Thorsons
Thorsons is a British self-help, health and mind, body and spirit publisher founded in 1930 by Leonard Woodford and now a list within HarperCollins.
- Editions tracked
- 28
- First editions
- 10
- Books
- 26
- Years
- 1956 to 2020
About Thorsons
Thorsons is a British publisher of self-help, health and mind, body and spirit books, founded in 1930 by Leonard Woodford with Oliver Newman, and today a list within HarperCollins.
Origins. The company behind the imprint was incorporated on 2 June 1930 as Thorsons Publishers Limited and took the name Thorsons Publishing Group Limited in December 1983. Woodford and Newman planned accessible, instructional books on psychology, self-improvement and unconventional medicine.
Ownership. In 1989 News Corporation bought Thorsons Publishing Group together with William Collins, and Thorsons became part of HarperCollins. For a time the list traded as ThorsonsElement, with a US office in Boston; HarperCollins closed that office at the end of March 2005 and dropped the separate US Thorsons list so that it could concentrate on British authors. In 2014, marking 85 years of publishing, HarperCollins announced a new Thorsons identity, and the relaunched imprint appeared in January 2015.
Notable books. Titles on the list include John Gray's Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus, Steve Biddulph's Raising Boys, Ken Blanchard's The One Minute Manager, Ian Gawler's You Can Conquer Cancer and Jason Vale's Juice Master books. By 2020 Thorsons sat in the HarperNonFiction division, and in 2024 Jane Sturrock was appointed its Thorsons and Lifestyle publisher.
We have not yet written the guide to Thorsons's first-edition conventions. Until we do, check each book's own page: we list its points where we know them. Know how Thorsons marked its firsts? Tell us.
AuthorsMaggie Tisserand (3)Barbara De Angelis (2)Graham Bell (1)Kim Cattrall (1)Paulo Coelho (1)Susan Curtis (1)Laura Day (1)Wayne Dyer (1)Sasha Fenton (1)Piero Ferrucci (1)
Published by Thorsons
Frequently asked questions
How many Thorsons books does MyVolumes track?
We track 28 editions published by Thorsons, 10 of them first editions, across 26 books.
Where these facts come from
- Thorsons celebrates history and new era, BookBrunch, 2014 (bookbrunch.co.uk)
- Thorsons Publishing Group Limited overview, Companies House (find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk)
- HarperCollins Marks Its 200th Anniversary, Publishers Weekly, 2017 (publishersweekly.com)
- ThorsonsElement U.S. to Close, Publishers Weekly, 2005 (publishersweekly.com)
- HarperNonFiction's Shipster promoted to publishing director, The Bookseller, 2020 (thebookseller.com)
- Jane Sturrock appointed Thorsons and Lifestyle publisher at HarperNonFiction, The Bookseller, 2024 (thebookseller.com)
Every fact on this page was checked against the sources listed. Checked 19 October 2026. Reviewed by Harriet Ellis; read how we check facts.