My A-Z will feature first letter of a literary-minded person's name: or not, as may be the case with Z.
First off nostalgic image of 1930’s English steam train: bear with me, it has purpose!
Allen Lane, director of Bodley Head (publisher) - after a weekend visit to Agatha Christie - found himself on the platform at Exeter railway station (Devon) . He fancied something to read on his journey home and searched a nearby bookstand. Stunned by the crap selection of crude paperback magazine type novels on offer, Lane decided good quality contemporary fiction at an attractive price was in short supply. So, he decided to set up a new cheap paperback line.
The first "Penguin" paperbacks appeared in the summer of 1935, with unique Penguin logo and eye-catching covers. Ernest Hemingway, André Maurois and Agatha Christie led the Penguin flock. All books were colour coded per genre, their cost just sixpence. The paperback revolution had begun and Penguin soon became a separate company: in 1936 its HQ located in the oddest of places, the Crypt of Holy Trinity Church on Marylebone Road.
A "must see" new species of penguin!
To check new blogs folow the A-Z apple in side bar.
