My friend Paul Westlake, who has died of cancer aged 65, was a pillar of the radical publishing world from the mid-1970s onwards. He was an advocate of workers' co-operatives and gained much experience in ensuring that the output of independent publishers reached the bookshops.
In autumn 1976, after months of planning, we became co-founders, with three others, of a distributor for small radical and feminist publishers, including periodicals. Paul, who had a few years' experience in managing a bookshop, took on the key role of handling the finances, which was a big challenge, particularly for someone without an accounting background.
At the beginning, Paul organised the building of an office and warehouse in Clerkenwell Workshops, central London, putting up the internal walls block by block. The Workshops were also home to the magazines Spare Rib and Undercurrents.
In 1979 Paul co-founded Zed Books, where he met his partner, Anne. He took on a role in finance and rights administration and in 1983 persuaded the company and its owners to convert to a workers' co-operative. He supported the Industrial Common Ownership Movement for nearly a decade. Always ready to help out in the running of the organisation, he personally introduced the staff to spreadsheets. He also played a leading role in Hackney Co-operative Developments and chaired its trust, which today has a solid property base in Dalston.
Paul spent more than 20 years fostering southern African publishing. He founded the company that promotes the Zimbabwe International Book Fair, which in its heyday attracted wide interest and provided writers and publishers with a bigger canvas.
Brought up in Plymouth, Devon, Paul was the eldest son of a Polish father, Wacek, who came to Britain at the outbreak of the second world war, and an English mother, Paula. He was educated at St Boniface's college and went on to Essex University, but dropped out after two years. He will be remembered as engaging company, a committed co-operator and someone you would like to have on your team.
Paul is survived by Anne and his brothers, Chris and Tim.