In 1984, a time when the publishing landscape was becoming increasingly corporate, Nigel Newton decided to start a new independent literary publishing company. The following year, over early mornings and late nights, he and publisher David Reynolds came up with their plan. In 1986 Bloomsbury Publishing began its life in a small office above a Chinese restaurant in Putney.

For all its early ambition, no-one could have envisaged the 35 years that would follow. As the offices shifted first to Soho Square and then to Bedford Square, with branches opening in New York, Sydney, Oxford and New Delhi, its list took shape. There were to be books from all over the world, some becoming Nobel, Booker and Women's Prize winners, some to be million copy bestsellers, and some to become modern classics.

In Bloomsbury 35 its editors-in-chief Liz Calder and Alexandra Pringle have made selections from novels they have published on Bloomsbury's adult list, from each year of Bloomsbury's life, forming an anthology that represents the creative heart of Bloomsbury. This anthology does not draw works from Bloomsbury's equally sparkling children's, academic or special interest lists. Featuring work from Margaret Atwood, Susanna Clarke, Jeffrey Eugenides, Richard Ford, Abdulrazak Gurnah, Khaled Hosseini, Jhumpa Lahiri, Colum McCann, Madeline Miller, Michael Ondaatje, Caryl Phillips, George Saunders, Will Self, Kamila Shamsie, Ahdaf Soueif, Jeanette Winterson, and many more, it is a celebration of Bloomsbury's first 35 years.