Usborne is the UK’s leading specialist children’s book publisher: an independent, family business which creates engaging, innovative, accessible books for children of all ages.

How it all began

When Peter got a call from his wife saying he was going to be a father, he immediately decided to move into children’s book publishing so that he could create colourful, exciting, captivating books for a new generation of kids – including his own.
More than four decades later, Usborne children's books are known and loved by families all around the world.
Peter is now in his eighties but is still working – and loving it. The baby he received that phone call about – Nicola Usborne – is now our Deputy MD, working alongside her dad and a longstanding senior team.
Usborne has a great heritage but is also committed to moving forwards.

The people behind the books

Usborne children's books are almost all created by a super-talented team of 35+ editor/writers and over 50 designers who work in-house for Usborne in London, UK. This makes us different from most other publishers (who usually commission outside authors to write books for them) and allows us to have complete creative control.

We spend as much time as we have to, to get things right. An Usborne book takes as long as it takes – it doesn’t leave the building until it’s just right. Sometimes that’s a long time, but we believe that quality comes from time, care, attention, skill and passion.

We employ the brightest, most creative people and ask them to put kids at the centre of everything they do. We ask them to think like kids and experience things like kids, with curiosity and wonder.

As a company we are constantly innovating, looking for new ways to engage children with books and reading – and we’re ambitious for our readers. We know children are big thinkers with an insatiable hunger for fascinating facts and new ideas and we want to challenge them with complex topics.