Publisher
Orion
Orion is a London publishing group founded by Anthony Cheetham in 1991, owner of Weidenfeld & Nicolson and Gollancz, and publisher of Ian Rankin; it has been wholly owned by Hachette since 2003.
- Editions tracked
- 19
- First editions
- 7
- Books
- 19
- Years
- 1993 to 2026
About Orion
Orion is the London publishing group founded in 1991 by Anthony Cheetham and Rosemary Cheetham, now one of the main divisions of Hachette UK and the publisher of Ian Rankin's Rebus novels.
The following year the group bought the literary house Weidenfeld & Nicolson, and the Orion Books list launched in 1992. In 1993 Orion bought the assets of Chapman Publishers and the Littlehampton Book Services distribution centre in Sussex. Hachette Livre took a majority stake in 1998, and in December of that year Orion bought Cassell, which brought in Victor Gollancz and the Cassell military list. Hachette became sole owner in 2003, and when it later bought Hodder Headline, Orion became part of Hachette UK.
Rankin's Rebus novels, such as Mortal Causes (1994), The Hanging Garden (1998) and Set in Darkness (2000) were first published in Britain by Orion, as dealers' copies of their copyright pages show. Michael Connelly and Joanne Harris are also on its list.
The group's imprints today include Gollancz, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, Orion Fiction, Phoenix, Trapeze, Seven Dials, Orion Spring, White Rabbit, Orion Ignite and Laurence King, which joined in 2020. Orion has twice been named Publisher of the Year, in 2005 and 2021.
Identification
How to identify Orion first editions
Authors
Books
Published by Orion
Spot the edition: Dust jacket, front flap: Printed price on the front flap: £12.99 (first issue jacket)
Frequently asked questions
How do I identify an Orion first edition?
How many Orion books does MyVolumes track?
We track 19 editions published by Orion, 7 of them first editions, across 19 books.
Where these facts come from
- Orion Publishing Group, Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
- About Orion, Orion Books (orionbooks.co.uk)
- Orion first editions quoting "First published in Great Britain ... by Orion", AbeBooks search results, 2026 (abebooks.co.uk)
- Identifying and collecting first editions, AbeBooks (abebooks.com)
Every fact on this page was checked against the sources listed. Checked 21 October 2026. Reviewed by Harriet Ellis; read how we check facts.