Why do UK publishers use apostrophes instead of speech marks?

The most obvious symbol to use for a line break is # (in a manuscript), as it's the (a?) proofreading mark for <space>, whether a character space or, as in this case, a line space.
 
Probably that's why some published eBooks have it. It doesn't look good. Perhaps the self-publishing person or Gutenberg translator forgot to replace it later?
 
Depending on who is making the ebook there can be problems with scene breaks that don't get fixed.
I had scene breaks that got messed up in the hard copies also and that's when I went to something like
~*~
for scene breaks.
I request they be left in for the hard copies because the first book had about a dozen scene breaks that managed to happen on a new page and it really was difficult to see that the scene was broke while at the same time the reader would be confused because of the lack of continuity from the bottom of the last page to the top of the next.

This solved the problem in copies where I had less control over the formatting and despite some peoples objection to intrusive scene break characters I'll stick with it until I find a way to format extra space-something that is difficult in some of the e book conversion utilities.
 
Like what HareBrain said, I think that using ' looks neater as I personally use it myself. I think it's easier and quicker to write with. And ink wise it saves slightly more than "
 
Wow, a seven year old thread arises from the dead. (Well almost) Interesting comment.

Welcome @DiagonalN
 
I'm kind of with @Ursa major. I use " for spoken/conversations between characters, but ' for when they quote or emphasize another character. I get confused with italicized words in quotes. To me, an italicized words means a thought.

"Jill told me it is the 'best coffee' she has ever had."

"Jill told me it is the best coffee she has ever had."

Although, the more works by UK authors I read, the more I'm getting used to seeing,
'Jill told me it is the best coffee she has ever had.'

But with social custom to double finger an emphasize statement in day-to-day life, one would think writing it like this would make more since,

'Jill told me it is the "best coffee" she has ever had.'
It is easier to type too.
 
I don't mind either way, as long as it is consistent. What I find perplexing is the French practice of not closing speach marks when the narrating author's voice takes over and reopening them when it's finished.

...opening first book to hand: Niourk by Stefan Wul

- Thôz est fort, dit-il. Il est rusé. Avec Thôz, la tribu pourra vancre les monstres, elle pourra manger les monsters.

- Thoz is strong, he said. He is cunning. With Thoz the tribe can destroy the monsters, it can eat the monsters.

exepting sometimes they do. The next book I picked up had closing , quotemarks which came AFTER the narrator's voice telling us who had spoken and that he had shut a door while saying it.

I'm confused. (This is why I read comics.)
 
I suspect "1984" was intended... and, in my case, was expected, as I read it as 1984.
 
I once read an indie novel, I think it was called, ‘Cobwebs of Youth’, and I found this little bit of grammatical elegance.

Say, you have a quote or a caption within a quote. For example, “I flew a great expanse over turbulent waters than ran as thick of still. ‘But I didn’t bring a toboggan”’, in which the apostrophe of the caption within came after the initial quote. I use it all of the time now.
 
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