I spotted this article, discussing the lack of animals in adult fiction, on BookRiot, today. It’s an interesting time to stumble upon it, as we’re gearing up for the publication of the first in Mandy Morton’s delightful The No. 2 Feline Detective Series, next month. Following in the tradition of Watership Down, Black Beauty and the author’s favourite, Wind […]
I’d heard about Word on the Water – the London Bookbarge bringing you a great selection of second-hand books to buy – long before I saw them. The barge travels along the canal, which runs from west London to Hackney and east London – and so finding them isn’t always easy (although if you are more […]
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll was first published in 1865. It has never been out of print since. Carroll first wrote it for Alice Liddell, a child who was the daughter of a family friend. In Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, a little girl named Alice tumbles down a rabbit hole and finds the […]
After nearly three years of working in publishing, I have finally got round to joining The Society of Young Publishers. It’s been on my to-do list for some time and I’m glad I finally did. Established in 1949, the SYP is open to anyone and ‘caters especially for those with fewer than ten years’ publishing experience. Run […]
Despite the chill still lingering in the air, Summer is on its way. We’d like to set you up with some holiday reading, with a buy one get one free offer on a range of titles. Choose from: Kingdom Lock, Point Blank, Daughter of Catalonia, Songs of Willow Frost, The Mystery of Tunnel 51 and […]
Our author Emily Winslow told me, last week, about a brilliant and dedicated group of book lovers – ‘Books Afoot’. The Books Afoot group are part of the Book Group at Minnesota Women’s Press. They believe, quite rightly, that literature and travel make a rewarding combination. Reading the literature from a place illuminates your exploration of it, and […]
Last month saw the publication of a new collection of fairy tales: The Turnip Princess and Other Newly Discovered Fairy Tales by Franz Xaver von Schönwerth. But considering they were first recorded in the 1800s, ‘new’ may not be the best way to describe them… Franz Xaver von Schönwerth was a civil servant in Bavaria. […]
It was announced this week that F. Scott Fitzgerald’s home is now up for sale in Long Island. The manor home is twenty miles outside New York and Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda are believed to have lived there between 1922 and 1924. The Mediterranean style home features seven bedrooms, six bathrooms, a music room and […]
This year is proving itself to be full of delightful arts-related news. First, it was announced that a sequel of To Kill a Mockingbird has been discovered and will be published in July (yes, I have already pre-ordered my copy), and now my dreams have come true: Whose Line is it Anyway?, a hilarious improvisational […]
Susie and I have just returned from a trip to Bristol, for this year’s CrimeFest. It was a weekend of celebration as Catherine Aird was announced as the recipient of this year’s lifetime achievement, ‘Diamond Dagger Award’, and L C Tyler collected the Goldsboro Last Laugh Award, for Elsie and Elthered mystery, Crooked Herring. There were also […]
If you’re lucky enough to have a ticket to ENO’s Pirates of Penzance, on at the Coliseum at the moment, we’re VERY jealous. Directed by the wonderful Mike Leigh, the production runs until the 4th July. A&B favourite, Laurie R King’s book Pirate King is set around the set of a film by the same title, […]
A while ago now, I wrote a post introducing The Literary Gift Company, whose innovative book-related products are guaranteed to make any book lover smile. Well, now I have inevitably been drawn back into their fold, and have found a selection of items which are destined for my birthday wish list. The first being an […]
Back in February, Suzette A. Hill gave a talk about her books and her writing to a lucky few at Gladstone Library – did you manage to catch it?! For those who weren’t able to head along, we’d like to share a recording of Suzette’s talk – via this link. The author of A Little […]
Sometimes book titles can be incredibly obscure and give nothing away about its content. Like Shadow in the Wind or A Bend in the River. They hint at something mysterious and literary without actually making much sense at all. On the opposite side of the spectrum, there are some book titles that get straight to […]
We’re very proud of the reissues of three Katharine Moore titles, in e-book format this year – Summer at the Haven, Moving House and The Lotus House were all made available in March. And as we look forward to a three generation, literary celebration (in June Katharine’s daughter, the poet Jane Kingshill, will be joined […]
Having recently written a blog in which guinea pigs are to star as Pride and Prejudice characters (I still can’t quite believe this is real), Jane Austen is at the forefront of my mind. So news that Dr Susan Watson may have found the ‘real’ Mr Darcy has me both pleased and intrigued in equal […]
Every now and again a book appears that everyone is raving about; the critics love it, readers can’t recommend it enough. But sometimes I find it almost puts me off – what if I don’t like it? Am I then somehow wrong in my judgement? For example, The Deaths by Mark Lawson, eventually fell a […]
On a day-to-day basis we are bombarded with information, facts and figures and it can be hard for our minds to digest it all. So author, designer and data journalist David McCandless has set out to make it all a little easier for us. His book, Knowledge is Beautiful, uses colourful infographics to ‘ visualise captivating and […]
We recently requested some old editions from our author, Alanna Knight, for scanning, and just look what we received… These editions from the late 70’s really show how covers change over time! I quite like them actually, they remind me of surreal anime books, and I’ve decided the one on the far left looks a […]
For immediate release TELEVISION AND PUBLISHING DEALS ANNOUNCED FOR BESTSELLING SLEUTH MAISIE DOBBS SLAM TV has acquired the option to develop a TV series based on the Maisie Dobbs historical mysteries by award-winning New York Times bestselling author Jacqueline Winspear. SLAM TV is a new UK-based production company headed by actors Stephen Mangan (Episodes) and […]
Few of us can ever un-see the iconic image of Colin Firth as Mr Darcy slowly emerging, dripping wet, from a lake in the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. Over the years, Jane Austen’s classic has been adapted for the big and small screen, also re imagined as other novels. Recently we have seen the […]