Blog
Have yourself a Dickens little Christmas
13 December, 2012
As we reach the end of 2012, the bicentennial year of Charles Dickens’ birth, we’re in the true Dickensian season: there’s hoar frost on the trees and people are scurrying through the city’s streets desperate to reach a cosy corner. If Dickens is the man for putting you in the mood for the festive season, […]
Wednesday Cover Story: Unforeseen misinterpretations…
12 December, 2012
I was browsing through The Bookseller earlier this week and my eyes happened upon the thumbnail for the cover of Foursome, by Jane Fallon. The American Kindle cover, to be exact – which is pictured below. And, I stopped to look at it because, and this can only be due to my half-Italian blood, but […]
A Library Beyond the Arctic Circle
11 December, 2012
As winter draws in, I am reminded of the time I spent earlier this year above the Arctic Circle near the end of the Dempster Highway in Inuvik, Canada, where despite the glorious sunshine the lingering snow meant it was still mostly -11° during the days. As such, you could only be outside for so […]
Celebrating the Illustrated Book
10 December, 2012
Last week the Guardian website published a list of writers’ favourite classic book illustrations, as part of a joint campaign with the Folio Society to celebrate beautiful books. Many of the illustrations were from children’s books, and I remember a few from my own childhood – it’s surprising what memories they can evoke. This one, […]
Wonders of the Web
7 December, 2012
The internet is full of wonderful, interesting things. You can literally spend hours just surfing from one website to the next. And I currently have two websites that keep me entertained on a rainy Sunday afternoon: Stumble Upon and Life in Publishing. The first, Stumble Upon, is a website where you join for free and […]
I’m dreaming of a Nordic Christmas…
6 December, 2012
If I look on Twitter I’m surprised that #Scandinavian is not trending at the moment, because recently everything I come across has a Scandivanian bent. And it’s not suprising, because, let it be said, the Scandinavians truly know how to do Christmas. I had the fortune to spend six years of my childhood in Copenhagen […]
Wednesday Cover Story: Our Budd Schulberg reissues
5 December, 2012
A few weeks ago I blogged about our Budd Schulberg Dilemma and now I am delighted to present to you the new designs for our three Schulberg classics, to be published in April next year. You can see how, in the end, we solved the issue with Brando and On the Waterfront… […]
A literary soundtrack
4 December, 2012
If someone was to ask you what the soundtrack to your childhood was, what would you answer? In my case, a motley collection of Take That, Michael Jackson and one-hit wonders from the Now albums would vaguely conjure up the atmosphere of my early years, and give you an inkling of my under-developed music tastes. […]
The Mystery Book Sculptor
3 December, 2012
As Chiara mentioned in an earlier blog post, last week was Scottish Book Week, prompting us all to ponder on our favourite Scottish books and authors. Since then I’ve come across a Scottish literature celebration of a different kind. Scotland’s mystery book sculptor, who I somehow missed in the news when she first turned up […]
Good things come in small packages Vs. Big is beautiful
30 November, 2012
We all know that the size of a book is no indication of how good a read it’s going to be, although there is something deeply satisfying about settling into a chunky read and breaking the spine: you’re committed to that book from that point on, in my opinion. But with Christmas approaching, I’m on […]
An Ode to Bardem
29 November, 2012
So I finally jumped on the James Bond bandwagon and saw Skyfall this week. I’ve never been a huge Bond fan, the narrative always follows the same formula: explosions, close shaves and saving the day. But Skyfall has completely won me over. I have gone to the Bond side. And it’s wasn’t Daniel Craig looking […]
Wednesday Cover Story: Shopping inspiration from The Firebird
28 November, 2012
Early copies of The Firebird, by Susanna Kearsley (out Jan 2013) came in this week and we have all been fawning over the cover – my favourite now amongst all of Kearsley’s books. (And a nice chunky hardback it is too.) And I must confess there’s probably another reason I’ve been gazing at the cover […]
It’s Scottish Book Week!
27 November, 2012
This week we celebrate Book Week Scotland 2012, so what better excuse than to explore some our our books, set in Scotland and/or by Scottish authors! You could kick things off with some Scottish crime-fiction and the brand new release, Evil for Evil, by Aline Templeton. It’s the latest installment in the acclaimed series featuring […]
A Day in the Life of a Writer
26 November, 2012
Do you ever wonder what the working day of a full-time writer might look like? Or perhaps you write yourself, and have some peculiar routines that help get you in the mood? Recently I came across an article on the daily routines of famous American writers, and some of their confessions fascinated me. Take Joan Didion, who […]
Any one fancy a bucket of tea?
23 November, 2012
I am currently sat at my desk with a pint of tea. Yes, a pint. Somehow I have acquired the biggest mug of all time. It is bigger than my face. It takes two hands to drink from and I feel like I am falling headfirst into a well. The mug (pictured above) was sent […]
How to make Pecan Pie (Happy Thanksgiving!)
22 November, 2012
Today is Thanksgiving. And at home, my American mother has been busy since yesterday cooking up a storm which involves a turkey, a sweet potato casserole, a spinach-quiche-sort-of-thing, sautéed artichokes and an obligatory Pecan Pie. I’m salivating as I write this. The fact that my mother lives in Spain, will be cooking for Italian and […]
Wednesday Cover Story: The first ever A&B Catalogue (from 1969)!
21 November, 2012
We’re currently working on our January – June 2013 catalogue which always gets us a bit extra excited about the gems we have in store for you next year. And of course, we have to pick a cover for it. The covers to last year’s catalogues were inspired by the covers to our Monsieur Pamplemousse […]
Once upon a time, in a land far far away…
20 November, 2012
My theme for this week is fairytales. Everywhere I’ve looked a big, bad wolf or a witch with a malevolent gleam in her eye has caught mine. First off, I picked up Philip Pullman’s retelling of Grimm’s Tales, an author I admire greatly for His Dark Materials trilogy. Check out a beautiful animation of the […]
Twitter Favourites: Scraps from the Slush Pile
19 November, 2012
There’s been a Twitter revolution in the A&B office. For years, as the phenomenon grew, most of us refused to get involved, convinced it would be a Facebook-esque time waster. But gradually, over the last few months, the Twitter accounts have trickled through and now all but one of us are Tweeting away (@SusieAandB, @AandBChiara, […]
A picture’s worth a thousand words
16 November, 2012
At the beginning of November I finished a book that gave me the heebie-geebies: Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. I didn’t set out to read an unsettling book in the run up to Halloween, I freely admit to being a wuss on the scary movie front, but while browsing in my local Waterstones I […]
Little Literary Gems
15 November, 2012
When the days get darker, colder and the London underground grows ever more cramped, sometimes we need wonderful literary quotations to uplift and inspire us. Every now and then when I am reading a book, I come across a few lines of literary brilliance, whether for their wit, illumination or sheer distinctiveness. They are the […]
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