Barrington Stoke is a children's book publisher based in
Edinburgh,
Scotland. The company was founded in 1998 and publishes fiction and non-fiction adapted to different reading ages for reluctant, under-confident and
dyslexic
Dyslexia, also known until the 1960s as word blindness, is a disorder characterized by reading below the expected level for one's age. Different people are affected to different degrees. Problems may include difficulties in spelling words, r ...
children and teens. The books are printed on cream paper to reduce glare and language-edited to increase readability. The text is a specially-adapted dyslexia-friendly font, with a considered layout and numerous chapter breaks.
Barrington Stoke was awarded Publisher of the Year in 2007 by the Independent Publisher’s Guild. In 2020, Barrington Stoke had its first CILIP
Carnegie Medal winner with ''Lark'' by
Anthony McGowan.
History
Barrington Stoke was founded by Patience Thomson and Lucy Juckes in 1998. Thomson was a principal of a specialist school for dyslexic students and Juckes had held a marketing role with
Bloomsbury Publishing
Bloomsbury Publishing plc is a British worldwide publishing house of fiction and non-fiction. It is a constituent of the FTSE SmallCap Index. Bloomsbury's head office is located in Bloomsbury, an area of the London Borough of Camden. It has a U ...
. They identified children and young people excluded from books due to dyslexia or other reading issues. The pair then formed Barrington Stoke in Juckes’ living room, with an aim to produce books with a different design and editorial approach, along with a shorter format to support less able readers.
Authors
Barrington Stoke publishes well-known children's authors such as
Kevin Brooks,
Terry Deary,
Elizabeth Kay
Elizabeth Kay (born 9 July 1949 in London) is an English writer. She is the author of The Divide trilogy, a series of children's fantasy novels, originally published by Chicken House Press, then picked up by Scholastic Books
Biography
Before goin ...
, Anthony McGowan,
Robert Swindells
Robert E. Swindells (born 20 March 1939) is an English author of children's and young adult fiction.
For the young-adult novel '' Stone
Cold'' (Heinemann, 1993), which dealt with homelessness, he won the annual Carnegie Medal from the Library ...
,
Lisa Thompson,
Onjali Q Raúf and
Diana Wynne Jones. The company also publishes previous
Children’s Laureate
Children's Laureate, now known as the 'Waterstones Children's Laureate' is a prestigious position awarded in the United Kingdom once every two years to a "writer or illustrator of children's books to celebrate outstanding achievement in their fie ...
s such as
Anne Fine,
Michael Morpurgo,
Malorie Blackman,
Michael Rosen,
Julia Donaldson and
Laureate na nÓg
Laureate na nÓg is a position awarded in Ireland once every two years to a distinguished writer or illustrator of children's books. It was set up by the Arts Council of Ireland in 2010. It is intended "to engage young people with high quality chi ...
Eoin Colfer. Some authors better known for writing for adults also write for Barrington Stoke, including
Eric Brown,
Allan Guthrie
Allan Guthrie (born Allan Buchan; 5 June 1965) is a Scottish literary agent, author and editor of crime fiction. He was born in Orkney, but has lived in Edinburgh for most of his adult life. His first novel, '' Two-Way Split'', was shortlisted ...
,
James Lovegrove
James M. H. Lovegrove (born 1965) is a British writer of speculative fiction.
Early life
Lovegrove was educated at Radley College, Oxfordshire, and was one of the subjects of a 1979 BBC television series, ''Public School''. A follow-up prog ...
and
Gwyneth Jones writing as
Ann Halam.
Imprints
Barrington Stoke launched its Picture Squirrel imprint in 2014 after a dyslexic father lamented the fact that he could not read to his daughter.
The Bookstart Michael Morpurgo was the first children's author to join Barrington Stoke's picture book list.
In 2015 the company ventured into digital and launched Tints, a dyslexia-friendly reading app that allowed its specially-designed books to be accessed via tablets.
See also
* Scottish Publishers Association
Publishing Scotland is a trade association for the publishing industry in Scotland.
It was established in 1973 as the Scottish General Publishers Association with the support of the Scottish Arts Council. It was subsequently known as the Scottish ...
References
External links
Barrington Stoke
Picture Squirrels
{{Authority control
Book publishing companies of Scotland
Companies based in Edinburgh
1997 establishments in Scotland
Publishing companies established in 1997