Kate Gavron

Lady Gavron (Kate) has been the Chair of the Carcanet Board since 1989. Her husband, the late Lord Gavron (Bob) acquired the company in 1983 shortly after his purchase of the Folio society in 1982. His purchase of Carcanet came from a love of books and an admiration of Michael Schmidt whom he met whilst a member of the literature panel of the Arts Council at the time.  Kate Gavron worked in publishing from the age of 19 for Heinemann and Secker and Warburg where she became production director. After fifteen years in publishing, she left to study for a degree in Social Anthropology going on to receive a PhD from the London School of Economics in 1997.

Her research interests include issues of race, community and conflict in East London with a particular interest in the Bangladeshi community in Tower Hamlets. She co-authored The New East End with Geoff Dench and Michael Young published by Profile Books (2006). She has also worked as trustee for various organisations including BalletBoyz, the Runnymede Trust, Reprieve and the Young Foundation. She was co-author of Young at 80: the prolific public life of Michael Young with Geoff Dench and Tony Flower (Carcanet Press, 2005). Kate Gavron also chairs Folio Holdings Ltd and the Folio Society Ltd and, in the past, has been on the boards of Granta Publications and Virago Press.