Authors Electric

There are so many books one reads for pleasure, and admiration for the writing, but there are some stories, not necessarily by well-known authors, which strangely settle in the psyche and just don't go away. One of these, title and author unknown to me at least (perhaps you can identify it for me?) and possibly picked up in a charity shop, came with the most extraordinary and unusual premise, and with an unforgettably moving ending which I won't reveal here as you may well know who the author is, but may not have read the book. The premise is based on the second nativity of a divine child, not necessarily Jesus, to a woman who is the very opposite of Mary - a twenty-first century and very sexually experienced woman in her late twenties? early thirties? drinks quite a lot, and smokes etc, who is visited in her bedroom by a very sexy male angel. At first she assumes he's a burglar?pervert? but it becomes clear that he's not because he's gentle and respectful (and ver...

Uncomfortable Statistics for traditional publishers - Good news for Indies -            The Big 6 are not so big any more.  According to the latest figures for 2013, Penguin Random House came top of the table with a 24% share of the market, but its sales were down £342m (15%).  All the others - Hachette, HarperCollins, Pan MacMillan, Bloomsbury, and Simon & Schuster were also down.  Their total share of the market was only 59% - down from 70% in 2001.  Is this a sign that their dominance of the book trade is fading?  I think it is.  But they won't go down without a fight, so - more turbulent times ahead. The end of Constable and Quercus           The hope of many 'mid list' and 'literary' authors dumped by the Big 6 for commercial reasons has been a group of valiant and well-respected independently owned publishers still willing to take on authors for...

Of Chairs and Books.. When I worked as a supply teacher, it was always a matter of concern as to where I should sit in the staffroom.  I knew that permanent staff usually had their own chairs, their places of safety where they could relax for a few minutes with some easy conversation, until the bell went and called them back to duty. How many times have I stood uncertainly hovering, until I was sure of a spare chair? It wasn’t deference or a sense of unworthiness that made me hesitate. Somehow I knew how important those chairs were to their occupants, a small home-from-home in the challenging world of school.   At home, I have my own precious armchair , my own ‘girl cave’ actually, because it’s much more than a chair. I think I could live there, you know, with only occasional sorties to the kitchen or the ‘facilities’ and the odd visit from friends. Maybe I will when I’m really old and doddery (even more doddery that is). I think some very old people do ‘live ‘ in...

Katherine Mansfield by Kathleen Jones I'm writing this in New Zealand, which is a big country with a small population and it's a long way from anywhere by ship or plane.  That makes books expensive - particularly imported books.  There are quite a few small publishers here, and there are off-shoots of big publishers - like Penguin and Random House, but the print-runs are short and the costs high.   When Penguin NZ published my Katherine Mansfield biography , I was horrified to find out how much it cost to buy (about £50).  The consequence of the economic downturn is that publishers have been struggling here (Penguin have been taken over by Random House) just as they have elsewhere - and book shops have fared badly too.  There are wonderful small independent bookshops, but the big chains, like Whitcoulls, have been in deep financial trouble.  New Zealand is the kind of place that is perfect for the e-reader - no distribution costs and access to the fr...