Specials

You could make the argument that Penguin owes its existence to the Specials, as the inexpensive books focusing on politics and current events kept the company afloat during the second World War. Today, you could argue that it’s the least collectible Penguin series, owing to the timeliness of its content and its disposable nature. Even so, the series continued for more than half a century, and was the breeding ground for other series, as Handbooks and Reference both got their start as Specials before rebranding.

#	Title	Author	Year	ISBN
S1	Germany Puts the Clock Back	Edgar Mowrer	1937
S2	Moussolini’s Roman Empire	G.T. Garratt	1938
S3	Blackmail of War	Genevieve Tabouis	1938
S4	Searchlight on Spain	Ducess of Atholl	1938
S5	Ballet	Arnold Haskell	1938
S6	Modern German Art	Peter Theone	1938
S7	China Struggles for Unity	J.M.D. Pringle	1939
S8	The Air Defence of Britain	L.E.O. Charlton	1938
S9	Europe and the Czechs	S. Grant Duff	1938
S10	The Jewish Problem	Louis Golding	1938
S11	Literary Taste	Arnold Bennett	1938
S12	The Mortal Storm	Phyllis Bottome	1938
S13	What Hitler Wants	E.O. Lorimer	1939
S14	Mowrer in China	Edgar Mowrer	1938
S15	One Man Against Europe	Konrad Heiden	1939
S16	Blue Angels and Whales	Robert Gibbings	1938
S17	Warning from the West Indies	W.M. MacMillan	1938
S18	The Great Illusion – Now	Norman Angell	1938
S19	Britain by Mass-Observation	Charles Madge	1939
S20	The Press	Wickham Steed	1938
S21	Ourselves and Germany	The Marquess on Londonberry	1938
S22	Design	Anthony Bertram	1938
S23	(Not Issued)
S24	They Betrayed Czechoslovakia	G.J. George	1939
S25	I Was Hitler’s Prisoner	Stefan Lorant	1939
S26	Between 2 Wars?	K. Zillacus	1939
S27	Britain’s Health	S. Mervyn Herbert	1939
S28	Microbes by the Million	Hugh Nicol	1939
S29	You and the Refugee	Norman Angell	1939
S30	Germany – What’s Next?	Richard Keane, ed.	1939
S31	Why War?	C.E.M. Joad	1939
S32	Our Food Problem	F. Le Gros Clark	1939
S33	The New German Empire	Dr. F. Borkenau	1939
S34	Poland	W.J. Rose	1939
S35	A Hundred Years of Photography	Lucia Moholy	1939
S36	The Attack from Within	Elwyn Jones	1393
S37	The Good Soldier Schweik	Jaroslav Hasek	1939
S38	British Agriculture	Viscount Astor	1939
S39	The Suez Canal	Hugh J. Schonfield	1939
S40	Opera	Edward J. Dent	1940
S41	In Search of Hot Water	H.G. Wells	1939
S42	(Not Issued)
S43	(Not Issued)
S44	Light on Moscow	D.N. Pritt	1939
S45	The Government Blue Book		1939
S46	The Case for Federal Union	W.B. Curry	1939
S47	Why Britain is at War	Harold Nicolson	1939
S48	The Penguin Political Dictionary	Walter Theimer	1940
S49	Europe Since Versailles	David Low	1940
S50	The Rights of Man	H.G. Wells	1940
S51	Must the War Spread?	D.N. Pritt	1940
S52	(Not Issued)
S53	(Not Issued)
S54	Unser Kampf	Sir Richard Acland	1940
S55	Good God	John Hadham	1940
S56	My Finnih Diary	Sir Walter Citrine	1940
S57	Hitler’s War Before and After	Hugh Dalton	1940
S58	The Problem of India	K.S. Shelvankar	1940
S59	Stalin and Hitler	Louis Fischer	1940
S60	Warships at Work	A.C. Hardy	1940
S61	(Not Issued)
S62	Why Freedom Matters	Norman Angell	1940
S63	Hydroponics: Food Without Soil	Isabel Hilyer	1940
S64	The Common Sense of War and Peace	H.G. Wells	1940
S65	Christianity and World Order	G.K.A. Bell	1940
S66	The Penguin Political Atlas	S.C. Johnson	1940
S67	(Not Issued)
S68	(Not Issued)
S69	(Not Issued)
S70	Organised Labour in the War	John Price	1940
S71	(Not Issued)
S72	The Case for Family Allowances	Eleanor Rathbone	1940
S73	God in a World at War	John Hadham	1940
S74	Science in War	Anonymous	1940
S75	New Ways of War	Tom Wintringham	1940
S76	The Real Cost of the War	J. Keiht Horsefield	1940
S77	The Psychology of Fear and Courage	Edward Glover	1940
S78	Where Do We Go From Here?	Harold J. Laski	1940
S79	The Internment of Aliens	F. Lafitte	1940
S80	Europe in Chains	Paul Einzig	1940
S81	Russia	Bernard Pares	1941
S82	Aircraft Recognition 1	R.A. Saville-Sneath	1941
S83	Europe at War	David Low	1941
S84	The Truth about France	Louis Levy	1941
S85	Flight to Victory	Ronald Walker	1941
S86	(Not Issued)
S87	Food – The Deciding Factor	Frank Wokes	1941
S88	World Shipping	A.C. Hardy	1941
S89	The Catholic Church and International Order	A.C.F. Beales	1941
S90	The Penguin Book of Food Growing, Storing and Cooking	F.W.P. Carter	1941
S91	Signalling and Map-Reading for the Home Guard	H.G. Stokes	1942
S92	Generals and Generalship	Sir Archibald Wavell	1941
S93	The Gospel for Tomorrow	J.W. Hunkin	1941
S94	The French Canadians Today	Wilfred Bovey	1942
S95	Nazis in Norway	Ake Fen	1943
S96	Planning the War	Clive Garsia	1941
S97	The Remaking of Italy	Pentad	1941
S98	A Diary of World Affairs	Marcel Hoden	1941
S99	Ley Farming	R. George Stapledon	1942
S100	Reaching for the Stars	Nora Wain	1942
S101	Keeping Poultry and Rabbits on Scraps	Alan Thompson	1942
S102	Guerilla Warfare	Yank Levy	1942
S103	Speed the Plough	C.S. Orwin	1942
S104	Christianity and Social Order	William Temple	1942
S105	The British Way in Warfare	B.H. Liddell Hart	1942
S106	The German Lebensraum	Robert E. Dickinson	1943
S107	Health of the Future	Aleck Bourne	1942
S108	The Quest for Security in New Zealand	W.B. Sutch	1942
S109	Is Christ Divided?	William Temple	1943
S110	How Russia Prepared	B.H. Liddell Hart	1942
S111	A Dictionary of Science (later R1)	E.B. Ivarov	1943
S112	Aircraft Recognition 2	R.A. Saville-Sneath	1942
S113	Modern Battle	Paul W. Thompson	1942
S114	An A.B.C. o the Pacific	Dorothy Woodman	1942
S115	The World at War	David Low	1942
S116	A Diary of World Affairs 2	Dorothy Woodman	1942
S117	People in Production	Mass Observation	1942
S118	Warfare by Words	Ivor Thomas	1942
S119	Soft Fruit Growing (later PH1)	Raymond Bush	1942
S120	Young Citizen	A.E. Morgan	1943
S121	Science and World Order	J.G. Crowther	1942
S122	The Future of Medicine	D. Stark Murray	1943
S123	Is Tomorrow Hitler’s?	H.R. Knickerbocker	1942
S124	What About Business?	John Gloag	1943
S125	What the Church Teaches	Dr. Alfred Blunt	1942
S126	People’s War	Tom Wintringham	1942
S127	Wartime “Good Housekeeping” Cookery Book	Good Housekeeping	1943
S128	Venereal Disease in Britain	Sydney Laird	1943
S129	Crux Ansata	H.G. Wells	1943
S130	Argument of Empire	W.K. Hancock	1943
S131	Soviet Light on the Colonies	Leonard Barnes	1944
S132	Tree Fruit Growing: Apples (later PH2)	Raymond Bush	1943
S133	The Next Germany	Anonymous	1943
S134	Our New Order – Or Hitler’s?	Phyllis Bottome, ed.	1944
S135	How the Jap(anese) Army Fights	P.W. Thompson	1943
S136	Why Not Prosperity	A.J. Evans	1943
S137	Preserves for All Occasions (later PH12)	Alice Crang	1944
S138	Tree Fruit Growing: Pears (later PH3)	Raymond Bush	1943
S139	Country and Town	G.M. Young, ed.	1943
S140	Rabbit Farming	Claude Goodchild	1944
S141	God and Human Progress	John Hadham	1944
S142	Our Settlement with Germany	H.N. Brailsford	1944
S143	India Since Cripps	Horace Alexander	1944
S144	Poultry Farming	Alan Thompson	1945
S145	Trees and Shrubs and How to Grow Them	W.H. Rowe	1945
S146	The Vegetable Grower’s Handbook 1	Arthur Simons	1945
S147	The Vegetable Grower’s Handbook 2	Arthur Simons	1945
S148	A Plan of Economic Development for India	Purshotamdas Thakurdas	1944
S149	Miners Day	B.L. Coombes	1945
S150	Lend-Lease	E.R. Stettinius, Jr.	1944
S151	TVA: Democracy on the March	David Lilienthal	1944
S152	The Profumo Affair	Wayland Young	1963
S153	Russia and the Peace	Bernard Pares	1944
S154	Politics Made Plain	T.L. Horabin	1944
S155	France: The Birth of the Fourth Republic	Maurice Edelman	1944
S156	The Case for Communism	William Gallacher	1949
S157	I Choose Peace	Konni Zillacus	1949
S158	Policy for the West	Barnara Ward	1951
S159	Attitude to Africa	W. Arthur Lewis	1951
S160	The Communist Technique in Britain	Bob Darke	1952
S161	The Kingship of Christ	G.K.A. Bell	1954
S162	Peaceful Coexistence	Andrew Rothstein	1955
S163	Communism and Christianity	Martin C. D’Arcy	1956
S164	Spotlight on Asia	Guy Wint	1955
S165	Twentieth Centry Socialism	Socialist Union	1956
S166	Is Peace Possible?	Kathleen Lonsdale	1957
S167	Middle East Crisis	Guy Wint	1957
S168	Pattern of the Post-War World	Gordon Connell-Smith	1957
S169	The Atom and the Energy Revolution	Norman Lansdell	1958
S170	British Economic Policy Since the War	Andrew Shonfield	1958
S171	Sixty Seasons of League Football	R.C. Churchill	1958
S172	The Voyage of the Lucky Dragon	Ralph E. Lapp	1958
S173	Hiroshima	John Hershey	1958
S174	Georgraphy of World Affairs	J.P. Cole	1959
S175	Disengagement in Europe	Michael Howard	1958
S176	The Liberal Case	Roger Fulford	1959
S177	The Labour Case	Roy Jenkins	1959
S178	The Conservative Case	Viscount Hailsham	1959
S179	China: New Age and New Outlook	Ping-chai Kuo	1960
S180	Why Nato?	Paul-Henru Spaak	1959
S181	Strategy for Survival	Wayland Young	1959
S182	Khrushchev’s Russia	Edward Crankshaw	1959
S183	Tenants in Danger	Audrey Harvey	1964
S184	Brighter than a Thousand Suns	Robert Jungk	1960
S185	The Hidden Persuaders	Vince Packard	1960
S186	America the Vincible	John Emmet Hughes	1960
S187	The Organization Man	William H. Whyte	1960
S188	Must Labour Lose?	Mark Abrahams	1960
S189	The Stagnant Society	Michael Shanks	1961
S190	The Jazz Scene	Francis Newton	1961
S191	Congo Disaster	Colin Legum	1961
S192	The Trial of Lady Chatterley	C.H. Rolph, ed.	1961
S193	The Penguin Science Survey 1961 1	Arthur Garrett, ed.	1961
S194	The Penguin Science Survey 1961 2	S.A. Barrett, ed.	1961
S195	Life in the Twenty-First Century	M. Vassiliev	1961
S196	Hanged in Error	Leslie Hale	1961
S197	Hanged By the Neck	Arthur Koestler	1961
S198	What’s Wrong with the Unions?	Eric Wigham	1961
S199	What’s Wrong with the Church	Bruce Robertson	1961
S200	Persecution	Peter Benenson	1961
S201	The General Says No	Nora Beloff	1963
S202	The Algerian Problem	Edward Behr	1961
S203	Madison Avenue U.S.A.	Martin Mayer	1961
S204	Asia in the Balance	Michael Edwardes	1962
S205	Guilty Land	Patrick Van Rensberg	1962
S206	Has Man a Future?	Bertrand Russell	1961
S207	Britain in the Sixties: Communications	Raymond Williams	1962
S208	Britain in the Sixties: Education for Tomorrow	John Vaizey	1962
S209	Berlin: Hostage for the West	John Mander	1962
S210	Britain in the Sixties: The Family	Ronald Fletcher	1962
S211	Britain in the Sixties: Housing	Stanley Alderson	1962
S212	Sanctions Against South Africa	Ronald Segal	1964
S213	Common Sense about Smoking	C.M. Fletcher	1963
S214	United Nations: Piety, Myth, and Truth	Andrew Boyd	1962
S215	Torture: Cancer of Democracy	Pierre Vidal-Naquet	1963
S216	The A6 Murder	Louis Blom-Cooper	1963
S217	Britain in the Sixties: The Crown and the Establishment	Martin Kingsley	1963
S218	The New Cold War: Moscow v. Pekin	Edward Crankshaw	1963
S219	Britain in the Sixties: Vagrancy	Philip O’Connor	1963
S220	Unarmed Victory	Bertrand Russell	1963
S221	What is Wrong with British Industry?	Rex Malik	1964
S222	Great Britain or Little England	John Mander	1963
S223	The Other America	Michael Harrington	1963
S224	Why Labour?	Jim Northcott	1964
S225	Why Conservative?	Timothy Raison	1964
S226	Nuclear Disaster	Tom Stonier	1964
S227	An American Tragedy	Robert Scheer	1964
S228	Traffic in Towns	Colin Buchanan	1964
S229	The Intelligent Woman’s Guide to Atomic Radiation	Margot Bennett	1964
S230	What’s Wrong with Parliament?	Andrew Hill	1964
S231	What’s Wrong with Hospitals?	Gerda Cohen	1964
S232	The Police	Ben Whitaker	1964
S233	The Last Confucian	Dennis Warner	1964
S234	Sick Cities (U.S. only)	Mitchell Gordon	1965
S235	Why Liberal?	Harry Cowie	1964
S236	Legacy of Strife	Charles Foley	1964
S237	The New Britain: Labour’s Plan	Harold Wilson	1964
S238	The Future of the Welfare State	David C. Marsh	1964
S239	Britain in the Sixties: The Other England	Geoffrey Moorhouse	1964
S240	South-East Asia in Turmoil	Brian Crozier	1965
S241	The Crisis of India	Ronald Segal	1965
S242	The Challenor Case	Mary Grigg	1965
S243	The Break-Up of the Soviet Empire in Eastern Europe	Ghita Ionesco	1965
S244	117 Days	Ruth First	1965
S245	Immigration and Race in British Politics	Paul Foot	1965
S246	Vietnam	Marvin Gettleman	1966
S247	A New Look at Britain’s Economic Policy	Juliet Rhys-Williams	1965
S248	Is There Any Choice? Britain Must Join Europe	Edward Beddington-Beherens	1966
S249	Drugs	Peter Laurie	1967
S250	Indonesia	Bruce Grant	1967
S251	From Yalta to Vietnam	David Horowitz	1967
S252	Arms Without Empire	Neville Brown	1967
S253	The Incompatibles	Robin Blackburn	1967
S254	A Suitable Case for Treatment	John Cooper	1968
S255	Vietnam! Vietnam!	Felix Greene	1967
S256	Paying for Roads	Gabriel Roth	1967
S257	Racial Discrimination in England	W.W. Daniel	1968
S258	After the Common Market	Douglas Jay	1968
S259	Vietnam	Mary McCarthy	1968
S260	Why the Draft? (U.S. only)	James C. Miller	1968
S261	From Commonwealth to Common Market	Pierre Uri	1968
S262	May Day Mainfesto 1968	Raymond Williams	1968
S263	Israel and the Arabs	Maxime Rodinson	1968
S264	Science and Technology in Europe	Eric & Jane Moonman, eds.	1968
S265	The Politics of Harold Wilson	Paul Foot	1968
S266	Student Power	Alexander & Robin Blackburn	1969
S267	Matters of Principle	Tyrell Burgess et al.	1968
S268	Obsolete Communism	Gabriel & Daniel Cohn-Bendit	1969
S269	French Revolution 1968	Maureen McConville	1968
S270	The Devolution of Power	J.P. Mackintosh	1968
S271	Prague Spring	Z.A.B. Zeman	1969
S272	America: The Mixed Curse	Andrew Kopkind	1969
S273	The Atlantic Commonwealth	George E.G. Catlin	1969
S274	Rights and Wrongs	Chrostopher Hill, ed.	1969
S275	Europe After De Gaulle	John Pinder & Roy Price	1969
S276	The Biafra Story	Ferederick Forsyth	1969
S277	The Greek Tragedy	Constantine Tsoucalas	1969
S278	The Invasion of the Moon	Peter Ryan	1969
S279	Tehe Rise of Enoch Powell	Paul Foot	1969
S280	Poverty: The Forgotten Englishman	Ken Coates	1970	0140522808
S281	Divided Ulster	Liam De Paor	1970	0140522816
S282	Demonstrations and Communication	James D. Halloran et al.	1970	0140522824
S283	The Labour Government 1964-1970	Brian Lapping	1970	0140522832
S284	Most Unnatural: An Inquiry into the Stafford Case	David Lewis	1971	0140522840
S285	Planning for London	Judy Hillman	1971	0140522859
S286	America the Violent (U.S. only)	Ovid Demaris	1970	0140522867
S287	Because They’re Black	Gus Johnson	1971	0140522875
S288	September in Jordan (U.S. only)	Daniel Lomax	1971	0140522883
S289	The Non-Medical Use of Drugs	Information Canada	1971	0140522891
S290	Teachers in Turmoil	Vincent Burke	1971	0140522905
S291	Civil Liberty: The NCCL Guide	Anna Coote, ed.	1972	0140522913
S292	Indochina: Ecology of Devastation	John Lewallen	1971	0140522921
S293	Our Conscience: The Plight of the Elderly	Jack Shaw	1971	014052293X
S294	Community Decay	Jon Rowland	1973	0140522948
S295	A Blueprint for Survival	The Ecologist	1972	0140522956
S296	Ulster	Sunday Times	1972	0140522964
S297	British Capitalism, Workers and the Profit Squeeze	Andrew Glyn	1972	0140522972
S298	Thalidomide and the Power of Drug Companies	Henning Sjostrom	1972	0140522980
S299	The Penguin Guide to Supplementary Benefits	Tony Lynes	1972	0140522999
S300	The Squatters	Ron Bailey	1973	0140523006
S301	The New Militants: Crisis in the Trade Unions	Paul Ferris	1972	0140523014
S302	The New Inflation	Aubrey Jones	1973	0140523022
S303	The Property Machine	Peter J. Ambrose	1975	0140523030
S304	How to Play the Environment Game	Theo Crosby	1973	0140523049
S305	Women’s Rights: A Practical Gudie	Anna Coote, ed.	1974	0140523057
S306	The Concorde Fiasco	Andrew Wilson	1975	0140523065
S307	War and an Irish Town	Eamonn McCann	1974	0140523073
S308	Political Murder in Northern Ireland	Martin Dillon	1973	0140523081
S309	Passports and Politics	Derek Humphry	1974	014052309X
S310	The Guinea Pigs	John McGuffin	1974	0140523103
S311	Scream Quietly or the Neighbors Will Hear	Erin Pezzey	1974	0140523111
S312	Civil Liberties in Britain	Barry Cox	1975	014052312X
S314	There’s Gold in Them Thar Pills	Alan Klass	1975	0140523146
S315	How to Survive the Slump	Graham Bannock	1975	0140523154
S316	Fuel’s Paradise	P.F. Chapman	1975	0140523162
S318	The Fall of Scotland Yard	Barry Cox et al.	1977	0140523189
S320	From a Spanish Jail	Eva Forest	1975	0140523200
S321	Operation Thunder	Yehunda Ofer	1976	0140523219
S324	The Homeless and the Empty Houses	Ron Bailey	1977	0140523243
S325	Grunwick	Joe Rogaly	1977	0140523251
S326	Cambodia Year Zero	Francios Ponchaud	1978	014052326X
S327	Windscale Fallout	Ian Breach	1978	0140523278
S328	Law, Order and Politics in West Germany	Sebastian Cobler	1978	0140523286
S329	The Tory Party: Its Policies, Divisions and Future	Trevor Russel	1978	0140523294
S330	The European Parliament: A Guide to Direct Elections	Robert Jackson	1979	0140523308
S334	Who Cares?	Penelope Leach	1979	0140523340
S336	Seal Cull	John Lister-Kaye	1979	0140523367
S337	Beating the Terrorists?	Peter Taylor	1980	0140523375
S341	Protest and Survive	E.P. Thompson, ed.	1980	0140523413
S345	Persecution East and West	Cosmas Desmond	1983	0140523456
S351	Renewal	Gerald Kaufman	1983	0140523510
S353	The Animals Report	Richard North	1983	0140523537
S354	Crisis Over Cruise	Philip Webber	1983	0140523545
S355	Scargill and the Miners	Michael Crick	1985	0140523553
S357	Britain Without Oil	William Keegan	1985	014052357X
S358	Where’s the Justice?	Tony Gifford	1986	0140523588
S360	Television Today and Tomorrow	Chrostopher Dunkley	1985	014052360X
S361	Debt and Danger: World Financial Crisis	Christopher Lever	1985	0140523618
S362	Ireland: A Positive Proposal	Kevin Boyle	1986	0140523626
S364	Heroin: Chasing the Dragon	Justine Picardie	1985	0140523642
S365	An African Winter	Preston King	1987	0140523650
S367	Arguing the Arts	Tim Rowse	1985	0140523677
S369	Food Additives	Erik Millstone	1986	0140523693
S370	Apartheid’s Second Front	Joseph Hanlon	1986	0140523707
S371	Star Wars	Rip Bulkeley	1985	0140523715
S372	Gluttons for Punishment	James Erlichman	1986	0140523723
S374	Tobacco	James Wilkinson	1986	014052374X
S375	The Apartheid Handbook	Roger Ormond	1986	0140523758
S380	Acid Rain	Fred Pearce	1987	0140523804
S382	Prospectus for a Habitable Planet	Dan Smith, ed.	1987	0140523820
S383	Bricks of Shame: Britain’s Prisons	Vivien Stern	1986	0140523839
S384	Mission to South Africa	Eminent Persons Group	1986	0140523847
S386	Behind the Mirror Glass	Bruce Jesson	1987	0140523863
S388	The Sanctions Handbook	Joseph Hanlon	1987	014052388X
S389	A Spy’s Revenge	Richard V. Hall	1987	0140523898
S391	Under Siege	Keith Thompson	1988	014052391X