Bedside reading - and rubbish Champions League

It has taken me two days to get over Chelsea's disastrous return match against Schalke 04 in the Champions League (what does the 04 stand for? memo to self to google it straight after posting this). I despair. My husband despairs. Grant at Turnaround (our nice distributors) despairs. So bad were we that I spent much of the second half of the game playing Sudoku on Brain Training for Nintendo DS. There was a time when I'd have sat there with a book but now I seem to have relegated my reading to the bedroom.

It occurs to me that if a fervent and passionate reader like myself can be easily distracted in this age of Facebook, PSP and iTunes, then no wonder it's proving a struggle to get the younger generation reading. There are lots of initiatives to entice people to read, from Richard & Judy's Book Club to the World Book Day events, and that's heartening indeed, but it is something I think about every day - how to get more people to read our books. And I do mean read, rather than buy, as we are fortunate enough to have great support from the libraries in the UK.

I am one of those lucky people in that I get to do a job I love and look forward to every day .. well, almost every day. I have four books on the go at the moment - two 'work' ones (Sister by Manette Ansay which we're re-issuing next year; Tim Lebbon's new fantasy/horror which I'm considering for our list) and two 'home' ones (Harry Potter 7 - sorry; Susan Fletcher's second novel Oystercatchers. I loved her debut Eve Green and am anxious to see if her new one captures me in the same way). But I'm not going to put a pic of any of them on today's post. Instead you can have John Terry - the lynch pin of our team!

The wanderer returns...to a big surprise

This is my first attempt at blogging, so please bear with me while I find my feet…

As many of you will know, our lovely Lara has been away the past few weeks, getting married and jetting off on a dream of a honeymoon. We’re all dying to see photos of her big day – especially of Lara in her gorgeous dress – and are eagerly waiting for her to come back and tell us all about it. There’s nothing an office full of women enjoys more than gossiping about weddings! (How girly are we?!)

But poor Lara is going to have a surprise in store when she returns. One of our printers, CPD, has unfortunately gone into administration. It’s very sad for us as we have dealt with them for several years now and know many of the people who work there. I know Lara will be shocked when she hears about what has happened. Our thoughts and best wishes go out to all those that have been made redundant. Good luck to you.

Now the search is on to find someone to replace them… It's the start of a new 'printing' chapter at A&B, and hopefully the start of a new relationship that will prove to be just as successful as the last.

Americanisms

It's Prasana the Work Experience here ( not to be confused with Louise whose log in I've pirated). Part of my lovely job here at A&B is to ferret out the Americanisms from our manuscripts--policing the border between British English and it's progeny across the Atlantic.

Ironically, my life is one big Americanism. You see I am one--an American. Even my title threw me off at first ( in the States I'd be an intern) as did the computer keyboard (the @ is not in the normal place). But here I am, an American working in a British publishing house, hunting down Americanism. Sounds a bit traitorous. It's like I'm an cyborg programmed to track down my own kind and destroy them. Creepy.

But I remind myself it's for the good of the British public. You'll never have to worry about Monsieur Pamplemousse ordering french fries for Pommes Frites (not that he would deign to chips anyway) or your favorite London DI boarding the subway rather than the underground. Just imagine the confusion if mobiles became cell phones and trousers became pants and American pop culture icons like Regis and Kelly ( you don't want to know) became series regulars. Horrifying, but don't panic. You've got the right American on the job--Prasana the Work Experience, Conqueror of Americanisms, Preserver of the British Lexicon.

Books and baking

It’s a Monday in the A&B office. It's no different from any other Monday except for one thing. Today there is a pecan cinnamon sponge cake in the kitchen. Well, there is half a pecan cinnamon sponge cake in the kitchen. I’ll admit to having scoffed the other half this weekend…that’s what one trip to the Wholefoods in High Street Kensington does to you. (Allow me to introduce myself as the food loving, permanently salivating and culinary adventurous member of the Allison & Busby team.)
So, whilst I could pretend that offering this treat to the Allison & Busby girls was a purely altruistic act on my part – a desire to satisfy the sugar cravings of five hard-working women – it was, in reality, a gesture brought about by necessity. It hit me on Sunday, as I reached for my umpteenth slice of cake, that I was getting perilously close to resembling the photo of screen legend Roscoe Arbuckle on the cover of Jerry Stahl’s book I, Fatty. Not that I'd really mind (I absolutely adore this book, so I’d be more than happy to play the poster-girl for it) but I fear I’d be a poor representative. 'Fatty' Arbuckle's life as the fat-boy of 1920s Hollywood was all about onscreen pie-fights, celebrity parties and heroin; mine is more off-screen pie-scoffing, celebrity magazines and herbal tea. Much less fascinating.
But one thing has come of all this: this Monday I'm inspired to get back into baking on a regular basis, with a view to sharing the results (and calorific content) with all at A&B. Because truly, there's nothing like enjoying a cup of tea, a slice of pie and a good book (or manuscript). Sure, there’s more to life than books and baking, but come to think of it, there really needn’t be.

Do you judge a book by its cover?

We spend a huge amount of time talking about cover designs for our books - as we should, given it's such an important ingredient in a book's success. Dare I say, in many cases, it is the key ingredient. At A&B we are lucky enough to have two excellent freelance designers who work with us: Ben from Brighton Studios based in .... Hove, actually. And Emma from Snowbooks Design, part of the marvellous Snowbooks publishing house. We've even been known to do a few covers ourselves in-house, and plan to do more in the future.

Yesterday, it was Ben's turn on the rack. One of the things we talked about was a new look for a classic that we publish at A&B, Iris Origo's haunting memoir War in Val d'Orcia. I am not exaggerating when I say this is my favourite book on our list. I first read it 20 years ago when my Mum gave me a copy, and since then it's remained a desert-island book for me. Origo, an Englishwoman by birth was married to the Marchese of La Foce, a stunning estate in the heart of Tuscany. Her memoir centres on two years during WWII when the family found themselves in the thick of the war, with partisans hiding in the hills, Germans at their door, and looking after a host of children who had been evacuated from the cities.

But I digress. What to do? Do we have a lovely Tuscan photo on the front, complete with sunflowers and idyllic villa? Or a shot of the German tanks thundering down the cypress tree-lined roads around La Foce? Or one of Iris with the children she housed during the War? Decisions, decisions. I'll let you know what we go with ...

Elizabethan tug-of-war

The ‘wondrous Lesley’ makes her debut blog appearance. Please ladies and gents, restrain your urge to applaud and throw bouquets.

The thing I look forward to most at A&B is the arrival of lovely, fresh-from-the-printers, terribly good for you, books. That story that you’ve read perhaps a year ago, have agonised over its cover design, have talked up to people up and down the land, lands on your desk as a finished product. Unfortunately, the latest title I was not so patiently expecting, Margaret Irwin’s Elizabeth & the Prince of Spain, is being held to ransom by some burly, book-hating, philistines [or not, but allow a girl some creative licence]. Particularly painful is the fact that I helped to choose the costume for this shoot from the BBC costume department. It was so gorgeous I was ‘this’ close to dying my hair red and regally demanding that I grace the cover…

So, until we work out that tug of war and get the books, I will content myself with seeing Cate Blanchett at the cinema this weekend and with this picture. *Sigh*

Today we're mostly thinking about nuns and moth balls

We've just taken delivery of the new manuscript from Alison Joseph, creator of Sister Agnes - the only nun I know who likes lipstick and cashmere (not that she's allowed to wear either). Alison is busy adapting Agnes for a Radio 4 drama (ooh, I hope that's not a secret ...) which will be fantastic, and fingers crossed will be on a wireless near you in time for those lazy summer days. As is always the way, Alison and I end up talking about absolutely everything except work. Today's topics included how much we love John Lewis, the home of moth balls, coat hangers and lovely charcoal 60-denier tights. Highly recommended.