About Us

Nick Hern Books (NHB) is the UK’s leading specialist performing arts publisher and performing rights agents with over 2,000 plays and theatre books in our catalogue.

What we do

We’re home to many of the most exciting and renowned playwrights working today – including Annie Baker, Mike Bartlett, Howard Brenton, Chris Bush, Jez Butterworth, Caryl Churchill, David Edgar, Helen Edmundson, James Fritz, debbie tucker green, Robert Icke, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Ayub Khan Din, Arinzé Kene, Lucy Kirkwood, Tony Kushner, Lynn Nottage, Conor McPherson, Rona Munro, Suzan-Lori Parks, Winsome Pinnock, Jack Thorne, Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Enda Walsh – as well as numerous exciting, emerging voices.

We work with theatres and production companies across the UK and in Ireland to publish plays alongside their professional runs, often in the form of a ‘programme/text’ that combines the functions of theatre programme and playtext. We’re also the proud Publishing Partner of some of the UK’s leading playwriting prizes, such as the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting, the Theatre Uncut Political Playwriting Award, and the Papatango New Writing Prize.

In addition to plays, we also publish expert training and advice books on topics such as acting, writing, directing and producing, as well as extensive drama education resources for teachers, workshop facilitators, youth-theatre leaders and others. Our list features books by illustrious, award-winning and highly respected practitioners such as Mike Alfreds, Peter Brook, Simon Callow, Richard Eyre, Julie Hesmondhalgh, Andy Nyman, Giles Terera, Antony Sher and Harriet Walter, plus a host of other leading industry professionals and teachers at some of the world's greatest drama-training institutions.

Our list includes multiple winners of theatre’s highest accolades including Olivier Awards, Tony Awards, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. NHB-published plays are also taught as set texts for GCSE, A level and various other accredited qualifications. Our publications have been recognised with industry awards including the Theatre Book Prize, Sheridan Morley Prize for Theatre Biography, and Music and Drama Education Awards.

As performing rights agents, we license almost all of our plays – plus some from other publishers – for amateur performance by community groups, schools, youth theatres, colleges, student groups and others around the world. See our Plays to Perform site for more information.

Our titles are distributed internationally through our publishing associates Theatre Communications Group in the USA, Currency Press in Australia and Playwrights Canada Press in Canada, with NHB importing and distributing our associates’ titles in the UK and Ireland.

Our history

Nick Hern Books came into being in June 1988 when Nick Hern, formerly drama editor at Methuen, set up his own imprint at Walker Books. The list later moved to Random House in 1990.

NHB became a fully independent company in 1993 when Nick Hern acquired the list from Random House, winning the Sunday Times 'Small Publisher of the Year Award' the following year. After a period being run out of Nick’s back bedroom, in 1998 NHB moved to dedicated premises in Shepherd’s Bush, West London, where we’re still based to this day.

In 2013, Nick was succeeded as Managing Director by Matt Applewhite, who first joined the company as an assistant ten years earlier. NHB was shortlisted for Specialist Consumer Publisher of the Year at the 2019 and 2023 Independent Publishing Awards.

Today, NHB is a team of fifteen, dedicated to our mission of publishing and sharing fantastic plays by the very best English-language playwrights, amplifying underrepresented voices and perspectives, and empowering and supporting creatives in their own work and career.

Click here to view an illustrated timeline of the first twenty-five years of NHB’s history, created for our 25th anniversary in 2013.

Our team

 

Registered Office Address: The Glasshouse, 49a Goldhawk Road, London, W12 8QP
Company Number: 02767507