Grafton
Grafton was the British paperback imprint formed in 1983 when Collins bought Granada Publishing, home to Moorcock and Clarke in the UK, absorbed into HarperCollins around 1993.
- Editions tracked
- 97
- First editions
- 18
- Books
- 97
- Years
- 1909 to 1996
About Grafton
Grafton was a British paperback group name and imprint created in 1983 when William Collins, Sons bought Granada Publishing and renamed it after its editorial offices at 8 Grafton Street, London.
The Granada Group had built up its book business through the 1960s, buying Mayflower Books from Dell and acquiring Panther Books, which included Paladin, founded in 1966 by Sonny Mehta. It also took over the hardback houses Rupert Hart-Davis and MacGibbon & Kee, combined in 1972 as Hart-Davis, MacGibbon, and gathered the lot together as Granada Publishing.
Collins used the Grafton name to bring almost all of Granada's paperback lines under one brand, alongside its existing Fontana imprint. The Triad/Panther paperbacks, a line set up in 1976 with Jonathan Cape, Chatto & Windus and The Bodley Head, became Triad/Grafton. Its list included Michael Moorcock's books and the UK edition of Arthur C. Clarke's The Songs of Distant Earth (1986).
News Corporation bought Collins in 1989, and in 1990 Collins merged with Harper & Row to form HarperCollins. The Grafton name was dropped as a separate brand around 1993. It has no connection with the Grafton Books series on librarianship and book collecting published by André Deutsch.
We have not yet written the guide to Grafton's first-edition conventions. Until we do, check each book's own page: we list its points where we know them. Know how Grafton marked its firsts? Tell us.
Authors
Published by Grafton
Spot the edition: Dust jacket, front flap: Printed price on the front flap: £10.95 (first issue jacket)
Frequently asked questions
How many Grafton books does MyVolumes track?
We track 97 editions published by Grafton, 18 of them first editions, across 97 books.
Where these facts come from
- Grafton (publisher), Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
- Granada Publishing, Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
- William Collins, Sons, Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
- The Songs of Distant Earth, Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
Every fact on this page was checked against the sources listed. Checked 17 October 2026. Reviewed by Harriet Ellis; read how we check facts.