Compass Points 12

Compass Points 12

Your weekly round up of publishing news, publicity information and trivia!

What an amazing summer of sport it’s been – and of course there’s still more to come – lots more!  But if the amazing feats of team GB still haven’t convinced you to get off the sofa and put on the lycra then fear not; you only have to stagger as far as your kitchen in order to emulate the Olympians. If you can’t run like a hero – at least you can eat like one. The Big Sports Recipe Book is a super- powered collection of over 40 recipes from winning stars of the sporting world – published in aid of The Princes Trust. This book is a great way to experience the food which some of the UK’s top sportsmen and women associate with winning and features recipes from the likes of Rebecca Adlington, Jenson Button and Steven Gerrard . It’s getting lots of publicity – there was a piece in Taste Magazine this week and there will be lots more publicity to come in the regional press.

Find out more and order the book here

Still on a sporting theme; Not Out First Ball by Roger Morgan-Grenville is another title for those who’d much rather read about sport than get all hot and sweaty actually doing any. Long listed for the MCC Book of the Year 2012. David Gower said in his foreword "This is a joyful book...a relentlessly entertaining read and not just for cricket lovers either. Everyone should read it." The author was interviewed on TalkSport Radio recently – and there will also be an interview coming up shortly on Radio 5 Live. This is a delightful and witty book that is a love letter to cricket through the story of an accidental club that has lasted 25 years and 263 matches longer than it ever meant to. It’s a laugh-out-loud manifesto for anyone who has ever silently sobbed at the sight of their off stump cartwheeling off into the distance, or thrown their bat in disgust onto an autumn bonfire.  As the author says, “the whole glorious point of crickets is that so much of it is utterly pointless.”

Order the book here

Back to school – back to work – September can really feel like a time for new beginnings. What would you like to change about your life? It can sometimes seem as though we spend half our lives wishing for change — and the other half trying to avoid it. Everything I’ve Ever Learnt About Change is a stimulating and thought provoking collection of essays on change. Columnist and social commentator Lesley Garner writes: “The idea for a book about change came to me when I realised that it was all anybody ever talked about. It was a theme that blew like an invisible wind through every conversation.’” This book had a big piece in the Daily Mail (circulation 2 million) recently which you can read here and the book has also had publicity in The Daily Express and Easy Living Magazine. The Sunday Times Style section are about to run a big interview with Lesley in the next couple of weeks.

Order Everything I've Ever Learnt About Change here

But if all that change, sport and healthy living malarkey just seems like way too much effort – why not just get Hammered? Heavy Tales from the Hard Rock Highway by ex-Metal Hammer editor Kirk Blows shares never-before-published stories of rock’n’roll lunacy, giving readers an exclusive backstage pass to a chaotic world of sex, drugs and spandex, and taking us behind-the-scenes with heavy metal’s biggest, baddest (and often drunkest) names. Featuring exclusive encounters with rock legends such as Judas Priest, Deep Purple, Def Leppard, Fleetwood Mac, Black Crowes, UFO, Paradise Lost, Hawkwind, Meat Loaf and Guns N’ Roses among others; Hammered: Heavy Tales from the Hard Rock Highway is a unique collection of adventures, anecdotes and interview experiences that noisily explores the stairways to heaven and highways to hell. As you would expect, this book is attracting a lot of attention in the online media, and you can read some of the rave reviews here,  and here,  and here, and here.

There has also been a great interview with Kirk on the Planet Rock radio station, and will be a big feature in Metal Hammer magazine shortly. Incisive, witty, provocative, and packed with enough sex, drugs, and rock’n’roll to satisfy even the most jaded thrillseeker; this is a must-read for anyone who’s ever worshipped a band or dreamed of being onstage.

Find out more about the book here

And here's a bit of Guns 'n' Roses just to get you in the mood ... and a bit of Meatloaf too!

OK, what is the best film ever? My top three would be Some Like it Hot, A Matter of Life and Death and The Jungle Book. Let’s face it – this is a discussion that’s as old as film itself – and when you get into that headed debate down the pub over the merits of Lord of the Rings versus Citizen Kane – you need the facts, and you need the stats to back up your argument. And that’s when you and your customers reach for the new edition of The Radio Times Guide to Films – the UK’s number one film guide.

With 23,000 film reviews and 500 new entries, it really is a film fan’s must-have. The previous edition sold over 11,000 copies – and this edition will get masses of ongoing promotion in The Radio Times (which has a readership of 2.5 million) from now right up until Christmas! It's published today - make sure you have plenty on display!

Find out more and order it here.

And how could I not give you a clip a clip from my favourite film to finish with – well we’ve got to have some Marilyn to offset all that heavy metal – and what’s not to love about Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis in drag?!

This newsletter is sent weekly to over 400 booksellers. If you would like to order any of the titles mentioned, then please click here to go to the Compass New Titles Website.

Compass Points is now back from holiday, so there will be more next week!

Compass Points 11

Compass Points 11

Your weekly round up of publishing news, publicity information and trivia!

Wow, it’s great to start with a big bestseller! Sunshine on Scotland Street is at number nine in the Hardback Fiction chart on the Sunday Times Bestseller list this week! Alexander McCall Smith has sell-out appearances at the Edinburgh Book Festival coming up, as well a major interview in The Guardian and a piece on the author as performer for Chanel 4 news, so the book could rise even higher in the charts! Congratulations Sandy!

Order the book here

Have the Olympics inspired you to get out into the world a bit more – and visit some of the far flung countries that the athletes are representing? Hands up if anyone actually knows where Azerbaijan or Burkina Faso are? And who knows where the Winter Olympics in 2012 will be held? Well I can tell you – Russia. Which gives me a nice link to tell you about a new title from a bestselling series that’s coming out in October – City-Pick St Petersburg. The City-Lit and City-Pick books are published by Oxygen Books, and give you all the sights, sounds and flavours of city life in a collection of perfect gems of city writing. Already the series has taken us to the hearts of New York, Paris, London, Berlin, Dublin, Amsterdam and Venice and the St Petersburg title is already attracting media attention – The Bookseller made it a non-fiction highlight, and the book will feature at the Manchester Literary Festival and  launch at Waterstone’s Piccadilly. The book includes writing from Helen Dunmore, J.M Coetzee and Malcolm Bradbury as well as Joseph Brodsky, Alexander Pushkin and Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The Times said of this series  ‘Superb … it’s like having your own iPad loaded with different tomes’ All the City-Lit books have been Amazon UK Top Ten city bestsellers – don’t let Amazon grab all the sales for this new one! Visit the City-Lit Café here - a great website with info on the books and lots of cool info on the cities as well!

 And find out more about City-Pick St Petersburg here.

And while we’re on the subject of Russia – who has heard of thriller writer Anna Starobinets? Well, The Telegraph said “she has been compared with a host of literary greats, including Edgar Allan Poe and George Orwell, Ray Bradbury and HG Wells’” She is a Russian journalist and internationally published author who was nominated for Russia’s prestigious National Bestseller Prize. You can find out more by reading the Telegraph article here. Now Hesperus, the champion of intelligent, bestselling translated fiction bring us The Living. After a global catastrophe called the Great Reduction, the number of people living on Earth has become fixed, remaining a constant three billion. The concept of death no longer exists (yes yes, I know it sounds like Torchwood – but read on). Instead people are reborn anywhere on the planet with an in-code that keeps track of information about all their previous incarnations. Humankind is no longer made up of individuals – people are only particles making up one composite organism called The Living. These particles live happily and die happily, according to a government-determined schedule. Yet… there is one man born without an in-code - a spare human being. His birth increases the number of The Living by one, which threatens global harmony. Who is ‘Zero’ and how will The Living survive? This truly enthralling, disturbing and unique anti-utopian fantasy novel that will have the reader gripped from page one – and if you’d like to read the first chapter then please email Pat@compass-dsa.co.uk to request one! It's published in October - find out more here.

Now I like a bit of futuristic dystopia as much as the next person – but sometimes you just need a laugh. Here's a link to some hilarious cartoons by Tony Husband. I Nearly Died Laughing (which features his characters The Yobs) by Tony Husband is published in September and Marc Riley of 6Music said of Tony that ‘Over the last 30 years, it’s safe to say he’s made me laugh out loud more than anybody else… he comes from a dark, twisted place.’ And this latest book of cartoons will not disappoint. Tony has created cartoons for many leading publications, including The Spectator, Private Eye, The Times and Punch. His Yobs strip (Private Eye) is one of the best-known comic strips in the UK and, at 25 years, one of the longest running. The book has an intro by Stephen Fry –order it here!

Naked horseback riding. Being on a carousel for 24 hours. Fighting a bear. Leaving home. Illicit sex. If you stay Here this is just some of the things you’ll do. The Elsewhere series brings together some of the finest names writing today such as Michael Morpurgo, Joan Lindgard, Julia Donaldson, Roddy Doyle and Al Kennedy, to tell us through fiction and essays, tales of the real, the unreal, the known,  the unknown, the fantastical and the unbelievable. The series is quirky, saleable and the books are originally and beautifully packaged. There are four titles in the series: Here, There, Somewhere and Elsewhere, and they’re also available as a boxed set. The £7.99 price point is amazing value – big names, lovely looking books, a great price - what more do you need!

Here

There

Somewhere

Elsewhere

The complete boxed set of four titles

And finally – the latest in the eBooks versus real books debate. Like them or loathe them, estimates suggest over two million Kindles have been sold in the UK over the last three years. The Kindle e-reader has become one of the most iconic objects of our contemporary culture. But what happens when a Kindle dies? 101 Uses of a Dead Kindle shows the many imaginative, irreverent and often downright bizarre ways your dead Kindle can live on! It’s hilarious, weird and highly imaginative! The book should appeal to the vast range of Kindle owners and their friends across the UK and taps into the popularity of the 80s cult classic 101 Uses of a Dead Cat. It’s sure to become a must have gift for Kindle owners everywhere! Find out more about the book here!

This newsletter is sent weekly to over 400 booksellers. If you would like to order any of the titles mentioned, then please click here to go to the Compass New Titles Website.

Compass Points is now off on holiday - back in a fortnight!

Compass Points 10

Compass Points 10

Your weekly round up of publishing news, publicity information and trivia!

Well, is anyone actually doing any work, or are we all sitting in front of a screen glued to the Olympics? Let’s hope your tills are ringing as loudly as our hands are clapping – and the first book that you really shouldn’t miss out on with this national fervour for all things cycling is Matt Carroll’s Escape Routes. This is Matt’s (who is an experienced travel writer and well know broadcaster) handpicked selection of 60 stunning cycling routes all over England. You don’t need to be a keen cyclist; this is your guide to exploring the beautiful English countryside. And with routes ranging from a five-mile pootle to a 20-mile day trip, there’s something for all levels of cyclist. Beautiful hand-drawn maps mark out the routes and step-by-step directions will guide you all the way round. And, when you’re ready to give your legs a rest, there’s a detailed list of cracking places to eat, drink, and sleep. With routes falling under categories such as ‘jaw-dropping views’,  ‘taste tour’, ‘best for pubs’, and ‘magical history tour’, and spectacular photography throughout, this beautiful guide will inspire you get off that sofa and off onto your very own cycle tour. There’s a cycle hire listing for each route, so you don’t even need to own a bicycle!

Order Escape Routes here for your cycling window display!

And talking of cycling – who hasn’t gone Wiggo wild this week? Just about everyone in Britain is crazy for our sideburned superhero – and now the race is on for which publisher can get their biography out first! Sorry guys – Birlinn get the yellow jersey - click below to find out about Bradley Wiggins Tour de Force which is out in October. It will include all the results of the London 2012 Olympic Games, plus tons of stuff on his extraordinary historic Tour de France win. It is written by Bradley’s long-standing friend and cycling journalist John Deering, who has had unique access to Team Sky since its inception. It doesn’t get much more wiggolicious than that!

Bradley Wiggins: A Tour de Force - order your copies now!

And here's a documentary about the great man - which was on ITV4 this week.

However – back in the real world; let’s face it some of us are going to need to do a whole lot more than just buy a load of fancy cycling kit and grow some sideburns to make ourselves into Olympic champions. Giving up that chocolate doughnut and white wine habit might be a good place to start – and Beyond Sugar Shock by Connie Bennett is going to tell us how. The book promises us a Six Week Plan to Break Free of your Sugar Addiction and get Sexier, Slimmer and Sweeter! Connie’s approach is fun and motivational and the book offers much more emotional and physical care than your typical diet book.  There was a big two page spread on the book in Woman magazine last week – which has a circulation of over a quarter of a million readers. Here's Connie discussing the US edition of the book on a wacky US TV show

And here's where you can order the UK edition - which came out in June

Good news for Muckraker: The Scandalous Life and Times of W.T. Stead by W. Sydney Robinson, which has made it onto the shortlist for this year’s HW Fisher Best First Biography Prize - worth £5,000. This prize is awarded annually by The Biographers Club, and the shortlisted entrants are: Ian Donaldson – Ben Jonson: A Life (OUP); Joanna Hodgkin – Amateurs in Eden (Virago); Louise Miller – A Fine Brother: The Life of Captain Flora Sandes (Alma Books); Thomas Penn – Winter King (Penguin); W. Sydney Robinson – Muckraker: The Scandalous Life and Times of W.T. Stead (Robson Press) and Tom Williams – A Mysterious Something in the Light: Raymond Chandler (Aurum). The prize is awarded to the best book by a first-time biographer and the winner will be announced at a dinner on 13 November at the Saville Club in London.

You can order the book here

And find out more about The Biographers Club here

Well, Pink Floyd may have said that we don’t need it, and the kids may be on holiday right now – but just in time for that Back to School window display that you know you’ll be putting in soon; comes Education Education, Education:  Reforming England’s Schools by Andrew Adonis. Tony Blair said his three priorities were education, education, education and Andrew Adonis played a decisive role in turning this slogan into a reform programme. This book describes his quest to transform standards and opportunities in England’s schools, and his ambition to make English education truly world class. It is an essential book about a hot ticket issue by one of British politics’ genuine big-hitters which is published in September to coincide with the start of the new school term and the Party Conference season. The book will be serialised in the Daily Mail on 31st August and 1st September, then The Sunday Times will be running a major interview with Andrew Adonis on 2nd September.

Order Education Education Education here

And here's that classic Pink Floyd video - come on, who doesn't love this!

And now for something completely different. Who has heard of Greek poet Yannis Ritsos?  Considered by some to be "the greatest poet of our age" he was proposed nine times for the Nobel Prize for Literature and won the Lenin Peace Prize.  He was a left-wing activist and an active member of the Greek Resistance during World War II who wrote the most beautiful poetry in the face of personal tragedy, persistent ill health and systematic persecution. In Secret: A Version of Yannis Ritsos by David Harsent is published by Enitharmon Press in October and it has just been chosen as the Poetry Book Society's Recommended Translation for the Winter Quarter.  You can read this article all about Yannis Ritsos by David Harsent in last week's Guardian. And Yannis’s translator, David Harsent who is one of Britain’s most prominent contemporary poets, has himself has just won The Griffin Prize for Poetry (which is the world biggest most prestigious prize for poetry).  You can find out more about the prize here.

And you can order the book here - a rather lovely cover I think.

And finally – who’d like a poster for Fifty Shades of Grey? Ooohh yes please; me, me – pick me. Click here to get one.

This newsletter is sent weekly to over 400 booksellers. If you would like to order any of the titles mentioned, then please click here to go to the Compass New Titles Website.

That’s all for now folks, more next week!