Kathryn, Author at Allison & Busby

Pipe Dreams

18 July, 2014

Everyone loves an excuse for fancy dress – as proved by the thousands that turned up for London Comic Convention last weekend (read Lydia’s blog here) and by the recent smattering of authors dressing up as their favourite book characters – my favourite is Neil Gaiman as Badger from Wind in The Willows. It does seem unfair that once […]

Feeling Emotional

7 July, 2014

How much do you rely on technology to communicate with friends and colleagues nowadays? I’m going to guess it’s a lot. But as I’ve noticed recently, there’s a politics to these digital discussions, unchartered territory when it comes to kisses, smiley faces and sign offs – and that’s before you’ve even visited the brave new […]

Browning Ribs on the BBQ

25 June, 2014

How did you enjoy the beautiful weather last weekend? I was at a friend’s flat-warming BBQ, eating some great food and relaxing in her courtyard garden (very exciting, as private outdoors space in London is still a novelty for most of us). I had just eating my seventh chargrilled king prawn (jealous yet?) when I […]

Happy Families

16 June, 2014

The Father’s Day celebration over the weekend got me thinking about the parent-child relationships in some of our favourite A&B titles. See below my pick of the most functional and dysfunctional of Allison and Busby’s fictional families: Tom Perrota: Little Children This comical bestseller is a classic that proves that mums and dads come in […]

Poetry in Motion

9 June, 2014

Did any one else read Sophie’s blog post last week and agree that poetry tends to fall off the average reader’s radar (and that we should probably make more effort to head to the poetry section next time we’re searching out books)? Since then, it seems that the wonderful world of the interweb has been […]

Everything in its Rightful Place

2 June, 2014

I was happy to see last week that another independent bookshop is showing its determination and canny, in order to save itself from closing down. I was especially pleased to see that it was October Books, based in Southampton, very close to where I grew up. After 37 years in the business, the cooperative-run bookshop […]

Late Night Learning

19 May, 2014

Museums in this country do a fantastic job. It’s rare, nowadays, that one will be found sitting still and lifeless in the middle of the city, a dusty house for archaic relics and prim museum assistants. Luckily, we’re encouraged to make the most of the excellent museums and galleries all around the country, and they have […]

Criminal Activities

14 May, 2014

It seems May is a month for misbehaving and crime is all around us! But fear not, it’s organised (in the least Mafioso sense of the word) and under control. No laws will be broken during this month of criminal activities. First up, a trip to Bristol between the 15th -18th May will place you […]

Books for the Beach

8 May, 2014

I’m very excited to be off on holiday for the next week, and am pleased to have a growing pile of books to take with me for the train, plane and hopefully some lazy afternoons on the beach. Some of the A&B eye-catching titles we’ve had into the office recently are definitely worthy of being […]

Wartime Secrets

1 May, 2014

Cityread 2014 is now drawing to a close, and we hope that you managed to visit some of the events from the festival, including those appearances from our A&B authors. Check here (but be quick!) for a programme for the last few days’ events… If you have been lucky enough to get involved in Cityread […]

April 23rd: A Great Night for Books

23 April, 2014

What do Cervantes, Shakespeare and Catalonian lovers have in common? It’s all to do with today’s date- the 23rd April. The Shakespeare lovers amongst you might have already spotted that it is both the Bard’s birth and his death day today (and the 450th anniversary of his birth!)- but did you know that it’s also […]

Slow and Steady Wins the Race

17 April, 2014

Whilst I didn’t compete in the London’s greatest running event last weekend, I must admit it’s been a bit of a marathon to get to the Easter holiday this year. It does make a difference when it falls to the end of April, doesn’t it?! Nevertheless, it’s been a great couple of weeks, full of […]

Cityread 2014

8 April, 2014

Have you spotted the Cityread events popping up around London this month? Supported and funded by the National Lottery through Arts Council England, Cityread London is an annual celebration of literature that aims to bring reading to life for the whole capital. Each April, Cityread asks London’s citizens, workers and visitors to pick up a […]

Fermenting Fiction

31 March, 2014

Did you know that the Bloody Mary is rumoured to have been named by Ernest Hemingway? Just one of the exciting and, ahem, educational facts you could learn upon purchasing this book. Reminiscent of another A&B favourite, Tequila Mockingbird (see Lesley’s blog post here ), To Have and Have Another is cocktail connoisseur Philip Greene’s […]

Hwæt! Beowulf’s back again?

24 March, 2014

Beowulf, as the oldest work of English literature, has done the rounds. Whether or not you enjoy ploughing through Old English vernacular, its dragons, mead halls and monsters certainly set a precedent in terms of the word ‘epic’. With translations and interpretations from the great (Seamus Heaney) to the terrible ((yet hilarious) 2007 film starring Ray […]

Celebrating The Moomins

18 March, 2014

The Moomins was one of my favourite books and cartoons as a child so I was interested to see that this year Finland is celebrating the centenary of the birth of Tove Jansson, its creator. A few childhood books are a little more troublesome than others, though no less great. I think that The Moomins […]

A Cup of Tea and a Spritz?

11 March, 2014

Spritzing. It is not the practise of drinking wine based cocktails, but rather what you might be doing instead of reading from now on. An American based software developer (Spritz) has developed a ‘speed reader app’, which promises to get us reading more quickly- potentially devouring a novel in less than 90 minutes. The developers […]

Cooking the Books

6 March, 2014

I’m currently reading a sneak preview of Jacqueline Winspear’s new book, The Care and Management of Lies, due for release in July this year (sorry to tempt you with it so early before the pub. date!). In it, Kezia Brissenden- a young and inexperienced farmer’s wife- discovers that despite lacking a traditional culinary education, her […]

Documentaries: Part 2

24 February, 2014

I said last week that I would let you know my thoughts on the Gore Vidal documentary: Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia that I was seeing, courtesy of DocHouse. So, fulfilling my promise I would like to say that I am reeeeling from Thursday’s screening at the ICA and have come away from […]

Jane Eyre: The Book that Just Keeps Giving

18 February, 2014

How many of you had to study the same text at school year in year out? I suppose English teachers fall back on the classics for a reason. But Jane Eyre was amongst those that I never grew tired of studying and similarly, as an adult, I love watching a brand new TV/film production when […]

The Wonderful World of Documentary

10 February, 2014

Whilst ploughing my way through most of this years’ film awards-season offerings, I’ve also been enjoying some fantastic documentaries lately. Last weekend I was invited to Open City Docs Fest’s ‘History of Documentary Weekend’, by a friend (who is way more in the know about these things). We headed to UCL for a screening of […]