Graham Angus Watson

Background

Graham Angus Watson was born on June 8, 1913, in Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom. Born into a wealthy family in Newcastle, Watson met writers like G. K. Chesterton at public forums organized by his grandfather, Angus Watson, an entrepreneur, and politician.

Education

After preparatory school at Windermere, Graham Watson went on to Repton, disliking both. He earned a Bachelor's degree from Cambridge University in 1934.

Career

After Cambridge University and a year-long apprenticeship at a printing shop, in 1935 Graham Watson joined the publishing firm of Nicholson & Watson, which his grandfather had created to give superior employment to the male line. The firm produced popular religious works and political memoirs and taught Watson a lot about how to make a shrewd choice of books. After the outbreak of World War II in 1939, Watson joined the Royal Horse Artillery, which posted him to North Africa. He first tasted action in an ammunition lorry during Operation Battleaxe, while being divebombed. But in the course of being commissioned in Jerusalem, where he earned the nickname "Woolly Watson" by buying a sheepskin coat, he found his medical category downgraded because of poor eyesight. At the D-Day invasion, he was charged with establishing an ammunition dump near Arromanches. He was demobilized in 1946.

Graham Watson then joined the Spectator, of which his grandfather had become the majority shareholder. Watson had written his first article for the Spectator in 1937, and several more followed from various fronts during the war, under such pseudonyms as "Captain MEF" or "Captain BLA." But writing paragraphs of comment on the week's news made him feel he was only there because he was someone's grandson. He put what amounted to an SOS in the Times personal column - and, in 1947, was offered a job by Curtis Brown, where he was director from 1947 to 1967 and managing director from 1967 until he retired in 1976. Watson became an integral part of the agency, and he worked with such famous authors as C. P. Snow, Antonia Fraser, Malcolm Bradbury, Wilfred Thesiger, and Daphne du Maurier.

One of his greatest successes was in the 1950s when he persuaded the explorer Wilfred Thesiger to write about his adventures. Told by a wildlife writer that Thesiger had taken excellent photographs of the desert known as the Empty Quarter of Arabia, Watson visited Thesiger and spent three hours talking him into writing a text for them. Watson became a friend, as well as an agent, to many authors. He was unfailingly courteous to creative people but could be withering to hucksters. At his peak, he would see 120 publishing people in New York during a single month's visit. He wrote about his publishing-house experiences in his autobiography, Book Society (1979), and was also the author of A Guide to the Fishing Inns of Scotland (1977).

Achievements

• For more than 30 years, Graham Watson worked at Curtis Brown, then considered the best London literary agency, and represented more than 40 authors. He also had two books published.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Book Society

    (In this book, a leading British literary agent recalls fr...)

    1979
  • A Guide to the Fishing Inns of Scotland 1977

Views

Quotations: Graham Watson said of the whole circus of agents, publishers, and editors: "Their only job is to make sure that this man with talent on the one side connects with the reader on the other side. If that isn't what it's about, you might as well go and sell shares for a living."

Personality

Graham Watson had a genial manner and a strong interest in his authors' work, which went with a willingness to criticize, gently, any aspects he disliked.

Quotes from others about the person

• Paul Ferris, a writer: "At the time in 1958 when Graham sold my first novel for £100 to Hutchinson, it was still possible to see publishing as an occupation for gentlemen. But not if you were Graham. His own brief career at Nicholson & Watson left him in no doubt that there were sharks in the water. He was always a bit more ruthless than his manner suggested. His comic anecdotes about publishers and editors told you indirectly how close he was to them. When it came to negotiating, he was shrewd and cunning, qualities authors like to have on their side."
  
  Mike Shaw, a writer: "Graham Watson was a man of few words, strong views and extraordinary integrity. You realized quickly whether he liked you, not that he would ever say so. He was hard to get to know, but eventually, he failed to conceal his warmth and generosity from his friends."

Connections

Graham Watson first met his wife Dorothy Vasey when she walked into his wartime mess as the driver for a visiting general. They married in 1946 and lived in a characteristically tasteful home at Lamb House, Rye, East Sussex, which had once belonged to Henry James. They had two daughters: Sophie and Julia.

Wife:

Dorothy Vasey

Daughter:

Sophie Watson

Daughter:

Julia Watson

Grandfather:

Angus Watson

Brother:

Bernard Watson