Still Life with Gun

In the 1960s it became a fashion to design the covers of spy novels with still lifes featuring hand guns. … More

A Penguin Calendar

Penguin Books has such a place in the hearts of readers and collectors that quite often merchandise is produced to … More

The Penguin English Library was created in the mid-1960s as a response to the great success of the Penguin Classics. … More

To capture the spirit of postwar Britain, in 2010 Penguin published a series of twenty novels, five for each of … More

One of Penguin Classics’ notable series was published in the year of its new cover grid, 2003. The six Jane … More

In the early 2020s Penguin published a collection of Len Deighton books in covers that cleverly evoke the 1960s designs … More

Raymond Hawkey’s designs for the Penguin editions of Len Deighton’s spy novels are stand-out images from the 1960s. Their bright … More

During the 1960s, the great designer-artist-illustrator Milton Glaser, co-founder of the legendary Push Pin Studios, produced a large set of … More

Inspired by the sudden success of Penguin, Pocket Books was launched in 1939 and became the first of the major … More

In 1972-73, Penguin published a set of novels by Anthony Burgess, author of A Clockwork Orange. Their covers were illustrated … More

What was pulp fiction? Literally, it was a genre of fiction printed on cheap wood-pulp paper. It was written by … More

In 1964-65 Penguin published two sets of ten Georges Simenon novels. Penguin and Simenon have had a long association dating … More

The late period of Pelican covers in the 1970s achieved a simplicity and refinement that is a lesson in concise … More

Alan Aldridge is famed for his brilliant career as one of Britain’s great postwar illustrators. But where did he start? … More