Bloggerel - Alma Books and Oneworld Classics

The Water Theatre

2010-08-28T10:04:00.002+01:00

Simply the most wonderful review of Lindsay Clarke's The Water Theatre (which is out in September) in today's The Times. "A stunning, compelling tale that tackles the biggest theme of all: the existence of evil… The Water Theatre should… re-establish [Lindsay Clarke] as one of our most talented, ambitious and ground-breaking novelists. There is nothing small about this book; it is huge in scope, in energy, in heart." Etc. etc. etc. I am so thrilled for Lindsay, and I am sure there is more to come soon.

Also in today's The Times, entirely by coincidence, there is a piece I have written about the new Lightship literary awards for short stories, poetry and first chapter of a novel. I will write more extensively about this soon, as I am involved as a judge of the First Chapter competition, and Alma is one of the sponsors of this wonderful new initiative created by the novelist Simon C. Kerr (www.lightshippublishing.co.uk).

AG

Too Fast

2010-08-24T23:10:00.002+01:00

It's been a while since my last post – such a long time, in fact, that I struggled to remember how to sign in . . .

What have I been up to? Mainly, I have been busy editing Lampedusa's Letters. I thought it'd take me a day or two – it's taken me ten long days of solid work. I am exhausted – but the book is absolutely fantastic, and I can't wait to see it out.

Social and cultural life has been abuzz too. Among other things – such as a visit to Guildford and to the Imperial War Museum – Elisabetta and I had a lovely dinner with Carole Welch (Sceptre), Pete Ayrton (Serpent's Tail), Christopher Maclehose (Quercus), Bill Swainson (Bloomsbury), Nick Caistor and Amanda Hopkinson. It was a glorious evening, and publishing was not the only subject going round the table with the wine – which was even better.

We have sent to the printers another dozen titles over the past couple of weeks, and have received finished copies of many books including Alberto Manguel's All Men Are Liars, which looks fabulous. We were supposed to go to Edinburgh for Alberto's events but had to cancel because of acute Lampedusitis. Oh well – next year.

A few nice reviews of our books have appeared, including a nice mention in the last Saturday's Times by Scott Pack, who has described Bestseller as "a caustic satire on the publishing world" (thanks Scott, I owe you one!).

The Alma and Oneworld Classics Spring 2011 were signed off today, and should be available for browsing online in the next day or two, so please keep your eyes peeled.

Weather is shitty, as you may have noticed, and is making me suicidal. I miss my kids, who are coming back on 3rd September. I try to console myself with a lot of exercise at the gym – followed by Gargantuan meals at home. And readings of Milton. And blogging. Goodnight.

AG

Lunch at the Madhouse

2010-08-11T19:02:00.002+01:00

The ideal place for publishers' or agents' lunch meetings the Ristorante Manicomio (literally Madhouse Restaurant) gets my thumbs up for a lovely "piazza" atmosphere in the very heart of Chelsea (85 Duke Of York Square, close to the Saatchi Gallery) and deliciously simple food. It's a bit expensive, but I don't think rent comes cheap in that area.

I was there with Melissa of Pushkin Press, just as crazily bent on publishing translated fiction in this country as I am. Two like-minded fools having lunch at the Madhouse. How appropriate to eat there.

One of the waiters was the splitting image of Michael Schmidt of Carcanet, and I was slightly taken aback when he came over to our table with the bill. For a moment I thought that Michael had decided to turn to a much more profitable business, after many years of publishing poetry, often in translation.

But it wasn't him and, to our relief, at the end of the meal we were not taken away in a straitjacket.

AG

Rip-offs

2010-08-04T07:02:00.002+01:00

Yesterday evening we went to see Inception. We were very sceptical at first, especially when it started like a film videogame. But as we entered the story we were riveted, and so were the rest of the audience by the look of it. What was amazing, though, is that the book is a complete rip-off of many Yasutaka Tsutsui's novels written between the 1970's and today. Planting ideas in people's minds, sharing and manipulating dreams, dreams within dreams, etc., are all elements you can find in Paprika (which we published in 2008 and was adapted into a spooky but wonderful anime) or The Girl Who Leapt through Time (which we'll publish next spring). The guy who commissions the planting of the idea also looks like he's Japanese, so it's only natural that conspiracy theories are buzzing in my ears. Anyway, the movie is very well done, I must admit, whether they stole the main ideas or not.

For another two alleged rip-offs of books published by Alma, see this bloggerel entry:

http://www.bloggerel.com/2009_05_01_archive.html

and this one:

http://www.bloggerel.com/2009/06/plagiarism.html

AG

Alma is also . . .

2010-08-01T07:45:00.002+01:00

. . . the African Leaders Malaria Alliance (www.alma2015.org) of 30 African countries whose primary strategic goal is to eliminate preventable malaria deaths by 2015 by scaling up coverage of all other available interventions. There are 680,000 African children dying each year from malaria – let's try not to forget this.

I'm praying tonight. . .

2010-07-29T23:52:00.001+01:00

That when I wake up tomorrow morning Berlusconi and his government may have gone, like a terrible nightmare.

A Proud Author, and a Proud Publisher

2010-07-29T18:52:00.002+01:00

Wonderful night in town with Elisabetta and friends, with drinks in a pub near Piccadilly followed by dinner at a nice Italian restaurant. But the highlight of the evening was our visit to Waterstone's Piccadilly, where I had not been for some time, and where I was happy to spot so many of our titles, especially the classics.

I was browsing a table when I stumbled on a copy of my own Bestseller, then I checked on the shelves and it was displayed face out (as in our local branch of W's – I swear I didn't do it myself or asked for it. . .) neatly between the esteemed Galgut and Galloway.

I know that all copies will be gone before the end of the year, but there's nothing that can make you prouder, as a writer and a publisher, than finding your own book in a bookstore. . .

AG

Gordon, Gordon, Gordon. . .

2010-07-28T17:13:00.002+01:00

So the Bookseller announced that Simon & Schuster is going to publish Gordon Brown's take on the financial crisis. Is the guy a masochist? Can't he just sit still and enjoy silence and tranquillity after years of personal and public bashing?

The article says the book is still untitled. May I suggest one?

Autobiography of a Crisis.

PS: I don't vote in this country, and I am neither a Tory nor a Lib-Dem. . .

The Future is Bleak

2010-07-27T19:29:00.002+01:00

The Wylie vs the Publishing World fight is becoming fiercer by the day. I liked the articles in the Independent, especially the level-headed contribution by Profile's Andrew Franklin. I am left wondering too, in such a depressing and difficult market, who the real winner is in all this. Many people say Amazon. But let's not forget the Googles, the Apples and the Sonys of this world – the great behemoths of our digital era, who are well capable to wipe us all out in a short time. Certainly the publishers and the authors are the greatest losers – but agents too, and the entire supply chain, who is not parasitical but instrumental in making a book or an author successful.

I looked at last week's report, and noticed sales of 125 e-book units, just from one supplier. Am I happy? No. Not just because it really goes against my beliefs and ethos, not just because I prefer reading on paper than on screen, but because I can easily see how the digital products can cannibalize traditional sales in the same way as it happened for the music industry. The market will get smaller, the margins will drop even further, and we'll have fewer and fewer large-budget books, which will kill independence and diversity.

Oh well, luckily enough for the time being we still have our literary dinners where we can meet with friends and gossip to our hearts' content. Yesterday we met again with Tim Parks, and he told me stories that I wish I had heard before writing BESTSELLER. This publishing world is a total circus, and perhaps we do need an Angel of Death to force us to a new beginning, after all.

AG

The Plot Is Thickening

2010-07-23T00:29:00.006+01:00

Just back from another odyssey in Central London, where I attended one of the most entertaining readings in years courtesy of Tim Parks and the London Review of Books Bookshop. The place was absolutely crammed, so much so that I (having not booked – dah!) had to wait until everyone was sitting before finding out if there was a seat left. Miranda Seymour chaired the reading, and Tim read from TEACH US TO SIT STILL in his usual inspired fashion. I am delighted to hear that the book is doing well and getting the most glowing reviews. If you want to know everything about meditation, chicanery and anal massage, go out and buy the book before it sells out again.

After the reading, I went with Tim and his friends (some of them mutual friends) to a local pub, and after that to a local restaurant. It was a very pleasant evening, and I am hoping to catch up with Tim again before he leaves for Italy.

Talking about "Odyssey" – as soon as I came back I turned onto the Bookseller website to follow the digital saga instigated by the Wylie agency's launch of the Odyssey digital imprint. It's a total thriller, and I can't see whether this is taking us one step closer to the edge of the abyss or whether this O.K. Corral confrontation will actually be cathartic and help us come to a better understanding of the implication of the new technologies for the publishing industry.

Deep breath.

It certainly questions the role of authors, publishers and agents in unprecedented ways. Can't wait to see the next instalment. Goodnight.

AG

Pool Billiard

2010-07-22T00:42:00.003+01:00

I have just come back (and I am damn lucky I made it, on the last train just before midnight) from East London, where I spent the night playing pool and whoring with S*** A***. No, the last bit is a lie: I meant "boozing" – that's a much more honourable British pastime. Well, boozing – I only had six pints – does that qualify as a refresher in Britain?

By the way, why is it that pool billiards are so small and holes are so big in this country? Is it a game for drunks?

Anyway, it's entertaining whichever way you play it. Hic!

In the afternoon I met John Calder, who gave me the idea for a killer classic. And S*** gave me another killer idea, just when he was about to play the shot of the evening.

So, you see, you don't have to spend your day pent up in a library to come up with a good list!

AG

The Way I Look Tonight. . .

2010-07-19T18:18:00.002+01:00

Picture this: I am at home and I am wearing a mask – one of those masks hardcore cyclists and Japanese tourists wear in big cities. There's a lot of dust in our flat (someone's redecorating it) and I look really stupid.

And it's hot in here, it makes me sweat under my nose when I breathe.

I'll go out in a minute.

AG

Literary Help Needed!!!

2010-07-18T22:31:00.003+01:00

A splendid afternoon in Regent's Park for Pete Ayrton's birthday picnic (with lovely jazz music in the background courtesy of Camden Council, I suppose). It was good to catch up with him and the translator Nick Caistor (who was also celebrating his birthday), and meet some friends and make new ones.

On the way back, just when I felt I had completely forgotten about books, publishing, etc., I noticed an A4 sheet attached to the trunk of a tree as I walking home. The title, in bold letters, said "Literary Help Needed!!!" Needless to say, it attracted my attention.

Basically, it was someone looking for an editor to help him with a book he had recently finished writing. A couple of agents, apparently, had shown interest and hinted that they could secure a lucrative deal for him. The only problem is that they said the book needed some "tweaking" (scare quotes not mine). The prospective author was pleading for someone to come forward and help him put his script into shape. He was looking for someone honest and with an understanding of modern life (if I remember his words). He could not pay much, but was happy to remunerate the editor by exchanging skills – there was a note in the poster saying that he'd been a professional boxer for twenty-five years.

So if you're interested in this job, just let me know and I'll put you in touch. I think I've got the gentleman's email somewhere. Otherwise, I'll just pop down the road and copy it off the poster – I'm sure it's still there.

AG

PS: And I am now informed that there have been sightings of the same posted as far as Kew Station.

There's No Money in Books

2010-07-17T15:06:00.002+01:00

Just skimming through the Bookseller (reading it gives me the heebie-jeebies) an advert in the job section, for a position as a shop assistant at a local independent bookshop, caught my eye. They're looking for someone with two to five years of bookselling experience, with a degree in a relevant subject, who is going to be trained in due course into the role of assistant manager.

The salary they are offering is "to £11,000 a year". Unless there's a typo or this is a part-time position and they forgot to mention it, £11,000 is exactly the same salary I got when I started working for Grant & Cutler thirteen years ago – borderline minimum wages, basically.

I am not sure if they are going to get any applicants, but if they do, then things must be really bad. And this is further evidence – if we needed one – that there's absolutely no money to be made in books.

AG

Recession? What Recession?

2010-07-15T22:51:00.002+01:00

I was queuing to board the 18:28 service to Waterloo this evening when I noticed that all other passengers were staring at a spot on the platform floor near the train's doors.

I looked down and saw a one-pound coin. The train's doors opened, the passengers got onto the train one by one, the doors closed and the one-pound coin was still there on the floor when the train pulled away.

You see, we live in a part of the world where it's uncool to pick up a one-pound coin from the floor – where people can afford to walk away nonchalantly from a one-pound coin on the floor, when someone is getting throttled for even less somewhere else.

Mind you, it could have been one of those one-pound coins stuck to the floor with superglue, like the one I tried to wrangle off the asphalt in Hammersmith a few years ago. . .

Certainly people are even less fussy later on at night. I was queuing before the change dispenser at Waterloo station's toilets before boarding the 10:30 train tonight, and someone in front of me slotted in 50p and left a whole 20p below – two-thirds of a piss's worth – to be collected.

I thanked again London's generosity and moved on . . .

AG

The Longest Journey

2010-07-10T09:00:00.002+01:00

We've just sent to the printers DON QUIXOTE, the longest classics book we've published. Its spine width will be around 52mm, 5mm longer than our ANNA KARENINA, and 9mm longer than our DECAMERON.

But this isn't the longest book we've published – the prize must go to William T. Vollmann's IMPERIAL – a title that could also be applied to its size, which was a real challenge to printers. We intended to print 1,500 copies to begin with, but the printers run out of paper just over half-way through, and we were left with a little more than 1,000 copies. Its spine width is 67mm, and it's 1344 pages long. Vollmann's previous book, published by us in 2006, EUROPE CENTRAL, was a mere 42mm-er.

I must say I love short books. I remember that the initial idea behind our Hesperus series was to only have books which were exactly 100 pages long. We even experimented with a few 100-PAGE logos, but in the end decided against it because it would have limited our choice and diluted the series' branding. I think that was for the best, but the majority of the books we published were just over or under 100 pages, and I remember I was able to edit or proofread most of them personally. The same, alas, I cannot do with our Oneworld classics: the last three books we published total more than 2,000 pages.

In Europe, novella-length books are generally – if not more popular – at least as popular as long ones. In this country there's an 'Eat as much as You Like for £7.99' attitude to books. Enrico Brizzi's JACK FRUSCIANTE È USCITO DAL GRUPPO (1994) sold millions of copies in Italy, although it was only 176 pages long. Susanna Tamaro's VA' DOVE TI PORTA IL CUORE (1994), which sold 14 million copies worldwide, was well under 200 pages long. More recently, Milena Agus's MAL DI PIETRE (2008) became an international bestseller, although it's a novella barely 120 pages long. The first two books were published in the UK a few years ago, but sunk without trace, the last one was not even translated into English.

There is a big problem in this country – maybe it's a prejudice dating back to Victorian times and never shaken off (production - production - production - quantity - quantity - quantity). If you have a new-fiction book that is less than 80,000 words, you'll have an almighty struggle ahead of you to market it effectively in the English language countries. And if the book is, say, 80,000 words, you'll have to show as if it's 120,000 or 140,000 words long using a bigger typeface or bulking up the paper.

The recent winner of the Orange Prize, THE LACUNA, has been described as a "saga" by many commentators and critics, but a quick look at its bulky 688-page format will reveal that it is, more than anything else, a typesetting saga: it could have been set less generously and easily lose between 100 and 150 pages.

But size does matter over here, so on we go, publishers, wasting even more paper than we need!

AG

Head above Water

2010-07-07T22:20:00.005+01:00

I'm finally emerging from a chronic bout of busy-ness. I was hoping I could bring to you, almost in real time, a description of our glitzy Orange nights – where we met and talked with some lovely authors, including Barbara Kingsolver, the deserving Orange winner – of my lightning trip to Monselice to collect a translation prize, of various reviews on our Alma and Oneworld Classics titles (including a couple of reviews of Bestseller by Boyd Tonkin in the Independent and by Jonathan Keates in the TLS), of the premiere of Idomeneo at the Coliseum, and all the latest gossip from the publishing world – but, alas, this is one of those periods where reality goes much faster than my key-bashing fingers. I've been editing two long books and a shorter one, trying at the same time to complete my translation of Auden and get my second novel off the ground.

While I recover and find new blogging energies, I thought I'd share with you a piece that appeared in The Times a couple of months ago, which I fear may be now pay-walled for ever. Talk to you soon.

How to Write a Bestseller

A friend once told me in a conspiratorial tone, handing me a manuscript: “Read this. It’s so bad that it could actually be very good. It could be a bestseller.” Since I started working in publishing, I have heard that magic word pronounced by a host of publishers, agents, writers, scouts, publicists, sales reps and booksellers, as if a number-one title could be conjured up by using some readily available formula. Sadly, there is much evidence to the contrary, as demonstrated by the pitiful state of publishers’ balance sheets. So what is it that does make a bestseller?

Paying six- or seven-figure advances, the method of choice of large publishing conglomerates, doesn’t seem to guarantee success. The inadequacies of this model have been exposed in a much-commented-upon article that appeared in the New York Times last year, which claimed that seven out of ten big-budget books do not earn back their advances but become, at best, prestigious loss-leaders.

Publishing what is fashionable, or trying to copy themes and ingredients of a best-selling title, is also far from foolproof. The minute the Twilight novels swept the top four spots of the UK chart, a flock of commissioning editors duly started looking around for the next Stephenie Meyer, saturating the market with hundreds of second- and third-rate imitations which barely registered on Nielsen BookScan.

Looking abroad for inspiration is another possibility, but what works in one country rarely works in another. Many observers were bemused when Anne Brontë’s Agnes Grey stormed to number six in the Swedish charts in May 2009, or when Stefan Zweig’s novella Journey into the Past climbed to number ten in France in February 2009. Out of the thousands of foreign bestsellers only a handful are able to translate their sales ranking into another language. Everyone in this country remembers Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose, Patrick Süskind’s Perfume and Carlos Ruiz Zafón’s The Shadow of the Wind, for example, but books such as Jonathan Littell’s The Kindly Ones or Paolo Giordano’s The Solitude of Prime Numbers, the fourth-highest-grossing title in Europe last year, failed to reach best-selling status in the English-speaking world.

The truth is that it is hard to predict what readers will like, and that publishing is ultimately a very subjective business, relying on the personal taste of a few individuals who, more often than not, get it terribly wrong.

Personally, I have a fatalistic vision of publishing: I believe that a bestseller is the right book published at the right time by the right people. One of the publishers who turned down Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy recently confessed to me that he still has confidence crises and sleepless nights about his fateful error of judgement. But I told him that he should not kick himself: maybe the book, if published by his company at that particular time, would have sold only a few hundred copies and joined the ranks of millions of other titles that vanish soon after they are published.

It is surprising that someone, almost fifteen years on, should lose sleep over a missed opportunity, but this is perhaps symptomatic of what is a very British obsession, namely sales – possibly a residue of the Victorian-industrialist mentality, or perhaps a consequence our own capitalist society. Otherwise, why is it that readers here assume that what sells a lot must also be good? And why are book-trade awards usually given to celebrity authors and publishers who exemplify commercial success? Dan Brown’s novels may have sold millions of copies worldwide, but what is their literary value or their impact on our culture?

As a small literary independent publisher, my belief and secret motivation is that books can be quietly successful in mysterious and often unforeseen ways: a single copy of one title can transform the life of its reader and even – forgive me the hyperbole – change the course of human history. And the losers of today may be tomorrow’s winners. Jane Austen had to finance the printing of some of her novels, which achieved only average sales during her lifetime. Giacomo Leopardi’s Canti, perhaps the most important volume of modern Italian poetry, sold a handful of copies by the time of the author’s death. Many twentieth-century masterpieces, such as The Master and Margarita or The Leopard, were only published or recognized posthumously, while most best-selling titles of the past are now justly forgotten. This is why I think publishers should take the long view and continue to publish only what they are passionate about, trying to resist fashion and the urge to be populist.

Well before I entered the book business, I completed a long poem in which I lamented that “for reprobates that publish all that counts / is something to attract ‘the much-too-many’ / to swarm like flies around a pot of honey…” Now, more than ten years later, I have written and published, under my own imprint Alma Books, a novel about the folly, the excesses and the sheer desperation I have witnessed in my career as a bookseller, translator, writer, editor and publisher. The book, entitled Bestseller, revolves around the figures of an unpublished writer who’s prepared to do anything to fulfil his obsessive dream of literary stardom and an ageing old-school publisher who is sacked from his own company by a sharkish financial consultant.

Some people may question my integrity as a publisher, and others may wonder how comfortable I am being both the author and the publisher of my own novel. In my defence, I can say that I know quite a few publishers and editors, both in this country and abroad, who have written works of fiction and non-fiction, and that – whatever my talent – I am only the latest in a long tradition of authors turned publishers and publishers turned authors. Samuel Richardson, for example, the author of monumental eighteenth-century bestsellers such as Pamela, Clarissa and The History of Sir Charles Grandison, was also a leading printer and publisher. One can easily imagine him driving his employees crazy with late corrections after his books had already been typeset and signed off to the press. Charles Dickens worked as an editor of journals for most of his life, even at the height of his success as a novelist, and Fyodor Dostoevsky founded and ran two literary journals with his brother Mikhail, Time and Epoch, before running out of money and going back to writing full-time. Not far from our Alma Books offices in Richmond, Virginia and Leonard Woolf set up, from the basement of their house on Paradise Road, the Hogarth Press, which over the years published – originally using a handpress – a number of important European classics in translation, as well as ground-breaking contemporary works such as The Waste Land and most of the couple’s own creations. These included Virginia’s debut collection of modernist stories, Monday or Tuesday, a book she might have found difficult to place with a mainstream publisher. Being able to publish her own work, setting it letter by letter and line by line, she could experiment more boldly and develop her style free from any editorial pressure or deadline.

Others, however, felt they could not reconcile creative freedom with the daily grind of a publishing job. Christopher Potter, who left his position as Publisher and Managing Director of Fourth Estate in 2005 to become a full-time writer (his latest book, You Are Here, will be out in paperback next month), says that his only regret is that it took him twenty years to turn his back on publishing. “I was determined not to become the complaining author of my publishing nightmares, but I have failed. I’ve just given in to the fact that all writers are neurotic.”

T.S. Eliot, another illustrious writer-publisher, once quipped, “Some editors are failed writers – but so are most writers.” Indeed, most of the authors I have met are always aspiring to more success, fame and money – always aiming for the Big Book, for the number-one spot, for the bestseller. Having written the last word of my novel and watched the ink dry on the paper, I am happy to take a back seat and turn my ear to the comforting wisdom of the ancients, who said: “Habent sua fata libelli” – books have their own destinies.

Not a Blog Block

2010-06-19T08:41:00.001+01:00

Simply I haven't had time to write a line, for which many apologies.

Check this space again soon. Now off to Brighton – the sun beckons!

AG

Roma

2010-06-06T11:10:00.002+01:00

Well, Rome was every bit as beautiful as ever under its glorious blue skies and strong sunshine – and I got to see again the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps and the lovely backstreets around Piazza Navona and the Pantheon together with Elisabetta and the kids, who walked with me onto the platform of Bernini's "Barcaccia" and reached out to the fresh jets of water. Ice cream and coffee at Camilloni's on Piazza Sant'Eustachio was de rigueur.

The city centre has all been cleaned up, and pedestrianized for the most part – this enhances the tourist's (and, no doubt, the local's) experience of the city. The recently restored Villa Torlonia park, a few hundred yards from Villa Mirafiori on the via Nomentana (where Elisabetta and I studied languages) was another highlight. Tucked away at the back of the park, an al-fresco restaurant where flocks of children can run amock and play in complete freedom the simplest of games. This is Italy as I remember it.

Back to England now, and the misery of clouded sky, but we brought a bit of Rome back with us, in the shape of porchetta d'Ariccia, corallina, coppiette, coppa, olive alla calce and many more titbits that we are going to share with some Roman friends later on today.

AG

Tuscany

2010-06-03T21:25:00.002+01:00

Four amazing days in Tuscany, starting at Lucca, then down to Florence via Pisa and its Campo dei Miracoli. Then The Uffizi, Ponte Vecchio, Palazzo Pitti, Santa Maria Novella, then a chance discovery in the countryside: the Albergaccio owned by Machiavelli, where the great Florentine is said to have written Mandragola and Clizia, and finished The Prince during his exile. It is now a small museum, and across the street from it there's a delightful restaurant too. From there we wandered to San Gimignano, and discovered the beauties of Certaldo Alta, where Boccaccio died in 1375. It was certainly the highlight of our trip so far. Then today the surreal Monteriggioni fortress, Siena, Castelnuovo Berardenga, Pienza, San Quirico d'Orcia, Montepulciano – and we can't have enough of the Tuscan countryside, it's just too lovely. The funny thing is that there are almost more German, Austrian and Swiss number-plated cars than Italian. . .

And tomorrow and Saturday, cherry on the cake of our trip, ROME.

AG

A Typo Can Make You Cry for Joy

2010-05-30T13:17:00.002+01:00

That's what happened to me yesterday. My daughter and I were reading Roald Dahl's Matilda, in the pitifully edited Puffin edition (see my blog on the BFG here), and when we came to page 37, line 6, Eleonora stopped as she read, "There is is – Fred said – It's name is Chopper", looked at me and said with her big child eyes wide open: "Daddy, shouldn't it be 'its', without an apostrophe?"

She'd just spotted her first typo. At six years and a half. A genius proofreader – a Mozart of the copy-editing world . . . Never was there a prouder editor-father . . .

I speak in jest, of course.

AG

Mumm's the Word

2010-05-28T00:19:00.003+01:00

Lovely evening first at the Institute Français, where the Culturethèque project (try it here for free) was launched and a profusion of Mumm champagne served (I had five glasses), and then chez M. L'Ambassadeur for a petit four-course dîner, sprinkled with some of the best wines I've had in years (point No.1: yes, I am not tea-totalling any more; point No. 2: an illustrious publisher – not me – complained that SPANISH wines had been served at the French Institute party during the London Book Fair: I can guarantee these were the very finest wines and champagnes of France – Château Smith Haut Lafitte 2004, Château Léoville Las Cases 2001 and Champagne Ruinart Blanc de Blanc [sic]).

The dinner, by and large, went down very well – the consommé de homard was quite good; so was the poitrine de canette – but a few French noses, as well as a couple of Italian ones, were turned up at the potted tiramisu aux noisettes et pont-l'évêque: the chef could have done better there, sorry. Tiramisu is something else.

However, the coreography was better than La Scala's – so many bouquets of fresh flowers, so many white-gloved waiters serving all sorts of delicacies and topping up your glasses . . . it was an Epicurean's paradise. All in all, it was a great day for French cuisine.

And I am not drunk – amazing. I am simply wasted.

AG

Fickers and F**kers

2010-05-26T22:19:00.002+01:00

There was a brief moment of hilarity today when one of our editors picked up a copy of Tolstoy's Gospels in Brief, which according to the book's back cover was one of Ludwig Wittgenstein's favourite books. So much was he in thrall of this book – according to another of our editors – that when he served in the trenches during the Great War he always kept with him two books: one was the manuscript of what was going to be his masterpiece, the Tractatus Logicus-Philosophicus, the other was Tolstoy's take on the Gospels.

What's so funny about this? What is funny is that to corroborate Wittgenstein's endorsement, the publisher has quoted from a letter the philosopher wrote to his friend Ludwig von Ficker…

I don't know if you have any German, but I'll let you imagine what Ficker means. . . I think I have given you enough clues. . .

AG

The Moonstone Legacy

2010-05-25T13:30:00.000+01:00

Today is an exciting day for Pushkin press, seeing as it does the launch of its first young-adult title – also the first title to be written for Pushkin, rather than translated from a foreign-language original.

The book is called The Moonstone Legacy – inspired by Wilkie Collins’ classic Victorian mystery, The Moonstone it’s a literary sort of young-adult title, but still has a plot as gripping as that of the original, taking the reader on a journey from the Yorkshire Moors to the jungles of Gujarat and back.

Over the next couple of weeks the book and its authors, Diana de Gunzburg and Tony Wild, will be going on a blog tour to promote the book. Diana and Tony are busy preparing for the launch, but Tony sent us this message from his native Yorkshire, home of the novel’s heroine, Lizzie Abercrombie:

“With the Yorkshire launch coming up tomorrow, Diana and I retreated over the weekend to the North York Moors for a heavy dose of Lizzy-land. Thirteen miles of bone-wearying trek around Farndale later, we ended up in Kepwick, the location of our fictional Shalimar. It was on particularly fine form, roasting under the blazing May sun, the early heather shoots on the surrounding moors a startling green, snipes soaring in the blue, blue sky. As the Moghul Emperor Babur said upon his first visit to Kashmir,"If there is a Heaven here on earth, this is it, this is it … !”

Below are the dates of the forthcoming stops on the tour:

Lizzy's Literary Life http://lizzysiddal.wordpress.com 27^th May

Marjoleinbookblog http://marjoleinbookblog.blogspot.com 31^st May

Pretty Little YA Books http://teen.chicklitreviews.com 1^st June

Writing from the Tub http://carlybennett.blogspot.com 3^rd June

J'adore www.jadorebooks.blogspot.com 5^th June

The Truth About Lies http://jim-murdoch.blogspot.com 7^th June

Once upon a Bookcase http://onceuponabookcase.blogspot.com 8^th June

Narratively Speaking http://narrativelyspeaking.blogspot.com 10^th June

So Many Books, So Little Time http://solittletimeforbooks.blogspot.com 11^th June

Magic Bean Review http://magicbeanreview.wordpress.com 14^th June

Nayu's Reading Corner http://nayusreadingcorner.blogspot.com 15^th June

Bookbabblers http://bookbabblers.co.uk 16^th June

Book Reviews by Sarah http://bookreviewsbysarah.blogspot.com 17^th June

Ondaatje Prize

2010-05-25T07:23:00.003+01:00

A lovely evening (which spilled into the new day) yesterday at the Travellers' Club for the ceremony dinner organized by the Royal Society of Literature. It was the poshest of occasions in the poshest of places, with many ladies sporting their new frocks, and it was good to meet many friends there, and make a few more. I think I may have been the only one without a black tie. When asked by a fellow guest why I wasn't wearing one, I simply answered: "I'm Italian."

The dinner itself was, according to many, senza infamia e senza lode – quite a few people left their wild mushroom risotto on their plates – but the company was good and although our book (Kachi Ozumba's The Shadow of a Smile) didn't win, we were delighted when our friend Ian Thomson received the prestigious accolade for his book on Jamaica, The Dead Yard (published by Faber).

He also received ten thou from Sir Christopher Ondaatje, and during the improvised acceptance speech he confessed he's going to buy a new car with it – but knowing Ian it's more likely to buy him a new trip to some other hotspot of our planet – or to his beloved Italy.

Anyway, well done Ian!

AG