Armada

About Armada

Armada was a British paperback imprint for children, launched in 1962, that sold cheap editions of popular series fiction to young readers until 1995, for most of that time as part of Collins.

Origins. Gordon Landsborough set up Armada as the paperback imprint of May Fair Books Ltd, pitching it at children aged about 10 to 15 who bought books with their pocket money. The imprint was sold in 1966 and passed to Collins, which issued Armada titles through its Fontana paperback arm until 1992. Armada itself stopped publishing in 1995.

What it published. Armada was chiefly a reprint list. Collins used it to put its own back catalogue into paperback, notably pony stories by the Pullein-Thompson sisters and Monica Edwards, and it also licensed books from other houses, including the first paperback of Ruby Ferguson's Jill stories. Books had to fit a fixed page count, so many texts were shortened, some severely. The spiky cover art of Mary Gernat and Peter Archer gave the 1960s pony titles a distinctive look. From 1973 Armada was also the British paperback publisher of the Nancy Drew mysteries, changing their cover design several times before the series ended in 1993.

What became of it. As a Collins imprint, Armada is part of the history of what is now HarperCollins.

How to spot a Armada first edition