Blog
Wednesday Cover Story: More than just a pretty pattern
31 August, 2011
This month Virago has launched a collection of six Modern Classics with gorgeous pattern textile covers by various designers. They reminded me however of something, and then it finally hit – they reminded me of a Persephone book. A Persephone book cover features that same square box including the title and author name, and whilst […]
Sara Magness’ Top 5 Books with a Welsh Setting
30 August, 2011
Reading Teju Cole’s Top 10 novels of solitude in The Guardian last week, I got to thinking that some similar book-related lists might be good for our A&B blog. As I’m enjoying a few days back home in Wales this week I thought I’d make the list a Welsh-themed one. So here are my Top […]
Swatting up on your Norman history
26 August, 2011
A while ago, my sole knowledge of Norman history centred on The Battle of Hastings – and namely on the simple fact that a) there was a battle, b) it was in Hastings, and c) it was in 1066. That, and a very vivid memory of a primary school project where our class lined the […]
Beyond James Patterson…
25 August, 2011
Whilst the Guardian comments that one might be surprised by the huge figures some authors are earning, it is no real surprise that Forbes Magazine has just named James Patterson as the highest paid author amongst them. When I visited the States last year, I could have been excused for thinking Patterson was the only […]
Wednesday Cover Story: Revisiting La Foce
24 August, 2011
BBC4 is reshowing Francesco da Mosto’s Italy Top to Toe (Tuesdays 8pm). It is a wonderful series and last night saw Francesco in Tuscany, meeting Iris Origo’s daughter Benedetta at the family’s magnificent estate La Foce, immortalised by Iris’s wartime memoir War in Val d’Orcia – a modern classic and one of A&B’s perennial bestsellers. […]
Cookies! (The perfect reading companion)
23 August, 2011
It is a sad fact but these days I don’t seem to read at home at all, commuting has become the only time of the day or week that I really get into any books. The idea of spending a Saturday morning doing nothing but lying on the sofa working my way through a really […]
Living the London life…
22 August, 2011
During my short time in London I have now experienced widespread riots and looting, a dog bite, panic at the inability to find anywhere to live, and a gas leak. So that’s civil unrest, animal attack, potential homelessness and chemical poisoning so far. I feel like I only need some sort of plague or natural […]
Maternity calls…
19 August, 2011
This will be my last blog for some time as I’ve officially started my maternity leave! I’ve had 9 months warning that this day would come, but still it’s somehow snuck up on me. I am knowingly informed that henceforth I will become obsessed with the colour and consistency of baby poo and I can […]
The World Beyond beats One Day!
18 August, 2011
It’s always lovely seeing our titles on display in bookshops, but this has got to beat any recent book spotting… Check out The World Beyond, by Sangeeta Bhargava topping the chart at Waterstone’s in Harrow – number one out of their 100 top bestsellers. And yes, that’s ahead of One Day, by David NIchols, which […]
Wednesday Cover Story: Sneak peak of the next crime sensation…
17 August, 2011
If you thought Scandinavia might not be able to produce any more brilliant crime writers, well think again. There’s a new rising star on the horizon by the name of Kjell Eriksson. His first book in the acclaimed Ann Lindell series, The Princess of Burundi, won the Swedish Crime Academy Award for Best Crime Novel […]
A hook me hearties…
16 August, 2011
I’m currently wearing my sales hat. It is a very fetching tricorn affair which comes with some not-so fetching dredlocks and a bumper pack of black eyeliner, but enough about that. I’m wearing the sales hat to help me ponder over an email from one of the wholesalers about their forthcoming promotions. Some are very […]
Literature vs. Film
15 August, 2011
At the moment I’m reading Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go, a novel which made it into the top ten bestsellers list and has since been made into a major film starring the likes of Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield and Keira Knightley. The book is unusual in its combination of idyllic English countryside with a […]
Gestation, Gluttony, and Gin…
12 August, 2011
Yesterday we ended the working day with a festive ‘tea’ at The Parlour at Fortnum and Masons to celebrate the fact that Lara will shortly be leaving us on maternity leave and embarking on a very exciting (albeit sleep-depriving) journey as New Mum. And when I say ‘tea’, I really mean a feast of unabashed […]
The battle against bad spelling and typos
11 August, 2011
Recently I came across an article (read it here) which claimed to pinpoint ‘the most illiterate areas of Britain’. The proof of this claim lay in photographs of publicly displayed signs such as ‘Lorrys turning’, ‘Dictionries’ and ‘Cash Only – sorry for incontinence’ (which presumably was an error, and not just someone being very honest). […]
Wednesday Cover Story: The sadness and madness of riots
10 August, 2011
It is not surprising that today I have chosen to feature the cover to A Bespoke Murder, the first book in Edward Marston‘s upcoming new crime series set in the First World War. The book opens just after the sinking of the Lusitania which sparked a wave of anti-German riots and arson attacks in London […]
Economic crisis? Opt for sales and escape…
9 August, 2011
World markets crashing, economies collapsing and a rolling snowball of bailouts – it seems all the safe havens have well and truly disappeared. And while we’re all watching our own pennies as the weekly Sainsbury’s shop creeps up at no slow pace, it’s easy to start panicking. Then you read that the US deficit is […]
Finding the right place to be a writer in residence…
8 August, 2011
So, last week author Tony Parsons was a ‘writer in residence’ at Heathrow airport (read more about that here…) apparently using his time there to gather material for his next book. While I definitely don’t envy him the food, general ambience and variously jet-lagged and tetchy passengers he was sure to encounter, I did think […]
Day dreaming about a World Beyond…
5 August, 2011
..and I mean specifically day dreaming about a world beyond London and this inconsistent summer weather. Yesterday was grey, rainy and rather miserable. At least today the sun is gracing the capital once again. But I long for some proper, uninterrupted heat. And the ‘Indian summers’ we occasionally get in October don’t quite cut it. […]
Making your business memorable…
4 August, 2011
In today’s ultra-competitive business world, it’s imperative to get your product/service/name out there. For instance, we’ve been distributing samplers of our international bestseller Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet to all and sundry – so there really can’t be many who haven’t heard of the book yet. (If you are, howevere one of […]
Wednesday Cover Story: Sneak peak of The Dragon Diaries series…
3 August, 2011
Our Art editor, Christina, has finalised the covers to the first two books in The Dragon Diaries series by Deborah Cooke: Flying Blind (out October 2011) and Winging It, and without a doubt they can be filed under my very official list of “Favourite A&B Covers”. Here they are: I seem to be regressing to […]
Men & Women – reviewing the difference…
2 August, 2011
Idly scanning through the radio stations on Sunday afternoon I came upon the purr-fect tones of Mariella Frostrop on Radio 4’s Open Book. The show was the fourth episode to look at women’s writing over the past century since emancipation and gave so much food for thought that I’ve since scurried over to the show’s […]
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