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2nd December 2008

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Penguin India comes to Britain

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Penguin India is to launch its 2,000-strong backlist into the UK and Europe via Gardners, targeting the UK's Indian population as well as those with an interest in India. Staff from the Delhi-based publisher have been working at the London office for several months, with stock set to arrive in Britain in a matter of weeks. An initial 100 titles are to be imported, most of which are English language titles, though a handful will be in the Indian languages of Hindi, Marathi and Urdu.

The launch titles will cover Penguin India's broad spectrum of fiction, non-fiction and children's, and will include the entire backlist of India's bestselling popular novelist Shobhaa De, as well as Bollywood titles such as Amitabh: The Making of a Superstar, a book by Susmita Dasgupta about Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan. Booker winner Arundhati Roy's non-fiction title 13th December, about the attack on the Indian parliament in 2001, is also on the launch list.

Meru Gokhale, London manager of Penguin India, said: "People are ordering these books from all over Europe, buying them online and paying for the cost of shipping. We want to make them more easily available." She added: "These books are for anyone who is interested in the Indian subcontinent and its fascinating cultures."

Gokhale expects the perennial Indian favourite, The Penguin Book of Hindu Names by Indira Gandhi's daughter-in-law Maneka Gandhi, to be popular with Indian families in the UK. The Penguin Hindi-English English-Hindi Dictionary and Thesaurus by Arvind Kumar and Kusum Kumar, the only one of its kind in India and the UK, should be of interest to libraries, she said. Other titles will include cookbooks, travel books, religious and biography titles.

Gardners will approach retailers once stock is in the country, with the titles due to be promoted through channels such as the BBC Asian Network.

London Book Fair - Day One

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