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Meet Peter
Peter Usborne, our founder and MD, started working in children’s books when he found out he was going to become a parent. Soon after, in 1973, he revolutionized the world of publishing for children by setting up his own company – Usborne – and pioneering a new generation of engaging, innovative, illustrated books for children, which combined popular subject matter with unrivalled quality in editorial and production.
Fifty years on, Peter still claims that parenthood has been the greatest privilege of his life, and that publishing children’s books has been an extension of that. Now in his eighties, Peter still looks forward to coming to work every morning, and his roles as publisher and parent have never been more intertwined, as he now runs Usborne alongside his daughter Nicola Usborne, who is deputy MD.
Peter’s son, Martin Usborne, runs his own publishing company: Hoxton Mini Press. The three Usborne's – Peter, Nicola and Martin – together run The Usborne Foundation, a charity founded by the Usborne family which harnesses research, design and technology to create playful media addressing issues from literacy to health. Teach Your Monster to Read is an award-winning series of games that’s helped millions of children learn to read, funded by The Usborne Foundation.
This is what we believe in:
Creating brilliant books for children of every age, ethnicity and gender
Usborne believes in the power of children’s books. Books open doors to new worlds, allow children to walk in someone else’s footsteps, help them learn new skills, and encourage them to explore new ideas. For this to be effective, all children – including children of every ethnicity, age and gender – must be able to see themselves in our books, as well as seeing people who are different from them, in many ways.
Looking after people and planet
At Usborne we take steps to ensure that every single Usborne book is produced responsibly, ethically and safely. We do all we can to trace and evaluate all the materials that go into making our books so that we can make ethical buying decisions, and assess working conditions in the factories where our books are made, to make sure that the people in our supply chain are treated fairly. We look at everything from where our paper comes from, to how any chemicals in our inks might affect the environment, to how to reduce single-use plastics in our products.
Making Usborne a happy and healthy place to work
When people come to work with us, they don’t want to leave: staff retention is 93% year on year, and the average length of service is over 9 years. We all think that the best thing about Usborne is the people. Our starting salaries are 10% over industry standard, staff receive an annual bonus based on company profits, those with young children get an allowance to help with childcare costs, everyone gets a one-off bonus after 5 years with the company, and our sabbatical scheme offers 30 days extra paid holiday every 7 years.
Putting charity at the center of everything we do
Charity is at the heart of what we do at Usborne. A slice of company profits are given to worthy causes each year, everyone who works at Usborne can take paid leave to do volunteer work, and our staff also pick a Staff Charity of the Year to fundraise for each year, and all proceeds are matched by the company. The Usborne Foundation is a charity founded by the Usborne family which harnesses research, design and technology to create playful media addressing issues from literacy to health.