Canongate Books

Origins

Canongate was founded in 1973 by Stephanie Wolfe Murray and her husband Angus Wolfe Murray. Originally a speciality press focusing on Scottish-interest books, generally with small print runs, its most major author was Alasdair Gray. In 1994, it was purchased from the receiver in a management buyout led by Jamie Byng, using funds provided by his stepfather Christopher Bland and his father-in-law Charlie McVeigh, and began to publish more general works, including the Pocket Canons editions of books of the Bible, as well as the Payback Press and Rebel Inc. imprints. Byng is CEO of the company.

In June 2010 it was announced that a "living archive" of Canongate Books was to be established at the University of Dundee in collaboration with the University's Archive Services, which will be used for teaching and research.

Partners and joint ventures

Canongate once had a sister company in Australia, Text Publishing; Canongate's majority interest was sold in 2011. It also has joint venture operations with the children's publisher Walker who will publish selected titles for their young adult fiction list. Grove/Atlantic, Inc. publishes under the Canongate U.S. imprint, also under a joint venture arrangement. In March 2010, Canongate and Dirtee Stank announced a joint venture agreement to publish Dizzee Rascal's memoir, although this agreement later fell through.

Canongate is part of the Independent Alliance, a global alliance of 10 UK publishers and their international publishing partners. In 2009, the Alliance was the UK's fifth-largest publisher.

Enhanced Editions and Canongate also work in partnership in the production of selected books enhanced for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The titles that have been released are: Dreams From My Father, The Audacity of Hope, The Death of Bunny Munro and The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ.

Notable authors and works

Before 1994

Alasdair Gray

• Lanark: A Life in Four Books (1981)
• A Life in Pictures (2010)

Charles Palliser

• The Quincunx (1989)

Later

Julian Assange

• Julian Assange – the Unauthorised Autobiography (2011). Assange's autobiography was published without his consent, and Canongate and Assange gave differing accounts of the events surrounding publication.

The Mighty Boosh

• The Mighty Book of Boosh (2008) and The Pocket Book of Boosh (2009), a coffee-table style hardback and "pocket" edition of a tie-in to the TV series.

Noel Fielding (with Mighty Boosh member Dave Brown)

• The Scribblings of a Madcap Shambleton (2011).

Nick Cave

• The Death of Bunny Munro (2009), the second novel by musician Nick Cave, was announced in 2008. It was published in hardback, audiobook, ebook and iPhone application formats in September 2009.

David Eagleman

• Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives (2009), made famous by a Tweet from Stephen Fry and the subject of a live show by Brian Eno.

Michel Faber

• The Crimson Petal and the White (2002), a historical novel set in Victorian England. Faber followed this with a collection of stories, The Apple (2006).

Matt Haig

• The Radleys (2010)

Steven Hall

• The Raw Shark Texts (2007)

Miranda July

• No One Belongs Here More Than You (2007)

Ismail Kadare

• The Ghost Rider
• The Siege (2008)

Yann Martel

• Life of Pi (2001, Canongate edition 2002), the first Scottish-published book to win the Booker Prize or to sell a million copies in its first year. An illustrated hardback edition was published in 2007.
• Beatrice and Virgil (2010), an allegory of the Holocaust using a donkey named Beatrice and a howler monkey named Virgil.

James Meek

• The People's Act of Love (2005), winner of the Scottish Arts Council Book of the Year and the Ondaatje Prize.

Barack Obama

• Dreams from My Father (1995, Canongate edition 2007)
• The Audacity of Hope (2006, Canongate edition 2007) was acquired after a series of emails between Byng and then-Senator Obama and his team.
• Change We Can Believe In (2008, Canongate edition 2009)

Dizzee Rascal

• The Dizzee Rascal Story (2010)

David Shrigley

• What The Hell Are You Doing? (2010)

David Simon

• Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets (1991, Canongate edition 2008)
• The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood (1997, Canongate edition 2009)

Martin C. Strong

• The Great Rock Discography, 1st ed. (1994)
• The Great Rock Discography, 2nd ed. (1995)
• The Great Rock Discography, 3rd ed. (1996)
• The Great Rock Discography, 4th ed. (1998)
• The Great Rock Discography, 5th ed. (2000)
• The Great Rock Discography, 6th ed. (2002)
• The Great Rock Discography, 7th ed. (2004)
• The Great Metal Discography, 1st ed. (1998)
• The Great Metal Discography, 2nd ed. (2002)
• The Wee Rock Discography (1996)
• The Great Alternative & Indie Discography (1999)
• The Great Indie Discography, 2nd ed. (2003)
• The Essential Rock Discography (2006)
• Lights, Camera, Soundtracks (2008)

Scarlett Thomas

• The End of Mr. Y (2007)
• PopCo (2004, Canongate edition 2009)
• Our Tragic Universe (2010)

Simon Tofield

• Simon's Cat (2009), the award-winning animation was published in book format in October 2009.

[[Canongate Myth Series]]

In which contemporary authors re-imagine ancient myths from a variety of cultures

• Karen Armstrong, A Short History of Myth (2005)
• Margaret Atwood, The Penelopiad (2005)
• Jeanette Winterson, Weight (2005)
• Michel Faber, The Fire Gospel (2008)
• David Grossman, Lion's Honey (2006)
• Alexander McCall Smith, Dream Angus (2006)
• Victor Pelevin, The Helmet of Horror (2006)
• Ali Smith, Girl Meets Boy (2007)
• Su Tong, Binu and the Great Wall (2007)
• Salley Vickers, Where Three Roads Meet (2007)
• Dubravka Ugrešić, Baba Yaga Laid an Egg (2009)
• Klas Östergren, The Hurricane Party (2009)
• Milton Hatoum, The Orphans of Eldorado (2010)
• Philip Pullman, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ (2010)

Prizes

• 2007: No One Belongs Here More Than You by Miranda July won the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award.
• 2008: The Boat by Nam Le won the Dylan Thomas Prize.
• 2009: Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi by Geoff Dyer won the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize.
• 2009: The Boat by Nam Le won the Australian Prime Minister's Literary Awards.
• 2015: Beatlebone by Kevin Barry won the Goldsmiths Prize.
• 2016: Solar Bones by Mike McCormack won the Goldsmiths Prize.
• 2016: The Outrun by Amy Liptrot won the Wainwright Prize.

References

References

1. "CANONGATE BOOKS LIMITED - Overview (Free company information from Companies House)".
2. https://www.scotsman.com/arts-and-culture/books/canongate-i-liked-it-so-much-i-bought-the-company-1-893485 {{Dead link. (February 2022)
3. Flood, Alison. (2 June 2009). "Obama helps Canongate become publisher of the year". The Guardian.
4. Byatt, Lucinda (May 2006), [http://textline.wordpress.com/solander/reviewsinterviews-jamie-byng-and-canongate/ "Jamie Byng and Canongate"], ''Solander'' magazine, Historical Novel Society, UK, Vol. 19. {{Webarchive. link. (11 April 2012 .)
5. Deveney, Catherine. (24 October 2005). "Canongate Books - The mane man". The Scotsman.
6. Sharp, Iain (9 July 2006), [http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3726352a4501,00.html "Bada Byng, bada boom"], stuff.co.nz. {{Webarchive. link. (21 August 2006 .)
7. (October 2025). "University and Canongate link to form 'Living Archive'". [[University of Dundee]].
8. (2010-06-24). "Canongate Books". Archives records and Artefacts at the University of Dundee.
9. Steger, Jason. (26 June 2004). "Text Publishing starts next chapter". The Age.
10. Neilan, Catherine (15 December 2009), [http://www.thebookseller.com/news/106729-canongate-and-walker-create-joint-young-adult-imprint.html "Canongate and Walker create joint young adult imprint"], ''[[The Bookseller]]''. {{webarchive. link. (23 January 2010 .)
11. Rogerson, Paul. (3 November 2005). "Modest helping of Pi brings slimmer profits at Canongate". The Herald.
12. Miller, Phil. (5 March 2010). "Rascal teams up with Scottish publisher". The Herald.
13. [http://www.faber.co.uk/about/independent-alliance/ Independent Alliance]. {{webarchive. link. (13 April 2010)
14. Neilan, Catherine (24 January 2010), [http://www.thebookseller.com/news/110358-indie-alliance-becomes-fifth-biggest-publisher.html "Indie Alliance becomes 'fifth biggest publisher{{'"], ''The Bookseller''. {{webarchive. link. (2 April 2010 .)
15. "Enhances-editions.com.".
16. Assange, Julian. (22 September 2011). "Julian Assange: Statement on the Unauthorised, Secret Publishing of the Julian Assange "autobiography" by Canongate". Wikileaks.
17. Davies, Nick. (22 September 2011). "Why we are publishing Julian Assange's (unauthorised) autobiography". [[The Guardian]].
18. Neilan, Catherine (12 September 2008), [http://www.thebookseller.com/news/66944-canongate-buys-nick-cave-novel.html "Canongate buys Nick Cave novel"], ''The Bookseller''. {{webarchive. link. (8 June 2009 .)
19. [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/twitter/6170777/Stephen-Frys-Twitter-posts-on-David-Eagleman-novel-sparks-6000-sales-spike.html "Stephen Fry's Twitter posts on David Eagleman novel sparks 6000% sales spike"], ''The Telegraph'', 11 September 2009.
20. McDougall, Liam (10 August 2003), [http://www.sundayherald.com/print35926 "Life Of Pi hits one million sales as Spielberg eyes movie chance"], ''Sunday Herald''. {{webarchive. link. (15 February 2005 .)
21. [https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8335532.stm "Pi author plans Holocaust novel"], ''BBC'', 31 October 2009.
22. [http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/barackobama/Canongate-pulls-off-Obama-coup.3353573.jp "Canongate pulls off Obama coup"], ''The Scotsman'', 11 March 2007.
23. Allen, Katie (5 March 2010), [http://www.thebookseller.com/news/114291-dizzee-rascal-memoir-to-canongate.html "Dizzee Rascal memoir to Canongate"]. {{webarchive. link. (19 April 2010 ''The Bookseller''.)
24. [http://living.scotsman.com/features/Interview-David-Shrigley-artist.6218312.jp "Interview: David Shrigley, artist"], ''The Scotsman'', 11 April 2010.
25. [http://www.folklib.net/index/discog/bibliog_strong.shtml "Music Reference Books by Martin C. Strong"], FolkLib Index.
26. [http://www.britishanimationawards.com/winner_2008.htm British Animation Awards] 2008.
27. Neilan, Catherine (13 January 2009), [http://www.thebookseller.com/news/74377-page.html "Canongate buys Simon's Cat"], ''The Bookseller''. {{webarchive. link. (8 June 2009 .)
28. Lea, Richard. (24 September 2007). "Award-winning film-maker scoops short story prize". The Guardian.
29. [https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/former-vietnamese-refugee-claims-dylan-thomas-prize-1.709737 "Former Vietnamese refugee claims Dylan Thomas Prize"], ''[[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. CBC]]'', 11 November 2008.
30. Flood, Alison. (29 May 2009). "Geoff Dyer wins Wodehouse prize for comic fiction". The Guardian.
31. Flood, Alison. (3 November 2009). "Vietnamese refugee wins Australian prime minister's award for fiction". The Guardian.
32. Gatti, Tom. (11 November 2015). "Kevin Barry wins the Goldsmiths Prize 2015 for his novel Beatlebone".
33. Armitstead, Claire. (9 November 2016). "Single sentence novel wins Goldsmiths prize for books that 'break the mould'". The Guardian.
34. Cain, Sian. (5 August 2016). "Wainwright prize goes to Amy Liptrot's 'searingly honest' The Outrun". The Guardian.