There’s been lots of superb publicity
for Matt Jensen’s stirring autobiography What Was, What Is and What Might Have Been (£18.99,
hb, 978 1909715851) You can read the piece in the Sun here
and
the Mail here.
There’s
plenty more to come, the Guardian are running extracts, there will be pieces
in FourFourTwo and the Times and plenty of digital media and
radio interviews with Matt too. He will be making an appearance at Selhurst
Park with a book signing in the fans’ zone around Man City game on Sunday 20th
Oct at 4.30pm and there’s a Q&A evening at the Ewood Park stadium on Friday
September. This is the story of a career destined for the stratosphere, cruelly
snatched away by the vagaries of fate. Brilliant, bold, and at times brutal in
its honesty, this powerful tale of shattered dreams and a life rebuilt is a
testament to an inspiring, unconquered soul. It’s just been published by Polaris
and if any bookseller hasn’t ordered it yet and would like a reading copy, the
first to email laura@birlinn.co.uk with What Was in the subject line and
their bookshop name and address will win one!
The Hockneys: Never Worry
What the Neighbours Think (£25,
hb, 978 1789550733) will be serialised in the Mail on 27-29th September
which will no doubt kick off plenty more media interest. This is a never before seen insight into the
lives of the family by youngest brother John Hockney,
where hardship, successes as well as close and complex relationships are
poignantly illustrated by both famous and private pictures and paintings from David Hockney. There will be interviews with John
on BBC local radio on Monday 7th October which so far includes BBC
Leeds, BBC Northampton, BBC York, BBC Lancashire and BBC Humberside with
more to come. There will be features in the Yorkshire Post and events at
Salt Mills and the Royal Academy. It is published by Legend on 3
October.
The Kingdom of Sicily, early thirteenth
century. The Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II has, through invasion and
marriage, expanded his empire, but always subject to the will of the pope and
the rulings of the Church. Into this world of political and military intrigue
steps Michael Scot, headstrong and determined, a young monk and barbarian from
Scotland who tutored Frederick as a boy. A Matter of
Interpretation (978 1912054701, hb,
£12.99) by Elisabeth MacDonald is a thrilling, witty, violent and mysterious debut. Elisabeth
has been on the Radio Ulster Arts Show, and the books is also about to
be reviewed in the Irish Times, with an article written by Elisabeth.
There will also be reviews in the Sunday Independent, and the Irish
Independent and it will be included in the Sunday Times September
historical fiction round up. It’s published by Fairlight.
Hands up all of those who read Circe
on their summer holiday and then felt the stirrings of their own inner powers? Witch by Lisa Lister (pb, £10.99, 978 1781807545) is currently a top ten
bestseller for Hay House at Waterstones, so I think there’s plenty of us
would-be wise women out there. Rebecca Campbell wrote “Lisa Lister is a
badass leader of all things feminine. She is here to shine a light on all the
shadows of patriarchy that we have all inherited. Witch is a book whose time
has come and a response to the feminine that is rising within us all. Rise
sister rise.”
How exciting to hear that Comma’s
The Sea Cloak (£9.99,
pb, 978 1905583782) was the best-selling book at the Edinburgh International
Book Festival! You can read more about that here. And
it was endorsed by Ali Smith who said “All the arts are close to us because
they allow us to recontextualise, to understand where we are, what we are, who
we are. The Sea Cloak by Nayrouz Qarmout re-contextualises things so we really understand the
world from the point of view we always knew was there.”
Back to school for many this week of
course, and in amongst the gazillions of Facebook posts of smiling moppets in
their shiny shoes, spare a thought for all of those parents and teachers who
aren’t finding it quite so easy. Troubled Hearts
Troubled Minds (978 1785834103) is
for anyone who has struggled to connect with a troubled child. Drawing on over
25 years of experience working with children with challenging behaviour, Peter Nelmes argues
that disruptive of destructive children are possibly the least understood and
accepted in society and their problems are often met with condemnation rather
than understanding and support. Through his insightful explanation of this
phenomenon, he delivers key lessons on how we can better connect with both the
head and the heart during the teaching and learning process. We have three reading
copies available of this excellent title, booksellers should email rwilliams@crownhouse.co.uk with their name and bookshop address,
and Troubled Hearts in the subject line.
How voters vote, what they think and
what leads them to vote one way or another is likely to come under media
scrutiny like never before in the coming weeks. Sex,
Lies and Politics: The Secret Influences that Drive Our Political Choices (978 1785905063, pb, £9.99) is the only title on the
market addressing those very questions and it also happens to be very readable,
revealing and funny. Gary Gibbon, political editor of Channel 4 News
said “This is the perfect navigation kit for the inevitable general election
coming towards us. Buy it, read it and assume the brace position.” It’s
just been published by Biteback.
And if you feel you need some light
relief from all the Brexit babble then I suggest you watch this hilarious Commons spoof of the Python What Have
the Romans Ever Done For Us sketch!
The newest instalment in Comma’s
Reading the City anthology series will be
published on 24 October and it’s The Book of
Sheffield (£9.99, pb, 9781912697137).
The collection of ten stories is edited by Catherine Taylor, who wrote this piece
for the Guardian about it last week. Known for both its industrial roots and
arboreal abundance, Sheffield has always been a city of two halves. Bringing
together fiction from some of the city's most celebrated writers, The Book of Sheffield traces
the unique contours that decades of social and economic change can impress on a
city.
Peter Kennard: Visual Dissent (pb, £19.99, 978 0745339870) is a fully
illustrated anthology showcasing key images from Britain's foremost political
artist over the last fifty years. The book centres around Kennard's images,
photomontages and illustrations from protests, year by year, which provoked
public outrage; including Israel/Palestine protests, anti-nuclear protests,
responses to austerity, climate destruction, and more. Jarvis Cocker said “This
art is a jolt of electricity. A shot in the arm. A kick up the backside. You
know what? It’s a wake-up call.” You can see here a brilliant window for it
at Foyles in London. It’s just been published by Pluto and there
is an interview in The National here.
You
can have a look at some of the astonishing art from the book at www.peterkennard.com
Clive James needs no introduction. He is
universally known as a legendary critic, TV presenter, broadcaster, author and,
and in the last decade, his reputation as a poet and an intellectual has grown
immeasurably. So Brightly at the Last: Clive James
and the Passion for Poetry (hb, 978 1913062071, £18.99) by Ian Shircore is
published by Red Door on 3 October to coincide with Clive James’ 80th
birthday and simultaneously with Clive’s new book on Philip Larkin, Somewhere
Becoming Rain (Picador). The major publicity campaign will include both
titles. In this offbeat and affectionate poetic biography, Jimi Hendrix,
Princess Diana and Syria's Asma Al-Assad rub shoulders with Auden, Eliot and
Shelley, and with the Trouser Thief Clive met during ten long weeks locked up
in a closed psychiatric ward. Clive James has written more than 40 books and
his sales are in the millions. Stuart Maconie said of the book that it was “long
overdue. A readable, insightful celebration of Clive James wonderful and
humanely rich verse” and Stephen Edgar called it “a compelling portrait
of the man through the work. Not to be missed.”
First published in 1989, No Laughing Matter: The Life and Times of Flann O’Brien (pb, £14.99, 978 1848407145) by Anthony Cronin was
the first full-length biography of O’Brien and is an undisputed classic of
Irish literary biography. Rich in background, anecdote and social history, it
is an extraordinary portrait of a writer and his times, perceptive, sympathetic
and authoritative. This striking new redesigned edition from New Island,
with its foreword by acclaimed author Kevin Barry has just had a big two page
spread in the Irish Post.
A Nazi scheme to capture the Pope, an
IRA plan to invade Northern Ireland, a British plan to attack the Soviet Union
after the defeat of Hitler or a Japanese seizure of the Panama Canal - during
World War II these operations and others as seemingly far-fetched were
seriously considered by both the Allies and the Axis. World War II Plans That Never Happened (978 1782748809, £14.99, pb) tells the stories of
some of the most secret and outrageous operations that were planned during the
war, many of which could have taken place and might well have changed the
course of history. Arranged chronologically, the book includes copies and
transcripts of previously secret documents, rare colour and black-and-white
photographs, illustrations and maps. World War II
Plans That Never Happened has just
been published by Amber and a two-page extract was published in the Express.
At Arsenal, the club where he won the
FA Cup three times, Per Mertesacker was affectionately called the Big Friendly German. Standing at 6ft 6in, he was
the defender who took fitness so seriously that he invested ten per-cent of his
annual salary on personal therapists. His endurance would help him in a decade-long
career with the German national team which culminated in him lifting the World
Cup in 2014. In his intelligent and thoughtful autobiography, Big Friendly German (hb,
£20, 978 1909245938) out from De Coubertin today, Mertesacker details
what it really takes to become a success in the game he started playing when he
was just four years old. There will be plenty of publicity, Mertesacker is
being interviewed by Sky, Radio London, Talksport, the Telegraph,
the Express and the World Service as well as all the main footie
blogs.
Palestine +100 was reviewed in the Morning Star
this week "This rich and varied anthology offers thoughtful insight
into the hopes, fears and traumas of people whose suffering has been wilfully
ignored by the mainstream media for decades. It's also a timely and
entertaining reminder of the potential of SF as a literature that reframes
perceptions and challenges assumptions." It was also reviewed by NPR,
that’s here and
contributor Saleem Haddad was interviewed as part of Open Democracy's review of
the Comma collection here.
There is major event at the British Library next Friday showcasing the
anthology with the editor Basma Ghalayini alongside Selma Dabbagh and Anwar Hamed,
two of the contributors.
The BBC National Short
Story Award 2019 shortlist is announced tonight from
7:15pm on BBC Radio 4's Front Row, do tune in! The BBC National Short Story Award is one of the most prestigious for a single short
story, with the winning author receiving £15,000, and four further shortlisted
authors £600 each. The stories are broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and the anthology (£7.99,
pb, 978 1912697229) will available shortly from Comma.
And in this week’s Hot Topics, here's the latest on Brexit, here's
Princess
Charlotte flipping her hair and here's a reminder of England’s sensational performance
in the third test as we currently battle it out in the fourth! That’s all
folks, more next week!
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@compassips.london
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