Katherine Paterson
I read because I want more than one life, and books give me a limitless number of lives—lives that are different from the one I was born into. More
The Kon-Tiki Expedition
This classic, inspiring tale of daring and courage has been translated into sixty-five languages. More
Alistair MacLean signing books
The young Alistair MacLean in 1957 signs a book during a promotional event for The Guns of Navarone. More
The Ipcress File
Deighton’s classic first novel broke the mold of the thriller genre. More
Half of a Yellow Sun
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s masterpiece, and winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction. More
Journey to Jo’burg
Groundbreaking book set in South Africa during the apartheid era and banned by its government. More
The Butterfly Lion
A moving story of enduring friendship, this is the award-winning favorite from a master storyteller. More
1936: Collins is the first major publishing house to create its own font…
Collins is the first major publishing house to create its own font. More
Collins Operations during WWII
Collins maintained combined office and warehouse space at Bridewell Place in London for many years, and in 1917, its new London publishing office at 48 Pall Mall was complemented by printing works in Mayfair that included a state-of-the-art bindery, warehouse, and distribution center. More
1973: William Collins and Sons secures the rights to Solzhenitsyn’s The Gulag Archipelago…
William Collins and Sons secures the rights to Soviet dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s The Gulag Archipelago, an eye-opening work that exposes in startling detail the horrors of the communist regime in Russia. More
J.R.R. Tolkien and the Trilogy
Sir Stanley Unwin, chairman of British publishers George Allen & Unwin (later acquired by HarperCollins), originally rejected the 9,250-page manuscript of The Lord of the Rings, the sequel to J. R. R. Tolkien’s moderately successful (at the time) The Hobbit, as it was too long, and the author would make a deal with the publisher only if they also agreed to take another of his unfinished books. More
Born Free
Its remarkable interaction between the author and a lion cub named Elsa enchanted generations. More
Sabriel
A revolutionary story that made Nix a rising star in the fantasy genre. More
Sarah Morgan
I read for many reasons. More
Barbara Taylor Bradford
When I say I have the need to write, I do mean need. More
Emily Post’s Etiquette
This “bible of etiquette” has been published by HarperCollins for more than three decades. More
1954: The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien is published…
Publisher George Allen & Unwin, later purchased by HarperCollins, publishes the 9,250-page manuscript of The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien. More
The Alchemist
An inspirational phenomenon; one of the bestselling books in history. More
Agatha Christie
The house of Collins acquired “Queen of Crime” Agatha Christie after she disagreed with her former publisher over the spelling of “coco”/”cocoa” in her first book, The Mysterious Affair at Styles. More
The Tiger Who Came to Tea
The beloved multimillion-copy-selling British picture book no childhood should be without. More
The Weirdstone of Brisingamen
Garner’s celebrated children’s fantasy novel has become a cult classic of children’s literature. More
1958: Collins publishes the first English translation of Doctor Zhivago…
Collins publishes the first English translation of Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. More
The Collins UK warehouse, circa 1948
Crates of books sit in the Collins warehouse ready for distribution all over the world—from Johannesburg to Jerusalem to Madagascar. More
Bernard Cornwell
Born in London in 1944, Bernard Cornwell grew up in Essex and, after a stint as a teacher, moved on to the BBC, where he took a job as a producer in Northern Ireland. More
A Bear Called Paddington
In 1958, an editor at Collins named Barbara Ker Wilson received a manuscript submission about a talking bear, which she opened with “initial suspicion” —as the publisher had received many other proposals featuring humanized animals that “are invariably either whimsy-whamsy, written down, or filled with adult innuendoes.” More
Lauren Weisberger
A book that influenced me and why . . . Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume was incredibly influential to me as a child. More
Jesus Calling
The number one selling devotional, Jesus Calling is one of Thomas Nelson’s bestselling books of all time. More