London Calling

After four years of publishing in the northern outposts of Hebden Bridge, the carrier pigeon of news has just reached Londinium. I received an email from the books editor of THE GUARDIAN asking me to send two copies of KING CROW by Michael Stewart. They wanted to read it as part of The Guardian's First Novel award. They'd asked for titles they might have missed. A lot of people commented on the web blog malarkey thing and left great messages about KING CROW. So the pigeon was sent Dar Sarf with a couple of books. It is a stunning read. KES meets FIGHT CLUB as one reviewer said. There is a conversation to be had about access to the lit ed pages but one for another time methinks suffice to say that when there was a two line review of GABRIEL'S ANGEL in The Gaurdian on the 1st January 2011, it was a readers GUARDIAN BOOK OF THE YEAR, we sold over 300 copies in ten days. The social network wallers and the twiterati may bleep you into submission but a decent review in the hot metal press still works wonders. I've lit two candles in the publisher's chapel of rest for the safe passage of the pigeon.