DAVID SALARIYA

Welcome to my website

I’m an artist, creator, designer, writer, and publisher of children's books, focused on promoting lifelong literacy. I’ve worked in publishing since 1978, combining factual content, engaging design, and humour to make complex subjects accessible and entertaining for young readers. I also write under the names David Stewart and Max Marlborough.

The best known series I created and designed are the Spectacular Visual Guides, the You Wouldn't Want To be... series, A Very Peculiar History and fifty or more series.

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The Salariya Book Company

In 1989, I founded The Salariya Book Company and established the imprints: Book House, Scribblers, and Scribo, which published a wide range of titles, including non-fiction, picture books, and young adult fiction.I am the creator, designer, and conceptual originator of books published by The Salariya Book Company 1989 -2022. Over the years, I’ve built up a backlist of more than 1,100 titles, many of which have been translated into over 35 languages and published worldwide.

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Along the way, my work in children's publishing has been recognised with a few awards, including the IPG Children's Publisher of the Year. My books have won many prizes over the years including the Times Educational Supplement award three times. I founded the Salariya Stratford Picture Book Prize to help discover and support new talent in publishing.

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You'll find everything you might want to know about the books I've created, designed, and written . Many of the books were published by The Salariya Book Co imprints in the UK, and internationally published by: Scholastic Inc, National Geographic, Random House, Simon & Schuster and Franklin Watts.

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Makers of books

Click on the links to find my journal where I post articles on publishing, design, history and the occasional interview with the 'makers of books'. As we know, it takes more than a writer and illustrator to make a book — a small creative army supports this process. I'm keen to share background information about these 'book-makers'. 

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Portfolios: Works in paint,

words & metal

You can take a look inside my portfolio of illustration work and the book series I have illustrated or created and designed. See how I develop the spark of an idea into a published book. As well as working with 'words' I draw, paint, and work in metal. I did some silversmithing at art school as a craft subject and continued this. We might head off page too - to take a look at my 'life beyond the book'.

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I closed the doors of The Salariya Book Company in 2022. In a publishing industry dominated by publishing conglomerates, I could no longer hope to compete alone. Sadly, independent publishing has its limitations.

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