Who
saw Brian May on Lorraine
this week – you can watch it here. She opens the
interview by picking up Mission Moon (hb,
£30, 978 1999667405) and saying “this is
a cracker” – then goes on to wave around Queen in 3D (hb,
£30, 978 1999667429) to the cameras saying “this
is a remarkable book!” Please, oh please can all book publicity be as targeted
and fabulous as this! With blockbuster films First Man and Bohemian Rhapsody both
out this autumn (and remember Queen in 3D has
been updated to include scenes from the making of the film photographed on set
in 3D by Brian May) both of these titles are really set up now to be HUGE
bestsellers!
I
love this tweet from author and blogger Laura
Pearson. She’s right – which bookshop needs more categories than these! She writes:
Publishing: My 4
year-old has listed all book genres. You’re welcome.
Adventure
Love
Spooky
PJ Masks
Fairytales
Nursery
rhymes
Desert
Sea
Inside
people
Space
In
a cottage in Normandy, Lina Rose is writing to the daughter she abandoned as a
baby. Now a successful author, she is determined to trace her family’s history
through the two world wars that shaped her life. But Lina can no longer bear to
carry her secrets alone, and once the truth is out, can she ever be forgiven? Clar Ni Chonghaile weaves a complex narrative in The Reckoning (£8.99, pb, 978 1787198142) which has just been published by Legend, covering conflict, secrets,
judgement and what it takes to sever family ties. There’s a wide-ranging blog
tour coming up for this which includes Page
Turners Nook, Anne Bonny Book Reviews, Jo’s Book Blog, My Bookish Blogspot,
Buttercup Review, Reminders of the Changing Time, Mad Book Love, Novel
Delights, Short Book and Scribes, Writing.ie, Varietats, Over the Rainbow Book
Blog, Madhouse Family Reviews and Random
Things Through My Letterbox.
Publishers
tend to have plenty of cracking tales to tell about their famous authors – most
of which are usually only heard in the bar after a sales conference. Happily,
independent publisher, Jeremy Robson has
decided to share the best of his in a marvellous new memoir, Undercover (978
1785904097, hb, £25). In it, he looks back at times spent driving Muhammad Ali
around Britain, coping with Michael Winner, joyously laughing with Maureen
Lipman and Alan Coren, undertaking an exciting poetry reading tour with Ted
Hughes, and lots of stories of life-long friendships with poets and writers; including
Spike Milligan, Alan Sillitoe, Laurie Lee and Yevgeny Yevtushenko. The Mail are running a serialisation of this
book tomorrow – which promises to be highly entertaining! It is packed full of
terrific anecdotes – which sadly I can’t quote to you direct until the Mail extract has happened – but trust
me, it’s well worth a read and well worth selling! Matthew Parris said it has “jollity, diversity and colour” as well
as telling “another story: the struggle
to survive and thrive as a small independent publisher in an age of
amalgamations and growing corporate size.” Which is very definitely a story
worth shouting about.
We're
so pleased to tell you that Phoebe Power has
been shortlisted for the 2019 TS Eliot Prize with her brilliant debut
collection, Shrines
of Upper Austria. The collection was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation,
and also won the Felix Dennis Award for Best First Collection at the Forward Prizes earlier this year - so huge congratulations to
Phoebe! The T
S Eliot Prize Shortlist Readings are
the largest annual poetry event in the UK and will be hosted once again by Ian
McMillan on 13 January, in the Royal Festival Hall. You can read more about the
prize and see the full shortlist here.
The
famous French architect Le Corbusier once said, “I prefer drawing to talking. Drawing is faster and leaves less room
for lies.” Le Corbusier would have loved Draw a Better Business: The Essential Visual Thinking
Toolkit to Help Your Small Business Work Better (£14.99, pb, 978 1910056639) by Cara Holland
which is an illustrated practical guide for freelancers and business
people who want to tap into their innate creativity and gain the business
benefits. Cara has worked with companies such as TimeWarner, Google and the
NHS, and shares empowering tips, tools and insights that will bring the power
of working visually to your business. Business leaders are super-enthusiastic
about this one, Google’s creative director said “There’s hardly a soul who wouldn’t benefit from the ideas in Cara’s
book” and the founder of the Black British Business Awards said it was full
of “innovative solutions that will engage
your audience and transform your business.” There will be a feature on Cara
in the January issue of Diva
magazine’s Women on Top section, as
well as articles in Mollie Makes, Biz Rocks and the Design Trust. It’s just been published by Practical Inspiration.
“Motherhood”
and “childhood” are social and cultural constructions that have their origins
in prehistoric times. A new volume in the Childhood in the Past series
from Oxbow; Motherhood and Infancies in the Mediterranean
and Antiquities (pb, £40, 978
1789250381) explores images of maternity and infancy, and the identification of
women and womanhood in prehistoric and classic societies. Aspects such as
socialization, the impact of infant death, the figure of the mother queen, the
rules on parental rights, the transgressions of traditional motherhood and the
emotional aspects of the mother-child relationship are analysed to gain a
deeper understanding of the diversity of women’s agency through history. Oxbow ran a social media promotion for
this one this week which got a great response with lots of likes, comments and
shares and this is an important contribution to a fascinating subject.
An
absorbing new biography of George V by historian Alexandra Churchill reveals that Balmoral Castle nearly became home to
Tsar Nicholas II after the Russian Revolution. The royal retreat was considered
as a possible residence for the Romanovs after they were overthrown by the
Bolsheviks in 1917, but King George thought the Highland estate was too chilly
and remote for the Russian royal family and the idea was abandoned along with
his offer of asylum in Britain. You can read more about this in the Daily Record here
and the book, The Eye of the Storm: George V and the Great War (978 1911628262, £25, hb) has just been published by Helion. There will be an interview with
Alexandra on Dan Snow's popular history podcast and hopefully a forthcoming
article in the Sunday Times. This
in-depth biography reveals how George V went from being a largely unknown
entity to both his ministers and his people at the outbreak of war in 1914, to
the most visible and accessible sovereign in British history by the end of the
decade. Pioneering modern public relations, he had not only established the
House of Windsor in name, but in the hearts of his people; establishing a
blueprint for the modern monarchy that is still followed today. Published to
mark the 100th anniversary of the Armistice, the King’s war legacy is examined
in full. He played a key role in the introduction of the two-minute silence and
the unveiling of the cenotaph and was the chief mourner at the burial of the
unknown soldier. He also became the first battlefield tourist when he toured the
Western Front in the company of those that won the war. This is a flawless
account on the life of a man who has been highly misunderstood and wrongly
vilified.
Lola Ridge's Manhattan is the Poem of the Week in The
Guardian this week. I encourage you to have a read – there is also
wonderful analysis of it by Carol Rumens. An intensely dynamic vision of New
York in the early 20th century, Manhattan
captures the excitement of a dynamic modern city as well as raising questions
about its gilded allure. The poem is taken from her 1918 first collection, The
Ghetto and Other Poems, which you can read online. To the Many: Collected Early Works by
Lola Ridge has just been published by Little Island Press (pb, £14, 978 0993505645) and there’s a great
review of it here
saying “It is to be hoped that this
publication will hasten the process of recovery and re-evaluation of her work
and her place in the interweaving stories of modernism, leftist political
poetry and poetry by women.”
Some
terrific reviews for Kathy Page's Dear Evelyn (£10,
pb, 978 1911508281), as well as successful appearances by Kathy on her recent
UK tour (Battersea Library, Birmingham Literature
Festival and Nottingham's Five
Leaves Bookshop.) Kathy has also just been shortlisted for the prestigious Writers Trust
Awards in Canada and the winner
of this $50,000 prize will be announced 7 November. The Guardian Review last weekend described Dear Evelyn as
“a love story, a coming-of-age story, and
a brilliantly evocative sketch of Britain in the 20th century”; the Times Literary Supplement called it “disconcerting, profoundly convincing”
with “the tautness of a thriller” and
the Daily Mail praised it as “quietly devastating.”
A
super launch event and display from Waterstones
Deansgate (thanks guys!) for Manchester: Mapping the City (£30, hb, 978 1780275307) by Terry Wyke, Brian Robson and Martin Dodge which
has just been published by Birlinn.
Manchester is one the world's most iconic cities and this this sumptuously
illustrated cartographic history uses historic maps and unpublished and
original plans to chart its dramatic growth and transformation from the late 18th century, through periods of boom and bust in the Victorian
period, and its post-industrial transformation in the 20th century. As Waterstones said; this is “an endlessly fascinating and truly
beautiful book”.
Well
– like it or not, the dreaded C word is on its way – and the festive suggestion
here from Microwave
Mug Cakes (978 0754831365, £9.99, hb)
was included in Homestyle Magazine
this month. This irresistible book will transform the way you bake, showing you
that all you need is a microwave and a mug! The results are remarkably moist
and delicious and you can have a lemon drizzle, a carrot, salted caramel,
chocolate or the Christmas Pudding cake featured here, all in a matter of
moments! It’s published by Lorenz.
Revolutionary feminism is resurging across the
world. But what were its origins? In the early 1970s, the International
Feminist Collective began to organise around the call for recognition of the
different forms of labour performed by women which paved the way for an influential and controversial feminist campaign. A new Pluto title, Wages for Housework: A History of an International Feminist
Movement 1972-77 (£19.99, pb, 978 0745338675)
by Louise Toupin looks at the history of this movement, drawing on
extensive archival research and highlighting the power and originality of the
campaign which encompassed rich theoretical traditions, including autonomism,
anti-colonialism and feminism, whilst also challenging the mainstream women's
movement.
We started with Queen,
we’ll finish with Queen. We in the book trade all know and love Michael Rosen. But until recently I had
no idea that he had an entire fan-base among today’s teenagers for his
hilarious rap memes – of which this
(rather rude) version of Bohemian Rhapsody is one of the finest!
This weekly blog is
written for the UK book trade. If you would like to order any of the titles
mentioned, then please talk to your Compass Sales Manager, or call the Compass
office on 020 8326 5696. Every Friday an e-newsletter containing highlights
from the blog is sent out to over 700 booksellers – and if you’d like to
receive this then please contact nuala@compass-ips.london
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