Reading. I love books on just about everything; cooking, history, biography, thrillers, literary fiction, kid's stories, fairy tales, reference, and the list goes on and on....
Books
In 1935, if you wanted to read a good book, you needed either a lot of money or a library card. Cheap paperbacks were available, but their poor production generally tended to mirror the quality between the covers.
Penguin paperbacks were the brainchild of Allen Lane, then a director of The Bodley Head. After a weekend visiting Agatha Christie in Devon, he found himself on a platform at Exeter station searching its bookstall for something to read on his journey back to London, but discovered only popular magazines and reprints of Victorian novels.
Appalled by the selection on offer, Lane decided that good quality contemporary fiction should be made available at an attractive price and sold not just in traditional bookshops, but also in railway stations, tobacconists and chain stores.
He also wanted a 'dignified but flippant' symbol for his new business. His secretary suggested a Penguin and another employee was sent to London Zoo to make some sketches. Seventy years later Penguin is still one of the most recognizable brands in the world.
The first Penguin paperbacks appeared in the summer of 1935 and included works by Ernest Hemingway, André Maurois and Agatha Christie. They were colour coded (orange for fiction, blue for biography, green for crime) and cost just sixpence, the same price as a packet of cigarettes. The way the public thought about books changed forever - the paperback revolution had begun.
Heroes
Every author under the sun, from Ali Smith to Zadie Smith, from Dick King-Smith to Charles Dickens, from Oliver Goldsmith to Jamie Oliver and above all the late, great Allen Lane.
Hello Penguin, Thanks for the add. Please pass on my regards to Tom Weldon. He rode in my cab once. Nice bloke. All the best, Michael Dennis 'The Black Cab Poet'
I haven't been by in a while and thought I'd stop in and say hi. It's Monday again. I'm back to work on a new book.
A Demon Awaits will be out on October 14th. I'm excited for the release and waiting for news about the screenplay. If nothing else, the new book will keep my mind off the waiting.
I see your birthday is coming up. Hope it's a great one!
I'm sure you're going to be at the BookExpo America this month. I'll be in the Authors Row (booth 5741) signing my bestselling YA novel, Paraworld Zero. It just became a finalist for the Next Generation Indie Book Awards. Yahoo! Come to my booth and say hi.
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