Larsson stieg biography of christopher

Christopher MacLehose

British publisher (born 1940)

Christopher Colin MacLehoseCBE, Hon. FRSL (born 12 July 1940) is a British publisher notable as publisher of Harvill Press (from 1984 to 2004), where his successes included bringing out the stories of Raymond Carver and Richard Ford for the first time in Britain. Having published works translated from more than 34 languages, MacLehose has been referred to as "the champion of translated fiction" and as "British publishing's doyen of literature in translation". He is generally credited with introducing to an English-speaking readership the best-selling Swedish author Stieg Larsson and other prize-winning authors, among them Sergio De La Pava, who has described MacLehose as "an outsize figure literally and figuratively – that's an individual who has devoted his life to literature".

From 2008 to 2020, he was the publisher of MacLehose Press, an imprint of Quercus Books, and in 2021 founded Mountain Leopard Press, an imprint of the Welbeck Publishing Group. The Mountain Lion list was sold to Hachette in December 2022. In 2024, it was announced that MacLehose was to launch Open Borders Press, as the first imprint of Orenda Books.

Early life

Christopher MacLehose was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on 12 July 1940 to Alexander MacLehose and Elizabeth Hope MacLehose (née Bushell). His family was involved with the book trade as printers, booksellers and publishers, and he has described them as "seven generations, all of them second sons". He was educated at Shrewsbury School (1953–58), and read history at Worcester College, Oxford University.

Career

MacLehose took a job at the Glasgow Herald, where he hoped to stay

  • How did stieg larsson die
    • Publisher Christopher MacLehose, Erland Larsson, publicist Nicci Praça, and Joakim Larsson in London

    Even before those folks at UK publishing house Quercus/MacLehose Press began celebrating the fact that one of their books, Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo(2008), was named last night as Crime Thriller of the Yearat the Galaxy British Book Awards, a lucky cadre of Larsson fans had the opportunity to toast the novel during an informal, private celebration on Thursday.

    Those festivities were hosted by legendary publisher Christopher MacLehoseand his charming wife at their house in North West London. And they offered attendees the welcome chance to meet not only the late author’s father, Erland Larsson, but Stieg’s younger brother, Joakim, as well.

    Shots editor Mike Stotter and Iare both longtime Larsson fans; we’d met Erland Larsson before, during last October’s ITV3 Awardsceremony, and I had in fact interviewed Erland Larssonthat same evening. So we were pretty sure we’d be invited to MacLehose’s fête, but we didn’t know who else would be attending.

    In preparation for the party, I headed into London, planning to rendezvous with Stotter at a local hostelry. I was surprised to find my colleague in such casual attire. What, no tie? No suit? As it turns out, Stotter had been deliberately under-dressed all day long. He works in the City of London--the legendary Square Mile--where demonstrators had been busy protesting the G20 summit, and he’d been instructed, along with his members of his staff, to dress down, as threats had been made against obvious financial district workers.

    After catching up a bit over drinks, we headed off to the MacLehose party. The publisher himself answered the front door and ushered us into his home. Quercus publicists Lucy Ramsey and Nicci Praça greeted us with glasses of chilled champagne, and MacLehose’s wife appeared with some remarkable finger nibbles. Also in a

    CHRISTOPHER MACLEHOSE

     

    The champion of translated fiction who struck it rich with Stieg Larsson

    (www.europe.org.uk/culture, 2010)

        As the young literary editor of The Scotsman in the mid-1960s, Christopher MacLehose proudly commissioned a series of two-page articles on the post-war novel in various countries. Germany, Italy, France, Japan and the Netherlands all received their due. Then one day his editor stopped him in the corridor. ‘Christopher,’ he said, ‘the North Vietnamese novel – more than half a page and you’re fired.’
         Since his metamorphosis into a publisher, MacLehose has met many others baffled by his love of foreign literature. But as the man who discovered Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – after fifteen British and American publishers had turned it down – he has had the last laugh. Several million copies of Larsson’s trilogy later, the MacLehose Press is in a position to publish what it chooses.
         Not that you would guess this from visiting its headquarters – a terraced house in North London which doubles as the publisher’s home. Instead of PAs and marketing men, MacLehose is attended by his dog, a bouncy Hungarian Vizsla to whom he speaks in French. Our interview takes place in a small, elegant drawing-room with an upright piano, invigilated by wooden ducks.
         Tall, angular and quietly spoken, MacLehose seems more relaxed with animals than with people. But if the grey eyes behind his spectacles do not readily make contact, he is not shy about voicing his opinions: he has, for example, lambasted the British for ‘a catastrophic want of curiosity’ about overseas writers.
         Books are in his blood: the Glasgow-based MacLehose family were first booksellers, then publishers. As a student at Oxford, Christopher jeopardised his degree by arriving 29 minutes late for a final exam: he had been reading one

  • Christopher maclehose
    • Following up on my recent talk with Erland Larsson, father of the late Stieg Larsson (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), and in anticipation of next month’s release in Britain of that Swedish author’s second novel, The Girl Who Played with Fire, I had the opportunity to sit down briefly with Christopher MacLehose. He’s a legendary, “patrician” publisher in UK circles and now heads up Quercus Publishing’s MacLehose Pressimprint, which holds the rights to Larsson’s award-winning “Millennium Trilogy.” I wanted to know from him how Larsson’s work came to be translated into English and fall into his appreciative hands.

    Ali Karim:Christopher, how did you discover Stieg Larsson’s work?

    Christopher MacLehose:The English translation of all three volumes of the Millennium Trilogy came from Norstedts, the Swedish publisher, via a very experienced American translator, who was asked [by Norstedts] to translate all three books for a film company, which he did in the remarkable time of 11 months.

    AK:All three volumes?

    CM:Yes, … an astonishing achievement. But it needed a certain amount of editorial work, inevitably. And as [the translator] was now involved in another project, he didn’t have time to do this. It should be said that [the trilogy] came to me many months after the translator had finished it. Why? Because it went to five, six, seven British publishing houses, and then five, six, seven American publishing houses--and they all said “no.” Why? Because it needed great deal of editorial work, but also because there was this feeling of “What can you do commercially with a writer who has died; what can you do?” … This I felt was ludicrous. I will bet with you that 80 percent of those who received the original translated manuscript, and said no, didn’t read it, because the author was dead. The translator himself sent it out to American publishers but faced the