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 masses given access to what had previously only been the preserve of a wealthy few. In Penguin Special Jeremy Lewis brings this extraordinary era brilliantly to life, recounting how 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.
'An invaluable and fascinating account of this country's intellectual and political development'
Nick Hornby, Time Out
'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
'Allen Lane was the man who single-handedly did more to educate his fellow countrymen than the BBC, the school system and the old Workers' Educational Association put together. Lewis's biography is 'frank and stylishly written'
Daily Mail
'Erudite and illuminating facts are peppered over every page of Lewis's biography. He makes an outwardly dry life into a maelstrom of innovation, resentement, intrigue and idealism; with exceptional pen portraits ... high drama ... slapstick comedy ... In Lewis's hands, publishing history ... becomes as compelling as Citizen Kane'
The Scotsman
For further details please contact Amelia Fairney on 020 7010 3247 / amelia.fairney@uk.penguingroup.com
