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At last! A book vending machine in Devon!

Sir Allen Lane invented the paperback here (image courtesy: Penguin/Twitter)

Paperbacks at the station where the idea was invented

When Allen Lane (later Sir Allen) popped into the bookstall at Exeter St David's in 1935 after a visit to Devon crime writer Agatha Christie, he was despondent at the lack of quality on offer and the high prices.

He set about transforming bookselling, founding Penguin, the famous paperback publishing.

In 2007, his descendents commemorated him with a plaque at Exeter St David's at the very spot where he was inspired to create the sixpenny paperback.

And now the station has brought back another 1930s' bookselling inspiration; the paperback vending machine.

Sadly, the books cost more than sixpence, but it's the thought that matters.

Better still, profits from book sales from the machine will go towards local Book Bag Bookshop and Exeter City of Literature.

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