Quotation Marks

[thedarknessrising]

I've been reading a lot more that usual lately, and I've noticed something in the last couple of books I've read. Instead of using the standard double quotation marks ( " ), the authors only use one ( ' ). It still indicates that someone is speaking in that passage, but it threw me off at first. Is there a particular reason behind this, or is it just a preferred style?

 

[FifthView]

In British English, it's the single mark.

 

[thedarknessrising]

That's really strange, because most of them were American, with the exception of Tolkien. The others were Stephen King and John Gwynne.

 

[Nimue]

Whaaaat I have never seen this. What format was this in, ebook or print? Were these British-printed books?

 

[kennyc]

Try Cormac McCarthy some time.

 

[thedarknessrising]

They're all printed novels. And apparently they were all printed in England.

 

[Butterfly]

I've seen this question asked a few times in various places. Apparently it is a British thing and has to do with the old printing presses. Adding ' was supposedly a lot less fiddly in typesetting and less time consuming to set up than " as well as the fact that ' used half as much ink as ". It seems house styles kind of stuck to it.