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1942 ADVERTISEMENT

THE FORCES BOOK CLUB

" MANY Servicemen have been finding themselves short of books lately, especially of cheap books. The scarcity has been particularly felt by remote and inacessible units such as searchlight clusters, A.A. batteries, corvette crews, etc.

A plan has now been devised whereby the Services can be sure of a ration of good reading. The Army Bureau of Current Affairs and The Services Central Book Depot have collaborated with Penguin Books Limited, to create the Forces Book Club; and official authority has now been given to put the plan into operation.

Each month a committee will select 10 books - Modern Fiction, Crime, Travel, World Affairs, Biography, Science, Humour, Military Operations, Reconstruction, etc.

These 10 books will be made up into a standard parcel and distributed to all subscribing units of whatever size. A unit can take out a subscription covering any number of these standard parcels.

The subscription will be for £3 a year for one parcel a month (viz. 120 different books in all). For this subscription the parcels will be delivered free to units anywhere in the world. This rate, incidentally, works out at sixpence a copy, whereas "sixpennies" nowadays cost ninepence on the bookstalls.

The Forces Book Club will take no individual subscribers. Only units may join (including also, for this definition, Formation headquarters, Messes, Army Study Centres). The books become the absolute property of the units, and they must not be resold.

The Club is open to all units of the British, Dominion and Allied fighting services and to the Merchant Navy throughout the world."

THE FORCES BOOK CLUB, which was launched in 1942, was not a 'Penguin Series' as we understand them - such as the Main Series, or Pelicans, Specials, King Penguins and the others which have a Series pre-fix, such as 'A' for Pelicans. These were an amalgum of books, a selection made by a committee from those already published - or in the process of being published - by Penguin and sent out to Units of the Forces.

This particular venture demonstrated Penguin's desire to meet the needs of the armed services in the field. The War Office supplied 60 tons of paper to Penguin Books each month to enable the production of the package of 10 titles, each with a print run of 75,000. The books being supplied to the Units for an annual subscription of £3. The venture was supported by the Services Central Book Depot, which handled the subscriptions, and also by the Army Bureau of Current Affairs whose director, W.E. Williams also happened to be one of Penguin's original editors!

Books bore the number of the month (1 - 12) on the spine, so that all 10 books had the same number, and bore the same colour.

Many of the images used below are from the collection of David Edwards. We are grateful for the kind permission given by David Edwards to use his images located on Flickr.

Information and cover photographs of the Penguin's THE FORCES BOOK CLUB Periodical:

MONTH 1	Month: 1 - OCTOBER 1942 Book Cover Colour: RED Selection of 10 Books Published MODERN BATTLE by Major Paul W. Thompson Published by Penguin previously as Special: S113 Date: July 1942 A DIARY OF WORLD AFFAIRS by Marcel Hoden Published by Penguin previously as Special: S98 Date: July 1942 CINE-BIOLOGY by Mary Field, J. V. Durden and F. Percy Smith Published by Penguin previously as Pelican: A85 Date: June 1942 THE HOUSE OF EXILE by Nora Wain Published by Penguin previously as Main series: 168 (travel and adventure) Date: September 1938 UR OF THE CHALDEES by Sir Leonard Woolley Published by Penguin previously as Pelican: A27 Date: February 1938 SILVER LEY by Adrian Bell Published by Penguin previously as Main series: 278 (fiction) Date: August 1940 THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE by Stephen Crane Published by Penguin previously as Main series: 365 (fiction) Date: July 1942 [printed date: March 1942] THE EYES OF MAX CARADOS by Ernest Bramah Published by Penguin previously as Main series: 303 (crime) Date: December 1940 PANIC PARTY by Anthony Berkeley Published by Penguin subsequently as Main series: 402 (crime) Date: November 1942 BALLYGULLION by Lynn Doyle Published by Penguin previously as Main series: 366 (fiction) Date: September 1942 To see a book in the main listings click on the series number above.
MONTH 2	Month: 2 - NOVEMBER 1942 Book Cover Colour: GREEN Selection of 10 Books Published SUNSHINE SKETCHES OF A LITTLE TOWN by Stephen Leacock Published by Penguin previously as Main series: 320 (fiction) Date: March 1941 FONTAMARA by Ignazio Silone Published by Penguin previously as Main series: 143 (fiction) Date: July 1938 THE THREE HUNTING HORNS by Mary Fitt Published by Penguin previously as Main series: 301 (crime) Date: December 1940 THE MURDERS IN PRAED STREET by John Rhode Published by Penguin previously as Main series: 98 (crime) Date: June 1937 NATIONAL VELVET by Enid Bagnold Published by Penguin previously as Main series: 232 (fiction) Date: January 1940 [printed: 1939] IS TOMORROW HITLER'S? by H. R. Knickerbocker Published by Penguin simultaneously as Special: S123 Date: November 1942 THE ESCAPING CLUB by A. J. Evans Published by Penguin previously as Main series: 202 (travel and adventure) Date: May 1939 *PROFILES Selected From "The New Yorker"* Published by Penguin subsequently as Main series: 376 (miscellaneous) Date: January 1943 WHAT HAPPENED IN HISTORY by V. Gordon Childe Published by Penguin subsequently as Pelican: A108 Date: December 1942 TOWN PLANNING by Thomas Sharp Published by Penguin previously as Pelican: A66 Date: July 1940 To see a book in the main listings click on the series number above.
MONTH 3	Month: 3 - DECEMBER 1942 Book Cover Colour: LIGHT BLUE Selection of 10 Books Published DEWER RIDES by L. A. G. Strong Published by Penguin subsequently as Main series: 371 (fiction) Date: March 1943 [printed date: 1942] QUINNEYS' by H. A. Vachell Published by Penguin subsequently as Main series: 388 (fiction) Date: April 1943 [printed date: 1942] THE BAMBOO BLONDE by Dorothy B. Hughes Published by Penguin subsequently as Main series: 397 (crime) Date: January 1943 [printed date: 1942] THE GREEN MIRROR: A Quiet Story by Hugh Walpole Published by Penguin subsequently as Main series: 361 (fiction) Date: January 1943 [printed date: 1942] THE BARBER OF PUTNEY by J. B. Morton Published by Penguin previously as Main series: 246 (fiction) Date: March 1940 CUT THROAT by Christopher Bush Published by Penguin subsequently as Main series: 407 (crime) Date: April 1943 [printed date: October 1942] AN AIRFIGHTER'S SCRAP BOOK by Ira Jones Published by Penguin previously as Main series: 360 (travel and adventure) Date: November 1942 GROWING-UP IN NEW GUINEA: A Study of Adolescence and Sex in Primitive Societies by Margaret Mead Published by Penguin subsequently as Pelican: A117 Date: March 1943 A NATURALIST GOES TO WAR: Memoirs of a Camp-Follower by Philip Gosse Published by Penguin subsequently as Main series: 369 (travel and adventure) Date: January 1943 [printed date: 1942] MODERN AMERICAN SHORT STORIES Selected by Alan Steele and Joan Hancock Published by Penguin previously as Main series: 316 (fiction) Date: March 1941 To see a book in the main listings click on the series number above.
MONTH 4	Month: 4 - JANUARY 1943 Book Cover Colour: YELLOW Selection of 10 Books Published THE CHERRY TREE by Adrian Bell Published by Penguin previously as Main series: 264 (fiction) Date: June 1940 SELECTED TALES OF ALGERNON BLACKWOOD: Stories of the Supernatural and the Uncanny by Algernon Blackwood Published by Penguin subsequently as Main series: 393 (fiction) Date: May 1943 [printed date: 1942] ROOKERY NOOK by Ben Travers Published by Penguin subsequently as Main series: 399 (fiction) Date: May 1943 AN A B C OF THE PACIFIC by Dorothy Woodman Published by Penguin previously as Special: S114 Date: August 1942 ENTER A MURDERER by Ngaio Marsh Published by Penguin previously as Main series: 152 (crime) Date: August 1938 THE MISSING MONEYLENDER by W. Stanley Sykes Published by Penguin previously as Main series: 62 (crime) Date: July 1936 ENGLAND MADE ME by Graham Greene Published by Penguin subsequently as Main series: 392 (fiction) Date: March 1943 AN ANTHOLOGY OF WAR POETRY Edited by Julian Symons Published by Penguin subsequently as Pelican: A98 Date: February 1943 [printed date: 1942] THE WORST JOURNEY IN THE WORLD [in two volumes] by Apsley Cherry-Garrard Published by Penguin previously as Main series: 99-100 (travel and adventure) Date: June 1937 To see a book in the main listings click on the series number above.
MONTH 5	Month: 5 - FEBRUARY 1943 Book Cover Colour: CERISE Selection of 10 Books Published HOWARDS END by E. M. Forster Published by Penguin previously as Main series: 311 (fiction) Date: February 1941 THE LONELY PLOUGH by Constance Holme Published by Penguin previously as Main series: 47 (fiction) Date: June 1936 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL MURDER by R. C. Woodthorpe Published by Penguin previously as Main series: 285 (crime) Date: May 1940 BRITAIN B.C. by S. E. Winbolt Published by Penguin simultaneously as Pelican: A106 Date: February 1943 Published by Penguin subsequently as Main series: 414 (fiction) Date: March 1943 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE WORLD by H. G. Wells Published by Penguin previously as Main series: 31 (history) Date: March 1936, and then again published by Penguin as Pelican: A58 Date: May 1937 LOVE IN OUR TIME by Norman Collins Published by Penguin subsequently as Main series: 413 (fiction) Date: March 1943 THE GUN by C. S. Forrester Published by Penguin previously as Main series: 229 (fiction) Date: September 1939 TARKA THE OTTER by Henry Williamson Published by Penguin previously as Main series: 81 (fiction) Date: March 1937 MURDER BY BURIAL by Stanley Casson Published by Penguin subsequently as Main series: 418 (crime) Date: March 1943 [printed date: February 1943] To see a book in the main listings click on the series number above.
MONTH 6	Month: 6 - MARCH 1943 Book Cover Colour: TURQUOISE Selection of 10 Books Published CLAUDIUS THE GOD and his wife Messalina [in two volumes] by Robert Graves Published by Penguin subsequently as Main series: 421-422 (fiction) Date: August 1943 [printed date: March 1943] DEATH OF MY AUNT by C. H. B. Kitchin Published by Penguin previously as Main series: 190 (crime) Date: February 1939 SIAMESE WHITE by Maurice Collis Published by Penguin previously as Main series: 294 (travel and adventure) Date: March 1937 FAREWELL VICTORIA by T. H. White Published by Penguin subsequently as Main series: 342 (fiction) Date: April 1943 THE DARK FOREST by Hugh Walpole Published by Penguin subsequently as Main series: 420 (fiction) Date: July 1943 SOUTH LATTITUDE by F. D. Ommanney Published by Penguin subsequently as Main series: 417 (travel and adventure) Date: April 1943 [printed date: March 1943] HERE LIES: The Collected Stories of Dorothy Parker Published by Penguin subsequently as Main series: 419 (fiction) Date: July 1943 THE NURSING HOME MURDER by Ngaio Marsh and Dr. H. Jellett Published by Penguin previously as Main series: 355 (crime) Date: March 1942 [printed date: 1941] A SHORT HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE by B. Ifor Evans Published by Penguin subsequently as Pelican: A72 Date: July 1940 To see a book in the main listings click on the series number above.
MONTH 7	Month: 7 - APRIL 1943 Book Cover Colour: ORANGE Selection of 10 Books Published COLD COMFORT FARM by Stella Gibson Published by Penguin previously as Main series: 140 (fiction) Date: April 1938 NORTHANGER ABBEY by Jane Austen Published by Penguin subsequently as Main series: 425 (fiction) Date: May 1943 CORDUROY by ADRIAN BELL Published by Penguin previously as Main series: 247 (fiction) Date: March 1940 SPEEDY DEATH by Gladys Mitchell Published by Penguin subsequently as Main series: 433 (crime) Date: May 1943 [printed date: April 1943] THE UNFINISHED CLUE by Georgette Heyer Published by Penguin subsequently as Main series: 428 (crime) Date: May 1943 PASSENGER TO TEHERAN by Vita Sackville-West Published by Penguin subsequently as Main series: 405 (travel and adventure) Date: July 1943 RUSSIAN NEWSREEL: An Eye-Witness Account of the Soviet Union at War by Charlotte Haldane Published by Penguin subsequently as Main series: 431 (travel and adventure) Date: May 1943 [printed date: April 1943 DISRAELI by André Maurois Published by Penguin previously as Main series: 110 (biography) Date: April 1938 MATHEMATICIAN'S DELIGHT by W. W. Sawyer Published by Penguin subsequently as Pelican: A121 Date: August 1943 THE LADY OF THE BARGE by W. W. Jacobs Published by Penguin subsequently as Main series: 416 (fiction) Date: August 1943 To see a book in the main listings click on the series number above.
MONTH 8	Month: 8 - MAY 1943 Book Cover Colour: LIME Selection of 10 Books Published THE SCOND SHOT by Anthony Berkeley Published by Penguin subsequently as Main series: 409 (crime) Date: June 1943 [printed date: May 1943] ARTIFEX INTERVENES by Richard Keverne Published by Penguin subsequently as Main series: 410 (crime) Date: June 1943 [printed date: May 1943] THE "EGYPT'S" GOLD by David Scott Published by Penguin previously as Main series: 187 (travel and adventure) Date: February 1939 NAZIS IN NORWAY by Åke Fen Published by Penguin subsequently as Special: S95 Date: June 1943 THE DARK FLOWER by John Galsworthy Published by Penguin subsequently as Main series: 432 (fiction) Date: August 1943 [printed date: May 1943] TRADE WINDS by Louis Kornitzer Published by Penguin subsequently as Main series: 347 (travel and adventure) Date: July 1943 SEA ESCAPES AND ADVENTURES by "Taffrail" (Taprell Doring) Published by Penguin subsequently as Main series: 426 (travel and adventure) Date: September 1943 [printed date: May 1943] THE BALLADS OF BARNACLE BILL and other jingles by F. W. Thomas Published by Penguin subsequently as Main series: 412 (fiction) Date: September 1943 WATCHING BIRDS by James Fisher Published by Penguin previously as Pelican: A75 Date: February 1941 [printed date: 1940] MODERN IRISH SHORT STORIES Selected by Alan Steele and Joan Hancock Published by Penguin subsequently as Main series: 415 (fiction) Date: September 1943 [printed date: May 1943] To see a book in the main listings click on the series number above.
MONTH 9	Month: 9 - JUNE 1943 Book Cover Colour: VIOLET Selection of 10 Books Published THE GERMAN LEBENSRAUM by Robert E. Dickinson Published by Penguin previously as Special: S106 Date: March 1943 THE THREE FRIENDS by Norman Collins Published by Penguin simultaneously as Main series: 322 (fiction) Date: June 1943 THE SURGEON'S LOG by J. Johnston Abraham Published by Penguin previously as Main series: 66 (travel and adventure) Date: November 1936 THE MUTINY OF THE "ELSINORE" by Jack London Published by Penguin subsequently as Main series: 430 (fiction) Date: October 1943 PERSUASION by Jane Austen Published by Penguin subsequently as Main series: 427 (fiction) Date: September 1943 WHY SHOOT A BUTLER? by Georgette Heyer Published by Penguin subsequently as Main series: 429 (crime) Date: July 1943 THE INVISIBLE MAN by H. G. Wells Published by Penguin previously as Main series: 151 (crime) Date: August 1938 COUNTRY LIFE by H. E. Bates Published by Penguin subsequently as Main series: 401 (miscellaneous) Date: October 1943 BEYOND THE MICROSCOPE: Being an account of a voyage of discovery in the borderland country between the 'living' organism and the 'non-living' chemical by Kenneth M. Smith Published by Penguin subsequently as Pelican: A119 Date: July 1943 SCANDINAVIAN SHORT STORIES: A selection of Swedish, Norwegian and Danish Stories edited by Estrid Bannister Published by Penguin subsequently as Main series: 403 (fiction) Date: August 1943 To see a book in the main listings click on the series number above.
MONTH 10	Month: 10 - JULY 1943 Book Cover Colour: GREY Selection of 10 Books Published MAX CARRADOS by Ernest Bramah Published by Penguin subsequently as Main series: 436 (crime) Date: August 1943 THE NEBULY COAT by John Meade Falkner Published by Penguin subsequently as Main series: 437 (crime) Date: September 1943 [printed date: July 1943] PUT OUT MORE FLAGS by Evelyn Waugh Published by Penguin subsequently as Main series: 423 (fiction) Date: October 1943 A PASSAGE TO INDIA by E. M. Forster Published by Penguin previously as Main series: 48 (fiction) Date: June 1936 SPORTING ADVENTURE by J. Wentworth Day Published by Penguin subsequently as Main series: 424 (travel and adventure) Date: October 1943 [printed date: July 1943] This copy was signed on the cover by the author; part of collection held at Bristol University Library GUERRILLA WAR IN ABYSSINIA by W. E. D. Allen Published by Penguin subsequently as Main series: 439 (travel and adventure) Date: August 1943 PORTRAIT OF ENGLAND: An Anthology by Christian Mawson Published by Penguin previously as Main series: 400 (miscellaneous) Date: December 1942 WHILE ROME BURNS by Alexander Woollcott Published by Penguin previously as Main series: 118 (miscellaneous) Date: November 1937 WITHIN FOUR WALLS by Major M. C. C. Harrison and Capt. H. A. Cartwright Published by Penguin previously as Main series: 281 (travel and adventure) Date: May 1940 SCOTTISH SHORT STORIES Edited by Theodora and J. F. Hendry Published by Penguin simultaneously as Main series: 389 (fiction) Date: July 1943 To see a book in the main listings click on the series number above.
MONTH 11	Month: 11 - AUGUST 1943 Book Cover Colour: DARK RED Selection of 10 Books Published THE SILK STOCKING MURDERS by Anthony Berkeley Published by Penguin previously as Main series: 368 (crime) Date: January 1942 THE DYING ALDERMAN by Henry Wade Published by Penguin previously as Main series: 266 (crime) Date: June 1940 INTO MADAGASCAR by K. C. Gandar Dower Published by Penguin simultaneously as Main series: 441 (travel and adventure) Date: August 1943 BRIGHTON ROCK: An Entertainment by Graham Greene Published by Penguin simultaneously as Main series: 442 (fiction) Date: August 1943 A MAN'S MAN by Ian Hay Published by Penguin previously as Main series: 438 (fiction) Date: July 1943 [printed date: May 1943] THE PATRICIAN by John Galsworthy Published by Penguin subsequently as Main series: 406 (fiction) Date: October 1943 FRIENDS AND RELATIONS by Elizabeth Bowen Published by Penguin subsequently as Main series: 398 (fiction) Date: October 1943 SELECTED SHORT STORIES OF "SAKI" Published by Penguin previously as Main series: 184 (fiction) Date: February 1939 SOCIAL LIFE IN THE INSECT WORLD by J. H. Fabre Published by Penguin previously as Pelican: A14 Date: October 1937 A BOOK OF ENGLISH POETRY: Chaucer to Rossetti Edited by G. B. Harrison Published by Penguin previously as Pelican: A17 Date: October 1937 To see a book in the main listings click on the series number above.
MONTH 12	Month: 12 - SEPTEMBER 1943 Book Cover Colour: DARK BLUE Selection of 10 Books Published THE CHINESE by William Galbraith Published by Penguin previously as Pelican: A86 Date: March 1942 SHE WAS A QUEEN by Maurice Collis Published by Penguin subsequently as Main series: 443 (fiction) Date: March 1944 [printed date: 1943] THE COUNTRY HOUSE by John Galsworthy Published by Penguin previously as Main series: 385 (fiction) Date: December 1942 THE SECRET CITY: A Novel in Three Parts by Hugh Walpole Published by Penguin subsequently as Main series: 445 (fiction) Date: December 1942 ARGUMENT OF EMPIRE by W. K. Hancock Published by Penguin previously as Special: S130 Date: June 1943 THE WEATHER by George Kimble and Raymond Bush Published by Penguin subsequently as Pelican: A124 Date: November 1943 A CUCKOO IN THE NEST by Ben Travers Published by Penguin previously as Main series: 44 (fiction) Date: June 1936 ON THE NIGHT OF THE FIRE by F. L. Green Published by Penguin previously as Main series: 386 (fiction) Date: November 1942 [printed date: August 1942] THE GENERAL GOES TOO FAR by Lewis Robinson Published by Penguin previously as Main series: 383 (crime) Date: January 1943 [printed date: 1942] WILLIAM COOK - ANTIQUE DEALER by Richard Keverne Published by Penguin previously as Main series: 384 (crime) Date: November 1942 [printed date: August 1942] To see a book in the main listings click on the series number above.

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