G.H. Robinson and J. Birch

In 1920 George Heath Robinson and J. Weedon Birch launched a company called G.H. Robinson & J. Birch Ltd of 17-18 Tooks Court, Cursitor Street, London EC4. George Heath Robinson was a younger brother of the famous artist William Heath Robinson.

G.H. Robinson & J. Birch reprinted a dozen of the early novels by Nat Gould in a series they called "The Royal Ascot Library". Purchasers were requested to look for a diamond mark "on the back of the Wrapper". Although issued in hardback, despite the grand title of the series, these books were poorly printed on inferior quality paper.

Nat Gould had died in 1919, and in the introduction to their 1920 reprint of his novel The Runaways (originally published by Everett in 1903) they included “An Appreciation” of the late author. The book also carried an advertisement making it clear that John Long Ltd were the exclusive publishers of new Nat Gould novels.

The titles were all books originally published by R A Everett before John Long took over in 1905. Those issued were:

In Royal Colours (first published in 1902),
The Runaways (first published in the 1903 Annual),
Black Bess (first published in 1905 as The Story of Black Bess: as told by her Owner),
With Silken Rein (first published as The Silken Rein in 1903),
In Low Water (1904),
Settling Day (1900),
The Three Wagers (1903),
The Second String (1904),
The Rajah's Racer (1905),
Bred in the Bush (1904),
The Gold Whip(1904), and
A Near Thing (first published in 1902 as Life's Web).

Others advertised as "Ready Shortly" in 1920 were
A Racing Sinner (first published in 1902),
Blue Cap (1904),
Broken Down (1902),
Warned Off (1901?),
King of the Ranges (first published in 1902 as King of the Ranges: a Blend of Fact and Fiction, and
The Outcast (1904).