Wednesday 23 October 2013
Friday 28 December 2007
Birthday girl!
yesterday was my birthday - a big number, yes. It's always difficult for people to muster much enthusiasm two days after Christmas for another celebration so I've pretty much settled on doing my own thing.
Still, my family were there and we had a nice day - we went to Kew Gardens and saw the Henry Moore exhibition - it felt like there was another mysterious metal creature around every corner... some pieces I liked more (moore) than others, especially the huge white mermaid thing that squats opposite the palm house and the tall bronze sarcophagos thing that has a woman trapped inside it - themes of birth and death all very appropriate for a birthday. When I was leaving there was a young girl of about eight - her family were singing her 'Happy Birthday' on the way in - entrances and exits - stage on/stage off - I had to smile.
we had a lovely meal on Kew Green in The Botanist with a bottle of 'Cloudy Bay' new on the wine list thanks to a New Zealander on the staff and then went off by taxi to the West End to see Alan Bennett's play 'The History Boys' which I missed first time round. It's much the best thing he's done, a big play about how we learn and what we learn and how we teach other people - how we 'pass the parcel' as they say in the play.
As I owe a lot to my teachers who helped me be the first in my family to get to university - I recognise the need for young people to pass exams if they want to get on. But it's not the whole story - my parents took me across the world by ship when I was 11 years old so who can tell how much that trip gave me by way of extra education? A questioning attitude and the ability to think your way creatively out of corners has got to give you more resources at the end of the day than being able to memorise facts and/or other people's ideas and regurgitate them on an exam sheet.
All this would be an easy to accept if Bennett hadn't morally skewed the argument in his play by having the most gifted and chaotic teacher also about to be given the chop for molesting his sixth form boys. A lack of boundaries is his downfall - which suggests that knowledge without some kind of discipline or moral structure won't get you very far... in fact, it gets this character a rather too easy exit, tragically crashing his motorbike and disabling another.
So I guess the question we need to ask at the end is - how much good does a person do and how much harm? Previously referred to as karma - not a word we have an equivalent of in English - meaning what we carry into the afterlife...
For more interesting plays, check out our list of authors on: www.aurorametro.com
Our latest addition is Neil Duffield's acclaimed adaptation of 'A Christmas Carol' by Charles Dickens - manages to tell the whole story with only 6 actors and several children. One for the stocking...
Still, my family were there and we had a nice day - we went to Kew Gardens and saw the Henry Moore exhibition - it felt like there was another mysterious metal creature around every corner... some pieces I liked more (moore) than others, especially the huge white mermaid thing that squats opposite the palm house and the tall bronze sarcophagos thing that has a woman trapped inside it - themes of birth and death all very appropriate for a birthday. When I was leaving there was a young girl of about eight - her family were singing her 'Happy Birthday' on the way in - entrances and exits - stage on/stage off - I had to smile.
we had a lovely meal on Kew Green in The Botanist with a bottle of 'Cloudy Bay' new on the wine list thanks to a New Zealander on the staff and then went off by taxi to the West End to see Alan Bennett's play 'The History Boys' which I missed first time round. It's much the best thing he's done, a big play about how we learn and what we learn and how we teach other people - how we 'pass the parcel' as they say in the play.
As I owe a lot to my teachers who helped me be the first in my family to get to university - I recognise the need for young people to pass exams if they want to get on. But it's not the whole story - my parents took me across the world by ship when I was 11 years old so who can tell how much that trip gave me by way of extra education? A questioning attitude and the ability to think your way creatively out of corners has got to give you more resources at the end of the day than being able to memorise facts and/or other people's ideas and regurgitate them on an exam sheet.
All this would be an easy to accept if Bennett hadn't morally skewed the argument in his play by having the most gifted and chaotic teacher also about to be given the chop for molesting his sixth form boys. A lack of boundaries is his downfall - which suggests that knowledge without some kind of discipline or moral structure won't get you very far... in fact, it gets this character a rather too easy exit, tragically crashing his motorbike and disabling another.
So I guess the question we need to ask at the end is - how much good does a person do and how much harm? Previously referred to as karma - not a word we have an equivalent of in English - meaning what we carry into the afterlife...
For more interesting plays, check out our list of authors on: www.aurorametro.com
Our latest addition is Neil Duffield's acclaimed adaptation of 'A Christmas Carol' by Charles Dickens - manages to tell the whole story with only 6 actors and several children. One for the stocking...
Tuesday 30 October 2007
New anti-war book published
For teenagers 13+Today we let loose Francesco D'Adamo's 'vibrant anti-war novel' on the English speaking and reading world, titled My Brother Johnny. His original publishers in Italy, who were long-established and liberal (supposedly) refused to publish the book, so he sacked them and moved to another bolder publisher where he's been even more successful.
What's the book about?
Johnny, the local hero, has been flying bombing missions in the war Over There. When he suddenly returns home, broken, a shadow of his former self, people want to know the reason why.
Piece by piece, his story emerges through the eyes of his younger sister, Lin, who’s 14 (almost) and a bit of a punk. Bored with school and village life, her humdrum world is overturned when her brother sets up an anti-war protest in the local square that splits the community. Johnny’s challenge to the powers that be provokes a violent reaction whilst the war gets alarmingly closer to home...
What do people say about it?
“... provocative, relevant, powerful and moving fiction.”
Chris Brown, The School Librarian Magazine
Chris Brown, The School Librarian Magazine
“A strong coming-of-age story… with an eerie whisper of mystery and
foreboding.”
Caroline Horn, The Bookseller
foreboding.”
Caroline Horn, The Bookseller
“Some stories need to be written, and deserve to be read all over the world. My Brother Johnny is one of these…”
Nicolette Jones, children's books reviewer, The Sunday Times
His last book Iqbal was published in the UK by Simon and Schuster and has won numerous awards. It deals with the children enslaved in the carpet-making industry and will be made into a film. His first novel for young people, Lupo Omega, was published in 1999 and was shortlisted for three literary prizes.
Francesco was born in Milan where he lives and works. His parents were refugees from Istria, Croatia. A writer, journalist and teacher, his adult novels such as Overdose 1992 explore the criminal underworld in the Italian noir style.
You can order this book from orders@centralbooks.com
http://www.thebookdepository.co.uk/
or from us at info@aurorametro.com
IF YOU LIKE THIS BOOK, THERE ARE 6 OTHER EXCITING BOOKS IN OUR TEENAGE FICTION SERIES:Sobibor by Jean Molla
Thistown by Malcolm McKay
Coming Back by David Hill
Tina's Web by Alki Zei
Blackmail by Thomas Feibel
Letters from Alain by Enrique Perez Diaz
To find out more about these and other titles go to: www.aurorametro.com
Friday 11 May 2007
Electronic books and amazon
We need to get ready for E-books! One day we won't be lying on a beach turning the sand splattered pages of a paperback made from a regurgitated tree, we'll sit with our blackberry-type palm reader squinting at text on an illuminated screen, where we can adjust the type size or even the font.
When this becomes obselete, like portable cassette players, they'll be shipped in containers to places like China, to be taken apart or just dumped for landfill, their corrosive parts left to pollute nearby watercourses.
Will this be good for authors? Companies like Amazon and Google want to pay almost nothing to publishers for the ability to offer a vast archive of books to their customers and this means authors getting a small percentage of a small percentage, margins eroded and risks avoided.
Good for customers? Well, a lot of us prefer to order on-line rather than visit a high street outlet where the poorly paid staff can't type the title into a computer, and when they can, they inevitably don't stock the book . Do they suggest they could order it in for you? - no -because those shelves are like real estate, only high volume titles deserve to sit on them. So customers lose out on choice and content themselves with Dan Brown's latest tome or a celebrity's struggle with death, divorce or dieting...
Good for publishers? New technology will create new winners and losers. Those of us who don't have clauses in contracts dealing with electronic rights could find ourselves missing out on the big leap... there will be mergers and acquisitions to gain those e-rights and companies like Google are trying to amass content for free, so setting the precedent that artistic works are not to be valued like other commodities, because surely universal access is a more worthy goal than paying an author for his/her small contribution to the collective pool of great works.
Hogarth is having his work exhibited at the Tate - he was a leading artist of his generation and in 1735 or thereabouts, he was an instigator of a kind of copyright protection - to stop people copying his work and selling it on. I've been to his house in Chiswick. Teaching, painting, engraving and drawing satirical cartoons helped make his fortune.
We publish plays - teachers buy one copy and then photocopy a script for the entire class. Do they pay anything to the Publisher's Licensing Society? Rarely. That's 30 copies pirated by the local comprehensive without a second thought...
E-books? Downloading books for free? It's coming to a small screen near you...
Friday 27 April 2007
The day the dog died
I'm holding back the tears.
This week I had to send my ten year old cocker spaniel to dog heaven.
Like all those souls who long for kids and can't go near a park or a school or even pop in to McDonalds without feeling a terrible sense of loss, I keep seeing other happy people out walking their dogs everywhere I turn.
(Just hope he's gone somewhere else...with plenty of doggy treats and sunny spots to lie in and tall grass so he can scamper about with his tail up, chasing a ball foreverrrrrrr... )
What is it with people and pets? Baby substitutes? I don't need any more kids, we've more than enough thanks. My ex-PA got herself a huge border collie a few months after she lost a baby. Now she's pregnant again with twins, she's wondering how to cope with two tinies and a huge hair-shedding dog... ?
...apparently when we stroke these furry creatures it relieves stress... they listen to our woes uncomplainingly... they don't charge hefty therapy bills... they act as devoted friends for the duration of their short lives... all they ask is food, water and a daily run round the nearest strip of greenery... why wouldn't we love them?
Maybe I should be doing a series of books on pets, rather than the current crop of serious, issue-led novels for teenagers on drugs, crime, war, road accidents, anorexia etc etc ...?
MY FIRST PET comes to mind... celebs talking about their childhood pets, with pictures or drawings... poems and memories - it might catch on, might sell a lot of copies... full colour, hard back, the perfect gift book... heh, why am I telling you all about it?
ciaou, going to stroke the cat...
This week I had to send my ten year old cocker spaniel to dog heaven.
Like all those souls who long for kids and can't go near a park or a school or even pop in to McDonalds without feeling a terrible sense of loss, I keep seeing other happy people out walking their dogs everywhere I turn.
(Just hope he's gone somewhere else...with plenty of doggy treats and sunny spots to lie in and tall grass so he can scamper about with his tail up, chasing a ball foreverrrrrrr... )
What is it with people and pets? Baby substitutes? I don't need any more kids, we've more than enough thanks. My ex-PA got herself a huge border collie a few months after she lost a baby. Now she's pregnant again with twins, she's wondering how to cope with two tinies and a huge hair-shedding dog... ?
...apparently when we stroke these furry creatures it relieves stress... they listen to our woes uncomplainingly... they don't charge hefty therapy bills... they act as devoted friends for the duration of their short lives... all they ask is food, water and a daily run round the nearest strip of greenery... why wouldn't we love them?
Maybe I should be doing a series of books on pets, rather than the current crop of serious, issue-led novels for teenagers on drugs, crime, war, road accidents, anorexia etc etc ...?
MY FIRST PET comes to mind... celebs talking about their childhood pets, with pictures or drawings... poems and memories - it might catch on, might sell a lot of copies... full colour, hard back, the perfect gift book... heh, why am I telling you all about it?
ciaou, going to stroke the cat...
Thursday 19 April 2007
Book Fair fatigue
Had a hectic 3 days at London Book Fair, with lots of enquiries from authors, publishers, distributors, printers and even some booksellers. While other publishers were going off to embassy parties or gourmet dinners, I was going back to the office in the evening to typeset and proof a new playtext for a play that opens next week at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Guildford.
Spent so long working on it on Saturday night that Sunday morning I ended up in casualty for 5 hours having an ECG for chest pains, blood tests (not easy as my veins are invisible blue threads) x-rays, the lot... eventually discharged myself once I realised it was nothing more life-threatening than stress-related illness caused by overwork.
Two hours later I was setting up my stand at the bookfair with my poor husband in tow worrying that I might not actually survive the 3 days without being carted off in an ambulance again.
the lucky breaks -we did manage to have an article in Publishing News on the first day of the fair, which was pretty good timing - thanks PN
- our stand was right opposite Bloomsbury's stand with a huge Harry Potter poster. My husband suggested we stand in the aisle with a sandwich board saying:
MORE BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE OVER HERE!
So there was a lot of passing trade or footfall as people refer to the hordes of people tramping the aisles of Earl's Court.
At least we could follow the lay-out. Last year at Edexel people died trying to find their way to the toilets.
Anyway, the playtext is finally at the printers - but nobody's happy, not the author, not her agent and my family are all complaining that I'm never home these days... even my dog's sick...
seriously...
So do come and see it next week or when it's on tour - you won't be able to buy it in the shops for a while though, because of the time it takes for information to be added to book databases.
Spent so long working on it on Saturday night that Sunday morning I ended up in casualty for 5 hours having an ECG for chest pains, blood tests (not easy as my veins are invisible blue threads) x-rays, the lot... eventually discharged myself once I realised it was nothing more life-threatening than stress-related illness caused by overwork.
Two hours later I was setting up my stand at the bookfair with my poor husband in tow worrying that I might not actually survive the 3 days without being carted off in an ambulance again.
the lucky breaks -we did manage to have an article in Publishing News on the first day of the fair, which was pretty good timing - thanks PN
- our stand was right opposite Bloomsbury's stand with a huge Harry Potter poster. My husband suggested we stand in the aisle with a sandwich board saying:
MORE BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE OVER HERE!
So there was a lot of passing trade or footfall as people refer to the hordes of people tramping the aisles of Earl's Court.
At least we could follow the lay-out. Last year at Edexel people died trying to find their way to the toilets.
Anyway, the playtext is finally at the printers - but nobody's happy, not the author, not her agent and my family are all complaining that I'm never home these days... even my dog's sick...
seriously...
So do come and see it next week or when it's on tour - you won't be able to buy it in the shops for a while though, because of the time it takes for information to be added to book databases.
What's it about?
Gandhi, Krishnamurti and Annie Besant, an early feminist who promoted the use of contraception and lost custody of her children as a result... facinating stuff... and it's been commissioned to celebrate 60 years of Indian independence.
Thursday 29 March 2007
catalogue to print
Finally sent catalogue to print, then received email from author wanting to revise her edition of 'Crocodile Seeking Refuge' and add new cover... (play about the plight of refugees in the UK)
and buy a copy of THE BOMB.
...also another author firming up deal but too late to get her new play into this year's catalogue...
always the way... got turned on to this blogging idea at recent conference of the Independent Publisher's Guild held at Brighton De VEre Grand Hotel.
Strangely enough, we published a play based on the personal testimony of Patrick Magee, the man who planted a bomb at the Grand Hotel under Margaret Thatcher's regime... it also refers to the experiences of Jo Berry, the daughter of the MP who died in the blast. She was actually brave enough to go and meet with Magee and to start a dialogue with him. Out of that meeting grew a belief in the need for conflict resolution and their programme has grown with Jo and Patrick running workshops and seminars for other peoples and or
ganisations in conflict. You can check them out on:
ganisations in conflict. You can check them out on:
to read Kevin Dyer's play on the subject, go to
and buy a copy of THE BOMB.
back to the proofing now...
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