Oneworld Publications
Oneworld Publications is an independent British publishing house based in London, founded in 1986 by Novin Doostdar and Juliet Mabey. It began by publishing accessible non-fiction by experts and later added literary fiction, children's books and crime novels.
What you can find
The website presents the catalogue by genre and imprint, along with author pages and news. Its non-fiction list covers everything from history and politics to science, philosophy and psychology.
Why it is on this list
In 2021, Oneworld published Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality by journalist Helen Joyce. The book is critical of gender self-identification and medical transition for minors. It is controversial: supporters praised its arguments, while critics called it anti-trans. The book's page is still in the publisher's catalogue. See also critical perspectives.
History and awards
According to the publisher, the founders are a married couple. According to Wikipedia, they met as students in the 1970s. The publishing house was initially based in Oxford and moved to London's Bloomsbury district in 2012. A literary fiction list was added in 2009, followed by the children's imprint Rock the Boat in 2015, the crime imprint Point Blank in 2016 and Magpie in 2021. In 2024, Oneworld published more than one hundred titles a year. Its fiction list has won major awards: the Booker Prize for Marlon James in 2015, Paul Beatty in 2016 and Paul Lynch in 2023, and the Women's Prize for Fiction for Tayari Jones in 2019. Oneworld was named independent publisher of the year at the British Book Awards in 2016 and 2023.
Trans in the catalogue
According to the book's page, the hardback edition of Trans was published on 15 July 2021, at the same time as the e-book, and the paperback on 5 May 2022. The hardback runs to 320 pages and the paperback to 352. Oneworld categorises the book as current affairs. The publisher states that it was a Sunday Times bestseller and that The Times, The Spectator and The Observer named it their book of the year for 2021. The page features recommendations from, among others, author Lionel Shriver and the Evening Standard. More about the author and the book's reception can be found in the profile of Helen Joyce.
How to use this source
Oneworld is a general publisher with a broad list, not a participant in the gender debate. The fact that an established, highly award-winning publisher released the book says something about the place of gender-critical non-fiction in the British publishing industry, as does the publication of Material Girls by Hachette UK. The book's page is a sales page; it does not include critical reviews.