TWO WINE TITLES FOR YOUR CAR’S GLOVE BOX

MICHAEL COOPER’S BUYERS GUIDE
TO NEW ZEALAND WINES
Michael Cooper – Hodder Moa - $34.99

Whenever I stand in front of the Chardonnay section at my local Glengarry’s wine store and feel overwhelmed by the hundred or so NZ Chards on display there I wonder how I could ever make a choice if I didn’t have with me the current edition of Cooper’s invaluable guide. I never buy wine without having it with me. It is totally indispensable and the best guide on the market by a country mile.
I see inside the book that this is the 17th edition. Because of space considerations the previous editions on my shelf only go back to 2000 but it is interesting to note that the 2009 edition is double the size of that 2000 edition which I guess is a reflection of the dramatic growth in the NZ wine industry over that time.
With Cooper’s wine judging commitments, his various extensive magazine articles and his other books, particularly the just-published Wine Atlas of New Zealand, I really cannot comprehend how he achieves so much. I guess he doesn’t need a lot of sleep!
He is our most highly regarded wine writer and when you look at the time and effort, and the scholarship, that must have gone into this new bumper edition you can see why he enjoys such a reputation.
Thank you Michael, my copy is already in the car.

Footnote:

After tasting his way through nearly every NZ wine in the last year for his annual Michael had a slight quandary - this year the Best Buy white award was so close he couldn’t separate two wines.
However they were both squeezed out for the overall Best Buy by a Hawkes Bay Red. This year’s overall Best Buy is Mission Hawke’s Bay Reserve Syrah 2007
The co-winners for the Best Buy white are Main Divide Waipara Valley Riesling 2007 and Mount Riley Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2008.

CUISINE WINE COUNTRY
Edited by Susan Buchanan
Fairfax Media- $17.50

Strictly speaking this is an annual magazine but I see it in some ways as a poor man’s version of Michael Cooper’s Wine Atlas of New Zealand. Also of course Michael’s definitive book is not something you want to lug about the countryside. Whereas this publication is definitely designed to be in the car and if it gets too tatty by the time you have finished your tour than then you can always buy another.
It doesn’t deal in any detail with individual wines but rather is a guide, region by region, to the wineries along with accomodation and dining information and suggestions on other activities as well as information on the ever increasing number of wine festivals.
Cuisine wine writers John Saker and Kerry Tyack have been around the entire country with all wine regions covered - Northland, Matakana, Regional Auckland, Waiheke Island, Waikato/Bay of Plenty, Gisborne, Hawke's Bay, Wairarapa/Martinborough, Nelson, Marlborough, Canterbury, Waipara and Central Otago.

Wine and food enthusiasts can navigate their way around New Zealand's wineries with the book's easy-to-read wine trail maps. Each region's map makes it simple to put together a tour to suit your own requirements.
Good value.

TWO NEW SOUTHERN TITLES FROM OTAGO UNIVERSITY PRESS

NURSE TO THE IMAGINATION
50 Years of the Robert Burns Fellowship
Edited by Lawrence Jones - $45

The Burns Fellowship is New Zealand’s oldest literary fellowship and arguably our most prestigious literary residency. Last month the Fellowship celebrated 50 years and in this fine publication each of the Burns Fellows careers are recorded.

Roger Hall, the Burns Fellow way back in 1977-78, reviewed the book on my blog several weeks ago but I have just got a copy myself and have found it so fascinating that I had to mention it again. Editor Lawrence Jones describes it as a literary wine-tasting and I reckon he is spot on.
And what a great reference book for all students of NZ’s literary history. Every secondary school, university and public library in the land should have multiple copies.

KIWITOWN’S PORT
The Story of Oamaru Harbour
Gavin McLean - $40

McLean is New Zealand’s leading maritime historian and as usual he has presented us with a highly readable, entertaining, thorough and profusely illustrated history although one does wonder how widely outside of Oamaru there would be a lot of interest in this subject.
The southern town is McLean’s home port and I am sure he would have had a lot of fun carrying out his research.
The port was hugely important to the town in previous times but today it is an historic area, (this has been the subject of much heated debate locally), with the author hoping that the “harbour may be entering a new era after three decades in limbo, completing the transition from the smokestack industrial economy to the servicing economy, from shipping to shopping”.

60,000 Dylan Thomas prize goes to globetrotting debut author
Richard Lea writing in guardian.co.uk, Tuesday November 11 2008
'A clear eye, focused intelligence and wonderful use of words' ... Nam Le

The Vietnamese-born writer Nam Le has been awarded the 2008 Dylan Thomas prize, picking up a cheque for £60,000 at a ceremony in Swansea last night for his first collection of short stories, The Boat.
The chairman of the judges, Peter Florence, hailed Le as a "winner worthy of Dylan Thomas".
"Nam tackles his own background and circumstances as well as that of others with a clear eye, focused intelligence and wonderful use of words," Florence said. "He is, in this panel's opinion, a phenomenal literary talent, and I look forward to following his career as it progresses."
Read the full report at the Guardian online.

ARCHITECTURE UNCOOKED
The New Zealand Holiday House Through An Architect’s Eyes
Pip Cheshire and Patrick Reynolds
Godwit - $90

Yet another big, luscious, high-end, and splendid book published by Random House under their much-admired Godwit imprint.
Architect and architectural activist, teacher and judge, and all round nice guy Pip Cheshire has written a lyrical and thoughtful text to go alongside the expert photographs taken by leading architectural photographer Patrick Reynolds as well as Cheshire’s own appealing pencil drawings. This is a book that should be in every loved holiday home in New Zealand.

This book will be in the shops this Friday, 14 November, but is being launched, appropriately at a beach barbecue tomorrow night. Sadly I am unable to attend because of a business commitment in Christchurch but I have no doubt it will be a grand launch.

The seven holiday homes featured, some definitely fitting the kiwi bach/crib definition, are largely unsophisticated places with water tanks, open blackened fireplaces, mismatched furniture, plenty of corrugated iron, tyre swings, and even instructions written on the walls. We know nothing of the owners of the featured homes.
This is not house-of-the-year territory, these are dinkum kiwi holiday homes, many quite remote on both coast and in the mountains with author & photographer's love for the landscape and these holiday homes that occupy it shining through on every page.

A special book bringing a fresh and different approach to anything I have seen before on this subject.

Harper US inks Wall Street Journal deal
From The Bookseller, 10.11.08

Journalists from the Wall Street Journal will write books for HarperCollins US across a variety of subjects after the companies signed a three year partnership deal.

Both HarperCollins and Dow Jones, which publishes the Wall Street Journal, are owned by News Corp. The program will be overseen by Steve Ross, group president of the Collins Group, and Alan Murray, deputy managing editor at the Wall Street Journal.

The titles will only be published in the US as part of the agreement. The first book, The Wall Street Journal Guide to the End of Wall Street As We Know It: What You Need to Know About the Greatest Financial Crisis of Our Time – And How to Survive It by Dave Kansas, will be published by Collins Business in January 2009.

Collins Business will also publish The Wall Street Journal Guide to Management in early 2010.

For the full story link to The Bookseller here.

Footnote from The Bookman:

Does their first title have the longest book title you have ever come across?

THE PAINTED GARDEN IN NEW ZEALAND ART

Christopher Johnstone - Godwit - $75

This title is one to watch out for. To be released in New Zealand this Friday, 14 November, it is being launched in a garden, (of course), the next day, a report of which will appear on the blog later.

Meantime The Bookman has an advance copy for review and although I am only half way through it at this stage I can tell you that art-loving gardeners are in for a treat. It's a visual knockout.

I must say I had no idea that we had such a culture of recording our gardens by way of paintings. Among the artists included are Gretchen Albrecht, Rita Angus, Don Binney, Nigel Brown, Jane Evans, Claudia Pond Eyley (my favourite so far), Patrick Hanly, Rata Lovell-Smith, Karl Maughan (cover & others), Peter Siddell, Nancy Tichborne, Pamela Wolfe (art left) and a host of others, 100 paintings by nearly 70 artists.

Art historian/curator Christopher Johnstone is well qualified to author such a work and he has done a great job, as have his publishers.

More next week after the launch by which time I will have enjoyably read the rest of this big, handsome volume.

TE POU

by Andre Ngapo (pic right by Chris Gorman)

The Sunday Star-Times did the winner of their annual short story contest proud on Sunday with the winning story, Te Pou by Andre Ngapo, the headline piece on pages one and two of their excellent Focus section.

The story is a bit long to carry in full on my blog but if you would like to read it then link here.

For my earlier report on the announcement of the winners and the judges comments link here.

ARMISTICE DAY - 90 YEARS AGO TODAY WORLD WAR ONE ENDED

A host of events are planned around New Zealand today to commemorate the occasion. The theme Coming Home is being used to provide a common thread to the commemorations.

And my favourite UK newspaper,The Guardian , has been running a series of pieces about the World War One poets.

Link here to the Gaurdian online to view an example.

TOP TEN MOST IRRITATING PHRASES

1. At the end of the day
2. Fairly unique
3. I personally
4. At this moment in time
5. With all due respect
6. Absolutely
7. It’s a nightmare
8. Shouldn’t of
9. 24/7
10. It’s not rocket science

Read the story here.

SWIMMERS’ ROPE
Stephanie Johnson – Vintage - $29.99

Stephanie Johnson is one of the queens of New Zealand literary fiction with her eighth novel now published to go alongside her three collections of short stories and two poetry anthologies.
She is also the co-founder of the Auckland Writers & Readers Festival.

On the eve of the general election, her friends, family and publishing colleagues packed out the Women’s Bookshop to celebrate the launch of her seventh novel, Swimmers' Rope.
It was a lively and colourful night, not least because Helen Clark was invited by Carole Beu, owner of the Women’s Bookshop and Labour Party activist, to ‘gate-crash’ the launch after dining at a nearby Thai restaurant. This the PM happily did, incorporating it into her procession down Ponsonby Road.

Peter Wells, writer and co-founder of the Auckland Writers and Readers Festival, officially launched Swimmer’s Rope; a transcript of his poignant and heartfelt speech is included below.

It is my great pleasure to be launching Stephanie Johnson’s ‘Swimmer’s Rope’ this evening. I got the book in the post a few weeks ago - I opened it, was delighted with the cover, flicked throuh it and came apon two initials which immediately struck me. P.W. I thought to myself - hmmm Pam Westaway, Paul Wheatcliffe....surely not, Peter Wells. A few nervous, tenderly apprehensive emails later revealed I was indeed the person behind the initials. Then Stephanie sprang the trap. Would I like to launch the book? Yes of course....But what if I didn’t like the book? What if I hated it....So Stephanie’s nervous queries ran.

‘What if' is a semi permanent state of madness which infects the author somewhere in between returning the proofs and getting the first copy...that dreadful moment when you realise that something you’ve written in the consenting privacy of your room is about to be bruited wide and far around the world (you hope).

Well, I can safely report back that - indeed - I do very much like this book. From its swift opening, one immediately feels one is back in a known Johnsonian universe - a Steph Hyphen Johnsonian universe - the past is raptly evoked - suburbs, streets, places which no longer exist are expertly limned in. As an old Aucklander and inhabitant of Herne Bay - now departed - I was delighted to revisit a world I could just recognise and sense around me.

Few Aucklanders have evoked the city with such clemency, such almost furious poetry - such attention to the bend in streets, to vanished sights and places.
I myself love the past - I often find myself a footsore wanderer in that magic and limitless realm. It is a beautiful thing to find a fellow traveller. And with such a tale to tell.

This is a story of incidental love, accidental love, the pity of love, the danger of love, the problems of denying love. What a magnificent subject. That one of the lead characters is a musician also seems wondrous. Stephanie herself, I know, was a talented cello player and she brings to her central character Noel all her own passion for the sounds and inner landscape of music.

This is a wonderful New Zealand novel.
One wishes one could say it was a wonderful novel, written by a NZer celebrated in London, NY, Dubai and Nandi. It is better than that. It is a novel by and for and about and of this culture. S’s writing is a tree growing in the forest of NZ literature, a tree full of singing birds - some with discordant notes, it is true, some angry but then there is always - and it's important to remember this - the birds with the lyrical song, the birds with the distant call, the birds which show you that you are, indeed, in the only place you can be - the best place on earth - home.

This is a good book, a fine read, a lovely addition to the forest of voices.

NETHERLAND

By Joseph O'Neill (Fourth Estate $30)

Reviewed by Gordon McLauchlan

The thrill you get from a first-rate novel is the sense you have been admitted to real lives with their complicated problems, with pleasures to share, and ultimately a sense of fulfilment, not in the sense of a happy ending, but a truthful one.

The intrigue of Netherland begins with the title. Does it mean the homeland of the Dutch narrator, Hans van den Broek, or the netherworld? The issue remains ambivalent.The story is deeply about New York, especially after the terrorist attacks. It also concerns cricket, of all things, and a troubled transatlantic marriage.Van den Broek is a financial analyst with a bank and his wife Rachel is a highly paid, very English, barrister.

On 9/11, they are living with their small son Jake in a loft apartment close to the twin towers, an address to which they never return. Rachel is unsettled and insecure and having decided Hans is an inadequate husband and protector, returns to London with Jake.

But there is more to the marital split than just post-9/11 nerves. Van den Broek is a strangely passive man, neurotically haunted by his past.

Left alone in New York, he has no work friends and involves himself with cricket, a game he played as a young man growing up in Holland, but which is an almost invisible sport in baseball-mad New York and which attracts mainly West Indians, Pakistanis and Indians.

He is exasperatingly prone to self-deprecation and to allowing his life to drift along on the whims of friends and acquaintances.

He is especially charmed by Chuck Ramkissoon, a loquacious, extrovert West Indian expatriate who lives on the edge of the underworld, but whose driving ambition is to give cricket a major headquarters in New York.

The novel opens with the revelation that Ramkissoon's handcuffed body has been discovered in a New York canal, into which it had been tossed a long time before.

By this time, van den Broek is back in London, his marriage repaired, and it is from this standpoint he tells his story.

It may seem cliched to say the book is beautifully crafted, well paced and structured, but this is an appropriate description because the style is precise and realistic in a tradition that is so often dispensed with now in the interests of experimentation. The backdrop of New York is authentically chaotic and rooted in its Dutch origins. I found the novel satisfying in almost every way. Perhaps a flaw is the inadequately drawn character of Rachel. oGordon McLauchlan is an Auckland writer.

This review was first Published in the New Zealand Herald on 8 November, 2008 and is reproduced here with permission from Linda Herrick, Arts & books editor, New Zealand Herald to whom I extend my thanks.

SONATA FOR MIRIAM
Linda Olsson – Penguin – NZ$37

Following the enormous critical acclaim and commercial success of Olsson’s previous novel, her first, Let Me Sing You Gentle Songs, there have been high expectations for her second which was launched in Auckland two weeks ago. Not surprisingly there has been wide media coverage including a review in CANVAS by David Hill, and a whole page in the NZ LISTENER by Siobahn Harvey.
I finally read the book over this past weekend and can now report that Sonata for Miriam is a quite extraordinary, ambitious novel.
A serious and thoughtful book, often harrowing, but also frequently heart-warming, it is I guess a multi-layered, quite complex love story. It is about the love between a man and a woman, a father and a daughter, of family love, and through it all a love of music.
The story is set in New Zealand, principally Waiheke Island, Poland and Sweden.

'The Library Has Always Been a Window to a Larger World'

"More than a building that houses books and data, the library has always been a window to a larger world--a place where we've always come to discover big ideas and profound concepts that help move the American story forward. . . .



"Libraries remind us that truth isn't about who yells the loudest, but who has the right information. Because even as we're the most religious of people, America's innovative genius has always been preserved because we also have a deep faith in facts."And so the moment we persuade a child, any child, to cross that threshold into a library, we've changed their lives forever, and for the better. This is an enormous force for good."--

President-elect Barack Obama in a speech at the American Library Association annual conference in June 2005.
Thanks to Shelf Awareness for bringing this great quote to my attention.

From country to city - Turning the Season at The Wapping Project

Four writers have been commissioned to produce short stories for a new exhibition inspired by the phenomenon of the British Season. The writers will each produce a 3,000 word short story which will be placed around Turning the Season at The Wapping Project as a sound installation.

The four commissioned writers are:

* Romesh Gunesekera
* Deborah Levy (pic left)
* Toby Litt
* Erica Wagner

The stores are inspired by one of the main pieces in the new exhibition, a photo story, Untold, shot by fashion photographer thomas zanon-larcher and directed by Wapping Project Director and Curator Jules Wright. Writers may respond to a single image, a scene or the whole sequence of images. The photographic narrative charts the demise of the relationship between couple Alex and Alice (Elliot Cowan, Lost in Austen star and Hannah Shaw, supermodel) set against the backdrop of the Season’s events. The short stories will be recorded by the authors and played on headphones throughout the building.

For the exhibition, Jules Wright has invited artists from many disciplines to respond to the Season in all its complexities, playing with ideas of town and country, seasonal shifts, commerce, trade and all its meanings and metaphors. The Wapping Project space and surrounding grounds will be completely transformed, with dance, writing, photography, theatre, design and art consuming every inch of the space – from a roof-top lily pond to an installation of white ceramic deer skulls.

The short stories and photo story will be accompanied in the exhibition by:

* 100 bird houses designed by creative talent from ECAL design school will fill a tree
* a lily pond created by Diane Howse which will adorn the roof
* a new sculpture by Eilís O'Connell, WINGBLADE, will travel from Goodwood Sculpture Park for its first public outing in the exhibition
* a dance duet choreographed by Luca Silvestrini
* Samuel Spenser’s installation of porcelain deer skulls
* a musical score by Ilona Sekacz

Turning the Season is at The Wapping Project from 20 November 2008 to 28 February 2009.

Shortlist revealed for the Blue Peter Book Awards

Booktrust is pleased to announce the shortlist for the Blue Peter Book Awards. These enormously popular and influential awards have been recognising and celebrating the best authors, the most creative illustrators and the greatest reads for children since 2000.

The shortlist is:

Best Book With Facts:
Archaeology Detectives - by Simon Adams (Oxford University Press)
100 Most Dangerous Things on the Planet - by Anna Claybourne (A&C Black)
Horrible Geography Handbooks: Planet in Peril - by Anita Ganeri, illustrated by Mike Phillips (Scholastic)

Book I Couldn't Put Down:
Abela - by Berlie Doherty (Andersen Press)
Shadow Forest - by Matt Haig (Corgi)
Foul Play - by Tom Palmer (Puffin)

Most Fun Story with Pictures:
Mr Gum and the Dancing Bear - by Andy Stanton, illustrated by David Tazzyman (Egmont)
Fleabag - by Helen Stephens (Alison Green Books)
Lost! The Hundred-Mile-An-Hour Dog - by Jeremy Strong (Puffin Books)

The panel of adult judges comprises author Anthony McGowan, school librarian Karen Bhatti and Blue Peter Editor Tim Levell to judge the three categories: Book I Couldn’t Put Down, Best Book with Facts and Most Fun Story with Pictures.

The final nine books will then be judged by a selection of young Blue Peter viewers, who will decide the winners in each category and the overall winner which deserves the ultimate accolade, Blue Peter Book of the Year. Their judging meeting will be broadcast on Blue Peter in March 2009.

The winning author and/or illustrator in each category will be awarded a special Blue Peter Book Award Trophy on screen. In addition, an extract from each of the nine shortlisted titles will be dramatised on the programme.

The winner of the Blue Peter Book Awards will be announced in the spring of 2009, to coincide with World Book Day. Booktrust was awarded administration for the Blue Peter Book Awards in May 2008.

A BOOK IN EVERY STOCKING

GREAT CAMPAIGN IN UK GETS UNDERWAY

Bookstart’s Christmas wish for a book in every stocking
http://www.bookstart.org.uk/

Bookstart, the national programme that gives free books to babies, has embarked on a Christmas campaign in support of independent bookshops.

Their ‘Book in Every Stocking’ campaign provides posters, stickers and bookmarks which have been specially designed by the illustrator Annabel Hudson, best known for her bestselling Witch Wendy series.

The materials will be sent to over 1,000 independent bookshops on Monday 10 November.

Discussing Doris Lessing online

This from one of my favourite book blogs, Jacket Copy.

The Institute of the Future of the Book in London is launching an online discussion of "The Golden Notebook," Doris Lessing's 1962 novel. Seven writers, critics and scholars -- all women -- will be making notes alongside the text, generating discussion among themselves there and on a blog. Other readers can add their voices in the comments on the blog and in a discussion forum.
Lessing and HarperCollins have agreed to put the text, in its entirety, online for the project, which is pretty cool. So the "alongside" notes really will appear next to the text on the website. Read the full piece at Jacket Copy here.

ON TOP OF EVERYTHING

Sarah-Kate Lynch - Black Swan - NZ$29.99

Sarah-Kate Lynch's sixth novel was launched yesterday, Sunday, in Herne Bay, Auckland at a church hall and the centrepiece was a spread of hundreds of cup cakes similar to that featured on the cover, along with the most divine cucumber sanwiches, all relevant to the story.....accompanied by pink bubbles.

Pic at right shows the author with The Bookman and one of the many tables of food.

Doing the honours for Random House was longtime senior fiction editor Harriet Allen, (pictured left with the author) who got proceedings off to an appropriately light start with the following remarks:

You know you’ve read a good book when it has infiltrated your day-to-day living and indeed your thinking. The other week, no sooner had I picked up my sick daughter from school and dropped her off at home, than the phone rang asking me to collect my sick son. As I put them both to bed, buckets by their sides, I was having a conversation in my head with Florence, the main character in Sarah-Kate’s latest novel. Florence believed that bad things happened in threes, so I was telling her what a lot of nonsense that was, I was for too busy to succumb to this bug, there was not going to be a number three. When I came downstairs, however, there was cat vomit on the kitchen floor. And because of Florence, I actually cleaned it up with a smile on my face, having become an instant convert to the theory of bad things happening in threes.

That’s the power of literature – makes you smile even when cleaning up cat vomit. But of course you’d expect me to say ON TOP OF EVERYTHING is a good book, so I’ll read you just two of the many positive comments we’ve received from booksellers who have had a sneak preview. One down in Oamaru wrote: ‘What an awesome book. Made me laugh, made me cry, very hard to put down. Sarah-Kate has a way with words and kept me on the edge of my seat wondering what would come next.’

Another bookseller in Ashburton wrote: ‘As a first-time reader of Sarah-Kate Lynch I would have to say that I loved it. ON TOP OF EVERYTHING was a wonderfully good-hearted read, which had me laughing and crying in all the right parts. I thought it was wonderful.’

So, I urge you to let this book into your everyday life, too – buy it for yourself as well as all your friends and family for Christmas.

And judging by the line of people buying the book later it seems many paid heed to Harriet's urging.

Pic left shows left to right The Bookman with untiring Random House publicist Jennifer Balle, and Random House publisher Nicola Legat who is enjoying a golden year with her publishing.

To Celebrate Courage Day the New Zealand Society of Authors Presents the 90 minute documentary:-

AN INDEPENDENT MIND
A film by REX BLOOMSTEIN

Date:Saturday 15th November at 7.30 pm
Venue: University of Otago Centre,

Westpac Stadium, Waterloo Quay, Wellington, NZ. Entry: Free

A journalist does his job and - luckier than some who are now often murdered - goes to jail. They may vanish behind bars but they are not forgotten.

AN INDEPENDENT MIND features eight characters from around the world attempting to exercise their right to freely express themselves.

Their stories focus not just on the developing world but also on Western democracies, in an attempt to encourage people to reflect on the importance of freedom of expression with all its attendant complexities, challenges and limits.

The free screenings will be followed by a question and answers session – hopefully generating some interesting debate.

November 15 is the International Day of the Imprisoned Writer.

By screening An Independent Mind (the international writers' organisation which champions freedom of expression) the New Zealand Society of Authors (incorporating PEN) will commemorate imprisoned writers.

THE VARIOUS FLAVOURS OF COFFEE
By Anthony Capella
Sphere, $39.99

Here is author/editor Nicky Pellegrino’s review which first appeared in the Herald on Sunday Detours section yesterday, 9 November, 2008.

Thanks to Nicky and the Herald on Sunday for permission to repeat the piece on Beatties Book Blog, much appreciated.

Even the most philistine drinker of instant coffee will be left craving for the depth and flavour of the finest arabica or mocca after reading Anthony Capella’s third and most original book to date. Coffee flows through a compelling story that pulls together themes as diverse as suffragettism, the beginnings of modern commerce practices and racial prejudice. If all that sounds a bit over-roasted and unpalatable, then it isn’t. Neither is it the typical brew of historical romantic fiction.
The story takes place in late-Victorian London. Its hero, Robert Wallis, is a dandy and wastril who quite by accident discovers he has a talent for tasting and describing the various flavours of coffee. He blunders into a job with a coffee merchant, Samuel Pinker, who’s compiling a guide so buyers can recognise the different characteristics of the finest beans. When Robert falls for his employer’s forward-thinking daughter Emily he’s exiled to the wilds of Africa to start a coffee plantation and that’s when his privileged life really comes unstuck. There’s both comedy and tragedy to be found in his misunderstanding of the African villagers he’s relying on to help him plant his crop and of the complex situations he finds himself in.
Despite his flaws Robert is a likeable hero whose colourful adventures support quite a remarkable amount of historical detail. There are a few points along the way where the author’s enthusiasm for the fruits of his research causes the narrative to flag but on the whole he manages to convey a lot of information about the way things worked at the turn of last century, without cluttering the plot too much.
Especially entertaining is the advertising campaign for Samuel Pinker’s coffee, based on real ads of the time. “His pleasure – her satisfaction! Now, he knows it’s Castle Coffee, he’s CERTAIN she gives him the best,” they trumpet at a time when women were fighting for lives outside the home.
This is a long book and the story is dark in parts, erotic in others. Although essentially a romance, it’s not bodice-ripping or mushy and even those who have sworn off historical fiction after an overload of Philippa Gregory will find it does a lot to refresh the genre.

Capella writes great characters and, when all is said and done, that’s what any truly enjoyable novel is all about. Fans of his previous books The Food Of Love and The Wedding Officer won’t be disappointed.
Nicky Pellegrino

Footnote from The Bookman:
Another aspect of the above title that impressed me was the cover.

I note the following from the back jacket:
Jacket Design: Jamie Warren, Random House US.
Cover Art: Malvern Hall by John Conctable.

Two other titles that arrived in the post last week for review that also have especially appealing covers were:
Testimony by Anita Shreve – Little Brown $38.99
and
See Naples and Die by Penelope Green – Hachette $29.99

International superstar author Michael Connelly at Takapuna Library

His latest book, THE BRASS VERDICT, debuted at No. 1 in New Zealand over a month ago and hasn't left the top two since!

An evening with Michael Connelly
6:00pm Wednesday 12 November 2008
Takapuna Library,

The Strand, Takapuna, Auckland, NZ

Bestselling crime writer Michael Connelly will talk about teaming up Lincoln lawyer Mickey Haller and LAPD Detective Harry Bosch in his latest novel, The Brass Verdict.

Entry $5. RSVP to Helen Woodhouse on (09) 486 8469

or email helenw@shorelibraries.govt.nz

This event is brought to you by Allen & Unwin, Whitcoulls and The Friends of the Takapuna Library.

How Google knows everything about you
By Michael Field- Fairfax Media Saturday, 08 November 2008


Google knows just about everything about you – even if, in the unlikely event, you've never used their search engine.
Google's strongest international critic, in Auckland yesterday, warned it is the "biggest detective agency that ever existed".
Professor Hermann Maurer, chairman of Graz University's Institute for Information Systems and Computer Media in Austria, told Fairfax Media that Google is so good at collecting information it violated data protection laws in countries like New Zealand.

A research team he led argued that Google created unacceptable monopolies in many areas of the worldwide web.
He found around 61 billion internet searches are conducted each month.
In the United States, on average 57 per cent of searches are conducted with Google, and up to 95 per cent of internet users use Google sometimes.
"It is dangerous enough that a single entity such as Google is dominant as a search engine," the study said.
Speaking at Auckland University's Business School Professor Maurer said Google's search engine were not the problem as such, but rather the way they linked the up to 50 Google applications. He said the United States based company had teams of people and software constantly analysing content, including what is in Gmail.
"Its not the search engine as such, it's the fact that they can put together lots of information from various services. It is from this that they have lots of information about you."
People did not need to even use Google products to give themselves away.
A product, Google Analytics, is installed on internet service providers (ISPs) and everyone who uses them is recognised and the information is passed onto Google.
Read the full report at Stuff.Co.online.

My years with Roald, by the 'love of his life'

Felicity Dahl was married to the much-loved children's writer for only seven years, yet 18 years after his death she still finds life 'hell' without him.

As the inaugural Roald Dahl Prize for children's books is set to be announced, she recalls the great man's seductive charms, his impish generosity - and his habit of having pink milk for breakfast

Elizabeth Day writing in guardian.co.uk, Sunday November 9 2008

To read her story on Felicity Dahl go to the Guardian online.

THE TEMPERATURE OF WATER

Linda Niccol’s second book of short stories The Temperature of Water , (Silver Owl $29.99)launched in Wellington last week, is a varied collection of tales which takes one under the surface of the oft times frantic lives of those seeking solace, understanding, redemption and love.

Named after the novella, The Temperature of Water, this collection extends her range and depth into the obsessive worlds of scientific invention, the challenges for those coping with an MS sufferer and a Down syndrome girl, and the brittle worlds of casually formed relationships some want more out of, no matter the cost.

From the opening sentences these stories bristle with tensions and often a sense of impending doom lurking beneath the recognisable Kiwi domestic conventions. None illustrates this better than the title story of a backyard inventor of a most persuasive gadget derailed by the opposing forces of his desire to save the world and his wife and new baby’s needs.

Niccol is a former journalist who now works full time writing fiction. Her other writing projects include feature films - she co-wrote the highly successful Second-Hand Wedding with Nick Ward and has just been given NZ Film Commission support to write a new feature, which she hopes to direct.
A short film script based on the story The Handkerchief, won Niccol the prestigious 2006 British Short Screenplay Competition, and it is at present being filmed in Sicily.

Pic left taken at the book launch shows authors Lindsay Rabbitt, Fiona Kidman, and Linda Niccol with Silver Owl Press publisher David McGill.

Candace Bushnell: Sex, success, the city and the zeitgeist
Candace Bushnell, once called 'Jane Austen with a martini', turns a sharp, forensic gaze on New York's super-rich in her new novel

The Big Interview by Christina Patterson in The Independent, Friday, 7 November 2008

When Sex and the City hit the big screen earlier this year, the characters looked a little older, if not necessarily wiser. It was, after all, more than a decade since Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte exploded into our Friday nights with their taboo-breaking, ball-breaking tales of sex and the single woman in a city where the perfect Manolo proved a damn sight easier to find than the perfect man. Carrie's creator, and alter ego, Candace Bushnell, looks not just a little older than her super-glamorous jacket photo. She also looks more fragile. This is a woman who has worked for success, and it shows.

It's 14 years since she started writing the column that became the novel that became the TV series that became the film, 14 years since her clear-eyed portrayal of toxic bachelors and nerdy no-hopers in a society with "its own cruel mating rituals, as complicated and sophisticated as those in an Edith Wharton novel", propelled her from a land of hope to a land of glory, 14 years since those martini-sipping Manhattanites shattered the stereotype of sad spinsterhood, perhaps for ever.

And now, in her fifth novel, One Fifth Avenue, there's a character who "had watched every single episode of Sex and the City at least 'a hundred times'," and comes to New York in search of "her own Mr Big". Postmodern irony, you might say, except that Bushnell's satire on the New York sexual landscape has itself become such a part of that landscape that it might be more unrealistic to ignore it. Sex and the zeitgeist has proved a potent cocktail, and a lucrative one.

Read the full piece at The Independent online.

Digital revolution comes to printed word
By Eric Pfanner writing n the International herald Tribune.
Published: November 7, 2008

"Why are books the last bastion of analog?" Jeff Bezos, the chief executive of Amazon.com, asked last November as his company unveiled the Kindle, a portable, electronic book-reading device. Long after other media had joined the digital revolution - in some cases only after suffering its ravages - book publishers clung to the reassuringly low-tech tools of printing press, paper and ink.
A year later, that bastion is starting to yield. The world of books is going digital, too.
Last week, American authors and publishers reached an agreement with Google to settle lawsuits over the company's Book Search program, under which Google is scanning millions of books and making their contents available on the Internet. The deal allows Google to sell electronic versions of copyrighted works that have gone out of print, a category that includes the vast majority of the world's books.
"So almost overnight, not only has the largest publishing deal been struck, but the largest bookshop in the world has been built, even if it is not quite open for business yet," wrote Neill Denny, editor of The Bookseller, a trade publication based in London, on his blog.

Read the full piece at the IHT online.

Borders prices upset book publishers
Saturday Nov 08, 2008 . By Errol Kiong writing in the Weekend Herald.

Picture - Herald on Sunday

Bookseller Borders' Christmas catalogue specials have incensed book publishers after certain titles were marked up beyond their recommended selling price.
The retailing group, which has five stores in New Zealand, has marked up prices on a number of books in its Christmas catalogues, selling them well above what rival bookstores would be retailing them for.
But it has included a price guarantee - a Bunnings Warehouse-type sales device that promises to match a lower price advertised elsewhere, leaving the onus on the buyer.
"I don't think it's an argument for hiking prices by 10 per cent and then saying on the same page, we've got the best prices guaranteed. I don't see how they can do that," said one independent publisher.
The publishing industry is unique in that booksellers such as Borders buy their books at a discount off the recommended retail price (RRP) set by publishers, rather than the more conventional addition of a margin above the nett purchase price.
The publisher, who asked not to be named, was angry when he noticed one of his books marked up 10 per cent above the RRP - the price it is selling for everywhere else.
Even big names such as Random House and Penguin are affected.
He said: "It affects our income, it affects the author's income and I think it's deceiving the public."

Read the full story at the Weekend Herald online.

There's no such thing as a free book
Thomas Nelson is offering to give readers any book they agree to review. I'm not sure this is very generous
Guardian blogger Edward Champion has his say.........

He served as a publisher's apprentice in London, but he knew there were plentiful God-fearing labourers with scant pence jangling in their pockets. So he moved to Edinburgh and began publishing inexpensive Bibles and other religious texts for the common reader. And when Thomas Nelson happily handed the reins to his two sons, he couldn't possibly foresee that, just over two centuries later, his company would transform into what is now the world's largest Christian publisher.

Michael Hyatt is now the man in charge at Thomas Nelson Books, and his vision of the common reader is apparently the blogger. But instead of remembering his company's humble beginnings, Hyatt sees this new "common reader" not so much as a thinking individual, but as a marketing tool for marketing Thomas Nelson's catalogue. It all started off somewhat innocuously back in August, when Hyatt established an informal scenario whereby bloggers could get a specific book in exchange for a promise to blog a 200-word review, "positive, negative, or somewhere in between."

Read Blogger Champion's full piece here.

Novels 'better at explaining world's problems than reports'
People should read best-selling novels like The Kite Runner and The White Tiger rather than academic reports if they really want to understand global issues like poverty and migration, a study has claimed.

By Stephen Adams, Arts Correspondent, The Telegraph, 6 Nov 2008

Fiction - including poetry - should be taken just as seriously as facts-based research, according to the team from Manchester University and the London School of Economics (LSE).
Novels should be required reading because fiction "does not compromise on complexity, politics or readability in the way that academic literature sometimes does," said Dr Dennis Rodgers from Manchester University's Brooks World Poverty Institute.

He said: "Despite the regular flow of academic studies, expert reports, and policy position papers, it is arguably novelists who do as good a job – if not a better one – of representing and communicating the realities of international development.
"While fiction may not always show a set of presentable research findings, it does not compromise on complexity, politics or readability in the way that academic literature sometimes does.
"And fiction often reaches a much larger and diverse audience than academic work and may therefore be more influential in shaping public knowledge and understanding of development issues."

Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner "has arguably done more to educate Western readers about the realities of daily life in Afghanistan under the Taliban and thereafter than any government media campaign, advocacy organisation report, or social science research", said the report.
It also praised the winner of this year's Man Booker Prize, The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga, for its "passionate depiction of the perils and pitfalls of rampant capitalism in contemporary India".

Read the full story at The Telegraph online.

FROM NEW YORK BOOKSELLER, FORMER DUNEDINITE, CHERYL SUCHER

Everyone - here is my other radio gig.
I've been on Finlay MacDonald and Andrew Patterson's Sunday Live show on http://www.radiolive.co.nz/ quite a few times.
I'll be on this Sunday - talking about (guess what?) PRESIDENT-ELECT OBAMA!!!!!

The show is on 9-12 am, I'm usually on about 5 my time, which would be 11 AM your time.If you're up, or washing your car, or driving to Mitre 10, give a listen.

These are the radio frequencies for Radio Live....

Mid-Northland 95.6 FM
Whangarei 90.6 FM
Auckland 100.6 FM / 702 AM
Waikato 100 FM
Bay Of Plenty 1107 AM
Whakatane 92.1 FM
Rotorua 1107 AM
Gisborne 94.8 FM
Taupo 99.1 FM
Hawke's Bay 1368 AM
Taranaki 89.2 FM
Wanganui 96 FM
Manawatu 93.8 FM
Wairarapa 98.1 FM
Kapiti Coast 99 FM
Wellington 98.7 FM / 1233 AM
Nelson 96.2 FM
Westport 90.1 FM
Christchurch 99.3 FM / 738 AM
Timaru 89.9 FM
Alexandra 95.9 FM
Queenstown 91.2 FM
Dunedin 96.6 FM
Southland 94 FM

Cheryl Sucher ic above by Sharron Bennett.

Tea & tears
A lot of things go awry in Sarah-Kate Lynch’s new book.

Review by author/editor Nicky Pellegrino, first published in the Herald on Sunday, 2 November, 2008

You have to hand it to Sarah-Kate Lynch, she’s not afraid of a challenge. In her sixth and latest novel, On Top of Everything (Random House, $29.99), the main character Florence is beset by all manner of disasters; she loses her job, her husband leaves her for a man, her house develops dry rot…and then things go really wrong. It’s not a plotline that sounds rich in comedic opportunity and yet Lynch, who’s known for her entertaining, often laugh-out-loud funny writing, somehow manages to find the humour in it.
“The family I come from uses humour as a way of coping when things go wrong,” she explains. “Hopefully that comes across in all my books, but most especially in this one.”
Lynch wanted to write a book that would resonate with anyone who’s ever had a bad day, month or year. The result is both funny and wise, a fast-paced read with nuggets of sound advice tucked within its pages.

Like all of us, Lynch has learned a few life lessons along the way. “I always used to think that there’s a certain balance sheet in the universe and somehow it’s worked out in the end and it’s all fair. Actually that isn’t true. Life can be incredibly unfair and some people have tragedy after tragedy. But one thing I’ve learned is even when life is unfair you can still make the most if it,” she says “Even when things are really, really crap it’s rare that everything is crap. That’s not being Pollyanna…it’s just that there are ways to get through it and laugh in the face of tragedy.”
Lynch’s first novel, Finding Tom Connor, was very much in the chick-lit mould. Since then she’s grown older (she describes herself as “clinging to my mid-forties”) and her subsequent books have tended to delve a little deeper.
“I’ve been through all the usual things,” she says. “Had challenges, illnesses in my family, been fired, made redundant, had money and then had none.”
Most recently she watched her sister-in-law Nicki Robins die of cancer at the age of 38. “She fought like hell and didn’t win,” says Lynch. “Seeing something like that so close at hand, a young mother of three dying in her prime, is an experience that makes you think about things you’ve never considered before. I’ve had other friends who’ve had cancer. As a writer and an observer it’s incredible and astonishing to see the different ways people cope with tragedy. And that’s probably what sparked the idea for this book.”

But, since Lynch didn’t want On Top Of Everything to be a dirge, she needed something to sweeten it up. And she found the perfect thing…afternoon tea. As she reels from life’s punches Florence decides to turn her London house into a teashop and finds consolation baking all manner of sweet treats. Tea and cakes come to represent comfort, security and nostalgia in the book just as they do for Lynch.
“My mother had five children and so she was a good baker but the big baking spreads I remember were from my grandmother in Alexandra. She used to produce all this amazing food and she didn’t even have a proper oven - perfect Neenish Tarts, Belgian Biscuits and Chocolate Afghans with a walnut on the top.”

Lynch’s research for the book involved tea tasting with Stephen Twining of the famous Twinings Tea as well stints over the cake stands in London’s Claridge’s, Hong Kong’s Peninsula Hotel and numerous other establishments. She also went into a frenzy of baking herself, even taking out the top prize in the 2008 Lake Hayes A & P Show for her chocolate and banana cake with fresh raspberries (she provides the recipe in the book).
“I never thought I’d enter a cake into a contest,” Lynch laughs, “but I have to say there’s a certain pride in getting a sign that says Supreme Winner. I kept mine propped up in my writing room. Some days it’s good to feel you’re a supreme winner at something!”

Lynch has had to calm down on the baking front because the tins were overflowing but she still does a mean blueberry muffin. Now living on Auckland’s West Coast with her film-maker husband Mark Robins (readers of her New Zealand Woman’s Weekly column know him simply as the Ginger) she’s currently brewing ideas for her seventh novel. Her books are sold around the world, from the US to Poland and Israel, and her writing career has gone from strength to strength. Her secret?
“The moment you try and do what you think people want you’re kind of screwed,” she says. “You can’t please everyone all the time. You’ve got to aim for what you think is right and what matters to you and hope there’s something in it that’s going to appeal to other people like you.”

Thanks to Nicky Pellegrino and the Herald on Sunday for permission to reproduce this review.

Footnote:

On Top of Everthing is being launched at a tea and cakes event in Auckland this Sunday.

Arts on Sunday for 9 November 2008
Radio New Zealand National

2:30 Writer’s Block:

Oliver Stead describes how he whittled down New Zealand’s Art Icons to just 40 for his new book, and Michelle Holman follows up her big selling debut novel Bonkers with Divine, which asks what could happen when your husband leaves you to become a woman.


3:00 Radio Drama: Rutherford

A play by Stuart Hoar explores the enigma that was Ernest Rutherford, following his obsession with science and probing the personal relationships of the man who 'broke the machine and touched the very ghost of matter'.

The Arts on Sunday - Information and analysis from the world of books, arts and movies.
Sunday - 12:30pm to 4pm
Produced by Simon Morris and Lynn Freeman

For pictures, more information, or to listen to previous programmes go to www.radionz.co.nz/artsonsunday

MORE GOOD NEWS FOR HELEN LOWE'S THORNSPELL

Eos (HarperCollins USA) have featured Thornspell on their Out of this Eos blog.

In New Zealand Thornspell is published by Random House.

JAMES FALLOWS ON MICHAEL CRICHTON

James Fallows writing in The Atlantic 6 November, 2008

A thought for Michael Crichton

I am sorry to be in a commemorative mode, but I can't let the day pass without saying something about Michael Crichton.

In the car this afternoon I turned on the radio and heard a news report ending ".... Crichton was 66." Was? That Michael Crichton has died in his 60s shocked me not simply because I'm now concentrating on the mortality of my father, in his 80s, but also because he always looked at least 20 years younger than his chronological age.

I'd corresponded with him recently and didn't know he was sick.

Crichton had his enemies, especially after his recent anti-global-warming book (which I chose not to read). That he was married five times suggests that his personal life was not entirely tranquil. And he was hyper, hyper aware that in America he was regarded as a "genre" writer whereas in Italy, for example, he would be listed among the big names of Quality Lit.

But I was honored to have met him 20 years age, when I was living in Japan, and to have been a friend since then.

He seemed unassuming, funny, charming in every way -- the unusual famous person who was genuinely considerate of one's spouse and kids. Very earnest about his political causes, including a very prescient argument fifteen years ago about the impending decline of the "Mediasaurus," now known as MSM. And, there is no way around it, incredibly talented. At one point in the 1990s, he was responsible for the #1-rated TV show (ER), the #1 box office movie (Jurassic Park), and the #1 best selling-novel -- and I'm not even sure now which of his novels it was.

He must have been the only person in history to have paid his way through medical school by writing successful novels.I loved hearing from him about oddball "practical" matters. For instance, height: he appeared to be nearly 7 feet tall, and explained to me (6'2") that up until 6'6" height was an advantage, but after that it was a big inconvenience -- door frames, beds, airplane seats. Or, getting ready for book writing bursts: He said he removed complications from his life while writing by having exactly the same food at every meal, so he never had to waste time deciding what to eat. He was a tech enthusiast, and the most passionate Mac advocate I have encountered.

He will be missed.

And a Guardian blogger on Crichton.

And another on how Crichton assisted with son's reading.

Footnote:

It is believed that prior to his death Michael Crichton was working on completing what would be his final manuscript. Originally the book was scheduled for publication this December.

Harper publisher Jonathan Burnham has been reported as saying that they didn't know the status of the manuscript but the author had been working hard on it for some time and it had been his intention to complete the book before the end of the year. Fans will be hoping the book still eventuates.

Though his illness was known, his death was reported as both sudden and unexpected.

NEW ZEALAND ART MONTHLY -

the following from Editor Kim Ellis.

The November 2008 edition of http://www.nzartmonthly.co.nz/ is loaded and available to view.

This edition includes the following:

Articles:
The Truth about Tate's Rothkos by Jonathan Jones, courtesy of The Guardian - Rothko paiting left, pic by Graeme Roberston.

A Kinder, Gentler Globalism? by Robin Cembalest, courtesy of ARTnewsOnline

Reviews:
Some futures are more equal than others, Vanilla Netto, Breenspace Gallery, Sydney by Chris Jones
A passion for life, art and artworks: Jan Nigro by Simona Albanese
Morag Stokes, Mana Land Lines, NZ Academy of Fine Arts Gallery, Wellington by Julian McKinnon

Events and Updates:
There is too much to list, so please visit the e-zine to get the full listing of this month's exhibitions and events. These Events are updated as they come in throughout the month rather than waiting for the beginning of the month when the e-zine is refreshed. Check back often to see what is happening in your city.

Send in your articles or reviews - As ever, NZArtMonthly warmly welcomes your articles, essays, reviews, recommendations on links and event listings. NZArtMonthly is a free and contributor driven e-zine for the arts and needs your writing to keep it fresh and relevant.

Next month's edition will cover both December and January 2009 - a bumper edition!

In the meantime enjoy your November reading.

An invitation from Wellington author/publisher David McGill

Come to the Yummy Launch of David McGill’s food memoirs

The Communion of the Easter Bun-Rabbit
The Food Lives of a Kiwi Here and There

Turnbull House, opposite The Beehive
Saturday, 22 November, 3pm

This bread and butter pud is the author’s back cover putative proof that you are what you cook – he has been baking bread from the age of five, but only discovered this year it was an inherited disposition on both sides of the family. The proof is on the front cover, but you’ll have to come to the launch to see that!

Kiwi cookery writer David Burton identifies what changed Kiwi cuisine at David McGill’s food launch 65 years in the baking, from Auckland Plunket prep, Mum of Plenty Baking and Graham Kerr’s francophile shake-up to OE Ocker fusions, London quail and Paris snails, jokey lunch with Michael Bentine, no joke with Peter O’Toole, Bologna mushrooms, Bethlehem macaroni, back home pursuit of the perfect meat pie and witnessing the Godfather of Kiwi Café Culture taming rowdy All Blacks.

70 original recipes include English cookery writer Kathie Webber’s roast goose, David Burton’s ‘Attic Chicken’, playwright Roger Hall’s pork with prunes, dozens of heritage family favourites like Louise cakes, Sally Lunn buns, caraway seed cake, real Russian borscht, wine scribe Karl Du Fresne’s formative imbibing and much bread making and breaking. 50 illustrations

Traditional Kiwi snacks served, the likes of cheese straws, devils on horseback, pineapple, pickled onions and cheese cubes on toothpicks, savs and pavs. Ladies – and Gentlemen – may bring a modest plate of favourite Kiwi tucker to celebrate 65 years recording our evolving and retro eating habits.

$36-99/Launch 20% off.

RSVP email dkmcgill@xtra.co.nz

04 292 8226.

UK publishers plan Obama push
05.11.08 Victoria Gallagher writing in The Bookseller

Barack Obama's victory in the the US presidental race has put UK publishers on the front foot. Independent press Arcadia has pulled forward publication of its Obama book, while Canongate has said that it is already in discussions with Obama's camp about a book for early 2009.

Arcadia's Barack Obama: The Movement of Change by Anthony Painter, will now be published next month. "The book was scheduled for January, but now we're rushing it out in December," said Gary Pulsifer, publisher at Arcadia. The book was only finished on Wednesday morning, but Arcadia said it was eager to get the book out "in time for Christmas".

The two most popular Obama titles in the UK are both published by Canongate--Audacity of Hope, and Dreams from My Father--with the two titles having already sold more than 140,000 copies between them, according to Nielsen BookScan data.

Nick Davies, editorial director of non-fiction at Canongate said the publisher now intended to print 120,000 more copies, but would not be updating the books. But Davies added: "We're already talking to Barack's US publisher and agent about a book for early 2009".

Edinburgh University Press has not moved the publication date of Barack Obama - Leading the US in a Post-American World by Carl Pedersen, from its February schedule, but Anna Glazier, marketing manager at EUP, admitted it was pleased with the result and said "obviously there will be a lot more interest now".

Fellow indie Gibson Square, which backed the wrong horse, with books on both John McCain and Sarah Palin, remained positive despite the defeat.Gibson Square published Faith of My Fathers and Hard Call by John McCain earlier this year. Publisher Martin Rynja said the books would still sell. "McCain has run a very clean campaign and that is to his credit," said Rynja. "Now he is not being seen as a mini Bush, people will start seeing him for who he is."

Gibson Square has also just published Sarah Palin: The Rise of a Political Star by Kaylene Johnson. Rynja said that Palin should not be "underestimated". "She has clearly got star magic, I think she will be a big force," said Rynja. "We will be hearing a lot more from her."

Gibson Square previously published a title on Condoleezza Rice and Rynja said that he had been looking into books on Michelle Obama but had not done anything as yet.

Simon & Schuster UK is publishing Michelle: A Biography by Washington Post staff writer Lisa Mundy on 1st December.