Blog
Wednesday Cover Story: Getting readers’ seal of approval
24 April, 2013
We often spend days, weeks, months mulling over cover designs and it’s always interesting to hear what people think of our covers. And of course, it’s particularly nice to hear readers think we’ve done a good job, especially when we’ve reprinted a book and revamped the cover with a new design… you hope readers will […]
Happy Shakespeare Day!
23 April, 2013
There are lots of weird and wonderful ‘national days’, including some more bizarre than others (Pi Day or Towel Day, for example). But today has, I think, a worthwhile theme – as well as being St George’s Day, it’s also the anniversary of William Shakespeare’s birth and death. So dig out the lace ruff and […]
World Book Night – cheers!
22 April, 2013
Tomorrow is World Book Night, the annual celebration of books and reading that seeks to share the passion for literature with those who don’t regularly read. It’s a damn fine cause and there are some great books on the list this year across a broad range of genres, full list here. There are events going […]
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 […]
Wednesday Cover Story: Six decades of Casino Royale covers
17 April, 2013
This month marks 60 years since Ian Fleming published Casino Royale – the first James Bond novel. One of his biggest fans, Mike VanBlaricum (whose fabulous last name could be used for a Bond-villan character) has contributed to a new exhibition in Illinois, The Birth of Bond: Casino Royale at 60, showcasing how the book […]
Turning the pages of the A&B office
16 April, 2013
Coming into a new office is remarkably similar to starting a new book. There are new people to meet, new locations to familiarise yourself with, and new idiosyncrasies to grow used to, whether these are particular ways the author has of phrasing sentences, counter-intuitive taps, or a shower whose presence, so far, no one has […]
There are treasured books, and then there are those that hold treasure…
15 April, 2013
I’m a peddler in the cliché that books enrich your life. They take you to amazing places and times, introduce you to ideas and people you would never normally meet and can improve your life in measurable (education, jobs etc) and immeasurable ways. And then I came across this story via The Huffington Post about […]
A Boy and his Dog
12 April, 2013
It sometimes seems very strange what goes viral in the media and on the Internet, but lately there’s a very cute story circulating which made me smile. Five-year-old Julian Becker and his massive pet dog Max have been posing for photos every day, taken by Julian’s mother to send to her husband when he’s travelling. […]
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 […]
Wednesday Cover Story: The new Simon Fonthill cover
10 April, 2013
Fire Across the Veldt is the upcoming new novel in John Wilcox‘s acclaimed Simon Fonthill series – which sees Fonthill recruited by British General Kitchener to Cape Town to fight the Boers. And the cover is one of our new favourites. There’s something innately historical and quite beautiful about the colouring – the slight sepia […]
The gift that keeps on giving
9 April, 2013
Am I the only one to think that birthdays and Christmases can be a slightly underwhelming experience for bibliophiles? Don’t get me wrong, anything that puts a fresh tome into my eager hands is not to be sniffed at, but the voucher/Book Token route and, in my case, the ‘Would Like to Read’ list my […]
Twitter Favourites: Sixth Form Poet
8 April, 2013
Do you remember that person at school – the one who was ‘really into’ politics and philosophy, who perhaps enjoyed making a big fuss out of the fact that he/she was reading Nietzsche or classic Russian literature, the one who was a bit too obsessed with poetry and who liked to wow everyone with their […]
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 […]
Big Kids
4 April, 2013
When we heard about the What Kids Are Reading poll, which our very own Rachel Caine topped, it didn’t surprise me that Roald Dahl was #1 in the Most Read list. As a child of the 80s, Dahl was an integral part of my reading diet. He was also responsible for my one and only […]
Wednesday Cover Story: Our London Book Fair posters
3 April, 2013
The images on many book cover designs make for fabulous posters. In fact I’ve always thought the covers to our Mary Russell & Sherlock Holmes series by Laurie R King would brighten up any room quite wonderfully. Now, however, I see that so many more of our cover images look fabulous blown up to poster-size […]
Get Thee a Wife! (or The Search for a Literary-inspired Wedding Venue)
2 April, 2013
‘Men are April when they woo, December when they wed: maids are May when they are maids, but the sky changes when they are wives.’ As You Like It My thoughts this past week have been on issues wedding-related: scheduling, planning travel and, of course, pondering frocks. While my brain was in wedding mode I […]
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 […]
Wednesday Cover Story: Setting the scene…
27 March, 2013
This month’s issue of Booksmonthly features a review of the latest paperback in The Rose McQuinn series by Alanna Knight, Deadly Legacy, set in Edinburgh in 1901. The review says: ‘The atmosphere is superbly created and executed – the cover image sums up the narrow, lonely back streets that Alanna describes, and the story is […]
Chocolate + Charity: The best combination ever…
26 March, 2013
With Easter on the way, and having attended the South Bank’s annual Chocolate Festival (also in Bristol on 30th and 31st March) on the weekend, I’m craving some chocolatey goodness. And it turns out there’s good reason to indulge yourself this April; The Sick Children’s Trust, a charity that provides families of sick children with […]
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 […]
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