[Q] Is he someone you would like to have published, Philip Roth?

I did publish quite a few of his books at Penguin because we had bought the paperback rights and someone peculiarly, although not without some context… Philip, I'm pretty sure was introduced by me to my best friend who's my neighbour in Woodstock, a designed, the designer, Milton Glaser, and I believe Milton has done virtually every one of Philip's jackets and covers ever since then.

So, a) I was publishing him in paperback, but then also I had this second relationship with him through Milton Glaser on Philip's jackets and covers, and I think this was in both countries, the US and the UK. As you know the rights are territorially, generally speaking, divided. So although we were not his original publisher, we were his paperback publisher at that time. More recently I think the industry has become what is known as a 'vertically-based' industry and if you publish an author in hardback you generally speaking publish him in paperback as well and, as technology marches on, also in e-Book, but at that time the rights were split.