Universal-Tandem Publishing Co Ltd 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 ...

paperback A paperback (softcover, softback) book is one with a thick paper or paperboard cover, also known as wrappers, and often held together with adhesive, glue rather than stitch (textile arts), stitches or Staple (fastener), staples. In contrast, ...

publishing company established in the early 1960s as Tandem Books.

History

The company's principal imprint was Tandem. The hyphenated name Universal-Tandem was adopted as a corporate identity in 1968 after Tandem Books was bought by the American group Universal Publishing and Distribution Corporation Inc. (UPD), allowing Universal-Tandem to distribute some titles published by UPD in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

in the United Kingdom. In 1973, Tandem established

Target Books Target Books is a British publishing imprint, established in 1973 by Universal-Tandem Publishing Co Ltd, a paperback publishing company. The imprint was established as a children's imprint to complement the adult Tandem imprint, and became wel ...

as a children's imprint. Target became well known for its highly successful range of

novelisation A novelization (or novelisation) is a derivative novel that adapts the story of a work created for another medium, such as a film, TV series, stage play, comic book, or video game. Film novelizations were particularly popular before the advent of ...

s and other books based on the popular

science-fiction television Science fiction first appeared in television programming in the late 1930s, during what is called the Golden Age of Science Fiction. Special effects and other production techniques allow creators to present a living visual image of an imaginary ...

series ''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson (writer and producer), Donald Wilson, depicts the adventures of an extraterre ...

''. In 1975, Universal-Tandem was sold by UPD to the British conglomerate Howard and Wyndham, and the company was renamed Tandem Publishing Ltd before being merged with the paperback imprints of Howard and Wyndham's general publishing house W H Allen to become Wyndham Publications Ltd in 1976. During 1977–1978, the Wyndham identity was phased out. The Tandem imprint was phased out during 1980, and surviving titles from the backlist were subsequently reprinted under W H Allen's principal paperback imprint, Star. The Target imprint survived until 1993, though in its latter years it was used only for ''Doctor Who'' novelisations.

References

* Book publishing companies of the United Kingdom Publishing companies established in 1968 1960s establishments in the United Kingdom Defunct companies of the United Kingdom Year of disestablishment missing {{UK-publish-company-stub