Penguin Books (NZ) Ltd was established in 1973 as a book distributor operation in Wairau Road, Auckland. Penguin is now a major publishing force in New Zealand working from brand new purpose-built offices in Rosedale, north of Auckland.
But in the early days in the 1970s, Penguin operated in the New Zealand book market solely as a distribution channel for Penguin Group books published around the world. A huge percentage of the imports came from Britain – more than 95% – with a few books coming from Australia. In those days there was no supply channel between North America and New Zealand.
‘YOU, START PUBLISHING!’
Graham Beattie was appointed managing director in 1978. Soon after, he received a Sunday afternoon phone call from the new Penguin Group chief executive Peter Mayer in New York instructing him to begin publishing New Zealand Penguins written for local readers by New Zealand authors. ‘Start publishing!’ Mayer ordered his New Zealand manager. So he did. Until then the only significant New Zealand literature published by Penguin had been The Penguin Book of New Zealand Verse in 1960 (with its famous introduction by the late Allen Curnow) published in London. So it was time to publish. But how?
John Barnett, then Senior Editor at Longman Paul, became Penguin’s first New Zealand editor. He initially worked in a part-time capacity to launch the new publishing programme.
IT’S A RUNAWAY!
At that time Hodder and Stoughton had enjoyed huge success with a hardback book by David Yallop called Beyond Reasonable Doubt, a hard-hitting book about the Arthur Allan Thomas murder case. Penguin made a modest offer for paperback rights to the book and was accepted.
The Penguin paperback edition of Beyond Reasonable Doubt, published in February 1980 only days after Thomas was pardoned, was the first New Zealand-grown Penguin title, and it was a runaway. By December of that year five printings and 41,000 copies had been sold.
Penguin’s first foray into local publishing was an undeniable success.
