11/03/2024
I am in London with a legend, Tony Cooke.
We are working to the re-launch of his maritime publishing business.
CARMANIA PRESS, A HISTORY
Carmania Press was founded in Greenwich, London by Anthony Cooke (born in Nottingham in 1934), a retired stockbroker who had become a bookseller and was an aspiring author. He had signed a contract with an established publisher but when that concern got into financial difficulties Cooke decided to publish his book himself. It was Emigrant Ships which came out in 1992. It described the varied vessels which carried refugees and economic migrants from Europe to more hopeful parts of the World such as Australia, Canada and South America in the troubled post-War years. Many of these ships were quite obscure and one reader described them as the ‘Who Cares? Ships’ but nevertheless the book sold well enough to encourage further publishing ventures.
Cooke had chosen the name Carmania because an old friend of his who had recently died had been the son of Captain Marshall who had commanded the Cunarder Carmania (1905-1932). Despite the fact that this might suggest that the firm publishes books on automobiles, the intention from the start was to concentrate on shipping books. Shortly after Emigrant Ships came out, Cooke was approached by Laurence Dunn, one of the best-known maritime artists, photographers, authors and collectors who was working on a nostalgic pictorial survey of shipping on the Thames. The result was Laurence Dunn’s Thames Shipping which was a huge success and eventually ran to four impressions. This established Carmania as an important publisher of maritime books and led to an approach from William H. Miller, the well-known and prolific American author who had become known as ‘Mr. Ocean Liner’. He had just completed a history of the Chandris Line and its ships and The Chandris Liners became the first of a whole series of highly pictorial softbacks which Bill Miller produced for Carmania, not only including books on liners and cruise ships but also New York Shipping and Merchant Ships of a Bygone Era. This collaboration culminated in the authoritative hardback Liners of the Golden Age which Miller wrote together with Cooke and Maurizio Eliseo.
Maurizio Eliseo, one of the foremost Italian shipping authors, had first come to Carmania together with Paolo Piccione with their The Costa Liners (1997). Other books by him which have been published by Carmania include The Sitmar Liners & the V Ships; The Seven Seas Navigator, a Six Star Cruise Ship; Queen Elizabeth, more than a Ship; and Saturnia and Vulcania, Record Motor Ships. Other well-known authors who have written for Carmania include Clive Harvey, Theodore W. Scull, Bruce Peter, Peter Newall, David F. Hutchings and the artist Stephen J. Card who produced two books of beautiful paintings of the ships of the Cunard and Holland America Lines.
Anthony Cooke himself had not been idle and had gone on to write three volumes of Liners & Cruise Ships about some of the smaller passenger ships (some would say that they were yet more Who Cares Ships? but a valuable record of some very interesting vessels); a history of the Fred. Olsen passenger ships; and a lavish hardback Favourite British Liners.
Happily, the future of Carmania Press is assured as it has been taken over by Maurizio Eliseo who has ambitious plans for books in both English and Italian.
