Sophie, Author at Allison & Busby

Old Favourites

21 May, 2013

Last week I found a treasure I didn’t even know had been written. Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s The Prisoner of Heaven from his series set in the Cemetery of Forgotten Books in 19th century Barcelona. I read the first two in the series, The Shadow of the Wind and The Angel’s Game about six years ago […]

Holiday Reads

13 May, 2013

It’s that time of year again when I am scouring bookshelves for potential holiday reads. I have two weeks to find two/three great books to keep me entertained on the plane and the beach. But my criteria are quite specific so I probably should’ve started my search earlier. I definitely want a print book rather […]

A&B Spotting

3 May, 2013

A sunny visit to Hampshire last weekend to see my sister and brother-in-law resulted in the three of us visiting Waterstones on our jaunt into Reading. (They stood in the doorway blinking, slightly confused as to how we ended up in another bookshop while I went galloping among the shelves.) As well as spotting Hugh […]

Impromptu pep-talks to wannabe writers…

25 April, 2013

The chaos fromthe London Book Fair last week has only now begun to settle and I can now approach people without attempting to hand out flyers. It was my second experience at the Fair. Last year’s was spent wide eyed, attempting to hand out CV’s and stalk famous authors. But this year’s experience was quite […]

D.E. Meredith at Up The Junction

17 April, 2013

Monday 29th April, 7:30pm, LOUGHBOROUGH JUNCTION Join Victorian crime writer D.E. Meredith for an evening of books, writing, short films and readings at Loughborough Junctions premier film and literary salon, Up the Junction with this month’s theme In The City. Meredith is bestselling author of the Hatton & Roumande mysteries, Devoured and The Devil’s Ribbon. […]

Adrian Magson at Get Writing 2013

12 April, 2013

Saturday 20th April 9am – 5pm, UNIVERSITY OF HEREFORDSHIRE Join A&B crime writer at The Annual Conference of Verulam Writers’ Circle – Get Writing 2013. Featuring an array of influential and creative people in the UK publishing business, offering talks, workshops, seminars and a lot of networking. Adrian, author of the Lucas Rocco series including […]

London Bookshop Tour – Day 1

11 April, 2013

I’ve decided to explore the capital through its bookshops and I am quite spoilt for choice. At the weekend I joined the sea of tourists pouring out of Leicester Square tube and headed towards Cecil Court. It has the sort of peaceful serenity usually reserved for libraries and to be honest, any place void of […]

Join me on the London Bookshop Tour

5 April, 2013

London is full of many great things, one of which is bookshops. There are the iconic bookstores like Foyles in Charing Cross and Waterstones’s flagship store in Piccadilly and then there’s the army of indies that are peppered around the city: More or less every weekend that I’ve been in London, I’ve unintentionally found myself […]

Literary Dinner Party

28 March, 2013

After watching a cringy, yet hilarious episode of Come Dine With Me, I began thinking about dinner parties. I often have friends round for dinner but I wouldn’t go as far to call it a dinner party. It’s not quite as refined as that. More fajitas and margaritas, than canapés and champagne. But that got […]

The Germans are good at everything…

21 March, 2013

Every type of food, that is. Some people go on holiday to sight see. I go on holiday to eat. And I feel that’s okay as I am now a member of a foodie-filled office. I’ve just back from a lovely four days in Berlin; the city was beautiful, covered in snow and with the […]

Find yourself a Book Buddy

11 March, 2013

I went to Oxford last weekend to see my long time book buddy and university friend, Daisy. I never really realised we were book-mates until recently. We chat about everything under the sun, but the conversation always takes a literary turn. Every time we meet we swap books, tell of exciting new titles, moan bitterly […]

The Pitfalls of Genre

4 March, 2013

Last week I was reading A&B author Susanna Kearsley’s blog where she raised the issue of genre and suggested we should read books regardless of how they are pigeon-holed into a category. Similarly I have a friend who’s a bookseller and hates how certain books like Hilary Mantel’s are classed as Literary Fiction, while other […]

Second Chances

21 February, 2013

So I am reading the final chapters of Colum McCann’s Dancer and I am utterly awe-struck. I remember picking this book up when I was thirteen years old. I was going to dance classes three times a week and was obsessed by anything dance related. But unfortunately the setting of the Soviet Union in 1943 […]

Bookcase Dilemma

11 February, 2013

I am approaching a very special time in every girl’s life – the moment she purchases her first bookcase. My book collection has been very neatly stacked in my grandmother’s beautiful tapestry suitcases and positioned around the room. But my books just seem to be multiplying and now they’re creeping around the room forming mischievous […]

Could you live without the internet?

1 February, 2013

I find you don’t realise how much you rely on something until you have to do without it. I’ve been living in my new house since November and I am still without the internet. At first BT had to dig up the road to install fibre optic and it was up and running by the […]

Unnecessary Buys

29 January, 2013

Occasionally I find something on the internet that makes me giddy with excitement and demanding as a spoilt child. It can be books, clothes, make up or something completely random that I have no need or use for. For example, this Sherlock Holmes poster by Spineless Classics: The poster itself is enormous because it shows […]

Catherine Law in Buckinghamshire

28 January, 2013

Friday 1st February, 2:30pm GREAT MISSENDEN LIBRARY, BUCKINGHAMSHIRE Join A&B author Catherine Law at Great Missenden Library Open Day, The High Street, Great Missenden, HP16 0AL, where she will be talking about her writing ideas, her inspiration and her latest book, The September Garden. Other activities include a children’s story time, a craft event, a ‘How […]

Book Purgatory v Book Heaven

18 January, 2013

I’ll admit it. There are books I’ve started and haven’t finished. I’m not proud of it, but it’s true. I always try and give a book the benefit of the doubt, attempting the first five chapters before I cast it aside. Some books just move at a slower pace and need more time to pick […]

How do you choose just one?

11 January, 2013

Since I work in publishing and I studied English Literature, my housemates seem to think I’ve read every book that’s ever been written, from The Bible to War & Peace to The Hungry Caterpillar. I’m afraid that’s not the case. While I love reading and have read many books, there’s still a world of them […]

New Year’s Resolutions!

2 January, 2013

And so here we are, back in the office and with the start of 2013 comes New Year’s resolutions! There are so many things I want to achieve, its hard to narrow it down and keep it realistic. My three main resolutions are: 1. To run a 10K race in spring 2013. My Sunday run […]

A Book for Winter

18 December, 2012

Some books are just better in winter. They portray the cold dark nights and frosty winds that keep us huddled indoors. Nothing does this quite the book I am reading now: Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow, by Peter Høeg. Set in snowy Denmark, the protagonist Smilla Jasperson investigates the death of a young boy using […]