Allison & Busby (A & B) is a

publishing house Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

based in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

established by Clive Allison and Margaret Busby in 1967. The company has built up a reputation as a leading

independent publisher A small press is a publisher with annual sales below a certain level or below a certain number of titles published. The terms "indie publisher" and "independent press" and others are sometimes used interchangeably. Independent press is general ...

Background

Launching as a publishing company in May 1967, A & B in its first two decades published writers including Sam Greenlee,

Michael Moorcock Michael John Moorcock (born 18 December 1939) is an English people, English writer, best-known for science fiction and fantasy fiction, fantasy, who has published a number of well-received literary novels as well as comic thrillers, graphic nov ...

H. Rap Brown Jamil Abdullah al-Amin (born Hubert Gerold Brown; October 4, 1943), formerly known as H. Rap Brown, is a civil rights activist, black separatist, and convicted murderer who was the fifth chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee ...

Buchi Emecheta Florence Onyebuchi "Buchi" Emecheta (21 July 1944 – 25 January 2017) was a Nigerian-born novelist, based in the UK from 1962, who also wrote plays and an autobiography, as well as works for children. She was the author of more than 20 books, ...

, Nuruddin Farah, Rosa Guy, Roy Heath, Aidan Higgins, Chester Himes, Adrian Henri, Michael Horovitz,

C. L. R. James Cyril Lionel Robert James (4 January 1901 – 31 May 1989),Fraser, C. Gerald, '' The New York Times'', 2 June 1989. who sometimes wrote under the pen-name J. R. Johnson, was a Trinidadian historian, journalist and Marxist. His works are ...

, George Lamming, Geoffrey Grigson, Jill Murphy, Andrew Salkey, Ishmael Reed, Julius Lester,

Alexis Lykiard Alexis Lykiard (born 1940) is a British writer of Greek heritage, who began his prolific career as novelist and poet in the 1960s. His poems about jazz have received particular acclaim, including from Maya Angelou, Hugo Williams, Roy Fisher, Ke ...

, Colin MacInnes, Arthur Maimane, Adrian Mitchell,

Ralph de Boissière Ralph Anthony Charles de Boissière (6 October 1907 – 16 February 2008) was a Trinidad-born Australian social realist novelist. Described as "an outspoken opponent of racism, injustice, greed and corruption, a passionate humanist with a vision ...

, Gordon Williams, Alan Burns,

John Clute John Frederick Clute (born 12 September 1940) is a Canadian-born author and critic specializing in science fiction and fantasy literature who has lived in both England and the United States since 1969. He has been described as "an integral part ...

James Ellroy Lee Earle "James" Ellroy (born March 4, 1948) is an American crime fiction writer and essayist. Ellroy has become known for a telegrammatic prose style in his most recent work, wherein he frequently omits connecting words and uses only short, s ...

, Giles Gordon,

Clive Sinclair Sir Clive Marles Sinclair (30 July 1940 – 16 September 2021) was an English entrepreneur and inventor, best known for being a pioneer in the computing industry, and also as the founder of several companies that developed consumer electronic ...

, Jack Trevor Story, John Edgar Wideman, Val Wilmer, Margaret Thomson Davis, Dermot Healy, Richard Stark, B. Traven, Simon Leys, and others. Among the imprint's original titles are '' The Spook Who Sat by the Door'' (1969), '' Behold the Man'' (1969), '' The Final Programme'' (1969), '' The English Assassin'' (1972), '' The Worst Witch'' (1974), '' The Bride Price'' (1976), '' The Lives and Times of Jerry Cornelius'' (1976), '' The Condition of Muzak'' (1977), '' Gloriana'' (1978), '' The Chairman's New Clothes: Mao and the Cultural Revolution'' (1979), and ''

The True History of the Elephant Man ''The True History of the Elephant Man'' is a biography of Joseph Merrick written by Michael Howell and Peter Ford. It was published in 1980 in London, by Allison & Busby. It was distributed in the United States by Schocken Books. A second edit ...

'' (1980). The company was acquired by

W. H. Allen Ltd William H. Allen and Company (est. 1835) was a bookselling and publishing business in London, England, at first known for issuing works related to the British colonies. It operated from headquarters in Leadenhall Street, later moving to Water ...

in 1987, was subsequently part of Virgin Publishing, and has since "evolved and thrived under various independent managers", including Peter Day and

David Shelley David Joseph Shelley (November 23, 1957 – August 10, 2015) was an American blues rock musician who performed with Cher and released two critically acclaimed albums, ''That's My Train'' (2012) and ''Trick Bag'' (2013). Biography Early years Dav ...

. A & B is now owned by Spanish publisher

Javier Moll Javier Moll (born in 1950) is a Spanish businessman and owner of the Barcelona-based media company Editorial Prensa Ibérica. In 2007 his company owned over 20 newspapers in Spain and Portugal. He currently owns assets in South Australia, includin ...

's Editorial Prensa Ibérica."New face at Allison & Busby"
Publishing News Digital Archive, Kingston University Information Services, 25 February 2005. The current Publishing Director, appointed in 2005, is Susie Dunlop, and the imprint publishes "an array of books, from crime and thrillers to literary, historical and women's fiction, to fantasy, memoirs, and books on popular culture." At the time of the company's founding, Margaret Busby was the UK's youngest and the first black woman publisher; she left the company in 1987.Shereen Ali
"Sharing Our Voices"
, '' Trinidad Guardian'', 29 April 2015. Clive Allison died on 25 July 2011.

References

External links

Allison & Busby website.

Allison & Busby Books
on Facebook. {{DEFAULTSORT:Allison and Busby 1967 establishments in England Allison and Busby books Book publishing companies based in London British companies established in 1967 Publishing companies based in London Publishing companies established in 1967