The Man Who Changed the Way We Read
The Story of Allen Lane and Penguin Books











To celebrate our 90th birthday, a reissue of the biography of a phenomenal individual and the story of Penguin Books.
By founding Penguin Books in 1935 and popularizing the paperback, Allen Lane not only changed publishing in Britain – he was also at the forefront of a social and cultural revolution.
In The Man Who Changed the Way We Read, Jeremy Lewis brings this extraordinary era brilliantly to life. Lane’s books gave millions of people access to what had previously been the preserve of a wealthy few; they alerted the public to the threat of Nazi Germany; and Penguin itself became a cherished national institution, much like the BBC and the NHS, whilst at the same time challenging the status quo through the famous Lady Chatterley case.
This is the spellbinding story of how a complex, highly fallible man used his vision to change the world.
Other books in the series
About the author
A former publisher and the deputy editor of the Oldie, Jeremy Lewis has written three volumes of autobiography and biographies of Cyril Connolly, Tobias Smollett and Allen Lane, the founder of Penguin Books. Shades of Greene: One Generation of an English Family, was published by Cape in 2010.
Praise for The Man Who Changed the Way We Read
An invaluable and fascinating account of this country's intellectual and political development
Nick Hornby, Time Out
Both hugely enjoyable to read and surprisingly riveting
Independent on Sunday
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