Whilst at a shooting party in County Wexford, Ireland in 1951, Sir Hugh Beaver - the Managing Director of Guinness Brewery - was involved in a dispute as to whether the golden plover was Europe’s fastest game bird, but in his host’s library he could not confirm the answer using any of the reference books.
Again in 1954, another argument arose as to whether grouse were faster than golden plover. Sir Hugh realised that such questions must occur among people in pubs everywhere and a book that provided answers for debates such as these would be of great use to licensees.
Chris Chataway, the record breaking athlete who was then an under-brewer at Guinness Park Royal Brewery in London recommended Norris and Ross McWhirter (whom he had met through athletic events) as the ideal duo to compile the book. The twins, who were running a fact-finding agency in Fleet Street, were commissioned to create what would become The Guinness Book of Records. After a busy year of research, the first copy of The Guinness Book of Records was bound on 27 August 1955. It became an instant success, as Britain’s number one bestseller before Christmas and then quickly gained worldwide recognition as the authoritative source of records.
Over half a century later we have printed and bound over 110 million copies of what has become a worldwide publishing phenomenon. Guinness World Records, as it is now known, is the biggest selling copyrighted book ever published. It is produced in 24 languages and sold in over 100 countries.
- The initial print-run was 3,183,000 – the largest print order in the world placed at one time for a case bound book printed in four colours
- 4,000 tonnes of paper
- 160 lorries were needed to transport the 1,420 reels of paper from the paper mill in Finland to the printer in Spain
- A 1m wide ribbon of paper would be approximately 36,000km long!
- 53 tonnes of ink was needed to print the books, taking 42 days
- 23 tonnes of glue was needed to bind the books
- 110,400m of ribbon was required for the head and tail bands
- The finished books weighed 4,345 tonnes
- 227 forty foot container lorries were used to transport the books around the world
- Stacked on top of each other, the books would make a pile 660km high!
- Laid head to tail, the books would stretch almost 1,000km!