James & James (Publishers) Limited was founded in 1982 to publish books on business, industry, institutions and the environment. Since then the company has become the leading publisher of company and school histories. The company history list includes such international names as BP, Jones Lang Wootton, Whitbread, John Laing, Cheltenham & Gloucester Building Society, Austin Reed, Northern Rock, Norwich Union, Christian Salvesen, Scottish & Newcastle, Tarmac, Woolwich Building Society and many others.

The school history list currently comprises 32 histories of schools, colleges and universities.

Other publications include histories of The Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Westminster Hall, The Royal College of Physicians and two city livery companies.

An associate company, James & James Science Publishers, publishes books and journals on science and the environment.

Hamish MacGibbon is managing director and majority shareholder of James & James. He joined the publishers Heinemann on graduating from Cambridge University with a degree in history in 1959. He became managing director of Heinemann Educational Books, the largest educational publishers in Britain, in 1979 and was a member of the Heinemann Group board. He was Chairman of the Educational Publishers Council and a member of the Publishers Association's executive board. He joined James & James in 1986.

James & James is a member of the Independent Publishers Guild.