Compass Points 15

Compass Points 15

Your weekly round up of publishing news, publicity information and trivia!

The nights are drawing in, and a bookseller’s thoughts must surely be turning to thoughts of their Halloween window display. Well here’s the perfect title coming in October from Carnegie Books. The Witch and her Soul by Christine Middleton is a gritty, sensual, moving and absorbing historical novel, published on the 400th anniversary of the infamous Lancashire Witch Trials of 1612. Find out more about it here.

And talking of all things witchy and wizardy – who’s looking forward to the new adult novel from JK Rowling, A Casual Vacancy, published on 27 September? Or maybe you’re one of those immune to the charms of this particular author? Whether or not you’re a fan, you’ll probably enjoy this – if you don’t get respect, put your wands in the air!

Publicity is building for the UK publication in October of The Gingerbread House by Carin Gerhardsen (Sweden’s number one fiction author). Bestselling author Peter James said recently “Gerhardsen writes so vividly, like she is painting with words, gripping your heart and soul in an ever-tightening tourniquet.” And there will be many more glowing reviews to come you can be sure of that! We had a terrific response when we offered to send you out the first chapter – this is now available online, so click here to go to the publisher's website to read it.

And click here to get all the details on the book

A couple of weeks ago we were talking about The Good Food Guide – which has had some amazing publicity! The PR team responsible for this have worked out that there have been 57 pieces of national news coverage for it, with a combined circulation of over 51 million people; and also 219 pieces of coverage in the regional press which had a combined circulation of over 7 million people! Wow! Let’s hope all of this publicity is leading to lots and lots of sales of the book for you! Now hot on its heels in October comes The Good Hotel Guide, which is generally agreed to be Britain’s leading hotel guidebook. As The Guardian said; it is “Number one of the guides that takes no freebies.” And the Daily Telegraph called it “One of the most reliable and independent guides”. Whatever must it be like to be in these hotels when someone arrives to check them out I wonder? Let’s just have a little look to remind ourselves of exactly how not to behave when The Hotel Inspectors come to call. Manuel – you are a waste of space.

Order The Good Hotel Guide here.

Goodness me, have exams got harder than they used to be? Or are they easier they used to be? And will the EBACC replacement for the GCSE make them easier or harder – I don’t know it’s all so confusing. And should kids be allowed to just keep retaking an exam until they pass it, or is that cheating? Look out for F in Retakes: Even More Test Paper Blunders published in October which could not be more topical. The previous title in this hilarious series from Summersdale: F in Exams has now sold over quarter of a million copies so don’t miss out on what is a bit of a sales phenomenon!  Here are some examples from the Science test papers of some of Britain’s brightest and best…

What is an artificial pesticide?

Someone who’s only pretending to be annoying really.

Earth is closer to the sun than Mars, and bigger. What are two other differences between the two planets?

1.    Colour 2. Aliens

Name four diseases related to diet.

Fatness, really fatness, when you’re so fat you can’t move, death.

And on that note… how is the post-holiday slim-down going? Not good? Well maybe you need The De-Stress Diet by Anna McGee and Charlotte Watts. This book uses the powerful and proven connection between stress and excess weight to your advantage; showing you how you can eat, relax and gently exercise your way to a better body for life. It is a unique book which can help you to lose up to 10 pounds in six weeks.  Look out this Sunday 23 September for a major three page feature in The Mail on Sunday’s You Magazine. The Mail on Sunday has a massive readership, so this feature will bring the book to the attention of millions of women – make sure it’s easy for them to find the book in your shop next week!

Order the De-stress Diet here!

In 2007 Sophie Lancaster, a 20-year-old ‘Goth’, was attacked and killed in a Lancashire park by a gang of feral youths. The incident shocked the nation and was given world-wide media coverage. Poet Simon Armitage wrote the long prose-poem Black Roses about the incident specifically for broadcast on BBC Radio 4, last March. "It was immediate," he says of the reaction. "People were phoning in to the BBC switchboard on the day, writing in, emailing, getting messages to me afterwards about how much they'd been affected by the whole thing. ”If there's ever a signifier of whether something on radio has caught people's attention, it's where people get in touch and say 'I was driving the car but I had to pull over', or 'I'd got to where I was going but I had to stay in the car until the programme came to the end'. "I can't tell you how many hundreds of people got in touch with me and told me that had happened."

Now the piece has been adapted for the stage which you can read all about on a BBC news page here and is also published as a book with the profits divided equally between author, publisher and the Sophie Lancaster Foundation. There will be a lot of interest in this as we are coming up to the fifth anniversary of Sophie's murder, and Simon Armitage is well-connected in both the broadcast and print media.

You can order the book and find out more about it here.

And lastly well done again to The Garden of Evening Mists and Tan Twan Eng – which is showing a staggering sales growth of 512% this week according to The Bookseller; all thanks to that Booker Prize nomination! It's available in trade paperback (£12.99) here.

This newsletter is sent weekly to over 400 booksellers. If you would like to order any of the titles mentioned, then please click here to go to the Compass New Titles Website.

That’s all for now folks, more next week!

Compass Points 14

Compass Points 14

Your weekly round up of publishing news, publicity information and trivia!

The Hundred Year Old Man who Climbed out of the Window and Disappeared continues to sell and sell! A contact at Waterstones Head Office this week described it as “One of those rare, magical titles which Waterstones sells by the bucketload for years.” And it’s not just selling in Waterstone’s – this heart-warming and hilarious tale is zooming up the bestseller lists everywhere!

Order even more Hundred Year Old Man here

Now – your little darlings may have gone back to school, but that doesn’t mean they’re not driving you bonkers every evening! What you need is The Manic Mum’s Guide to Calm Parenting and Co Operative Kids. If you’ve ever felt like you’re banging your head against a brick wall or wished sometimes that your children would take you more seriously and that you had the time and energy to be the mother that you want to be, then this definitely is the book for you.  It is packed full of jargon free, common sense techniques and tools and ideas that will turn you from manic to calm and in control in just seven weeks. The title is getting lots of publicity; Prima Magazine said “I’d definitely recommend this book to other stressed out mums.” and there have been lots of reviews in the parenting magazines; family pages of the national press and in the ever popular “opinionated mummies on their computers” social media!

Order the Manic Mum Guide here!

Further events this week leave us in no doubt that we are living through a time of great revolution and change in the Middle East. Joumana Haddad is an award winning poet, publisher and journalist, and her new book Superman is an Arab: On God, Marriage, Macho Men and Other Disastrous Inventions examines the patriarchal system that continues to dominate in the Arab world and beyond. Haddad’s earlier book, I Killed Scheherazade: Confessions of an Angry Arab Woman was critically acclaimed and translated into thirteen languages.  This book is not a manifesto against men in general. Nor is it a manifesto against Arab men in particular. It is, however, a howl in the face of a particular species of men: the macho species – Supermen, as they like to envision themselves. From monotheist religions and the concept of marriage to institutionalised machismo and widespread double standards; Haddad reflects upon the vital need for a new masculinity in these times of revolution and change in the Middle East. The Independent called her “The Germaine Greer of Lebanon” and the Guardian have just run a rave review which you can read here saying “The Lebanese writer knows her targets and tracks them with a steady glare….Haddad speaks out for those who cannot” You can watch a very interesting interview with Joanna here.  This title is going to get a lot more publicity – Joanna was on the BBC World Service week, and you can Order Superman is an Arab here.

Yet more amazing publicity this week for Education, Education, Education:  Reforming England’s Schools by Andrew Adonis. The Bookseller included it this week as one of the UK’s most reviewed books, and there was a superb piece in the Guardian yesterday which said “this is an exhilaratingly unapologetic, well-sourced, highly readable and generally persuasive account of why the late-20th century English schools system had to be reinvented, has largely been reinvented, but still needs to be reinvented further. Read it.” You can read the whole article here.

Order Education Education Education here

Now who can complete the following line: “My old man’s a dustman, he wears a dustman’s hat…”? If so, you’re obviously as ancient as I am – or maybe even older! If you haven’t got a clue then click here to hear the rest of the song!

Coming in October is The Lonnie Donegan Story by Patrick Humphries. This is the story of the man who arguably kick-started the British pop and rock scene and remains one of the most important and influential figures in British musical history. It is the first full-length biography of the skiffle king and godfather of British rock’n’roll and is sure to be very well reviewed.  The book contains numerous revelations about Lonnie’s extraordinary life and includes exclusive interviews with Mick Jagger, Mark Knopfler, Paul McCartney, Brian May, Tim Rice, Bruce Welch, Richard Thompson, Bill Wyman and the late George Melly and John Peel, plus many, many others. Here's some footage of Lonnie playing live - great stuff!

Order The Lonnie Donegan Story here

But despite all of these terrific books coming out – if things carry on the way there are, will there actually be anyone interested in reading them? The latest research shows that children are reading less than ever before – the figures show a scary gradual year-on-year drop in the number of eight- to 16-year-olds choosing to pick up books outside school. Data published by the National Literacy Trust shows that just three-in-10 now read every day in their own time compared with four-in-10 seven years ago. One in six children admitted they were too embarrassed to read in front of their friends for fear of being labelled a geek.  How can this possibly be – surely we all know that bookshops are the coolest places to be in the world and booksellers are the hippest cats in town? You can read the whole article here and have a look here to see what we could maybe do with all of those unread titles.

This newsletter is sent weekly to over 400 booksellers. If you would like to order any of the titles mentioned, then please click here to go to the Compass New Titles Website.

That’s all for now folks, more next week!

Compass Points Booker Special

Compass Points Special

Exciting Man Booker Prize News!

Hurrah, hooray and many many congratulations to Tan Twan Eng and Myrmidon Books. We are pleased to tell you that a book from one of the Compass publishers is on the 2012 Man Booker Prize shortlist, which was announced this morning. 

The Garden of Evening Mists has the same sumptuous style and exotic imagery which was so beloved by readers and critics alike, in the author’s first novel, The Gift of Rain. It deals with Malaysia’s turbulent road to independence: a time of insurrection and uncertainty and terror. Yun Ling Teoh, herself the scarred lone survivor of a brutal Japanese wartime camp, seeks solace among the jungle fringed plantations of Northern Malaya where she grew up as a child. There she discovers Yugiri, the only Japanese garden in Malaya, and its owner and creator, the enigmatic Aritomo, exiled former gardener of the Emperor of Japan.  Despite her hatred of the Japanese, Yun Ling seeks to engage Aritomo to create a garden in Kuala Lumpur, in memory of her sister who died in the camp. Aritomo refuses, but agrees to accept Yun Ling as his apprentice ‘until the monsoon comes.’ Then she can design a garden for herself. As the months pass, Yun Ling finds herself intimately drawn to her sensei and his art while, outside the garden, the threat of murder and kidnapping from the guerrillas of the jungle hinterland increases with each passing day.

But the Garden of Evening Mists is also a place of mystery. Who is Aritomo and how did he come to leave Japan? Why is it that Yun Ling’s friend and host Magnus Praetorius, seems to almost immune from the depredations of the Communists? What is the legend of ‘Yamashita’s Gold’ and does it have any basis in fact? And is the real story of how Yun Ling managed to survive the war perhaps the darkest secret of all?

It's available in hardback (£18.99) here and as a trade paperback (£12.99) here.

The Gift of Rain is the first novel by Tan Twan Eng, which has so far sold over 60,000 copies and was longlisted for The Man Booker Prize in 2007. This is a sumptuous epic of a book, set in Malaya predominantly during the time of the Japanese invasion in 1939. Sixteen-year-old Philip Hutton is a loner. Half English, half Chinese and feeling neither, he discovers a sense of belonging in an unexpected friendship with Hayato Endo, a Japanese diplomat. Philip shows his new friend around his adored island of Penang, and in return Endo trains him in the art and discipline of aikido.  But such knowledge comes at a terrible price. The enigmatic Endo is bound by disciplines of his own and when the Japanese invade Malaya, threatening to destroy Philip’s family and everything he loves, he realises that his trusted sensei – to whom he owes absolute loyalty – has been harbouring a devastating secret. Philip must risk everything in an attempt to save those he has placed in mortal danger and discover who and what he really is. The themes of identity, war, cultural clashes, loyalty, loss and the nature of enduring love are all explored in this powerful first novel.

It's available in paperback (£8.99) order copies here. 

Tan Twan Eng was born in Penang but lived in various places in Malaysia as a child. He studied law through the University of London and later worked as lawyer in one of Kuala Lumpur’s most reputable law firms. He also has a first-dan ranking in aikido and is a strong proponent for the conservation of heritage buildings. Tan Twan Eng lives in Cape Town where he is working on his third novel.

You can read extracts from the books on the Myrmidon Books website here.

The six authors on the 2012 Man Booker Shortlist are: Tan Twan Eng, The Garden of Evening Mists (Myrmidon Books); Deborah Levy, Swimming Home (And Other Stories); Hilary Mantel, Bring up the Bodies (Fourth Estate); Alison Moore, The Lighthouse (Salt); Will Self, Umbrella (Bloomsbury); and Jeet Thayil, Narcopolis (Faber & Faber). The overall winner will be announced at a dinner on October 16.

Get all the details on the Man Booker Website here.

Compass Points 13

Compass Points 13

Your weekly round up of publishing news, publicity information and trivia!

Love her or hate her, Edwina Currie falls comfortably into that category of celebrity you simply cannot ignore. The first volume of her diaries explosively revealed her affair with former Prime Minister John Major. This second volume, Edwina Currie Diaries: Volume II 1992–1997 which begins in 1992 with her refusal to serve in Major’s Cabinet, is no less revelatory about her colleagues, encounters with others in the public eye, and, of, course, her extraordinary career. It covers her life in Parliament up to the election of Blair’s Labour government, but more importantly sees its subject’s emergence as a mainstay in the public imagination, first as a bestselling author, then as a commentator, broadcaster, presenter and performer – most recently on the BBC’s flagship entertainment show Strictly Come Dancing perhaps you'd like to remind yourself of exactly how she looked dancing the cha cha. Ahem, not her finest hour perhaps. Anyway, this book as you would expect is getting an enormous amount of publicity. The Daily Mail will shortly be serialising it and there were interviews with her in many of this weekend’s weekend press. She has been all over the BBC national and regional radio stations , including  BBC Radio 4  and BBC Radio 2 Jeremy Vine Show ; there’s a piece in the Guardian at the end of the month – the list goes on and on. No one but no one is a keener self publicist than Edwina Currie, (oh alright then, maybe Boris Johnson is) and as she never tires of reminding us, all of her previous books have been big bestsellers – so it’s highly likely this one will be too. As the Daily Telegraph (unsurprisingly) said “Few women can lay claim to the word “magnificent”, but Currie is now surely one of them.“

Order the Edwina Diaries here

Another book getting a colossal amount of media coverage is Education, Education, Education:  Reforming England’s Schools by Andrew Adonis What children should or shouldn’t be learning in schools – and how to asses them has never been a hotter topic, and the press are queuing up to talk to Andrew about his quest to transform standards and opportunities in England’s schools, and his ambition to make English education truly world class. The Daily Mail serialisation has just run and The Sunday Times will be running a major interview with Andrew Adonis this Sunday. Then there is plenty of publicity all over the BBC including the Today Programme on Radio 4. Make sure you have plenty of copies on display – it is fast becoming one of this autumn’s most talked about titles!

Order Education Education Education here

Last week’s question – what’s the best loved film of all time; this week’s question – who’s the best loved comedian of all time? Well a strong contender must be “the one with the glasses.” Eric Morecambe: Lost and Found is a collection of not just the very best of this British comedy great, but also a plethora of never-before-seen material. Pulled together from a variety of dusty archives and private homes across the UK, this material includes notebooks, sketches, skits, musings, interviews and rare photographs of the comic genius. Written by Eric’s son, Gary Morecambe, and film & TV historian, Paul Burton; this book gives the British public the opportunity to view a host of these hidden interview transcriptions and photos firsthand, and is  a rare insight into the man behind the legend. From the many hilarious moments that Morecambe and Wise have given us, my own favourite must surely be the classic stripper/breakfast sketch. Books of reminiscences on comic heroes tend to sell very well – The Unpublished Spike Milligan sold over 26,000 copies – so this is definitely one to display all the way up to Christmas.

Find out more about Eric Morecambe Lost and Found here

The Good Food Guide 2013 has just been published – a review of all the best restaurants, pubs and cafés throughout the UK. This title is consistently the nation’s bestselling restaurant guide, containing over 1,300 authoritative reviews and recommendations, foodie features and interviews with top chefs and lots of brand new eateries alongside newly reviewed perennial favourites. It’s a great price point - £17.99 – and don’t forget to remind your customers that it contains £50 worth of money-off vouchers – which makes it a real bargain!

Order the new edition of the Good Food Guide here

Now – is the extraordinary UK success of Fifty Shades of Grey due to a) the rise of the Kindle and eBooks in general; b) the fact that British women are all secretly spicy saucepots; or c) the power of word of mouth – no one wants to miss out on a trend? Well according to the author EL James – it’s none of the above – it’s because we girls just can’t resist a good old fashioned love story. James gave a rare interview this week, which you can read here.

This newsletter is sent weekly to over 400 booksellers. If you would like to order any of the titles mentioned, then please click here to go to the Compass New Titles Website.

That’s all for now folks, more next week!

Compass Points 12

Compass Points 12

Your weekly round up of publishing news, publicity information and trivia!

What an amazing summer of sport it’s been – and of course there’s still more to come – lots more!  But if the amazing feats of team GB still haven’t convinced you to get off the sofa and put on the lycra then fear not; you only have to stagger as far as your kitchen in order to emulate the Olympians. If you can’t run like a hero – at least you can eat like one. The Big Sports Recipe Book is a super- powered collection of over 40 recipes from winning stars of the sporting world – published in aid of The Princes Trust. This book is a great way to experience the food which some of the UK’s top sportsmen and women associate with winning and features recipes from the likes of Rebecca Adlington, Jenson Button and Steven Gerrard . It’s getting lots of publicity – there was a piece in Taste Magazine this week and there will be lots more publicity to come in the regional press.

Find out more and order the book here

Still on a sporting theme; Not Out First Ball by Roger Morgan-Grenville is another title for those who’d much rather read about sport than get all hot and sweaty actually doing any. Long listed for the MCC Book of the Year 2012. David Gower said in his foreword "This is a joyful book...a relentlessly entertaining read and not just for cricket lovers either. Everyone should read it." The author was interviewed on TalkSport Radio recently – and there will also be an interview coming up shortly on Radio 5 Live. This is a delightful and witty book that is a love letter to cricket through the story of an accidental club that has lasted 25 years and 263 matches longer than it ever meant to. It’s a laugh-out-loud manifesto for anyone who has ever silently sobbed at the sight of their off stump cartwheeling off into the distance, or thrown their bat in disgust onto an autumn bonfire.  As the author says, “the whole glorious point of crickets is that so much of it is utterly pointless.”

Order the book here

Back to school – back to work – September can really feel like a time for new beginnings. What would you like to change about your life? It can sometimes seem as though we spend half our lives wishing for change — and the other half trying to avoid it. Everything I’ve Ever Learnt About Change is a stimulating and thought provoking collection of essays on change. Columnist and social commentator Lesley Garner writes: “The idea for a book about change came to me when I realised that it was all anybody ever talked about. It was a theme that blew like an invisible wind through every conversation.’” This book had a big piece in the Daily Mail (circulation 2 million) recently which you can read here and the book has also had publicity in The Daily Express and Easy Living Magazine. The Sunday Times Style section are about to run a big interview with Lesley in the next couple of weeks.

Order Everything I've Ever Learnt About Change here

But if all that change, sport and healthy living malarkey just seems like way too much effort – why not just get Hammered? Heavy Tales from the Hard Rock Highway by ex-Metal Hammer editor Kirk Blows shares never-before-published stories of rock’n’roll lunacy, giving readers an exclusive backstage pass to a chaotic world of sex, drugs and spandex, and taking us behind-the-scenes with heavy metal’s biggest, baddest (and often drunkest) names. Featuring exclusive encounters with rock legends such as Judas Priest, Deep Purple, Def Leppard, Fleetwood Mac, Black Crowes, UFO, Paradise Lost, Hawkwind, Meat Loaf and Guns N’ Roses among others; Hammered: Heavy Tales from the Hard Rock Highway is a unique collection of adventures, anecdotes and interview experiences that noisily explores the stairways to heaven and highways to hell. As you would expect, this book is attracting a lot of attention in the online media, and you can read some of the rave reviews here,  and here,  and here, and here.

There has also been a great interview with Kirk on the Planet Rock radio station, and will be a big feature in Metal Hammer magazine shortly. Incisive, witty, provocative, and packed with enough sex, drugs, and rock’n’roll to satisfy even the most jaded thrillseeker; this is a must-read for anyone who’s ever worshipped a band or dreamed of being onstage.

Find out more about the book here

And here's a bit of Guns 'n' Roses just to get you in the mood ... and a bit of Meatloaf too!

OK, what is the best film ever? My top three would be Some Like it Hot, A Matter of Life and Death and The Jungle Book. Let’s face it – this is a discussion that’s as old as film itself – and when you get into that headed debate down the pub over the merits of Lord of the Rings versus Citizen Kane – you need the facts, and you need the stats to back up your argument. And that’s when you and your customers reach for the new edition of The Radio Times Guide to Films – the UK’s number one film guide.

With 23,000 film reviews and 500 new entries, it really is a film fan’s must-have. The previous edition sold over 11,000 copies – and this edition will get masses of ongoing promotion in The Radio Times (which has a readership of 2.5 million) from now right up until Christmas! It's published today - make sure you have plenty on display!

Find out more and order it here.

And how could I not give you a clip a clip from my favourite film to finish with – well we’ve got to have some Marilyn to offset all that heavy metal – and what’s not to love about Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis in drag?!

This newsletter is sent weekly to over 400 booksellers. If you would like to order any of the titles mentioned, then please click here to go to the Compass New Titles Website.

Compass Points is now back from holiday, so there will be more next week!

Compass Points 11

Compass Points 11

Your weekly round up of publishing news, publicity information and trivia!

Wow, it’s great to start with a big bestseller! Sunshine on Scotland Street is at number nine in the Hardback Fiction chart on the Sunday Times Bestseller list this week! Alexander McCall Smith has sell-out appearances at the Edinburgh Book Festival coming up, as well a major interview in The Guardian and a piece on the author as performer for Chanel 4 news, so the book could rise even higher in the charts! Congratulations Sandy!

Order the book here

Have the Olympics inspired you to get out into the world a bit more – and visit some of the far flung countries that the athletes are representing? Hands up if anyone actually knows where Azerbaijan or Burkina Faso are? And who knows where the Winter Olympics in 2012 will be held? Well I can tell you – Russia. Which gives me a nice link to tell you about a new title from a bestselling series that’s coming out in October – City-Pick St Petersburg. The City-Lit and City-Pick books are published by Oxygen Books, and give you all the sights, sounds and flavours of city life in a collection of perfect gems of city writing. Already the series has taken us to the hearts of New York, Paris, London, Berlin, Dublin, Amsterdam and Venice and the St Petersburg title is already attracting media attention – The Bookseller made it a non-fiction highlight, and the book will feature at the Manchester Literary Festival and  launch at Waterstone’s Piccadilly. The book includes writing from Helen Dunmore, J.M Coetzee and Malcolm Bradbury as well as Joseph Brodsky, Alexander Pushkin and Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The Times said of this series  ‘Superb … it’s like having your own iPad loaded with different tomes’ All the City-Lit books have been Amazon UK Top Ten city bestsellers – don’t let Amazon grab all the sales for this new one! Visit the City-Lit Café here - a great website with info on the books and lots of cool info on the cities as well!

 And find out more about City-Pick St Petersburg here.

And while we’re on the subject of Russia – who has heard of thriller writer Anna Starobinets? Well, The Telegraph said “she has been compared with a host of literary greats, including Edgar Allan Poe and George Orwell, Ray Bradbury and HG Wells’” She is a Russian journalist and internationally published author who was nominated for Russia’s prestigious National Bestseller Prize. You can find out more by reading the Telegraph article here. Now Hesperus, the champion of intelligent, bestselling translated fiction bring us The Living. After a global catastrophe called the Great Reduction, the number of people living on Earth has become fixed, remaining a constant three billion. The concept of death no longer exists (yes yes, I know it sounds like Torchwood – but read on). Instead people are reborn anywhere on the planet with an in-code that keeps track of information about all their previous incarnations. Humankind is no longer made up of individuals – people are only particles making up one composite organism called The Living. These particles live happily and die happily, according to a government-determined schedule. Yet… there is one man born without an in-code - a spare human being. His birth increases the number of The Living by one, which threatens global harmony. Who is ‘Zero’ and how will The Living survive? This truly enthralling, disturbing and unique anti-utopian fantasy novel that will have the reader gripped from page one – and if you’d like to read the first chapter then please email Pat@compass-dsa.co.uk to request one! It's published in October - find out more here.

Now I like a bit of futuristic dystopia as much as the next person – but sometimes you just need a laugh. Here's a link to some hilarious cartoons by Tony Husband. I Nearly Died Laughing (which features his characters The Yobs) by Tony Husband is published in September and Marc Riley of 6Music said of Tony that ‘Over the last 30 years, it’s safe to say he’s made me laugh out loud more than anybody else… he comes from a dark, twisted place.’ And this latest book of cartoons will not disappoint. Tony has created cartoons for many leading publications, including The Spectator, Private Eye, The Times and Punch. His Yobs strip (Private Eye) is one of the best-known comic strips in the UK and, at 25 years, one of the longest running. The book has an intro by Stephen Fry –order it here!

Naked horseback riding. Being on a carousel for 24 hours. Fighting a bear. Leaving home. Illicit sex. If you stay Here this is just some of the things you’ll do. The Elsewhere series brings together some of the finest names writing today such as Michael Morpurgo, Joan Lindgard, Julia Donaldson, Roddy Doyle and Al Kennedy, to tell us through fiction and essays, tales of the real, the unreal, the known,  the unknown, the fantastical and the unbelievable. The series is quirky, saleable and the books are originally and beautifully packaged. There are four titles in the series: Here, There, Somewhere and Elsewhere, and they’re also available as a boxed set. The £7.99 price point is amazing value – big names, lovely looking books, a great price - what more do you need!

Here

There

Somewhere

Elsewhere

The complete boxed set of four titles

And finally – the latest in the eBooks versus real books debate. Like them or loathe them, estimates suggest over two million Kindles have been sold in the UK over the last three years. The Kindle e-reader has become one of the most iconic objects of our contemporary culture. But what happens when a Kindle dies? 101 Uses of a Dead Kindle shows the many imaginative, irreverent and often downright bizarre ways your dead Kindle can live on! It’s hilarious, weird and highly imaginative! The book should appeal to the vast range of Kindle owners and their friends across the UK and taps into the popularity of the 80s cult classic 101 Uses of a Dead Cat. It’s sure to become a must have gift for Kindle owners everywhere! Find out more about the book here!

This newsletter is sent weekly to over 400 booksellers. If you would like to order any of the titles mentioned, then please click here to go to the Compass New Titles Website.

Compass Points is now off on holiday - back in a fortnight!

Compass Points 10

Compass Points 10

Your weekly round up of publishing news, publicity information and trivia!

Well, is anyone actually doing any work, or are we all sitting in front of a screen glued to the Olympics? Let’s hope your tills are ringing as loudly as our hands are clapping – and the first book that you really shouldn’t miss out on with this national fervour for all things cycling is Matt Carroll’s Escape Routes. This is Matt’s (who is an experienced travel writer and well know broadcaster) handpicked selection of 60 stunning cycling routes all over England. You don’t need to be a keen cyclist; this is your guide to exploring the beautiful English countryside. And with routes ranging from a five-mile pootle to a 20-mile day trip, there’s something for all levels of cyclist. Beautiful hand-drawn maps mark out the routes and step-by-step directions will guide you all the way round. And, when you’re ready to give your legs a rest, there’s a detailed list of cracking places to eat, drink, and sleep. With routes falling under categories such as ‘jaw-dropping views’,  ‘taste tour’, ‘best for pubs’, and ‘magical history tour’, and spectacular photography throughout, this beautiful guide will inspire you get off that sofa and off onto your very own cycle tour. There’s a cycle hire listing for each route, so you don’t even need to own a bicycle!

Order Escape Routes here for your cycling window display!

And talking of cycling – who hasn’t gone Wiggo wild this week? Just about everyone in Britain is crazy for our sideburned superhero – and now the race is on for which publisher can get their biography out first! Sorry guys – Birlinn get the yellow jersey - click below to find out about Bradley Wiggins Tour de Force which is out in October. It will include all the results of the London 2012 Olympic Games, plus tons of stuff on his extraordinary historic Tour de France win. It is written by Bradley’s long-standing friend and cycling journalist John Deering, who has had unique access to Team Sky since its inception. It doesn’t get much more wiggolicious than that!

Bradley Wiggins: A Tour de Force - order your copies now!

And here's a documentary about the great man - which was on ITV4 this week.

However – back in the real world; let’s face it some of us are going to need to do a whole lot more than just buy a load of fancy cycling kit and grow some sideburns to make ourselves into Olympic champions. Giving up that chocolate doughnut and white wine habit might be a good place to start – and Beyond Sugar Shock by Connie Bennett is going to tell us how. The book promises us a Six Week Plan to Break Free of your Sugar Addiction and get Sexier, Slimmer and Sweeter! Connie’s approach is fun and motivational and the book offers much more emotional and physical care than your typical diet book.  There was a big two page spread on the book in Woman magazine last week – which has a circulation of over a quarter of a million readers. Here's Connie discussing the US edition of the book on a wacky US TV show

And here's where you can order the UK edition - which came out in June

Good news for Muckraker: The Scandalous Life and Times of W.T. Stead by W. Sydney Robinson, which has made it onto the shortlist for this year’s HW Fisher Best First Biography Prize - worth £5,000. This prize is awarded annually by The Biographers Club, and the shortlisted entrants are: Ian Donaldson – Ben Jonson: A Life (OUP); Joanna Hodgkin – Amateurs in Eden (Virago); Louise Miller – A Fine Brother: The Life of Captain Flora Sandes (Alma Books); Thomas Penn – Winter King (Penguin); W. Sydney Robinson – Muckraker: The Scandalous Life and Times of W.T. Stead (Robson Press) and Tom Williams – A Mysterious Something in the Light: Raymond Chandler (Aurum). The prize is awarded to the best book by a first-time biographer and the winner will be announced at a dinner on 13 November at the Saville Club in London.

You can order the book here

And find out more about The Biographers Club here

Well, Pink Floyd may have said that we don’t need it, and the kids may be on holiday right now – but just in time for that Back to School window display that you know you’ll be putting in soon; comes Education Education, Education:  Reforming England’s Schools by Andrew Adonis. Tony Blair said his three priorities were education, education, education and Andrew Adonis played a decisive role in turning this slogan into a reform programme. This book describes his quest to transform standards and opportunities in England’s schools, and his ambition to make English education truly world class. It is an essential book about a hot ticket issue by one of British politics’ genuine big-hitters which is published in September to coincide with the start of the new school term and the Party Conference season. The book will be serialised in the Daily Mail on 31st August and 1st September, then The Sunday Times will be running a major interview with Andrew Adonis on 2nd September.

Order Education Education Education here

And here's that classic Pink Floyd video - come on, who doesn't love this!

And now for something completely different. Who has heard of Greek poet Yannis Ritsos?  Considered by some to be "the greatest poet of our age" he was proposed nine times for the Nobel Prize for Literature and won the Lenin Peace Prize.  He was a left-wing activist and an active member of the Greek Resistance during World War II who wrote the most beautiful poetry in the face of personal tragedy, persistent ill health and systematic persecution. In Secret: A Version of Yannis Ritsos by David Harsent is published by Enitharmon Press in October and it has just been chosen as the Poetry Book Society's Recommended Translation for the Winter Quarter.  You can read this article all about Yannis Ritsos by David Harsent in last week's Guardian. And Yannis’s translator, David Harsent who is one of Britain’s most prominent contemporary poets, has himself has just won The Griffin Prize for Poetry (which is the world biggest most prestigious prize for poetry).  You can find out more about the prize here.

And you can order the book here - a rather lovely cover I think.

And finally – who’d like a poster for Fifty Shades of Grey? Ooohh yes please; me, me – pick me. Click here to get one.

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That’s all for now folks, more next week!