Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today. I am, I must admit in a bit of a rush, so please forgive any tardiness in this post
There was I yesterday, scrolling down Twitter, when I discovered an article which explained that Random House, which now owns Penguin Books, no longer recognise and negotiate with any union in the Penguin Books division.
Now I won't bother to discuss the nature of the particular dispute, unions and employers will never agree on everything ever. That's the nature of things, unions are for the workers, employers are for themselves and their interests. What is disturbing is that it has happened to Penguin Books. A company that I have loved and respected since childhood under their Puffin brand.
And it's upsetting.
Penguin Books represents many things. It gave you a vast array of books on many subjects from many countries with differing views of life and yet it was also essentially a firm that also had at its heart a sense of decency. This action has ripped any final sense that it was special. It has become just another arm of a multinational company and it's not bothering to hide it in a glorious past anymore.
If you can be in a union you should be. If it is the will of the employees of Penguin Books that they should be represented by a Trade Union so that the power of the group and face the power of the company then why not? It's democracy. But no. For you know that in doing this Random House know the power of the brand but not in what made the brand tick, the people. Not just the writers but the designers, proof readers, printers, editors etc. What they don't realise, or perhaps don't care, is by doing something that is against everything you believed Penguins to be, that in one action, though it will happen slowly, the brand has been destroyed.
So what will I do with my collection? Well I had thought of just stopping it. Something that would have the approval of my wife as a shelf space argument is soon going to come. But instead I've decided to continue with the paperback collection but stop at 2013,when I understand Random House took over.
Now you might say that I only buy pre owned Penguins/Pelicans nowadays anyway so what does it matter? The answer is I do buy "new" Penguins but as ebooks (the George Orwell and Jay Rayner books I discussed recently as an example) . I'm just not going to buy anymore Penguin publications to instantly download. Finished.
Of course as I've said on other things this is but a gesture, but sometimes gestures are all you have.
Quickly mentioning other books I've finished the Joey Barton autobiography . It was interesting, though I'm still not sure whether my view of him remains unchanged. Unsure whether I'll be able to go to a library before Christmas so the next book (which you may remember I bought in Maesteg indoor market in April) is Hemingway's chair by Michael Palin. Must be honest I'm not as excited in reading this than I felt when bought due to the disappointment that was the diaries. Speaking of disappointment the Beatrice Webb diaries (volume two) were dull. They were more detailed than they were emotional and that to me was surprising. Buying it after remembering reading Volume 1 as a teenager was a mistake. I won't bother with volume three.
Still at least she believed in trade unions.
Until the next time
