Chapter 8 - The Shiralee in the North

Summary

In the business to create sales large enough to justify the capital costs involved in sustaining the production, sale and distribution of wholly Australian books (or what MacQuarrie described as ‘books with a limited appeal’), the London office sought to publish what the market demanded. That is, books not ‘of the normal procession which ends with dignity in the offices of various well-established publishers’ but rather ‘something fresh, new … original and lively’.

No doubt as a consequence of their dedication, the first two titles published (and manufactured in Britain) under the auspices of ‘Operation London’ were texts of American origin: Esquire Etiquette: A Guide to Business, Sports and Social Conduct by the editors of Esquire Magazine was a title first published in 1953 by Lippincott, based in Philadelphia, as was the 1950 title by Sheila MacKay Russell, A Lamp is Heavy.

These books were of the kind that once would likely have been refused importation into Australia direct from the United States during Australia's ongoing licensing and dollar conservation situation. They were also books in which copyright for the Australian market would conventionally have been purchased by British publishers through ‘their infamous pact about American rights’.