Universal Tandem Publishing

Universal-Tandem Publishing Co Ltd was a United Kingdom paperback publishing company established in the early 1960s as Tandem Books. Its principal imprint was Tandem. The hyphenated name Universal-Tandem was adopted as a corporate identity in 1968 after Tandem Books was bought by the American group Universal Publishing and Distribution Corporation Inc. [UPD], allowing Universal-Tandem to distribute some titles published by UPD in the United States in the United Kingdom. In 1973 Tandem established Target Books as a children's imprint. Target became well known for its highly successful range of novelisations and other assorted books based on the popular science-fiction television series Doctor Who. In 1975 Universal-Tandem was sold by UPD to the British conglomerate Howard and Wyndham; the company was renamed Tandem Publishing Ltd before being merged with the paperback imprints of Howard and Wyndham's general publishing house W H Allen to become Wyndham Publications Ltd in 1976; however, during 1977 and 1978 the Wyndham identity was phased out. The Tandem imprint was phased out during 1980, surviving titles from the backlist subsequently being reprinted under W H Allen's principal paperback imprint Star. The Target imprint survived until 1993, though in its latter years it was only used for Doctor Who novelisations.