Today I discovered the origin of the phrase ‘rain cheque’, which I had never bothered to ponder before. Apparently a rain cheque was originally a voucher issued to baseball fans so they could view a later game if it rained. Hence the common phrase of postponement, ‘I’ll take a rain cheque’. It set me thinking […]
Over the past few months I’ve been pleasantly surprised to see a resurgence of interest in the story of Bletchley Park, 2011 having been the 70th anniversary of the capture of the Enigma machine and codebooks. Back during my A-Levels I read Robert Harris’ Enigma in one breathless weekend, and the subject makes rich pickings […]
We’ve recently reprinted Paul Magrs novel To the Devil – a Diva! with a brand new cover. I saw earlier today that the author had highlighted this news on his own website here (and was happy to see he thinks the new cover is ‘excellent’). But as I scrolled down the page my eye was […]
The Oxford English Dictionary annually chooses a Word of the Year, and last week they announced their 2011 choice. Except, as Will Gompertz of the BBC pointed out, it’s not even a word; it’s an expression. And if you ask me, it’s not a very catchy one. ‘Squeezed middle’. That’s the word the OED feel […]
I’m not sure a piece about all the different and bizarre things Londoners died from in the 17th Century is quite in tune with the Christmas spirit, but one bit of news hitting the papers today is a new exhibition at The Royal Society displaying various books that have never before been on public display. […]
It’s is now December and officially the end of Movember. For those of you who supported the cause by growing your own tache, the time has come to, well – shave. No matter what your friends tell you, it really wasn’t a good look. And for those of you that supported the cause by entering […]
For today’s post, I feel I simply must take this opportunity to highlight the existence of another blogger – Siobhan from Totally Bookalicious. And why am I giving said blogger this special spotlight? Because, not only did she just recently give Last Breath, by Rachel Caine one of the most enthusiastic reviews – I could […]
Come and meet Julia Stoneham, author of the Land Girls trilogy, including the latest release, ‘Alice’s Girls’, who will be signing copies of her books at Totnes Library at 11am on Friday 9th December and Saturday 10th December.
On the train home last night I spotted a man reading The King’s Evil, by Edward Marston. He was actually right on the other side of the carriage but I clocked it immediately – possibly because I’m predisposed to sighting any of our books, but more probably because the design really jumps out at you. […]
Last Thursday I was lucky enough to be invited to a celebration of the opening of Belgravia Books, the chic new retail arm of fellow indie publisher Gallic Books. Considering that on my journey across London I’d been reading about Sir Philip Green’s plans to close 260 stores, it was particularly pleasant to be part […]
It’s now late November, and very soon I feel I will be legitimately allowed to look forward to Christmas. Despite the fact that getting excited about Christmas is counter-productive past the age of about six (you open your presents in four minutes flat, then the anti-climactic disappointment and boredom begins…), I still seem to enjoy […]
A chance discovery on Amazon.com (thanks to Christina) led me to searching out the foreign language editions of Jamie Ford’s Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. It’s an elaborate title (and a beautiful book, don’t miss it!) but it rolls off the tongue and conveys a sense of the story. We’ve stuck with […]
I learnt from the Guardian this week something quite inspiring: Occupy campaigners across the world have begun to set up informal libraries in their tent cities. Yes – in London there is a little library satirically named ‘StarBooks’ (anti-capitalist jokes, what fun!), and the Vancouver protesters even have a whole section on ‘The American Empire’. […]
Every day, for the past few weeks I’ve been admiring the cover for A Discovery of Witches, by Deborah Harkness (there’s a poster advertising the paperback as I head to the Northern Line at Waterloo station on my morning commute). It’s a beautiful juxtaposition – the silky, light strands of red contrasting with the stark, […]
A while ago people needed to talk about Kevin, and now they are talking about Sherlock Holmes. The release of the new official Holmes novel, The House of Silk, by Anthony Horowitz, has sparked this new hype, but Holmes has always been a source of interest and inspiration. A great deal of writers have been […]
On Saturday I had the pleasure of speaking at the annual Society of Young Publisher’s Conference 2011 – giving three seminars, together with Alison Baverstock, on publicity. When our lovely SYP host, Katie Lewis, told us our seminar was the most heavily subscribed to, admittedly my first thought was: ‘Uh oh, pressure is on!’ , […]
Saturday 26th November 5.15pm THE LIT & PHIL At this year’s Newcastle Literary Festival, Martin Edwards presents the premiere of his enthralling and brain-teasing new interactive murder mystery event, Who Killed Sir Randolph? which is set in the 1920s. Members of the audience will have the chance to work out the solution to the mystery […]
Saturday 26th November 1.00pm THE LIT & PHIL Join the popular and successful crime-writer Martin Edwards, author of the Lake Distrct mystery series, at the Newcastle Winter Book Festival for a talk about the Queen of Crime and other fascinating detective novelists who flourished between the two world wars. His talk will let us into […]
Today’s news is that The Great Train Robber, Ronnie Biggs, has just launched his official autobiography, Odd Man Out: The Last Straw. Unable to speak and looking extremely frail in this footage from SKY NEWS from the press conference, Ronnie has apparently been working on the book since he was released from jail on compassionate […]
I had hummus for lunch today. And this simple fact led me to ponder that I never really know what the correct spelling is for the word. A quick Google informed me that it can in fact be spelt in many different way including houmous, hommos, hommus, hummos, hummous, hamos (not to be confused with […]
We’re very excited to be welcoming author John Wilcox to the A&B list, and we will soon be releasing The War of the Dragon Lady (out January 2012) – his new book in the highly acclaimed Simon Fonthill series. And now we have finalised the cover which I think is fab! And here’s an insiders […]