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Wednesday Cover Story: Narcopolis, by Jeet Thayil
4 April, 2012
Yesterday I tweeted the link to 10 books featured on Flavorwire. They were highlighted as must-reads for April, but to me, they were mostly interesting because of their original covers. And one cover in particular stood out the most for me: Narcopolis, by Jeet Thayil. This is the hardback American edition (very different to the […]
A chocolate-themed blog
3 April, 2012
As we’re approaching the Easter weekend, I thought I’d write my blog this week on what, to me, is the most important aspect of the holiday: chocolate. Chocolate has invaded our lives lately (not that we’re complaining). Recently we girls in the office were lucky enough to each receive a free, and very large, bar […]
A few results of our ‘What’s another word for AUTHOR?’ competition
2 April, 2012
On our blog (Friday 23rd March) we posted a competition to come up with another word or phrase to denote the term AUTHOR. We’ve had some lovely entries including these favourites below: A life injector of paper Samantha Wesley, Blandford (our runner-up) Ink Wizard Stacey Corrin, Tiverton Imagination in Use Steph Meakin, Derby Wordician Kelly […]
Feeling the heat with Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet!
30 March, 2012
We’ve already been enjoying the fact that Hotel on the Corner of BItter and Sweet, by Jamie Ford has climbed to the #2 spot on the Small Publishers Bestsellers List this week, but have just now seen (causing a combined squeal from the all of us in the office) that Hotel has hit the Heatseekers […]
Those peculiar little QR Codes…
29 March, 2012
Do you remember when QR Codes came into your life? I’m not sure when it happened. All I know is that now they are everywhere. We’ve got one (above) on our London Underground poster for Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, I spotted two codes in the Evening Standard last night, and as […]
Wednesday Cover Story: The Success of The Summer House
28 March, 2012
When we first published Mary Nichols‘ charming novel The Summer House, little did I expect it to be one of the stand-out sellers on our list. Not that it doesn’t deserve its success, let me quickly add, but when we started to see it climbing Amazon‘s charts, I did wonder what had prompted such a […]
Smell-a-vision books!
27 March, 2012
I was reading through The Bookseller the other day and came across this article about scented books coming to a store near you soon. It made me think back to the heady days of my childhood when smell-a-vision swept the nation. I think it was a Comic Relief night that particularly sticks in my memory. […]
The literary history around the A&B office…
26 March, 2012
Today I discovered the impressive literary history of The Fitzroy Tavern, a pub just around the corner from our office which I have passed many times. The tavern is famous for its history as a meeting place for London’s artists and intellectuals, from the 1920s to the 1950s. How could I have overlooked this, having […]
Friday Fun: What’s another word/phrase for AUTHOR?
23 March, 2012
Men sweat, women perspire or glow (though the latter I feel surely takes things a bit far); a friend of mine protested that she was merely ‘lamenting’ the fact her husband never brought her flowers, whilst he retorted she should stop ‘whining’ about it; parents will deny they are ‘passing judgment’ and only ‘voicing concern’ […]
Catch Susan Wooldridge at the theatre
22 March, 2012
Some of our authors do not dedicate themselves to writing full-time, but amazingly find the time to write novels whilst enjoying another successful career. For example, there’s Martin Edwards (author of the Lake District mysteries) who is a partner in a national law firm, Elizabeth Corley (author of the DCI Fenwick crime novels) who is […]
Wednesday Cover Story: Having a yellow moment
21 March, 2012
I think this blog warrants a soundtrack… (hit play) It’s fair to say that our Art Editor, Christina, seems to be going through a ‘yellow’ phase. We’ve just released Monsieur Pamplemousse and the Militant Midwives (£2 off this month!) and today we received advance copies of The Stationmaster’s Farewell (the new hardback in the Railway […]
Do you always want the happy ending?
20 March, 2012
Recently I read this article on The Guardian website, which made me actually want to post an argumentative comment underneath it (don’t worry, I didn’t – I know it would only be a downward spiral from there). In her blog post entitled ‘Sob stories: classic books I’m too cowardly to finish’, Imogen Russell Williams claims […]
Spot our HOTEL posters on the London Underground!
19 March, 2012
Today, I began my commute to the office buzzing with excitement, which is not that usual (however much I like my job) for a Monday morning. The reason? Our posters for Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, by Jamie Ford, have now officially gone up across London underground stations! It’s our first-ever tube […]
A Michael Bond moment
16 March, 2012
As I leafed through the Metro this morning, I read the news that Paddington Bear has been named Britain’s Favourite animated character. It was announced at the British Animation Awards following an online public vote. Lovely news for our author Michael Bond, who brought Paddington Bear into our world back in 1958 with his wonderful […]
Books and the Olympics
15 March, 2012
It’s certainly no surprise that there are plenty of new book releases jumping on the Olympic bandwagon. Commemorative photography books, books on inspirational athlete stories… there’s bound to be a new Usain Bolt book coming out soon (a quick Google and low and behold – yes, the paperback release of his autobiography Usain Bolt: The […]
Wednesday Cover Story: The Girl on the Beach
14 March, 2012
A little anecdote for the day. The editor of Booksmonthly, Paul Norman, recently requested a copy of The Girl on the Beach, by Mary Nichols for review. I dutifully set about sending him one. And, as life and its little coincidences would have it, whilst waiting for this copy to materialise in the post, he […]
More favourite literary gifts…
13 March, 2012
I’ve just discovered the perfect gift shop – The Literary Gift Company – and hoped to delight my fellow colleagues with such a discovery, only to fine I’m actually a bit late off the mark, as the other A&B girls were well aware of this online treasure trove (and blogged about it too here, before […]
Stop Press! Library OPENS!
12 March, 2012
Before I moved out of London, I lived in a house-share in Rotherhithe, East London. A place that recommended itself to me for its links to central London (I particularly liked the bus routes which took in London and Tower Bridges and the old wharf buildings), relatively cheap rent and proximity to then-boyfriend. What I […]
Friday Fun: Classic phrases from reviewers…
9 March, 2012
‘It’s the first great novel of the new millemium…of our post-9/11 age… of the new year…of the month…since lunch.’ Ron Charles, Fiction Editor at The Washington Post had me chuckling (and choking on my cereal this morning) with his video-quip about standard phrases used by reviewers. So, following on from yesterday’s blog post, if you […]
Would you like to rival Anthony Burgess?
8 March, 2012
We love hearing about writing competitions and whilst we see plenty for budding novelists and short story writers, here’s one that’s a little out of the norm. A competition for wannabe art review critics – launched by the International Anthony Burgess Foundation in associationg with The Observer. Anthony Burgess, who died in 1993, was (and […]
Wednesday Cover Story: When more is more
7 March, 2012
I was making a list over the past few weeks of books I’d seen in The Bookseller or around town that I might want to stock up on for holiday reading. Of course, when I actually went into Waterstone’s I managed to completely ignore said list and was lured up, down, and side to side […]
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