Blog
Honoured and remembered
10 November, 2016
Today (10th November), renowned children’s author Michael Morpurgo will be presented with the J. M. Barrie Award for his contribution to children’s literature. Having written children’s literature since the 1970s, Morpurgo’s work continues to inspire new generations of young readers. Myself, I remember reading The Butterfly Lion while at primary school; a beautiful book about […]
Book Vote
2 November, 2016
There’s an election coming up in America, maybe you’ve seen a bit about it in the news? Yes, well, the less said about that I think the better. I have certainly needed a bit of distraction from my wails of ‘What is the world coming to?’ and have done what I do best: stick my […]
The creepiest place on the internet
26 October, 2016
The internet is a crazy place, full of cat memes, avocado on toast and, it seems, excellent scary stories. Courtesy of Emerald Street‘s latest newsletter, I came across a Reddit forum called NoSleep where a community of horror writers keep the tradition of ghost stories alive. There are strict rules about what tales can be published: no […]
Adaptation Autumn
20 October, 2016
Like many others, the news that a beloved book is to be made into a feature-length film provokes a mixed reaction: torn between excitement at seeing the characters brought to life and a lingering dread of what will inevitably be changed. Recent months have seen a string of literary adaptations from The Girl with all […]
For she’s a jolly good fellow – 70 years of Woman’s Hour’s Radio Girls
11 October, 2016
I am always listening to the radio. I listen in the mornings while dragging myself out of bed and into the waking world. I listen to one of my favourite radio show’s podcasts while travelling to work. I listen while cooking, while cleaning and, far too often, while not sleeping in the wee hours. So […]
The Espresso Book Machine
14 September, 2016
Technology never ceases to amazes me. Especially technology that helps revive a struggling bookshop. The Librairie des Puf, a bookshop in the Latin quarter of Paris, is a strange kind of place because there are no books. Instead, there are tablets and an Espresso Book Machine; the combination of the two lets you print a book of […]
Ladies Pond – guest post from Swimming Home author Mary-Rose MacColl
8 September, 2016
To celebrate the release of Mary-Rose MacColl’s latest novel, Swimming Home, in ebook, we’re delighted to share the author’s writing about her visit to Kenwood Ladies’ Pond on Hampstead Heath this summer. Come on in – the water’s lovely! The water will be cold. While it’s summer and what Londoners call a hot day, the nights are […]
Are You a Little Miss Wise or a Mr Perfect?
31 August, 2016
To celebrate the 45th anniversary of the Mr Men and Little Miss books, four brand new characters have been created by Adam Hargreaves, son of original author Roger Hargreaves, who created the series back in 1971. As children, my brother and I were obsessed with this collection and constantly argued about which characters were the […]
Second Child – guest blog post from author Fiona Sussman
24 August, 2016
Fiona Sussman joins us on the A&B blog to discuss her ‘second child’, The Last Time We Spoke, and the family resemblances with her debut Shifting Colours. We’re running a giveaway right now for four sets of signed copies for UK entrants. Enter at the bottom of the blog post – good luck! At first […]
‘Beam me up, Scotty’: the novel as transport to another world – guest post by Sarah Hawkswood
3 August, 2016
As we’re now in the season of holiday reading, we’d like to invite you to getaway for a moment with author Sarah Hawkswood’s thoughts on escaping into a good book. Sarah’s novel Ordeal by Fire is published 22nd September and is available to pre-order now. As a reader, I have always sought books which enable […]
Human beans, snozzcumbers and phizzwizzards
27 July, 2016
This month, Steven Spielberg’s cinematic re-imagining of one of my favourite childhood books was released: Roald Dahl’s The BFG. My excitement is only equalled by the release of the Harry Potter script book (pre-ordered it). But before I go and see the BFG on screen, I thought best to revisit the book itself. To my utter […]
Listen up – audio books
21 July, 2016
Audio books are big business these days. It’s the fastest growing part of our industry and the number of audio books produced has doubled since just 2013*. There are so many situations recently where they have proved their worth to me. My niece is already devouring Roald Dahl on CD. Our editor Sophie has described […]
Booking a place in history
6 July, 2016
In the midst of immense sporting achievements happening around the world (the Euros, Wimbledon and the Olympics soon), I thought we should take a journey through the accomplishments of book-lovers across the globe, with a little help from the Guinness World Records… Whilst I sympathise with our author David Hingley who last week signed 500 […]
Women Making Waves
28 June, 2016
Next month, we publish Radio Girls by Sarah-Jane Stratford about the early days of the BBC in the 1920s, featuring real-life figures such as Hilda Matheson, Lord John Reith, T. S. Eliot and Virginia Woolf. The novel focuses on the brilliant women behind the BBC’s programming, notably Hilda Matheson, the charismatic director of Talks Department. The BBC was one […]
The Girl from Simon’s Bay by Barbara Mutch
22 June, 2016
Allison & Busby is delighted to announce the acquisition of The Girl from Simon’s Bay, a second novel from Barbara Mutch, author of The Housemaid’s Daughter and ‘born storyteller’ (Sydney Morning Herald). The deal was brokered with the author’s agent Judith Murdoch for World English rights. The Girl from Simon’s Bay is a love story […]
The Tony Awards – By the Book
15 June, 2016
The 2016 Tony Awards took place earlier this week and were something for any book-lover to get excited about, with many of the nominations being book-to-stage adaptations. If a holiday to America to see these productions is not on the cards, then perhaps a read of their phenomenal source material will make a good plan […]
Library Inspiration
9 June, 2016
I love my library. My bank account loves my library. My son loves our library. Books are an increasing part of that love, but his earliest associations are of place for raucous rhyme time sessions and a satisfyingly noisy sensory wall where he can push buttons to elicit elephant and tiger noises. It’s about as […]
Festivals Galore!
2 June, 2016
It’s that time of year where festivals are cropping up everywhere. If you can’t get over to Hay this year, do not fear; there’s another literary festival happening in central London: Emerald Street Literary Festival. Taking place over one day at the Royal Geographical Society, the line up features Kate Mosse, Jessie Burton, Maggie O’Farrell, the Baileys Prize […]
A book is an e-book…is still a book
25 May, 2016
Ever since e-books came to the fore, there has been a tendency to define them against their physical predecessors, to suggest that digital is a logical progression and, most commonly, that the two formats are mutually exclusive. Like a lot of book-lovers, I confess to being e-book sceptic when digital was on the rise. I […]
In fictional footsteps
18 May, 2016
Susie, our intrepid Publishing Director, is just back from a trip to Switzerland. While she was in the country of fine chocolate (some samples of which she has been kind enough to share – yum) and yodelling (which she has been kind enough not to share), she included a must-see visit for any devoted crime fan to […]
Destined for Greatness
11 May, 2016
A great part of working in publishing is hearing about the next big thing, the new rising star in the industry – although it turns out this time I already knew. Back in 2013, I blogged about an amazing poetry launch I went to for Splitfish by Kiran Millwood Hargrave. Aged only twenty-six, Kiran already […]
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