Gemini Books Group acquires Abson Books

Gemini Books Group has acquired Abson Books, the London-based publisher best known for its landscape-format regional dictionaries, glossaries of slang, and quiz and puzzle books.  

Michael Ellison has run Abson since the 1990s and will be retiring. In recent years, new publishing has ceased and Ellison’s focus has been on distributing the backlist, which includes Yorkshire English, The Sherlock Holmes Quiz and Puzzle Book and Rhyming Cockney Slang, which has remained in print since it was first published in 1971.  

Adrian Greenwood, Gemini sales director, said: “We look forward to bringing these titles to an even wider audience and building on Michael Ellison’s brilliant, committed publishing as we grow the Gemini list.” 

Gemini was launched in December 2023 by Marcus Leaver, formerly president of Sterling Publishing, chief executive officer of The Quarto Group and co-founder of the Welbeck Publishing Group. He formed Gemini Books Group with the acquisitions of Imagine That!, Palazzo Editions, Ad Lib Publishers, Mardle Books and Pimpernel Press. 

In February Leaver appointed Greenwood, Zoë Caulfield and Steve Munnings to Gemini’s senior management team.