Educated at Eton and Magdalen College, Oxford,[1] where he edited the student magazine Isis, Hely Hutchinson was employed by Macmillan Publishers in Britain and Australia, before working for Robert Maxwell as managing director of Macdonald Futura in 1982.

His policies of industry-leading service to authors and involvement for every member of staff were successful and the company regularly published around one in four of all British bestsellers.

Hachette UK's author list included Martina Cole, Cressida Cowell, Ian Rankin, Val McDermid, Stephen King and J. K. Rowling.

[3] Hely Hutchinson was appointed a Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur in 2018 (investiture 2019) for the promotion of international literature and Anglo-French relations.

[4] He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2019 Birthday Honours for services to publishing and literature.