Bonnier Books UK has made a landmark hire with the appointment of Anna Bond as Managing Director of the Bonnier Books UK Children’s Group – a move that signals an ambitious new chapter for the company. Bond joins from Hachette UK’s Octopus Publishing Group and will take up the role in April 2026.
In this pivotal new role, Bond will drive the future direction of the business’ thriving children’s publishing across the group, overseeing both the children’s Trade division and their mass market activity and craft division, Igloo. Bond will be tasked with steering the long-term strategy for growth and championing greater collaboration across the entire children’s business, which has over £50m annual turnover.
Bond has spent the last five years as Managing Director of Hachette UK’s Octopus Publishing Group, delivering consistent growth in bestsellers and global sales whilst expanding the division to publish more narrative non-fiction and fiction alongside their award-winning illustrated list. As a member of the Changing the Story board she managed cross-divisional projects with the editorial and design teams and this year she was a judge on the inaugural World of Books Sustainable Story Award. Bond has recently taken over as chair of the board of trustees for the World Book Day Charity. Previous to Octopus, she was Sales and Brand Director at Pan Macmillan, working on major brands such as Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s iconic The Gruffalo, and with authors and illustrators including Rod Campbell, Lydia Monks and Andy Griffiths.
Anna Bond said: “I am going to miss the team at Octopus, Summersdale and the wider Hachette group in the UK and US all of whom I have enjoyed working with and learning from. The opportunity to move back into children’s publishing at such an important time for children’s reading is hugely exciting. I look forward working with Sarah, Jon and the innovative team at Bonnier Books UK Children’s Group to ensure we enable as many children as possible to discover the fun of reading.”
Sarah Benton and Jonathan Perdoni, co-CEOs at Bonnier Books UK added: “We are delighted to be welcoming a leader of Anna’s calibre and talent to the team. She brings a wealth of international experience, a well-founded reputation as a collaborative leader, and – above all else – a boundless, utterly contagious passion for children’s publishing in all its forms. We’re looking forward to seeing Anna put her stamp on the business, building on our world-class roster of leading brands, IP and bestselling talent; driving collaboration across our lists; and inspiring the next generation of young readers.”
Katie Espiner, CEO of Adult Trade Divisions at Hachette UK, said: “We all want to thank Anna for her significant contribution over the last five years; for leading an incredible team, for being a fantastic, collegiate person to work with, as well as nurturing Octopus’s award-winning list of authors. Her commitment to Octopus, Hachette, and Changing the Story has been so valuable, and we wish her every success in her new role.”
Bond will take the reins at an exciting time for Bonnier Books UK’s children’s publishing, with a broad list that includes a hugely successful Disney publishing programme, the global hit Welcome to the Museum series, and leading boy’s gateway brand Ultimate Football Heroes; alongside fantasy queen Holly Black, Tik-Tok sensation E. Lockhart, perennial picture book favourite The Colour Monster, Peter Brown’s The Wild Robot, and award-winning new talent such as Nathanael Lessore. This year Bonnier’s UK Children’s trade division was shortlisted for Children’s Publisher of the Year at The British Book Awards and the Igloo Sales Team won Sales Professionals of the year at this year’s FutureBook conference.
