Widow mourns Chambers loss

Published on Saturday 19 September 2009 19:55

THE widow of the last family member to run one of Scotland's oldest publishing companies says her husband would have been devastated that Chambers Harrap is closing its Edinburgh office with the loss of 27 jobs.

Denise Chambers, whose husband Antony was the managing director of W & R Chambers, the firm behind the famous dictionary, for over 40 years, says she is glad her former husband is no longer alive to witness the company pulling out of Scotland.

"He would have been very upset that it was leaving Edinburgh," Chambers told Scotland on Sunday in an exclusive interview. "There won't be a great deal of the company left at all. I'm glad he wasn't here to hear about it."

Antony, whose great great grandfather Robert founded the company in Edinburgh in 1824, died in 2007 aged 89.

Hachette UK, the publisher which now owns the company, announced last Tuesday that it was closing its Edinburgh offices with all 27 jobs affected.

The firm blamed the rise of online dictionaries for the decline of the company and said the market for dictionaries and reference books had been on the wane for years.

Paul Holleran, the National Union of Journalists' Scottish Organiser said: "The NUJ is shocked at the way this company is going about dismantling a famous and successful Scottish publisher."