Giles Gordon
Giles Alexander Esmé Gordon (23 May 1940 – 14 November 2003) was a Scottish literary agent and writer, based for most of his career in London. Early life and education The son of Esmé Gordon (1910–1993), an architect and Honorary Secretary (1973–1978) of the Royal Scottish Academy, and his wife Betsy, Giles Gordon was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, and was educated at the Edinburgh Academy, an independent day school. Here he acted in school productions, including Iolanthe, with future broadcaster Gordon Honeycombe, among others. After school, where Giles persistently failed examinations, he attended, for a time, Edinburgh College of Art, where his father lectured on architecture. Publishing career In 1959, Gordon joined the Edinburgh publisher Oliver and Boyd as a trainee; he remained as their employee for nearly four years. In 1961 and 1962, he edited the first four issues of the Saltire Society's quarterly magazine New Saltire. In 1962, he moved to London, and was advertising manager for Secker & Warburg for a year, editor at Hutchinson in 1966, and then of the plays list at Penguin, where he launched the Penguin Modern Playwrights series. He became editorial director at Gollancz in 1967 and stayed for five years, abolishing