World Book Night follow up

And so to Countesthorpe where Active Arts (www.activearts.org.uk) hosted a discussion about World Book Night, and various other bookish matters. I was pleased that the panel included Debbie James from the Kibworth Beauchamp bookshop as she has just agreed to be one of the judges for the next round of the East Midlands Book Award. After eighteen months of bookselling she and her shop are thriving. Though this was hardly its best attended meeting, Active Arts reflect the name and has booked our Dan Tunstall for a day's work in the local Countesthorpe College. He was a student at the College, though Active Arts did not know that at the time of the booking. The group appreciated this article http://www.leftlion.co.uk/articles.cfm/id/3497 by James Walker, about his experience of giving out books at World Book Night, some of which I read out. And I appreciated their cakes and company. Not only that, our bookstall takings at that small gathering were larger than the whole of our last month's sales to the Waterstone's chain! WBN, by the way, is booked for April 23 next year. Not sure of the format yet.

Five Leaves' writer awarded awarded Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship

No, the prize is not to be kidnapped or to be marooned on a desert island, , but six weeks accommodation in a self-catering studio at the Hotel Chevillion International Arts Centre in Grez-sur-Loing (the town where Robert met his missus, Fanny Osborne). There is also a small stipend. Our author is J. David Simons, who will be joined by poet Niall Campbell, novelist Gwendoline Riley and film maker Joern Utkilen. David will use his time to work on ideas for a third novel set in Scotland and British-mandate Palestine, which will complete the trilogy including The Credit Draper and The Liberation of Celia Kahn, both Five Leaves. The Fellowship allows the writers time away from their normal environment and the opportunity to discuss their work with other Fellows. We hope that the third part of the trilogy will be published by Five Leaves in 2014.

Mustn't grumble

I know I shouldn't complain. Look, we've all organised events where the public has stayed away in droves. And people will hate me for this. But eventually you do have to say something is not great. Yesterday Five Leaves had a stall at a "Reading Fair" organised by Nottingham Libraries. That is if the combined strength of Five Leaves, the local small press Weathervane, a promotional stall for Alt Fiction, a stall from Nottingham Writers' Studio, SoccerData and Nottingham Libraries themselves make up a Fair. Nope - six tables a fair do not make. The added attractions were five 15-minute talks, in the same room. We'd been asked to provide speakers but had doubts, passing up the opportunity to bring in some of our writers, and our doubts became reality when we saw the six tables, with about ten chairs laid out for an audience. Too many chairs we thought, and, indeed, at least one speaker had an audience made up solely of stall holders. Well, we sold four books over the day, and our staffie had her laptop so managed a fairly quiet and uninterrupted day at the mobile office. But it is not good enough. Nottingham Central Library has a regular audience, is slap bang in the middle of town and has staff devoted to promoting such things. The Nottingham literati would probably love to attend a Reading Fair with lots of stalls, events and publicity. These things cost stall holders time and money. Next time?

Bill Fishman at 90

If you thought Bernard Kops (posting before last) was not quite a spring chicken, our William J Fishman - Bill - is a bit ahead of him. Queen Mary, part of the University of London, where he was a Professor, is hosting a 90th birthday afternoon tea for him on the 20th of this month. I'd known of Bill for many years, and knew him slightly personally, before we published him first in 2004. He'd been published by Duckworth (save for his first book, The Insurrectionists, which was Methuen) very successfully from the Old Piano Factory there. A publishing address worth having for sure. When Duckworth changed hands Bill was chucked out, even though his books sold steadily. Well, that was good news for us, and we steadily brought back to print East End Jewish Radicals 1875-1914, East End 1888 and Streets of East London - all classics of social history, and all reprinted by us at least once since we first published them between 2004 and 2008. All have sold into four figures. We also reprinted, for the first time in paperback, his Insurrectionists, last year - though that has done as badly as the others have done well! There's not a lot of shops that stock the books - but all reorder steadily, especially Eastside and the Museum of London. East End 1888 crops up on course lists in the USA. It was a good move to take them on, and good for Bill, who spoke at quite a number of events with the books available again.

But what about the man himself? Recently someone got in touch who met Bill on his arrival at university, dressed as a punk, with a mohican. Bill grinned at him and said you need to read Kropotkin ("my boy"). He did of course, and still does. Bill was in great demand for his East End walks, the idea pioneered by him, and for his memories of the Battle of Cable Street. He always bought a copy of the Big Issue even if he'd just bought a copy round the corner. And in conversation - always great value. The last time we met he talked about meeting Gandhi while in the forces, active in support of Indian independence. He picked up quite a lot of Hindi when stationed overseas, to the surprise of some Indians round where he lives in London - being hailed in Hindi by this very elderly-looking Yiddisher fellow.
I'm proud to be Bill's publisher, looking forward to the tea and many more years of conversation with Bill, and his wonderful wife Doris.

If you think Five Leaves does obscure...

I was thrilled to come across a new press to me in Nottingham. Soccer Data (http://www.soccerdata.com/) publishes books about football - but such football! In their new list is Sunk Without Trace: the Chingford Town Story. The publisher admits that the book is a slim volume, as Chingford Town played only two seasons in the Southern League before folding. They were a troubled club, not least as the River Ching "seemed determined to flood the ground at any opportunity". The backlist includes the essential The Wembley Way: Halesowen's FA Vase Glory Years. If I had the remotest interest in football this would be the publisher for me. Who would not want a copy of Lay on them backs, Boston, a detailed account of Boston United's games in the FA Cup. Let's get The Chingford Town Story into the best seller lists!

What have the Romans ever done for us?

Call the Kops

Just had a long, catch up call with our writer Bernard Kops. Bernard is currently working on a novel, getting up at 5.00am (5.30 at weekends) to write for a few hours. If you read his Five Leaves' autobiography, The World is a Wedding, he seems to be an unlikely prospect to still be working at 84, or even alive. He managed to avoid being bombed in the Blitz, but it was close, but it was getting bombed with the other meaning that almost saw him off. His career has been up and down, to say the least. Bernard's conversation is always good value. One minute he's off on Colin MacInnes (Bernard and Erica Kops appeared, thinly disguised, in Absolute Beginners), the next he's describing his April visit to the Society for Co-operation in Russian and Soviet Studies to read his poem on Yuri Gagarin, which he presented to Gagarin in 1961, at their recent celebration of 50 years since Gagarin's space flight. Bernard said he was astonished to be invited as he had not thought of the poem for fifty years.
Bernard has the knack of being everywhere and knowing everyone, for example the cover of The World Is a Wedding is a portrait of him by Ida Kar (currently being exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery). Kops fans can book the date of Monday 28 November to celebrate his 85th birthday at the Jewish Museum in London, but he's usually out and about, reading. He rarely turns down an invitation!