A collection of Penguin covers from Britain and around the world, Seven Hundred Penguins is a celebration of jackets that remain visually distinctive and addictive to us today, from the beautiful to the garish, design classics to design oddities. A full-colour, sensuous delight, with one jacket on every page, the featured jackets represent the personal favourites of Penguin staff from offices all over the world, and run from Penguin's birth in 1935 to the end of the twentieth century. Throughout there are jackets that bring back a flood of memories of the first time a book was read; there is beautiful typography from Jan Tschicold; arresting illustrations; visual witticisms from Derek Birdsall; countless mutations of the much-loved Penguin grid. There are also, with no formula at all, jackets that just make sense. Featuring old favourites and plenty of surprises, Seven Hundred Penguins is a unique and inspiring collection of the most impactful and well-loved Penguin covers of the twentieth century.

Author Biography

Penguin Press was formed in 1935 by Sir Allen Lane, then-editorial director of The Bodley Head. It was the first company to bring good-quality, contemporary literature to readers at an affordable price. In 1946, it launched the Penguin Classics series, itself now a classic. Penguin publishes books under a variety of imprints including Puffin, DK, Hamish Hamilton, Viking, Rough Guides and Ladybird. Now more than seventy years old, Penguin is the home of reading.