Compass Points 143

Every few years, both Hollywood and the publishing industry decide to revisit JM Barrie’s perennial favourite – Peter Pan. And 2015 is one of those years, with a new film Pan, set to open next week in the UK – all ready for October half term. The film stars Hugh Jackman and looks pretty good – it’s certainly had plenty of media coverage – you can watch a trailer here. ITV are also getting in on the act, with a two hour film which will be screened at Christmas. Entitled Peter and Wendy it starts Breaking Bad star Laura Fraser and also Stanley Tucci – with Paloma Faith as Tinkerbell! You can read more about that here!  So I’m sure all of you booksellers will be getting ready for your Neverland displays and windows! Don’t forget to include Birlinn’s charming graphic novel: JM Barrie’s Peter Pan: The Graphic Novel by Stephen “Stref” White and Fin Cramb (pb, 978 1780272900, full colour, £12.99). As one reviewer described it, this is “a delightful book taking Barrie's original text and giving it a faithful and truly beautiful graphical adaptation. Stephen White goes back to the very heart of Barrie’s original tale to create a story that is dark, magical, charming and authentic.” The complexity of Barrie’s original is drawn out in vibrant illustrations and engaging text to create a new vision of the tale for those familiar with it and to enchant a new generation of readers. The stunning illustrations draw on original, authentic features from the locations that inspired Barrie to write his tale including Moat Brae House in Dumfries and the garden where he played as a boy. You can watch a 30 second film of Stref creating one of the illustrations here. Birlinn have created a brilliant pack of colourings and other Pan activities based on Stref’s lively illustrations – ideal for half term children’s bookshop activities! If you’d like one to download then please email Vikki Reilly: VikkiR@birlinn.co.uk.

Order Peter Pan here

A major serialisation of My Way: Berlusconi in His Own Words begins in the Daily Mail, starting on 17 October. Its author Alan Friedman will be all over the UK publicising it, including BBC Breakfast and Newsnight and there will be lots more to come! This billionaire media mogul turned Prime Minister, has dominated Italian life for the past twenty years and these candid and revealing interviews are sure to get the media all wound up! From the bunga-bunga parties to his most secret moments with world leaders, the book is rich in anecdotes and revelations involving Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, George W. Bush, Vladimir Putin, Mikhail Gorbachev, Tony Blair, Nicolas Sarkozy, Angela Merkel and many others. My Way: Berlusconi in His Own Words (hb, 978 1849549868, £18.99) is published by Biteback and you can find out more and order it here.

I LOVE it when authors or publishers make a short video to promote their books – and here’s an excellent trailer for Billy and the Devil by Dean Lilleyman (978 1910692332, pb, £8.99) which was published this summer by Urbane. Billy and the Devil is a shocking and intimate portrayal of isolation, sexual misadventure, and addiction which is getting terrific feedback on social media: "This is wild stuff, very dark and very brilliant." "Put it this way, a great novel doesn't end after you have read the last page. It reaches out after publication and plants its own mythology in the world." “Brilliantly evoked in all its sordid detail, black humour, demented courage, and alienation."

Order Billy and the Devil here

How was National Poetry Day for you? I hope you found it suitably lyrical and inspiring! You can read some of our favourite tweets from the day at the end of this newsletter! Carcanet chose the day to make an exciting announcement: Anvil Press Poetry and Carcanet Press have agreed to merge operations. The result: the most diverse world poetry list in the United Kingdom and one of the great poetry lists in the Anglophone world, to be published from Manchester in a Northern world-poetry powerhouse. Greenwich-based Anvil Press Poetry, founded in 1968, is Britain’s longest-standing independent poetry publisher. Manchester’s Carcanet began a year later. Both have, for over four decades, been directed by their founders. Peter Jay has been the editorial and production director of Anvil, and Michael Schmidt editorial director of Carcanet. 

Their lists are complementary: they have shared authors, both are internationalist, committed to translation, honouring the classics with modern translations, and both have made notable discoveries among emerging poets. Between them they have six Nobel laureates, more than a dozen Pulitzer Prize-winners, and in 2014 Carcanet poets won the Forward Prize and the TS Eliot Award. In 2000 Carcanet was named the Sunday Times Small Publisher of the Year. 

Peter Jay is retiring from front line publishing to continue the writing and translation projects which have long been on his back burner. He said, “It is wonderful for our poets that Anvil is moving to the best possible home with Carcanet, a publisher for which I have always had enormous respect and admiration.” Michael Schmidt commented, “Carcanet Press in a sense grew out of Anvil. Peter inspired and catalysed our programme and it is a great pleasure to bring the two together into a single operation. They have always been family.”

In celebration of National Poetry Day I love this website which brings together some of the best quotations about poetry – including one of my favourites “Poetry is life distilled”.

Good luck to all booksellers everywhere with their terrific Books Are My Bag promotion running NOW! Lots more info and picson the Twitter page at https://twitter.com/booksaremybag and also on social media under #BAMB and @booksaremybag.

Gyles Brandreth has been relentlessly promoting his new book Breaking the Code all over the UK.  Breaking the Code (pb, 978 1849549158, £14.99) has just been published by Robson Press, and Gyles has been on all the BBC radio stations as well as being Guest of the Day on the Daily Politics Show. You can hear an entertaining interview with him here on Radio Two’s Steve Wright in the Afternoon.

Order Breaking the Code here

It was SuperThursday this week of course – when all the publishers bring out their best hopes for the Christmas bestsellers. One title which may not be on your radar – but which is an ideal stocking stuffer for the indie relation in your family who definitely DOESN’T want to read yet another big fat celeb bio; is Noel Gallagher's High Flying Words edited by Melissa Bond. Noel Gallagher has been called the finest song writer of his generation, but the outspoken star is probably almost as well known for his quick wit and excoriating humour as for his musical ability. The rocker will readily offer illuminating thoughts on everything including other musicians, football, politics, life and Liam; and this hilarious volume brings together the funniest of his wit, wisdom and gratuitous insults. For example: “People say we’re the Rolling Stones and Blur are the Beatles. But we’re the Stones and the Beatles. They’re the f*cking Monkees.” Or “Until you’ve actually thrown a television set out of a window you don’t even know the sense of joy that brings.” Noel Gallagher's High Flying Words (pb, 978 1849549592, £6.99).is published by Biteback at the end of this month, and you can find out more and order it here.

Team SCA were the only all female team intrepid enough to take on the world’s most competitive and challenging ocean experience: the Volvo Ocean Race 2014/15 – a 40,000-mile race around the world in state-of-the-art yachts. Ocean racing has traditionally been the preserve of men, but over a gruelling nine months Team SCA proved that women can compete on an equal footing. The race requires huge physical and mental strength, there were over 250 applications to join Team SCA and only 15 were chosen to compete: the women come from six nations; USA, UK, Switzerland, Australia, Sweden and the Netherlands. Journey of Change: Women Pushing Boundaries is the official book of Team SCA’s journey and gives a unique insight into life on board and the challenges the team face as they take on their global marathon. A round-the-world yacht pushes the physical and mental boundaries of human endurance and is truly transformative experience. The dramatic and engaging stories of the crew from the onboard reporters, combined with the exceptional photography of Rick Tomlinson, make this a great gift book. You can see lots of the pics from the race on the Team SCA website here. Journey of Change: Women Pushing Boundaries is published by Max Strom Publishing (hb, 978 9171263469, £30.00) next week, and you can find out more and order it here

And you can watch some video footage of the Ocean Yacht Race here

 Let’s face it, most of us are not elite athletes, and we won’t be pushing the boundaries of what our bodies are capable of any time soon. However, nevertheless, we all very much enjoy poncing around the place in our sportswear, looking as if we might spring into action at any moment! I think you’ll enjoy this hilarious skit on the whole “women wearing active wear in order to look active” phenomenon!

An amusing canine titbits coming up November:  Dog Owners: A Spotters Guide by Robbie Guillory is a satirical guide to the extraordinarily diverse range of breeds of dog owners to be found out walking today from the author of the best-selling In Rude Health (60,000 copies sold) and Cyclists: A Spotter’s Guide. Dog owners remain one of the most diverse species in the world, with a wide variety of weird and wonderful breeds across the traditional range of classifications: toy, pastoral, hunting, terrier, utility and working. From the portly restaurant-owning Red Trouser and his trusty chocolate Labrador, the elegant but aloof UKIP Pointer with mandatory bulldog and cute but snappy Chihuahua-carrying Trusty Fund, to the docile Farming Subsidy and his collie; this book will be an invaluable companion to all those interested in learning more about dog owners and their idiosyncrasies.  This hilarious send-up of dog walking culture has instantly recognisable caricatures and is fabulously illustrated by award-winning artist Judith Hastie. Dog Owners: A Spotters Guide by Robbie Guillory (pb, 978 1910449394, £7.99) is published by Freight, and you can find out more and order it here.

Still love this moment from 101 Dalmatians, which illustrates to perfection the many dogs that look exactly like their owners!

While we’re in a cartoon frame of mind, The Best of The Oldie Cartoons is a tried and tested Christmas favourite which should do very well. Following the huge sell-out success of the previous two Oldie cartoon books, The Oldie editors have made a selection of the very best cartoons of the last 23 years. Along with Private Eye and The Spectator; The Oldie has the best reputation for cartoons in Britain and they’re all here: Larry, Bill Tidy, Tony Husband, Robert Thompson, Nick Downes, Kathryn Lamb and Bernie. Most of them were chosen by Richard Ingrams, the former editor of Private Eye and The Oldie, who insisted that every published cartoon had to make him laugh out loud. The perfect Christmas present for parents and grandparents, The Best of The Oldie Cartoons (pb, 978 1901170245, £7.99) with an intro by Alexander Chancellor is published in November and you can find out more and order it here.

What a very heartening story this week that Waterstone’s is to stop selling the Kindle e-reader in most of its stores – could this be a watershed moment in the battle between real and ebooks? Personally, I wish I had made a bet with every one of the many saddo techno-geeks over the last decade who have boringly assured me that our wonderful industry was doomed to oblivion; as I have a feeling I would be about to rake in the serious spondulicks. Sales of hardbacks and paperbacks are enjoying a widespread resurgence and James Daunt says he has removed Kindles from most of the books chain’s 280 stores because they were “getting virtually no sales” and the space has instead been turned over to paperback and hardback books. Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah. You can read more of that story in the Guardian here.

And if you have 15 minutes to spare on a Friday for a charming little animated film on a book related theme – then you'll probably enjoy this!

Compass is on Twitter! Follow us @CompassIPS. Here are some of our favourite #NationalPoetryDay tweets from this week...

Leilah Skelton ‏@Leilah_Makes  

A tweet, though neat

Will often deplete

The weight of words in it

Due to chrctr limit.

Philip Ardagh ‏@PhilipArdagh  

All chocolate is NOT the same

From taste and texture

To from whence it came.

Nathan ‏@stockejock  

Roses are red,

Violets are red,

Baboon butts are red,

Rashes are red, Everything is red,

I'm colour-blind.

Urbane Publications ‏@urbanepub  

But my words become stained with your love.

You occupy everything, you occupy everything.... Pablo Neruda

Darth Vader ‏@DepressedDarth  

My light saber is red,

Obi-Wan's is blue,

If you love Star Wars,

I love you.

Professor Snape ‏@_Snape_ 

Roses are red

Violets are blue

If you don't like Harry Potter puns

Something's Siriusly Ron with you

Jackie Morris ‏@JackieMorrisArt 

This, I saw today;

It cut the air

With flash of flight,

Kingfisher,

Bringing all to light.

Carcanet Press ‏@Carcanet 

Light by Margaret Tait

Did you say it's made of waves?

Yes that’s it.

I wonder what the waves are made of.

Oh waves are made of waves

Waves are what they are

Shimmeringness

Oscillation…

Roald Dahl HQ@roald_dahl  

The small girl smiles.

One eyelid flickers.

She whips a pistol from her knickers.

Billy Bragg ‏@billybragg  

They Tuck You Up by Adrian Mitchell

They tuck you up, your mum and dad

They read you Peter Rabbit too.

They give you all the treats they had

And add some extra, just for you.

National Trust ‏@nationaltrust 

A pointless walk along the coast

That’s what floats my boat the most

That’s all for now folks! More next week!

This blog is taken from a newsletter 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.

Compass Points 142

There’s a bit of a comforting feel to Compass Points today, with books about loosing that stress, getting that sleep, and eating that steak! First up then is Destressifying by Davidji. Subtitled: The Real-World Guide to Personal Empowerment, Lasting Fulfilment and Peace of Mind this book shows you how you can handle any type of stress using holistic techniques. Davidji is a stress-management guru and internationally recognized meditation expert and the AI for this title tells me that his teachings on stress release, conflict resolution and mindfulness are practised in some of the largest police academies in the USA – golly! 

There has just been a big 6-page interview with Davidji in YOGA magazine which has a 90,000 circulation and is accompanied by loads of inspirational colour pictures from the book – great promotion! Destressifying by Davidji (pb, 978 1781805350, 10.99) has just been published by Hay House and you can find out more and order it here

Here’s one of the Bookseller’s top highlights for humour this season: Don't Mention It: The A-Z of Modern Bullshit by Malcolm Burgess. This is set to do for modern bullshit what Malcolm Burgess's previous paperback I Hate the Office did for office life. From Business Consultant (someone who is paid for a small fortune and gets to wear a Prada suit for saying what you and your colleagues have been saying for years in the office kitchen) to Glamping (sleeping in a wet tent on a Cath Kidston lilo) this contains over 1,000 rapier-sharp killer entries. And just for readers of Compass Points, here’s Malcolm’s guide to those various bullshit publishing phrases that we all know and love so well! (The views here are those of Mr Burgess and not necessarily endorsed by Compass Points – just saying!!)

Enchanted Mandala Mindfulness: Exorbitantly priced colouring books

Healthy eating:  written by someone from West London with half a million Instagram followers

Erotica:  Soft porn

Nordic Noir: Serial killers with frostbite

Fan Fiction:  Written by the kind of people who, in times past, would have been burnt alive at the stake

Misery Memoirs: Bottom of barrel scraped too many times

Contemporary Women's Fiction: Chick-lit

Richard and Judy novel: Books that make you laugh and cry, although possibly not for the reasons the writer intended

Self-Help: Books that show you how to do things for yourself because, let's face it no one else will

Sequel: Author dissuaded from writing anything original

Adored by generations of children: GCSE set text

Satirical: A writer sniffy about being called funny

Set in Britain today: Depressing

Christmas Bestseller: A book you wouldn't dream of reading yourself, but is felt to be suitable for relatives and people you don't like very much

Don't Mention It: The A-Z of Modern Bullshit by Malcolm Burgess (pb, £7.99, 978 0992636456) is published by Oxygen Books on 22 October 2015. Find out more and order it here

Published this month by Carcanet, is a crucial part of the Ezra Pound canon made available for the first time in English. Ezra Pound’s Posthumous Cantos collects unpublished pages of his great poem, drawn from manuscripts held in the archive at Yale’s Beinecke Library and elsewhere. They are assembled by Pound’s Italian translator, the critic and scholar Massimo Bacigalupo.

Find out more and order it here

Marriages between writers often seem to be difficult ones (think Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath), and that between Edna O’Brien and Ernest Gébler was no exception. The Projectionist: The Story of Ernest Gébler by Carlo Gébler is a mesmerizing tale about one of Ireland’s best-known literary families. Carlo Gébler is the son of Edna O’Brien and Ernest Gébler (the Emmy award-winning writer of international bestsellers such as The Plymouth Adventure and Hoffman). This is an affecting literary biography with real European flavour, covering a very tumultuous century. It deals with Ernest’s difficult personality, his strict disciplinary attitude and staunch socialism, as well as his stormy marriage. It also touches on the difficult and emotional relationship that the father and son shared, as well as Ernest suffering from Alzheimer’s later in life. The book begins somewhat ominously "Readers should bear in mind that had the subject been given a choice he would never have allowed the writer to tell his story" – but it is both absorbing and moving. There has been a first-class review in the Irish Independent which you can read here  describing it as “a poignant endnote to a complicated and compelling life”. The Projectionist (pb, 978 1848404571, £17.99) is published by New Island Books and you can find out more and order it here

Are we excited to see the new Harry Potter illustrations by Jim Kay from new edition of Philosopher’s Stone published next week? Get a sneak preview in the Telegraph here. Beautiful!

Comfort, Settle and Sleep by Samantha Quinn was published last year, and its author is an avid blogger, with a big fan base and many followers. Channel Mum has just taken her on as one of their expert partner vloggers. If you’re not familiar with Channel Mum it’s a website for mums, (doh!)  which is run by the founder of NetMums and part owned by ITV. You can find out about it here on their website www.channelmum.com/news/ Its USP is that it sponsors Youtube vloggers – and directly links to their blogs and sites from the Channel Mum site – basically pooling all the many mummy blogs together in one place. Comfort, Settle and Sleep has already got many rave five star reviews on Amazon: “This is an absolute must have book for all mums, first time mums can feel safe and second time round mums have said they have been inspired by new tips and techniques. The book is clear & an enjoyable read. This woman seems to know what she's talking about and I cannot recommend it enough!” is typical. The author Samantha Quinn is an admirable self publicist, and there have been many positive reviews of this title in the parenting magazines. Mummy blogging is of course the most colossally crowded market – but Samantha is possibly unusual in that she already has a book published – rather than hoping to get a deal from her vlogging activities. Comfort, Settle and Sleep by Samantha Quinn is published by Connections (pb, 978 1859063866) and I’d urge you to stock it all ready to sell loads of copies as Samantha Quinn becomes the next Zoella!

As a mega fan of both author Patrick Ness and Dr Who, I am exceedingly excited to discover that they are soon to be combined! Yes, it’s true – Patrick Ness is working with Steven Moffat to create an eight part Doctor Who spin-off series for the BBC! Read more about it in The Guardian here!

Rob Newman was talking on Radio 6 Music at lunchtime today about his new book The Entirely Accurate Encyclopaedia of Evolution which is also a new BBC Radio 4 series starting next week on 5th October. The Entirely Accurate Encyclopaedia of Evolution, (hb, 978 1908885531, £11.99) is published by Freight and Cargo and you can find out more and order it here

How far would you go to get the perfect steak? Well Mark Schatzker’s quest has taken him on an odyssey to four continents, travelling thousands of miles across eight countries and working his way through more than 100 lbs of steak prepared according to dozens of techniques. The result is an impassioned, funny and remarkably enlightening study of steak and its discontents as well as its many delights. Steak begins with begins with a Proustian moment, a lovingly remembered morsel from his past, and Schatzer then goes on to explore beef myths and esoterica. Does marbling matter more than breed? Is a stressed animal less tasty? How does one read cow pies? Can umami be described accurately? Schatzker’s inquisitive mind and comedic sense of timing keep his prose as lively as it is informative. As he aims for a unifying theory of steak, he even begins to raise his own cows for slaughter, leading him to a Zen-like revelation: the secret to great steak is, simply, great steak. This book has already been published in the US where it was very well received: “Schatzker has done an ace job of combining interesting historical facts and stories, and amusing accounts of his steak-seeking travels into an entertaining, story-shaped narrative arc” and Steak: One Man’s Search for the World’s Tastiest Piece of Beef by Mark Schatzker (pb, 978 1859649022, £12.99) is published by Periscope this month. You can  find out more and order it here.

Someone who loves a bit of steak is of course Mr Bond, and all things 007 continue to make the news with the arrival of the Sam Smith theme tune this week (what do you think? A bit of a mournful moan imo). I mentioned Ian Fleming: A Personal Memoir by Robert Harling (hb, £20.00 978 1849549356) coming from Robson Press a couple of weeks ago; and don’t forget about The Bluffer’s Guide to Bond (pb, 978 1909365049, £6.99) when you are assembling your 007 display. This is a compendium of all the known facts about Bond; the man, likes, dislikes, tastes in food and drink, the films, which book or short story they came from, as well as the post Fleming authors. Plus, of course, an enormous amount of brilliant Bond trivia! As one critic says: “After reading through this you are going to know a lot more about Bond than anyone you are likely to be discussing him with and, as importantly, this is really quite a fun read.” This essential Bluffer’s title has just been reviewed in Finish (!)  by 007 Travelers which is a hilarious  blog written by Pirita and Mika, who travel around the world searching for 007 filming locations and places from Bond books, 007 hotels and 007 restaurants – and indeed anything Bond related. Now THAT’S the job I want! Find them on Twitter @007travelers and at www.007travelers.blogspot.co.uk

We enjoyed this entertaining blog in the Bookseller recently from the manager of Waterstone’s in  Canterbury, Martin Latham; on why bookshops will last forever. “The things I most enjoy doing… talking to customers … putting something like an oak tree in the window, shelving maps, oiling the rocking horses, doing a money-spinning section move, unpacking a breathtaking or mind- bending new book, being given warm saved-up coins by a child who is literally jumping for joy…”  Striking a chord? You can read the whole piece here

Worried that there isn’t a Top Gear annual this year? Well worry no more; Rock Stars Cars by Dave Roberts is here to fill the gap! The title says it all: this is witty, irreverent but informative text accompanying colourful, larger-than-life photographs of 127 rock stars and their cars! The online social media campaign for this title is already attracting car enthusiasts, music fans and petrol-heads alike and this is a great at-the-counter title or gift-table book in the lead-up to Christmas! It’s fantastically browsable, with immediate visual impact! Want to see Chuck Berry in his Thunderbird? Debbie Harry in her Chevrolet? Morrissey in his Fiat 500? Well who wouldn’t! You can see some spreads from the book here. Rock Stars Cars (978 1905959778, hb, 12.99) is published by Red Planet in October and you can order it here.

Let’s finish up with something from a rock star not averse to posing with his limousine (Julio, get the stretch); who doesn’t love a bit of Bruno Mars and Mark Ronson?!   This video truly is the top banana: 100 dance scenes from 100 movies all mashed up to Uptown Funk – how many can you name!

Compass is on Twitter! Follow us @CompassIPS. Here are some of our favourite tweets from this week...

Freight Books ‏@FreightBooks
As a small indie publisher it's often all hands on deck when pallets of new books arrive. I like to think of it as a welcome party.
Cargo Publishing‏@cargopublishing
Sebastian Faulks says Nicholas Hogg's Tokyo is a "fine novel."
Dymvue ‏@Dymvue
RETWEET of 2014 @BeeRowlatt Hilary Mantel: is there anything you think you can't do? Fay Weldon: No.
Blackwell's Holborn‏@BlackwellsHH
Thanks to @DanRhodes101 for a great event last night & thanks to all that came. And thanks to @AardvarkBureau We have ltd signed Prof stock!
Guardian Books ‏@GuardianBooks
"Boarding passes are too ostentatious, bus tickets too flimsy. Train tickets are just right" – reader Rob Scorah
Hay House ‏@HayHouseUK
"This day is the future I created yesterday." - @LouiseHay #DailyAffirmation
Carcanet Press ‏@Carcanet
Wonderful night @ForwardPrizes! Congratulations to all the winners and Karen for a brilliant reading.
Freight Books ‏@FreightBooks
Manchester, you're in for a treat. Tonight @mrrobnewman appears at @BadLanguageMcr: https://www.facebook.com/events/473051579543787/ …

That’s all for now folks! More next week!

This newsletter 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.

Compass Points 141

Wow! Or should that be Oink!  I think it’s fair to say that we have never had a book whose contents have made ALL the front pages of ALL the newspapers – and exploded all over social media as well! Call Me Dave by Michael Ashcroft and Isabel Oakeshott (hb, £20.00, 978 1849549141) has had the largest ever initial print run for any Biteback title – so congratulations to them, thank you very much Daily Mail, and good luck booksellers – I hope you all sell lots and lots of copies when it is published on 5 October! Scroll down to the end of this newsletter to see the best of the jokes on Twitter!

You can order copies of Call Me Dave here

And I think you really know you’ve made it as a publisher when Cassetteboy makes a film based on one of your books! Watch Gettin' Piggy With It here!

Talking of the Daily Mail; one of its most popular columns is ‘And Finally’ – a readers’ problems page by Bel Mooney. Bel is unique among agony aunts in that she gives of herself to her readers in return for their confidences, and readers regularly write to say that this is the first thing they turn to in the newspaper.  Bel Mooney has been one of this country’s best-loved journalists for over 40 years, and this hugely popular Daily Mail column reaches around six million people every week. Now, for the first time, these columns have been revised, updated, and collected in a bedside book: Bel Mooney’s Lifelines: Words to Help You Through which is packed with insight from a writer whose own life experiences have taught her much about the workings of the human heart. Designed for dipping into, these mini essays and accompanying quotations encompass joy, family life, sadness, resilience, the love of nature, gratitude, possibility, hope and encouragement. These are anecdotes and insights to challenge and uplift, to entertain and inform. Bel Mooney’s Lifelines: Words to Help You Through (pb, £9.99 9781849549325) is published by Robson Press at the end of October and you can find out more and order it here

A great review from the Times on Saturday, for Ascension by Gregory Dowling (pb, £9.99, 978 1846973130), who have made it their Historical Fiction Book of the Month. Entitled “death, drag and deceit in Venice” they describe it as “stylish, clever and gripping”. Ascension is the first in a new series of mystery thrillers set in 18th century Venice, and as the Times says; it is a fast-paced gripping story, with lots of action, murder, romance, and long-buried secrets. Set in 1749, the city has become Europe’s pleasure capital, famous for its gambling dens, its courtesans, its hectic carnival, its music, art and theatre – and the most highly organised secret service in Europe. Something momentous is being planned for the Feast of the Ascension, Venice’s most important and spectacular holiday, but can the hero, a reluctant spy - prevent the day from turning into bloody mayhem? This is a very handsome paperback - dripping in gold foil and really rather gorgeous; It’s just been published by Polygon and you can find out more and order it here.

Ooh who doesn’t love a novel set in Venice – here’s a good list of the top ten as voted for by readers on tripfiction.com – and since films set in Venice are equally alluring – here’s the Telegraph's top ten list of movies featuring this dazzling city.

There’s a terrific review for Music, Sense and Nonsense: Collected Essays and Lectures by Alfred Brendel (hb, £25.00, 978 1849549059) in this Saturday’s Guardian. Alfred Brendel is arguably the greatest living pianist of our time, and in addition, he has long been one of the world’s most influential writers on music. Alan Rusbridger says “it’s difficult to think of any other living figure who could have produced a book like this” – you can read the full review here. This important book brings the clarity and originality of expression that characterise Brendel’s performances to the printed page. Whether discussing Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Liszt, Schoenberg or other pianists, his reflections will prove invaluable to music lovers. It contains all of Brendel’s essays and articles, (published originally in two classic books, Musical Thoughts and Afterthoughts and Music Sounded Out), along with new, previously unpublished material, bringing it completely up to date. There was an interview with Brendel talking about this book on Classic FM at the start of September, and also a review in the Independent calling it a “glorious compendium of the great pianist's writings on music” which you can read here: and an Alfred Brendel special on BBC Radio 3, Music Matters focusing on the book, which is published by Biteback .

Find out more and order it here

For a bit of tranquillity in your life, here is five minutes of Brendel playing one of his favourite composers - Schubert. Now that’s just what you need to calm you down on a frenetic Friday!

Well, I’m afraid there’s no doubt that we are drawing ever closer to you know what – yes, the elves have already lined the shelves of Sainsbury’s with crackers and puds. For those readers still full of innocent wide eyed appreciation rather than cynical world-weary irritation; comes The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus (pb, £7.99, 978 1843915904) by L Frank Baum; published by Hesperus Minor in October. L. Frank Baum (author of course of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz) takes us back to the fantastical origins of so many of our Christmas traditions as well as the humble origins of Santa Claus himself. I’m willing to bet that none of you knew that, as a baby, Santa Claus was found by a woodsman in the Forest of Burzee, and placed into the care of the lioness, Shiegra, and the wood nymph, Necile? When he grew up, they encouraged him to leave the forest so that he could see for himself the sad things in the world such as war and poverty, of course once Santa came to understand these issues, he made it his mission to cheer up us all up a bit and do good deeds. Ho ho ho! This tale unfolds the surprising reasons why Santa Claus invented toys, why he must deliver them at night and how he came to use reindeers to take him all over the world. Adults and children alike will be captivated by this magical, feel-good story, full of panache and imagination;  it’s clearly the ideal stocking filler and I think this attractive B-format paperback could do very well indeed! Hesperus Minor are doing a fab job bringing forgotten children’s classics back into print for new generations to discover and older generations to revisit – and there is no other mainstream edition of this title available. Find out more and order The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus here

Last week I mentioned Suffragette: My Own Story by Emmeline Pankhurst (978 1843915591, £7.99, pb) the original autobiography of Emmeline Pankhurst If you are getting together all your women’s rights titles to tie in with the new film Suffragette, then don’t forget to also include Lady Constance Lytton: Aristocrat, Suffragette, Martyr by Lyndsey Jenkins (hb, £16.00, 978 1849547956) which was published back in March by Biteback. This fascinating biography tells the story of Lady Constance - the most unlikely of suffragettes who began life as one of the elite, but abandoned a life of privilege to fight for women s rights.

Who doesn’t love a bit of Hank Williams? The world is about to remember just what a great singer/songwriter he was, with the release of a major new biopic I Saw the Light at the end of November,  starring Tom Hiddleston as Hank  and Elizabeth Olsen  as his wife. You can watch a short clip of Tom talking about it here. The film is based on Hank Williams: A Biography (published by Little, Brown) and its author expert Colin Escott, has referrenced Your Cheatin’ Heart by Chet Flippo as the classic Hank text. Your Cheatin’ Heart: A Biography of Hank William by Chet Filippo (pb, 978 0859652322 £14.99) comes out in paperback in October by Plexus. It’s a meticulously researched, compelling biography; a history of country music encapsulated in one man’s career. Hank Williams was the first musician to truly lift country out of the backwoods and into the charts, courtesy of such heartfelt hits as Your Cheatin’ Heart, Cold Cold Heart and I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry – songs of such undeniable emotive force that they transcend time, place and audience. Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen have hailed him as a major influence, and his songs have been recorded by such diverse artists as Elvis Costello, the Carpenters and the Cowboy Junkies. But few could have known that Williams was privately suffering most of what he sang about so convincingly. Raised in Alabama in abject poverty, with an absentee father, a controlling mother, and an equally domineering first wife, he also had a crippling defect of the lower spine. Left untreated, the condition eventually drove him to drugs and alcohol. Your Cheatin’ Heart is 256 pages, with 60 photos and you can find out more and order it here.

And here is  a little bit of Hank to finish! Lovely!

Compass is on Twitter! Follow us @CompassIPS. This week the twittersphere appears to have been taken over by #piggate...

Gary Lineker ‏@GaryLineker  

A bacon sandwich for breakfast has lost its appeal...you just never know do you?

Jack Seale ‏@jackseale  

Because that was almost as good as "Toff on swine, toff on the corpses of swine"

Louise Ann Davies ‏@louanndavies  

Imagine waking up and thinking "I hope no one mentions my sexual abuse of a dead pig today" - the life of a UK PM

David Cameron ‏@DavidChameron  

As a final word on #piggate can I just say in my defence that she looked nothing like her Tinder profile picture.

Sallyjo ‏@sallyjo  

#Corbynnottheonlyonelovinghamass

Markymark ‏@themarkster  

Dave's mates told him it was snouts in the trough.  But that was old hat, so he changed it to toffs in the snout.

UK Uncut ‏@UKuncut  

Why didn't the BBC report on #PigGate?! It's silence of the hams...

Sue Frent ‏@frenton  

I hope the migrants coming to this country respect these ancient British traditions and are prepared to integrate fully with our native farm animals.

MissusVee ‏@MissusVee 

"Sorry David, I can't hear you very well... is there some crackling on your end?" 

Joe Bloggs ‏@Blogsy 

Well the debate as to whether he prefers West Ham to Aston Villa is finally over.

Maeve B @MaeveyB

#Piginapoke or #pokeinapig?

BBC Newsnight ‏@BBCNewsnight  

"I mean who cares?" Cameron biographer @AnthonySeldon on #piggate.

That’s all for now folks! More next week!

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