Puffin Books
Encyclopedia
Puffin Books is the children's imprint of British publishers Penguin Books
. Since the 1960s it has been the largest publisher of children's books in the UK and much of the English-speaking world.
had been founded by Allen Lane
, the idea for Puffin Books was born in 1939 when Noel Carrington
, at the time an editor for Country Life
books, met him and proposed a series of children's non-fiction picture books, inspired by the brightly coloured lithographed books mass-produced at the time for Soviet children. Lane saw the potential, and the first of the picture book series were published the following year. The name 'puffin' was a natural companion to the existing "penguin" and "pelican" books. Many continued to be reprinted right into the 1970s. A fiction list soon followed, when Puffin secured the paperback rights to Barbara Euphan Todd
's Worzel Gummidge
, published in hardback in 1936, and brought it out as the first Puffin story book in 1941.
The first Puffin Editor, Eleanor Graham, saw the brand through the 1940s and the struggles with paper rationing, and in the 1950s Puffin made its mark in fantasy with tales such as The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
by C. S. Lewis
and Charlotte's Web
by E. B. White
. Some other notable titles whose paperback rights were acquired by Puffin included The Family from One End Street
by Eve Garnett
, the first children’s fiction title to depict a working-class home, which Puffin published in 1942, the Professor Branestawm
books by Norman Hunter
(1946), Ballet Shoes
by Noel Streatfeild
(1949), Carbonel: The King of the Cats
by Barbara Sleigh
(1955), and The Silver Sword by Ian Serraillier
(1960). Many different genres featured in the list, e.g. The Puffin Song Book (PS 100), 1956.
became Puffin's second Editor, as a boom began in children's publishing, and in a decade the Puffin list grew from 151 titles when she took over to 1,213 in print by 1969. Puffin obtained the paperback rights to many of the best writers of the time, including Philippa Pearce
, Rosemary Sutcliff
, William Mayne
and Alan Garner
, all-time classics including Mary Poppins
, Dr Dolittle and The Hobbit
, and originals such as Stig of the Dump
by Clive King
. The books were promoted with flair through the Puffin Club, started by Kaye Webb in 1967 with the promise to Allen Lane that "It will make children into book readers". Though by 1987 it had become uneconomical and evolved into the schools-only Puffin Book Club, at its height the club had 200,000 subscribers and held regular Puffin Exhibitions, and its magazine Puffin Post appeared quarterly for many years, resuming publication in January 2009. Webb continued as Editor until 1979, and the 1970s saw Puffin further advance its position with hits such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
by Roald Dahl
and Watership Down
by Richard Adams
.
's The Very Hungry Caterpillar
and Janet and Allan Ahlberg
's Each Peach Pear Plum became and have remained firm children's favourites, as have Eric Hill
's Spot the Dog
and Jan Pienkowski
's Meg and Mog
books from the 1980s.
and Ian Livingstone
introduced the concept of adventure gamebook
s to Puffin which grew into the Fighting Fantasy
phenomenon. The 1980s also saw the launch of the Puffin Plus line of young-adult fiction, a market formerly catered for by the Penguin imprint Peacock Books. In 2010, the young adult line was relaunched as Razorbill.
The 1990s continued to see new writers join Puffin and in the twenty-first century the brand still shows heroes and heroines familiar with children such as Artemis Fowl
, Percy Jackson, Max Gordon
, Mildred Hubble and Scarlett
, while stars such as Kylie Minogue
and Madonna
have written for Puffin.
Penguin Books
Penguin Books is a publisher founded in 1935 by Sir Allen Lane and V.K. Krishna Menon. Penguin revolutionised publishing in the 1930s through its high quality, inexpensive paperbacks, sold through Woolworths and other high street stores for sixpence. Penguin's success demonstrated that large...
. Since the 1960s it has been the largest publisher of children's books in the UK and much of the English-speaking world.
Early history
Four years after Penguin BooksPenguin Books
Penguin Books is a publisher founded in 1935 by Sir Allen Lane and V.K. Krishna Menon. Penguin revolutionised publishing in the 1930s through its high quality, inexpensive paperbacks, sold through Woolworths and other high street stores for sixpence. Penguin's success demonstrated that large...
had been founded by Allen Lane
Allen Lane
Sir Allen Lane was a British publisher who founded Penguin Books, bringing high quality paperback fiction and non-fiction to the mass market.-Early life and family:...
, the idea for Puffin Books was born in 1939 when Noel Carrington
Noel Carrington
Noel Carrington was an English book designer, editor and publisher. He was the originator of Puffin Books. His sister was the artist Dora Carrington. He was the author of books on design and on recreation and also worked for Oxford University Press and Penguin Books...
, at the time an editor for Country Life
Country Life (magazine)
Country Life is a British weekly magazine, based in London at 110 Southwark Street, and owned by IPC Media, a Time Warner subsidiary.- Topics :The magazine covers the pleasures and joys of rural life, as well as the concerns of rural people...
books, met him and proposed a series of children's non-fiction picture books, inspired by the brightly coloured lithographed books mass-produced at the time for Soviet children. Lane saw the potential, and the first of the picture book series were published the following year. The name 'puffin' was a natural companion to the existing "penguin" and "pelican" books. Many continued to be reprinted right into the 1970s. A fiction list soon followed, when Puffin secured the paperback rights to Barbara Euphan Todd
Barbara Euphan Todd
Barbara Euphan Todd was a British writer, most notable for her children's books about the scarecrow Worzel Gummidge....
's Worzel Gummidge
Worzel Gummidge
Worzel Gummidge is a British children's fictional character who originally appeared in a series of books by the novelist Barbara Euphan Todd. A walking, talking scarecrow, Gummidge has a set of interchangeable turnip, mangel worzel and swede heads, each of which suit a particular occasion or endow...
, published in hardback in 1936, and brought it out as the first Puffin story book in 1941.
The first Puffin Editor, Eleanor Graham, saw the brand through the 1940s and the struggles with paper rationing, and in the 1950s Puffin made its mark in fantasy with tales such as The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is a fantasy novel for children by C. S. Lewis. Published in 1950 and set circa 1940, it is the first-published book of The Chronicles of Narnia and is the best known book of the series. Although it was written and published first, it is second in the series'...
by C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis
Clive Staples Lewis , commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis and known to his friends and family as "Jack", was a novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist from Belfast, Ireland...
and Charlotte's Web
Charlotte's Web
Charlotte's Web is an award-winning children's novel by acclaimed American author E. B. White, about a pig named Wilbur who is saved from being slaughtered by an intelligent spider named Charlotte. The book was first published in 1952, with illustrations by Garth Williams.The novel tells the story...
by E. B. White
E. B. White
Elwyn Brooks White , usually known as E. B. White, was an American writer. A long-time contributor to The New Yorker magazine, he also wrote many famous books for both adults and children, such as the popular Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little, and co-authored a widely used writing guide, The...
. Some other notable titles whose paperback rights were acquired by Puffin included The Family from One End Street
The Family from One End Street
The Family From One End Street, written and illustrated by Eve Garnett, is an English children's book. Set in Otwell, a town resembling Lewes, it was published in 1937 by Frederick Muller. It won a Carnegie Medal for best children's book that same year, despite competition which included J. R. R....
by Eve Garnett
Eve Garnett
Eve Garnett was an English author and illustrator. She was educated at two schools in Devon and at the Alice Ottley School in Worcester...
, the first children’s fiction title to depict a working-class home, which Puffin published in 1942, the Professor Branestawm
Professor Branestawm
Professor Branestawm is a series of thirteen books written by the English author Norman Hunter. Written over a 50 year period, between 1933 and 1983, the children's books feature as protagonist the eponymous inventor, Professor Theophilus Branestawm, who is depicted throughout the books as the...
books by Norman Hunter
Norman Hunter (author)
Norman George Lorimer Hunter was a British children's author, best known for his novels' character Professor Branestawm.-Career:Hunter wrote popular books on writing for advertising, brain-teasers and conjuring among many others...
(1946), Ballet Shoes
Ballet Shoes (novel)
Ballet Shoes is a classic 1936 children's novel by Noel Streatfeild.Ballet Shoes and the other "Shoes books" have been popular worldwide, since their initial publications from 1936 to 1962.-Plot summary:...
by Noel Streatfeild
Noel Streatfeild
Mary Noel Streatfeild OBE , known as Noel Streatfeild, was an author, most famous for her children's books including Ballet Shoes . Several of her novels have been adapted for film or television.-Biography:...
(1949), Carbonel: The King of the Cats
Carbonel: the King of the Cats
Carbonel: the King of the Cats is a children's book by Barbara Sleigh, first published by Puffin Books in 1955, and in the US by Bobbs-Merrill, 1955. It has two sequels, The Kingdom of Carbonel and Carbonel and Calidor: Being the Further Adventures of a Royal Cat , making up the Carbonel series...
by Barbara Sleigh
Barbara Sleigh
Barbara Grace de Riemer Sleigh was a well-known British children's writer and broadcaster.-Family and career:Barbara Sleigh was born in Birmingham, the daughter of the artist Bernard Sleigh and his wife Stella, née Phillp, who had married in 1901. Both came from a Methodist background, but she was...
(1955), and The Silver Sword by Ian Serraillier
Ian Serraillier
Ian Serraillier was a British novelist and poet. He was also appreciated by children for being a storyteller retelling legends from Rome, Greece and England...
(1960). Many different genres featured in the list, e.g. The Puffin Song Book (PS 100), 1956.
1960s to 1970s
In 1961 Kaye WebbKaye Webb
Kaye Webb was a British journalist and publisher. She was editor of Puffin Books between 1961 and 1979, and in 1967 founded the Puffin Club, which she ran until 1981. As a journalist she worked on publications including Picture Post, Lilliput and the News Chronicle, and later edited the Young...
became Puffin's second Editor, as a boom began in children's publishing, and in a decade the Puffin list grew from 151 titles when she took over to 1,213 in print by 1969. Puffin obtained the paperback rights to many of the best writers of the time, including Philippa Pearce
Philippa Pearce
Ann Philippa Pearce OBE was an English children's author.-Early life:The youngest of four children, Pearce was brought up in the Mill House in the village of Great Shelford, Cambridgeshire...
, Rosemary Sutcliff
Rosemary Sutcliff
Rosemary Sutcliff CBE was a British novelist, and writer for children, best known as a writer of historical fiction and children's literature. Although she was primarily a children's author, the quality and depth of her writing also appeals to adults; Sutcliff herself once commented that she wrote...
, William Mayne
William Mayne
William James Carter Mayne was an English writer of children's fiction. He was born in Hull, the son of a doctor and was educated at the choir school attached to Canterbury Cathedral and his memories of that time contributed to his early books. During the Second World War the school was evacuated...
and Alan Garner
Alan Garner
With his first book published, Garner abandoned his work as a labourer and gained a job as a freelance television reporter, living a "hand to mouth" lifestyle on a "shoestring" budget...
, all-time classics including Mary Poppins
Mary Poppins
Mary Poppins is a series of children's books written by P. L. Travers and originally illustrated by Mary Shepard. The books centre on a magical English nanny, Mary Poppins. She is blown by the East wind to Number Seventeen Cherry Tree Lane, London and into the Banks' household to care for their...
, Dr Dolittle and The Hobbit
The Hobbit
The Hobbit, or There and Back Again, better known by its abbreviated title The Hobbit, is a fantasy novel and children's book by J. R. R. Tolkien. It was published on 21 September 1937 to wide critical acclaim, being nominated for the Carnegie Medal and awarded a prize from the New York Herald...
, and originals such as Stig of the Dump
Stig of the Dump
Stig of the Dump is a children's novel by Clive King published in 1963. It is regarded as a modern children's classic and is often read in schools. It has been twice adapted for television, in 1981 and in 2002.-Plot summary:...
by Clive King
Clive King
David Clive King is an English author best known for his children's book Stig of the Dump . He served in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve in the last years of World War II and then worked for the British Council in a wide range of overseas postings, from which he later drew inspiration for his...
. The books were promoted with flair through the Puffin Club, started by Kaye Webb in 1967 with the promise to Allen Lane that "It will make children into book readers". Though by 1987 it had become uneconomical and evolved into the schools-only Puffin Book Club, at its height the club had 200,000 subscribers and held regular Puffin Exhibitions, and its magazine Puffin Post appeared quarterly for many years, resuming publication in January 2009. Webb continued as Editor until 1979, and the 1970s saw Puffin further advance its position with hits such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a 1964 children's book by British author Roald Dahl. The story features the adventures of young Charlie Bucket inside the chocolate factory of the eccentric chocolatier, Willy Wonka....
by Roald Dahl
Roald Dahl
Roald Dahl was a British novelist, short story writer, fighter pilot and screenwriter.Born in Wales to Norwegian parents, he served in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War, in which he became a flying ace and intelligence agent, rising to the rank of Wing Commander...
and Watership Down
Watership Down
Watership Down is a classic heroic fantasy novel, written by English author Richard Adams, about a small group of rabbits. Although the animals in the story live in their natural environment, they are anthropomorphised, possessing their own culture, language , proverbs, poetry, and mythology...
by Richard Adams
Richard Adams
Richard Adams was a non-conforming English Presbyterian divine, known as author of sermons and other theological writings.-Life:...
.
Picture Puffins
The range of Picture Puffins, introduced in the late 1960s for younger children, also developed from strength to strength. Eric CarleEric Carle
Eric Carle is a children's book author and illustrator who is most famous for his book The Very Hungry Caterpillar, which has been translated into over 50 languages...
's The Very Hungry Caterpillar
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
The Very Hungry Caterpillar is a children's picture book designed, illustrated and written by Eric Carle, first published by the World Publishing Company in 1969, later published by Penguin Putnam. The book follows a caterpillar as it eats its way through a wide variety of foodstuffs before...
and Janet and Allan Ahlberg
Janet and Allan Ahlberg
Janet and Allan Ahlberg are the creators of many popular children's books, which regularly appear at the top of the 'most popular' lists for public libraries. Husband and wife, they worked together for 20 years until Janet died of cancer on 13 November 1994, aged 50. Allan wrote the books, and...
's Each Peach Pear Plum became and have remained firm children's favourites, as have Eric Hill
Eric Hill
Eric Gordon Hill OBE is a popular author and illustrator of children's picture books, best known for his character Spot the Dog...
's Spot the Dog
Spot the Dog
Spot the Dog is a series of children's books by Eric Hill, which were later made into a popular children's animation series, known as Spot, for BBC television by David McKee's King Rollo Films....
and Jan Pienkowski
Jan Pienkowski
Jan Michel Pieńkowski is a Polish-born British illustrator and author of children's books.Pieńkowski illustrated his first book at the age of eight, as a present for his father. During World War II, Pieńkowski's family moved about Europe, finally settling in Herefordshire, England in 1946...
's Meg and Mog
Meg and Mog
Meg and Mog are the heroes of a series of children’s books written by Helen Nicoll and illustrated by Jan Pienkowski. First published in the 1970s, the books are about Meg, a witch whose spells always seem to go wrong, her striped cat Mog, and their friend Owl....
books from the 1980s.
1980s to 1990s
The 1980s saw Puffin taking full advantage of popular culture with film tie-in publishing, forming close links with Disney and other production companies. It was at this time that Steve JacksonSteve Jackson (UK)
Steve Jackson is a game designer, writer and game reviewer.-History:In early 1975, Steve Jackson co-founded the company Games Workshop with John Peake and Ian Livingstone....
and Ian Livingstone
Ian Livingstone
Ian Livingstone OBE is an English fantasy author and entrepreneur. He is a co-writer of the first Fighting Fantasy gamebook, The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, and co-founder of Games Workshop....
introduced the concept of adventure gamebook
Gamebook
A gamebook is a work of fiction that allows the reader to participate in the story by making effective choices. The narrative branches along various paths through the use of numbered paragraphs or pages...
s to Puffin which grew into the Fighting Fantasy
Fighting Fantasy
Fighting Fantasy is a series of single-player fantasy roleplay gamebooks created by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone. The first volumes in the series were published by Puffin in 1982, with the rights to the franchise eventually being purchased by Wizard Books in 2002...
phenomenon. The 1980s also saw the launch of the Puffin Plus line of young-adult fiction, a market formerly catered for by the Penguin imprint Peacock Books. In 2010, the young adult line was relaunched as Razorbill.
The 1990s continued to see new writers join Puffin and in the twenty-first century the brand still shows heroes and heroines familiar with children such as Artemis Fowl
Artemis Fowl II
Artemis Fowl II is the antihero and main character of the fictional series Artemis Fowl by the Irish author Eoin Colfer.- Origins :Colfer has said that he based Artemis on his younger brother Donal, who as a child was "a mischievous mastermind who could get out of any trouble he got into"...
, Percy Jackson, Max Gordon
Max Gordon
Max Gordon was a jazz promoter who founded the Village Vanguard jazz club in New York City.Born in Lithuania, Gordon settled with his family in Portland, Oregon, where he later attended Reed College....
, Mildred Hubble and Scarlett
Scarlett (Cathy Cassidy novel)
Scarlett is a 2006 novel by Cathy Cassidy. It won the 2007 Royal Mail Award for Scottish Children's Books in the 7-11 age group. It reached number 8 in the Ottakars sales chart for children's books in June 2006. The plot revolves around the 12-year old girl of the title, who is badly affected by...
, while stars such as Kylie Minogue
Kylie Minogue
Kylie Ann Minogue, OBE - often known simply as Kylie - is an Australian singer, recording artist, songwriter, and actress. After beginning her career as a child actress on Australian television, she achieved recognition through her role in the television soap opera Neighbours, before commencing...
and Madonna
Madonna (entertainer)
Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...
have written for Puffin.
See also
- UK children's book publishersUK children's book publishersList of UK children's book publishers.For UK children's authors, see Children's non-fiction authors.-B:* Barefoot Books* Barrington Stoke* Blackie and Son Limited* Bloomsbury Publishing* Book House* The Bodley Head* Buster Books-H:* Hamish Hamilton...
- List of largest UK book publishers
Further reading
- Phil Baines (2010), Puffin By Design: 70 Years of Imagination 1940 - 2010. London: Allen Lane. ISBN 014132614X.