My father, Peter Ford, who has died aged 89, was a distinguished author and literary editor. He had a particular gift for inspiring the trust and respect of his collaborators through his ability to craft stories authentically.

In shaping the memoirs of the formidable campaigner for social justice May Hobbs (Born to Struggle, 1973) or the republican MP Willie Hamilton (My Queen and I, 1975), or the first English language translation of Hanan al-Shaykh’s landmark novel The Story of Zahra (1986) he revealed a gift for preserving the author’s voice with great sensitivity to background, subject and context.

It is probably, however, The True History of The Elephant Man (1980), co-written with Dr Michael Howell, for which Peter will be best remembered. The first thoroughly researched biography of Joseph Merrick marked the perfect confluence of Peter’s fascination with social history and its relationship with popular culture, and was published, fortuitously, in the same year that the well-received film starring John Hurt came out. The Howell/Ford writing partnership continued with Medical Mysteries (1985), 13 stories of detective work in the medical field.

The son of Fletcher Ford, a salesman, and his wife, Muriel (nee Mayo-Smith), Peter was born in Harpenden, Hertfordshire, and educated at St George’s school. In 1955-56 he completed his national service in Malaya with 35 Field Battery, 25 Field Regiment RA.

As for many young men of his generation, his relationship with military experience was complex, but it yielded firm friendships and was an increasingly important influence as he looked back on it in later life. It also provided him with useful insight when he was moulding the posthumously published memoir of the Battle of Britain fighter pilot Brian Kingcome (A Willingness to Die, 1999).

Peter’s love of books and relentless curiosity made a life in publishing all but inevitable. Starting with Cassell in 1958, he quickly built a reputation for his astute editorial eye. After periods at Penguin and Nelson, he embarked on a long freelance career in 1970.

In 1971, he began a fruitful association with Quartet Books. Notable collaborations included Max Wall’s autobiography The Fool on the Hill (1975), Topolski’s Buckingham Palace Panoramas (1977) and Rings and Curtains (1992), the memoirs of the circus and pantomime performer Jack Le White. Wall thanked him for “putting my rambling into proper shape” and became a regular visitor to our family home – his chain-smoking more than compensated for by thrilling sitting-room performances of his totemic character Professor Wallofski.

In 1960, Peter married Laura Geeve. At first they lived in London, eventually moving to Essex as the family grew with the births of three children, Julian, Isabel and me, and then to Suffolk. After their separation and eventual divorce, Peter continued to live in Suffolk until the late 1990s, when he moved to Orkney with his long-term partner, Chloe Jowett, whom he married in 2008, and with whom he divided his time between Hoy and Kirkwall.

He is survived by Chloe, his children, and Chloe’s children, Matthew and Jo, and by his brother, David.