Compass Points 290

Well, they don’t come much more famous than one Donald J Trump, and yesterday he took it upon himself to kindly recommend a Biteback book, tweeting: “A great new book just out, Game of Thorns by Doug Wead, Presidential Historian and bestselling author. The book covers the campaign of 2016, and what could be more exciting than that?” Indeed Donald, we quite agree and so far, this has attracted 69,000 likes and 14,000 retweets, so I think that qualifies for promotion of the week! Game of Thorns (pb, £12.99, 978 1785902260) is not “just out” – it’s two years old, however it certainly is a bestseller, and it is available now so please do order it! However, The Donald should know better than to ask a rhetorical question of his followers; here are some of the Twitter answers: “Your resignation and subsequent incarceration” “Nancy Pelosi serving your ass on a golden platter was quite entertaining” “More exciting than that: dial-up internet, canned green beans, medically-induced coma, cardigan week on the Home Shopping Network” and “Why do you promote so many books when neither you nor your followers read?”

Congratulations to Legend Press Founder and MD Tom Chalmers who last night was announced as the winner of the Global Outstanding Young Persons Award at the Big Ben Awards, which took place at the House of Parliament in London. The awards were founded in 2008 and each year celebrate those who have globally inspired young people through their achievements, with a particular focus on creative entrepreneurs who has forged strong international business and reach. Tom commented: “It is a real honour to receive this fantastic award among so many exceptional and talented candidates.” Well done Tom!

There’s plenty of magazine coverage coming up for the fabulous My Bangladesh Kitchen: Recipes and Food Memories from a Family Table (£20, hb, 978 0754834502) by Saira Hamilton. There will be features in Olive, Food and Travel, IndyEats, Vegan Living and Living North and most excitingly, the book is being extracted in the Times Weekend on Saturday 2nd Feb. Saira is available for bookshop events – her infectious enthusiasm for getting big flavours into your home cooking really sells the book! She was on the Three Counties Radio a couple of weeks ago and her event at the Bishops Stortford Literary Festival late Feb is now totally sold out. She's doing a cookery day at Baythorne Hall, Halstead, Essex, and is appearing at the Chipping Norton ChipList Festival in April. If any bookshops would like to host an event please email Joanna at Lorenz on jlorenz@anness.com

Lots of publicity coming up for Executive Presentations: Develop Presence to Speak with Confidence and Skill (978 1788600163, £15.99, pb) by Jacqui Harper which is just out from Practical Inspiration and is shortlisted for the 2019 Business Book Awards. Jacqui is an international expert in leadership presence and personal branding, and a former BBC News anchor. This book equips executives to give compelling and clear presentations and Jacqui’s rich blend of tools, tips and expert advice will help anyone become a consistently outstanding communicator. There are reviews in HR magazine, The CEO magazine, Financial Management, and #Biz Rocks. Here's a great little video from Jacqui answering three key questions in five minutes: 1) How do I handle nerves? 2) What can you do to increase impact? and 3) What’s the best way to begin a presentation?

We love a bookshop blackboard telling us all about the cool events coming up! But have a look here for some handwritten signage that has gone seriously wrong – I’m sure no booksellers would make such a hash – but these really made me chuckle!

Flying from an aircraft carrier in the Second World War was the most dangerous of pursuits. Even without the threat of enemy action, the likelihood of being killed or maimed was great and when faced with a determined foe, the chances of survival diminished even more quickly. It wasn’t a life for the faint-hearted or the unskilled; naval aviators were the best of the best. Tim Hillier-Graves is a retired Royal Navy officer and his new book Heaven High, Ocean Deep (£19.99, hb, 978 1612007557) will be published by Casemate on 14 February. A fascinating article about the book has just appeared on Dan Snow’s History Hit, which has been extremely popular, and much shared.

When three women set off on a hike through the wilderness, they are anticipating the adventure of a lifetime. Over the next five days, as they face up to the challenging terrain, it soon becomes clear they are not alone… The Geography of Friendship (£8.99, pb, 978-1789550184) which is out on 1 February from Legend has been a huge hit in Australia and I think is set to do the same here. It was a Women’s Weekly Book Cub Great Read who said “There’s a little bit of Big Little Lies about this deft and powerful study of female friendships under pressure… this lyrical author has a style and tone all of her own which sucks you in and holds you in its seductive embrace, almost unable to breathe… a page-turner… a book dripping in the raw beauty of the Australian landscape.” Sally Piper is about to embark on a month-long blog tour with 22 bloggers, and you can see all the details above. There will also be a review in WI Life (220k subscribers), a piece in the March issue of Writers Forum, and a lot of promo on social media.

Great to see Sudanese author Rania Mamoun's debut collection Thirteen Months of Sunrise (translated by. Lissie Jaquette, £9.99, pb, 978 1910974391) included in The Mancunions round-up of the Most Anticipated Books of 2019 which you can read here. This is the first major translated collection from Arabic by a Sudanese woman writer and expertly blends the real and imagined to create an intimate portrait of life in Sudan today. From brief encounters to unusual friendships, this startling and evocative debut illuminates human experience and explores the alienation, isolation and estrangement of urban life.

I think most of us were highly amused by this story about the ancient stone circle that wasn’t actually old at all! A “recumbent stone circle” in the parish of Leochel-Cushnie, Aberdeenshire, had been celebrated by Historic Environment Scotland as an authentic discovery until the former owner of the land told them he’d actually built it himself in the mid-1990s! Never mind Historic Environment Scotland, we know you can’t get it right all of the time – and it gives me a chance to re-promote your lovely title Scotland from the Sky (£25, hb, 978 1849172523). This beautiful book draws on the vast collection of aerial photography held in their archives of and tells a remarkable story of a nation from above, taking readers back in time to show how our cities and landscapes have dramatically altered with the ebb and flow of history, and how aerial imagery can reveal (genuine!) treasures from the ancient past. It’s coming in paperback (£14.99, 978 1849177375) in August.

The promotion for Cool Places: Britain's Coolest Places to Stay, Eat, Drink... and More (978 1906889692, hb, £18.99) is about to begin in earnest – it’s due to be featured in the Times on Feb 2 and the Observer on Feb 10. This lavish full-colour guide to more than 200 of the very best places to stay in the UK is based on recommendations from the Cool Places website and has everything from boutique hotels and designer B&Bs to chic country cottages and luxury glampsites. Compiled by Cool Places and Rough Guides founder Martin Dunford and UK travel specialist Jules Brown, each featured place has an incisive first-hand review and all the information you need, uniquely including all the best stuff to do nearby: local pubs, great walks, fun activities, and features on the local entrepreneurs who run their own ‘cool places’ with such passion.

A novel banned by the Nazis in the 1930s for its homoerotic content is to appear in English for the first time next month. At the Edge of the Night (£9.99, pb, 978 1843916543) by Friedo Lampe, was first published in 1933. Poignant and haunting, it is seen today as an early work of magical realism but was seized by the Nazis who objected to the novel’s inclusion of homoerotic content, and its depiction of an interracial liaison between a black man and a German woman. The book was placed on their list of “damaging and undesirable writings”. You can read more about this in the Guardian here . Lampe has enjoyed a growing reputation in Germany, and the novel drew praise from Hermann Hesse, who said that “what struck us at the time as so beautiful and powerful has not paled, it has withstood; it proves itself with the best, and captivates and delights just as then”. Publisher Hesperus said the novel embodied its ambition to recover overlooked gems, and its translator Simon Beattie commented “He’s a very interesting author: a disabled, gay writer during the Third Reich who somehow survived, only to be shot by a Red Army patrol days before the end of the war.”

There’s a super interview with De Coubertin publisher Megan Pollard in Strong Words – a new print and online magazine all about books – which is doing very well and is now on sale in WH Smith, so this is great publicity for one of our favourite sports publishers! Megan talks about lots of interesting things: “we try and do books that other people wouldn’t give a chance to.” “Everyone knows the bog-standard autobiography … but it is all those little extra things that you probably didn’t know about them or that you haven’t experienced yourself that adds that bit extra to an autobiography.” “Sometimes though, people who aren’t liked also potentially make a good book, because people like to read about people they don’t like. I know it’s not sport, but just look at Donald Trump. Everything written about him is devoured because people are so interested in why no one likes him.” “The ones that interest me the most are not the usual, stereotypical stories.” If you have a copy of Strong Words magazine in your bookshop then do have a read, it’s really interesting and there’s lots of great promo for De Coubertin’s top titles!

A big Pierre Bonnard exhibition The Colour of Memory opened at the Tate in London this week, which has attracted lots of publicity and is going to be massively popular – it is the first major exhibition of Bonnard’s work in the UK since the much-loved show at Tate 20 years ago and runs until 6 May. With perfect timing, Carcanet have just relaunched Gabriel Josipovici’s Contre-Jour: A Triptych After Pierre Bonnard (pb, £12.99, 978 1857544107) with a new cover. This acclaimed novel based on the life of the French painter is told in three parts from the perspectives of Bonnard’s wife, daughter, and the painter himself. It was reviewed this week in the Jewish Chronicle who said “Short, devastating…a brilliant study of the artist’s life. Contre-Jour is Josipovici at his very best and the timing of this reissue is perfect. It offers the chancre to read this astonishing account of art and obsession along with going to the exhibition at the Tate Modern.” 

And if you’d like to spend a highly relaxing five minutes spent gazing of some of Bonnard’s most gorgeous work – then you can do that here!

That’s all for now 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@compass-ips.london

Compass Points 289

Congratulations to Carcanet, Fairlight and New Island, who all have titles on the thirteen-book longlist for the Republic of Consciousness Prize for Small Presses. This is the prize for literary publishers (five employees or less) backed by the TLS and Arts Council England. You can find out lots more on the TLS website here,  but they champion genuinely small publishers – which of course we at Compass do too – so hurrah! They point out that despite small press publishing apparently now being “a thing”; this year’s Man Booker Prize didn’t longlist a single one and also that “the British Books Awards Best Small Press Category means a company with less than a million pounds a year in revenue, but by contrast, we at the Republic of Consciousness go for fewer than five full-time employees, and aim for the less number-based criteria of hard-core literary fiction, and gorgeous prose.” The titles are The Cemetery In Barnes (£9.99, pb, 978-1784105464 ) by Gabriel Josipovici: “a beautifully patterned work, both playful and serious, which reminds us that he is one of our great writers”; Bottled Goods (£7.99, pb, 978 1912054305 ) by Sophie van Llewyn: “If you’re looking for intrigue, psychological depth and the darkly comic in a book that can be read in one hour, this is for you” and Follow Me to Ground (£9.99, pb, 978 1848406889 ) by Sue Rainsford: “It achieves something quite uncanny: believability. This book is deeply evocative of what it might be like to find true healing in nature, if not in ourselves.” The announcement of the 2019 shortlist will be on 2 March.

Did you know that drawing for just 30 minutes lowers your stress levels? By engaging more of your brain, it can help you focus better. Lots of great tips like this are in Draw a Better Business by Cara Holland (£14.99, pb, 978 1910056639) which has a great triple page spread in the current issue of DIVA magazine, the leading monthly glossy for lesbians and bi women in the UK and Europe spotlighting all that is fresh, funny, exciting, controversial and cutting-edge. Great publicity for this title which is an illustrated practical guide for freelancers and business people who want to tap into their innate creativity and learn to use visual skills and techniques to gain the business benefits. Cara has worked with companies such as TimeWarner, Google and the NHS and has a lot to say about the benefits of working visually! It’s published by Practical Inspiration.

Friday Quiz anyone? Can Buzzfeed guess your star sign based on which books you like?

The mega-publicity started yesterday for the Stuart Barnes memoir, Sketches from Memory (£16.99, hb, 978 1909715714), with a special edition of the Times’ Ruck podcast (regularly topping the sports podcast charts), discussing the book with Stephen Jones, released yesterday. There are confirmed extracts in the Times in the week of the England v France game (w/c 4th Feb) followed by confirmed and rather brilliant reviews in the Times, the Guardian, the Sunday Times and Rugby World. Stuart Barnes has been the face and voice of rugby union on Sky Sports since 1994 and he will be on TV screens throughout the Six Nations tournament and there are events, social media competitions and a full-page ad for this title in the Official Guide to the Six Nations magazine, so it will be hard to miss! Tom English on BBC Sport called it “A blast. Barnes is one of rugby’s original thinkers. He looks at the game like few others” while the Guardian said “there is something for everyone in these honest, trenchant, revealing and occasionally poetic pages… vintage Barnes”. Stuart will be at Hodges Figgis in Dublin on 31st January and at Toppings, Bath on 19th March 2019. It’s published by Arena Sport.

A fascinating article here  in the Guardian this week entitled “Growing Pains: How the Climate Crisis is Changing British Gardens”. It chimes perfectly with the Lorenz title Gardening in a Changing Climate (£14.99, hb, 978 1903141625) which is a truly inspirational book looks looking at the garden styles of nine individual regions which have always dealt superbly with heat, drought and water shortages. Each one represents a gardening specialism: the Italian Garden, the Islamic Garden, the Patio Garden, the Mediterranean Garden, the Gravel Garden, the Desert Garden, the Bush Garden, the Flower Desert and the Jungle Garden and each chapter explains the essence of the style and includes a practical tutorial, a colour planting plan and a step-by-step project. The beautiful gardens photographed range from world-famous locations such as the Tresco garden in the Isle of Scilly to the patio gardens of Cordoba, Spain, the desert gardens of Arizona, the Hamilton Gardens in New Zealand and the Beth Chatto gravel garden in the UK.

We were pleased to see Critical Publishing, Practical Inspiration, Crown House and Kogan Page all with shortlisted titles in the 2019 Business Book Awards. Corporate Emotional Intelligence: Being Human in a Corporate World (pb, £29.99, 978 1912508044) by Gareth Chick is up for the Embracing Change category and Executive Presentations: Develop Presence to Speak with Confidence and Skill (£15.99, pb, 978 1788600163) by Jacqui Harper is shortlisted in the Self-Development category. The Learning Imperative (pb, £13.99, 978 1785832697) by Mark Burns and Andy Griffith is shortlisted in the in HR & Management list and Kogan Page have SEVEN titles shortlisted (The Post Truth Business (in the Embracing Change category), The Leadership Lab and Get Social (in Leadership), Working in the Gig Economy (in Start-Up Inspiration), 100 Practical Ways to Improve Customer Experience (in Sales and Marketing), and Accelerated Leadership Development and Data-Driven HR (in HR & Management)) and are nominated in almost every category – very well done guys! You can see all the books and find out more at www.businessbookawards.co.uk. The awards will be announced on March 26th.

I

t’s a US website, so not all the titles are as well known here, but I very much enjoyed this – the Strange But True Stories Behind Your Favourite Childhood Books! It includes such gems as the fact that Charlie, from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, was actually supposed to be black. According to Roald Dahl’s wife, he changed Charlie’s race because his agent convinced him that a black protagonist might not appeal to potential buyers. And did you know that Beatrix Potter was obsessed with mushrooms? Nope, me neither!

Caught Beneath The Landslide: Manchester City in the 1990s (hb, £18.99, 978 1909245808) had a brilliant review recently in When Saturday Comes saying “The author displays impressive levels of research throughout with many anecdotes, including private conversations and phone calls, quoted verbatim rather than paraphrased, displaying an admirable trust in both the credibility and recall of his sources. It adds to the integrity of a fascinating and insightful book that ought to be enjoyed far beyond Manchester City’s fanbase.” You can read that here. It’s published by De Coubertin

We’re pleased to hear that A Handbook of Food Crime (£85, hb, 978 1447336013) by Allison Gray and Ronald Hinch, has been chosen as a Choice Outstanding Academic Title. The books have been selected for the significance of their contribution to the field and their value as an important – often the first – treatment of their subject, and you can find out more about the award here. A Handbook of Food Crime talks about immoral and illegal practices in the food industry and what to do about them. As the authors say: “Big problems require big solutions, and there is a role for everyone.” Through discussions of food safety, food fraud, food insecurity, agricultural labour, livestock welfare, genetically modified foods, food sustainability, food waste, food policy, and food democracy, they argue for the importance of thinking criminologically about food and propose radical solutions You can read more on what food crime is and why it can't be ignored in this blog piece by Allison. It’s published by Policy Press.

I know I often use the phrase “rave review” but this one in the Guardian for Glen James Brown’s stunning debut novel Ironopolis (pb, £9.99, 978 1912681099) really is! “this unflinching depiction of an estate’s glory days and its eventual decline is nothing short of a triumph… wry, multilayered … hugely ambitious… a fascinating, absorbing world…” you can read the whole piece here.  High praise and richly deserved for this Parthian title which came out in paperback in November – all who have read it in the Compass office have absolutely loved it too!

Things fall apart when empires crumble. This time, we think, things will be different. They are not. This time, we are told, we will become great again. We will not. In Rule Britannia (£12.99, hb, 978 1785904530), which was published this week by Biteback, Danny Dorling and Sally Tomlinson argue that the vote to leave the EU was the last gasp of the old empire working its way out of the British psyche. Fuelled by a misplaced nostalgia, the result was driven by a lack of knowledge of Britain’s imperial history, by a profound anxiety about Britain's status today, and by a deeply unrealistic vision of our future. And yet, there is hope. In this wide-ranging and thoughtful analysis, Dorling and Tomlinson argue that if Britain can reconcile itself to a new beginning, there is the chance to carve out a new identity. Rule Britannia is a call to leave behind the jingoistic ignorance of the past and build a fairer Britain, eradicating the inequality that blights our society and embracing our true strengths.

And in these days of political splits and rifts, these maps made me laugh as they point out some of the more basic divisions that exists in our nation!

That’s all for now 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@compass-ips.london

Compass Points 288

Happy New Year booksellers! I hope you all had an excellent Christmas! Here you see some of our staff at our Christmas party – I hope all of your festivities were as merry! 

First up is this article from the Guardian on readers’ favourite bookshops around the UK – and why they want their “ashes scattered in the fiction section”. Lots of our faves are here too – nice one!

For such a beautiful industry, there is a lot of ugly behind the scenes in modelling, and with the aspirational nature of this world comes exploitation. The Model Manifesto (£14.99, pb, 978 1788600651) from Practical Inspiration empowers and educates models to take control of their lives into their own hands and educates the public on the reality of what's involved. Leanne Maskell has drawn on her 13 years of experience working as an international model together with her legal background to create this easy-to-understand, A-Z guide in order to end exploitation of vulnerable models. With contributions from top industry experts, The Model Manifesto includes solid advice on everything from mental health issues to paying tax. It covers every aspect of the modelling industry in detail to give an honest and realistic insider view, covering both the highs and the lows. It has a foreword by Carole White of Premier Models and there is a big six-week PR campaign for this one, it’s published in May during London Fashion Week, so is certain to attract attention. There are confirmed features in Vogue, Elle, In Style, Glamour, Cosmopolitan and Grazia and for parents of child models, or those considering entering modelling from a young age, features in Junior, Smallish, Absolutely Mumma and Angels & Urchins and there will be lots more publicity for this one I’m sure.

I love the bold new branding for Carcanet Press as they enter their 50th year of publishing– check it out at their website: www.carcanet.co.uk! They have also been featured in BookBrunch and The Bookseller today!

It’s definitely the weather for a warming bowl of something spicy – and ramen (an enticing combination of noodles, broth and topping) is loved for its wonderful depths of umami flavour. Ramen: 50 Classic Ramen and Asian Noodle Soups by Heather Whinney (£10, hb, 978 0754834366) which has just been published by Lorenz shows how to make classic ramen dishes as well as irresistible twists and variations. Quick, sustaining and delicious, ramen is low-fat and healthy, and this book has traditional recipes as well as all kinds of tempting new ideas, clear instructions for making your own base stocks and gorgeous pictures by William Shaw. Every recipe also has a nutritional breakdown. There’s been some syndicated reviews for this one – meaning that local newspapers from Hull to Hertfordshire have carried a picture and feature.

Andy Grant will be on Sky Sports Soccer Saturday in the coming weeks, with Jamie Carragher talking about You’ll Never Walk (hb, £15.99, 978 1909245709). As reviewers have said: this is “shocking and graphic in parts, gut-wrenching and heartbreaking in others, but through all of the adversity is a true story of courage, grit, determination and never giving up. It's filled with humour, honesty and and is heart-warming in its entirety. You can't fail to be moved by the life of this incredibly brave young soldier.” It’s published by De Coubertin.

Here's the Guardian’s take on “2019 in books: what you'll be reading this year” and we’re pleased to see a great bit of publicity for Jane Yeh’s forthcoming Discipline (£9.99, pb, 978-1784107079) which is coming from Carcanet in March, the feature calls it “Haunting and hilarious: explorations of identity and performance prompted by videos and paintings, animals and street life”. Also pleased to see a plug for Border Districts (£8.99, pb, 978 1911508380) by Gerard Murnane which is out from And Other Stories this month. This is the first UK publication for the cult Australian author who, at nearly 80, is gaining international recognition; his 1974 debut Tamarisk Row (£10, pb, 978 1911508366) follows in February.

Half boat, half aeroplane; the flying boat was the journey of a lifetime. Imperial Airways legendary Empire boats flew up the Nile in nightly hops alighting on lakes and in harbours all the way down to South Africa. But in 1939 the Corsair came down in fog on a tiny river in the Belgian Congo and, through an epic salvage operation, gave its name to a new village in an obscure backwater. The Flying Boat that Fell to Earth: A Lost World of Air Travel and Africa (£9.99, pb, 978 0993291166) by Graham Coster tells the story of this amazing adventure, and seeks out, from Alaska to the Bahamas, the very last places on earth where it was still possible to catch a flying boat. This is published by Safe Haven this week and a promotion will be appearing in the Telegraph on the 21st and 25th January.

Got the January blues? Have a look at these these  – that should cheer you up!

The Bookseller announced this week that “Comma scoops Constantine's fifth short story collection” – you can read that piece here. The Dressing-Up Box, Constantine’s fifth collection, will bring together all of the author's new stories written since Tea at the Midland, winner of the 2013 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, the title story of which also won the 2010 BBC National Short Story Award. Oscar-nominated David Constantine is regarded as one of the UK's leading short fiction writers, and on signing the deal, commented: “Comma Press is the place to be. No editor has done more for the short story – and so for contemporary literature altogether – than Ra Page.”

There was a full page spread in the T2 section of the Times this Monday for Katri Skala headlined “Me, My Mother and Her Anger.” Katri writes “The title of my recent novel A Perfect Mother is an ironic riff on the traditional notion of the perfect nuclear family... I wrote against the idea of perfection and certainty. I wrote to embrace complexity and difficulty.” Her book (978 0995647848, £15, hb) came out from Hikari last year and is a bracing, hypnotic story of mid-life crisis about the complexities of love, relationship and legacy

What a Hazard a Letter Is (hb, £14.99, 978 0993291173) from Safe Haven has continued its run of terrific publicity with an excellent review in the Spectator calling it a “sparkling collection” and “a great idea for a book”, that’s here  and a handsome four-page feature by the author about letter-writing in Country Living. It also features in the latest QI podcast, www.nosuchthingasafish.com (it starts at about 21 minutes 40) which has 700,000 subscribers!

Angela Readman's short stories have won many awards including The Costa Short Story Award which she has been shortlisted twice for. Next week And Other Stories publish her debut novel Something Like Breathing (pb, £12.99, 978 1911508304). There are reviews confirmed in the Guardian Review, the Daily Telegraph, and the Sunday Express, plus an author “20 Questions with the TLS” next week. Set on a remote Scottish island in the 1950’s. friendship blossoms between the enigmatic Lorrie, and the shy Sylvie, a whisky distiller’s granddaughter. As the adults around them struggle to keep their lives on an even keel, the two young women are drawn into a series of events that leave the small town wondering who exactly Sylvie is and what strange gift she is hiding. Readman’s feel for emotional nuance and flair for mixing strangeness with poignant detail make this long-awaited debut novel one to savour.

The Black Prince and the Capture of a King: Poitiers 1356 (£25, hb, 978 1612004518) by Morgen Witzel and Marilyn Livingston is featured in the Feb issue of Military History Monthly. The capture of a king in the course of a battle was a relatively rare event and this, the climactic event of the Black Prince's first campaign as commander, came at the end of nearly a year of campaigning across the southwest of France. The battle of Poitiers in 1356 is less well known than more famous clashes such as Agincourt, however, it was no less dramatic, and equally important in terms of the course of the Hundred Years War. The detailed account and analysis of the battle and the campaigns that led up to it has a strong focus on the people involved in the campaign: ordinary men-at-arms and non-combatants as well as princes and nobles. It’s published by Casemate in May.

Top Ten Kings  in history anyone?

“2019 is set to be a fascinating year for women in translation: Kamila Shamsie suggested that, more than the Year of Publishing Women itself, the real question is what will happen in 2019?” So begins a really interesting Women in Translation blog piece which you can read here. Good to see a mention for Comma’s The Sea Cloak (£9.99, pb, 978 1905583782) as well as titles by And Other Stories and Parthian.

A good little push for The Grand Tour Cook Book (£40, 9788799816903, hb) in the February issue of Bikes Etc. This modern classic is the ultimate performance cookbook and a must-have for all cycling aficionados serious about nutritional intake. Translated from the original in Danish, Hannah Grant’s unmissable cookbook takes you through 350-pages of easy-to-prepare recipes containing allergy friendly, natural foods. The Grand Tour Cookbook is the ultimate companion in the kitchen for athletes and is based on actual food prepared for professional cycling’s gruelling three-week Grand Tours including the Giro d'Italia, Tour de France and the Vuelta. It’s published by Musette/Casemate.

That’s all for now 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@compass-ips.london