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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Penguin
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The most influential imprint in British publishing history. It was founded in 1935 by Allen Lane (1902–70), with an initial list of ten paperbacks selling at sixpence each. The innovation was not that they were paperbacks or cheap, but that cheap paperbacks were of literary quality – the ten included work by André Maurois, Ernest Hemingway, Eric Linklater, Dorothy Sayers, Agatha Christie and Compton Mackenzie.
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Finding initial resistance from bookshops, Lane made many of his early sales through Woolworths. Puffin, an equally successful children's imprint, was introduced in 1941 with Worzel Gummidge as the first title. All quality paperbacks in Britain were from the Penguin stable until the emergence of rival firms in the 1960s. Penguin itself had started that decade with a bold decision and a massive commercial success, in the publication of *Lady Chatterley's Lover.
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