The Story of Greenhill Books
Greenhill Books is based in the Golders Green district of North West London, with an international outreach of authors and distributors.

Greenhill's authors are mainly British and American, but include German, Russian and some from other countries. The main markets for Greenhill's books are Britain and the United States, plus Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, the continent of Europe, and many, many other countries. Greenhill has an international network of agents, representatives and distributors.

The history of Greenhill Books is inevitably the story of Lionel Leventhal's career in publishing. In 1990 on the thirtieth anniversary of the publication of his first military book Greenhill Military Book News carried the following story written by Amy Myers, former editorial director of the late lamented William Kimber and Co:

Lionel Leventhal: Thirty Years of Military Publishing
by Amy Myers

Thirty years - and another official secret is released. In 1960 Lionel Leventhal published the first military book that he had commissioned. Since then he has never looked back (except to say hastily that he must have been very young at the time). The book was The Lee-Enfield Rifle by Major E. G. B. Reynolds, and Lionel was on the staff of Herbert Jenkins, which he joined from bookselling in 1956.

Herbert Jenkins Ltd., 1956-1964

At Jenkins he was involved in creating a non-fiction publishing programme which saw the publication of a number of fine books on firearms and antiques. Of these he also recalls in particular British Military Firearms, 1650-1850 by Howard L. Blackmore, and three volumes of The Revolver by A. W. F. Taylerson. 'These and others have stood the test of time,' Lionel says with pleasure, 'and are now rare and keenly collected.' (British Military Firearms was reprinted in a slightly revised edition by Greenhill Books in 1994.) Geoffrey Godden's Encyclopedia of British Pottery and Porcelain Marks is a title on antiques that he especially remembers commissioning and launching, and it has been continuously in print ever since.

This is how he prefers to talk of his thirty years in military publishing, rather than dwelling on the enormous changes that have taken place on the publishing scene. The books and the people he has worked with over the years are what really count.

With Paul Hamlyn, 1964-1966

After Herbert Jenkins was taken over by Barrie & Rockliffe in 1964 (becoming Barrie & Jenkins) Lionel moved to Hamlyn, but although he arranged the publication of a fine book on military uniforms, on the whole he had little to do on the publishing side. Instead, he was mainly concerned with the launch of Britain's first budget record label Music for Pleasure. 'A Frenetic and exhilarating time,' he recalls, 'but it wasn't publishing.'

Arms & Armour Press

So in 1966 he left and founded Arms & Armour Press, where he started off in the now time-honoured way for new publishers, working from his bedroom at his parents' house and packing books on their kitchen table.

'Ken Trotman recommended the first new books to me,' he says. 'I worked closely with him at Herbert Jenkins, and it was an enormous help to have his advice in those early days.' (Several years later, Lionel took over the Trotman business following Ken's death.)

At Arms & Armour Press, Lionel published a remarkable range of books over the years, and finds it difficult to single out titles for individual mention now. 'All books have their own personality - they become like one's own children, and even the little horrors come to have a claim on your affections. So it's hard to select one in preference to another. Trying to be objective, I suppose I would pick out from the books on firearms Military Small Arms of the 20th Century by Ian Hogg and John Weeks, and Guns of the Elite by George Markham; and from the many books about the Napoleonic Wars The Anatomy of Glory by Henri Lachouque (which was reprinted by Greenhill Books in 1997). Who Dares Wins, Tony Geraghty's book about the SAS, became a number 1 bestseller, and led us to publish other books about the Special Forces. About the Arab-Israeli Wars there was the book by Chaim Herzog, now President of Israel. There were books about World War II, both on campaigns and especially on equipment, such as War in the Desert by James Lucas, and British Battleships of WW2 by Alan Raven and John Roberts; there were books on - well, you name a military subject and Arms & Armour probably published a book on it.'

Quite a number of A&AP books are now sought after at enhanced prices. 'I'd like to think that this is some indication of their merit,' says Lionel. 'It may not be fashionable to say so, but I firmly believe that there is a duty by the publisher,
particularly when working with non-fiction and works of reference, to ensure that each book on his list has value and makes a contribution to the subject area.' This, he believes, applies not only to reference books for the specialist but to books intended to reach a more popular market.

The Team

But the world of publishing consists of more than books. There are the people. 'Or perhaps they should have come first,' says Lionel, 'because you can't publish good books without a whole team of talented and dedicated people behind you.' There was David Gibbons, now with his own independent book production unit; Anthony J. Simmonds, now with his own bookshop specialising in naval books; John Walter, a widely respected author; Anthony Evans, designer, now with David Gibbons' production unit; Richard Brown, manager of the Ken Trotman business, who undertook a mangement buy-out in 1984. And in three years time, another celebration will take place. Lynda Turney will have been Lionel's personal and much valued secretary since 1973, working with him today at Greenhill Books.

Link House

In October 1984 Lionel sold A&AP to the Link House Books Group and two and a bit years later, when Link House Books was being prepared for sale and following Arms & Armour Press's Hampstead offices being closed, Lionel left and ceased to be associated with the company at the beginning of 1987. The first books under the Greenhill imprint had already appeared. (The name Greenhill came from the tree-covered mound that Lionel looked out on from his Arms & Armour offices in Hampstead.)

The London Book Fair

Meanwhile, Lionel had added another string to his bow. In 1971 he had founded what went on to become the London Book Fair, now a firmly established international annual publishing event, and which, with his partner, Clive Bingley, he sold in 1985.
However, this experience enabled him while at A&AP to organise a number of Symposia and Conferences for Military enthusiasts, and he also founded the Military Book Show which is now an annual event in the United States.
Greenhill Books
Greenhill Books, Lionel's new publishing imprint founded in 1984, is now growing healthily. What's different about Greenhill? 'Well, how many times have you been told that just the key book you need is 'out of print'? The idea behind Greenhill,' Lionel explains, 'is that these are valuable, often important books in the military field that have stood the test of time, sometimes great reading in themselves and in other cases presenting significant reference material, but they have been virtually impossible to obtain. Often a new generation may not even know of their existence. What Greenhill sets out to do is to make such books available once more for the military enthusiast by reprinting the original text, where necessary adding new material setting the work in context, and also to republish when the market has renewed itself.'

Already on the Greenhill list are books by leading authors in key, specialist military areas such as the Napoleonic Wars, the Zulu and other Victorian colonial wars, both the world wars, and naval books. Greenhill also publish the Vintage Aviation Library of World War I classics, and acts as distributors for the US military publishers Presidio Press, thus broadening its spheres of interest, into US areas such as Vietnam and the Pacific War.

Lionel is convinced of the importance of specialist publishing by small, independent companies. 'You need to be close to your readers,' he explains. 'Only that way, and by keeping in constant contact with knowledgeable authors and authorities, the specialist retailers and the actual readers can you ensure that each book you publish has value and real worth. I'm always keen to have suggestions for books that Greenhill should publish, and we publish an announcement to this effect on the imprint pages of our books. If you have been trying in vain to get hold of a partricular book for years, please let me know.'

What comes next?

So after these thirty years in military publishing, how does Lionel see the future? 'More opportunities than ever,' he says. 'Today the world is one market.' he paused for a moment. 'thirty years,' he repeated thoughtfully. 'I didn't realise how quickly they'd gone by until a good friend of mine wrote to me to suggest I reprinted a book called The Lee-Enfield Rifle ... The next thirty years,' he added, ' are going to be even busier - and even happier.' At the moment Lionel is hard at work involved in creating a list of exciting books for publication in the next two or three years. 'Each one of them is a worthwhile publication,' he says, 'and this is what makes my job constantly stimulating. Especially at the moment. Wait and see what I've produced from the Soviet Union! No walking off into any glorious sunsets for me.'

No way, Lionel, publishing needs you! [end of article by Amy Myers]