History of Moonlight Publishing: A Tale of Two Cities

POSTED IN: Events, Moonlight Publishing ON: 02/03/2024

History of Moonlight Publishing:  A Tale of Two Cities

The history of Moonlight Publishing is a tale that begins with a small revolution in Paris and a romantic liaison in a London bookshop.

In the 1970s, Pierre Marchand, the visionary founder of the children’s department at the prestigious French publishing house, Gallimard, was breaking new ground in creating innovative children’s books. Under his guidance Gallimard Jeunesse revolutionised the industry by combining graphic excellence with the best illustrators in their field, creating a fusion of iconography and text that was unprecedented. The children’s department grew exponentially, eventually accounting for a quarter of the Gallimard group’s editorial output.

Despite this success, there were initial challenges in selling the children’s books in English-speaking markets where the style of publishing was deemed to be too sophisticated and “too French”. Pierre decided to recruit someone who could bridge this gap. 

In 1978, he approached Christine Baker to run the English language list for Gallimard Jeunesse. Working with the ex-international director, John Clement, they decided that the best way to do this would be to set up a separate company, based in the UK. Moonlight Publishing was born. 

Christine had been a Parisian bookseller before moving to London and starting work in the family-run Children’s Book Centre in Kensington,  which at the time was one of the few specialist children’s bookshops in Europe. She would fall in love with and later marry the Bookshop’s manager, Robin Baker. She and Robin jointly led Moonlight for two decades, publishing a wide range of Gallimard’s fiction and non-fiction titles, but focusing increasingly on non-fiction. Whilst the visual design was the same as the French editions, the English text addressed more questions about “why?” and “how?” things are as they are rather than just  “where?” and  “when?”, and the educative value of the text was also much enhanced by the judicious use of expert editorial advisers.

In 1989, Pierre Marchand with the support of a talented team of illustrators, editors, and designers, created Premières Découvertes, a new type of children’s book which included the use of transparent overlay pages, providing a dynamic reading experience full of surprise visual effects. Beautifully realistic illustrations created by the best artistic talents of the day, were printed on white and transparent backgrounds in a way that captured and held the attention of young readers. The series quickly gained popularity in France. First Discoveries, the English-language edition, was published in 1990 by Moonlight and the series went on to become a global phenomenon, running to up to 200 titles and tens of millions of copies worldwide. 

In 1999, Christine and Robin Baker sold Moonlight to John Clement, one of the co-founders of the company. Christine subsequently became the London-based editorial director for Gallimard Jeunesse. She sadly passed away in April 2023, leaving behind a profound impact on the world of children’s literature. In the words of Michael Morpurgo, whose works she introduced to French readers:  

“Christine created a quiet revolution, bringing people together through children’s literature, that great but much undervalued pathway of knowledge, understanding, and empathy.”  

After taking over the company, John Clement focused on expanding the presence of First Discoveries in the US and in the emerging ELT markets of  Southeast Asia, introducing audio components to accompany the series in Korea and Taiwan. Meanwhile, his wife, Penny, who had also collaborated with Christine for many years,  continued to translate and adapt the texts from the original French editions. 

Under John Clement’s leadership, Moonlight expanded its catalogue by launching First Discovery Music in 2008, a series that explores the lives of the great classical composers and jazz legends. Evocative illustrations portraying the musician’s childhood, combined with extracts of their music on the accompanying CD that resonated with the narrative, immersing young readers in the life and music of these composers. 

In 2009, a sumptuous and highly-collectable board book edition of the My First Discoveries series came out, which would eventually run to 75 titles. 

From 2017, John and Penny’s son, James, began developing editions of My First Discoveries with talking pen audio technology for China, Taiwan, and Korea. The non-fiction series with its simple, highly visual narratives, accompanied by new audio content would become a dynamic vehicle for helping young non-native English speakers learn about the world around them through the English language. This trend continued with the recent launch of an audio app, to accompany the new Paperback edition of the series, launched in 2023.

Today, Moonlight is still run by the Clement family and maintains close working ties with Gallimard Jeunesse. The creative project began by Pierre Marchand in Paris and Christine Baker in London to inspire young readers, and to build bridges between two languages, two cultures and two cities continues to thrive.