Who’s heading off on a holiday this summer? And
probably lots of you are flying – that’s if those rascally French air traffic
controllers even allow your plane to take off. But there are millions out there
who are so terrified of flying that that a holiday overseas is a total no-no.
No More Fear of Flying by Allen Carr will solve this issue and ensure that
flying becomes a positive pleasure. With startling insight into why we fear
planes and clear, simple, step-by-step instructions how to cure ourselves of the
problem, Allen Carr unravels the many
misconceptions that make us believe flying is dangerous. No More Fear of Flying explodes the myths and
brainwashing from the media and Hollywood that surround flying and provides
masses of practical tips to help readers feel safe and secure on their next
fear-free flight. There is no doubt that Allen
Carr is the absolute experts’ expert. He has an international
reputation as the world's leading expert on stopping smoking and his network of
clinics now spans the globe. Allen Carr's
'Easy
Way ' method has been applied to a host of issues
including alcohol, weight control, stress and gambling - and now fear of flying.
No More Fear of Flying by Allen Carr (£4.99, 978 1784042790) is published in
paperback in August by Arcturus.
Do you think Allen Carr would cure
Marge Simpson? Nope me neither.
Summer seems to be the time when live stand-up
comedy in the UK goes into overdrive. This year
there are almost 600 comedy shows at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival alone – and
of course there will be plenty of hilarious jokers at Glasto this weekend – and
probably not all of them will be on stage. The BC has just launched its New
Comedy Award for 2014 – and if you fancy yourself as a bit of a Tommy Cooper
– then find out how you can enter it here. What better time
then for the fabulous Bluffer’s series to bring out The Bluffer's Guide to Stand-Up Comedy! This
paperback by Rob Beattie is an all new
title from the 5-million-copy bestselling series which provides instant
expertise, jargon and ready-made wit. As Today said; this is “a series
which threatens to undermine the proper foundations of knowledge.” The Bluffer's Guide to Stand-Up Comedy by Rob Beattie (9781909937246, £6.99, pb) is
published in July.
And have a look here on the
Bluffer's Website for some good tips about how to bluff your way in a
comedy club!
One of my personal faves in the world of stand up
comedy is Sarah Millican, who you can see in a ten minute clip from her Live
At The Apollo set here
What happens when you pluck a family from a Welsh
hillside and transplant them to a French field? How do you renovate derelict pig
shed pas de finance? Lessons in
Impermanence is an exploration of experimental living. Jettisoning
the 9–5, Jane Parry documents the Breton
country year in a journal, facing up to the many challenges involved when you
opt to live close to nature. These challenges encompass the physical and
psychical, material and emotional. Mousetraps, schooling, the French tax system,
yoga and mandalas all provide scope for new experiences. A candid account of
rural Breton living, Lessons in
Impermanence reveals the development of a very personal philosophy,
as Jane and her family embrace the difficulties and triumphs of their
alternative lifestyle with wit and humour. There is still a massive market for
these “I gave up the rat race and moved my whole family abroad/onto a boat/into
outer space” type of memoirs, and Lessons in
Impermanence (978 1909844636, pb, £8.99) by Jane Parry is published by Parthian in
August.
Now it’s time for a bit of dystopian science
fiction. Let’s imagine an alternate future where humans seal their own fate. A
time when, despairing at the state of world degeneration, a group of the world’s
most renowned intellectuals form the new Scientific World Government, aiming to
put the world to rights. Elected into power, they quickly start making changes
for the better, eliminating world hunger and cancer; encouraging scientific
thought and banning frivolous entertainment. But while congratulating themselves on a job well
done, they fail to notice that actually, people are not happy… The suicide rate
has sky-rocketed and, strangely, it turns out the public want a little risk and
conflict in their lives. So to cater for the masses, the Department of
Psychology forms a plan. They will stage an entertainment show the likes of
which the world has never seen before. It starts with gladiatorial style
battles, bloodthirsty and brutal, where the victors become celebrities of unseen
proportions, and quickly escalates into entire historical battle re-enactments
involving chemical warfare and mass destruction. Now hang on a minute, you may
well be thinking. This sounds exactly like The Hunger Games. Well, yes,
but rather than jumping on the bandwagon like so many other authors, Pierre Boulle (author of The Planet of the
Apes and Bridge of the River Kwai) actually penned Desperate Games over forty years ago! This long
neglected dystopian SF classic has been out of print for a long time, but is
published next month in a brand new translation. Desperate Games imagines a world governed by
science and brutality gone mad and is a thoroughly gripping tale for our times.
Desperate Games by Pierre Boulle
(9781843915355, pb, £8.99) is published by Hesperus in July and you can
order it here
And here is that thoroughly chilling scene from The Hunger Games where
the kids have to start fighting it out for the entertainment of
others.
Phew – well I’m ready for something a bit more
light-hearted now I must say. Love
Insurance by Earl Derr Biggers
is a romantic comedy of improbable proportions, very evocative of early 1900s
America when it was written. This
light and sophisticated writing in the manner of the day is described by
Hesperus as P.G. Wodehouse meets Oscar Wilde meets The Great
Gatsby, which pretty much corners the market in frothy wit I’d say. This zany romantic comedy has as its hero, Owen
Jephson (an insurer at Lloyds) who is taken aback when Lord Harrowby asks him to
insure against his fiancée jilting him at the altar. Never one to turn down an
interesting offer, Jephson agrees but swiftly dispatches Dick Minot to
Florida to
make sure that Lloyds’ assets are protected and that Cynthia Meyrick makes it
down the aisle. Unfortunately Minot promptly falls in love with Cynthia and
it comes to light that Lord Harrowby may not be all that he seems. From then on,
things go rapidly downhill as expensive necklaces go missing, long-lost brothers
rear their heads and it is touch and go whether Lord Harrowby and Cynthia will
eventually be joined in marriage or not.
Love Insurance has a lovely
nostalgic cover, and is a highly, cinematic novel, full of charm and perfect for
summer reading. Its author, Earl Derr
Biggers, rather surprisingly was the creator of Chinese detective
Charlie Chan! Love Insurance by Earl Derr Biggers (978 1843915256, pb, £8.99) is
published by Hesperus in July.
Born in 1945 Augusta , Georgia , the daughter of an insurance
salesman and a school teacher, Jessye Mae
Norman came into a family of accomplished musicians and began
learning the piano at an early age. A precocious talent, after nearly winning a
singing competition in Philadelphia , Jessye was
awarded a full scholarship to Howard
University in Washington where her love
and knowledge of music would grow and her obvious ability would flourish.
Stand Up Straight and Sing by Jessye Norman is the autobiography of one of the
most celebrated and often controversial singers of the classical world. It tells
the story of Norman ’s extraordinary journey in her own
inimitable voice. Her career has been one of meteoric musical highs. As well as
possessing a gloriously rich and powerful voice she is blessed with an
uncommonly wide vocal range that, when allied to her statuesque bearing and
commanding stage presence, has made her an incomparable modern interpreter of
most of the operatic repertory, establishing hers as perhaps the greatest
contemporary female voice in the world of classical music. Stand Up Straight and Sing by Jessye Norman (978 1849546850, hb, £20.00) is
published next week by Robson Press and Jessye is currently over the
UK doing the following interviews to
publicise the book: The Daily Telegraph, BBC Radio 4, Midweek,
Classic FM, BBC Radio 3 and the BBC World
Service.
If you are not familiar with the extraordinary power
of Jessye Norman’s voice then here she
is singing Schubert's Ave Maria.
As I’m sure you are well aware, 2014 marks the
centenary of Dylan Thomas’s birth. Poems
of his such as Do not go gentle into that good night regularly come top
of polls of the nation’s favourites, and his play Under Milk Wood is
studied in schools all over the world and has never been out of print. In
addition to The Three Lives of Dylan
Thomas, there are three other Dylan Thomas titles which I would like
to bring to your attention: Firstly
Dylan Thomas by Walford Davies (hb,
£16.99, 978 1783160587). This is published by University of Wales Press
and is the best short introduction to Dylan Thomas, written by a leading
authority on the poet. Accessibly written, it covers the whole range of Thomas’s
poetry and prose, and shows its change and development. By means of close
analysis throughout, this book will help a wide range of readers to enjoy and
understand the power of this major poet’s life and work.
Dylan Thomas: Under Milkwood: Images by Peter Blake (978 1907587610, pb, £30). is a beautiful 176 page
edition of Dylan Thomas’s groundbreaking 1954 “play for voices” Under Milk Wood. Revealed here for the very first
time with the definitive play text are the ‘dismays and rainbows’ of this great
artist’s richly detailed sequences of 110 watercolours, pencil portraits and
collages, comprising one of his most distinctive and significant single bodies
of work. The sleepy Welsh seaside town of Llareggub , comes to life in the cycle of one
spring day. At once a lively and humorous depiction of the butchers, bakers,
preachers and children, of Captain Cat, Nogood Boyo and Polly Garter it is also
a modern pastoral tale on a Chaucerian scale. It is published by
Enitharmon Editions.
And finally, A Pearl of
Great Price: The Love Letters of Dylan Thomas to Pearl Kazin was
published earlier this year by Parthian Books. As the Sunday Times
wrote; it offers “a unique insight” into the poet. The letters from Dylan
to his mistress Pearl were bought and sold on condition that
they would not be published during her lifetime. In an interview with the
Sunday Times in January, editor Jeff Towns explained that he was
given permission to use the letters by Kazin's son, David, after her death three
years ago.. Until these letters came to light, Pearl had remained something of a ghost – the mysterious
‘Sarah’ of Dylan Thomas in America . In A Pearl of Great Price, Jeff Towns, with a little help from Pearl ’s son David Bell,
attempts to flesh out the woman Dylan felt more for than any other mistress and
offer new insights into their liaison. There’s was an intense and passionate
relationship and these six love letters
from Dylan to Pearl, never before published, along with a couple of snapshots of
them together in London form the basis for this book. You can order A Pearl of Great Price: The Love Letters of Dylan Thomas to
Pearl Kazin Edited and Introduced by Jeff Towns from Compass:
978-1909844681, hb, £20.
That’s all for now
folks, more next week!
This blog is read weekly by over 700
booksellers as well as publishers and publicists. If you would like to order any
of the titles mentioned, then please click here to go to the Compass New Titles
Website or talk to your Compass Sales
representative.
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