Grafton was a British paperback group name and

imprint Imprint or imprinting may refer to: Entertainment * ''Imprint'' (TV series), Canadian television series * "Imprint" (''Masters of Horror''), episode of TV show ''Masters of Horror'' * ''Imprint'' (film), a 2007 independent drama/thriller film ...

established in 1983 upon the purchase by

William Collins, Sons William Collins, Sons & Co., often referred to as Collins, was a Scotland, Scottish printing and publishing company founded by a Presbyterianism, Presbyterian schoolmaster, William Collins (publisher), William Collins, in Glasgow in 1819, in par ...

of Granada Publishing Ltd, a subsidiary of media company

Granada Group Ltd Granada plc (previously called Granada Ltd., Granada Group plc, and Granada Media plc) was a British conglomerate best known as the parent from 1954 to 2004 of the Manchester-based Granada Television. The company agreed a corporate takeover of ...

, to replace the Granada group name and imprint. It used the publishing company's then editorial offices' street address, 8 Grafton Street, in central London. Other paperback imprints of Granada Publishing at the time included

Paladin The Paladins, also called the Twelve Peers (), are twelve legendary knights, the foremost members of Charlemagne's court in the 8th century. They first appear in the medieval (12th century) ''chanson de geste'' cycle of the Matter of France, wh ...

, later home of the

Paladin Poetry Series {{Original research, date=May 2009 Paladin Poetry was a series of paperback books published by Grafton Books (later amalgamated into HarperCollins) under its Paladin imprint, intended to bring modernist and radical poetry before a wider audience. It ...

Panther Panther may refer to: Large cats *Pantherinae, the cat subfamily that contains the genera ''Panthera'' and ''Neofelis'' **''Panthera'', the cat genus that contains tigers, lions, jaguars and leopards ***Jaguar (''Panthera onca''), found in Sout ...

and

Mayflower ''Mayflower'' was an English sailing ship that transported a group of English families, known today as the Pilgrims, from England to the New World in 1620. After 10 weeks at sea, ''Mayflower'', with 102 passengers and a crew of about 30, reac ...

."British firms unite to launch mass PB venture". ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...

''. Volume 209, Part 2; pg. 19. The collaboration with hardback publishers

Jonathan Cape Jonathan Cape is a British publishing firm headquartered in London and founded in 1921 by Herbert Jonathan Cape, who was head of the firm until his death. Cape and his business partner Wren Howard (1893–1968) set up the publishing house in ...

Chatto and Windus Chatto & Windus is an imprint of Penguin Random House that was formerly an independent book publishing company founded in London in 1855 by John Camden Hotten. Following Hotten's death, the firm would reorganize under the names of his business ...

and

The Bodley Head The Bodley Head is an English book publishing imprint of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1887 by John Lane and Elkin Mathews, The Bodley Head existed as an independent entity or as part of multiple consortia until it was acquired by Random ...

which in 1976 had resulted in the creation of Triad, and Triad/Panther Books paperbacks, which latter now became Triad/Grafton Books. The Glasgow-based publishers

, also used the name Grafton to consolidate all (or almost all) of Granada Publishing's paperback imprints under the one name (a process started by the Granada Publishing Group, using Granada) alongside its pre-existing

Fontana Fontana may refer to: Places Italy *Fontana Liri, comune in the Province of Frosinone *Fontanafredda, comune in the Province of Pordenone * Fontanarosa, comune in the Province of Avellino *Francavilla Fontana, comune in the Province of Brindisi ...

paperback imprint. Collins was in turn bought by

Rupert Murdoch Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian - American retired business magnate, investor, and media mogul. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of List of assets owned by News Corp, local, national, a ...

News Corporation The original incarnation of News Corporation (abbreviated News Corp. and also variously known as News Corporation Limited) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational mass media corporation founded and controlled by media mogul Ru ...

in 1989 to create the

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is a British–American publishing company that is considered to be one of the "Big Five (publishers), Big Five" English-language publishers, along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group USA, Hachette, Macmi ...

publishing conglomerate. The name Grafton disappeared as a separate brand c. 1993. The Grafton imprint has no connection with the Grafton Books series of books on librarianship, bibliography and book collectingA Grafton Book
worldcat.org. Retrieved 24 November 2019. published by Andre Deutsch.

Authors

They have published

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 ...

's books, among many others.

References

Book publishing companies of the United Kingdom Publishing companies established in the 1980s {{UK-publish-company-stub