Serpent's Tail
Serpent's Tail, a London publishing house, earned a memorable verdict from Boyd Tonkin, who wrote about it for The Independent. Tonkin looked across its catalogue of hard-boiled noir, translated gems and left-field cultural reportage. He judged that the list often defines the meaning of "cool". That is a large claim for a small independent firm. So who started it, and what exactly sits on its shelves? Which writers did it champion, and which first novels did it send into the world? One short-lived imprint inside the firm chased even riskier literature, and its story raises a final question about what happened to the company itself.
Pete Ayrton founded the firm in 1986, and it has been based in London ever since. From the start it stayed independent and chose a narrow specialty. It focused on work in translation, with a particular fondness for European crime fiction. That choice set it apart from houses that mostly published books written in English. The firm did not limit itself to crime, however. Its list carries both fiction and non-fiction, from noir to cultural reportage. Independence lasted until January 2007, when the British publisher Profile Books bought the company.
Derek Raymond, Elfriede Jelinek and Herta Müller sit side by side among the writers most associated with Serpent's Tail. So do Kathy Acker, Kenzaburō Ōe, Lionel Shriver and Christian Kracht. The roster also names Elizabeth Young, Jonathan Trigell, Nicholas Royle, Stella Duffy and Neil Bartlett. The mix crosses languages and genres. A separate list singles out noted debut novels. It includes Nineteen Seventy-Four by David Peace and The South by Colm Tóibín. Whatever by Michel Houellebecq appears there too. Neil Bartlett shows up twice, once as a noted writer and once as the author of the debut Ready to Catch Him Should He Fall.
Mask Noir is one of the named series that organised the firm's books into recognisable strands. Others include Extraordinary Tales, Five Star Paperback and Midnight Classics. A series called 90s sits alongside a line of Serpent's Tail Classics. The Nick Stefanos Mystery series gathers crime stories around a single character. Two further groupings are only implied. Crime Diaries is tied to the author Danny King, and Factory is also listed as an implied series. Alongside these strands, the firm ran an imprint of its own for a brief stretch in the 1990s.
Ira Silverberg and Amy Scholder founded High Risk Books, an imprint of Serpent's Tail that existed between 1993 and 1997. Its aim was to publish innovative, provocative and progressive literature. Kathy Acker and William S. Burroughs were among its fiction writers. Jayne Cortez represented its poetry. In non-fiction, it published the collected journalism of Cookie Mueller. The imprint therefore reached beyond crime and translation into experimental and countercultural writing. Its run ended in 1997, a decade before the parent company changed hands.
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Common questions
When was Serpent's Tail founded and by whom?
Serpent's Tail was founded in 1986 by Pete Ayrton. It is an independent publishing firm based in London.
What kind of books does Serpent's Tail publish?
Serpent's Tail publishes both fiction and non-fiction. It specialises in work in translation, particularly European crime fiction.
Who owns Serpent's Tail?
Serpent's Tail was bought by the British publisher Profile Books in January 2007.
What was High Risk Books at Serpent's Tail?
High Risk Books was an imprint of Serpent's Tail that existed between 1993 and 1997. Ira Silverberg and Amy Scholder founded it to publish innovative, provocative and progressive literature.
Which authors are associated with Serpent's Tail?
Noted Serpent's Tail writers include Derek Raymond, Elfriede Jelinek, Herta Müller, Kathy Acker, Kenzaburō Ōe and Lionel Shriver. Its High Risk Books imprint also published William S. Burroughs.
Which debut novels did Serpent's Tail publish?
Noted debut novels from Serpent's Tail include Nineteen Seventy-Four by David Peace, The South by Colm Tóibín and Whatever by Michel Houellebecq. Ready to Catch Him Should He Fall by Neil Bartlett is also on the list.
All sources
9 references cited across the entry
- 1NewsHot books for cool readers: Serpent's Tail at 25 is still the publisher with biteBoyd Tonkin — 20 May 2011
- 9BookHigh Risk: An Anthology of Forbidden WritingsSerpent's Tail — 1991