For nearly a quarter of a millennium, John Murray has been unashamedly populist, publishing the absorbing, provocative, commercial and exciting. Seven generations of John Murrays fostered genius and found readers in vast numbers, until in 2002 the firm became a division of Hachette, under the umbrella of Hodder & Stoughton. From selling volumes of Byron to massed crowds from the window of the old Albemarle Street offices (the premises are still owned by the Murray family and used as a venue), to publishing Jane Austen, Charles Darwin and Queen Victoria and making John Betjeman the nation's favourite poet, John Murray has always published great writing for a wide audience. John Murray has always been at the forefront of innovative publishing: