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 of you
lovely booksellers are up to – and re-tweet your news back to all of our
publishers, editors and sales people! Happy days!
Very sad indeed to hear about the death of Terry
Pratchett – he will be very much missed both in the book world and everywhere
else in the galaxy. Here are some of our favourite Terry Pratchett
quotes:
“Real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every
time.”
“I’d rather be a rising ape than a falling
angel.”
“Fantasy is an exercise bicycle for the mind. It
might not take you anywhere, but it tones up the muscles that
can.”
“It’s still magic even if you know how it’s
done.”
“I have no use for people who have learned the
limits of the possible.”
“So much universe and so little time.”
RIP Sir Terry
Pratchett.
Now, talking of rising
apes; The Independent has just given a cracking review to Nigel Farage: In His Own Words which you can read
in full here. Entitled “A fair picture of the man who may
yet have the last word” it calls the book “clever” and says that it
“offers good insights into why Farage is so effective at what he does”.
You will remember that Nigel Farage: In His Own
Words by Andrew Liddle (pb,
978 1849548175) is a collection of the dazzling array of politically incorrect,
tell-it-like-it-is bon mots and public utterances of Nigel Farage, all collected together in one £6.99
paperback from Biteback. As the
Independent remarked, it is a “surprisingly effective way of
distilling the essential person”, and is often laugh-out-loud funny offering
a tonic to those who are sick to death of the usual round of sound bite
politicians. Like him or loathe him, Farage has reinvigorated political debate
in Britain in recent years and his
growing popularity is sure to be reflected among book buyers. You can order it and find out more here.
And while we’re talking politics; My Political Race: An Outsider’s Journey to the Heart of
British Politics by Parmjit
Dhanda (hb, 978 1849548069 £16.99) was serialised last weekend in the
Sunday Times. This is an extraordinary and unique biography that reveals
how Britain Gloucester new
Britain
The vogue for all things vintage and retro shows absolutely no sign of going away – and Pinterest and Instagram are still awash with suggestions as to how to achieve the look.
Don’t forget about Vintage Secrets: Hollywood Diet and Fitness by
Laura Slater (978 0859655026, hb, £14.99)
and Vintage Secrets: Hollywood Beauty
(978 0859655088) both of which were published at the end of last year
by Plexus; and also Vintage Fashion: Classic
20th Century Styles and Designs (978 1848589773) available from
Arcturus.
The Vintage Colouring
Book (pb, 9781784047634, £8.99) is a new title coming in April from
Arcturus, which contains a gorgeous selection of designs, ranging from
Victoriana to Art Deco and Op Art, all ready for you to colour in.
Arcturus tell
us that by taking part in this gentle activity, you will de-stress your mind and
body, using colouring as a relaxation technique, calming the mind and occupying
the hands. Whether or not you buy into this theory, the fact is that these
colouring books for adults are currently extremely popular – this one contains
over 120 images and will certainly bring out the artistic and creative side of
your customers!
Oh my goodness, Joanna Trollope has certainly
put the cat among the pigeons with her remark that you will be a better author
after the age of 35, because you have seen a bit more of life. Loads of media
commentators have weighed in to agree – or (more often) totally disagree, with
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein seeming to be the most often quoted
example of a work of towering genius produced by a bright young slip of a thing.
Here is another list of 12 extremely good authors who
managed to produces brilliant work while they were still (almost) in their
cradles!
Plenty of publicity to look out for on the biography
of Nicola Sturgeon by David Torrance (978 1780272962, pb, £8.99) which
has just been published by Birlinn. There will be a big serial of it in
the Sunday Post this weekend and the one after as well; and it will also
be also featured in The List, the Financial Times and the
Scottish Review. You can order Nicola
Sturgeon: A Biography and find out more here.
I think you will all enjoy these – Tom Gauld’s cartoons from the Guardian
Review– many of which have a bookish theme!
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Lots of us in the Compass office are reading
The Last Pier (which is out next month)
at present, and thoroughly enjoying it. Its author Roma Tearne has been previously shortlisted for
the Costa Book Awards, and the
Orange Prize and this is beautiful
literary fiction, perfect for book clubs. The book begins in the summer of 1939
when Cecily Maudsley is only thirteen years-old and desperate to grow up;
desperate to be as beautiful and desired and reckless as her older sister Rose.
Returning to the deserted family farm as an adult, Cecily recalls the light
before the storm, before the war came and before a terrible family tragedy. It
was a summer of laughter promises and first love. She remembers her father’s
unrequited love for her, her melancholy mother and her brittle and argumentative
aunt Kitty, and how everyone, somehow, was guarding a secret. None more so than
the impossibly beautiful Rose… The Last
Pier is a highly atmospheric novel about family, love, loss and
regret and you can watch an evocative trailer for the Last Pier here on YouTube, which gives you a
good feel for the book. The Last Pier by
Roma Tearne (pb, £8.99, 9781843915645) is
published in April by Hesperus and you can order it and find out more here
As highly skilled booksellers, would you say that
you “curate” the contents of your bookshop – i.e. select only those titles which
you feel truly deserve to be there? “Curate’” has certainly become a bit of a
buzzword, applied to everything from music festivals to artisanal cheese.
Businesses are now adopting curation as a means of adding value to content, and
everyone, it seems, is now a curator. But what is a curator, exactly? And what
does the explosive popularity of curating say about our culture’s relationship
with taste, labour and the avant-garde? In Curationism: How Curating Took Over the Art World and
Everything Else, David Balzer travels through art history and
around the globe to explore the cult of curation, where it began, how it came to
dominate museums and galleries, and how it emerged at the turn of the millennium
as a dominant mode of thinking and being. This is a vibrant and original book
which makes the connection between what's happening with curators in the art
world and what's happening in popular culture. It is a fascinating study that
will appeal to art critics, scholars and historians as well general readers.
There will be a big press campaign for this title: David Balzer will be writing a big piece on it in
the Guardian Review and we’re also expecting reviews in the Sunday
Times, New Statesman, London Review of Books,
Economist, Literary Review and the Spectator. David
Balzer will also be in the UK (he is Canadian) for publication, doing
a series of events, as well as interviews with BBC Radio 4, BBC World
Service, Monocle 24 and VICE UK. Curationism: How Curating Took Over the Art World and
Everything Else by David
Balzer (978 0745335971, 8.99, pb) is published by Pluto Press
in April. You can find out more and order it here
Queen of the Desert; a
biographical drama film written and directed by Werner Herzog based on
the life of British traveller, writer, and explorer, Gertrude Bell has juts been released in the UK.
You can watch a short fan trailer here. The film stars Nicole Kidman, James Franco,
Damian Lewis and Robert Pattinson, and the Times has just given an
excellent review to the Hesperus paperback Tales from Queen of the Desert by Gertrude Bell (on which the film is based) calling
it “a classic read” and saying “hear her stories from her own pen
before you see it.”
The weather is definitely improving every day –
hurrah! And what is the fastest growing holiday sector in the
UK Scotland Teifi Valley
Over
250,000 Cool Camping guides have been
sold in the UK and this is
Britain Europe (pb, 978 1906889647, £18.95) is a fully
revised second edition. The original 2009 edition was the best-selling camping
guide to Europe and since the book has been out
of print, has been selling on Amazon for up to £100! As with the original book,
the new edition will feature a selection of the best campsites and glamping
sites in Europe , as chosen by the Cool Camping
team. Covering over a hundred outstanding European campsites spread across
twelve countries, this bumper guide explores a stunning range of camping grounds
from the tip of Portugal ’s
Algarve to the shady forests
of Slovenia
And to finish, here
are some of the week’s best Tweets – remember you can see them all first hand by
following us @CompassIPS or click here if you are a Twitter
virgin!
As overheard
on the streets of Wimborne "It's good this year isn't it, Mother's Day falls on
a Sunday"
"Good laugh
and a novel way of experimenting with language" Thanks @SocialShelves for great @glitzch review.
Thrilled that
Blackwell's will run a compact & bijou promotion for Berkoff's Sod the
Bitches! in 4 key locations.
Email from
author: 'Baking and swearing are two of my favourite things in the whole world.
That’s why we’re signing with Aardvark.'
Spotted - in
the fab Review, #Peckham.
Emmeline Pankhurst's original, inspiring, autobiography. #feminism
#wimmin
150 copies
later & we've actually sold out of Peculiar Life of a Lonely Postman, fear
not Bilodo will be back in on Monday
Just found out
Cilla and Rolf Borjlind have a new book coming out. Their last was stunning http://www.crimefictionlover.com/2014/04/spring-tide/ …
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 please click here to go to the Compass New Titles
Website or talk to your Compass Sales
representative.
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