I felt very honoured to be invited to the special service at Christ Church, Oxford, to celebrate 40 years of Lion Publishing.
More than 300 authors, illustrators, customers, clients, suppliers, shareholders, former staff, present staff and directors packed first the cathedral and then the college’s Great Hall (pictured below) for the afternoon tea.
It was very moving to hear Pat Alexander, who started the company in 1971 with her husband David, talk about their early days in publishing.
They set off for the Holy Land in a VW Camper van to undertake the research and to take the photographs for The Lion Handbook to the Bible, which sold worldwide.
Appropriately, each of the 300 or so guests at the service were given a special 40th anniversary edition of the handbook.
Pat spoke about renting the first office containing just one electric typewriter and one fax machine and the responsibility they felt when they employed their first members of staff.
She recalled that they didn’t have enough chairs so one of them had to stay standing whenever they had a visitor.
The founder’s wife also spoke of her sadness when they had to take a back seat in the company in 1998 because of David’s unexpected illness and in November 2002 when he died.
But as she looked back over 40 years she said that she never dreamt that the business which began with just her and David would grow into the huge international company that Lion Hudson Monarch is today.
Later in the service, a former director, Tony Wales, reflected on the early days when Lion began selling worldwide. Today it translates books into more than 200 languages.
He told many stories but the one that stuck in my mind was of translating Norman Warren’s book, What’s the Point, into so many languages, one of which helped to convert and transform the life of a Russian soldier serving in Afghanistan in the 1980s.
The sermon was preached by Canon Professor Keith Ward who spoke on the two readings of 2 Kings chapter 22 verses 3-13 and Acts chapter 17 verses 16-34 and encouraged the congregation to carry on publishing God’s Word as commanded to in Scripture.
Earlier in the day I visited the Bodleian Library for the first time. It was fascinating to read that Charles I was refused permission to loan one of their books as the rules stipulated that no books were to be taken out of the reference building by anyone, even if they were the king.
The Divinity School, which is the oldest lectures hall in Oxford, was opened in 1488 and all students then took their exams in oral Latin.
As I left I thought perhaps students today have life a little easier in some respects.
Overall, it was a very moving day and as I travelled home on the train I thought back over the last 40 years and my links with Lion over that period.
I was grateful they had published my second book, Cults and Modern Faiths (pictured below) back in 1981 and my fourth, God’s Secret Listener, in 2010.
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