I recently bought a second-hand book published by Penguin; it was published in 1942, during the war and had comments about the war effort, details about war bonds, and a suggestion that once read the book should be left at a post office to be sent to men and women serving overseas.
I didn’t notice at first, but on looking at the book more closely, i saw that the famous penguin logo was different from the one we have now, and when I looked inside it was different again, a jaunty little fellow danced on the title page, and I began to wonder how often and how the design had changed over the years.
The original design by Edward Young started in 1935 and that is what I had on the front cover of my second-hand book; the jaunty design arrived in 1937. Young was a sub-mariner during the war and his submarine was in a collision, however he was able to escape. The design was changed again in 1946, and then once more in 2007 to what we have today.
Mentioning penguins, this gives me the chance to share one of my all-time favourite songs, with the cleverest lyric, and a sweet melody, ‘Be my penguin’:
Lois Elsden 