It might not yet be Advent in the church sense of
the word, but in terms of the more secular aspect of the season – i.e. buying
tons of stuff – we are now well and truly on the run up to Christmas! Click
below to be taken to the
This is a veritable cornucopia of wonderful titles!
Here you can download a PDF of our top titles – sorted by category. Or if you
prefer, you can click below on the appropriate heading in bold type to go straight to the page for
the section you want where you can find all the ISBN and price information.
The
fascinating lives of extraordinary people: here’s the best of Biography
Fun and
Fairytales, classic and modern; you'll love our wonderful Children's books
Be transported to
another world with the best of our Fiction
From
McCartney to Ellington, Jagger to Styles it’s time for some Film and Music
Phew – looking at all of this makes you realise just
how many superb titles our wonderful publishers have come up with this
year!
Now, what’s in the news this week?
F in Retakes (978-1849533133) from Summersdale is zooming up the bestseller charts – and
don’t forget the new one which is published this month F in
SchoolF in School (978-1849535069) both by Richard Benson .
Carcanet have just published their 2014 catalogue, which you can have a browse
through here – lots of truly inspirational poetry, and what a
beautiful cover.
The paperback of Trains
and Lovers (9781846972638) by Alexander
McCall Smith published by Birlinn has got a major media campaign to
launch it this week, kicking off with a 4-sheet ad campaign starting on 2nd
December for 4 weeks, focusing on key mainline stations on the East Coast rail
line from London Kings Cross to Edinburgh. BBC Radio 4 are interviewing
McCall Smith, which will be broadcast on
6th December and there will also be a Christmas day interview for BBC Radio
Scotland. There will be an
interview and extract from the book running in the Sunday Times, and it
will also be featured in a Christmas selection in the Daily Telegraph and
the Scotsman and there will be a piece in the New Statesman.
Space Has No Frontier: The Terrestrial
Life and Times of Sir Bernard Lovell (9781903071984) by John
Bromley-Davenport was launched this week by Benefactum.
Described by Patrick Moore as “the Isaac Newton of radio astronomy”, the
life of Sir Bernard Lovell spans almost a century of revolutionary advances and
discoveries in science, whose applications were of vital significance in the
Cold War. Lovell, it can now be revealed, was at the very heart of it all. The
extraordinary life of Bernard Lovell
began before the First World War and his story encompasses many of the great
events of last hundred years: the Second World War, the invention of radio
astronomy, the space race, the Moon landings, the exploration of the Solar
System, the Cold War, the Cuban missile crisis and the defence of Britain
against nuclear attack. It can now be revealed that he was also a spy. “He
ranks as one of the great visionary leaders of science,” Martin Rees, the
Astronomer Royal, said of him. The great radio telescope which Lovell built
became and remains one of the most important scientific instruments in the
World. The Jodrell Bank Observatory and the Lovell Telescope have held their
place at the frontier of research for fifty five years. This book seeks to
explore succinctly and accessibly Lovell’s life and achievements in the
scientific and political context of the time. His legacy remains great, as can
be seen from the extensive media coverage and personal tributes that his death
in 2012 attracted all over the world. With the seventieth anniversaries of many
wartime events in which he played a crucial role, as well as the recent
declassification of information relating to his activities as an agent in the
Cold War, this biography is sure to have a broad and timely interest. I must say
that personally although I had heard of the Lovell telescope I had no idea quite
how important and brilliant Sir Bernard Lovell was, and it certainly seems to me
that a biography of this under-sung man was long overdue. Public fascination
with astronomy today, popularised by figures like the late Patrick Moore and
Brian Cox, makes Lovell’s contributions to science of particular interest. You can click
here to go to a clip on the BBC website to see Lovell talking to
Patrick Moore about his work. I think this £20 hardback would make a very good
Christmas present for anyone remotely interested in the universe – and I don’t
just mean in the Doctor Who sense!
And have a
look here at some amazing footage from the International Space
Station, just to remind yourself what an extraordinary planet we all
inhabit!
Plenty of excellent publicity coming in for Spain: The Inside Story of La Roja’s Historic
Treble by Graham Hunter which
is published today by Back Page Press. You will remember that this title
is packed with remarkable eyewitness accounts and in-depth interviews with the
star names and key figures in this extraordinary team, and follows in the
critical and commercial success of Graham
Hunter’s 2012 title, Barca: The Making of the Greatest Team in the
World, which sold 25,000 copies (paperback) in 12 months in the UK and was
Football Book of the Year at the 2013 British Sports Book Awards.
A whole series of extracts from Spain are running on goal.com,
which is the biggest football site in the world; and you can read that here. The Sun have a full-page extract
ready to run in the next week, and yesterday there was a 2000-word extract
running on the Guardian's website. In Scotland, the Daily Mail and
Mail on Sunday are running two-page extracts on Saturday, Sunday and
Monday, and ESPN.com have also confirmed an extract, which will go live
on their global site on Thursday. All good stuff – and should mean that there
are loads of fans out there keen to buy this book – either as a prezzie or for
themselves!
We’ve just heard that Vauxhall (9781846591464) by Gabriel Gbdamosi, which was published by
Telegram in May 2013, has won the Best International Novel at the
32nd Sharjah International Book Fair. The awards ceremony recognises the
contributions of authors, publishers and other cultural figures to the
intellectual life of the Arab world. Other winners included Mohammed Muhib
Jabr’s 6000 Miles, for Best Arabic Novel, and Ali Abualreesh’s An Exceptional
Woman, for Best Emirati Book by an Emirati Creative Writer. Vauxhall is a tender and sometimes dark portrait
of a young boy looking for his place in inner city multicultural London amidst the slum
clearances of the 1970s. Gbadamosi writes
with wit and compassion about the experiences of those that arrived on
England’s shores looking for a better
life. You can find out more on the Telegram website here.
Oooh, those luvvies in the media have been going
billy bonkers for the National Theatre
Story by Daniel Rosenthal,
published by Oberon Books; there is simply masses of scrumptious
publicity for this fabulous title dahlings! This weekend there will be a big
lead review, with colour picture in the Sunday Times Culture section,
including a picture feature on the National's anniversary, with images of its
best productions. Then coming soon are reviews in the Spectator (Croall),
the Economist (Lucy Farmer), the Sunday Telegraph (Cavendish), the
Observer and The Stage. This definitive, authorized account takes
readers from the National Theatre’s 19th‐century origins, through false dawns in the early
1900s, onto its hard‐fought inauguration in 1963 at the Old Vic and on to
its concrete, South Bank home, whose three theatres have since 1976 hosted more
than 700 productions. It’s certain to be essential reading for theatre lovers
and students and is packed with photographs and more than 100 new interviews
with directors, playwrights and actors.
Of course one of the most interesting recent
innovations by the National Theatre is the cinema screenings of successful plays
– so that those who can’t get to London can share the love. I personally think
this is a terrific idea – and you can watch a
few of the success stories here.
Don’t forget about the massively successful Bluffer’s Guide series when you are planning your
Christmas window displays! Perfect as stocking fillers present for those hard to
buy for relations – new titles are being added to the range all the time and the
stylish covers mean they look great displayed as a set. You can see the full
collection on the bluffers.com website here.
And talking of Christmas window displays, if you’re
short of inspiration, then why not have a look here for some ideas! I think the trees made out of
books look terrific – although my personal favourite is the one made out of gold
cushions!
Look Up Glasgow by Adrian Searle and
David Barbour published by Freight is a stunning coffee table
book of Glasgow’s world-class architectural detail,
hidden in plain sight at the tops of the city’s iconic buildings. There will be
some terrific publicity in Scotland coming up – a massive five page article in the Herald on
Saturday on 23rd Nov and then an Evening Times double page article
the following week so let’s hope you Scottish booksellers will reap the benefits
in sales! This book contains some stunning photography of Glasgow’s hidden
architectural heritage - one of the world’s great Victorian cities as you’ve
never seen it before and also includes poems inspired by the photographs from
six leading Scottish poets. Look Up
Glasgow will be a beautiful surprise to residents, visitors and
non-residents of Glasgow alike, demonstrating that it is much
more than just another post-industrial British city. It is a book that those
passionate about the city and of architecture will treasure.
Here’s a little heads-up for a terrific debut novel,
containing humour with a bite, published in January from Skyscraper
publications. Good for Nothing by
Brandon Graham is about a week when Flip
Mellis tries to rid himself of excess weight and solve the problems of his life.
This is a novel in which peaks of humour and troughs of tragedy intermingle as
the hero tries to get his life together, after a suicide attempt – like much
else in his life – fails to achieve its goal. Overweight, weak-willed, and quick
to criticise others, Flip has a self-fulfilling fatalism which leads him to
stumble through each day, hoping against hope that he can get a job, mend his
marriage and rebuild his life. Perceptively observed characters from American
small-town life populate the book in hilarious cameos and get in the way of
Flip’s well-meaning attempts to reform himself. Reading copies are available –
just email pat@compass-dsa.co.uk if you’d like one – and one of
our hawk-eared team heard none other than Andrew Marr mention that he was
thoroughly enjoying it a couple of weeks ago! He happened to say (during a
publication dinner for his own book!) that the book he was really loving at the
moment was Good for Nothing and thought
it was brilliant and a marvellously sustained comic voice! This could be the
beginning of another Compass word of mouth success story!
“There is nothing to be frightened of. It is all
magic.” Certainly some of the ideas
which previously belonged to the realms of fairytales and folklore – creating a
baby outside the womb for example – are now entirely possible, thanks to the
wonders of science. That link between contemporary scientific research and
ancient myth is explored to great effect in Moss
Witch by Sara Maitland; the
first collection of fiction from this internationally-acclaimed author in over
nine years which was published by Comma Press in September. Each of the stories in the book began as
collaboration with a scientist; and has grown out of a current piece of
research. Each story also comes with a specially written afterword, penned by
the scientist, and expanding upon the theory within the story – be it quantum
mechanics, planetary physics, game theory, or nanotechnology. Each enacts a
daring piece of alchemy, fusing together specific pieces of contemporary
scientific research with an ancient myth or a folkloric archetype. As the
laboratory smoke settles, we meet witches that can outwit botanists, religious
soothsayers that read evolutionary biology in feverish dreams, scientists that
fall in love with the birds they study….
We start today with some very exciting news – as
featured in today’s Bookseller. Biteback have just signed a
sensational book on the Profumo affair written by Geoffrey Robertson QC. The book, Stephen Ward was Innocent, OK: The Case for Overturning his
Conviction is an exploration of the trial of the 1960s society figure
at the centre of the case. Ward, who introduced MP John Profumo to showgirl
Christine Keeler, was prosecuted for living from the profits of prostitution,
and killed himself on the last day of the trial. Robertson critiques the trial, and says: "The
conviction of Stephen Ward stands as the worst unrequited miscarriage of justice
in modern British history, and it is now time it was overturned."
Publication will tie in with the opening of Andrew Lloyd-Webber's latest
musical, Stephen Ward, and an ITV documentary on the same subject which
will be screened in December. The story is also explored in new play
Keeler, which opens this week at London's Charing Cross Theatre. This mega book
will be published in December and there is no doubt that it will attract a great
deal of attention. The author, who is a world renowned QC, has convincing
evidence that Stephen Ward was innocent and his suicide before sentence was the
result of establishment forces ranged against him. This scandal brought down a
government and the revelations in the book will be of huge interest to the press
and public. Robinson will attempt to get the conviction quashed, and the book is
a key part of that process. There will be a televised press conference featuring
Mandy Rice Davis to announce the application, and Andrew Lloyd Webber will also
be part of the publicity thrust. Have a look at the AI to get all the details on
the case – this is going to be absolutely explosive stuff!
I think we can say that following Halloween and
Bonfire Night we are all definitely on the countdown to Christmas – let’s hope
your tills are starting to jingle and jangle already! Certainly the papers have
already started to feature their annual lists of Christmas gift ideas –and
Health and Fitness Magazine recommends The
Joy of Cycling by Ray Hamilton
and The Joy of Running by Paul Owen as ideal presents for the fitness
enthusiast in your life. I’m not entirely certain that these are
precisely what I’d want to find in my stocking personally – The Joy of a
Chocolate Orange would be more my type of thing – but these pocket-sized
miscellanies are packed with fascinating facts, handy hints and captivating
stories and quotes and are perfect for anyone who knows the incomparable joy of
bikes or new trainers!
They both contain bite-sized, visually appealing
information from all areas of the sport, for newbies and veterans alike; and are
nicely produced £9.99 hardbacks with black and white illustrations from
Summersdale.
If you haven’t got a book on the go at the moment,
then I can highly recommend this next title from Gallic which is
published next February – and we have 15 proofs to give away to the first
booksellers to email us with their details! The
People in the Photo by Hélène
Gestern is a multi-prize-winning debut novel which has had sales of
10,000 in France and won fifteen literary
awards. This dark yet touching drama deftly explores the themes of blame and
forgiveness, identity and love – centring around a photograph taken in 1971
which sets two people on the path to uncovering the truth about their parents
and themselves. Parisian archivist Hélène takes out a newspaper advert seeking
information about her mother, who died when she was three, and the two men
pictured with her in a photograph taken at a tennis tournament at Interlaken in 1971.Stéphane, a Swiss biologist living in
Kent, responds: his father is one of
the people in the photo. More letters and more photos pass between them as they
embark on a journey to uncover the truth their parents kept from them. But will
the images and documents from the past fill the silences left by the players?
Email your name and address to Pat@compass-dsa.co.uk with People in the Photo in the subject line, and we’ll
send you out a bound proof today!
I’ve mentioned this title before when it was
published in August; but the British Television
Location Guide from Splendid Books is abut to get a huge boost
as the million copy selling Mirror is featuring a big spread on it this
weekend. This fascinating book reveals the real-life filming locations for loads
of top television series including Downton Abbey, Broadchurch,
Call The Midwife, The White Queen, Sherlock, Doc
Martin, Midsomer Murders, Endeavour, Doctor Who,
Lewis and many more. Lavishly illustrated with photographs of top stars
including Martin Clunes, Dame Judi Dench and David Tennant the book is the
essential companion for viewers and tourists alike - and a comprehensive record
of where TV programmes are filmed and how you can visit the locations. Compiled
by Steve Clark and television expert
Shoba Vazirani, it reveals the secret
settings for dozens of top television shows. From Broadchurch to Mr
Selfridge and from Game of Thronesto The Fall; The British Television Location Guide gives
details of how you can visit the filming locations that you have seen so many
times on the television.
Well, never mind telling us where all these fab
series were filmed – what about telling us what is going to happen in them –
that would be a bit more use! I personally would like to see the publication of
the British Television Spoilers Guide, so that we can find the plot lines of
Broadchurch, Downton, Doctor Who,
Sherlock etc way before our friends do, and then spend endless hours down
the pub ruining everyone else’s fun. This
trailer gives us some information (is that Benedict Cumberbatch alive
and well I see?) – but not enough quite frankly!
Exciting news for one of our Carcanet poets;
Rebecca Goss has won the East Anglian
Book Awards (poetry category) for Her
Birth. The death of a baby daughter inspires a candid, piercing study
of grief and as Helen Dunmore commented: “The poems in Her Birth unfold their
story of love, loss and grief for a baby daughter with pared-down precision and
scorching intensity.” In 2007 Goss’s daughter died, at sixteen months, of a
rare and incurable heart condition. This is her book-length elegy. The book
begins with Ella’s birth, short life and her death, and ends with the joyous and
confounding birth of another child.
From the sublime to the ridiculous. Do you know what
a shy cock is? Or where your Twiddle diddles are? I’ll give you a clue – one’s
rude – one isn’t – and it’s probably not the one you’d think! Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue: A Dictionary of Buckish
Slang, University Wit and Pickpocket Eloquence by Francis Grose from Hesperus was featured in
the main section of the Sun newspaper this week. Originally printed as a
guide to street slang for men of quality, The
Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue is a gem! The avowed purpose of the
dictionary was to give men ‘of fashion’ an insight into the inappropriate
language of the street. Read in modern times it is by turn uproariously funny
and deeply confusing and yet certain truths have remained. There’s no doubt that
many of the words should be brought back into common parlance forthwith: we
certainly need a term for “One who from drunkenness vomits into the lap of
the person sitting opposite to him.” We have perhaps less use for a word such as
“dobin rig” which is means “Stealing ribbons from haberdashers early
in the morning or late at night.” Learn how the Georgians and early
Victorians would insult each other and find out how some of today's words and
derivations have come about in this quirky little volume. Anyone who, like
me, is a fan of Paul O’ Grady will
realise that this little hardback compendium is likely to be right up his street
– and indeed we have just heard that
The Paul O’Grady Show (Channel 4) have expressed an interest in featuring the book during the new
series which starts Monday 11th November. Make sure you have it on prominent
display – as the Telegraph said “This book was a runaway success when
published in 1811 by soldier Francis Grose, but now The Dictionary Of The Vulgar
Tongue is getting tongues wagging again”
22nd November 2013 marks the 100th anniversary of
the birth of the great English composer Benjamin
Britten. To commemorate this momentous centenary, Carcanet are
delighted to announce the publication of an anthology of the poems which Britten
set to music, Benjamin Britten’s Poets
edited by Boris Ford. Nicholas Lezard
writing in the Guardian called this “An excellent idea, brilliantly
and meticulously edited... this is a superb, eclectic anthology, a commonplace
book dedicated to Britten’s soul.” Benjamin
Britten was a great reader of poetry, and poetry profoundly affected
his musical genius and style of composition. Friendships and collaborations with
writers – Auden and Forster among them – left their mark. No other composer of
songs, not even Schubert or Schumann, set poems of such range and quality. All
the 360 poems Britten set are included in this book. They range from Donne's
complex 'Holy Sonnets' to the deceptive simplicity of Blake's 'Oh rose thou art
sick'. They include anonymous ballads, modern work and poems in other languages
with translations.
Funeral Blues by WH Auden is a well known poem; partly due
to the incredibly moving performance of it by John Hannah in Four Weddings
and a Funeral; but its setting to music by Britten is much less well known –
and in my opinion is equally powerful. Watch it here performed by the soprano Alexia
Mankovskaya
Some 2014 guide book titles to let you know about.
Firstly, Signpost 2014: The 75th Edition
Guide is the definitive UK hotel directory listing 150 of the finest
hotels in Great
Britain. The guide includes luxury country
house hotels set in beautiful grounds, small hotels with log fires and cosy
bedrooms deep in the heart of quiet country villages, or smart townhouse hotels
with 21st century facilities. They all have that something special – style,
comfort, warmth of welcome, fabulous food, with plenty to see and do in the area
and have been stayed at or inspected by our team. Every hotel featured in this
guide has that something special - no run-of-the mill hotels are included! This
guide is packed with colour images, detailed descriptions, and special indexes
by hotel facility together with colour route planning maps.
And secondly, three
paperbacks from Visit Britain Publishing – which are the official tourist
board guides to star-rated B&Bs, hotels and other guest accommodation in
England. B&Bs and Hotels, Self Catering and Camping Touring and Holiday Parks are all easy to
search by region, county or town and contain pictures of every single type of
accommodation. They will tell you where
to go, what to do and how to get there – everything you need for in fact a great
British Holiday. All of these titles are published in January
2014.
And we can’t mention the finest hotels in
Britain without featuring a
clip from what is probably the worst hotel in Britain –
although I must admit, I think I would very much enjoy a visit! Here’s an 8
minute clip on YouTube showing you some of Basil’s best
bits!
To finish with I have some very very exciting news
indeed! Next spring, Max Ström Publishing is bringing out ABBA: The Official Photo Book. This amazing £35
hardback has a foreword by all four members of ABBA - Agnetha, Björn, Benny and
Frida – who said “I am thrilled with all of these pictures, some of which I
am seeing now for the very first time. The book provides a real trip
down Memory
Lane.” This book is going to be totally mega – I
won’t say any more just now, but you can watch the promo video for the book here which gives you
some idea of the wealth of extraordinary material that this title will contain!
These days, often the first sign that a book is
going to become a word of mouth hit is when all the online bloggers and book
clubs start raving about it. Such a book is Black
Chalk by Albert Alla. Bookhuggercalls it “Well
written, deceptively easy to read and almost impossible to put down; this is a
story that will shock you, make you think, and stay with you for a long time
after you’ve read the last page.”Liz Loves Books said
“It’s hard to put into words what I feel about this one … it got me right at
the heart and is unlikely to let go for a while. Beautiful writing … truly
brilliant, unequivocally stunning and often heart wrenching drama.”
Reviewers on Amazon are calling Black
Chalk“heartbreaking”, “poignant”, “memorable”
and “gripping”. “This is a taut psychological thriller on a theme that
is deeply relevant to the modern world with shades of Ian McEwan”. The book
is set In the Oxfordshire countryside, where a student walks into a classroom
and starts shooting. Nate, friends with the shooter and victims alike, is the
only surviving witness. Easily led and eager to please, his recollections weave
around others’ hopes and expectations, until he loses track of what really
happened that day. This chilling contemporary novel is an unsettling tale of
violence, retribution, passion and guilt, which takes the reader on an edgy
journey into twenty-first century morality. Albert
Alla’s literary thriller is a confronting, morally ambiguous tale of
redemption and responsibility in the face of devastating and unexpected
violence. There is some publicity for it already confirmed – there is an
interview with Albert Alla in
Cherwell magazine and also on BBC Radio Oxford, and there will be
more to come. Although this title is published this month, you may not know
about this book as it is published by Garnet Publishing – one of the
Compass Academic lists – but you can find out more and order Black Chalk here.
Lots in the news this week – as there seems to be
every week – about schools – are they better/worse than they used to be and are
our lovely British children stupider/cleverer/lazier than kids in the rest of
the world? One thing’s for sure, everyone enjoys a bit of entertaining
reminiscing about their own school days … the exams, the classroom fun, the
sticky situations we managed to get out of, the work we avoided and the teachers
we annoyed. F in School: Blunders, Backchat and Bad
Excuses by Richard Benson is
the latest paperback in this bestselling series from Summersdale. An
ideal present; teachers and pupils will thoroughly enjoy this new collection of
hilarious exam answers, along with schoolyard jokes, amusing doodles, silly
excuses, spelling slip-ups and loads more! This series, which includes F in Exams (978 1 84024 700 8) and F in Retakes (978 1 84953 313 3) has now sold over
330,000 copies.
And what about a bit of reminiscing of our own?
Who’s old enough to remember the fabulous Grange Hill – here's the
first ever episode. Groundbreaking in its time (1978) I must admit it
all looks a bit tame now compared to the hilarious Bad Education; watch the
first episode here and see which you prefer!
We all remember the fascinating and hugely popular
BBC Radio 4 series A History of the World in 100 Objects – and the
massive book that sold by the bucketload as a result of it. Well, this Christmas
here’s something even more thought provoking: A
History of the Future in 100 Objects. What are the 100 objects,
ideas, developments, or events that future historians will use to sum up our
century? Smart drugs that change the way we think? A wedding ring between a
human and an AI? A society which no longer has work to do? A cure for hate?
Adrian Hon’s eloquent, playful and
informed survey explores what the future might hold – not just in the fields of
technology and science, but also religion, advertising, wars, economics,
fashion, education and politics in a hundred essays, in the style of personal
experiences, newspaper stories, official reports and scientific papers. Each
chapter, a hybrid of near fact and outright fiction, tells its own story of
individual dreams and collective lives, crossing countries, continents and
entire worlds!This inverse variation on
a clever idea is a stimulating journey through the near future of humankind and
is the brainchild of technology journalist and games producer Adrian Hon; who produces games for companies like
the BBC and Microsoft, writes for the Telegraph and speaks frequently on
the future of technology. This handsome paperback is published by
Skyscraper at £14.99 and is a very graphically-rich design with
illustrations, timelines and maps.
You probably think you know what to expect from the
new edition of Hudson’s Historic Houses &
Gardens, which is published in December, and is a lavish 5600 page
£14.99 paperback with over 1,500 colour images. Hudson’s has been loved and trusted as the
definitive guide to heritage sites for 27 years and the 2014 edition brings you
information on when to visit nearly 1000 of our grandest stately homes, great
heritage gardens and undiscovered hidden gems tucked away in every corner of the
country. Gorgeous photographs throughout make planning inspirational and finding
your way is made easy with maps and directions. There is information on gardens,
Scottish clans, what families like best, festivals, poisons and much more
besides! However, did you also know that it also contains an array of
informative and entertaining articles which really bring Britain’s heritage to life including an interview
with Lady Carnarvon at her home, HighclereCastle talking about the real impact of
Downton Abbey on family life and the future of the castle? Also Alan Bennett discusses how his new play,
People, takes some familiar country house themes and challenges our
pre-conceptions; The Earl of Shaftesbury tackles the restoration of St Giles
House despite the hindrance of many small children & dogs and Baroness Young
of Hornsey reassesses what country houses can tell contemporary audiences about
the history of the slave trade. This book really does have lots to read in it as
well as being a very user friendly guide book; and you can order it here
Talking of Downton Abbey – what about a
Sesame Street version of the monster hit – yes you read that right– and you
can watch it here!
Hope everyone had a good Halloween yesterday, and
talking of the continuing allure of the macabre – don’t forget about Finding the Plot: 100 Graves to Visit Before You
Die by Ann Treneman. In this
riveting hardback (£12.99 from Robson Press) – part travelogue, part
biography, part social history – Ann
Treneman takes you to some of the most interesting graves in
Britain. You’ll meet the real War
Horse, the best ‘funambulist’ ever, Byron and his dog Boatswain, prime
ministers, queens and kings, Florence Nightingale and her pet baby owl Athena,
highwaymen, scientists, mistresses, the real James Bond and, of course, M. Then
there are writers, painters, poets, rakes and rogues, victims, the meek and mild
and the just plain mad. This unique book is made up of 100 entries, and some of
the graves are chosen for who is in them, others for the grave itself. Some of
the entries are humorous, some are poignant, but all tell us something about the
British way of death. Completely off-the-wall, this is the perfect humour and
gift title, packed with fascinating facts and the author will be promoting it
hard around its publication this month. There is an entertaining piece in the
online magazine We Love This Book about the top ten literary graves which you can read here and you
can order Finding the Plot here
Ten best Halloween scenes in films anyone? Ooh – this must
surely include ET, Mean Girls, To Kill a Mockingbird - and
only one horror film – promise!
It is 1919. On a summer’s night in Normandy a newborn baby
is left in a basket outside the home of Albert and Jeanne Arnaud. The childless
couple take the foundling in, name him Jean and decide to raise him as their
own, though his parentage remains a mystery. The
Foundling Boy by Michel Déon
is a literary novel, lightly told, and is a classic of modern French fiction. It
is published by Gallic Press in December and is a fantastic portrait of
inter-war France – those of us in the Compass
office who have read it have absolutely adored it. It would appeal to all those readers who love
Evelyn Waugh, The Great Gatsby, The Forsyte Saga or The
Go-Between.
Fab publicity in the Guardian this week for
Wanksy: Interpreting a Graffiti Virtuoso
published by Summersdale. This book really has the potential to become a
cult title; as the Guardian blog says, it cleverly takes a massive swipe
at everyday graffers, and by extension our entire society for humouring artists
like Banksy. Guardian blogger Jonathan Jones writes, “If there's one
thing more pretentious than graffiti art – the throwaway turned into the
priceless – it's books about graffiti art. They treat so-so street art as if it
were by Titian and aim for the coffee tables of the middle class with their
colour spreads of Banksy masterpieces. I can't, therefore, resist noting an
alternative art book that deserves a spot on your Christmas wish list. It is
called Wanksy: Interpreting a Graffiti
Virtuoso. The authors, Marc Blakewill and
James Harris, have gone around photographing street art – except it
ain't art. They have sought out some of the basest, most moronic everyday
graffiti and reproduced it in full-page colour pictures with texts that analyse
it in a deadpan fashion. Having written about Banksy three times in a month, I
get the joke. For instance, some fool has scrawled MILLWALL in blue paint over a
("proper" graffiti artist's?) white stencil of a deer, and enhanced its anatomy.
The authors lyrically comment: "Millwall; a white deer; a dangling blue penis.
As enigmatic as the quatrains of Nostradamus, as mystifying as hieroglyphics,
one could gaze at this in awe for hours." Enter a world of giraffes with
giant knobs, yuppie defenders and nonsensical street names – you can look at
some of the images from Wanksy on the Guardian website here and you can order Wanksy here
And finally – if you've always thought you could do
better than some of the covers that publisher’s book designers come up with –
have a look at these alternative covers for Shakespeare's plays on Shortlist.com Cool Stuffand add your comments to the debate!
