Senate Books

In the late eighties, a new style of shop opened up on the United Kingdom’s High Streets and in Shopping Centres. These shops were cheap and innovative, with each store selling cut-price stationary, art supplies, and books. 

The art and stationery side of things was aimed at the students of the populace, the books: everyone. At first, the shops did not have anywhere near the ranges of W.H. Smiths or Waterstones, but in the nineties they began presenting more variety than the publisher overstocks they began with.

Senate, an imprint of Studio Editions Ltd/Random House UK Ltd (Both imprints of Penguin Books UK Ltd) appeared in the mid-nineties, its books for sale almost exclusively in cut-price book shops.

Recently, I have endeavoured to create a list of Senate’s titles, and I was most surprised to discover their catalogue featured over a hundred books!

Cheaply printed the books may have been, but they formed an impressive library of Occult and Mythology titles that were long out of print, and impossible to find in those pre-internet years. 

Senate is long gone, but its legacy remains, and with eBay, Amazon, and the many second hand online books shops around, the titles are easily found. In most cases, they still cost roughly the price they did originally. 

What follows is what I hope is a complete list of Senate's titles, but if I have missed any, please contact me and I will revise the page.