This Element examines the early years of British Young Adult (YA) publishing at three strategic publishing houses: Penguin, Heinemann and Macmillan. Specifically, it discusses their YA imprints (Penguin Peacocks, Heinemann New Windmills and Macmillan Topliners), all created at a time when the population of Britain was changing and becoming more diverse. Migration of colonial and former colonial subjects from the Caribbean, India, and Africa contributed to a change in the ethnic makeup of Britain, especially in major urban centres such as London, Birmingham and Manchester. While publishing has typically been seen as slow to respond to societal changes in children's literature, all three of these Young Adult imprints attempted to address and include Black British and British Asian readers and characters in their books; ultimately, however, their focus remained on white readers' concerns.
Author(s): Karen Sands-O'Connor
Series: Elements in Publishing and Book Culture
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Year: 2022
Cover
Title page
Copyright page
Contents
Introduction: Citizens of Tomorrow, Reading Today: Catering to the New ‘Teenager’ Reader in Britain
‘Tomorrow, for Better or Worse, They Will Be Britain’: Reading the Teenager
People Like Us: The British Teenager, Reading
All-Consuming Britishness: Creating Literature for the British Teenager
1 A Whole Raft of Readers Unaddressed: Peacocks, the ‘Reading Teen’, and Racial Diversity
Spreading the Peacock’s Plumes: Expanding the Children’s Department
Outside, Over There: Early Peacocks, the British Empire, and Diversity
Everyone in Their Place: Non-Fiction in Early Peacocks
With Peacock Feathers Flying: Involving Teen Readers after 1971
Once and Future History: Addressing Enslavement in Peacocks
Down the Garden Path: Sex across Racial Lines in 1970s Peacocks
So You Want to Be a Part of Britain? Peacock Non-Fiction after 1977
Peacock, Plus and Minus: The End of Peacock
Crossover Text: G. M. Glaskin’s A Waltz through the Hills
2 To Know Which Way the Wind Is Blowing: Ian Serraillier and New Windmill
The Wide World of Reading: Early New Windmills
Stepping Out or Out of Step? New Windmill and Black Britain
Maybe Multicultural: Non-Fiction New Windmills
Opening up the Classroom to Sir, with Love: New Windmills by Black Writers
Crossover Author: Joan Tate, Heinemann, and Topliners
3 Is It Always Like This? Topliners and Publishing for the Reluctant Reader of Colour
No Life in a Voodoo Planet: Rejecting an American Vision of Black People
The East End Is Somewhere around Here: Courting the Black and Asian Reader
Conclusion: A Positive Approach from Society towards Integration? British Young Adult Literature and White Privilege
References
Acknowledgements
