Thank you for your interest in Penguin Random House UK. If you would like to use or reproduce material from one of our books, you will need to request permission.

Please follow the steps set out below and apply by completing our request form.

As we receive a very large number of requests each day, please allow up to ten weeks to receive a response.

Step 1

Subject to us holding the necessary rights, we are able to grant permission for material to be reproduced from books published by Penguin Books Ltd and The Random House Group Ltd.

• Before applying for permission, please make sure your request is for material published by one of these companies. See a list of all divisions and imprints owned by each company
• You can check who publishes the material you want to use by looking at the copyright page inside the book
• We cannot grant permission for material published in the USA by Penguin Random House LLC. Please submit your request here: https://permissions.penguinrandomhouse.com/
• If you would like to reproduce or translate the entire text of a work, or enquire about serial, audio or film rights, please contact the applicable Rights team
• Please refer requests to reproduce material from The Snowman, The Snowman And The Snowdog, Ladybird books, Spot, Peter Rabbit and Flower Fairies to our Penguin Ventures team at: rights-brandsandlicensing@uk.penguingroup.com

Step 2

Complete the request form

We can deal with permission requests for the following:

• Extracts
• Photocopying (if over 10% of the work)
• Prop usage
• Non-dramatic straight reading of all or part of a work
• Cover and image reproduction

If you are visually or reading impaired and you require files of a book for accessibility purposes, please visit our Accessibility page for further information.  

To ensure that your request is processed as quickly as possible, please make sure you complete all required fields in the form. Where appropriate a fee will be charged.

Please note that in some cases, permission may be delayed if the author or author’s estate and/or their agent require approval over individual requests.

When completed, please email your form to the appropriate team below.

In cases of specific authors:

George Orwell: The Random House Group Ltd. controls PRINT rights in select titles only, and Penguin Books Ltd. controls DIGITAL rights in select titles only. Therefore please approach Random House for PRINT permissions and Penguin for DIGITAL permissions, or both if necessary.

Roald Dahl: please refer all requests for extracts to David Higham Associates - dha@davidhigham.co.uk

Robert Frost: please refer all requests to The Random House Group permissions team as above.

Please note

• If you are seeking to reproduce material from an anthology, please contact the original copyright and/or rights holder for that material as indicated in the edition’s acknowledgements
•   If you wish to reproduce material from a translated title, you will need permissions from the rights holder of the original language version, as well as the English language translated version   
• Please note that although we have published the book in which the material you want to reproduce appears, we may have been granted the right to include such material by a third party in our edition only. In that case, there will be a credit line or attribution to the third party you need to contact for permission

What is copyright? 

Copyright gives the creator of a literary, artistic, musical, or other creative work the exclusive right to control the reproduction of their work, including the right to receive payment for that reproduction. An author may exploit those rights by granting or selling rights to others, including publishers.

Violation of a copyright is called infringement.

Copyright lasts for the life of the author and for a period of 70 years after their death, after which the material enters the public domain. If material is in the public domain (out of copyright) you may use the extract without obtaining permission.

When can I use material that is in copyright without permission?

There are certain very specific situations where you may be permitted to reproduce extracts of literary works without seeking permission from the copyright owner, including for research and private study and for criticism and review.

More information can be found on: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/exceptions-to-copyright

Do I need to request permission to photocopy extracts from a book?

Most books can be copied for use at schools, colleges and universities within the UK under the terms of the Copyright Licensing Agency. If you would like to photocopy up to 10% of one of our books, please contact the Copyright Licensing Agency in the first instance: www.cla.co.uk.

If you are unable to obtain the rights you need, or if you wish to photocopy more than 10% of a work, please complete our request form.