Compass 21st Birthday Party

Compass customers, clients and colleagues joined together at Linden House on the banks of the Thames in West London to celebrate twenty-one years of innovation, expertise, camaraderie and sales success! Below is a selection of photos from the evening. Thanks to all who came and helped to make it the marvellous occasion that it was!

Compass Points 317

Do you pull out your phone at every idle moment? Do hours slip away as you mindlessly scroll? Allen Carr's Easyway offers a brilliant method of tackling this reliance, applying tried and tested addiction strategies to the digital world. Smart Phone Dumb Phone: Free Yourself from Digital Addiction (978 1788280860, pb, £9.99) unravels the brainwashing process behind this addictive behaviour and is a unique method that does not require willpower and removes the addiction to constantly look at your mobile easily, painlessly and permanently. There is a nationwide publicity campaign for this one, kicking off with some terrific publicity in the Daily Express who said "The Allen Carr method has helped millions quit smoking. Now its experts are determined to tackle the UK's obsession with digital devices" and the Mirror who wrote "You'll be aware of how your devices affect you and most of all, you will enjoy the feeling of regaining control." It’s just been published by Arcturus.

Here is the article in the Metro we mentioned last week by Mike Wendling author of Pluto’s Alt-Right: From 4chan to the White House (£12.99, pb, 978 0745337456). Both this article and the book are a vital guide to understanding the serious threats posed by this white nationalist, anti-feminist, far-right movement.

“If we would learn what the human race really is at bottom,” wrote Mark Twain in 1885, “we need only observe it at election time.” Sex, Lies and Politics (£9.99, pb, 978 1785905063) which is new in September from Biteback, shows that the more we learn about voters, the more we realise how right he was. Written by leading political experts, it draws on surveys, studies and polls to reveal what makes voters tick. It covers the things that really matter, like how attractive the candidates are, what letters their surnames begin with, when they lie to pollsters, why men in particular make things up and how Remainers think they have a better sex life. At once funny, revealing and shocking, this is a witty examination of what really stimulates the voting public. Cowley and Ford are the authors of Sex, Lies and the Ballot Box (978 1849547550), which has sold over 4,500 copies to date. Channel 4 News said “This is the perfect navigation kit for the inevitable general election coming towards us. Buy it, read it and assume the brace position,” while Sky commented that “This book answers everything you want to know about UK politics but were afraid to ask.” Daniel Finkelstein in the Times said “I am really excited about this book. Politics is like anything: you can’t know something, really know it, unless you have used proper scientific methods to find it out. Read it, or remain a ‘Don’t know’ – those are your alternatives.”

Recent scandals at Save the Children and Oxfam have raised questions about the scale, power and role of international non-governmental organisations (INGOs). Drawing on his experience working with large and small, international and local INGOs in over 40 countries, and also on his own academic research, Terry Gibson addresses these questions head on. Making Aid Agencies Work (pb, £24.99, 978 1787695122) has just been published by Emerald, and there was a big piece on it in the August issue of the Big Issue entitled The Aid Industry Isn’t Working and This is Why which you can read here. Development Entrepreneur Dr Simon Batchelor said "Never afraid to ask the difficult questions and to come up with challenging answers, Gibson digs under the surface of recent problems in the aid industry and provides disruptive and innovative solutions."

Here's a very interesting article about James Daunt in the New York Times entitled Can Britain’s Top Bookseller Save Barnes & Noble? Loads of fascinating titbits of intriguing info, lots of good press for some of our favourite Waterstone’s shops including the fabulous Waterstones in Horsham, and it even mentions a Biteback book, Bloody Southerners: Clough and Taylor's Brighton & Hove Odyssey by Spencer Vignes (pb, £12.99, 978 1785904363). Enjoy!

The celebrations for Carcanet’s 50th birthday begin this autumn, and run through until summer 2020. If any bookseller wants to talk about hosting a poetry event in their shop, then please get in touch with Jazmine@carcanet.co.uk or Becky@carcanet.co.uk. It would be useful to know which authors you ideally would like to invite; whether there are any poets local to you who might like to get involved; which Carcanet books sell best for you and also whether you have a shop budget for authors’ travel expenses! The first Carcanet Jubilee event is Poetry Ireland in Dublin on Friday 25 Oct. This promises to be a wonderful day of presentations, discussions and readings exploring the relationships between publisher and poet over the years and Irish poetry beyond Ireland. You can find out more on the Carcanet website here.

The mental health of the nation’s children could not be a more relevant topic with a new study this week uncovering how heavy social media use disrupts girls’ mental health in particular, that research is here. There has also been plenty of coverage of the fact that the mental health services available to young people are something of a postcode lottery as this article on the BBC website confirms. A good opportunity therefore to suggest you stock these four excellent titles from Critical, which have been praised by the academic community as “very valuable,” “accessible” and “absolutely excellent.”. Meeting the Mental Health Needs of Children 4-11 Years (978 1912508082), Positive Mental Health: A Whole School Approach (978 1912096084), Meeting the Mental Health Needs of Learners 11-18 Years (978 1912508129) and perhaps most relevantly Social Media and Mental Health in Schools (978 1912508167) are all by Jonathan Glazzard and Colin Mitchell and are paperbacks, £15.99. Jonathan is an experienced teacher educator and the professor attached to the Carnegie Centre of Excellence for Mental Health in Schools. Colin is passionate about empowering students and academics to harness technology to enhance teaching and learning and a firm believer that technology is not always the answer and sometimes the best approach can be a simple one.

Next Tuesday (20th August) there will be an interview on BBC Radio 5 Live’s Afternoon Edition with Nial Giacomelli talking about his mesmerising debut novella The Therapist (£7.99, pb, 978 1912054909) which is currently Book of the Month for August for Foyles Royal Festival Hall.  This bittersweet and hauntingly surreal tale has just been published by Fairlight Moderns. Everyone who have read this one is absolutely raving about it, for example: “Read the synopsis of this book and then dismiss any assumptions you may have about it. It’s a dystopian-horror-sci-fi-fantasy novella all wrapped up in a stunning 118-page bundle. I don’t say this easily – this is, without doubt, one of my favourite books so far this year. It took me about two hours to read, devour, demolish and it was flipping amazing.”

Part memoir, part social history and a call to action, Constitution Street (£12.99, 978 1912489206) by Jemma Neville is getting plenty of publicity. Her event at Edinburgh International Book Festival next week has sold out, with its director Nick Barley, saying “I love this book. It's a gorgeously written, authentic and genuinely hopeful text which manages to be local and universal.” There was a full spread in the Scotsman last weekend, talking all about the book and the street. You can read the piece here. David Robinson also reviewed Constitution Street in Books from Scotland saying “Constitution Street is informative, empathetic, and almost certainly the best on the market. It will probably remain so for a long time" You can read the full review here. It’s published by 404Ink.

Comma’s The Sea Cloak by Nayrouz Qarmout (£9.99, pb 978 1905583782) has gathered some of its first coverage in the wake of EIBF events. There’s a review here, a piece in the Scotsman here, and a feature here. Whether following the daily struggles of orphaned children fighting to survive in the rubble of recent bombardments, or mapping the complex, cultural tensions between different generations of refugees in wider Gazan society, these stories offer rare insights into one of the most talked about, but least understood cities in the Middle East. Taken together, the collection affords us a local perspective on a global story.

Don’t forget to listen out for The Woman in the White Kimono (£8.99, pb, 978 1789550696) by Ana Johns which will be featured on the Radio 2 Book Club this coming Monday 19th August. Ana will be interviewed on the Jo Whiley Show at 7pm; this show is terrific publicity for any title as there is always a lengthy discussion of the book, and then listeners call in to say how much they love it! The Woman in the White Kimono is a heartfelt portrait of one woman torn between her culture and her heart, and another woman on a quest for truth. It’s published by Legend and is inspired by the true story of Ana John’s father, who as an American US Navy soldier in the 1950s fell in love with a Japanese girl. Their relationship was ultimately stopped by cultural pressures and Ana has done extensive research into the thousands of love stories that were thwarted and babies abandoned.

When Valerie Pirie interviewed for her first secretarial job after college, she did not expect to end up working for Stirling Moss. Regarded as the greatest driver who was never crowned world champion, he would become not only her new boss, but a lifelong friend. Now she opens up about the man behind the steering wheel in a playful and moving memoir recounting anecdotes from the track, the office and nights out with one of the best-known names in motor racing. Whether at Goodwood, Le Mans or the Nürburgring, Pirie was there beside Moss to witness the wins and losses and of course, his career-ending crash in 1962. Never just colleagues, the pair were true companions, and this book brings to light the story of their enduring friendship from the classic post-war era of motor racing through to today. Ciao Stirling (978 1785904639, £20, hb) is out on 3 September and there will be an extract from this title in Motorsport magazine, an interview with Val in People’s Friend and a review in Classic and Sports Car.

If you’d like to see a bit of the great Stirling Moss in action, then have a look at this highly nostalgic four minutes of old footage.

And in this week’s Hot Topics, here's Quentin Tarantino talking about his favourite music, here's Nessa from Gavin and Stacey telling fans to stay quiet while they film the 2019 Christmas special, and following the UEFA Super Cup, here are some other disastrous penalty kicks – or brilliant saves, depending on your point of view!

Compass Points is now on holiday. More in a fortnight!

This weekly blog is written for the UK book trade. If you would like to order any of the titles mentioned, then please talk to your Compass Sales Manager, or call the Compass office on 020 8326 5696. Every Friday an e-newsletter containing highlights from the blog is sent out to over 700 booksellers and if you’d like to receive this then please contact nuala@compassips.london

Compass Points 316

The first three books have been announced in the Guardian’s annual Not the Booker Prize shortlist. They are The Unauthorised Biography of Ezra Maas and Please Read This Leaflet Carefully both of which are published by Dead Ink Books and also Skin (£8.99, pb, 978 1789550405) by Liam Brown which, hurrah, is published by the fabulous Legend! The next stage is to lengthen their shortlist to six books by announcing the final three choices: one from last year’s judges and one from each of the two nominated book champions for this year who are Storyhouse Library in Chester and Golden Hare Books in Edinburgh; those choices will be announced next week. You can see all the details on the award here.  Reviewers have already heaped praise on Skin calling it a “lyrical dystopian fever dream” and saying “If Brave New World and 1984 were combined and whisked into this century, they couldn't be more impressive than Liam Brown's superb story.” A strange virus is sweeping the globe and humans have become allergic to one another. Simply standing next to somebody could be a death sentence. A kiss could be fatal.  People are confined to their rooms, communicating via their computers and phones. In some ways, very little has changed…

Where do you stand on the Elgin Marbles? Well, if you think of them as the “Elgin” Marbles at all, then that’s maybe not a good start. The biggest question in the world of art and culture concerns the return of property taken without consent. Throughout history, conquerors or colonial masters have taken artefacts from subjugated peoples, who now want them returned. A new book by the celebrated lawyer Geoffrey Robertson QC, Who Owns History? (£20, hb, 978 1785905216) offers a system for the return of cultural property based on human rights law principles. It’s out from Biteback in November, and we’ve just had a great endorsement from Stephen Fry who called it “A book that proves beyond any reasonable doubt that the Parthenon Marbles belong back in Athens. Elgin’s heist prevents the modern world appreciating this ancient wonder – created by the same people who gave us democracy, philosophy and (best of all) comedy. Other cultural crimes must also be redressed, and in this important book Geoffrey Robertson shows why, and how.” This title is going to attract a huge amount of debate and I think many people will be very interesting in reading Robertson’s arguments.

It's the summer hols, it’s time for some light romance, and The Purrfect Pet Sitter (£7.99, pb, 978 1912550111) by Carol Thomas is ideal! As readers have pointed out, this engaging and witty tale is the purrfect read whether you’re cooped up in a caravan or lounging on a lilo! There’s been a lot of publicity for its author Carol Thomas who was interviewed on BBC Radio Sussex this week, featured on Female First and there’s more to come. If you’d like a reading copy of this story of friendship, love and dogs which was published this week by Choc Lit, then please email your name and bookshop address to info@choc-lit.co.uk with Purrrrrrfect in the subject line!

And staying on the canine theme, Pets by Royal Appointment: The Royal Family and Their Animals (pb, £9.99, 978 1785905100), which is new from Biteback has just had a feature in The Lady. With intimate anecdotes and fascinating detail, royal author Brian Hoey describes the mini palaces provided for the Queen's pampered corgis, Princess Anne's badly-behaved bull terriers and the wild animals including crocodiles, hippos and an elephant presented to princes and princesses. Exploring a seemingly eternal regal passion for all things canine and equine, Hoey also turns his attentions to the modern royal family's love of animals, celebrating the latest arrivals to both William's and Harry's new households. From the corgi dynasty to the Jack Russells rescued from Battersea Dogs Home, Pets By Royal Appointment presents a very British family besotted with all creatures great and small.

What a brilliant line up for the Cork International Short Story Festival 2019 on 25 September including events with two Comma authors. Nayrouz Qarmout’s The Sea Cloak (pb, £9.99, 978 1905583782) is a collection of fourteen stories by this author, journalist, and women’s rights campaigner. Drawing from her own experiences growing up in a Syrian refugee camp, as well as her current life in Gaza, these stories stitch together a patchwork of different perspectives into what it means to be a woman in Palestine today. The stories in Sara Maitland’s collection Moss Witch (pb, £9.99, 978-1905583423) enact a daring kind of alchemy, fusing together raw elements of scientific theory with ancient myth, folkloric archetype and contemporary storytelling. Each of them sprang from a conversation with a scientist and grew directly out of cutting-edge research; the Guardian said of it “she has built bridges that may tempt new minds across to science. How ingenious.” You can find out more about the Cork Festival here.

More great publicity for Safe Haven’s A Field of Tents and Waving Colours: Neville Cardus Writing on Cricket (hb, £14.99, 978 1916045309) with a massive review in Wisden Cricket Monthly. This title has sold out in its first a fortnight of publication and is now reprinting, thanks very much to all of your booksellers who have supported it so far, and if you haven’t ordered it yet, what are you waiting for?! This title ties in perfectly with the major new biography of Cardus, The Great Romantic just published by Hodder and this handsome small hardback should sell and sell.

Lots of publicity and events for Animals Eat Each Other by Elle Nash (£9.99, 978 1912489169) which was published this spring by 404Ink. Picked by the I Paper as one of the best debuts for 2019 and described by Oprah.com as a “edgy, erotic fiction”; Animals Eat Each Other tells the story of a young woman with no name who embarks on a fraught three-way relationship with Matt, a tattoo artist, and his girlfriend Frances, a new mum. As she grows closer to Matt, she begins to recognise the dark undertow of obsession and jealousy that her presence has created. With stripped-down prose and unflinching clarity, Nash examines madness in the wreckage of love, and the loss of self that accompanies it. It just got a great review in DIVA magazine who said that it "explores sexuality, obsession, and hard lessons with an honesty and clarity that does these topics justice." Elle will be in the UK (for the first time since she was born here!) from 19th - 25th August and there are events for her lined up across London and Edinburgh and central Scotland. You can see the details of all those events here.

If you’d like an intelligent, curated snapshot of the week’s most interesting news, then you may like to take a look at Policy Press Weekly, the latest issue is here. Lots to look at from this independent, not-for-profit academic publisher, focusing on social issues.

I am absolutely loving this superb window display for The Therapist, the mesmerising debut novella by Nial Giacomelli (£7.99, pb, 978 1912054909) at Foyles at the Royal Festival Hall in London where it is their Book of the Month for August. In this bittersweet and hauntingly surreal tale, a couple finds the distance between them mirrored in a strange disease sweeping the globe. Little by little, each victim becomes transparent, their heart beating behind a visible rib cage, an intricate network of nerves left hanging in mid-air. Finally, the victims disappear entirely, never to be seen again. This is at once a haunting study of grief, a post-apocalyptic dystopia, and ghost story of sorts. ⁠It’s just been published by Fairlight Moderns.

The horrendous shooting in El Paso has everyone looking for answers, and many are looking to Mike Wendling, expert on the Alt Right, to find them. Author of Pluto’s Alt-Right: From 4chan to the White House (£12.99, pb, 978 0745337456), this BBC journalist has been covering the horrible underbelly on forums like 8chan since the beginning, and writing up his finding on the Trending page he edits on the BBC. Mike featured on BBC Radio 4's World at One and Beyond Today this week and has a piece in the Metro coming out next week. Alt-Right: From 4chan to the White House is a vital guide to understanding this white nationalist, anti-feminist, far-right movement. It includes exclusive interviews with members of the movement in order to gain a deeper understanding of the movement's philosophy, history and role in politics today.

I’m looking forward to Bookshop Day on Saturday 5 October, which of course is run by Book Are My Bag, a nationwide campaign run by the BA to celebrate bookshops. It launched in 2013 and today comprises Bookshop Day and the Books Are My Bag Readers Awards. At the centre of the campaign is the iconic BAMB tote bag and since the campaign launched, over a million people have worn a Books Are My Bag to show their love for their local bookshop. Every year over a thousand bookshops around the country take part in Bookshop Day by holding special events, creating bespoke window displays and more. Good luck to everyone planning for this year’s event!

A big three-page feature entitled The 37 Therapies That Healed my Mid-life Crisis in Good Housekeeping for My Life in 37 Therapies (£9.99, pb, 978 1910453773). As one reviewer has said, this is a “disarmingly honest revelation of the author's middle-aged journey through divorce, career and relationship challenges. For sure there’s a lot to learn within the pages and the book is less expensive than therapy.” It’s published by Red Door.

In Comma news, their latest Reading the City title, The Book of Cairo featured in the University of Nevada's End of Summer Reading List, you can see full list here here. And another title from the series, The Book of Tehran, was included in The Book Satchel's #WITmonth list of 14 Books by Women in Translation 2019, that’s here. There have been  some amazing endorsements coming in for The Dressing-Up Box by David Constantine which is out next month, you can see those here. And finally, many congrats to Comma’s  CEO Ra Page who has been once again shortlisted for a hClub Award for his contribution to the publishing industry, those details are here!

And in this week’s Hot Topics – here's Will Smith performing Friend Like Me from the new Aladdin film, here are Love Island Winners Greg and Amber telling us what happens next, and here are eighteen really inspiring quotations from the great Toni Morrison. That’s all folks, more next week!

This weekly blog is written for the UK book trade. If you would like to order any of the titles mentioned, then please talk to your Compass Sales Manager, or call the Compass office on 020 8326 5696. Every Friday an e-newsletter containing highlights from the blog is sent out to over 700 booksellers and if you’d like to receive this then please contact nuala@compassips.london