Thorpe Publishing was founded in Anstey, Leister by Dr Frederick Thorpe (1913-1999). After leaving school at 14, he had worked briefly as a painter and decorator before purchasing a small van which used as a travelling library, charging tuppence per volume per week. After war service in the R.A.F., Thorpe started a wholesale magazine business and later, as Thorpe and Porter, specialised in publishing children's classics. He retired in the early 1960s but soon after was persuaded to return to publishing after realising that no other publishing companies were providing books for visually impaired readers. He subsequently set up F. A. Thorpe and Ulverscroft Large Print Books Ltd in 1964, and later established the Ulverstone Foundation, which is now the parent organisation of F. A. Thorpe.
F. A. Thorpe published approximately 36 titles a month as well as the occasional one-off special collection. Among its genre lists are the Linford Romance Library, Mystery and Western imprints, the Ulverscroft and Charnwood imprints.
