It cannot be denied that stories from the past, recent or distant, are incredibly popular with modern audiences. From success of television drama The Tudors, telling of Henry VIII’s reign, to the feature-length Titanic, we are intrigued by historical events. However, to what extent is fictionalising the past misleading audiences and is it ethically correct […]
Last weekend I went to one of my favourite exhibitions of the year: Wildlife Photographer of the Year at the National History Museum. Now in its 50th year, the exhibition ‘provides a global showcase of the very best nature photograph’. I always find myself astonished by the ‘Young Photographer of the Year’ award as some […]
I thoroughly enjoyed Emerald Street’s article last week matching famous authors to their comparative perfumes. Based on nothing more than their writing and a passing knowledge of their lives, here are some speculative suggestions for the preferred scents of our favourite writers. Anaïs Nin Mitsouko features frequently in Anaïs Nin’s writing, including Henry And June. […]
It saddens me that production companies feel compelled every few years to churn out yet another Frankenstein remake. With their reputation for all-star casts and their textual inaccuracy –it is unforgivable to confuse the name of the creator with the created –it needs to stop. In the same year as the National Theatre stage production […]
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg has set himself the challenge of reading a new book every two weeks for the entirety of 2015. The project, called A Year in Books, was shared on Facebook on January 3rd and has since gathered over 180,000 followers. Zuckerburg’s mission statement says ‘Our books will emphasize learning about new cultures, beliefs, histories and […]
Whilst thinking about my New Year’s resolutions and upcoming schedules, I’m also looking forward to some fab new books coming out of the A&B factory in the next few months. Take a look below at my recommendations for some of our exciting new titles, and see what the rest of the A&B office is waiting […]
As we’re all now feeling rather festively plump having eaten our way through the Christmas week – here’s a round-up of some of the best fictional feasts in children’s books, as featured in the Guardian. Do you have a favourite scene of mouth-watering feasts to add to the list? 1) The Inspector’s recipe for a […]
As Christmas approaches, I find myself searching bookshops for those cosy holiday reads that I want to curl up on the sofa with. So on my lunch break I popped into Gower Street Waterstones and found a ready-made selection of ‘Festive Reads’. The table was piled high with titles such as Christmas at Cold Comfort Farm and […]
CONGRATULATIONS! You have made it to feast and may enter the banquet. Pull up a chair by the fire and tell us the answers you’ve collected over the last few posts. Click here for a reminder of the clues, or if you’re ready to fill in your details and answers, click here.
Since the 17th Dec, we’ve featured a different book for every day of the week, each revealing a foodie clue to an component of our Christmas Banquet. Click here for more details and read on for the fifth and final clue! Day 5 Read the following extract from The Mischief of the Mistletoe and keep a note […]
From the 17th-21st December, we will be featuring a different book for every day of the week, each revealing a foodie clue to an component of our Christmas Banquet. Click here for more details and read on for clue 4! Day 4 Read the following extract from Starting Over, One Cake at a Time and keep a […]
From the 17th-21st December, we will be featuring a different book for every day of the week, each revealing a foodie clue to an component of our Christmas Banquet. Click here for more details and read on for clue 3! Day 3 Read the following extract from The Provence Cure for the Broken Hearted and keep a […]
From the 17th-21st December, we will be featuring a different book for every day of the week, each revealing a foodie clue to an component of our Christmas Banquet. Click here for more details and read on for clue 2! Day 2 Read the following extract from The Care & Management of Lies and keep a […]
From the 17th-21st December, we will be featuring a different book for every day of the week, each revealing a foodie clue to an component of our Christmas Banquet. Click here for more details and read on for your first clue! Day 1 Read the following extract from Hot Sun, Cool Shadow and keep a […]
To celebrate this Christmas, A&B would like to invite you to a feast… From tomorrow until the 21st December, we’ll be featuring a different book for every day of the week, each revealing a foodie clue to part of our Christmas Feast. For the chance to win the Banquet Hamper full of books and goodies, […]
A&B author Lawrence Scott left Trinidad in 1963, aged nineteen,in order to seek God in a Benedictine monastery in the Cotswolds. Antony Gormley’s ‘Another Place’ As part of a new Commonwealth Writers project, Lawrence has contributed to a thread of brief stories in which writers tell of their own migrations, as human beings. These are not […]
Technology seems to be getting smarter by the day. Now it seems Kobo can collect data about its users and their reading habits. Interestingly, new data shows that, although The Goldfinch was the 37th bestselling ebook of the year for the retailer, it was completed by just 44.4% of Kobo’s British readers. Perhaps the mammoth 800+ […]
To celebrate this Christmas, A&B would like to invite you to a feast… From the 17th-21st December, we’ll be featuring a different book for every day of the week, each revealing a foodie clue to part of our Christmas Feast. For the chance to win the Banquet Hamper full of books and goodies, keep an […]
We’ve all heard of the six-degrees of separation; that any two people on Earth can be connected to one another in fewer than six human links, but we in the A&B office are sure the world feels even smaller sometimes. Back in July, we published the wonderful Fair Girls and Fair Horses by the Pullein-Thompson sisters – […]
Every now and then I revisit The Fox is Black website to take a peak at their re-covered books contest and I am never disappointed. The latest one to impress me was the re-design of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. It’s a much-loved book for both adults (me) and children so I was excited […]
Anyone spot the article in last week’s Grazia, in which the magazine told us that literature is ‘getting immersive’ and that ‘being a bookworm never felt so sexy’? “Well that’s obvious”, you say, “I’ve been immersed in books forever and even the word bookworm is enough to send a shiver down my spine”. But have […]