ABSTRACT
To the 1990s, the trust scheme sounds bizarre; no one would nowadays approach the universities with such an offer. Their commercial acumen is not sufficiently respected, and their role in wider public decision-making or advising has been greatly reduced. It has inevitably been argued that they would have made Penguin into a dull, scholarly imprint. Those who write about Allen Lane’s character always dip into a file of contrasting epithets: he was shy, sly, quixotic, ruthless, kind, mercurial, cunning, restless, unjust, generous, impish, naive, open, elusive. Allen Lane stood for more than commercial success. Today, when the very existence of a ‘common reader’ is denied, this splendid conviction needs to be assessed afresh. The Chatterley trial was the second test case of a law promoted by Roy Jenkins: the Obscene Publications Act of 1959.
