A tribute to Bristol publishing legend, John Sansom

John Sansom, who died earlier this month, was known principally as the founder, with his wife Angie, of Bristol publishing company Redcliffe Press, and later fine-art imprint Sansom & Co.

Once met not easily forgotten, John had a razor-sharp intellect illuminated by sparkling and wayward conversation. In his company, surrounded by his beloved British art, there coalesced ideas for new titles and England’s middle order batting, wry humour and a keen eye for the absurd (his favourite word). Meetings were a pleasure and often scatological but with a masterly instinct for what would make an elegant book or a great story.

Bristol publisher, John Sansom, received an honourary degree from Bristol University for “awaken(ing) interest in the city and its heritage.” Photo credit: Stephen Morris

Redcliffe’s first title, Children’s Bristol, was published in 1976, and was inspired by John and Angie’s three young daughters. It had several reprints and went on to sell over 20,000 copies which, as John would joke, lured them into thinking publishing was a. easy and b. lucrative.  He was often an instinctive publisher; the decision to publish Jack Allen’s The Bristol Boys, about the city’s champion boxers, was made in seconds, he said proudly.

His love of fine art led to the establishment of a new imprint, Sansom & Co, in 1995. The imprint focused on modern British art, and particularly the painters and sculptors of the Cornish art colonies at Newlyn, Lamorna and St Ives. I never asked him but I expect that, after his family, it was this contribution to art that gave John the greatest satisfaction in life.

I got to know John and Angie in the early 2000s, when Redcliffe published A Bristol Eye, mine and Tim Mowl’s snapshot of Bristol architecture. Shortly after, John asked me to design an artist’s monograph. Other books followed. There was always a new title. Bookshops, though not flourishing, were not closing and ordering 50 copies, not 5. It was, as John would say, fun.

John Sansom not only published over 200 books about Bristol but was also a founder of Bristol Review of Books quarterly magazine, and had the original idea for the Bristol Short Story Prize. Illustration for BROB issue 6: Emma Dibben

In 2011 John was awarded an honorary doctorate by Bristol University, a ‘tribute to a remarkable and distinguished citizen for what he has contributed to learning, the arts and the community’. I think the citation both amused and satisfied him equally, and for a while my addressing him as ‘Dr John’ became a means of persuasion.

John enjoyed an audience; the number of guests that came to a Redcliffe book launch was a measure both of the author’s popularity and the title, and goodwill towards John himself.  The last one he attended was at the BRI where, as he said, ‘at least if I fall ill I’m in the right place.’  And, though struggling with ill health, John’s enthusiasm for books remained undimmed. Our last conversation consisted of ideas for a book of poetry and photographs. How I wish we’d done it.

Read more: A tribute to Helen Dunmore

Main photo credit: Barbara Evripidou