His parents were Richard Hamburger, a paediatrician at the Charité Hospital in Berlin, and his wife, Lili, a Quaker of Polish descent.

Upon their arrival, the family lived in St. John's Wood and the young Hamburger was educated at the St Christopher School in Letchworth, Hertfordshire.

[4] He published a number of book series including the Hamlyn All-Colour Paperbacks,[7][8][9] The Portraits of Greatness[10] and The Colour Library of Art.

[12] He was appointed a CBE in the 1993 Birthday Honours[13] and made a British Life Peer on 23 February 1998, taking the title Baron Hamlyn, of Edgeworth in the County of Gloucestershire.

[14] He established the Paul Hamlyn Foundation in 1987 as a focus for his charitable interests, and it is now one of the UK's largest independent grant-giving organisations.