WORLD PAYING £500,000 A YEAR

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXVIII, Issue 13026, 3 May 1940, Page 8

WORLD PAYING £500,000 A YEAR

FOR BRITISH BOOKS THAT ANSWER GOEBBELS

The world is taking an increasing interest in British books, and the latest “best seller’’ is a special export edition of the Government’s Blue Book, outlining the events which led up to the war. His Majesty’s Stationary Office granted special rights to the popular sixpenny Penguin series to issue this edition commez’cially, and over 100,000 copies have already been sold overseas. In proportion to population, the largest Empire sales were in New Zealand, though other countries in the British Commonwealth followed closely. Among European neutrals, Holland was most concerned to read Britain’s “case.”

The export edition is not sold in the U.S.A., but “Why Britain Is At W'ar,” an unofficial statement of the facts by Mr Harold Nicholson, M.P., has been rushed to America by air via Lisbon. Twenty thousand copies have reached New York.

“Each year Britain produces about £ 1,500,000 worth of books, and at least one third of the total is exported,” said a London publisher. “It is significant that since the war the most popular subjects are those which refletet the British point of view. This has the gratuitous effect of answering Dr Goebbels, and its value cannot be measured in terms of money. “Realising the double advantage of British book exports, the Government has empowered the Ministry of Supply to grant additional paper supplies for books which, will be sold to overseas readers. “The bulk of British volumes sent abroad , are educational and other text-books, biography and- history. Fiction provides an exceedingly small proportion.”