The likes of CSI and forensics may be all the rage now but have you ever wondered how it all began? This series plunges us into the dark and seedy recesses of Victorian London – a place rife with secrets, corruption, depravity and murder – and a time when analysing murder scenes for traces of hidden evidence, cutting up corpses and studying the silent dead was considered an almost subversive practice.

Now we can proudly unveil the gorgeous covers for these upcoming hardbacks – sumptuously packaged including head & tail bands, a ribbon marker, printed end papers and foil blocked cloth binding.

May I suggest keeping a space on your shelves to collect and covet accordingly.
I’m just saying…

Chiara Priorelli, Publicity & Online Marketing Manager

The authors answered questions from the audience, bantered with eachother, competed at one point on how fast they’d all written their novel (Cat Clarke lost: 3 years against James Dawson’s winning 6 months), revealed it is possible to have a mid-life crisis at age 25, and agreed that teenagers are not afraid of dark and harsh subjects. We also learned that Kimberly spent 15 years writing and rewriting ‘a terrible horror novel’ (her words) simply because she thought that was the best way to get published, and it was only when she finally decided to simply write the kind of novel she wanted to write,  that she actually got published and became a successful author. Lesson: Write what you want to write, not what you think you should write.

A special mention must be made to four girls who came all the way from France specifically to see Kimberly. True devotion! And a huge thanks from all of us at Allison & Busby.

Finally the day ended with high-tea at the fabulously fun venue Drink, Shop, Do where Kimberly got the chance to chat to some of her blogger fans. After two hours of gorging on scones, cucumber and salmon sandwiches, pick & mix sweets (very popular), sipping teas including Cherry Bakewell Tart tea (yes, really!) and chatting about all manner of bookish things, we all left full and happy.

A few photos from the day below…

Kimberly Derting reads from her book The Pledge (next to her, left to right, Cat Clarke, James Dawson, Tanya Byrne)

Kimberly signs her books for her fans

High tea with Kimberly and bloggers! From left to right: Lynsey (Headline Marketing), KIMBERLY, Leanna (District YA), Michelle (Bookclub Forum), Andrew Hall (Pewter Wolf), Kirsty (Overflowing Library), Sam (Headline Publicity), Sarah (Feeling Fictional), Sammee (I Want to Read That)

Chiara Priorelli, Publicity & Online Marketing Manager

All of these work in often exceptional ways to involve the reader, getting close to that ‘immersive’ reading experience that gets bandied about a lot. But I’m pleased to report that a hardback tome has been doing the same job, I’ve been just as immersed this past week with a library copy of Claire Tomalin’s Charles Dickens: A Life. And boy, that weighs a great deal more than my iPhone.

Lesley-Anne Crooks, Sales & Digital Manager

Click here to browse all the pictures

Great to see Bristol Central Library and Peckham Library in South London featured on the list; who knew that a library could look as cool as an Apple store (see Stuttgart City Library); love the open-air-feel of Taipei’s Beitou Branch Public Library; but my favourite has to be the Old Market Library in Min Buri, Bangkok.  Like a secret hideaway…how can you not want to sneak away with a book and relax in a corner here for a few hours?

Chiara Priorelli, Publicity & Online Marketing Manager

There seems to be a trend in the book world lately for ‘best first lines’. I first came across this article from the Guardian listing ten of the best opening lines, including of course ‘It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.’  Other of my favourites included ‘I write this sitting in the kitchen sink’, and, ‘It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenburgs, and I didn’t know what I was doing in New York.’

There were more to be found on Stylist‘s website here, including ‘What’s it going to be then, eh?‘, ‘Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again’ and one which I feel is often overlooked, ‘Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.’

Despite these favourites of mine, however, I did feel that most of the books listed were deemed ‘classics’ in some way, and in some cases it was perhaps this ‘classic’ status which mattered, rather than the ingenuity of the first line. For example, I’m not that impressed by ‘In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since’, or ‘Marley was dead, to begin with.’ That’s not to say that the books themselves aren’t fabulous, but the first lines in themselves aren’t exactly the most striking.

So what I’m wondering is, does anyone have any truly fantastic first lines from lesser-known books, which might not make these ‘classic’ lists?

And you might have noticed I didn’t mention any of the book titles for the first lines above – can you guess them all?

Sara Magness, Editorial Administrator

And at the talk at Waterstones Banbury, we were delighted to discover that Michelle Harrison (author of various YA novels) was sitting in the audience and waiting to get her copy of Black Dawn signed.  It’s always nice to see authors supporting eachother and of course, Rachel Caine immediately bought  Michelle’s latest book, Unrest, and had her sign it for her too. We found ourselves admiring the cover so it is only fair we should highlight it here today as our Wednesday Cover Story. We think it’s fab.

A big thank you to all Rachel Caine fans (including Michelle Harrison) for coming along to the events! For all the upcoming Rachel Caine events this month click here.

(And on a side note:  We think Rachel’s brought a bit of her Texan weather with her on this tour.  Anyone see the news about the freak tornados around Oxford on Monday?  She  swears that she had nothing to do with it… )

Chiara Priorelli, Publicity & Online Marketing Manager

Carnaby Street – it’s still there and thriving decades on from the swinging sixties. And in among the shops and bars, why not stop by the Carnaby Book Exchange? Bring a book and swap it for one of the vast range of titles curated by MA Fashion Curation students at London College of Fashion.

Lesley-Anne Crooks, Sales & Digital Manager

It is a known and depressingly accepted fact that we, humans, spend far too much time sitting in front of the TV. We have a child obesity problem partly due to the fact that kids nowadays spend hours playing computer games or watching DVDs instead of running around outside playing all manner of games like all children should. Furthermore the Evening Standard‘s recent exposé on London’s  illiteracy crises revealed children were more likely to own an Xbox than a book.
And now, it looks like we’re getting our pets hooked on TV too.  (Ok, the Americans are, but I’m sure the concept will cross the pond eventually.)

I am sure that the studies are correct and dogs benefit from DogTV when they are alone, but I can’t help feeling it’s a quick-fix that will stop owners making the effort to look for better ways to keep their dogs stimulated (how about finding other dog-owners with whom to pool resources in order to get a group dog sitter?) and may end up using DogTV even when they are back from the office.

Just like it’s easier to plonk your child in front of the TV instead of building a castle out of a cardboard box, it would be easier to sit your dog in front of DogTV instead of taking it out to the park to play catch. And there’s something almost more pitiful about picturing a dog sitting at home on the couch watching footage of a collie happily chasing a ball on screen.  Strikes me a bit like throwing salt in the wound in a  “this is what you could be doing” sort of way…

As much as children might be happy watching endless episodes of Winnie the Pooh on TV, they would gain more from reading the book or having it read to them.  If only the creators of DogTV could have come up with books for dogs, now that would be really something.

Chiara Priorelli, Publicity & Online Marketing Manager

However, now that I’ve actually seen the book in the flesh, the cover is, in fact, more original than I thought. The silhouettes are present, the now iconic One Day-orange-colour is present, but the similarities between the two covers pretty much end there.  And this one does stand out very nicely as a cover.  It makes me wonder whether book cover designers should be doing more with polka dots and circles as they definitely catch your eye.

On a side note, when I first looked at it, the cover actually made me think of the opening credits for the The Brady Brunch (something about the floating heads and geometrics), but maybe that’s just me…

Chiara Priorelli, Publicity & Online Marketing Manager

]]> http://www.allisonandbusby.com/info/blog/wednesday-cover-story-the-marriage-plot/feed/ 0 http://www.allisonandbusby.com/info/offers/1-off-black-dawn/ http://www.allisonandbusby.com/info/offers/1-off-black-dawn/#comments Wed, 02 May 2012 09:37:39 +0000 admin http://www.allisonandbusby.com/info/?p=9651 May is the month of Morganville! The new release in the bestselling Morganville Vampire series, Black Dawn, is out now and author Rachel Caine kicks off her nationwide book tour. To celebrate, we’re offering you Black Dawn at the discount price of £6.99 (£1 off rrp). Buy the book and enter BDT1 in your shopping basket to receive the discount.