New English Library was a British mass-market publisher formed in 1961 by Times Mirror, the UK counterpart of NAL. Firsts state "First published by New English Library in" a year.
New English Library is a publisher based in United Kingdom, founded in 1961. We track 159 editions it published between 1959 and 1997, 31 of them first editions across 158 books. How New English Library marked its first editions is set out below, with a checker for the year on your title page.
New English Library (NEL) was a British publisher created in 1961 by the Times Mirror Company of Los Angeles, a year after Times Mirror bought New American Library in the United States. It was formed by taking over two small British paperback firms, Ace Books Ltd and Four Square Books Ltd, and became the British counterpart of NAL.
NEL's top seller of the 1960s was Harold Robbins's The Carpetbaggers. Its list took in westerns, war, historical fiction, romance, crime, mystery, science fiction and fantasy, with authors such as Brian Aldiss, Frank Herbert, Robert A. Heinlein, Michael Moorcock and Christopher Priest. In the early 1970s it hired writers to produce tales of skinheads and Hells Angels under names such as Richard Allen and Mick Norman, books that now have a cult following.
In 1974 NEL published James Herbert's first novel, The Rats, and in May the same year it brought out Stephen King's Carrie in Britain.
Hodder & Stoughton bought NEL in 1981, and it went into Hodder Headline in 1993, where it ran as a mass-market imprint. The brand was dropped in 2004 after Hodder Headline joined Hachette Livre, and its titles moved to a single Hodder paperback list.
Holding a copy? The first edition checker shows New English Library's practice for the year on your title page.
NEL grew out of two paperback firms and later ran as a mass-market imprint, so many NEL books are paperbacks. Where a work first appeared abroad, an NEL copy is at best the first British edition, so check where and when the work was first published.
Spot the edition: Dust jacket, front flap: Printed price on the front flap: £1.95 (first issue jacket)
NEL grew out of two paperback firms and later ran as a mass-market imprint, so many NEL books are paperbacks. Where a work first appeared abroad, an NEL copy is at best the first British edition, so check where and when the work was first published. 1960s to 1990s - A first edition states "First published by New English Library in" the year, or "First published in Great Britain" with the year, on
We track 159 editions published by New English Library, 31 of them first editions, across 158 books.
Every fact on this page was checked against the sources listed. Checked 21 October 2026. Reviewed by Harriet Ellis; read how we check facts.
