The New English Library was a

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

book publishing company, which became an imprint of

Hodder Headline Headline Publishing Group is a British publishing brand and former company. It was founded in 1986 by Tim Hely Hutchinson. In 1993, Headline bought Hodder & Stoughton Hodder & Stoughton is a British publishing house, now an imprint of Hac ...

History

New English Library (NEL) was created in 1961 by the Times Mirror Company of Los Angeles, with the takeover of two small British paperback companies, Ace Books Ltd and Four Square Books Ltd, as a complement to its 1960 acquisition of

New American Library The New American Library (also known as NAL) is an American publisher based in New York, founded in 1948. Its initial focus was affordable paperback reprints of classics and scholarly works as well as popular and pulp fiction, but it now publi ...

in the United States. NEL's top bestseller of the 1960s was ''

The Carpetbaggers ''The Carpetbaggers'' is a 1961 bestselling novel by Harold Robbins, which was adapted into a 1964 film of the same title. The prequel '' Nevada Smith'' (1966) was also based on a character in the novel. In the United States, the term "carpe ...

'' by

Harold Robbins Harold Robbins (May 21, 1916 – October 14, 1997) was an American author. One of the best-selling writers of all time, he wrote over 25 best-sellers, selling over 750 million copies in 32 languages. Early life Robbins was born Harold Rubin i ...

. The imprint was sold in 1981 to

Hodder & Stoughton Hodder & Stoughton is a British publishing house, now an imprint of Hachette.H ...

, and became part of the merged

in 1993. It has published

genre Genre () is any style or form of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other fo ...

s such as

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

mystery Mystery, The Mystery, Mysteries or The Mysteries may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters *Mystery, a cat character in ''Emily the Strange'' *Mystery, a seahorse that SpongeBob SquarePants adopts in the episode " My Pre ...

and

suspense Suspense is a state of anxiety or excitement caused by mysteriousness, uncertainty, doubt, or undecidedness. In a narrative work, suspense is the audience's excited anticipation about the plot or conflict (which may be heightened by a viol ...

. They have published the works of

Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author. Dubbed the "King of Horror", he is widely known for his horror novels and has also explored other genres, among them Thriller (genre), suspense, crime fiction, crime, scienc ...

James Herbert James John Herbert, OBE (8 April 1943 – 20 March 2013) was an English horror writer. A full-time writer, he also designed his own book covers and publicity. His books have sold 54 million copies worldwide, and have been translated into 34 la ...

and science fiction authors have included

Brian Aldiss Brian Wilson Aldiss (; 18 August 1925 – 19 August 2017) was an English writer, artist and anthology editor, best known for science fiction novels and short stories. His byline reads either Brian W. Aldiss or simply Brian Aldiss, except for oc ...

Frank Herbert Franklin Patrick Herbert Jr. (October 8, 1920February 11, 1986) was an American science-fiction author, best known for his 1965 novel Dune (novel), ''Dune'' and its five sequels. He also wrote short stories and worked as a newspaper journalist, ...

Robert A. Heinlein Robert Anson Heinlein ( ; July 7, 1907 – May 8, 1988) was an American science fiction author, aeronautical engineer, and naval officer. Sometimes called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was among the first to emphasize scientific acc ...

Michael Moorcock Michael John Moorcock (born 18 December 1939) is an English writer, particularly of science fiction and fantasy, who has published a number of well-received literary novels as well as comic thrillers, graphic novels and non-fiction. He has wo ...

and Christopher Priest. New English Library titles were particularly popular in the early 1970s, when

hack writer ''Hack writer'' is a pejorative term for a writer who is paid to write low-quality, rushed articles or books "to order", often with a short deadline. In fiction writing, a hack writer is paid to quickly write sensational, pulp fiction ''Pu ...

s were hired to work under names such as

Richard Allen Richard, Rick, or Dick Allen may refer to: Artists *Dick Allen (poet) (1939–2017), American poet, literary critic and academic *Richard Allen (abstract artist) (1933–1999), British painter *James Moffat (author) (1922–1993), Canadian-Britis ...

and Mick Norman to churn out tales of

Hells Angels The Hells Angels Motorcycle Club (HAMC) is an international outlaw motorcycle club founded in California whose members typically ride Harley-Davidson motorcycles. In the United States and Canada, the Hells Angels are incorporated as the Hells ...

and

skinhead A skinhead or skin is a member of a subculture that originated among working-class youth in London, England, in the 1960s. It soon spread to other parts of the United Kingdom, with a second working-class skinhead movement emerging worldwide i ...

s. These older New English Library books have some cult following, especially in the UK. The brand continued as a mass-market imprint for Hodder Headline, focussing on thrillers and horror, until 2004 when it was dropped following Hodder's assimilation into the

Hachette Livre Hachette Livre S.A. (; simply known as Hachette) is a French publishing, publishing group that was based in Paris. It was founded in 1826 by Louis Hachette as Brédif which later became successively L. Hachette et Compagnie, Librairie Hachette, ...

group, and a single

Hodder & Stoughton Hodder & Stoughton is a British publishing house, now an imprint of Hachette.H ...

paperback list was created, combining the NEL titles then in print with those in Hodder's previous Coronet (mainstream) and Flame (young and contemporary) paperback lines.

Book series

* Burke's Series * The Carter Brown Mystery Series * Dictionary of Battles series * The Edge Series * Four Square Adventures * Four Square Gothic Mystery * Four Square Library * Four Square Classics * Four Square Science Fiction * The Great Histories * History of Aviation Series * The Island Guidebook Series * NEL Mentor * NEL Modern Classics * NEL Paperbacks * NEL SF Master Series Publication Series: NEL SF Master Series
isfdb.org. Retrieved 4 April 2023. * New English Library Classic Novel Series * New English Library Military History Series * The Olympia Press Traveller's Companion Series * Projekt Saucer Series * Trains and Railways Special Publications

References

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History

Book series

References

Further reading