Bernard Baruch Babani (May 12, 1913 – 30 October 1975) was a
UK technical book
publisher
Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...
. His father Haim, a dealer in Oriental carpets, was born in Constantinople (now Istanbul), emigrating to England at the turn of twentieth century, marrying Rebecca Levy, also a native of Constantinople. Bernard was the eldest of their four children , all born in West London.
Publishing
Poor eyesight prevented Bernard from serving in the Second World War, instead becoming an inspector at
D. Napier & Son, a precision engineering company known for its luxury motor cars in the Edwardian era, but by the mid-twentieth century, the firm was focussed on the production of aero engines.
During the War, he started publishing technical books. His first publication 'Amalgated Engineering Reference Tables and Data Charts' appeared in 1942, due to a demand by other engineers for his conversion tables (at the time there were many incompatible systems of measurement in use besides feet and inches)
At the end of the Second World War he founded Bernard’s (Publishers) Ltd., issuing inexpensive, practical booklets for amateur radio and electronics enthusiasts. By August 1958, his publishing company, now renamed Babani Books, had 150 titles on its list.
It published many of Sir
Clive Sinclair
Sir Clive Marles Sinclair (30 July 1940 – 16 September 2021) was an English entrepreneur and inventor, best known for being a pioneer in the computing industry and also as the founder of several companies that developed consumer electronics ...
's books in late 1950s and into the early 1960s. He was an agent for the technical writer
F.G. Rayer.
Personal life
He married Sarah Bolotnikoff in 1937. Their son Michael Babani carried on running the publishing company from The Grampians, a 1930s apartment block in
Shepherd's Bush
Shepherd's Bush is a suburb of West London, England, within the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham west of Charing Cross, and identified as a major metropolitan centre in the London Plan.
Although primarily residential in character, its ...
, until January 2025 when it was dissolved.
Bernard Babani (Publishing) Limited filing history
Companies House
Bernard died in October 1975.
References
Further reading
* Adamson, Ian; Kennedy, Richard (1986). ''Sinclair and the "Sunrise" Technology''. London: Penguin Books. 224 pp. .
* Dale, Rodney (1985). ''The Sinclair Story''. London: Duckworth. 184 pp. .
External links
Babani Books
British book publishers (people)
Amateur radio people
1913 births
1975 deaths
{{publish-bio-stub