Nat Hentoff on Jazz Jews

http://jazztimes.com/articles/25939-jews-in-the-family-of-jazz

First cuckoo of summer

Lowdham Book Festival in Nottinghamshire - jointly organised by Five Leaves - runs from 18-26 June. We're keeping the programme under wraps for a while yet, or possibly we have no programme to unwrap yet - believe what you will. But we can announce that the Bloomsbury Reading Day on the 19th is open for business, to allow attenders time to read their chosen books. This year's line up is Barbara Trapido, whose books will be pretty well known to readers, plus debut novelists Louise Levene (the ballet correspondent of the Sunday Telegraph, since you ask) and Jane Rusbridge.
The deal is £15 a head, which brings you a glass of Pimms on arrival, group discussions, a smashing afternoon tea with the authors, a Q & A panel and the book of your choice by one of the writers. If you want all three books you can get the other two at 15% discount.
The event takes place at the nice new village hall in Hoveringham, a brisk walk or short car journey from downtown Lowdham.
More details from janestreeter@thebookcase.co.uk.

Two men on the Metro

Andy Croft and Bill Herbert are off to The Smoke, to Pushkin House, to read from their collection Three Men on the Metro, on 19th April. A free event starting at 6.00pm
www.pushkinhouse.org/en/events/three-men-on-the-metro

Plus ca change

...his main interest was the novel which he was writing: Failure. The drafting, writing, re-writing, typing, re-typing, submitting, putting aside, re-submitting, acceptance, further rejection, re-acceptance, setting up in type, piecemeal publication... a heartbreaking business undertaken in hopelessly unfavourable conditions... and finally the agreement: £30 down and the remote possibility of royalties; and the sale: three hundred copies; and the absence of reviews, except in the North London Gazette, the Jewish Magazine, the Madras Daily Courier, and the Saskatchewan Free Press - Failure.

from Rain on the Pavements by Roland Camberton (John Lehman, 1951, due from Five Leaves in June/July 2010)

Vote early, vote often

Our chums over at Spinetingler magazine are having a pre-election vote to decide on assorted categories of crime writer awards. We'll be rooting for Russel D McLean in the rising stars category, since we publish him. One of the most interesting categories is for jackets. No, not tweed ones (though I'd vote for that).

http://www.spinetinglermag.com/2010/03/31/2010-spinetingler-award-nominees-and-poll/

New this month at Five Leaves

Swimmer in the Secret Sea by William Kotzwinkle (yes, the bloke from ET) was a book I first read back when dinosaurs roamed the earth. It is a novella on stillbirth. The book stuck in my head for decades, partly because it was so well written, partly because of the skillful way it dealt with difficult subject matter. I'm pleased now to make it again available, in a joint edition with the US publisher David Godine.
40 Years in the Wilderness: inside Israel's West Bank settlements could not be more timely, and, thanks to the wonders of digital printing, up to date. Josh Berthoud Freedman and Seth Freedman travelled through the settlements interviewing people ranging from gun-toting fundamentalists through to those Israeli's simply trying to find a cheap place to live. The book includes discussion of the current settlement activity at Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan in Jerusalem as well as those on the West Bank. Both books are now available mail order via www.inpressbooks.co.uk or can be ordered from bookshops

It's good news week at the big W

Except it will soon be a small w. Waterstone's has announced a rebranding programme, moving to lower case "w" as the logo. The will be "rolling out a new brand", having announced that "It's important that we re-engage with our customers in a much more impactful way", getting away from the "stifling homogeneity" of the recent past. Never mind the dreadful construction "much more impactful way", this is good news for all readers, most publishers, Waterstone's (or is that now to be waterstone's?) staff, and people who write real books.
Provided budget follows promise, it looks like a return to more autonomous branches, which can better reflect the book buying public locally. There are nice words being said about working with local publishers and local writers and a significant reduction in floor space devoted to price promotions. I assume that with the closure of Borders there is less need for price promotion. But even the announcement that branches can put up their own best-sellers list indicates a return to trusting branch staff who have in the past had to cope with merciless centralisation and big redundancies.
A big independent in every town and city would be great, but that is not going to happen, so the health of the Waterstone's chain is important. Some have argued that the business model of Borders/Waterstone's is over. Maybe, but these changes will give the chain a fighting chance to survive. And make it nicer to work there.