Wednesday 28th September, 7.30pm SPRINGWELLS HOTEL, STEYNING Come and meet author Cassandra Clark who will be giving a talk about her Yorkshire-set medieval mystery series featuring Abbess Hildegard of Meaux, at Springwells Hotel, 9 High Street, Steyning, BN44 3GG. She will also be signing copies of her books, including new paperback release The Law […]
It’s always lovely seeing our titles on display in bookshops, but this has got to beat any recent book spotting… Check out The World Beyond, by Sangeeta Bhargava topping the chart at Waterstone’s in Harrow – number one out of their 100 top bestsellers. And yes, that’s ahead of One Day, by David NIchols, which […]
If you thought Scandinavia might not be able to produce any more brilliant crime writers, well think again. There’s a new rising star on the horizon by the name of Kjell Eriksson. His first book in the acclaimed Ann Lindell series, The Princess of Burundi, won the Swedish Crime Academy Award for Best Crime Novel […]
I’m currently wearing my sales hat. It is a very fetching tricorn affair which comes with some not-so fetching dredlocks and a bumper pack of black eyeliner, but enough about that. I’m wearing the sales hat to help me ponder over an email from one of the wholesalers about their forthcoming promotions. Some are very […]
At the moment I’m reading Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go, a novel which made it into the top ten bestsellers list and has since been made into a major film starring the likes of Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield and Keira Knightley. The book is unusual in its combination of idyllic English countryside with a […]
THURSDAY 18th AUGUST 3.00pm – 5.00pm PRITCHARD’S THEATRE, SOUTHPORT FLOWER SHOW BOOK FESTIVAL Crime writer Martin Edwards, author of the acclaimed Lake District mysteries, will be signing copies of his books, including his latest release The Hanging Wood, from 3.00-4.00pm. He will then be giving a talk with Kate Ellis from 4.00-5.00pm. For more information […]
THURSDAY 18th AUGUST, 10.30am – 12.30pm PRITCHARD’S THEATRE, SOUTHPORT FLOWER SHOW Acclaimed saga writer June Francis will be speaking with Lyn Andrews from 10.30-11.30am and then signing copies of her books including her latest paperbacks Flowers on the Mersey and Friends and Lovers from 11.30am-12.30pm. For more information on the festival click here.
Yesterday we ended the working day with a festive ‘tea’ at The Parlour at Fortnum and Masons to celebrate the fact that Lara will shortly be leaving us on maternity leave and embarking on a very exciting (albeit sleep-depriving) journey as New Mum. And when I say ‘tea’, I really mean a feast of unabashed […]
Recently I came across an article (read it here) which claimed to pinpoint ‘the most illiterate areas of Britain’. The proof of this claim lay in photographs of publicly displayed signs such as ‘Lorrys turning’, ‘Dictionries’ and ‘Cash Only – sorry for incontinence’ (which presumably was an error, and not just someone being very honest). […]
We are sorry to report that A&B author Jean Saunders (who wrote under other names including Rachel Moore) has passed away. Jean was prolific and very talented, as at home writing heart-warming romances, as she was giving advice to aspiring writers.
It is not surprising that today I have chosen to feature the cover to A Bespoke Murder, the first book in Edward Marston‘s upcoming new crime series set in the First World War. The book opens just after the sinking of the Lusitania which sparked a wave of anti-German riots and arson attacks in London […]
World markets crashing, economies collapsing and a rolling snowball of bailouts – it seems all the safe havens have well and truly disappeared. And while we’re all watching our own pennies as the weekly Sainsbury’s shop creeps up at no slow pace, it’s easy to start panicking. Then you read that the US deficit is […]
So, last week author Tony Parsons was a ‘writer in residence’ at Heathrow airport (read more about that here…) apparently using his time there to gather material for his next book. While I definitely don’t envy him the food, general ambience and variously jet-lagged and tetchy passengers he was sure to encounter, I did think […]
..and I mean specifically day dreaming about a world beyond London and this inconsistent summer weather. Yesterday was grey, rainy and rather miserable. At least today the sun is gracing the capital once again. But I long for some proper, uninterrupted heat. And the ‘Indian summers’ we occasionally get in October don’t quite cut it. […]
Clive Allison, who co-founded Allison & Busby together with Margaret Busby back in 1967, has died. Read his obituary written by Margaret Busby in the Guardian.
In today’s ultra-competitive business world, it’s imperative to get your product/service/name out there. For instance, we’ve been distributing samplers of our international bestseller Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet to all and sundry – so there really can’t be many who haven’t heard of the book yet. (If you are, howevere one of […]
Our Art editor, Christina, has finalised the covers to the first two books in The Dragon Diaries series by Deborah Cooke: Flying Blind (out October 2011) and Winging It, and without a doubt they can be filed under my very official list of “Favourite A&B Covers”. Here they are: I seem to be regressing to […]
Thursday 6th October, 7.00pm HOLYWELL LIBRARY Come and meet a husband-and-wife, crime-writing duo: Edward Marston and Judith Cutler. Edward Marston is the bestselling author of the Railway Detective series and he will be celebrating the launch of the first book in a new historical crime series set in WWI, A Bespoke Murder. Judith Cutler is […]
Idly scanning through the radio stations on Sunday afternoon I came upon the purr-fect tones of Mariella Frostrop on Radio 4’s Open Book. The show was the fourth episode to look at women’s writing over the past century since emancipation and gave so much food for thought that I’ve since scurried over to the show’s […]
Today we have launched the new Ethan Gage website! (I’ll leave you a few moments to go check it out…) Done? You like? Did you enter the competition to win a copy of Napoleon’s Pyramids? I was definitely in pre-launch mode this weekend, with Ethan Gage and historical myths and adventure on my mind. And […]
It’s my first blog post at Allison & Busby, and I’m daunted by the example set before me. How can I possibly contend with such tales of Parmesan pencils, book barges and Mad Hatter parties? And in particular, how am I to top the goblin-ridden farewell post of my predecessor, Georgina? Well, that would be […]