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. […]
Tuesday 4 December, 12.30pm – 4.00pm Enjoy a champagne reception and delicious three-course lunch in the company of three bestselling authors. Hosted by The Lady, the luncheon will take place in the elegant and historic Cavalry and Guards Club, 127 Piccadilly, Mayfair W1J 7PX, and feature guest speakers Jaqueline Winspear (author of the acclaimed Maisie […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Come and enjoy Richmond’s annual Victorian fair and the Richmond Literary festival and meet Victorian crime writers D E Meredith, Essie Fox and Lynn Shepherd who will be speaking at the Old Town Hall, Friday 30 November, at 7pm.
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Saturday 1st December, 2:30pm, FORMBY BOOKS, LIVERPOOL Come and meet Liverpudlian author June Francis who will be celebrating the launch of her new book The Pawnbroker’s Niece, a romantic saga set in the Great Depression, at Formby Books, Derbyshires, 22-24, Chapel Lane, Formby, Merseyside, L37 4DU. It’s free entry so stock up on your Christmas […]
Saturday 1st December, 12:30pm, ACADEMY OF ARTS, LIVERPOOL Come and meet Liverpudlian author June Francis who will be celebrating the launch of her new book The Pawnbroker’s Niece, a romantic saga set in the Great Depression, at the Liverpool Academy of Arts, 32 Seel Street, L1 4BE. It’s free entry so join her for tea […]
Come and celebrate the launch of Aline Templeton’s new crime novel, Evil for Evil, at Blackwell’s, Edinburgh on Wednesday 28th November, 6.30pm
SATURDAY 1st DECEMBER, 3.00 – 4.30pm NO ALIBIS BOOKSTORE, BELFAST Come and celebrate the launch of Killing the Emperors, the new satirical crime novel by award-winning novelist and journalist Ruth Dudley Edwards, which attacks the world of conceptual art. Meet the author as well as Jim McDowell, Northern Editor at Sunday World, who will be […]
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, […]
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 […]
The Mystery People invite you to Christmas Chrime event and a chance to meet Ruth Dudley Edwards, author of the satirical crime novel Killing the Emperor, and nine other crime writers,at Heffers in Cambridge on Thursday 13 Decemeber, 6.30pm.
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 […]