{"id":1070,"date":"2026-11-05T16:25:32","date_gmt":"2026-11-05T16:25:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/knebworthhouse.com\/blog\/?p=1070"},"modified":"2026-11-05T16:29:24","modified_gmt":"2026-11-05T16:29:24","slug":"september-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/knebworthhouse.com\/blog\/?p=1070","title":{"rendered":"September 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

This \u00a31 WH Smith book token has been shuffling around at the back of my desk drawer since my grandmother gifted it to me when I was a child, back in the days when you could buy a book for \u00a31.\u00a0 Sadly, I think I have missed my chance to trade it in, as WH Smith, in this century, has downsized to the travel bookshop it began as when it opened a news-stand at Euston station in 1848, and even a cheap paperback for the train is not going to be mine for \u00a31.<\/p>\n

1848 was the year that publisher George Routledge & Co. inaugurated its \u2018Railway Library\u2019 \u2013 heralding the birth of the \u2018paperback\u2019 \u2013 and with this, WH Smith was responsible for raising the standards of the sort of thing you could buy at a Railway station.\u00a0 Routledge \u2013 and WH Smith \u2013 believed the public would buy a travel copy of a previously published popular work.\u00a0 Routledge took a gamble, and offered to pay previously best-selling author, Edward Bulwer Lytton (now being outsold by a precocious young journalist called Charles Dickens) \u00a3100 a year for the \u2018paperback\u2019 rights to 20 of his novels for ten years.\u00a0 It was a good call. \u00a0Just Bulwer Lytton\u2019s novel \u2018Pelham\u2019 sold 46,000 copies in the first five years of the 18 pence Railway Edition, which equates to \u00a33,450 pounds of 1850s money.\u00a0 The 2 shilling Railway Edition of 1859 sold another 35,750. \u00a0Bulwer Lytton played an important role in building up WH Smith\u2019s business.<\/p>\n

I suspect you have not read \u2018Pelham\u2019.\u00a0 Should you?\u00a0 Well, that very question will be answered on Thursday 17th September, when I give a talk on Bulwer Lytton\u2019s novels in the author\u2019s home, Knebworth House, in support of Knebworth Twinning Association.\u00a0 Tickets are available via the KTA website\u00a0\u2013 WH Smith book tokens and shillings not accepted, but all pounds and pennies going to a good cause.<\/p>\n

Henry Lytton Cobbold
\n@HenryCobboldKH<\/a>
\n@HenryCobbold<\/a>
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This \u00a31 WH Smith book token has been shuffling around at the back of my desk drawer since my grandmother gifted it to me when I was a child, back in the days when you could buy a book for … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-26"],"yoast_head":"\nSeptember 2026 - Henry Lytton Cobbold<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/knebworthhouse.com\/blog\/?p=1070\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"September 2026 - Henry Lytton Cobbold\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This \u00a31 WH Smith book token has been shuffling around at the back of my desk drawer since my grandmother gifted it to me when I was a child, back in the days when you could buy a book for … Continue reading →\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/knebworthhouse.com\/blog\/?p=1070\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Henry Lytton Cobbold\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-11-05T16:25:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-11-05T16:29:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/knebworthhouse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/WH-Smith-voucher.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"586\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/knebworthhouse.com\\\/blog\\\/?p=1070#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/knebworthhouse.com\\\/blog\\\/?p=1070\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/knebworthhouse.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/f15e48bf5e00572a561d40bb2c4078b5\"},\"headline\":\"September 2026\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-11-05T16:25:32+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-11-05T16:29:24+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/knebworthhouse.com\\\/blog\\\/?p=1070\"},\"wordCount\":312,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/knebworthhouse.com\\\/blog\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/knebworthhouse.com\\\/blog\\\/?p=1070#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/knebworthhouse.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/11\\\/WH-Smith-voucher.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"2026\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/knebworthhouse.com\\\/blog\\\/?p=1070\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/knebworthhouse.com\\\/blog\\\/?p=1070\",\"name\":\"September 2026 - 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