Blog
Wednesday Cover Story: Working the Trend
29 June, 2011
It a very very common current trend to play with parched-paper/sepia-like backgrounds and the dark sillhouette of a figure, in order to create an evocative book cover. Let’s take Jed Rubenfeld’s The Interpretation of Murder, and the Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafón to name but a few. But there’s one cover following […]
Optimism, it’s a beautiful thing
27 June, 2011
Tube advertising isn’t often the most riveting of art forms, particularly if you travel the same route day in and day out, and fall into the habit as I do of getting on and off in pretty much the same points on the platforms. So it’s nice when something does jump out at you among […]
Escape to the Italian countryside…
24 June, 2011
I’ve just come back from four days in and around Perugia in Umbria scouting out possible wedding venues and I have to say, it is the perfect excuse to go visit some gorgeous places you might otherwise never have had reason to come across. In fact, forget the wedding, I now have a list of […]
Embrace an indie!
23 June, 2011
While Independent Booksellers’ Week is in full flow, the Guardian are flagging up the humble/brave/nimble (choose your favourite adjective – mine, ‘nimble’) small publishers and presses out there also doing their thang. Read the article here… And it just so happens that last night saw me speaking at the IPG Digital Quarterly meeting at Faber […]
Wednesday Cover Story: Would you agree with Dazed and Confused?
22 June, 2011
We have recently republished the great classic Absolute Beginners, by Colin MacInnes and it was picked up by Dazed and Confused magazine who featured our rerelease in their July issue (currently on sale). We get top marks from the mag – ‘big-ups and all kudos to A&B’ – for bringing this London ‘yoof novel‘ back […]
Knight, Patriot, Physician & Man of Letters…
20 June, 2011
A friend who is searching for a unique name for her baby, has decided to eschew the usual baby name books, and instead decided on a slightly less conventional approach: visiting graveyards for inspiration! When visiting the The New Forest last weekend, she convinced me to accompany her on one of her graveyard visits, her […]
The A&B should-be-reading holiday reads
16 June, 2011
I spent last week lazing away on holiday. I know, lucky me, but one day back in the office and it feels like I never left. I think the tan faded as soon as I saw my inbox. But back to the holiday. In an effort to switch off I did as little as possible, […]
Wednesday Cover Story: Jacqueline Winspear’s Maisie Dobbs series
15 June, 2011
Time for a bit of a trumpet fanfare as we are now the proud publishers of Jacqueline Winspear and her New York Times bestselling Maisie Dobbs series! We will be publishing The Mapping of Love and Death (the 7th book in the series) in hardback this November, followed by A Lesson in Secrets in March […]
The Gender Question again…
14 June, 2011
Lesley-Anne’s blog and VS Naipaul‘s rather silly claim that he can tell, from just a few paragraphs whether the words were written by a male or female hand, reminded me of one of the Washington Post‘s brilliant competitions, where people were asked to assign a gender to specific nouns (in the way foreign languages have […]
Take the Naipaul test…
13 June, 2011
While I was on holiday the other week I came across an article about VS Naipaul’s recent comments about women writers. That he had the infinite gall to say that writing by women is ‘unequal’ to him is bad enough, but that he picked on Jane Austen in particular was sure to get my goat. […]
The legacy of Olga da Polga
10 June, 2011
One of my most memorable moments working for Allison & Busby was a lunch we had with Michael Bond, author of the Monsieur Pamplemousse crime series, but better-known as the creator of Paddington Bear. However, whilst his Paddington Bear fame would instill awe in any former child, the real thrill for me came when, through […]
Wednesday Cover Story: Ah, those 70’s covers…
8 June, 2011
I spent an enteraining half-hour at my parents house recently, browsing their library for something to read. I ended up homeing in on a shelf of old 70s paperbacks and amusing myself for a while looking at their covers. The cover that took the biscuit was that of The Navigator, by Morris West (pictured below) […]
Inspired by the railways…
7 June, 2011
This morning saw us talking about trains. Now, this would usually mean we were talking about author Edward Marston and his hugely popular Railway Detective series, but in this instance the subject arose because Susie had found herself watching an episode of Time Shift on BBC4 last night, entitled Between the Lines – Railways in […]
An appetite for books
6 June, 2011
Working in publishing, it’s safe to assume that my love affair with books has been a long-standing one. From a very early age, I devoured every book that was made available to me. I was on first name terms with the ladies at my local library and read, borrowed and stole (from my parents’ shelves) […]
Athletes, Seinfeld and Friday Laughs
3 June, 2011
I found out this week that I have failed to get any Olympic tickets. Ok, I did go for some very popular heats (swimming finals, gymnastic finals, athletics etc) but I figured I’d at least get a good shot at getting some to table tennis. But no. Nada. So, whilst I have failed in my […]
Wednesday Cover Story: One Day it’ll be over…
1 June, 2011
Is it just me, or is anyone else getting just a tad weary of seeing One Day, by David Nicholls everywhere? Granted, I’m sure that if we published the book, I’d have no issue with this at all and would find it simply marvellous to spot it in yet another commuter’s hands. But seeing as […]
Morganville Vampires: The Big Picture…
31 May, 2011
There’s nothing I like more than a visit to the cinema. Big comfy seat, a bag full of my vice of choice (chocolate covered raisins) and a story unfolding on a huge screen – perfect. However, I might be slightly odd in that my favourite part of the cinema experience is usually the 20 minutes […]
How good is your eyesight? Spot the book!
27 May, 2011
It’s always a little thrill to see our books featured in unusual places – caught on camera behind a TV presenter, in a poster that we didn’t commission… in a photograph promoting the launch of a new optometrist office… Yes, that’s right. We just got word that Stop Me, by Richard Jay Parker has featured […]
Wednesday Cover Story: Using the old to inspire the new…
25 May, 2011
In March 2001 Allison & Busby republished the classic novel Absolute Beginners, by Colin MacInnes – first published in 1959 and now required reading in many undergraduate literature courses. The cover to that edition can be seen below – and the strong red, white and blue colouring and bullseye shape was cleverly reused on the […]
Sugar and spice and all things nice…
24 May, 2011
Anyone who has met up with me in the past few months will be more than aware of the fact that I am a very proud Auntie. I am taking my responsibilities extremely seriously and understand that this involves me badgering complete strangers to look at cute pictures and, most important of all, assembling a […]
Veg out on veg this week
23 May, 2011
It is a fairly recognised fact that plant-based foods are the healthiest foods for our bodies and I try to incorporate quite a few vegetarian meals into my culinary week. So, whilst leafing through Morrisons’ free magazine, which I happened to pick up over the weekend, I was delighted to come across a snippet of […]
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