Mysteries of the Spine

In the talks I give on self-publishing, I cover a list of common and not-so-common errors made when publishing your own book. One that I always mention is to make sure that the title on your spine reads correctly. In the UK we print the spine so that it reads top to bottom. Elsewhere in Europe it is printed so that it reads bottom to top. This means that we tilt our head to the right when we are browsing a bookshelf while the French (for example) tilt to the left.

I hadn't thought much about this really, assuming that it was just one of those things that we English like to do differently - like driving on the left and apologising when someone runs us over intentionally with a lawn-mower.

But then I was looking at a few of the older books I have on my shelf - specifically A Pin to See the Peepshow by F. Tennyson Jesse and I noticed that this edition (Penguin Books, 1952) has the title on the spine reading from bottom to top:

Why? WHY?! I realise this will probably only hold any real interest for the type of person who reads the copyright page before pretty much anything else in any book they get (yes, OK that is me) but I really want to know when this changed and why. Can anyone help?

And incidentally - what a beautiful book: