Blog
The Next Big Thing
24 May, 2013
I had a very excited email last week from a friend telling me she’d finished her novel. I paused for a second and thought, what an astonishing sentence. We studied literature and creative writing together at university and she went on to do a Masters in the latter at Oxford. Now at the young age […]
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 […]
Wednesday Cover Story: Making hardbacks extra beautiful…
22 May, 2013
During the Fall of Night Book Tour, after Rachel Caine had finished signing books for fans at Waterstones in Bournemouth, I was admiring the cover to A Delicate Truth, by John le Carré (with its embossed gold foil) and chatting to the manager about how much effort is going into hardbacks now. Gone are the […]
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 […]
The best books you’ve never heard of
20 May, 2013
The other week I attended my first literary awards bash – the Clarke Award, one of Britain’s most prestigious award for Science Fiction novels, set up with a grant from Arthur C Clarke. It was held at the Royal Society and open to the public for, I think, the first time this year. After a […]
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 […]
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 […]
Wednesday Cover Story: The thought-process behind the cover to A Little Murder
15 May, 2013
Sometimes, after reading a book or manuscript, I can conjure up my own ideas of what could go (or could have gone) on the cover. And then there are other times where I wouldn’t know where to start. This, of course, is why our cover designs are left to our talented Art Editor, Christina… A […]
Dial ‘M’ for Merthyr
14 May, 2013
Last week, as part of Rachel Caine’s UK tour to celebrate the launch of Fall of Night, I was excited to find myself back in my home country (well, technically ‘principality’) of Wales. After a brilliant event at Howell’s School Llandaff, and a quick hop on the train to an equally great book signing at […]
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 […]
Rachel Caine visits Renaissance Learning
10 May, 2013
Yesterday I had the chance to go along to a special event with bestselling author Rachel Caine, hosted by Renaissance Learning, a company who works with schools to encourage reading. They were also the organisers of the recent nationwide What Kids Are Reading poll which saw Glass Houses (the first book in Rachel’s Morganville Vampire […]
Having a Ball with Jane Austen
9 May, 2013
If you’re a fellow Janeite (a fan of Jane Austen, for anyone who hasn’t read Persuasion too many times), you’ll be happy to know that this Friday 10th May, at 9pm, BBC Two will be showing Pride & Prejudice: Having a Ball. The programme will involve a team of experts staging an authentically Austen-esque ball, much […]
Wednesday Cover Story: Creating the design for The Lavender Keeper
8 May, 2013
While our Art Editor, Christina, can often create a cover design that is so perfect from the get-go that it requires not even the tiniest of tweaks (that’s how brilliant she is), the process of creating a cover can often be a more collaborative process. Designs can change to accommodate a new quote for the […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Wednesday Cover Story: Fancy renting out the house on this book cover?
1 May, 2013
It’s the 1st of May, the sun is out and had my first lunch in the park with no coat on. Summer is finally just round the corner and I can start looking forward to summer life: picnics and bike rides, ice-cream and beach-time, staying out late on those long warm nights, walking barefoot on […]
A gift of a story
30 April, 2013
Books are the great present-conumdrum-solution. Whether buying for fashionista or fisherman (both actual cases on my Christmas shopping list), what other shop could you duck into with a pretty good chance of present-purchasing success? So, it seems a no-brainer to me to sprinkle some of that bookish magic into the humble greetings card… While strolling […]
Bookish Bags
29 April, 2013
Today, the arrival of our fabulous Morganville canvas bags (which we’ll be taking along on Rachel Caine’s UK tour very soon) made me crave more handy bookish things to carry too much stuff around in. And thankfully there is a wealth of choice out there on the Internet; below are a couple of my favourites (click on the […]
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 […]
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 […]
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