News 10 November 2003

THE GREAT ESCAPERS got an enormous amount of interest at Frankfurt and will be one of four lead Spring titles to be advertised in The Bookseller next week. UK publication coincides with the 60th Anniversary of the Great Escape in March 2004 but celebrations will be continuing throughout the 60th year. Tim Carroll has had unique access to the surviving escapers plus intriguing interviews with other prisoners whose escape attempts were less successful. He has also discovered that the prisoners were successfully conducting espionage activities on behalf of the Allies while incarcerated.

We are absolutely thrilled to have acquired for Spring 2004, THE TROUBLE WITH ISLAM, A Wake Up Call for Honesty and Change by Irshad Manji from Random House Canada. It will be published by St Martins Press in the US and will also be published in France and Holland. THE TROUBLE WITH ISLAM forms a clarion call for a fatwah free future by a Muslim woman who has broken the conspicuous silence surrounding Mainstream Islam. The New York Times has referred to Irshad as 'Osama bin Laden's worst nightmare' and The Globe and Mail (Canada) said that the book 'may well become to non-fiction what the Satanic Verses was to fiction.' Irshad will be visiting the UK for an author tour to coincide with the London Book Fair and has already been invited to appear at the Edinburgh Book Festival in August.

We have just published a new Top Ten on the Mainstream web site with HOW TO SPOT A B*STARD BY HIS STAR SIGN storming to the top of the charts. We have also introduced two new on-line best seller lists, a Mainstream Sport bestseller list which is led by A SEASON IN DORNOCH and a Scottish interest Top Ten 'Books from Scotland' which is led by SCOTS AND THE SEA. We have introduced the Books From Scotland section to the web site as we felt we our web site was focussing on the 'mainstream' aspects of our list and less on the books which are inspired by our location. Hopefully our customers, particularly ex pats Scots overseas, will now be able to find Scottish interest books at the push of a button and hope it will also be of interest for trade customers and authors who have a particular passion for Scotland.

On the publicity front a number of magazine features have just been confirmed. FOUR FOUR TWO have confirmed a six page feature on FOOTBALL IN OUR TIME and FHM have a fantastic review for WHITE GOLD appearing in their January edition. Across the pond Allan Starkie was interviewed by Geraldo Rivera on Fox News regarding his book A DATE WITH A DEATH and Tod Volpe has just been interviewed by Dan Abrams on MSNBC regarding FRAMED.

And Finally...

We are very sorry to have to report that Stephen Prior, author of the WAR OF THE WINDSORS and of the forthcoming FRIENDLY FIRE, died recently. Our condolences to his family and colleagues. Our sympathy also goes to Lorraine Fannin, of the Scottish Publishers Association, whose husband died last week.