Penguin and the Lane Brothers: The Untold Story of a Publishing Revolution (Stuart Kells, Black Inc.)

The many previous histories of the foundation of Penguin have concentrated on Allen Lane and have largely overlooked the important roles played by his younger brothers John and Richard. Penguin was from the outset a shared project of the three brothers, who previously jointly ran The Bodley Head. While he was a brilliant publisher, Allen was a mercurial and eccentric business leader. Richard and John were the steady, efficient ones who between them oversaw the building of Penguin’s unique publishing model in the 1930s and into the early years of WWII. Following John’s death in WWII, Allen’s behaviour became even more autocratic and unpredictable. Richard was sent to Australia (where he’d spent some unhappy years in his youth as a penniless immigrant farm worker) to take over the Antipodean operation. He made a great success of it, but was forced out of the business he had co-founded as Allen manoeuvered to float Penguin on the stock market in the early 1960s. Author Stuart Kells is an antiquarian bookseller, and also an economic advisor to governments and businesses. The book is written in a conversational style, wearing the enormous amount of Kells’ research lightly. It will be essential reading for all those fascinated by ‘books about books’ and about the foundation stories of great businesses.

Tim Coronel is a freelance editor and publishing consultant, and a former publisher and editor of Books+Publishing