Penguin Books

Mr Lane decided that there was a need for cheap, good quality, contemporary fiction that could be sold anywhere and not just in the traditional bookshops.

The first Penguin paperback books went on sale in the summer of 1935 and they included works by Ernest Hemingway and Agatha Christie. In order to make the books even easier for the public to identify he colour coded them (orange for fiction, blue for biography, green for crime) and they only cost sixpence, which at the time was exactly the same as a packet of cigarettes.By 1937 Penguin had outgrown its premises in the crypt of Holy Trinity Church on Marylebone Road and moved out to a warehouse in Harmondsworth. They launched a new range of Penguin Shakespeare and created a book-dispensing machine, which was placed at Charing Cross station.

The war years saw Penguin publish some of the bestselling books of that time such as What Hitler Wants and the Aircraft Recognition book, used by the military and civilians to recognise enemy planes.

Building on their ever-increasing success Penguin launched two sister companies in 1940, for younger readers they created the Puffin books and for those who wanted something more famous they created Penguin Classics which was launched with a translation of The Odyssey. Today this series of books has over 1,200 titles allowing classic literature from all ages and from around the world to be available at low prices.

In 1960 Penguin came up against the full force of the Law when it was charged under the Obscene Publications Act because it published the, then, controversial Lady Chatterley’s Lover. However, Penguin’s determination to make all literature accessible to the Public made them fight back and challenge the law; they won their case and were acquitted. With the book now available to the Public 2 million copies were sold by Penguin in just six weeks.

Throughout the ‘80s the company continued to expand and be controversial by publishing Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses.

Today Penguin has offices in fifteen countries and has over 5,000 different titles and to celebrate the company’s 75th birthday this year they are publishing a range of books from the ‘50s, ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s with their original cover designs.