Philip Jones

London

Editor at The Bookseller

Editor of The Bookseller. In denial. In case of emergency smash screen.

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Articles

Penguin’s 90th is a celebration and a challenge

1 week ago | thebookseller.com | Philip Jones

Penguin 90th birthday celebrations In 1935, the publisher Allen Lane set about democratising books. He saw that there were new readers for very cheap editions of popular works, priced at 2d, migrating from magazines and newspapers, and figured out that he could sell better versions of the books for 6d, taking advantage of the “distinct improvement in the taste of the public” with the result that these newbie readers would become lifelong lovers of the book.
Tom Weldon looks back on 90 years of the Penguin brand

1 week ago | thebookseller.com | Philip Jones

In 1935, Penguin Books founder Allen Lane wrote an article for The Bookseller introducing “a new series of books to retail at 6d”. A line of cheap books was already being marketed by Woolworths and what Lane called the “tuppenny libraries”, while the so-called better books were expensive and sold only in what some thought were off-putting bookshops.
Philip Jones | 'Is the national reading crisis being met head on?'

2 weeks ago | thebookseller.com | Philip Jones |Ferdia Lennon

I interviewed for a podcast this week, I found myself unusually hesitant about commenting on the UK book market. Yes, print book sales are currently subdued, but in the accelerating spaces of audiobook, e-book and exports, there remains much to be cheered about. Yet, this week’s National Literacy Trust (NLT) report into children’s reading habits is a doozy, but BookTok shows that a new generation has already been onboarded to the pleasures and sweet pains of reading.
Philip Jones | 'Publishers have legacies for a reason, as the start-up challengers have come to realise'

3 weeks ago | thebookseller.com | Philip Jones |Ferdia Lennon

In the early 2010s, traditional publishing was assailed by start-up businesses that threatened to up-end the old order. Leaders of these new entities would typically refer to book publishers as legacy businesses, while also attempting to do deals for their content. Names such as Gojimo, Bardowl and Oyster would be whispered reverentially at publisher conferences, as examples of new approaches to what were considered intractable problems.
Atlantic celebrates 25 years with party at London's October Gallery

3 weeks ago | thebookseller.com | Philip Jones

News Atlantic Books celebrated its 25th anniversary with a party at the October Gallery in London with guests including its founder and former CEO Toby Mundy, former MD Will Atkinson, authors including Oyinkan Braithwaite, Hannah Beer, and Mark Forsyth, and agents such as Clare Alexander, Catherine Summerhayes and Jonathan Lloyd. Managing director Drummond Moir thanked authors and colleagues for their commitment to the business.
Scholastic to publish a collector’s edition of Suzanne Collins' Sunrise on the Reaping

1 month ago | thebookseller.com | Philip Jones

Rights Scholastic is to publish a collector’s edition of Sunrise on the Reaping, the fifth novel in The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins. Sunrise on the Reaping: Collector’s Edition will be published simultaneously by Scholastic in the US, Canada, the UK and Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand on 4th November 2025. The edition includes new cover art with metallic foil details, stained edges with stencilled art, full-colour floral endpapers and exclusive back matter.
Philip Jones | 'With the publication of the Reading Rights report, the job now is to become an island, not of strangers, but of readers'

1 month ago | thebookseller.com | Philip Jones |Ferdia Lennon

Don’t judge me. Over the past few weeks, I have been resurfacing books from my past as I fill the bookshelves of my new flat. Here is Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry, The Ka of Gifford Hillary by Dennis Wheatley, Kathy Acker’s Blood and Guts in High School, Hunter S Thompson’s The Great Shark Hunt, The Color Purple by Alice Walker, Lightning by Dean Koontz, Jeanette Winterson’s Sexing the Cherry, and the beloved Love Is a Dog from Hell by the poet and all around bad influence, Charles Bukowski.
Authors' Club Best First Novel Award won by Ferdia Lennon for Glorious Exploits

1 month ago | thebookseller.com | Ferdia Lennon |Philip Jones

News Glorious Exploits, written by Ferdia Lennon, has won the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award. Novelist Tracy Chevalier presented Lennon’s publisher with £2,500 at a reception at the National Liberal Club in London on 21st May. Chevalier said: "Glorious Exploits is a remarkable leap of the imagination into 4th-century BC Sicily, where two young potters have the madcap idea of directing Athenian prisoners in a Euripides play.
Resilient Bloomsbury points to mixed portfolio after full year sales growth

1 month ago | thebookseller.com | Philip Jones

NewsThirty years after it floated on the UK Stock Exchange, Bloomsbury has reported “strong and resilient results” with sales up 5% to £361m and profits at £42m, down from £48m a year earlier. YOU’VE REACHED YOUR ARTICLE LIMITSign in or register below for free to unlock 2 articles each month and receive personalised newsletters to your inbox. ORHelp support our journalism and subscribe with unlimited access.
Philip Jones | 'The British Book Awards 2025 was a time to accentuate the human'

1 month ago | thebookseller.com | Philip Jones

Philip Jones, editor of The Bookseller at the 35th British Book Awards, London © Graham Turner At The British Book Awards on Monday (12th May), I made the point from the stage of how human this sector is – from the human-shaped creatives who provide the source material, to the humans who bring the works to market and make sure they are discovered by, and passed on to those other valuable humans – the readers.