2015


The BA Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Book Trade


06


WINNER: SAM HUSAIN


EACH YEAR THE Booksellers Association takes great pleasure in recognising the outstanding contribution made to the industry by an individual. Past winners have included Dame Gail Rebuck, Rachel Russell, Roger Katz, Fred Newman, Peter Kilborne and Jamie Byng; booksellers, publishers and other industry professionals who all went the extra mile to further the causes of the trade. This year we are delighted to honour Sam Husain. Sam has been a diligent supporter of the industry, bookselling and the BA, but it is for his contribution to bookselling that we honour Sam with this award. A key aim of the Books Are My Bag campaign has been to change the narrative—so often lazily reached for by the general media— that books and bookshops are moribund, and I am delighted to say that it has changed. There is surely no more striking symbol of the fact that there is confidence and optimism about the


In the past eight years Sam has, quite simply, transformed Foyles from its idiosyncratic former self into a beacon of bookselling brilliance in the UK


future of high street bookselling than the new Foyles flagship on Charing Cross Road. The modernisation of Foyles began under Christopher Foyle. Arguably Christopher’s most inspired act was to bring in a new c.e.o., someone from outside the family: Sam Husain. In the past eight years Sam has, quite simply, transformed Foyles from its idiosyncratic former self into a beacon of bookselling brilliance in the UK and beyond. As well as relocating to the new Charing Cross Road site, Foyles has expanded within the capital and beyond, opening branches in Bristol and (shortly) Birmingham. With a talented team of booksellers, who Sam had the courage to put his faith in, and with the astute business acumen for which Sam is so widely admired, Foyles has swiftly moved from a much-loved bookshop rooted in the past to an even more-loved bookshop with its eyes on the future.


Tim Godfray, c.e.o., the Booksellers Association


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