My name is Lesley and I got Olympic tickets. Phew, it’s good to get that off my chest, as in the past week or so I’ve certainly felt like a vulnerable minority. So, I’ve got a year to brush up on my badminton knowledge: ahem, did you know that the best shuttlecocks are considered to […]
Bridget Asher’s heart-warming, funny and poignant novel about family, love and the magic of summers in Provence, has hit the Small Publishers Bestseller’s list at n14.
The Women’s Institute has launched a Love Your Libraries campaign to fight councils’ plans to close many libraries, replace staff with volunteers and cut opening hours. It is now asking its members to sign up to their local library, to write to their local council sharing why they value the library’s services and explaining its […]
In our weekly meeting debating hyphens and curly apostrophes, I’m afraid to admit I switched off for a minute and daydreamed about the proofreading ‘effort’ required for this book: Currently outselling Dan Brown’s Da Vince Code and JK Rowling’s Order of the Phoenix (admittedly neither book are exactly at their peak at the moment), What […]
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 […]
SUNDAY 17th JULY, 3.10pm – 4.10pm KELMARSH HALL ESTATE, NORTHAMPTON Come and celebrate the HWA inaugural Festival of Historical Literature and meet historical crime writers Judith Cutler (author of The Keeper of Secrets and Shadow of the Past), Andrew Taylor, Rory Clements and Mike Jecks who will be speaking on a panel entitled Crime and […]
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 […]
Saturday 16th July, 10.30am – approx 2.00pm COTSWOLD BOOKSTORE, MORETON-ON-MARSH Adrian Magson, author of the new Lucas Rocco crime series set in France in the 1960s will be mingling with customers and signing copies of his book Death on the Marais at the Cotswold Bookstore, 20 High Street, Moreton-in-Marsh GL56 0AF. For more information call […]
Wednesday 26th October, 10.30 a.m. RIVERFRONT THEATRE, NEWPORT As part of The Big Read, come and listen to the master of historical fiction, Edward Marston, as he talks about his work and signs copies of his books at the Riverfront Theatre, Kingsway, Newport, Gwent NP20 1HG. He is the author of the bestselling Railway Detective […]
Wednesday 10th August, 7.00pm EXPLORE ACOMB LIBRARY, YORK As part of the Big City Read in York, husband and wife crime duo Edward Marston and Judith Cutler will be giving a talk and signing copies of their books at Explore Acomb Library, Learning Centre, Front Street, Acomb, York, YO24 3BZ. For more information call the […]
Friday 15th July, 7.00pm Brewery Arts Centre, Cirencester Celebrate Oxfam Book Fortnight with Edward Marston, Judith Cutler and Russell James who will be speaking at The Brewery Art Centre, Cricklade Street, Cirencester GL7 1JH. For more info call 01285 657 181. Proceeds in aid of Oxfam.
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 […]
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 […]
Tuesday 19th July, 6pm HEFFERS, CAMBRIDGE Come and mingle with new and established crime writers over a glass of wine to celebrate the 21st anniversary of the annual crime fiction extravaganza, Bodies in the Bookshop, at Heffers, 20 Trinity Street, Cambridge CB2 1TY (proudly sponsored by A&B this year). Authors attending include Zoë Sharp, […]
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 […]
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 […]
Laurie R King’s latest release in her hugely acclaimed Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes series has hit the UK Small Publishers Bestsellers List at n15. The God of the Hive is the 10th book in the series.
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, […]
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 […]
Saturday 30th July, 11.00am – 3.00pm WATERSTONE’S, HARROW Come and meet local author Sangeeta Bhargava who will be signing copies of her debut novel The World Beyond (a moving love story set in Lucknow, India, during the Sepoy Mutiny) at Waterstone’s, 60-62 St Ann’s Road, Harrow, Middlesex HA1 1JX. For more information call the bookshop […]
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 […]