The Griffin Legacy

The Extraordinary Lives of Two Ordinary Victorian Women as They Fight to Save a Publishing House

In 1862, the Griffin publishing house, a rapidly expanding family business, was facing ruin on the death of Charles, one if its most entrepreneurial leaders. It was left to his brave Scottish widow and her teenage daughter to fight for its survival, a struggle that was to span decades, involving the head of a rival publishing business William Collins, many managers, loyal staff and authors and a bank balance that teetered perilously on the edge of bankruptcy.

This is the story of a bittersweet legacy that nearly broke the family but one that lived on to provide a livelihood of over a century of future Griffin households. Tarquin is today owned by this company - Richard Griffin (1820) Ltd - 200 years old in 2020.

Thanks entirely to the tenacity and bravery of one Victorian lady thrust into a man's world.