The Italy of the centuries-old book and typographic tradition has landed in London to conquer shares of the second largest publishing market in Europe and to look for future successes on the shelf (one is certainly Richard Osman, the English literary case that stands out with a blow-up at the entrance to the pavilion). An event reserved only for operators (about 15,000 each year) and without an audience, the LBF (London Book Fair) is, together with the book Fair Of Frankfurtthe largest “business” event in the book industry: it is a fair entirely dedicated to the buying and selling of rights, very different from Book Hall Of Torinoevent-show open to all the public.
The strength of the United Kingdom
The UK is home to some of the oldest and most esteemed book publishers in the world, such as the Cambridge University Pressfounded in 1584and is the largest exporting country of books: the global success of Sparethe biography of Principe Harry, released at the beginning of the year, is a confirmation of this. The podium is the result of the primacy of the English language: not surprisingly, over 60% of the books translated in Italy come from the English-speaking areabut also thanks to the reputation of British industry and the strength of local copyright law.
The Italian presence
Inside the historic Olympia Exhibition Centrean exhibition space from the Victorian era, today a huge construction site that will transform it into a futuristic fair, complete with cinema and theatre, 16 Italian publishing houses presented themselves, gathered in Italian Pavilion dell’ICE-ITAthe foreign trade promotion agency under the leadership of John Sacchi in the UK: from giants like Mondadori e The thirdup to small publishers of children’s books (such as Edigiò-Tomolo), medical-scientific publications, where Italy is among the world leaders, and ultra-luxury houses such as Golinelliofficial publisher of Ferrari which exhibited the work of art “Monza SP1”, a book in just 499 copies made with the materials of the Maranello sports car. There Rizzoli New York, the international division of the Milanese publishing house (today part of the Mondadori group) took part with an independent space to present its collection of valuable books. Among the exhibitors of the Italian Pavilion also 24 Hours Culturethe exhibition and art book division of the 24 Hour Group (which also publishes this journal), with the exhibition catalog on Hieronymus Bosch, last year’s valuable piece; and with a new project on great classics, from Shakespeare a Dantein “diorama” version.
The British read more and more «Italiano»
L’Italia of publishing is the fourth country in Europe and beyond 1.7 billion euros, recovering after the pandemic. At the same time, theimport of books from Great Britaindecreased during the two years of Covid, are now recovering and are worth the 20% of domestic demand. One out of five books sold in Italy comes from the British world. Despite this overwhelming power, Italy manages to carve out a slice of exports to London (and foreign countries, since the LBF is a bridge to all international markets): the AIE, the Italian association of publishers, surveyed, between 2014 and 2020, sales of Italian copyrights up 11% in the UK posting the fifth largest increase as a single country in Europe.