Christopher Davis, a founding member of Dorling Kindersley, has died at the age of 71.
Davis spent more than 40 years in publishing, the majority of them with DK, which he joined at its founding in 1974. He progressed at the company from managing editor to editorial director to publisher to group chairman, as the company grew from a small start-up into an internationally recognized publisher of innovate illustrated reference guides for adults and children. 

When Pearson acquired DK in 2000, Davis was retained as publisher until his 2005 retirement. In 2009 Davis wrote a history of the company called Eyewitness: The Rise and Fall of Dorling Kindersley: The Inside Story of a Publishing Phenomenon.