Happy ending for publisher Duckworth as Penguin steps in

Like all good stories, the tale of the decline of the independent publisher Duckworth, which in its heyday published D H Lawrence, Virginia Woolf and Beryl Bainbridge, has a happy ending.

A week after it went into administration, Britain's last independent publishing company has been rescued by a knight in shining armour, in the form of the former chief executive of Penguin books.

Peter Mayer, who turned Penguin into one of the world's biggest and most profitable publishing companies, announced yesterday he had bought Duckworth for an as yet undisclosed sum and promised to keep it intact, complete with current staff. "Duckworth represents a publishing tradition worth preserving," he said. "More than a century of Duckworth's traditions establishes some requirement for care."

Duckworth was founded 105 years ago by Virginia Woolf's half-brother, Gerald Duckworth. With its old-fashioned offices in Frith Street, central London, and stellar list of Britain's great literary authors, it was seen as the epitome of the genteel world of English publishing. But it hit problems earlier last year when sales plummeted from £1.6m to £780,000.

Mr Mayer, who left Penguin in 1998 to concentrate on his family's Overlook Press in New York, said he would make money available to invest in Duckworth and move it to new premises, in addition to the money spent on the acquisition.

"This is a very exciting involvement," he said. "Both the Overlook staff in New York and Duckworth staff in London believe that it must be just a tad easier to get a duck to fly than it has been for Overlook's elephant to take wing," he added, referring to Overlook's elephant with wings logo. "Do not imagine that the duck will just sit quietly on the elephant's head."