s doing a fantastic job with a lot of passion and pride.”

The Heritage Records Group will be publishing books about the church building’s history, its people and war life histories. To find out more about the project, St Mary-at-Finchley will be running guided tours of its church building, churchyard and heritage walk to celebrate the London Festival of Architecture from Saturday 1st June – Friday 7th June inclusive.

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