Anna Howorth

To celebrate their 50th birthday, children’s publisher @Usborne is going back to the future with a brand new edition of their much-loved 1979 book #TheUsborneBookoftheFuture @AmyDobson_ @Usborne lep.co.uk/arts-and-cultu…

Staff party next week celebrating 50 years of @Usborne. It’s fancy dress. Can you guess what I’m going as?

Usborne is celebrating its 50th birthday this year, and many multiple generations have grown up with #Usborne books, growing their minds along the way [myself included] Peter Usborne founded @Usborne in 1973 when he found out he was going to become a parent. He regularly said that being a children’s publisher was the greatest privilege of his life. Peter sadly died in March 2023, but not before seeing his beloved company into its 50th birthday year and being awarded the CBE for services to literature. His daughter Nicola continues the legacy as MD; Usborne really is truly a family business. The Usborne family motto is ‘good books, good jobs, good charity’, and the company has remained fiercely independent to allow these values to be at the heart of everything they do. Usborne has always existed to create the very best books possible for children of all ages. Over the last half-century, they’ve branched out from non-fiction into activity books, baby books and fiction. Every book they have ever published [and ever will] aims to spark curiosity. Whether that’s a baby exploring a book for the first time, discovering the touchy-feely textures of a That’s not my… book or an older child finding out about human rights in Politics for Beginners, Usborne books always encourage children to explore the world around them, asking plenty of questions along the way. A book first published in 1979, imagining the year 2000 and beyond, will be reissued this year to celebrate @Usborne's 50th Birthday. First published in 1979, the Usborne Book of the Future is a fondly-remembered book from a time when people dreamed of the future as a place filled with wonder and amazing new technology. After more than 40 years of science fiction focussing on dystopias and doom, it's time to remind readers, young and old, that, in fact, the Future is STILL a place that holds hope and excitement. The book is built in three sections. The first explores all kinds of robots, the jobs they will do on land, sea and in space, and where they will get power from. The second is all about the cities of the future, how people will live, what new buildings they will build, how computers will change the world, and what people will do for fun. The final section is about the future of travel, from planes, trains and cars on Earth, to Space shuttles and journeys to colonise other planets. This re-issued book retains the original text and stunning artwork but now comes with a foreword by renowned BBC Futurologist Tom Cheesewright [@bookofthefuture], who was inspired into his career by the original edition of the book. From outlining the internet to asteroid mines to 3D printers and robot helpers, you'll be surprised by how accurately this book predicted life in the 21st Century. Long out of print, copies of the original printing of this book fetch three figures on auction sites. Now at last people who remember this book from their childhood can find it again, and share it with the next generation, at normal bookshop prices! OUT 8th June 2023 from all good book retailers. Please try to support the bloody fantastic indie bookshops & bookstores if you can.