Season's greetings!
And Other Stories had an early Christmas present: a lovely short piece about us (well, the future of publishing, but a lot about us) in the
London Review of Books. Jenny Diski is a writer we're very keen on, and we were delighted to find that the feeling is mutual (not least because she described
Swimming Home as 'good enough to make you want to read it again as soon as you’ve finished it'). In a slightly over-excited way, we've scattered quotes from her article through our newsletter...
Subscribe!
We hope there are some fine books waiting for you under the tree. But if you're not sure what Santa's bringing, or if you've left things rather late, do think about buying a
subscription as a gift for someone special (and maybe even you). Four 'books that will engage and surprise' hot off the press to your door, your name in each of them, and a pack of postcards designed by our delightful authors - what more could you want?
Spanish reading group
Our Spanish reading group is now underway, and we'd be delighted if you'd like to join in. There are details on the author and extracts in English
here and the meet-up will be from 6.30pm on Monday 30th January at the
Wapping Project Bookshop. Many thanks to Christina MacSweeney and Samantha Schnee for providing copy for our author pages and great extracts in English.
Words that make us blush
Alongside the LRB, we've been receiving praise from elsewhere, with a delightful article about us on the
Booktrust website (if you're new to our world, Catherine Mansfield has written an excellent introduction) and a longlisting for
3:AM Magazine's publisher of the year (and two nominations for novel of the year for
Down the Rabbit Hole and
Swimming Home).
The end-of-year lists have been kind to us too, with Juan Pablo Villalobos and Deborah Levy both recommended in Boyd Tonkin's round-up in the
Independent.
Down the Rabbit Hole has also been chosen as book of the year by Sarah Churchwell in the
New Statesman, and Ali Smith in the
Telegraph and on
Salon.com. While over on
Eleutherophobia, Mark Stanniford chose Iosi Havilio's Open Door alongside Down the Rabbit Hole as one of his top ten books of the year. And Clemens Meyer's
All the Lights had a great review in the
Guardian, while
Booktrust recommended it as a gift for your 'gritty uncle'.
There have been interviews with Juan Pablo Villalobos in the
New Statesman, on the
Booktrust website, and at
Literateur. Or, if you prefer audio, Juan Pablo was interviewed by
Monocle and RTE's
Arena, while there is more about the Guardian First Book Award
here.
E-books
We've been working hard to turn our beautiful books into e-books, and these are available now from most of the usual platforms, and from all of them very soon. While no substitute for our 'handsomely designed and well produced' paperbacks, we don't discriminate against electronic ink, especially when packing suitcases of books for those long journeys home....
With all best wishes for a Happy Christmas and a book-filled New Year,
Stefan, Sophie, Bethan and Jimena
