Another anniversary is that now of fifteen years for Greenhill Books. Greenhill today has come a long way from its origins fifteen years ago, in October 1984, at the Arms & Armour Press offices in Hampstead. In the period leading to my sale of Arms & Armour Press, there had been a significant development in printing – the short-run printing process. A combination of factors enabled a British printer, Anthony Rowe, to set up a system whereby books could be printed economically in lower quantities than ever before. A short run meant that one could reprint books that were out of stock, or reprint older titles that were out of print but catered for niche or specialist audiences. I started discussions concerning setting up a system to reissue military books that were 'in demand', the original intention being for these to appear as a subsection of Arms & Armour Press but, coincidentally, it was whilst these discussions were in progress with my then colleagues and a number of outside advisers that I took the unrelated decision to sell Arms & Armour Press. As the negotiations were in progress it was not only agreed that the short run publications were not part of the plans of the new owners but also, it being a condition of 'non competition' in the contract for the sale of Arms & Armour Press, that I would be restricted for a period of time from issuing new books. Hence the new owners, Link House Books Limited (who also owned Blandford Press), were happy for me to undertake this low intensity publishing activity. The name Greenhill was chosen because it was sufficiently general to cover a wide range of subjects, the inspiration being the locally well-known 'Greenhill' site in Hampstead High Street which I looked out upon for many years from my desk in the Arms & Armour Press office. The tree logo was developed from a wood engraving by Thomas Bewick (1753–1828). The initial publishing programme ranged from the Vintage Aviation Library to Vintage Crime Classics (edited by me) and Vintage Science Fiction and Fantasy (edited by Brian Stableford). I stayed with Arms & Armour Press for two years after the sale, and, on the one hand, the business was gradually integrated into that of Link House Books in Poole and it was sad to see members of the team that I had built depart, but, on the other, the Greenhill Books list gradually developed. As it did so it became apparent that it was those books on military subjects that were developing most strongly and the (enjoyable) fiction reprints were gradually phased out. We still, however, receive enquiries from time to time for books by Edgar Wallace, for example; there seems to be an audience for them out there somewhere. The sale of Arms & Armour Press, coinciding with the publication of the first Greenhill books, took place in October 1984 and the offices in Hampstead were maintained for a further two years. In October 1986, Link House Books closed the Hampstead office and shortly thereafter sold their group of seven book publishing houses to Cassell (and Cassell itself was bought out last year). My link with Arms & Armour Press was then severed, although I had hoped that there might have been some sort of continuing role, and I was never contacted again. At that time I was moving home and, due to the vagaries of the house market, was caught in the trap of having a new house but not yet selling the old. This enabled my office contents of books, files, furniture and so forth to be moved into the garage of the old, where it was packed solid (to be out of immediate sight as potential purchasers were shown around) and a couple of desks to be set up on the bare boards of an empty, echoing lounge. Greenhill's modest publishing was able to continue and, at the end of June 1987, was moved into Park House, Russell Gardens, London NW11. Lynda Jones, my long-standing secretary (who had joined me in 1973) moved with me, and still works with me, and David Gibbons (who had joined me in 1969) plus Tony Evans (another 1973 joinee) set up a freelance design team which continues to work to this day on our new books. The first Greenhill books were issues of two classics about World War I aviation – Immelman: The Eagle of Lille and Rovers of the Night Sky. These were released on 25th October 1984, with simple blue covers. The following February, two books in the Vintage Crime Classics appeared, and both series continued to be published for several years with 24 volumes appearing in the Vintage Aviation Library (The Red Air Fighter having just been reprinted) and 12 in the Vintage Crime Classics. Six volumes appeared in the Vintage Science Fiction and Fantasy Classics. It was as the three 'Vintage' series appeared that I received a letter from Random House in New York saying that we should not use that word. I protested, pointing out that the books were turn-of-the-century classics and the word fitted them perfectly, and that they could not take the word out of the English language. They disagreed. I pointed out that people talked, wrote and published about vintage champagne and wine, or cars, or many other things. Random House said that they had trade-marked the word in respect of its use for publishing, and we should prepare for litigation. I quoted Marx vs Warner Brothers – when the Marx Brothers announced that they were going to make a film called A Night in Casablanca, Warner Brothers undertook litigation claiming that this could be confused with their Humphrey Bogart film Casablanca. Argument ensued, and when Warner Brothers' lawyers asked for the script of the Marx Brothers' film they received so many confusing messages it left them totally bemused. But then Marx Brothers counter-sued Warner Brothers, saying that their act had appeared first on the Vaudeville stage, and hence they had a prior claim over the use of the word 'Brothers', and Warner Brothers should cease their usage of the word. The claim and counter-claim disappeared. I had a meeting in New York, and Random House entirely agreed that my publishing was of no danger to them, they expressed friendship, but said that they would certainly proceed with legal action, and of course had in-house attorneys for such, not regarding this as anything personal but because they had to defend the name 'vintage' in case some bigger fish than me came along. Hence shortly thereafter the word 'vintage' disapeared from the books, to be replaced by Greenhill. Other fiction published by Greenhill included books by Arnold Bennett, Arthur Conan Doyle, Joseph Conrad, Edgar Wallace, John Galsworthy, Ellery Queen and Israel Zangwill. The first non-aviation, military book Greenhill published was The Journal of the Waterloo Campaign by General Cavalié Mercer, which appeared in August 1985, the first book also in the Napoleonic Library, a series which continues today. In the early years of Greenhill all the publications were reprints or reissues, although sometimes one had to question as to whether a book created from material that had never been presented in a stand-alone book format was or was not a reprint (such as The Waterloo Campaign by Sir John Fortescue, or Arms and Equipment of the British Army with additional material by John Walter, or the English language presentation of The Exercise of Armes by Jacob De Gheyn). One pressure was that many bookshops or public libraries defined 'reprint' as something which had appeared in any format, at any time, and therefore they would not stock it, and this kept the print-runs low and restricted Greenhill's capabilities. I always asked that if Shakespeare had been out of print and restored to availability, would they say that they would not stock it, but that never got me anywhere. Through the latter half of the 1980s many fine books were made available, including: Wellington's Army, 1809–1814. Sir Charles Oman. The Exercise of Armes. Jacob De Gheyn. Napoleonic Military History: A Bibliography. Ed. Donald D. Horward (reprinted from a U.S. published book). Dictionary of Military Terms. The U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff. Ships of the Royal Navy. J. J. Colledge (revised edition). A History of the Art of War in the 16th Century. Sir Charles Oman. Lost Victories. Field Marshal Erich von Manstein. The Military Maxims of Napoleon. With a new commentary by David Chandler. Commando Men: The Story of a Royal Marine Commando in World War II. Bryan Samain. In Zululand with the British Throughout the War of 1879. (Greenhill's first of a number of books about the Anglo-Zulu War, published in July 1988.) The Memoirs of Field-Marshal Kesselring. And then in October 1988 came a significant event – the publication of Greenhill's first wholly and completely original book requiring new setting, The Royal Navy in World War II: A Bibliographic Guide by D. G. Law. This book sets what I believe are the ideal standards for any quality bibliography, in terms of access, subject classification and, in particular, comments about each book which put it into perspective. I have a collection of bibliographies on military history, and I continue to use this fine reference book today. Still however the strong programme of reissues, reprints and revised editions continued with books such as: Storm from the Sea. Peter Young. The Seafire: The Spitfire that Went to Sea. David Brown (revised edition). Long Range Desert Group. W. B. Kennedy Shaw, with a new Introduction by David Lloyd Owen. War Books: An Annotated Bibliography. Cyril Falls, updated by W. J. Wyatt. Bomber Offensive. Sir Arthur Harris, with a new Introduction by Denis Richards. Führer Conferences on Naval Affairs. With a new Introduction by Jak Mallman Showell. Doenitz: Memoirs – Ten Years and Twenty Days. With new material by Jurgen Röhwer. My bibliographic reference works and liaisons with specialist booksellers and authorities in the subject area, plus volumes of Who Was Who and similar biographical reference works, enabled research into books of merit which should be republished. Sometimes the search for the heirs of an author turned into a detective story in their own right – but that's another story, if anyone is interested. It was at this time that we had an all-time best excuse from a printer when we were seeking confirmation of a schedule for the production of a book. We called to check on progress, to be told 'Sorry, the printing press has been stolen.' Yes, there had been a break-in by an obviously knowledgeable and experienced team, and a new printing press had been uplifted and removed. To add insult to injury, it was removed in one of the printer's own trucks. The police are said to have advised that such thefts on an 'order to order' basis were not unknown, and the equipment was probably over on the Continent in a matter of hours. The printer did however organise things so that the book still met its production schedule. Back to Greenhill Military Book News No. 94 Table of Contents Back to Greenhill Military Book News List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 1999 by Greenhill Books This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com