Wednesday, July 06, 2011

The Penguin History of New Zealand reaches 250,000 copies sales milestone


The King Family, the Michael King Writers’ Centre Trust and Penguin Group (NZ) joined together to commemorate The Penguin History of New Zealand reaching the huge milestone of selling 250,000 copies and to mark the release of The Silence Beyond: Selected Writings by Michael King.
 Launched last week with family and friends at the Michael King Writers’ Centre in Devonport The Silence Beyond is a truly wonderful selection of the popular historian’s lesser known or unpublished works, and the first new Michael King publication since The Penguin History of New Zealand.
The launch was a lovely opportunity for all to remember Michael.
 MC Finlay Macdonald welcomed the return of Michael’s greatly missed and continually relevant voice in the New Zealand literary landscape, while Penguin General Manager of Publishing Debra Millar noted King’s long legacy in New Zealand publishing. 

Michael’s son Jonathan King spoke on behalf of the family and in particular about the book being a showcase for the more personal and humorous side of Michael often hidden from the public eye. The event was special for all involved.

 Photos below:
 Debra Millar, Penguin General Manager of Publishing and Geoff Walker, Former Penguin Publisher
 Finlay Macdonald and Rachael King
 Rachael King, Hannah Lorien-King, Matthew Lorien-King, Jonathan King and Sam Elworthy in background.



1 comment:

Geoff Churchman said...

And I thought 25,000 copies of one of my books was doing well! Those quarter million sales (presumably mostly within NZ) must surely demonstrate conclusively to NZ booksellers that stocking quality books about our history is worthwhile for them.