Where would we be without amoebas?

Derbyshire Readers Day - mentioned earlier as drawing its speakers only from small independent presses - was a great success, at least as far as this indie is concerned. Six of the speakers, Berlie Doherty, Stephen Booth, Dan Tunstall, Maxine Linnell, Danuta Reah and Charlie Williams are all associated with Five Leaves, though we are not their sole publisher in four cases but on this day they were all in our orbit. I was also pleased to chair a publishers' panel with the editors of Smith/Doorstep, Templar, Shoestring and Route, and to attend a lecture by one of the editors of Peepal Tree on the Caribbean history that forms the backdrop to Caribbean writing. I hope Jeremy Poynting repeats this talk elsewhere. It will certainly soon appear on Peepal Tree's website. Quote of the day was from Danuta Reah who mentioned that she had some dealings once with a computer shop where the owner, "would have been a serial killer had he not gone into computing". Malcolm Burgess also raised a laugh when he reported that I'd [accidentally] described Five Leaves as a "micro press" which made him think that his Oxygen Press must be an "amoeba press".

Thanks and congratulations to Derbyshire Libraries for taking the risk of devoting their whole annual event to the groundlings.

Derbyshire Readers Day goes indie: 11/12 March, Matlock

Derbyshire's annual Readers Day this year concentrates on authors published by independent publishers ranging from the Caribbean specialist Peepal Tree through to the famously fleet of foot Route. What is exciting is that every author reading is from the small independent world, or, in the case of Stephen Booth and Berlie Doherty, sometimes write for small presses (us, actually) but are usually within the mainstream. Our other writers include Dan Tunstall and Maxine Linnell talking about "young people - can't live with them, can't live without them" and a first outing for some of our new Crime Express series with Dabuta Reah and Charlie Williams keeping it short, but not sweet. I'll also be on a publisher panel with Peter Sansom from The Poetry Business and Ian Daley from Route, carefully chosen so we can discuss poetry, fiction and non-fiction. The day is actually 24 hours with Stephen Booth and Danuta Reah reading on the Friday evening as well, and afternoon tea with Candlestick Press.
The whole day costs £15 with a supplement for Friday of £3 or a Friday only ticket for £7. Full details on www.derbyshire.gov.uk/publishersday. Early booking encouraged.