Paperbacks | | Meet the man behind Penguin Books! |
This week on Inside Out, best-selling author Lesley Pearse tells the amazing story of how paperback books were pioneered by a man from Bristol. Allen Lane lived for nine years in a house in the Cotham area of Bristol. He went to Bristol Grammar School, where a portrait of him hangs in the library. In the 1930s he worked in his family's publishing firm. In those days, most good books had hard covers and were bought mainly by the upper classes. But then Lane had a brilliant idea. He was on his way back to London after visiting his best friend Agatha Christie in Devon. He was waiting for a train at Exeter station, but he couldn't find a suitable book for the journey in the platform shop. Wouldn't it be great, he thought, if you could buy decent books in a paperback format, costing no more than a packet of fags. He created Penguin Books. The famous logo was inspired by one of his office juniors who was sent to London Zoo to sketch the penguins there. In the first twelve months Penguin sold three million books, bringing literature to the masses. The Penguin archives are held at Bristol University. Among the records are documents relating to the famous trial over the publication of DH Lawrence's 'Lady Chatterley's Lover' Modern day authors like Lesley Pearse owe an enormous debt of gratitude to Allen Lane. His pioneering work popularised reading, creating the medium for today's writers to enthrall readers up and down the country.
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