IN May 2012, the directors of Mayfield Books and Gifts asked Chris Gilbert to explore the possibility of developing a range of titles aimed at the market for local books in counties throughout the UK. After just a couple of months of looking for suitable authors and suppliers, Chris told the directors that he was confident that he could produce three books about local dialect covering Kent, Cornwall and Sussex. It was agreed that these would be published in September 2012 as the first products of a new imprint called Bradwell Books. If this initial target of producing three books in less than six months seemed ambitious, this was nothing compared with what was to follow.

Chris had got to know Andy Smith, the Managing Director at Mayfield, whilst he was working as a marketing manager for Landmark, a publishing company based in Ashbourne. To understand why he went on to make such a success of the new imprint of Bradwell Books, I asked him to look back on his career and tell me about his previous experience of creating and marketing new products.

He said: ‘After leaving school in Nottingham at the age of 16, I worked in the textile industry, including a short spell of working for my father’s company, which bought and sold fabrics. When this collaboration came to an end, I rather recklessly bought a motorbike and spent six months travelling about the country. Although this was a great thing to do when I was young and single, I knew that I would have to give up this carefree existence after a time and find a means of earning a living, so I replaced the motorbike with a Transit van and began working as a courier specialising in same-day deliveries.’