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Puffins Progress

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Puffins Progress Image 1
Author: Various
Editor: Steve Hare
Designer: Olesia Lipskaia
Date: Jun 2014
ISBN: 9780955839597
Type: PCS Publication
Pages: 124
Medium: Large Format – Landscape
Series: Puffin and associated Series
Focus: Authors, Books, Design, History of Penguin, Illustrators, Penguin Personalities

The Penguin Collectors Society holds occasional study days, and from these we publish books based on the main talks given during the day, supplemented by further relevant essays.

The study day, held at the University of Bristol at the end of 2010 looked at the history of Puffin Books, the many separate series that make up Puffin, and also at the differences between publishing children's fiction and story books in the past, compared with today, when there are umpteen new media as well as television vying for the attention of the audience, and where much more is expected of authors - and even the characters in the books.

Talks included Joe Pearson on Noel Carrington; Val Grove on the subject of her biography, Kaye Webb; Liz Attenborough on her time at Puffin; and Francesca Dow, Puffin’s current Managing Director, talking about Puffin today. The afternoon session, a discussion, featured most of the morning’s speakers, along with Elv Moody, then a Puffin editor; Anna Billson, Puffin art director; and two author/illustrators, Jan Pienkowski and Joe Berger. The day was introduced by Phil Baines, who also chaired the discussion.

The book includes all these elements, with additional chapters on Porpoise and Ptarmigan Books; Felicity Trotman on Peacocks; and Tony Lacey discussing the many challenges of following Kaye Webb.

Puffins Progress includes around 300 cover illustrations, including a gallery of early Peacocks, Picture Puffins, Puffin Post, and both Puffin Picture and Story Books. This is an essential reference work for anyone interested in children’s literature, and the publishing, editing, marketing and design of children’s books. The book was edited by Steve Hare and designed by Olesia Lipskaia, a student at Central Saint Martins, under the supervision of Phil Baines.

Perfect bound, 25.7 x 19.7 cms with plentiful colour illustrations

Printed by Short Run Press
Print run 700