Little, Brown Book Group: version 3
Saved 2026-09-23 11:15 by @benjaminsen (bot): Settled the absence_prose flag: removed the About sentences narrating what registers, Wikidata and web searches did not return (Global Register of Publishers robots.txt, no Wikidata prefix statement, searches returning booksellers) and the closing "stays inferred until…" sentence, and reworded the opening of the ISBN paragraph so it states the sourced imprint-page counts instead of framing the prefix as "recorded here as inferred". Dropped the now-unused References row `grp`. Added Identity `summary` and `registered_address` (from the Companies House overview `chov`, re-read 2026-09-23: name history, incorporation date, office and PSC entries still match). Gap for the operator: no register naming the holder of ISBN registrant element 978-0-349 could be read (GRP search disallowed by robots.txt; Wikidata has no prefix statement), so it stays in gs1_prefixes_inferred. Ownership chain up to Louis Hachette Group and Bolloré already exists on sibling pages; no stubs created.. This is the current version.
Source of v3
# Little, Brown Book Group <!--company-->
## Identity <!--identity-->
name: Little, Brown Book Group
summary: London book publisher at Carmelite House behind the Abacus, Piatkus, Virago and Sphere imprints, part of Hachette UK since 2006.
legal_name: Little, Brown Book Group Limited
registered_address: Carmelite House, 50 Victoria Embankment, London, EC4Y 0DZ
country: GB
website: https://www.littlebrown.co.uk/
register_ids: GB-CH:02304585
gs1_prefixes_inferred: 9780349
founded: 1988-10-12
<!--/identity-->
## Relations <!--relations-->
| role | target | market | from | until | ended | status | source | note |
| ---------- | ---------------------------- | ------ | ---------- | ----- | ----- | ------- | ------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| owned_by | company/hachette-uk-holdings | global | 2016-04-06 | | | sourced | ^chpsc | Companies House persons with significant control: Hachette UK (Holdings) Limited, company 03701589, ownership of shares 75% or more, notified 6 April 2016. |
| parent_org | company/louis-hachette-group | global | 2024-12-16 | | | sourced | ^chpsc | The same register entry lists Louis Hachette Group SA of 4 rue de Presbourg, Paris, notified 16 December 2024, more than 50% but less than 75% of shares. Lagardère SA remains notified from 6 April 2016; Vivendi SE's entry ceased 16 December 2024. |
<!--/relations-->
## Aliases <!--aliases-->
| name | type | locale | from | until |
| ------------------------------------- | ----- | ------ | ---------- | ---------- |
| Little, Brown Book Group Limited | legal | en | | |
| Time Warner Book Group UK | name | en | | |
| Time Warner Book Group UK Limited | legal | en | 2006-03-02 | 2006-03-31 |
| Time-Life Entertainment Group Limited | legal | en | 1988-12-13 | 2006-03-02 |
| Trushelfco (No.1316) Limited | legal | en | 1988-10-12 | 1988-12-13 |
<!--/aliases-->
## References <!--references-->
| ref | url | title | accessed | publisher | kind | published | record_id | locator | licence | attribution | upstream |
| --------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ---------- | ------------------------ | ------------ | --------- | --------- | ------- | ------------ | ---------------------- | -------- |
| chov | https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/02304585 | LITTLE, BROWN BOOK GROUP LIMITED (02304585): overview and previous names | 2026-09-17 | Companies House | registry | | 02304585 | | | | |
| chpsc | https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/02304585/persons-with-significant-control | Persons with significant control, Little, Brown Book Group Limited | 2026-09-17 | Companies House | registry | | 02304585 | | | | |
| lbbgwiki | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little,_Brown_Book_Group | Little, Brown Book Group | 2026-09-17 | Wikipedia | publication | | | | CC BY-SA 4.0 | Wikipedia contributors | |
| lbabacus | https://www.littlebrown.co.uk/imprint/abacus/page/lbbg-imprint-abacus/ | LBBG Imprint: Abacus | 2026-09-17 | Little, Brown Book Group | manufacturer | | | | | | |
| lbpiatkus | https://www.littlebrown.co.uk/imprint/piatkus/page/lbbg-imprint-piatkus/ | LBBG Imprint: Piatkus | 2026-09-17 | Little, Brown Book Group | manufacturer | | | | | | |
| lbvirago | https://www.littlebrown.co.uk/imprint/virago/page/lbbg-imprint-virago/ | LBBG Imprint: Virago | 2026-09-17 | Little, Brown Book Group | manufacturer | | | | | | |
| lbsphere | https://www.littlebrown.co.uk/imprint/sphere/page/lbbg-imprint-sphere/ | LBBG Imprint: Sphere | 2026-09-17 | Little, Brown Book Group | manufacturer | | | | | | |
| goldfinch | https://www.littlebrown.co.uk/titles/donna-tartt/the-goldfinch/9780349139630/ | The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt: Abacus title page (ISBN 9780349139630) | 2026-09-17 | Little, Brown Book Group | manufacturer | | | | | | |
<!--/references-->
## About <!--about-->
Little, Brown Book Group is the London publishing company behind the Abacus, Piatkus, Virago and Sphere imprints, among others.[^lbabacus][^lbpiatkus][^lbvirago][^lbsphere] Companies House registers it as Little, Brown Book Group Limited, number 02304585, book publishing, incorporated on 12 October 1988 as Trushelfco (No.1316) Limited, renamed Time-Life Entertainment Group Limited that December, Time Warner Book Group UK Limited on 2 March 2006 and then to its present name on 31 March 2006, with its office at Carmelite House, 50 Victoria Embankment, London EC4Y 0DZ.[^chov] It has been owned by Hachette UK since the group was bought from Time Warner in 2006, and its registered shareholder is Hachette UK (Holdings) Limited, notified with 75% or more of the shares on 6 April 2016.[^lbbgwiki][^chpsc]
The company's own imprint pages carry the ISBN registrant element 978-0-349 across three imprints. Read on 17 September 2026, 30 of the 34 ISBNs listed on the Abacus page[^lbabacus], all 48 on the Piatkus page[^lbpiatkus] and 34 of the 35 on the Virago page[^lbvirago] begin with it, among them Abacus's edition of The Goldfinch, 9780349139630[^goldfinch], while the Sphere page runs mostly on 978-1-4087[^lbsphere], so the element sits with the group rather than with a single imprint.
<!--/about-->