A bestselling birthday…
17 January, 2011
What do The Return of the Jedi, The Name of the Rose and Jane Fonda’s Workout Book all have in common? Not a lot you would be right in thinking, except for the fact that they all graced the New York Times Bestseller lists the week I was born. Was I born under an (in)auspicious […]
Bookie-quiz for a rainy lunchtime…
11 January, 2011
On a rainy lunchtime, while eating one’s BLT (uninspired and in danger of being trampled underfoot in Tescos at lunchtime, I made an autopilot lunch grab) what one needs is a bit of mental stimulation to chase the cobwebs away. And while browsing The Bookseller’s website I found just the thing – Bent’s Invisibooks (second […]
Getting 2011 off to the right start.
4 January, 2011
As I try to get my brain into gear that we are now in 2011, I realise that my New Year resolutions are a bit thin on the ground. Perhaps I’m a cynic/realist/have the will power of a new born babe but I don’t think there’s much point to my pronouncing commandments such as ‘thou […]
A great book to read, or wear, or…
13 December, 2010
We should stop thinking of ourselves as book publishers. That was one of the resounding lines echoed unnervingly in my head after an ebook conference last week. Too true, of course, when the rise of ebooks is plain to see and digital opportunities for publishers and authors abound. But this thought also coincided with a […]
Fool-proofing your titles…
6 December, 2010
A bit of ‘science’ to help authors wishing to top the bestseller lists has surfaced over the past week. The people behind Lulu.com, the self-publishing website, have created a gizmo called Titlescorer. After analyzing the titles of the hardback fiction books on the New York Times bestseller list for the past sixty years, they say […]
Tag Your Bag
2 December, 2010
As anyone with the same appetite for books as the A&B office will know (and which Chiara has demonstrated in her recent hunt for new bookshelves), there comes a time when it is impossible to keep any more books. When your bookcases are so full that you’re stacking books on the floor around that piece […]
Here comes the bride and book tie-in
22 November, 2010
So, Will and Kate are getting hitched, yawn. Predictable as the announcement was, along with the ridiculous wall-to-wall news coverage, so was the rush to cash in. For those of you interested (I won’t think less of you…much), you can get a bargain version of the engagement ring and while there’s a bit of a […]
A walk on the Sunnyside
9 November, 2010
My most recent read from the inter-office library system (read: box of jumbled books behind my desk) was Sunnyside by David Glen Gold. A really interesting, if slightly unwieldy, story set in America during the Great War. One of the (many) strands follows Charlie Chaplin; his life, his relationships, his neuroses, and his movies at […]
Halloween has gone, but zombies are here to stay…
4 November, 2010
Sweeney Todd, Mrs Lovett, Cruella De Vil and Where’s Wally (that was me, simplicity being paramount in my costume choice) were just some of the people who gathered on Saturday night to celebrate a good friend’s birthday (Mrs Lovett’s of course). Among the tasty treats were pies with fingers sticking out of them (read, sausages), […]
An Olympic Job?
25 October, 2010
As I go back and forth each day out of Liverpool Street station I have seen the stadium for London 2012 taking shape. I’ve been more interested in the progress of the Aquatics centre myself, as a regular(ish) paddler, and because it looks like it’s going to be a very cool building. What I’m not […]
Brave new book world
18 October, 2010
You may already have spotted the news that Allison & Busby’s ebooks will very shortly be distributed by a new collaboration of independent publishers – The Faber Factory. It’s an exciting and fast moving time for publishing, but I stumbled upon the most intriguing recent example of this the other day with a mention of […]
From knitting basics to yarn bombing
14 October, 2010
This past week I have been far too pleased with myself for finishing my first knitting project that is fit for human wardrobes. Granted, the recipient is about 11 weeks old, so she doesn’t have much of a voice yet in sartorial decisions regarding herself, but that hasn’t diminished my pleasure. However, a recent piece […]
Just When Stories
4 October, 2010
What a great idea. To tie in the with centenary of Rudyard Kipling’s classic Just So Stories, Beautiful Books have recently published a companion piece titled Just When Stories. With a raft of contributions from the likes of William Boyd, Hanif Kureishi and Michael Morpurgo the idea is to highlight the plight of many of […]
This year, Halloween is all about Zombies…
28 September, 2010
Oh dear, there is a Halloween-themed birthday party on the horizon and I am definitely without inspiration as to what to go as. Any thoughts as to simple, but of course clever and original, oh and easily constructed costumes, greatly appreciated (I’m not asking for much eh?). The trouble is, this year Halloween for me […]
Go Greased Lightning!
20 September, 2010
Forget The Man Booker Prize, forget Newsnight, I’m sure I’m not alone in thinking that now and then our brains are in urgent need of a rest. To plagiarise my husband: ‘Rather than sitting down to the mental or cultural equivalent of a hearty, three course meal, sometimes all that we need is chewing gum […]
Worth a $1 million?
9 September, 2010
Somethings are worth paying insurance for. Like the direct debit covering my trusty iPhone (let’s try not to drop it again, Lesley, OK?) or, things like travel and health insurance. Take the honeymooner who hit the news recently, who broke her back falling over a balcony in Corfu and needed to be flown back to […]
Rewriting the classics
6 September, 2010
Beatrix Potter was an absolute favourite of mine as a child – Peter Rabbit and Miss Tiggy-Winkle were books I read and reread. And now I see that Emma Thompson has been signed up to write a new Peter Rabbit tale. Read more here… I’ll refrain from donning my cynical hat, as after all Ms […]
In need of a pedicure? Send in the Garra Rufa fish.
1 September, 2010
You may not be surprised to hear that I’m not much of a pampering girl. I mean there aren’t many beauty treatments that justify a half hour of boredom, in my opinion. You can’t hold a book with tacky nail polish and you can’t have much of a conversation when your face muscles are being […]
Your language needs you!
24 August, 2010
We’re all used to hearing news stories every year about the shiny new words that have had the official stamp of acceptance by the English language and have made it into one of the dictionaries. Just the other day, chillax made headlines as it was welcomed into the Oxfrod Dictionary of English (how a word […]
Oh I do like to be beside the seaside
16 August, 2010
That’s your lot people, we’re fresh out of summer. According to my mother (obviously your first port of call for a long-range weather forecast) we might even have snow in the next month. So, this weekend wasn’t the best bet for a trip to the seaside, but nevertheless that’s what I found myself doing on […]
Interesting public publicity stunts…
9 August, 2010
A few stories have caught my eye recently about publicity stunts in public places, many of which were in New York city (co-incidence? You decide.) First of all, a troupe of improv actors are trying to brighten up everyone’s day by acting out scenes from famous films. Read more here… I don’t know about anyone […]
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