He’s got a greater connection than you first imagine!
Exeter St David’s railway station has the first vending machine for Penguin books in the Country . And it was such an honour that Michael Morpurgo and his wife Clare took the trouble to cut the ribbon and launch the machine on Friday, 21 April,
2023, and sell its books to the railway commuters of Exeter.
Michael lives in Devon, at Nethercott Farm, and is married to Lady Clare, the daughter of Sir Allen Lane, the founder of Penguin books. And there is our connection between Michael and Penguin.
Moreover, Clare mentioned in an interview, that her father had had the idea for Penguin books and a book vending machine when he had visited his friend, Agatha Christie in Devon in 1934. Having left his author friend’s home, he found no affordable, captivating books to purchase at the Exeter station as he awaited the train back home to London.
Today Great Western Railways, GWR , has partnered with Graddon vending and chosen Exeter as a favoured station to site the first machine of this relaunch. It sits at the entrance of the station and sells a mixture of Penguin titles only. And titles rotate regularly, including modern and contemporary subjects for your train journey .
Profits from this vending machine are divided between a local book store and the Exeter City of Literature, which is great for the local area. People associated with Penguin feel this is a great way to celebrate the Company’s origins.
Book-dispensing machines have a broken history – the first one being launched in 1822 by Richard Carlile as an opportunity to sell his perhaps unsavoury books without direct contact with the public. The first recognised proper dispenser , however, was Mr Lane’s.
But the interesting back story to Penguin books was Sir Allen Lane’s vision in the 1930s to produce mass- market paper backs, with subjects that superseded the normal trashy novels , for the price of a packet of cigarettes. In the early days, Allen invented the “Penguincubator” – the 1st machine to sell his books in 1937. This machine was installed in Charing Cross Road , with the same intention to open up book sales beyond book stores and libraries . This was met with some resistance by neighbouring book sellers
The Penguincubator didn’t really take off back then and very few were manufactured.
In recent years, book vending machines have sprung up in major cities like Barcelona and Paris. Japan, which is experienced in selling most things through a vending machine, has had quite good success with its book vending network.
Now we are on a retry with Penguin in the UK and Sir Michael kindly attended the official launch.
Michael has led a colourful life; he was a wartime evacuee, and briefly joined the army, before studying at King’s College, London to become a teacher. Latterly he set up City children’s farms with his wife, which still run today – even in Devon at Nethercott. It is Devon where he raised his family and wrote most of his novels including The War Horse and Why the Whales Came.