Alan Silitoe

Alan Silitoe died yesterday. The loneliness of the long distance runner is, in my opinion, one of the best short stories ever written. If you have never read it, go out and buy it today. He was one of our greatest writers and the Amis's and Rushdies, who today are lauded as literary giants will not be read in 100 years time. Silitoe will.

Christopher Brookmyre

FALLING THROUGH CLOUDS has finally got an entry in the 'London,' Press...The Observer has mentioned Anna's book as a regional bestseller, which is great news.....I was on BBC Radio Leeds yesterday reviewing the national news with Lisa Holdsworth who is a writer for TV.
We have just had a great review from Christopher Brookmyre for GABRIEL'S ANGEL 9780955336782 by Mark A Radcliffe. Holt Jackson's, one of the country's biggest Library Suppliers, is making GABRIEL'S ANGELS their Book Of The Month for July, which is fantastic news.

"You might think you'd rather die than go through group therapy, but what if death was no escape? Gabriel's Angel is the perfect antidote to the glib platitudes of emotional quick-fix culture: tender, astute and very funny." - Christopher Brookmyre

It's The London Bookfair this week, and our foreign rights team will be there to sell our titles. Fingers crossed that the Icelandic Cloud of Ash hasn't kept away the people with the chequebooks.

Moose on the airwaves

The Moose will be airing his views in BBC Radio Leeds this Friday at 10.40am. The subject is ghostwriting and celebrity authors....Should be fun. Random House last week wrote off £2Million, rumour has it that it was allied to the flop of The Peter Kay book, Saturday Night Peter. Tim Hely-Hutchinson, CEO of Hachettte, the largest publisher in the UK has said that non fiction celebrity titles will be cut by 25%....The Sleb gravy train is over....for now..until the next time.
It is The London Book fair next week and our foireign rights team will be selling the list, amongst them FALLING THROUGH CLOUDS. We've already sold the rights to a Russian Publisher and we have, apparently interest from another eight Europena publishers. Exciting times.
We've also had a fantastic review from Christopher Brookmyre, who read the Ms of GABRIEL'S ANGEL over his Easter holidays, and many thanks to him for his time and generosity. This is what he said.

" I thought it was seductively melancholy without being miserable, its philosophical conceit leavened with a delicately measured humour and its characters - both in this world and the next - as engagingly flawed as they were tenderly wrought. "

And then he gave us this top two line nugget.

" You might think you'd rather die than go through therapy, but what if death was no escape? Gabriel'sAngel is the perfect antidote to the glib platitudes of emotional quick-fix culture: tender, astute and very funny" Christopher Brookmyre.

I love that man.

Falling through clouds hits the Metropolis

The Moose has stormed through the ramparts, and is working its way to the heart of London....ish. We are finally getting a mention in this Sundays' Observer Newspaper. In their New Review section, they contact bookshops around the country to find out what the nation is reading. This morning they phoned The Bookcase in Hebden Bridge and asked Felicity what their bestselling book of the week was, and yes, it is a Bluemoose title, FALLING THROUGH CLOUDS by Anna Chilvers. Great stories that are beautifully written do sell. I think people are sick and tired of reading books about writers writing about writing and how they overcome writer's block. Dull, dull, dull, dull, dull.

Off to buy a giant Easter egg.