Surprisingly,
given how important it is to daily life and the fate of governments, food
hardly featured in discussions about Brexit before or immediately after the
vote. That was one of Charlie Clutterbuck’s reasons for writing Bittersweet Brexit:
The Future of Food, Farming, Land and Labour
(978 0745337708, pb, £19.99) as he wanted to stimulate debate about “the sort of food and farming we want for
our future.” Since then, “Food Brexit” has slowly made its way up the
agenda, and this thought provoking and important book is published by Pluto Press. You can read a really
interesting review of it here
in Europe Now which calls it “informed, compassionate and exuberant.”
All that lovely golden wheat on the cover of this book takes me back to a time when
food production was much less complicated. An era when all that was needed was a bit simple
scything!
Exciting news
from Comma, who are launching their very
own podcast! Series One is looking in more depth at their Protest: Stories of Resistance anthology (£12.99, pb, 978 1910974438) and the first episode
drops next Wednesday (20th February) to coincide with the 31st anniversary of
Manchester's Section 28 demo of 1988, when the community marched against the
legislation which prohibited local authorities to 'promote' homosexuality. The
episode will discuss author Juliet Jacques' story Never Going Underground from the anthology, which is set at the
time of the march, with Juliet herself, sociology lecturer Em Temple-Malt, and poet and playwright Louise Wallwein. It’s hosted by Comma's CEO Ra Page – I can’t
wait to listen, and I’ll give you the link next week!
How much of
your working week are you spending time on things you think you should be
doing, and doing them well? This is the question Michael Brown asks at the start of an intriguing article on Manager Magazine, which you can read here.
The answer, he says is “I kid you
not, a mere 40%. That means that most people reckon they spend three days per
week doing things they shouldn’t be doing or doing things they should be doing,
but doing them badly.” Michael’s book My Job Isn’t Working! (£14.99,
pb, 978 1788600224) summarises what he has learned from working with nearly
10,000 people around the world over 20 years as a business coach, and shares
ten proven ways of boosting career mojo. It’s published by Practical Inspiration.
A British author
has condemned Amazon for selling books that promote gay “cures”. Damian Barr told BuzzFeed News that the online bookseller is promoting hatred,
abuse, and self-harm by featuring guides for the “treatment” of homosexuality. There
are numerous examples of such books on Amazon that advocate so-called
reparative therapy, including A Parent’s
Guide to Preventing Homosexuality and How
a Gay Boy Became a Straight Man despite the fact that every mental health
organisation in Britain and the USA condemns such practises as dangerous,
harmful, and ineffective. Barr is not advocating that this book, or any such
book, should be banned, but believes strongly that the world’s biggest
bookseller should not bring it into the homes of its customers. You can read
the whole feature here.
We LOVE a
bookseller’s Staff Pick – so thanks very much to Foyles for these two! Firstly, for the duo from Australian master Gerald Murnane whose newly published titles Border Districts and Tamarisk Row have had such rave reviews here in the UK; the New Statesman saying that “Murnane’s books are expeditions that
encompass a territory unlike any other.” And also I spy the brilliant Crown House title Making Every Lesson Count (978
1845909734, hb, £20) which as Foyles says is “suitable for all teachers who want quick and easy ways to enhance
their practice.” There are now a whole series of books based on this
award-winning title, which you can find out more about on the Crown House website.
A good review
for Churchill’s
Abandoned Prisoners: The British Soldiers Deceived in the Russian Civil War (978 1612007533, hb, £20) by Rupert Wieloch in War History
Online which is out from Casemate
next month, calling it “a genuinely
interesting history that provides a useful entry point into the confusion of
the Russian Civil War. The futility of what they were trying to achieve in
Russia seems obvious a century on, but they were crazy times and the spirit of
the chaos is alive and well in this entertaining and quite intriguing read.”
You are no
doubt aware of Maggie Gee’s latest novel, Blood
which was published last week by Fentum Press and is receiving excellent
coverage. A good opportunity to remind you of the Maggie Gee backlist, which is all
available from Telegram, and
comprises My
Driver (978 1846590795), My Cleaner (978 1846590085),
The Blue (978 1846590139), The White Family (978 1846590436), Where are the Snows? (978 1846590016), My Animal Life (978 1846590900) and Virginia Woolf in Manhattan (978 1846591990) As the Observer commented, “Much of
the joy of reading Maggie Gee derives from her ability to take control of a
complex and multi-layered narrative and render it as accessible and satisfying
as a television soap. Her prose is rich and gossipy; it mixes the highbrow with
the vernacular, and is, at times, shockingly cynical.”
There’s a
really great interview here
with Fred
D’Aguiar on the Poetry London website, discussing his new book, Translations from
Memory (978 1784106065, pb, £12.99)
which has just been published by Carcanet.
Boix calls D’Aguiar
“one of the most important Guyanese
writers of the twentieth century.” This collection focuses on memory and
the cultural and racial differences the poet experienced growing up in Guyana
as a child and then in 70s Britain as a teenager.
Feminist Book Fortnight 2019 will run from Saturday 4th to Saturday
18th May. Over fifty bookshops took part in the first ever Feminist Book Fortnight last year, with independent bookshops around the
country highlighting the diversity of feminist books over the two weeks with
displays and lots of events. Participating shops reported lots of full houses
and a “thirst” for discussion of feminist issues as well as a celebration of
feminist achievements. If you are planning activities for your own bookshop
then you can find out loads more on the FBF website. See
below for a full list of the many brilliant feminist titles available from
Compass publishers. Pictured here are A Suffragette in America, a collection of Sylvia Pankhurst’s
writing on her visits to North America in 1911; Emily Wilding Davison: The Martyr Suffragette;
The Right Amount of Panic by
Fiona Vera-Gray
which is based on real-life accounts revealing the sheer volume of work undertaken
by millions of women and girls every day just to feel safe in public; and for children
aged 7+ there’s 101
Awesome Women Who Changed Our World which
is a fully illustrated guide to inspiring women from a wide range of
nationalities and fields spanning from science and arts to exploration and
activism.
It's a while since
we’ve ended with some music, so in anticipation of Feminist Book Fortnight, let’s
all sing along to this rousing
belter from Mary Poppins! All
together now… “though we adore men individually,
we agree that as a group they’re rather stupid…”
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
thanks for sharing information....
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