There’s been loads of publicity for the excellent
Five a Side Bible. GOALS – which is the
biggest 5-a-side soccer centre in Britain UK
If someone wanted to describe you in terms of a literary
character – I’m not sure Gollum would be the one you’d be most flattered
by! But would you be sufficiently insulted to send someone to jail over it? A
man may go to prison for two years for comparing Turkish president Recep Tayyip
Erdogan to the slimy, bulged-eyed backstabber from Lord of the Rings. But
is Gollum actually just a tragically misunderstood literary hero? Read the whole story here.
And why wouldn’t you want to be Gollum anyway? After
all – he’s won major awards – have a look here at his none too gracious acceptance of one from
MTV!
Limited edition coffee-table photographic books can
do very well at Christmas – and Odd &
Sods, by Paul Hallam (978
0955084096, pb, £25.00) will certainly have a market. It is a brilliant
collection of Paul Hallam’s photos of the
London
Here’s a rather nostalgic minute of
film on Youtube – showing some of those London Mods in action – from
1982.
A bit of a surprise seller for us this season has
been A Lion was Learning to Ski by
Ranjit Bolt (hb, 978 1783340828,:£9.99).
I don’t know why we’re surprised, perhaps all you savvy booksellers could have
told us there was a gap in the market for nonsensical animal poems. Waterstone’s especially are doing extremely
well with it – and if you haven’t already got it in stock I would suggest you
order it right now. Ranjit has done lots
to publicise it, which has clearly reaped benefits as it’s selling as fast as –
well, as a lion on skis. You can read three of the limericks from it in The Herald here – who chose them for their Poem of
the Day promotion. A Lion was Learning to
Ski is published by Gibson Square
According to the BBC; Old Soldiers Never Die is the greatest ever
account of trench warfare. Frank
Richards’ classic account of the war from the standpoint of the
regular soldier, and a moving tribute to the army that died on the Western Front
in 1914; Old Soldiers Never Die is
published in a new edition by Parthian. In this remarkable tale, Richards recounts life in the trenches as a member
of the famous Royal Welch Fusiliers, with all its death and camaraderie, in
graphic detail, vividly bringing to life the trials and tribulations faced by
the ordinary rank and file. Arguably the greatest of all memoirs of the Great
War, Old Soldiers Never Die (pb, 978
1910901199, £8.99) is published in January and you can order it here.
Lots of Biteback books featured in the
Independent’s Best Political Books of 2015 round up this week. Why the Tories
Won: the Inside Story of the 2015 Election (978 1849549479, £12.99,
pb) by Tim Ross was described as “A
meticulous and balanced account of the general election”.
Project Fear (978 1849549318, £12.99,pb) by
Joe Pike was praised as “A racy
eyewitness account of the pyrrhic victory that Better Together pulled off in the
Scottish Referendum.”
Following
Farage by Owen Bennett (978
1849548694, £12.99, pb) was described as “An even racier account of the rise
of UKIP … full of booze, treachery and human stupidity” – that certainly
sounds like the sort of political book I’d like to read!
And Lady Constance
Lytton by Lyndsey Jenkins (978
1849547956, hb, £20.00), another Biteback title had an outstanding review
in the Sunday Times last week: placed in their 2015 Best
Biographies feature. It said
“This superb book has been curiously overlooked … Jenkins writes of “Lady
Con” with humour and poignancy, making this a life to cherish.” The
Suffragette film should have given this title a boost – it is a really
good read, and an ideal Christmas gift for those interested in historical
biogs.
Talking of books that have been made into films,
what was your favourite of 2015? Remember all the fuss around Fifty Shades of
Grey when it came out in February? Well – wouldn’t it have been soooo much
better if it had actually starred Mr Bean? Not convinced? Have a watch here and I'm sure you will be!
Maybe you dream of giving up your job as a lowly,
underpaid bookseller, and becoming a fabulously wealthy author instead? Well,
not so fast my friend, not so fast. According to the Guardian; record
numbers of authors are actually struggling to make a living at all – and many
are applying for financial assistance to the Society of Authors. Have look at
the whole article here.
In 2002 47% of white Britons believed immigration
had damaged British society (a belief shared by 22 per cent of black and Asian
Britons) and 28 per cent believed it had benefited it. In 2012 only 11 per cent
of people believed that immigration in the past decade had been “a good thing
for Britain Britain Britain Britain Gibson
Square
How were Black Friday and its more up-market
neighbour Civilised Saturday for you? Profitable I hope – here’s how the sale
day might have looked if it had been narrated by David
Attenborough!
Points of Origin (pb, 978 1905583621, £9.99)published by Comma
Press is the first major English translation (by Brendan O’Kane) of
a collection of tartly sardonic short
stories from leading Chinese writer, journalist and satirist Diao Dou. It taps into current interest in the way
the Chinese government treats its artists and the debates surrounding censorship
laws and is sharp, witty and bitingly satirical. We were delighted to see that
Points of Origin made it on to the
Guardian annual round-up of the best books of 2015 – you can read the whole piece here.
Carcanet poet Christopher
Middleton died on Monday (30th November). Middleton had been publishing poetry since 1944
and was described by fellow poet Geoffrey Hill as "a major poet of our
times". Middleton's first collection with Carcanet, The Lonely Suppers of W.V. Balloon, was first
published in 1975 and for four decades Carcanet has been his main
publisher, issuing six collections of poems, one of experimental prose, two of
essays, a Selected Writings, a Selected Translations, and two
Collected Poems. You can read an obituary in the Independent here.
There have been lots of other publicity pieces
for Carcanet this week: The Skinny Literary Gift Guide called them
“one of the finest poetry presses around” and featured Waiting for the Past by Les Murray, Marrying
the Ugly Millionaire and Grevel
Lindop’s Luna Park: you can read that here. The Glasgow Herald chose
Muriel Spark’s Complete Poems: “a happy addition to an oeuvre
that never ceases to sparkle” as one of their Books of the Year and
the Guardian featured The Other Mountain
by Rowan Williams as their
Poem of the Week.
Got the new Adele album yet? Or are you a non-fan?
Either way, you’ll probably find this pretty funny – Adele’s Hello remixed
courtesy of the movies!
Compass is on
Twitter! Follow us @CompassIPS. Here are some of our favourite tweets from this
week...
Archie
is really chuffed with our new @Saltire_Society #SaltireLiterary Publisher of the Year award.
#officedog
Coverage of
Tea & Chemo appearing in the local press http://newarkadvertiser.co.uk/
…#CancerSurvivor
@indybooks chooses Fishnet by @kirstininnes as one of their Top Ten debuts of
the year! http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertain
Keep
your tweets coming! What would you text Grandpa this Xmas? Use #GrandpaGeorge for a chance to win a copy of
Georges Grand Tour on 8Dec
So
good to meet up with @JaneAitken27 & Emily Boyce @BelgraviaB. Talking about @AardvarkBureau plans for
2016…
What?
You'd like me to review all the big Xmas celebrity memoirs based on their Kindle
samples alone? Sure thing http://meandmybigmouth.typepad.com/scottpack/2015/
That’s all for now
folks! More next week!
This blog is taken from a newsletter 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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