In Depth
Mark's 'woo-woo' moment
26.07.07 Katherine Rushton
It’s hard to feel uncomfortable with hot chocolate and cream cakes, holed up in Soho institution Maison Bertaux, but somehow Mark Booth manages it. “This is a big step for me because I have a horror of appearing in the trade press,” says the Century publishing director, looking as though he might just bolt.
But this time he has his own book to promote: The Secret History (6th September, £25). It was Booth’s secret writing project for a year before he sent it—under the name Jonathan Black—to his former boss Anthony Cheetham at Quercus. Cheetham immediately made a pre-emptive bid, and shortly afterwards hired another of Booth’s colleagues, one-time Hutchinson publishing director Sue Freestone, who became the book’s editor.
It’s a happy publishing tale, certainly, but Booth’s project is more unsettling: a radical retelling of global history, based on the premise that the beliefs at the heart of Freemasonry, Rosicrucianism, Sufism, Kabbalah and other esoteric cults are in fact all true. “There are lots of books about secret societies, but people very rarely listen to what they are saying,” says Booth. “At the highest levels, all these philosophies are saying very similar if not the same thing—from the first emanation from the cosmic mind to when the last speck of matter will be spiritualised away. By the end, I hope it is possible to see the human existence in almost the opposite way you were brought up to see it.”
Much of his research was conducted through “an initiate of several secret societies, and in one case at the very highest level”, who helped Booth to understand alchemical and other secret texts. He bats away the suggestion that this “friend” is a cover for himself, but the book is clearly underpinned by a strong respect for esoteric thought.
“I believe that there is a parallel dimension in which this is all true, which sometimes intersects with this everyday dimension and nudges it in one way or another,” Booth says carefully. “Every highly intelligent person asks him or herself, at some time in their life, questions about the meaning of life and whether the universe has meaning. Esoteric philosophy is the richest and deepest philosophy on those subjects.” Cheetham puts it more bluntly. “[Booth] has got a specialist interest in woo-woo.”
Spinning around
“Woo-woo” first took a firm hold of Booth in Oxford, where he studied philosophy and theology under Julian Barnes’ brother Jonathan, and recalls “sitting by the river bank after tutorials, my head spinning”. It also characterised his first step into publishing, when he launched Waterstone’s own-brand list with a collection of out-of-copyright religious texts, bound together as The Bible Part Three.
Booth had been working as a bookseller in the chain’s first branch when Tim Waterstone invited him to devise a new imprint. “It was a tremendous lucky break,” he recalls. “I went from no experience at all in publishing to running my own list. One of the things that makes Tim Waterstone great is that he gives you the feeling that you can do anything.”
It was a worthwhile punt: Waterstone’s Publishing was sold and sucked into another publisher’s list, but Booth has gone on to produce two or three top 10 bestsellers each year for the past 17. He also helped to invent two new publishing genres with SAS thrillers (by Chris Ryan) and “chav-lit” by the inimitable Katie Price. “He has an uncanny nose for unlikely bestsellers,” says Cheetham.
Booth puts his record down to not having “a narrow metropolitan focus” and being a good listener to other people’s ideas. The graffiti artist Banksy and motorcycle champion Valentino Rossi were both unknown names to him before he was tipped off, and his first-ever bestseller was a book by Marti Caine, a comedian rated highly by his dad.
Such transparent commercialism sits strangely with Booth’s love for esoteric philosophy, but the tight-knit Century unit feels something like an esoteric society within Random House itself. “It has a very unique character,” Booth says proudly.
“It’s very unofficious, slightly subversive and not very corporate. I work with smart, attractive, intelligent, funny people.” Certainly it’s interesting enough to mean that he never wants to become a full-time author. “I really enjoy the soap opera aspects of working in a big company. I don’t think I’d ever want to give that up.”
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