Lesley, Author at Allison & Busby

A good place to be a reader

14 October, 2013

Iceland has been on my holiday to-do list for a number of years now. Firstly, there’s the attraction of the northern lights. I mean, just look at the picture here, who wouldn’t like to have something that gorgeous on their holiday snaps? I’ll just brush aside the fact that when I see the northern lights […]

Jane Austen: Tough as Old Boots

10 October, 2013

Jane Austen is a tough old bird. I hasten to add that I say that with the greatest admiration and respect. How many 200+ year old ladies (I’ll draw a veil over her exact age) could withstand the silliness, albeit pleasant silliness, that attaches itself to her? I was in Bath last month during part […]

SPOILER ALERT

1 October, 2013

Did that blog title intrigue you? Do you possess nerves of steel and resisted, or did you click through to the full text with more than your usual alacrity? If so, you probably share my lack of readerly restraint: I’m not good at resisting spoilers in any shape or form. So, I tip my hat […]

Getting sent to Coventry can be a good thing

23 September, 2013

On Sunday Kathryn (our new Publishing Assistant!) and I were sent to Coventry. No, we weren’t suffering some kind of office ostracism, we went to represent A&B at the annual Gardners Trade Show, part of the Bookseller Association Conference weekend. So for a couple of hours we got to chat to some diverse, clever, book-loving […]

The Nation’s Favourite Play

17 September, 2013

A little bit of Pinter, a soupçon of Shakespeare or a slice of Shaw: a new poll is on a quest to find the nation’s favourite plays. The English Touring Theatre is behind it, and they will perform the resulting top 21 to celebrate its 21st birthday. A win-win for theatre fans. Because I love […]

Posters with a touch of culture

9 September, 2013

For years I’ve been a fan of Poems on the Underground. Particularly as these poetry snippets take up advertising space that might otherwise be given to yet another advert for travel insurance, but I’ve also enjoyed those that give the poet’s snapshot of London. For instance, Thom Gunn’s ‘The Conversation of Old Men’ below which […]

Knit one, purl one, lick one

2 September, 2013

I hate to be the first to say it but the nights are beginning to turn. Please don’t throw things at me, as an ardent lover of summer, I’m as annoyed as you that dusk is falling earlier. The only silver lining to this situation is that shortly I will begin knitting a new chunky […]

The Lion, the Statue and the Murals

27 August, 2013

For people of my age group the BBC adaptation of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was a seminal event. The idea of winter but never Christmas truly appalled me. I may have been acting out some Susan fantasies when I took up archery a few years later. And I felt a species of […]

Unlikely stuffed companions

15 August, 2013

This past week I have been visiting my husband’s family and staying in the bedroom that was his from birth. There was recently a cull of many items, so we’ve said farewell to the giant Yoda poster and a caricature of my hubby circa 1997, but a few childhood bits and pieces do remain. One […]

Popcorn-worthy theatre

30 July, 2013

We’re living in an age of sequels, prequels and strange spin-offs. Monsters’ University? Man of Steel? Give me strength. Though, having wondered through Leicester Square the other week, I found myself in the right place at the right time to high-five Hugh Jackson. So, I will be making an exception for The Wolverine. He is […]

You wait ages and then three queens come along at once…

22 July, 2013

Have you been watching The White Queen? After what I thought was a good start (Janet McTeer gets thumbs up from me and not just for her Princess Leia hair-do, though that helps) I’ve found that later episodes have dragged a little. Mostly because characters are having to carry the weight of exposition, and keep […]

First time for everything

15 July, 2013

My name is Lesley and until last week I had never been to London Zoo. There, I said it, but I made up for this shocking discrepancy by going along to one of the Zoo Lates last Friday night. Checking out the giraffes and gorillas (the silverback had poses that wouldn’t have looked out of […]

Dying to read that book now…

8 July, 2013

These days there are so many entertainment options out there; hundreds of video channels; streaming movies; computer games; social media, the list goes on. It might seem that books and reading are hard pressed to compete, though I think our industry is in pretty good health. However, the Madrid Book Publishers Association have launched an […]

Plan for the weekend: book shopping!

28 June, 2013

What do you have planned for this weekend? Watching Wimbledon? Walking the dog? Catching up on some shut-eye? Well, add this to your diary: this Saturday is the launch of Independent Booksellers Week. So, why not pop along to your local indie, or seach here if you’re not sure where they are, and pick up […]

Colourful Reading…

17 June, 2013

The skies may have stubbornly been deaf to my requests to change from a very dull grey to a more mediterranean blue, so I will try to inject a little colour into everyone’s day by sharing this interesting piece I found via twitter last week. Jaz Parkinson is a graphic designer who has begun a […]

Wednesday Cover Story: The Wonders of 3D

12 June, 2013

It was only about a week ago that I saw my first movie in 3D. Yes, finger on the pulse, that’s me. It was Star Trek: Into Darkness, Benedict Cumberbatch was in fine form and it was an enjoyable couple of hours. The 3D effect took a little bit of getting used I must say, […]

A smörgåsbord of your favourite writers

4 June, 2013

The past few years have seen an explosion in the ‘scandi-crime’ phenomenon, as the rest of the world discovered some top-notch crime novels and television drama coming out of the frozen north. Hands up anyone who’s lost a weekend in front of a box-set of The Killing, Bergen or The Bridge? Or have followed the […]

You know you’ve made it when…

30 May, 2013

It’s not all that often that a new book will permeate the general culture so much that the characters’ names become common parlance or the newspapers will borrow plot twists to illustrate their point. I know when a book has hit the big time when my dearly beloved, but not-precisely-a-bookworm other half knows anything about […]

Larger than life – Falstaff

23 May, 2013

The description ‘larger than life’ is one of those potential jellyfish, back-handed compliments that I know I wouldn’t be all that enthused to receive. But it’s a phrase we used in the blurb for one of our books in the past year, and is aptly applied to the character of Shakespeare’s Falstaff. Not only does […]

And the winner is…

16 May, 2013

We seem to have had a pretty good year for publishing. Despite the tricky times on the high street, 2012 saw positive growth in both digital and print markets, and it wasn’t all EL James making a splash. Hilary Mantell’s critically lauded Bring up the Bodies has now attained incredible popular reach currently sitting at […]

Classics for Kids

7 May, 2013

I was buying some books for a little person the other day. No, scratch that, considering one of my purchases was entitled Poo Bum, I was probably buying more for the dubious humour of said little one’s parents. Already being embarassed by them and she’s only a year old, poor thing. But while browsing the […]