The Man Who Changed the Way We Read: The Story of Allen Lane and Penguin Books

(Paperback)

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Description

To celebrate our 90th birthday, a reissue of the biography of a phenomenal individual and the story of Penguin Books. 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 millions of people 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 Allen 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.

Reviews

An invaluable and fascinating account of this country's intellectual and political development -- Nick Hornby * Time Out *
Both hugely enjoyable to read and surprisingly riveting * Independent on Sunday *
Lewis's rakish and racy biography ... tells the story not just of a man, or even a firm, but of a cultural makeover that shaped the world as we know it * Daily Telegraph *
Lewis's book is outstanding * London Review of Books *

Author Bio

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.