Susie, Author at Allison & Busby

Wednesday Cover Story: The new Caper Court Covers!

14 August, 2013

Designing a beautiful cover for an individual book is hard enough, but creating the right package for an entire series is a whole other feat and an even more difficult one at that. Our art editor, Christina has produced some real gems, like the covers to The Mary Russell & Sherlock Holmes series (which we […]

Where will one missing letter take you?

9 August, 2013

Earlier this week we had the pleasure of a visit from Laurie R King (bestselling author of the Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes series) and her lovely daughter, Zoë. I naturally tweeted the news with the picture above, but my over-excitement caused me to type too fast and I ended up tweeting the caption “Lunch in […]

Kickstarting the love of stories

2 August, 2013

Recently, bestselling author Rachel Caine successfully launched a Kickstarter campaign to get her mega-popular Morganville Vampires books made into a Web TV Series. Fans have been clamouring to see their favourite Morganville characters on screens, and finally, thanks to these same hordes of fans who pledged their support for the project, they will see their […]

May I suggest a June Thomson novel, Sharapova?

4 July, 2013

In this week’s Stylist, tennis star Maria Sharapova reveals that she loves Sherlock Holmes films and books. So, I have a mind to send her copies of June Thomson‘s brilliant pastiches including Holmes & Watson, The Secret Notebook of Sherlock Holmes, The Secret Archives of Sherlock Holmes, and The Secret Journal of Sherlock Holmes. Now […]

Music, not War, comes to Val D’Orcia

2 July, 2013

We never need a reason to talk about one of our most beloved books, the famous memoir War in Val D’Orcia, by Iris Origo which we so proudly publish. This incredibly moving and honest diary was written in secret and recounts a year in the life of writer Iris Origo as she hid orphans and […]

Review of World War Z (the film, not the book)

25 June, 2013

Over the weekend I went to see World War Z, the new zombie blockbuster starring Brad Pitt, loosely based on the 2006 novel by Max Brooks. ‘Loosely based’ being something of an understatement, as apparently, apart from sharing the same title, the film bears little resemblance to the book. Read more about the differences here… […]

Fly on the wall at Emily Winslow’s Book Launch

21 June, 2013

On Tuesday this week, Susie and I headed to Cambridge to celebrate the launch of The Whole World and The Start of Everything by Emily Winslow at Heffers Bookshop. It was a lovely family affair with kids invited along and whisked happily away to the children’s section where fellow author Helen Moss enraptured them talking […]

The simple beauty of a bird’s nest

11 June, 2013

Sometimes there are things of such utter beauty that they must be shared. This is one of them. Look at the care and effort this bird has taken to build her nest. I must clarify that this is not a stylised magazine photo – […]

Famous Last Words…

7 June, 2013

I received some promotional postcards today from Plainpicture.com, and one of them looks like this: It has got me thinking about that last page in a novel: how an author must feel reaching the end of their 100,000 word manuscript; how long they may have spent thinking about those last words on the page; how […]

Authors make for good travel agents…

17 May, 2013

I’m heading off to San Francisco tomorrow morning (I know, lucky me) and whilst this holiday has been in the pipeline for some time, what with the excitement of the Fall of Night Book Tour which has seen me travelling around the country with Rachel Caine (author of the Morganville Vampires series) this San Fran […]

Fancy living under the same roof as Rudyard Kipling?

2 May, 2013

Yesterday we blogged about book-inspired summer homes, and now we have news over another house that may go on your wish-list. It’s The Gables, in Tisbury, Wiltshire, where Rudyard Kipling’s parents lived for over 20 years and apparently where Kipling wrote most of his famous novel, Kim. And if you fancy a home with such […]

A week of Barcelona…

26 April, 2013

I started the week with another trip to my new favourite haunt a few blocks from the Allison & Busby office, Iberica, on Great Portland Street. This Spanish restaurant is inconspicuos from the outside but walk through the front doors and you’ll enter into a beautiful space, featuring tables and plush leather armchairs by the […]

Favourite things from the London Book Fair

19 April, 2013

It’s Friday, and we’re winding down from the buzz of the London Book Fair earlier this week. I spent one day at the big event and noted an unsurprisingly huge increase in the size of the Digital section, the absence of the Cookery Corner (a regular LBF space which used to hold cookery demos to […]

Catch The Beekeeper’s Apprentice on Radio 4 Extra…

18 April, 2013

Tomorrow, Friday 19th April, BBC Radio 4 Extra will be broadcasting the first episode in a four-part dramatisation of The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, by Laurie R King – the first book in her acclaimed Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes series. When the young Mary Russell literally stumbles across Holmes on the Sussex Downs, it marks the […]

Another reason to revisit Point Blank

25 March, 2013

Earlier this month, Sir Michael Caine celebrated his 80th birthday, and as the publishers of Alfie and Get Carter, it was appropriate we highlighted it on our blog (speaking of which, there’s still time to enter our Michael Caine giveaway). Now we hear that the director John Boorman has also turned 80 years old this year […]

Friday Fun: Paper is not dead…

22 March, 2013

Following our Wednesday Cover Story this week and the ongoing e-book v physical book debate, I couldn’t help but laugh at this French video I came across on YouTube. Tweeted it the other day, but I feel it deserves to be shared here, on our Friday Fun slot… Chiara Priorelli, Publicity & Marketing Manager

Yes, that’s right, we’re working in our pyjamas.

15 March, 2013

It’s not every day you get to work at the office in your pj’s. And it’s not that surprising seeing as I kept having to fight the urge to curl up under my desk for a kip. But today, we could, and we did. So, give it up for some Red Nose Carpet fashion from […]

Happy Birthday Sir Michael Caine!

14 March, 2013

Today, revered actor Sir Michael Caine celebrates his 80th birthday, and, considering he’s something of a national treasure, it’s a milestone that is getting some deserved attention. A new exhibition launches today at the Museum of London featuring never-before-exhibited photographs of the iconic actor, as well as footage from his cult classics films like Alfie, […]

Friday Fun: Vote for the Oddest Book Title of the Year

8 March, 2013

It’s that time again: time to pick the Oddest Book Title of the Year. There have been some wonderful entries for the Diagram prize in the past (see here, here and here) and this year doesn’t disappoint. There’s the usual mention of at least one animal and one body part, but this year I found […]

Happy World Book Day!

7 March, 2013

Today is World Book Day! And what a day it is. The Biggest Book Show on Earth is about to kick off (11am today) to be broadcasted to cinemas nationwide and streamed live here; events will be taking place in schools, libraries and bookshops, eight £1 books have been released especially for the occasion; an […]

Highlights from the RoNA Awards

28 February, 2013

This Tuesday I had the pleasure of attending the Romantic Novelist Association‘s Awards ceremony – a wonderfully jolly evening as romance novelists, publishers and agents, gathered at the RAF Club to support the nominees, applaud the winners and salute the genre in general. This year the awards were given out by none other than TV […]