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Ted Smart, Founder of The Book People, Dies at 83

Ted Smart, who founded The Book People in 1988 and built a direct-to-consumer bookseller that underwrote publishers' coffee-table books, died on August 17. He was 83.

The Publishing Times Staff · August 22, 2026 · 4 min read

Ted Smart, Founder of The Book People, Dies at 83

Edward Smart, known as Ted, the founder of The Book People, died on August 17, 2026. He was 83. The Bookseller published the news on August 21, with a tribute from his son Alex. A family memorial page gives the same dates, April 9, 1943, to August 17, 2026. He is survived by his second wife, three sons, Alex, Tim and Matt, and four grandchildren.

The Book People was the kind of customer publishers could not ignore and high-street booksellers often resented. Founded in 1988 in Godalming, Surrey, it sold books at deep discounts by mail, in workplaces, in schools, and later online. At its height, The Bookseller reported, its buying power underwrote publishers' investments in coffee-table books, and many nonfiction writers of that period owed their print runs to the company.

A kitchen table, then millions of books a year

Alex Smart told The Bookseller that his father and his wife Nicky, with Seni Glaister, who became chief executive, started the business "from the kitchen table" and that it "revolutionised how books were sold across the UK." The model was direct: branded "Book Buses," workplace drops, and prices the high street could not match. The Times later published its own obituary.

"Ted leaves behind an indelible legacy as a visionary businessman," Alex said. "Together, [Ted and Nicky] built a business model on bringing discounted, high-quality books directly to people in their workplaces. Under their combined guidance, the company grew to serving millions of customers and delivering millions of books annually through many different channels. Ted possessed a unique gift for recognising what readers wanted. Through his self-named imprint, Ted Smart, The Book People sold unique books making literature both accessible and affordable for a generation of children and families."

Before the book trade he had been a police inspector in Hong Kong, where he was badly injured during the riots of the Cultural Revolution. He took up photography there and eventually published pictorial books of his own. The Bookseller said that path led him to what his son called his "ultimate calling."

The head office was as unorthodox as the sales force. Alex described "The Manor" in Godalming, where peacocks roamed, hundreds of parrots lived, and deals were made. Smart was a fixture of the long lunch and of the evenings at Frankfurt and Bologna. "From children's stories to cookbooks, fiction to non-fiction and general interest, Ted's belief in a book virtually guaranteed it became a Book People bestseller," Alex said, "prompting icons from Michael Palin to Jamie Oliver to attend annual conferences and personally celebrate the teams that drove their success."

What the company meant to publishers

For a generation of illustrated-book publishers, a Book People order could turn a maybe into a printing. The company bought in volume, at a discount that made booksellers furious and made certain nonfiction possible. Children's books and cookbooks were the public face. The private fact, which The Bookseller stated plainly, was that the firm's purchasing underwrote investments other retailers would not take on alone.

Private equity firm Endless completed a buyout in 2014. The company was formally dissolved in 2022. The trade's memory of it has not dissolved with the company register. When The Bookseller asked for tributes, it described Smart as "wonderful, funny and unforgettable," and a follow-up story on August 24 said the industry was still paying those tributes.

A service of thanksgiving was set for Guildford Crematorium on September 10, 2026. The family invited donations to Shooting Star Children's Hospices.

Smart's career is a chapter in how British books actually reached readers between the high street and Amazon: not through a literary prize and not through a review, but through a bus in a car park and a pile of discounted hardbacks on a desk at work. Publishers who printed for that pile knew his name even when the customers did not.

Image: A stack of books, photographed by Alexander Grey on June 8, 2018. Not a portrait of Ted Smart; no freely licensed photograph of him was available. Via Wikimedia Commons, CC0. Placed on a blurred extension of the same photo.

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