Founded in 1795
Constable and Co was founded in 1795 when Archibald Constable, an Edinburgh bookseller, opened a shop and began to publish original works under his own name. Thus was one of the first independent UK publishing houses started, and over the decades it became known as a house of excellence, publishing such names as Sir Walter Scott, Henry James, Bram Stoker, George Bernard Shaw, Elizabeth Bowen and B. S. Johnson.
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In 1999 Constable merged with another independent headed by Nick Robinson, Robinson Publishing, and became Constable & Robinson Ltd, publishing in a variety of fields including fiction, non-fiction, psychology, humour, brief histories and how to books. In 2012 C&R became Independent Publisher of the Year at both the Bookseller Awards and the IPG awards, and in 2014 the company was purchased by Little, Brown. To this day it remains a list that is defined by not only prestige but also commerciality.
Constable Non-Fiction
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Known for its breadth and vitality, Constable’s commercial and literary non-fiction encompasses biography, memoir, gift and humour, music, sport, history, politics and culture. In recent years, the imprint has gained a reputation for producing idiosyncratic bestsellers such as James Kerr’s Legacy, Francis Rossi’s I Talk Too Much and 50 People Who Buggered Up Britain by Quentin Letts.
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Home to some of the biggest names in music and sport, Constable’s authors include Mike Rutherford, Noddy Holder, Stephen Morris, DJ David Rodigan and Carly Simon. Recent Sunday Times bestsellers include Ian Wright’s A Life in Football and triathlete Chrissie Wellington’s A Life Without Limits, while former England cricket captain Mike Brearley’s On Cricket was a Times Sports Book of the Year.
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Constable is also one of the most successful imprints in the UK for gift and humour. Dear Lupin, by Roger and Charlie Mortimer, delighted readers with its wonderful eccentricity, earning a place on the Sunday Times bestsellers list. Emlyn Rees and Josie Lloyd’s We’re Going On a Bar Hunt and The Very Hungover Caterpillar have proved popular parodies of classic children’s books, while Titania McGrath’s genius satirical spoof, Woke, couldn’t be more of the moment.
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Politics, too, is an integral part of Constable and it is proud to publish galvanising titles from Harry Leslie Smith’s passionate call to arms, Don’t Let My Past Be Your Future, to Tottenham MP David Lammy’s Tribes. International literary heavyweights such as Jorge Galán, Alexis Wright and Eduardo Galeano round out an incredibly diverse list.
Constable Fiction
For those who like their tales with a twist
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Constable Fiction is a specialist crime and thriller imprint of Little, Brown Book Group. We publish quality storytelling with strong commercial appeal: our books will intrigue you, grip you and surprise you.
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Constable has a long and distinguished history of publishing the brightest writers of dark stories. Our origins lie in 1795 with the independent publishing house Constable & Co., the original publisher of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Nowadays, our books are Sunday Times and New York Times bestsellers; Waterstones Thrillers of the Month; Reese’s Book Club picks; and they have won the most prestigious awards in crime fiction, including the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, the Crime Writers’ Association Daggers and the McIlvanney Prize.
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Each Constable author brings their own unique voice to the genre and we pride ourselves on discovering new crime writing talent and supporting authors over long careers. We have something for every crime fiction fan, whether you’re looking for a deviously clever country-house mystery, a white-knuckle ride of a psychological thriller or a hardboiled police procedural. Our sleuths are solving the most puzzling of crimes in the Cumbrian moors, the Australian outback, the alleyways of Venice and more . . . the locations and mysteries come in all forms, but there is always a twist in the tale.
