Your weekly round
up of publishing news, publicity information and trivia!
Hurrah hurrah, Christmas is on its way – and with it
that chance to podge up on all the delicious seasonal scoff - turkey, sausages,
pork pies – if you’re lucky maybe even a venison casserole and a roast partridge
or two! Naturally the Christmas food police will tell us that this massive
annual increase in our meat and saturated fat consumption is extremely bad for
us – but is it really? For twenty-six years John
Nicholson was a vegetarian, following a seriously healthy diet that
included no cholesterol or animal fats but plenty of brown rice and lentils.
However, for twenty-six years John Nicholson was ill – tormented year after year
by apparently untreatable IBS. He was eating the healthiest diet known to
mankind yet his digestive system was breaking down. His illness was affecting
his life so badly that eventually he and his partner considered doing the
unthinkable – eating meat. The results were spectacular. Twenty four hours after
eating meat, he was better. After forty eight hours he was totally well. All his
symptoms had gone – the IBS, the headaches, the mid afternoon tiredness, achy
knees – the lot. Even his eyesight improved to the point he no longer needed to
use reading glasses. Twelve months on, he feels like a new person. The Meat Fix: How a Lifetime of Healthy Eating Nearly Killed
Me is the story of how eating meat again after twenty-six vegetarian
years changed John Nicholson’s life powerfully for the better, and of his quest
to understand why the supposedly healthy diet he had existed on was actually
damaging him. This is a fascinating, surprising, often hilarious and shocking
journey of discovery.
Amuse Agents by Preston
Likely is getting some cracking publicity – and is the perfect
stocking filler Christmas present – so make sure you have plenty on display for
those impulse purchases! This book is an amusing compilation of extremely daft
spoof small ads that Preston put up in shop
windows over a space of two years.
Normally these little cards advertise everything from second-hand cars to
baby-sitters, cleaners, kittens and rabbits. But the ones created by 46-year-old
Preston
Likely were designed for a laugh and to see whether anyone would
reply in similar humorous vein… There was a massive full page piece about it in
the Mail this week, which gives you a good flavour – you can see it here – and the reviews online are very
favourable – for example; “Such a funny book, I left this book on my dining
room table for people to browse and within seconds readers were laughing, it is
one of those books you can browse through as it gives you instant belly laughs,
and in times like these, a laugh is just what Preston prescribes. One of my
favourite adverts is the Pickpocketing Course.” This article has now been reproduced
online by The Lady and The Mirror (now there’s a diverse
readership) – so lots more people will be finding out about the book – and
looking for it!
Now, who’s a fan of Bob
Servant – the hilarious fictional Dundonian businessman? This comic
character was created by Neil Forsyth and
is the star of three collections of email exchanges between "Bob Servant", the
fictional author, and internet spammers. The first title was originally
published in the UK in 2007 and is characterised by
Servant's increasingly surreal contributions and growing frustration on the part
of the spammers. On publication the character of Bob Servant was compared to
that of John Shuttleworth and a number of reviewers drew comparison to Henry
Root. Irvine Welsh selected this title,
the then little-known Delete This At Your
Peril as his choice in an Esquire Magazine poll for
The Funniest Books Ever and along with support from a number of
bands including Snow Patrol and Belle and Sebastian, created a word of mouth
campaign that attracted the attention of the BBC who serialised the books on
Radio 4. Now in January 2013 comes a new BBC4 TV series. –
you can
watch a clip from it here. The series will run for six weeks – plenty
of time to build up a mega fan base for the three hilarious books on which the
series is based. The trilogy of books by Neil
Forsyth comprises: Delete This At Your
Peril, Bob Servant: Hero of
Dundee and Why Me? The Very Important
Emails of Bob Servant. The series starts Brian Cox, and there is
going to be lots of publicity for it. Brian will be on be on Lorraine Kelly, The
One Show and lots of other chat shows and the author Neil Forsyth is writing tie
in pieces for newspapers including the Guardian and Scotsman where
he’ll give plenty of mention to the books. They are all being reissued with new
covers to tie in with the TV series in January.
As he enters his sixties, Bruce Springsteen remains a paragon of all that is
cool and right. He’s a genuine voice of the people, an elder statesman who has
inspired generations of bands. There are dozens of books about the Boss, so
what’s left to say? Nothing objective, perhaps. But when it comes to music,
objectivity is highly overrated. Walk Like a Man:
Coming of Age with the Music of Bruce Springsteen is a frank and
funny blend of biography, music appreciation and memoir. Novelist Robert Wiersema grew up with Springsteen’s songs,
and this book tells the story of a man becoming a man (despite getting a little
lost along the way), and of the man and the music that have accompanied him on
his journey. It is essential reading for all fans of Bruce Springsteen, and it’s coming in
January.
Who watched that episode of the Junior
Apprentice a couple of weeks ago where the contestants had to come up with a
cookery book for a niche market. I don’t think their plans for of a student
cookbook entitled #Where’s Mummy? or a cookbook for professional women entitled
er, Professional Woman – are exactly going to set the world on fire – although
they did come up with some clever marketing ideas and graphics. But where they
really fell down was on the proof reading – with some real shockers of spelling
and grammar. See guys, this publishing game isn’t as easy as everyone thinks! Of
course what they should have come up with is something like Everyday Lebanese Cooking, which is published by
How To Books in January. Lebanese food is definitely having a bit of a moment at
present – there are more and more Lebanese restaurants appearing on our high
streets and there is a growing interest in the fresh tastes offered by this
delicious cuisine. As well as having
the reputation of being amongst the
healthiest in the world; Lebanese food is the deal food for the current economic
climate because it is very economical to make.
Mona Hamadeh has been cooking
Lebanese food for friends and family for over 50 years and this book is a
response to being constantly asked to share her recipes. This book includes a wide variety of dishes
from Lebanese cuisine, including the well known and delicious hummus, baba
ghanouj and tabouleh as well as many other maza (starters), chicken and fish
main dishes and of course the scrummy middle eastern pastries. Find out more and order it
here
And here's an amusing introduction to this year's Junior Apprentice candidates!
That’s all for now
folks, more next week!
Bob Servant is legend.
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