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This is a
news page for announcements
of new books. It can also serve the role of a notice-board
for tit-bits of news relating to
the world of publishing.
Click here
for Book Club News
The launch of Elizabeth Nel’s book
on Winston Churchill at the
Churchill Museum, Cabinet War Rooms in
Whitehall, in February 2008, was a great success, thanks to the
enthusiasm and energy of Celia Murray, who did all the hard work for
the occasion and, in fact, made the event possible. As she herself
said, it was graced with “wonderful people, excellent speeches and
superb Nederburg top wines”, and Celia Murray finished off the event
with a toast to Elizabeth Nel (with glasses of Amarula, which the
late author used to enjoy diluted with milk). I am very indebted to Celia for
organising the event, and a particular pleasure for me was being
able to meet many of the Diadem Book authors for the first time! I
asked Celia to write a few paragraphs about the event, and her
report is given here in full. I am indebted to her, too, for the
photographs. —Charles Muller, Diadem Books.
Lady Soames, daughter of
Winston Churchill, who answered questions on her father
at the launch of Elizabeth Nel's book Winston Churchill by
his Personal Secretary
The Story of an
amazing book launch in honour of Mrs. Elizabeth Nel - to read
the full report by Celia Murray, click
here.
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Nick’s fiery mix in latest book
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AUTHOR Nick Armbrister
with his book. Picture
by the Waltham Forest
Guardian
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FORMER Counthill School
pupil Nick Armbrister promises
everything from fantasy and horror
to war in his latest book.
The writer
describes “A
Nation in Flames” as a series of
short stories based around extreme
situations.
He draws inspiration from his own
experiences, the news and media and
explained: “It’s of an adult nature
about a range of topics. It’s got
stories from horror to warfare to
fantasy.”
It is the third book by the
36-year-old factory worker who
started writing in 1996 and moved
from Oldham to London in 2005.
“I like music but I am a failed
musician so I thought I would give
writing a go because I find it
interesting,” explained Nick, who
now lives in Chingford.
“A Nation in Flames”, like his two
previous poetry anthologies, is
self-published and reflects his
interests which include Gothic
culture, aircraft, history, science
fiction, fantasy, tattoos and other
cultures,
He writes in the evening and at
weekends and his fourth book will be
published in November, while he is
also working on a novel.
Girlfriend Xochitl (24) lives with
the couple’s 10-month-old son, Alex,
at her mother’s house in Chigwell,
and Nick added: “My ambition is to
write full-time, to have my own
writing business and to have a home
for my family.
“Because things are so expensive in
London we live apart even though we
are a family.” |
|
OLDHAM EVENING CHRONICLE Tuesday Feb 05, 2008
The second volume of contemporary poetry (Skeward
Images) on various
subjects from poet/writer Nick Armbrister recently appeared, and a few
photos from the book launch.jpg)
can be seen here. The following review by D J Tyrer appeared in The
Supplement:
"This is Nick Armbrister’s second volume of poetry. A regular
contributor to our titles, his poetry will likely be familiar to
many readers. This collection ranges from the darkness of
Racist Attack to the pleasures of Scotland. Saddam
and the chaos in Iraq inspire two poems, Nick’s life and
unwillingness to conform many more. Perhaps the most touching is
Spitfire Bride, a tale of stillborn hope in the heart of
a lost pilot’s lover. As ever, Nick writes with skill and
passion, whatever themes he tackles. If you are a fan of his
poetry then you will want to buy this book."
.jpg) .jpg) Nick likes to write simple poems that convey his emotions and
thoughts first hand, to be shared with his readers and audience.
Music, life, aviation, gothic culture, and more besides, inspire
his poetry in which he dares to bare his heart, soul and mind—in
brittle, startling poems that touch the raw nerves of life, yet
a life that throbs with positive energy. As one reviewer put it,
he “sees the dark underbelly of the world but counterpoints it
with hope and warnings about falling into the same traps” (D. J.
Tyrer in The Supplement).
July 3rd, 2006
a review by Jessica-Lee Bowman
Many people like to read about other
people’s lives even if it’s a sad story. If
you are one of those people who enjoy books
like, A Child Called “It”, Why Daddy Why by
Emelia Dion Hardy would be a great book for
you to read. This book is similar to, A
Child Called “It”. It is about a father who
abuses a young girl and her siblings. This
book talks about losing a mother and having
to live with pain every day. I recommend
this book to many people to show how bad it
is to be abused and if you know anyone who
is getting abused to tell someone to help
them get out of that situation. This is a
true life book that states events from
Emelia’s life and the troubles her father
put her whole family through. Reading books
like this will give you a whole new
perspective on how people live and find it
is wrong to abuse other people.
'Tunnel tiger' turns author
to travel down memory lane
By Calum Macleod
Published:
03 August,
2007 in the Inverness Courier
A review of
TIGERS UNDER THE TURF by Bert Scorgie
 BERT
Scorgie has always been a worker. By his calculation, over the
course of his working life he has had some 56 jobs, including
one he stuck with for 16 years.
So when a heart attack seven years
ago brought a premature end to his working life at the age of
62, he was never going to remain idle.
Having worked with computers before
his retirement, Bert invested in a new computer which he
describes as his pride and joy, and put it to use.
After writing fiction based on his
own childhood in the north east, which was accidentally erased
from his computer and which he is now in the process of
re-writing, Bert then set to work on his own life story, which
has just been published under the title "Tigers Under the Turf."
Bert, of Drynie Avenue in Hilton,
was also inspired to write about his life by his concerns about
Iraq. War has cast a shadow over Bert's own life. His father,
who served with the Gordon Highlanders on India's North-West
Frontier and in Palestine in the pre-war years, was killed in
France in 1940 before his son had a chance to remember him.
"My father was one of those told
'don't move until you are relieved' and they never were
relieved. There were 40 of them killed in one day," Bert said.
"My mother was left with nothing.
They were living in married quarters in Aldershot and when my
father was killed my mother was sent home to Scotland with what
she had in her suitcase."
Moving between relations and jobs,
Bert's mother eventually found employment as housekeeper to a
crofter near the village of Gamrie in Banffshire.
"I must have been about four when my
mother remarried," Bert said.
"A step-father's not a substitute
for your real father, but he gave me a home and never treated me
any different from any of my stepbrothers."
Writing about his childhood for the
book, Bert said he came to realise that much of it was now
history which might not be recorded anywhere else.
"I remember coming home — it must
have been 1943 — we heard this plane spluttering and looked up
and saw it gliding in. We thought it was going to hit us, but it
landed 30 yards away," Bert said.
"The pilot opened up the canopy and
climbed out on the wing. He said he was sorry and hoped he
hadn't frightened us much and asked where the nearest telephone
was."
When Bert was 10, his stepfather
gave up the croft and moved from farm to farm as a hired hand
and Bert travelled with him until he was old enough to follow in
the footsteps of his father and grandfather, who had been a drum
major with the Gordons in World War One, and enlisted as a boy
soldier in the regiment on 5th January 1953. But his military
career was to last just 18 months before he broke his leg on an
assault course and was discharged as medically unfit.
His short time in the army did make
a lasting impression, however, and Bert went on to join the
Infantry Boys and Junior Leaders Association and through its
website is in contact with people around the world, including a
prison governor in the US and a man who runs an adventure school
in Australia.
"When I was discharged it was one of
the most devastating periods of my life," Bert said.
"Going from a room with 29 other
guys, I went to work where it was just a man and myself and he
didn't even speak to me. At the age of 16-and-a-half, I was too
old to get an apprenticeship so I couldn't do anything other
than the most boring jobs."
After a four month stint on a pig
farm, Bert eventually found his first job on the hydro-schemes
at Aultguish.
"I started off illegal," Bert
confessed.
"I was 17 and you needed to be 18 to
be in the camp. My stepbrother was there and when they asked
what year you were born I was 1937, but my brother said '36.
Every day I worked there I lived in terror that I was going to
be found out."
However, his secret remained safe
for five weeks until severe winter weather forced the closure of
the camp.
The post-war programme of road
building also provided Bert with employment, working on roads in
the west Highlands and Skye.
"The road from Balmacara through to
Kyle, I drilled every inch of that one," Bert said.
"I also worked on the Invermoriston/Glengarry
road. That was 15 miles built complete though virgin territory.
That was some job. It was straight in line with the Atlantic and
see when the wind was blowing... But it was a good job and the
weather was just something you had to put up with."
Bert returned to the hydro-schemes
and in 1958 became a tunnel miner, the tunnel tigers who gave
his book its title.
"It was the best paid job on the
site — the worst, but the best paid," he explained.
"For an 80 hour week you would go
home with £27 clear after tax and bonuses. That was for 12 hours
work every day. Once you went far enough underground, you didn't
get out again until you had finished your shift.
"There was no health and safety in
those days either. We had helmets and that was about it. The
conditions we worked in wouldn't be allowed today. I injured a
young man one night myself. I opened the end of the compressed
air pipe and there was a pebble in it. It shot out like a bullet
into the side of his head and burst his eardrum."
If moving from job to job was part
of Bert's life, then his home matched his peripatetic working
life. He and wife Jess, with whom he will celebrate their golden
wedding anniversary in December, spent 12 years living in a
caravan as far south as Corby in Northamptonshire and as far
north as Ullapool, raising both their daughters in the caravan
until an insurance pay out to Jess allowed the couple to buy
their first flat in May Court in Inverness in 1964. They have
lived in the city ever since.
Bert, who says he was always looking
for a job where he could use his brain rather than his back, was
among the beneficiaries of the 1970s oil boom and in 1972 at the
age of 35, the man who was too old for an apprenticeship at 16
began training as a welder at McDermott's fabrication yard at
Ardersier.
"I never thought I would get that
opportunity," Bert said.
"I spent the next 27 years in oil
related work. On the welding side I got up as far as group
manager, but due to ill health I had to give up that job and
started at the bottom of the ladder again, this time in quality
control."
After 16 years at Ardersier, by
which time he was chief fabrication inspector with Ardersier,
Bert left to go freelance, working offshore and on in the UK and
Europe.
Then on 4th July 2000, Bert suffered
a heart attack.
"That was the end of my working
days, at least for full time employment," he said. "I just
wasn't fit for it."
Even so, Bert still works, carrying
out occasional gardening duties and has had time to devote to
other interests, including his grandchildren and great
granddaughter and becoming associated with the Normandy Veterans
Association, taking photographs and videos of their reunions and
memorial trips to Europe.
It was on the first of these that
Bert was able to visit his father's grave at the war cemetery in
Longueval almost 50 years after his father was killed in action,
an experience which Bert says made him feel there was no longer
something missing in his life, a life he has been able to take a
fresh look at in writing his autobiography.
"I enjoyed writing it. It brought
back a lot of memories. You can't write down everything, but
what I can say is that everything in there is true," he said.
* "Tigers
Under the Turf" by Bert Scorgie is published by iUniverse
Books, through Diadem Books, priced £9.
c.macleod@inverness-courier.co.uk
The following review of
Nick Armbrister's poetry collection FADE INTO
FOCUS: FOCUS INTO FADE has appeared in The Supplement,
Issue 33, March 2007:
 Nick
Armbrister should be a familiar name to regular readers of our
magazines, his poetry having been appearing in them regularly
over the last five years. Well, this year marks ten years of
being a published poet and he has managed to celebrate in style
by getting this collection of his excellent poetry published.
In a way, it
is difficult to provide a meaningful review – having published
so many of his poems (and I recognise a couple in this vast
collection) I think you can take it as written that I quite like
his work! Nick’s poetry will not be for everyone – he is often
dark and gothic, some of his poems deal with mature themes or
include language that not all will want to read. But, he is no
angst-ridden teenager, his poetry displays depth and maturity.
But, it’s not all dark and dreary in Nick’s world –
Dream
Sunlight
expresses
the urge to get away from it all, whilst Endless
Summer
expresses delight in the joys of summer (“A time of blue skies
and cold beer / in pubs in the country.”) tinged with nostalgia
(“We may grow older but we’ll / never forget the times we had”).
A fascination with aircraft is a common theme of his poetry.
 Rookery
takes us to visit the home of the Brontës: “These birds have
nested here for years, ever since the Brontë sisters lived and
died at Howarth. / I hear the rooks cry and I know it is the
same cry Anne, Emily and Charlotte heard so long ago.” Nick
covers a multitude of subjects.
Given that
Nick experiments with different styles of poem on a variety of
topics evoking so many different emotions, I believe that almost
everyone will find something that resonates with them in this
collection. He sees the dark underbelly of the world but
counterpoints it with hope and warnings about falling into the
same traps.
If you have
read his poetry, you already know whether or not you want to buy
this. If not, you could do worse than receive an introduction to
his work with this volume. With so many poems, it is also good
value for money (not one of those collections with one
five-liner a page!). Highly recommended!
DJ Tyrer, The Supplement,
Issue 33, March 2007.
A review by Sarah Foster of Dorothy Lewis'
two books appeared in The Northern Echo on the 20th
March, 2007:
 She's
been a teacher and a healer, now as she nears her 80th birthday,
Dorothy Lewis is writing books. She talks to Women's Editor
Sarah Foster about her interest in the spiritual and how she's
trying to pave the way to greater happiness in old age.
'Arriving at Dorothy Lewsis's house, in a small
village just outside Richmond, I find I've slightly missed the
boat. The book I'd gone along to chat about,
Ageless Spirit, is no longer
Dorothy's latest and as we settle at her table, her Yorkshire
terrier at our feet, she starts discussing
Edrin's Quest,
the fourth to issue from her pen. A work of fiction, it marks a
definite departure. "It's a children's story for children from
ten to 100," says the 79-year-old. "It's fiction and it's like a
layered sweet with toffee on the top and chocolate underneath.
It's about a boy who lives in a company of warlocks and he has
to complete a quest before his 13th birthday so he can be
accepted by the council. He learns to use his intuition, that he
has to stop and be still. He also learns about healing and used
magic all the time." It may have shades of Harry Potter,
but Edrin's Quest is not designed to be a simple
children's story. What Dorothy hopes is that the book will take
its readers on a kind of spiritual journey. If this seems
fanciful, it's pretty clear it's not a whim. In fact, this
premise has become the central purpose of her life...' Extract
from The Northern Echo, 20 March 2007.
This interesting piece of news, or 'experiment'
(from the Australian writers' magazine Australian Author),
which shows the likelihood of your masterpiece being recognized
for what it is, was sent to me by Australian author Filton
Hebbard:
An
old trick…
but it keeps
working… The list of distinguished authors or prize-winning
books passed over or rejected after submission to contemporary
editors and publishers just keeps growing, and now includes V. S.
Naipaul’s In A
Free State
and Stanley Middleton’s
Holiday
, both
earlier winners of the Booker Prize. In a
London
Sunday Times experiment reporters ‘tested’ 20 British
publishers and literary agents by sending them typed copies of the
first chapters of these books. Authors’ and characters’ names
were changed in the usual way of this sort of ambush, so that the
works appeared to have come from unknowns. Every submission was
rejected, the only glimmer of hope coming from one agent who said
they would like a few more chapters....
Copying the Sunday
Times, The Weekend Australian in May sent an extract from
Nobel prize-winning author Patrick White’s novel The Eye of
the Storm to various Australian publishers and agents. Result?
Not a single submission brought any joy. Is this an indictment of
modern publishing and agenting, where editorial insight and the
ability to spot talent have eroded dramatically? Or merely what
you might expect in a world with too many prospective authors and
mss., bombarding too few overloaded publishers and agents? Or
is/was White just no good...? Reader, you decide!
- from Australian
Author magazine, April 2006.
The writings of Poet and Author Beth
Winchcombe featured in Clowne Enterprise (Issue 3, May
2006), the Newsletter of the Bizfizz Programme in Clowne:
Boffin Philip Bladon's scientific reference
book hits the press!
This dictionary provides information for everyone; trivia and scrabble buffs can enrich their vocabulary; symbologists and symbolists can ponder over the character sizes. Students, especially those studying science, will find this dictionary a valuable reference book throughout their careers.
 
Review in It's Fate, Issue 3, April
2006:
 Eileen writes
her book Spiritual Food for Thought merely as a medium—a channel for her spiritual guide Silas to impart basic information that we in this often misguided world need to know. If Silas, through Eileen, succeeds in reaching out to just one person, then this whole project will have been worthwhile. With its wisdom and revelations from one who lived before, this book is proof of a world beyond the grave.
Where Birds Flock Together!
 The
launch of Bellbolttoms and Blackouts,
by Louisa Jenkins, about the time when she was a Wren serving in
Scotland during the second world wa r,
took place at the Thistle Hotel in Edinburgh on Saturday, 19th
February, 2005. Dr Charles Muller, of Diadem Books, was privileged
to give the introductory address, and it was gratifying to see so
many present who eagerly queued up to purchase signed copies of
the book (around seventy copies were sold during the two-hour
launch). The occasion, indeed, was living history, for there were many
ex-Wrens present. Dr Muller drew attention to the author's sparkling
style and disarming sense of humour with which she recalls her
very human (and amusing, sometimes hilarious!) experiences of
being a Wren.  But
the book is also a significant record of history, for it tells us
many things so many people don't know—that the Americans, for instance,
were in fact secretly present in Scotland (in a civilian capacity)
in preparation for their involvement long before the official announcement
of their entry into the War; and also, how many realise that
'Blackouts' do not necessarily refer to the heavy material used to
black out the light from windows, but to a certain garment of a
Wren's underwear? Dr Muller concluded: "Louisa's first book (The Tree that Grew in St James Square, launched
last year) belongs to Edinburgh, but this book belongs to the
world"—for the Wrens surely played a significant role in
ensuring the values of freedom and democracy, not only for
Scotland and the UK, but for the world.
Charles Muller, of Diadem Books, addresses the Wrens
SIX WEEKS LUCKY!
  Click
here for an article on Rudi Kratschmer
and Jill Martin's book which appeared in the Sheffield Star on Saturday 29 Jan 2005, by
journalist Fiona Firth. The headlines read: "He
fled Czechoslovakia to escape the Nazis and eventually forged a
successful career as an engineer in Sheffield. Now Rudi Kratschmer
has told his remarkable story in a new book." Jill Martin
adds: "Since the article appeared, we have had
several phone calls from people who knew Rudi and who would like a
copy of the book, and also a call from a lady in
Sheffield
who has never met him but believes in the importance of telling
such histories; it's been lovely to get such a response."
 Book
from beyond the grave... Eileen Babb's book
is unusual in that its co-author has been dead for almost a
century. Eileen Babb's Spiritual Food for
Thought was reviewed and the author interviewed by Mike
Buckingham, whose report appeared in the South Wales Argus
on Wednesday, January 19, 2005. Some of the photographs that
appeared with the article are reproduced here. The photo on the
left shows Eileen, who is a medium, consulting her crystal. The
photo on the right shows Eileen with her dreamcatcher. Caption:
"Psychic Gift: Eileen Babb has written a book for a spirit
called Silas."
Eileen and husband Colin with a white hawk dreamcatcher.
Final frontier for sci-fi fan
A science fiction fanatic from
Swindon
has had his first novel published! Read the full report from the Evening
Advertiser: click on the report!
 New
release: Cry Havoc by Toby
Bishop, MBE.
Toby Bishop, MBE, is a retired mercenary, formerly of the Royal
Military Police. The following review appeared in The Royal
Military Police Journal, August 2004:
You can imagine your editor's surprise when sent a
book to review written by a friend and former Corps officer. In
fact not just a book, but a novel! New novelist, Toby Bishop,
known to most as Roy, has written a tale of derring do in Africa.
Its sub-title says much of the author and the book: "A trip
to Hell for a group of ageing mercenaries who should have known
better." The fiction is based on a mercenary operation in
Mozambique. The story is spiced with scenes of horror and violence
and is told with humour. In fact, the sort of story that one would
expect from a former soldier and told in a language we can all
relate to. Roy, a former Major RMP, having joined the Corps in
1956, was commissioned from the ranks in 1977. He left the Army in
1986 and worked in Ghana and on contract in other African
countries. He says he has now given up his wanderings and has
settled back into life in Kent.
  Louisa
Jenkins’ autobiographical book The Tree that Grew in St James Square,
was held in
Edinburgh
at the King James Thistle Hotel on
4th September, 2004
. Charles Muller of Diadem Books travelled from the
Highlands
to
Edinburgh
for the occasion by train, and it was well worth the trouble!
Louisa is 82, a very slender, tall, elegant woman, and was dressed
immaculately in a long black dress with pearls—a lovely woman
with an angelic smile. She is the only surviving member of her
family that constitutes the “family tree” that grew in
St James Square
, now a hyper-modern shopping complex in lieu of the old tenement
buildings and apartments where many working folk lived in the
thirties and the war years. Her husband Tom (six years younger
than Louisa—she calls him her “toy boy”) and their son
Llewellyn were present, plus an enormous amount of interested
relatives
and visitors! Llwelleyn is an IT man and he had rigged up a huge
screen linked to his computer, displaying the book’s cover,
followed by a slide-show presentation of the pictures in the book
and a movie of old-time
Edinburgh
with background hit songs from the thirties.
The cheese and wine presentation was in a large reception
room of the hotel and it was crowded!
Charles Muller sat next to Louisa and volunteered an
impromptu speech, recalling many of the funny and sad parts of the
book, saying that it read like a novel and that one very quickly
felt part of this wonderful family with its old-time values and
lived through the history it enfolded. (There was the risqué
detail of the ‘magic’ ointment Louisa had bought by mail order
when she was thirteen—“You’ll have to read the book to find
out what that’s all about!”; the information about “auld
teabread” & “coo-s paps” (everyone nodded and smiled
knowingly) and the historical verisimilitude, about Mrs Simpson,  for
instance, who was thought to be “a fascinatingly dangerous woman”.)
He challenged anyone to read the moving account of Louisa’s
sister’s Teeny’s death (she died at 22 of consumption) with a
dry eye.
Louisa had ordered one hundred books which thankfully had arrived
in time, three days before. Then came the boo
k signings, and the queue stretched around the room. “We should
have ordered two hundred!” Tom, Louisa’s husband, said.
  The
launch of They Kill Bears by Lee
Vernon took place in Luxembourg at the 'Chapter 1' bookshop on
19th June 2004. The launch of David Robinson's guide to Luxembourg
(An Expat's Life, Luxembourg & The
White Rose) was also launched on Saturday 19th June at
the English Shop in Limpertsburg between 11 am and 2 pm, and
between 3 pm to 5 pm at the White Rose pub in the Rue Dicks, in Luxembourg.
Charles Muller, of Diadem Books,
was able to attend the launch of An
Expat's Life in Luxembourg where he was royally entertained by
the author and his friends, some of whom came as far afield as
London and Holland. By clicking on the pictures below (by Rob
Biekmann) more scenes from the day of
the launch can be seen.
 Swindon
writers' group 'Penpushers' held a seminar (June
5th, 2004, St Andrew's Hall, Walcot, Swindon, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.)
at which experts gave talks about everything from how to find an
agent to self-publication. Among them was Diadem Books author
Jean Morley whose  historical
romance Talley Girl has been recently
released. Jean
Morley is seen here displaying both her novels Black
Pearls and Talley Girl
in a news article that appeared in the Wiltshire News.
ANNOUNCEMENT : NEW BOOK JUST RELEASED:
WORKING WITH THE DEAD
by Josephine Price Powell
 A
must for those with an interest in Death. Working
with the Dead provides a readable and true account
of the author’s encounters with Death, before and after she
became an embalmer. Without a doubt this sometimes humorous, yet
sensitive and caring approach to death and embalming, will keep
the reader gripped on every page. Anecdotes from her personal life
and experience make the book engrossing, sad and sometimes
funny—but it is not for the faint hearted.
Working
with the Dead opens doors to modern embalming and caring for
the dead in a way that is easily understood by those wishing to
follow the art. Make yourself comfortable, lock the door,
and…prepare to be surprised...
Frank Binns makes his debut in Luxembourg as a
crime writer. The launch of his novel An
Odyssey of Murder received full coverage in the February 2004
edition of the Luxembourg journal "352":
|
|
Brock Short Stories! Richard Brock, a
third-year English and Linguistics student at the University
of Leeds, has published his first collection of short
stories (We Will Breathe Again)
through Diadem Books. The book received high praise in a
Leeds student newspaper, in which Hayley Broad catches up
with the aspiring author to learn about the initial creative
process and "how to take your writing that step
further." |
  Diadem
Books visits Florida. Editor Charles Muller, of Diadem
Books, visited Florida in early December where he was the guest of author Lisa Ammerman and her husband Terry
Henderson. Lisa is the author of two excellent literary novels, Love
in a Nutbag (published in 2001) and Hunger
Hill (just published), and is presently working on a new
groundbreaking novel, Death by Cucumber. Terry Henderson, a
talented writer and a former BBC engineer, will be working on a
refreshingly different, if startling documentary guide to Florida,
especially for the expat. The visit to Florida was a 'nutbag'
experience. (Read Love in a Nutbag
and 'nutbag' is guaranteed to become a household word; indeed,
Lisa's innovative us of language will enrich the reader's vocabulary!)
See more photographs from the Florida visit!
Launch of Diana Button's novel in Luxembourg -
an unqualified success!
 Diana
Button recently launched her novel Marrying
It All which was published through Di adem
Books in September. The booksigning at the Chapter1 bookstore in
Luxembourg was a great success, readers standing in line to have
their copies signed while three readers, Charles Muller of Diadem
Books included, read passages from the novel. Over 130 copies were
sold in just over two hours, the bookstore having to remains open
after hours to cater for the stragglers! The Luxembourg National
Cultural Radio Station (100,7) presented an excellent
review (in English); Diana was interviewed on Luxembourg ARA city radio
as well as on private TV (Tango TV), and
the book and pictures have featured in the English-speaking
newspapers and the English online website www.station.lu.
The National Centre for Literature has purchased copies and the
National Library will catalogue it. SEE
PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE BOOK LAUNCH
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  Helen
Cardwell (24), of Waltham Rise (Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire),
has hit the local press with her female "Harry Potter"
novel! She started writing when she was just six years old, and
now her first book, Amber Janusson:
Protector of the Magic Lands, has been published. "When
it arrived I felt like I had wandered into a dream. It was
unbelievable, I was acting like a lunatic, jumping up and
down." Her heroine Amber is from a long line of witches, and
is destined to save the human world and the magic lands. She has
been inspired by fairytales, myths and the work of CS Lewis. The
scenery around Alnwick inspired the author. Helen has been
visiting north Northumberland for a decade and says the magic,
beauty and mystery of the area persuaded her to put pen to paper.
Alnwick is of course no stranger to magic with the castle used in
the first two Harry Potter films.
See news report in the Lochaber
News, October 4, 2003:
"Book Speaks Volumes of Mick's Determination."
Stroke
victim tells story of his fight for recovery.
Emma Hardy writes of new author Susannah
George: "Her story is worthy of the pages of a novel and
that is exactly what Susannah has drawn inspiration from in her
first book, True Colours, which
goes on sale in the Cambridge branch of Heffers on Trinity Street
in September."
From the Cambridge Evening News, August 27,
2003. Extract from the Editorial Opinion:
Inspirational book shows way forward
AUTHOR Susannah George is an inspiration to us all.
Although the book she has written is a novel,
she has drawn on her own experiences for the storyline for True
Colours.
As a schoolgirl Susannah, like many young
people, was bullied by fellow pupils.
Because of her unhappiness, she developed a
hatred for school and stopped eating. She got thinner and thinner
and became anorexic.
When she was started at a new school Susannah
was given counselling but found this did not work for her and
instead battled her way through her problems with the help of her
family.
Susannah's determination and approach shows
that there is a way through the problems that often beset our
teenagers.
Just released! Exciting new
book - encounters with many famous people!
How to mingle with the rich and famous!
Read the announcement in the CP Press, Wednesday, December 18,
2002: click here.
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Bruce with train robber Buster Edwards |
With Norman Wisdom |
With Peter O' Toole |
CLICK HERE FOR MORE NEWS : PAGE CONTINUED
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