Thank you so much everyone for all the lovely comments about the Penguin blog post last week. It’s been really interesting hearing about all the memories they brought back and listening to peoples thoughts and stories about books in general is incredibly thought-provoking.

I’ve continued packing my little library away and have another installment of Penguin books to share with you. These range from the late 1950′s through to present day and it’s a mish-mash of titles and authors, but all fiction. Some of these I own because I wanted to read them, others are on the shelf because of their cover design which opens a whole can of worms about not judging a book by it’s cover but I’ll leave that for you to ponder.

I love the Beatnik colours of these Penguin Plays printed in 1959:

This later incarnation of Penguin Plays is one of my favourite book covers. The green is just wonderful and the stage spotlights for the series title work brilliantly:

The colour coding of the sixpence Penguins continued for a number of years but the covers gradually became more decorative and Penguin continued working closely with illustrators to produce eye-catching images. Often when a Penguin, and more so a Puffin book, has value it is due to the cover and content illustrator rather than the actual story or printing edition.

A Perry Mason edition from 1957 with illustration by David Caplan:

1962 edition of The Big Sleep illustrated by John Sewell. At this point you would find the author biographies inside the front cover and the book synopsis printed on the back:

A High-Pitched Buzz by Roger Longrigg from 1962. Do you recognise the illustrator? He went on to become one of the most famous children’s book illustrators of all time:

And a later cover from 1965 by the same illustrator for Men at Arms alongside a lovely cover of the 1964 edition of Orwell’s first novel, A Clergyman’s Daughter, illustrated by design agency Fletcher, Forbes & Gill who were the Mad Men of their day:

Moving on to 1969 and 1970, Naipaul and du Maurier and you can see the covers change dramatically but still retain a hint of orange for the logo. The Daphne du Maurier cover is one of a series illustrated by Colin Mier. Jamaica Inn is the only one I have and I love the slightly psychedelic lines and colours which are strongly associated with illustration of this period:

Books by J.D. Salinger are noticeable by their lack of images and seemingly simple, graphic covers. Salinger was very strict about how the covers of his books looked and insisted that only his name and the title should be on them resulting in beautifully bold covers that say everything you need to know about a book:

Did you know that George Orwell’s real name was Eric Blair?

I picked up this copy of Lord of the Flies in a charity shop and it sparked off a summer of re-reading all the books we had read at school. It turns out that most of them were in fact excellent:

The use of orange continued for Penguin Fiction through the 1980′s and 1990′s appearing on the spines of these two novels:

A beautiful mint colour was used for Penguin Modern Classics reprints in the 1990′s, but from now onwards the vast majority of Penguin fiction uses photographs rather than illustrations as the main cover image:

After finishing Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck as part of my school book reading, I went on a mission to read everything he ever wrote and The Grapes of Wrath is a book that would easily make my desert island book list. I love the strong simplicity of the ‘silver’ Penguin Classics series covers that appeared in 2000 and wish I had stocked my library up before they were updated again:

The glossy silver covers gave way for matte silver and larger text:

And that should bring us right up to date!

I’ll share a few of my mini Penguins and non-fiction books with you next week. In the meantime, do feel free to leave a comment or if you have a particular favourite Penguin in your collection I’d love to hear about it.

I love books. Almost all books. I love books so much that I spent a number of years as a bookseller and dealer before circumstances meant unceremoniously leaving that part of my life behind in a tale I tell when slightly tipsy or over-excited! However, once you’ve worked with books then it becomes even harder to leave them behind and the bookshelves continue to multiply.

My love of books, magazines, and printed paper in general means a little flat full of paper. E-books and magazines might be handy and take up infinitely less space but it’s just not the same. Reading a book or magazine is an experience. Firstly you have the weight of the book and the binding will determine how you hold it. Hardbacks are more austere, the paper thicker with a lovely, slightly rough feel. You can flick through a paperback more easily, the paper is lighter and has a different sound when you turn the page. Glossy magazine pages flop around as the spine struggles to keep everything under control. Then you have the scent of books. New paper, fresh ink, old bookshops, musty secondhand establishments with treasures waiting to be discovered, dentists waiting rooms stacked with out of date issues of womens magazines. Then we get to the stories, the information, the visuals, the design, the hours where we lose ourselves or learn something new or make plans, laugh, dream and imagine. Is there anything quite as magical as printed paper?

I’m still pinching myself how over the last few years I have come full circle and brought together three of the big loves of my life. I studied fashion at Central Saint Martins in the 1990′s. It was all I ever wanted to do but sadly the reality of the course and the industry pushed me as far away as possible from that career and I drifted into bookselling. Then along came the knitting and gradually I combined these previous incarnations into one and now work independently and creatively with creative people, fabric and printed paper in all its different forms.

In amongst my bookshelves are various collections ranging from knitting and crochet technique and pattern books to children’s illustrated books, sixpence Penguins, Booker prize-winners, art monographs and a large amount of American crime from the first half of the 20th Century, then there’s everything else in between! I packaged my sixpence Penguin collection away at the weekend and thought you might like a rummage.

Sixpence Penguins were launched in the 1930′s and revolutionised reading with affordable books for all. The iconic bright orange covers are instantly recognisable and I tend to pick them up if I find one I’d like to read, if it has an interesting cover or if I find a good deal on a job lot which has become less and less frequent.

The orange covers were on the whole dedicated to fiction:

Later some covers were illustrated:

Occasionally there would be a photograph:

The author’s biography on the back cover is always fascinating:

Penguin Mystery and Crime was launched using the same styling but in British Racing Green:

Bright pink indicates Travel and Adventure. Some Penguins came with a dustjacket as shown here:

Royal blue for Biography:

The pale blue covers designate Pelican books which were the non-fiction branch. Some of these I find absolutely fascinating and they are are incredible social history documents:

Then we get on to later Penguins and Puffins which I’ll share with you another time.

If you would like to know a little more about Penguin design I can highly recommend Penguin by Design: A Cover Story 1935–2005 by Phil Baines.