A rare look behind the scenes of a publishing company as it works with composers to shape musical history. Rather than wage a price war, Leslie Boosey and Ralph Hawkes decided to merger their rival businesses in 1930, expanding from their London base to build a worldwide operation. Signing Bartók and Strauss and investing in talented young composers like Britten and Copland, the company fully came of age with the acquisation of Serge Koussevitzky's Russian catalogue with its masterpieces by Stra...

• Introduction
• Publisher's note
• Acknowledgements
• Preface
• 1930-39: Bold moves
• 1939-40: War
• 1941-42: The Wigmore Hall concerts
• 1943-45: 'Machiavellian it may be...'
• 1946-50: Spoils of war
• 1950-58: Going on without Ralph
• 1958-64: Crises and change
• 1960-74: History repeats itself
• 1966-74: Division and development
• 1974-80: Back to Europe
• 1980-86: The Boxford years
• 1986-95: The Górecki phenomenon
• 1996-2006: Music Publishing breaks free
• Boosey family t...