Book description
By founding Penguin books and popularizing the paperback, Allen Lane
not only changed publishing in Britain, he was also at the forefront
of a social and cultural revolution that saw the masses given access
to what had previously been the preserve of a wealthy few.
In Penguin Special Jeremy Lewis brings this extraordinary era
brilliantly to life, recounting how Lane came to launch his Penguins
for the price of a packet of cigarettes; how they became enormously
influential in alerting the public to the threat of Nazi Germany; and
how Penguin itself gradually became a national institution, like the
BBC and the NHS, whilst at the same time challenging the status quo
through the famous Lady Chatterley case. Above all, it is the story of
how one often fallible, complex man used his vision to change the
world.
'Lewis's book is a triumph ... a rich and humorous history of 20th
century reading habits, Penguin Special will not be surpassed' MAIL ON
SUNDAY
'A word of warning: the enjoyable swiftness of Jeremy Lewis's prose
can seduce the reader into going too fast, but savour this book
slowly, don't gobble it up. It is so richly stuffed with facts,
people, perceptions and atmosphere that you may get indigestion if you
do not allow it the time it deserves' Diana Athill, LITERARY REVIEW
Jeremy Lewis worked as a publisher for ten years, and was deputy
editor of the London Magazine from 1990 to 1994. He has previously
written two volumes of autobiography, Playing for Time and Kindred
Spirits, and a biography of Cyril Connolly.
