Compass Points 116

Very exciting news – Compass is now on Twitter! Follow us @CompassIPS. You’ll get the breaking news on our top titles even faster – and better still, we can find out what all you lovely booksellers are up to – and retweet your news back to all of our publishers, editors and sales people! Happy days!

It’s always great to have a new publisher aboard the Compass ship, so a very warm welcome to Periscope Books.  Periscope describe themselves as “fiercely independent” and believe that “revelling in its size as a small publisher, Periscope will move nimbly in a heavily consolidated publishing environment. Dancing in the path of juggernauts, we can enable stories to be told that might otherwise be lost.” Find out a bit more about them on their website: www.periscopebooks.co.uk

One of their first titles is Princess Bari by Hwang Sok-Yong (pb, 978 1859641743, 9.99) coming in April. This is an original translation of a new novel by one of South Korea’s greatest living novelists. Born in 1943, Hwang Sok-yong is a tireless human-rights activist, who was sentenced in 1993 to seven years in a South Korean prison for a ‘breach of national security’, after making unauthorised trips to North Korea to promote openness between the two countries. He is the recipient of South Korea’s most prestigious literary prizes. Princess Bari is set in contemporary London, and is an excellent and accessible way for English-language readers to discover Hwang’s work. It is a captivating novel that leavens the grey reality of North Korean cities and slums with the splendour of fable and legend.

Order Princess Bari and find out more about it here

Elaine Feinstein was reading from her new Carcanet poetry collection: Portraits (pb, £9.99 978 1847772152) this week on Woman’s Hour on Radio 4. Now in her 80s, Elaine Feinstein is a highly popular poet, performer, novelist and biographer and Portraits is an intimate new collection in which Feinstein describes writers she has known, including the Russian poet Bella Akhmadulna, and those she has loved only through their work, such as Sylvia Plath. It offers a counterpart to the memoir poems in her highly successful Carcanet collection, Cities.

You can order Portraits here

How many of you out there have a degree in English Literature? Hmm, quite a few! Well here are 22 things that I don’t think you (or I!) will be saying any time soon!

Some very good pre publicity for the April Birlinn paperback of Alexander McCall Smith’s hilarious Fatty O’ Leary’s Dinner Party (pb, £6.00, 978 1846973000) this week, with Alexander McCall Smith taking over the Good Housekeeping website and Twitter account. Also Mark Lawson Talks to Alexander McCall Smith will be broadcast on BBC4 this Sunday (1/3/15).

 Order Fatty O'Leary's Dinner Party here

Pep Confidential: The Inside Story of Pep Guardiola’s First Season at Bayern Munich by Marti Perarnau (978 1909715257 has just been featured in the Daily Mail   –  you can read the whole article here – and there will be a competition to win a signed copy of the book coming in the Daily Mail soon!

The Daily Mail obviously like our books at the moment, as they have also just done a big spread on Rowing After the White Whale by James Adair (pb, £8.99, 978 1846973277) Headlined Students Who Fulfilled a Drunken Bet to Become Surprise US Film Stars; you can read that piece here. Rowing After the White Whale is published by Polygon in March, and you can order it here

Well it’s a gorgeous day here in London – hope it’s as good where you are. So I’m definitely in the mood to stroll off for a springtime walk – and it will be made even better if I can have a swim along the way. Wild Swimming Walks: 28 Lake, River and Seaside Days out by Train from London (pb, £14.99 978 1910636015) would therefore be my ideal companion – it’s coming from Wild Things Publishing in May. This lovely book is written by the famous swimming Ladies of Hampstead ponds, who bring us their favourite walks with a dip, across southern and eastern England, all accessible by train, featuring secret lakes, river meadows and sandy seaside beaches. This is a beautiful retro-styled book, reminiscent of the 1930s - a perfect gift with original illustrations and practical inspiration. It contains gorgeous photography plus detailed instructions with 28 vintage maps.

Find out more and order it here.

I cannot think of a better film to promote the joys of a wild swimming walk than this hilarious clip from A Room with a View – must be one of my all time favourite moments in a film – I defy you not to laugh a lot!

And for those booksellers in this part of the country, look out for Wild Guide: South East England and London – also coming from Wild Things Publishing in May. This new compendium of adventures reveals over 800 secret places, wild challenges and ideas for local food and natural places to stay. It includes nationally popular areas such as the broads of Norfolk and Suffolk, the ancient forests of Sussex and Kent, idyllic Cotswolds and the New Forest. With stunning photos, engaging travel writing and 30 maps; this is perfect for those seeking new adventures with the family, or dreaming up the ultimate romantic weekend escape.

You can order that here

Lot of great PR coming up for God and Mrs Thatcher: The Battle for Britain’s Soul by Eliza Filby (£25.00, hb 978 1849547857) Few people are aware that Margaret Thatcher was a devout Christian or that she was a preacher before she was a politician. As a child, she would sit in the pews listening to her lay-preacher father, Alf Roberts, hammer home sermons on the Protestant work ethic, God-given liberty and the sanctity of the individual. However, Margaret Thatcher may have set out to reinvigorate the nation with the non-conformist values of her father, but in the end she created a country that was not more Christian, but more secular; and not more devout, but entirely consumed by a new religion: the free market. In upholding the sanctity of the individual, Thatcherism inadvertently signalled the death of Christian Britain. God and Mrs Thatcher is an extraordinary new perspective on the phenomena of Thatcherism and the legacy of its creator, and it’s just been published by Biteback. There was a big piece in The Sunday Times on Sunday 22nd February and it will be featured on BBC Radio 4’s Sunday Programme this weekend – 1 March. Eliza Filby is writing a piece about it for Monday’s Guardian, it will be on the Times Faith page on 7 March, and Eliza has also been on The Daily Politics Show talking about it.

You can order it and find out more here

If however the very mention of Margaret Thatcher brings you out in a rash, then perhaps you need The De-Stress Effect by Charlotte Watts (Pb,  £12.99 978 1781804858) which is published in March by Hay House. This is a groundbreaking book that takes a holistic approach to stress and presents the latest research on how we can bring our bodies back into balance. It shows you how you can free yourself from the emotional and physical effects of stress by reconnecting to your body and discovering what it really needs. Sounds good to me! The book will feature in Stella magazine (circ. 404,000) and the May issue of Good Housekeeping (circ. 414,000). The author will blog for Healthista.com to coincide with release and promote the book (70,000 unique monthly browsers) and the book will also feature on Red Online (450,000 unique monthly browsers) and TescoLiving.com (161,000 unique monthly browsers) in February. The book and author will also feature in Women’s Fitness (circ. 21,000), a future issue of Health & Fitness (circ. 20,000) and Om Yoga (circ. 70,000).  You can order The De-Stress Effect and find out more here.

Look out for the paperback of Arctic Monkeys: Pretend Memories by Rob Jovanovic (pb, 978 1905959730, £14.95) coming in April from Red Planet. It’s time for a good book about this multiple No 1 band, and this is that book! Many believe that the Arctic Monkeys are the most interesting British band of the 21st century, constantly evolving but ensuring that each album kicks just as hard and fast as the previous one. This is a band in it for the long haul and their fan base are ultra-loyal. You don’t ‘grow out’ of the Arctic Monkeys. The band is riding higher than ever, which is pretty high. Every album has gone to number one in the UK, while they have strengthened their following in the US and elsewhere overseas. Here’s a quick burst of one of their best their best tunes here to remind you, and you can find out more and order Pretend Memories here

 And finally, this week, Wolf Hall has ended (boo0) and Taylor Swift has won a Brit (yaaay)!  So I think it’s the just moment to look at a great mash up of two fabulous characters…

And here are the best of the week’s Tweets – remember you can see them all first hand by following us @CompassIPS  or click here if you are a Twitter virgin!

Sorcha O'Dowd @SorchaODowd · Feb 25

I love being a bookseller! A @ChocLituk proof in the staff room! This will be a good day!

StratfordWaterstones @SUAWaterstones · 21 hrs21 hours ago

Like Amelie? You'll love Antoine Laurain's new novel featuring a Parisian Bookseller & his search for a missing woman

Annabel Gaskell @gaskella · Feb 24

Yay! Just found out I'll be giving out copies of Spring Tide from @HesperusPress on @WorldBookNight

Urbane Publications @urbanepub · Feb 24

Chuffed to bits to be represented by @CompassIPS - fantastic knowledge, professionalism and enthusiasm! The future's bright...

Oxygen Books @thecitylitcafe · Feb 23

#AYearofReadingDangerously Love reading? Then make sure you check out our best European reads. http://wp.me/p5jk84-t 

Peter Owen Publisher @PeterOwenPubs · Feb 23

Real books are good for you? Reading from a hard copy may allow better concentration: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/feb/23/reading-writing-on-paper-better-for-brain-concentration …

Cargo Publishing @cargopublishing · Feb 24

"I don't want to live in a Monarchy where Amazon is king, I want to live in a Republic of Booksellers." @WordPowerBooks #scotbookconf

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

This blog comes from a newsletter which is sent weekly to 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.