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Behind-The-Books Blog
I’d like to dedicate this week to…
Tuesday, November 30th, 2010
Historical figures and events have days named after them. Allison & Busby authors are getting weeks celebrated in their honour! First we had the Morganville Vampire Week at Chrissie’s Corner Blog in honour of Rachel Caine‘s hit series (links to all the week’s posts can be found at here at our UK Fans of the [...]
Vampires v Zombies
Monday, November 29th, 2010
Hear ye, hear ye! In the battle of vampires vs zombies, the bloodsuckers may have peaked in popularity in the past year or two, but zombies are proving to be the slow and steady burners. Thanks to the Oxford English Corpus which tracks how language is evolving, we have at our disposal this handy graph [...]
Onassis, a Robert Lindsay production…
Friday, November 26th, 2010
This week I went to the Novello Theatre to see the play Onassis, by Martin Sherman (based on the novel Nemisis, by Peter Evans). It wasn’t what I had expected; less of a story with an actual plot than a sequence of vignettes – moments in Onassis‘ life in which the audience gets a glimpse [...]
Save the libraries
Thursday, November 25th, 2010
None of us are going to escape the budget cuts but one of the saddest consequences is the effect this is going to have on libraries nationwide. As Joan Bakewell recently explored in her column for the BBC , how can the ‘happiness index’ research the government is undertaking conclude that taking away the opportunity [...]
Wednesday Cover Story: The 3D Effect
Wednesday, November 24th, 2010
No matter what kind of cover design is chosen for a book, the goal is for it to stand out. And this clever design has taken that goal very seriously…and indeed literally, with a brilliant 3D effect. I take my hat off to the designer who has managed to make a striking cover out of [...]
Here comes the bride and book tie-in
Monday, November 22nd, 2010
So, Will and Kate are getting hitched, yawn. Predictable as the announcement was, along with the ridiculous wall-to-wall news coverage, so was the rush to cash in. For those of you interested (I won’t think less of you…much), you can get a bargain version of the engagement ring and while there’s a bit of a [...]
Really get into Get Carter…
Friday, November 19th, 2010
Spotted in this morning’s Metro – an ad for a special viewing of Get Carter, the classic cult film starring Michael Caine. A title which always catches my eye since it is based on the novel by Ted Lewis which, I can proudly say, we publish. The special screening will take place on 2nd Dec [...]
Dedicated to…
Thursday, November 18th, 2010
Have you ever wondered who is behind the dedications that authors add to their books? And who would you mention if you were to publish a book? I’ve often thought about it and always enjoy hearing the stories associated with the named individuals. So, it’s with very great pleasure, that I introduce young Imogen Rose [...]
Wednesday Cover Story: Making a ‘serious’ statement with statues
Wednesday, November 17th, 2010
Statues are a recurring feature in cover designs for modern classics, or books which want to position themselves as such in my mind. There was the cover I chose among a few different editions when buying a copy of Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, which perfectly suits the story superficially (a group of students brought [...]
In search of the innovative bookshelf (bookshelf series, 2)
Tuesday, November 16th, 2010
Following my recent bookshelf-building exploits, and the fact that I’m still short of space, I’ve been on the hunt for innovative ideas as to how I could store more books in my flat. And there are plenty of interesting ideas out there, albeit some more useful than others (considering a few assume you must reside [...]
Vote for creativity!
Monday, November 15th, 2010
Did you know that last week London hosted Internet Week, Europe? No, me neither. But apparently, around the city, events were taking place with such fascinating names as: Protein Forum: Data Visualisation, Urban Computing and the Virtual Goods Summit. Most interesting though was a workshop where the talents of 10 year old kids were pitched [...]
And what if we could trade places…
Friday, November 12th, 2010
Today, after emailing a reader who bought one of our books, I was greeted with this charming response: ‘You’re obviously not the daughter of Commissario Brunetti in the Donna Leon novels!‘ He was, of course, referring to Chiara Brunetti – whose Christian name I share. Ah, if only I could say that I was indeed [...]
Wednesday Cover Story: Popular images…
Wednesday, November 10th, 2010
In The Bookseller last week, it was noted that The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Anne Barrows and The Island, by Victoria Hislop used the same image of the pale-skinned brunette on their covers. The image in question is obviously a popular choice as we too considered using [...]
A walk on the Sunnyside
Tuesday, November 9th, 2010
My most recent read from the inter-office library system (read: box of jumbled books behind my desk) was Sunnyside by David Glen Gold. A really interesting, if slightly unwieldy, story set in America during the Great War. One of the (many) strands follows Charlie Chaplin; his life, his relationships, his neuroses, and his movies at [...]
Battle of the Bookshelf (bookshelf series, 1)
Monday, November 8th, 2010
This Sunday, I spent the day building IKEA bookshelves. Two Billy bookshelves to be precise, in the way all IKEA instructions inevitably are. (Love those Swedes – even I feel DIY worthy. Tack very much.) Basically, there comes a point were you can no longer choose to send a book to Oxfam in order to [...]
Friday fun…and a reason not to hate Mondays.
Friday, November 5th, 2010
I’m usually depressed at the number of adverts I see on the tube which generally project the image that we are all leading very unsatisfactory lives. It would seem that the majority of us need more sleep (Take Pro-Plus!), need more energy (Red Bull Gives you Wings!), need a holiday (shot of the Maldives with [...]
Halloween has gone, but zombies are here to stay…
Thursday, November 4th, 2010
Sweeney Todd, Mrs Lovett, Cruella De Vil and Where’s Wally (that was me, simplicity being paramount in my costume choice) were just some of the people who gathered on Saturday night to celebrate a good friend’s birthday (Mrs Lovett’s of course). Among the tasty treats were pies with fingers sticking out of them (read, sausages), [...]
Wednesday Cover Story: The secret behind Every Secret Thing
Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010
How does a girl from a Northampton indie rock band end up on the cover of a Canadian author’s book? By chance? Or cosmic choice? It is a question that has arisen following our reissue of Every Secret Thing – with a new cover below: We settled for the photograph of this particular woman because [...]
Simple step by step instructions…
Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010
I’m not terribly confident at reading recipes. For some reason, I have a mental block when it comes to absorbing the entire recipe in one go and literally have to check every word as I go along, terrified I’m going to miss a crucial step or ingredient and end up with something inedible. I fare [...]
Currently we are...
…Reading
The Gin Lane Gazette, by Adrian Teal
Lesley: Think tongue-in-cheek, illustrated 18th-century version of Heat and you’re pretty much there. True historical events and anecdotes retold with relish and accompanied by bawdy illustrations, great fun.
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