Lesley, Author at Allison & Busby

What you said about Glass Houses (Morganville Book 1)

19 February, 2010

Before Christmas, we ran a competition with our friends The Reading Agency and teen reading groups around the UK. We gave them the first installment in our Morganville Vampires series, Glass Houses, and asked for reviews – and in turn have now received some great and detailed responses. Plenty of our reviewers mentioned how accurate […]

Valentine’s (hic!) Day

15 February, 2010

For Valentine’s Day you could have found me and the other half squinting in rapt concentration, aiming for a swirl (but slopping more instead) and making some interesting noises through pursed lips under a London railway arch. Sounds romantic, no? Guided through a systematic approach to wine-tasting in the Vinopolis caverns around London Bridge, we […]

Exactly what libraries need?

5 February, 2010

You know, I might harp on a bit about this whole ebooks/digital thing, but away from the news-grabbing stories of iPad this and epub that, there are some pretty cool developments taking place which are a really positive thing for reading as a whole. For instance, you may not be aware of Bloomsbury Library Online, […]

Love is in the air?

27 January, 2010

How cool – this coming Valentines weekend I will be toasting some very good friends tying the knot ‘up north’. I’m usually terrible at remembering days like this and, unlike my other half, am much more likely to be the one picking up some tired looking ‘gift’ in the corner shop than he is. So, […]

In the jungle…

20 January, 2010

There must be something in the water – following hard on the heels of Chiara’s trip to see Chicago, I went to see The Lion King and came bounding out of the Lyceum theatre on Saturday with a whole raft of Disney’s best songs ricocheting around my head. And when I’m not fully-conscious of it, […]

Feeling ebooky

6 January, 2010

You may remember back a few months to when I was full of the joys of our hot-off-the-presses ebooks: five brave titles that went out into the digital world as ambassadors for the A&B list – see here. Since then we’ve been working getting other titles converted, being picky in these untested waters, of course, […]

The angel/fairy debate

16 December, 2009

It might be verging on the ludicrous, but my hubby and I were arguing the other night over whether the creature perching on the top of our Christmas tree was an angel or a fairy. Don’t get me started, but I have been subsumed into the Crooks tradition that only an angel/fairy on top of […]

Favourite things at Xmas

9 December, 2009

I’m a sucker for a number of things at this time of year as the urge to get all Christmassey descends upon me. Firstly, beautiful stationery. Particularly gorgeous, thick pads and journals, cards and I was even drooling over be-a-utiful bookplates online the other day. Secondly, cookery books (featuring James Martin if possible…ahem…) with plenty […]

Thierry Henry Hoover

2 December, 2009

Over the past few days my ears have been picking up bizarro news stories left, right and centre, but the one that has really stuck in my mind made me picture homes and work places across Ireland becoming neglected and bedraggled-looking soon. Y’see, following a certain (dirty, stinking, cheating…) incident involving Thierry Henry, apparently scores […]

Top toys for Christmas

25 November, 2009

After a mini-panic last week I have begun my Christmas shopping in earnest, seizing upon ideas with the same desperation that usually strikes this time of year. I came across the usual ‘top 10 toys for Christmas’ list the other week, and it made me wish I was buying for more kids than grown-ups. So […]

Authors talking about books (and not their own)

18 November, 2009

Call me insular, but I love books about, well, books. Which is why I loved Nick Hornby’s The Complete Polysyllabic Spree – witty entries about the wonderfully diverse books he was reading – and why I’ll be adding Susan Hill’s Howards End is on the Landing – an epic journey through her plentifully stocked bookshelves […]

iPhones (and Apps) – a justifiable extravagance?

11 November, 2009

A reprise from Chiara’s post last week about Apple Macs Vs. PCs: I am currently on the horns of a dilemma. To buy iPhone, or not to buy iPhone? Can I survive impending family Christmas with not only my brother but my sister-in-law-to-be showing off the latest apps that they have downloaded? Can I bear […]

The B in Allison & Busby

9 October, 2009

Did you know that Allison & Busby’s first offices were leased at the premises of another publisher – though out of office hours only? Or that the characters behind the august company name first met at a party in the house JM Barrie wrote Peter Pan? No, well neither did I, and it was tid-bits […]

Cutting out the middle man

1 October, 2009

In recent months we have been selling books direct – from our gleaming new website of course, but also over the phone. And it’s been wonderful speaking to readers! The women who actually were Land Girls during the Second World War and were after a copy of the fictional account of a group of girls […]

Fancy making an audiobook?

23 September, 2009

I’ve come across an interesting site – Librivox.com. A site which aims to make all public domain books available as free audio books (that means books published before 1923…) and what’s more, you can release your own recordings. So if you’ve ever fancied reading chapters for audio yourself, here’s your chance – become a volunteer […]

Anyone else planning to strike?

16 September, 2009

Seriously – what is it with all the strikes at the moment? Royal Mail has been fizzling on and off like a reluctant light bulb and I’ve just had an email from National Express saying there’s likely to be another train strike for all of next week. Watch this space, I may have intrepid adventures […]

The first of the A&B ebooks!

14 September, 2009

Trumpets! Confetti! General jubilation! Congratulate us one and all for Allison & Busby has just put a toe in the digital book waters with the release of five titles as ebooks – all available from Waterstones.com and ebooks.WHSmith.co.uk. The five books are: Glass Houses by Rachel Caine Lord of Misrule by Rachel Caine Mariana by […]

Only on the internet…

9 September, 2009

No one will argue that there is a lot of random stuff floating about the internet. And such an example is this: a website that tells you when you can safely duck out to the loos during a movie so that you won’t miss much! If you don’t believe me – click here. Taking some […]

Post-wedding bells!

25 August, 2009

Hello all! Here I am bouncing back onto the blog fully refreshed, rejuvenated and renamed! Finally I have become Mrs Crooks and am looking forward immensely to never having to give table plans or flower arrangements any attention ever again. Phew! With all this loved-up cheer (only slightly battered after the first encounter with my […]

The intern debate

6 August, 2009

While briefly flicking over to our friends at Snowbooks I came across reference to this article in the Guardian: ‘‘New inquiry into exploitation of the work for free interns’ (Read more here) – an article that is particularly relevant to me, the lady with a pile of applications to sort through for our autumn 2-week […]

A dash of Dominic West with your coffee?

30 July, 2009

Have to admit I rather like this advertising stunt from Carte Noire so can’t help but forward it on… If you feel you deserve a more seductive coffee break, make yourself a rich mug of Carte Noire and when you’re sitting comfortably, click on here to watch Dominic West, Greg Wise and Dan Stevens reading […]