Hello, Is This Planet Earth?

Capturing the beauty of Earth from space on the page is no easy task, but Century achieved it in stellar style with astronaut Tim Peake’s Hello, Is This Planet Earth?

The book was the result of three years of conversations with Peake, but took under three months to go from commission stage to the bookshop. Peake rang editor Ben Brusey shortly after he landed back on Earth after a period on the International Space Station, with the idea of sharing photos of Earth taken from space in a book.

The judges were impressed with Century’s flexibility and ability to turn a book around quickly, and to make it a quality, coveted product that achieved the perfect mix of being awe-inspiring and educational.

Century built relationships with the UK Space Agency, the European Space Agency and NASA, and also worked with more Earth-bound organisations, securing space in supermarkets, high-street shops and independent bookshops.

Hello, Is This Planet Earth? shifted 268,607 copies through Nielsen BookScan at warp speed in 2016.

Caroline Sanderson, chair of judges for Non-Fiction: Lifestyle Book of the Year, said: “Choosing a winner in this diverse category was such a tough decision. In the end, the stunningly produced Hello, Is This Planet Earth? won out as a wonderfully worthwhile book with instant appeal for readers both young and old; a single volume capable all in one go of astounding, entertaining and educating.

We loved the inclusion of Tim Peake’s charming personal comments too. An immense amount of work and co-ordination by Century behind the scenes had clearly taken place in order to get the book out in a short space of time, and its sales, mostly achieved in a short few weeks pre-Christmas 2016, were extremely impressive.”