Virgin Books was founded by Richard Branson in 1979 as a rock music publishing house linked to Virgin Records. In the late 1980s Branson's Virgin Enterprises purchased several existing publishing companies, one of these being W.H. Allen (which released Doctor Who novels under its Target Books imprint). Although Virgin Books was incorporated into W.H. Allen in 1989, two years later W.H. Allen was renamed Virgin Publishing Ltd.
Virgin Publishing's early success came with the Doctor Who: The New Adventures series. These officially-licensed full-length novels carried on the story of the popular science-fiction television series following its cancellation in 1989. Virgin published this series from 1991 to 1997 under the imprint Doctor Who Books. The imprint also published a range of Doctor Who reference books between 1992 and 1998. Since the late 1990s the company has become better known for its commercial non-fiction catalogue, which includes business, health and lifestyle, music, film, and celebrity biographies.
In March 2007, Random House Group became a 90% majority stakeholder in Virgin Books. Two years later Virgin became an independent imprint within Ebury Publishing, a division of the Random House Group.
In addition to Doctor Who Books, other Virgin Books imprints have included Black Lace (erotic romance), Nexus Books (sado-masochistic pornography), Idol (for gay men) and Sapphire (for lesbians).
