There’s been lots in the press this week about the
terrible tragedy when a boat carrying migrants capsized in the Med – but what
is it really like to be a refugee, attempting to make the journey over
the sea to Europe? Award-winning journalist Wolfgang
Bauer and photographer Stanislav Krupar were
the first undercover reporters to document the journey of Syrian refugees from
Egypt to Europe, and their book is called Crossing
the Sea: With Syrians on the Exodus to Europe (hb, £15.00, 978
1908276827) which came out in March from And Other Stories. Posing
as English teachers in 2014, they were direct witnesses to the brutality of
smuggler gangs, the processes of detainment and deportation, the dangers of
sea-crossing on rickety boats, and the final furtive journey through Europe.
Combining their own travels with other eyewitness accounts in the first book of
reportage of its kind, Crossing the Sea brings to life both the systemic problems and the
individual faces behind the crisis, and is a passionate appeal for more
humanitarian refugee policies.
Welcome to a new member of the Compass family: Amber Books who publish illustrated reference books for adults and children. You can find out a bit more about them on their website www.amberbooks.co.uk. Coming from them in August are three terrific Mini Encyclopaedias which should give DK a run for their money! Each one is paperback, 163mm x 123mm and combines engaging accessible text with highly detailed colour artwork.
What is it like to work for an indie publisher? Have a
look at this fun blog post from Katie Caunt who works at Carcanet here!
There has recently been some very positive
review coverage for this title, which is going to really make readers want to
find out more. The Irish Examiner said “where Bauer excels is filling
in the back stories, and providing detail on the nefarious, cut-throat business
of people smuggling” and there have also been good piece in the New
Statesman and the Times Literary Supplement. The title is a
staff pick at Foyles Charing Cross and I really do urge you to stock it
if you haven’t done so already! As one of the reviews of the German edition
said “The last words of this book are Have mercy. There is no more to say.
Wolfgang Bauer’s impressive and brutally honest depiction of the fates of
refugees speaks for itself.”
Nancy Clara Cunard (1896 – 1965) was a writer, heiress (to the Cunard
shipping fortune) and political activist. She was born into the British upper
class and devoted much of her life to fighting racism and fascism. She became a
muse to some of the 20th century’s most distinguished writers and artists,
including Aldous Huxley and Ezra Pound, who were among her many lovers, before
suffering from mental illness and dying aged 69 in hospital in Paris.
Carcanet
are publishing her Selected Poems (978 1784102364, pb, £9.99) edited by Sandeep Parmar at
the end of July which will be a major poetry event. These poems by a
trail-blazing muse and activist of the Jazz Age include experimental free verse
as well as popular balladic forms – and there is bound to be media coverage for
this rebellious writer who was way ahead of her time. You can find out more and
order
Selected Poems here.
If you’d like to find out a bit more about Nancy Cunard, there is a good piece here
in the Huffington Post with some fab pics of this queen of the jazz
age. As they say: “Cunard truly was one of the twentieth century’s great,
unrepentant individualists: her silhouette remains unique and instantly
recognizable even today: an exclamation point-thin frame; dark, kohl-rimmed
eyes; arms invariably heavy with bracelets.” Or you can watch a short
photographic montage of some of her most famous images on YouTube here.
Is there anyone who doesn’t love a bit of Bob Marley –
especially in the summertime? Coming this summer from Omnibus Press is
the Bob Marley Graphic Novel by Jim McCarthy, Gerry
Kissell and Benito Gallego (pb, 978 1783059676, £16.99). This is a
graphic novel telling of the life of the Jamaican reggae singer who achieved
such immense international fame and acclaim. Starting out in 1963 with the
group The Wailers, he forged a distinctive song-writing and vocal style
that would later resonate with audiences worldwide. Diagnosed with a type of
malignant melanoma in 1977, Marley died on 11 May 1981 in Miami at the age of
36. He was a committed Rastafari who infused his music with a sense of
spirituality and is considered one of the most influential musicians of all
time credited with popularizing reggae music around the world, as well as
serving as a symbol of Jamaican culture and identity. I like the sound of this
one; the Omnibus biography of Bob Marley
Catch A Fire is widely regarded as one the best music books ever written
and I think there will be a good market for this graphic novel. It’s out in
July and you can find out
more about it here.
And you can hear one his most famous songs here – incidentally,
this has had over ninety-two million views on YouTube which I think is a
tremendous testament to his immense popularity!
Over half a million students are currently sitting their
A-Levels to see if they can get the grades to enable them to head off to the
dreaming spires (or possibly the scummy cesspits) of university life. And they
will all be wanting to know what it’s going to be like which is where A Guide to Uni Life by Lucy Tobin comes in. The Telegraph
called this a “must-read” and this is a fully revised edition of this
bestselling one stop guide to university life, packed with real-life student
tales. Written by a graduate, A Guide to Uni Life offers a unique viewpoint on how to juggle studying,
having fun and avoiding money troubles by someone who has lived through the
experience themselves and can pass on lots of handy tips and advice for new or
potential students. There is a very large target market for this title, and Lucy
Tobin (a graduate from Oxford) is a an author and widely published
journalist of educational articles in many national newspapers including the Times
and the Guardian who really knows her stuff. A Guide to Uni Life by
Lucy Tobin (pb,
£9.99, 978,1844552160) is published by Crimson in August and you can find out
more here.
Any of you who have been to uni will find this rings very
true – some of the truly stupid stuff students say !
Welcome to a new member of the Compass family: Amber Books who publish illustrated reference books for adults and children. You can find out a bit more about them on their website www.amberbooks.co.uk. Coming from them in August are three terrific Mini Encyclopaedias which should give DK a run for their money! Each one is paperback, 163mm x 123mm and combines engaging accessible text with highly detailed colour artwork.
Dinosaurs by Gerrie McCall (pb,
£9.99, 978 1782743842) profiles these mighty lizards who still fire our
imaginations. The entries are grouped chronologically, and each dinosaur or
other prehistoric creature is illustrated with a stunning full-colour picture.
For easy reference, each entry also includes a table of information containing
key data such as size, weight, diet, meaning of name, armour, hunting
techniques and distribution of fossil remains. Engaging accessible text
provides an introduction to each dinosaur's behaviour, habits and other key information.
You can find out more about Dinosaurs
here.
Mammals by Chris McNab (pb,
£9.99, 978 1782743859) comprises some of the most intriguing creatures on the
planet and offers a truly comprehensive overview of mammals from every
continent, from the big cats of Africa to the dolphins that roam the world’s
oceans. The entries are grouped by order, then within each order by family (and
where necessary, within each family by subfamilies); each family section
contains examples of the key species, which are illustrated with beautifully
detailed, full-colour artworks. Find out more about that one here.
And finally, The World of Birds by Michael Wright (pb, £9.99, 9781782743231) includes 300 fascinating
entries which cover all of the world’s major bird families – from the penguins
of the Arctic to the flamboyant inhabitants of the Amazon rainforests. Being
pocket-sized like all three mini-encyclopaedias; the book is handy for taking
with you when birdwatching and with its outstanding colour artworks, an
at-a-glance table of information and authoritative text, Birds will appeal to anyone interested in the
natural world. Michael Wright is a Natural Sciences graduate from Cambridge
University and a member of the Association of British Science Writers who has
contributed to many books in the field of wildlife, natural history and the
environment. Find
out more about Birds and order it here.
What do you know about Iceland’s most celebrated novelist Sjón? Born in Reykjavik in 1962 he is a poet,
librettist and lyricist, (he has worked with his countrywoman Björk), who has
written three operas and published eleven volumes of poetry. His novels have
been translated into thirty languages; he won the Nordic
Council’s Literary Prize for his novel The
Blue Fox and the novel From the Mouth of the Whale was shortlisted for both the International
IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and
the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize.
This author has a growing UK and international profile with praise from the
likes of A. S. Byatt and has had great reviews in the mainstream UK press.
His
new novel Moonstone: The Boy Who Never Was is published by Sceptre in
June and there will be a UK-wide tour by Sjón from
2 -7 June (including the Hay Festival) and a major media campaign with
confirmed coverage in the Guardian Review where there will be a
centrefold interview with him just ahead of publication; as well as BBC
Radio 4 Open Book, BBC Radio 3 Free Thinking and Newstalk with Pat Kenny
and reviews in the TLS, the Spectator and the Guardian. So
please do make sure you order his three backlist titles The Whispering Muse, From
the Mouth of the Whale and The Blue Fox
from Telegram – they have great covers (go to the blog!) and as Steven
Cooper at Waterstone’s said recently in the Bookseller: “Sjón
will no doubt find a place alongside Karl Ove Knausgård in the hearts of
literary hipsters everywhere”. David Mitchell called his writing “a
quirky, melodic, ticklish, seamlessly-translated, lovingly-polished gem… it
deserves space on any self-respecting bookshelf of European fiction.” There
is much affection for this author whose work is a highly original mix of folk
tale and thriller, all set against the beautiful Icelandic landscape. All three
of these paperbacks are available now!
From the Mouth of the Whale (978 1846590832, pb, £8.99) is set in 1635 when Iceland is
a world darkened by superstition, poverty and cruelty. Men of science marvel
over a unicorn’s horn, poor folk worship the Virgin in secret and both books
and men are burnt. Jónas Pálmason, a poet and self-taught healer, has been
condemned to exile for heretical conduct. Banished to a barren island, he
recalls his exorcism of a walking corpse on the remote Snjáfjöll coast, the
frenzied massacre of innocent Basque whalers at the hands of local villagers
and the deaths of three of his children. This is a magical evocation of an
enlightened mind and a vanished age.
The Whispering Muse (978 1846591242, pb, £7.99) is set in 1949 when Valdimar
Haraldsson, an eccentric Icelander has had the singular good fortune to be
invited to join a Danish merchant ship on its way to the Black Sea. Among the
crew is the mythical hero Caeneus, disguised as the second mate. Every evening
after dinner he entrances his fellow travellers with the tale of how he sailed
on the Argonauts’ quest to retrieve the Golden Fleece.
The Blue Fox (978 184650375, pb, £6.99) is set in 1883 with the stark
Icelandic winter landscape as the backdrop. We follow the priest, Baldur
Skuggason, on his hunt for the enigmatic blue fox. And just as the priest pulls
the trigger we are swept away to the world of the naturalist Fridrik B.
Fridriksson and his charge, suffering from Down’s Syndrome, who was found
shackled to the timbers of a ship run aground in 1868. The fates of all of
these characters are intrinsically bound, and gradually unravelled in this
spellbinding fable that is part mystery, part fairy tale – Bjork called
it “magical”.
This week we raised a glass to say goodbye and remember Burt
Kwouk the actor who played Cato in the Pink Panther films.
Hopefully the “little yellow friend” is still leaping out on Peter
Sellers somewhere up above us – here he is in one of his first bouts with
Clouseau from from 1964 and
here again in 1975 and
also here . I had to
include three clips as it is genuinely impossible to decide which is funniest!
That’s all for now folks! More
next week!
This blog is taken 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
click here or talk to your Compass Sales
representative.
