Good afternoon!

If anyone is off to the London Book Fair next week, make sure to drop by to Stand S505 and say hello. On Monday afternoon, Ronnie Le Drew will be at the stand with Zippy from Rainbow to promote his book, When Ronnie Met Zippy, out on 7 October. He’ll be there from around 2pm on Monday, giving flyers out and posing for photos.

Tonto has got quite a few books in production at the moment and I’ve just secured some brill cover testimonials from Henry Hill of Goodfellas fame for Shakespeare & Loveand also getting one from Mr Nice himself, Howard Marks, and Garry Bushell.

Where’s Whitey? will also have a Henry Hill testimonial as well as one from Ulrich Boser.

Here’s an article on The Science of Reading from the h-Observer t’other week.

Recommendations:

If you need business cards, have a look at Moo – much better than the standard freebie/cheapo places online. I just got some for LBF – good designs, good quality and good price.

If you need some music to listen to – Paul Weller’s Wake up the Nation is out next week. I was lucky enough to get hold of an advance copy and have been playing it for weeks non-stop. Some great new tunes.

Just been listening to Richard Ashcroft doing an acoustic version of the song. I love acoustic stuff … Weller is untouchable, as is Noel G (but gets a bit whiny after a while) but I can’t decide whether I could stand a full set of Wicky-boy droning on. One for the fact fans: Richard Ashcroft lived in Billinge in Wigan. I lived there for around four weeks while at art college). What a lovely place.

That’s got nowt to do with books though. I’ll have to interview someone soon so I’m not just writing the content of my new book – Adventures in Publishing – all the time on here.

I was in Waterstone’s yesterday doing a bit of research into formats for forthcoming books. Anyone seen the ‘super matt’ finish on Ian McEwan’s new novel? It didn’t feel quite as impressive as the sample I was sent recently, but still rather nice, I reckons. I’m thinking of this finish for the Zippy biography out in October … still a bit time yet anyways.

At the moment, Chateau Tonto is a busy hive of publishing activity. We lost another author at the end of last week – Sheila Quigley decided not to publish her new novel Thorn in my Side through Tonto, so we wish her the best of luck in finding a home for it. I’ll dare to say that the schedule is as close to completion as it can be now. Who knows. 

The photos for We Are Not Manslaughterers were sent in by Martin Knight and they look brill. Can’t wait to see what Elliot comes up with for this one; the signed contracts for Where’s Whitey came in today and the contracts for The Fifth Pillar are all sorted. I may even have a light ale tonight to celebrate. Of course, season 5 of 24 is still AWOL, so I may even catch up with reading some manuscript submissions tonight (yes, I was kidding. Well spotted).

Loads of exciting stuff lined up for this year and we’re now looking to the London Book Fair (or LBF as I call it) and will be looking to sign more books up after that for the New Year (or 2011, as I sometimes call it).

Here’s some info on the second book by Andrew Crofts, to be published on 28 October:

Mr Music Man

Mervyn Conn with Andrew Crofts

ISBN: 9781907183188

B Format Paperback

Non-fiction / Biography / Music / Showbiz

£9.99

World rights in all languages available

Mervyn Conn is one of Britain’s most successful and colourful music impresarios of the last century. Show business was in his blood, his grandfather working for a traveling circus in Eastern Europe, his cousins, Mike and Bernie Winters, becoming one of the biggest comedy duos of their time.

By the age of 21 Mervyn was running his own drinking club in Soho’s Gerrard Street, frequented by a young crowd of soon to be pop stars, actors, business tycoons and criminals.

After joining forces with the legendary agent, Joe Collins, (father of Joan and Jackie, partner of Lew and Lesley Grade), he staged the first Beatles Christmas shows and went on to work with virtually all the pop and rock and roll acts of the time, (he was running the tour where P.J. Proby infamously split his trousers), before spotting the potential of bringing country and western music to England and setting up the giant Country and Western Festival at Wembley.

For many years Mervyn’s festival brought all the great country names to Europe including Tammy Wynette, Dolly Parton, Crystal Gayle etc. He was particularly friendly with Johnny Cash.

He also staged West End shows and brought the Red Army to London during the Cold War, (along with many other Eastern European shows), and staged Marlene Dietrich’s farewell tour. 

One of the few English showmen to have dined at Ten Downing Street, The White House and the Kremlin, Mervyn, now 75 years old, recently fathered a new baby and is planning a new show for the West End with Andrew Lloyd Webber. His story spans modern show business, from the age-old traditions of Variety through the revolution caused by the arrival of television and pop.

No, the blog wasn’t hacked into yesterday by obsessive fans of The Mummy. I’ve been watching 24 recently, and am on Season 4 where the mummy from The Mummy is the baddie in it. How come no one at CTU said, ‘Aaaaarrrrggghhhh … it’s the mummmmmmyyy! Runnnnnnn!’?

Anyone having a night in tonight could do a lot worse than watch The Departed on C4. Why is that, I hear you ask? Look out for Jack Nicholson’s character, Frank Costello … he’s based on the crime boss, Whitey Bulger who ran the Boston mob … and his right-hand man, Kevin Weeks is one of Tonto’s newest signings.

Kevin and writing partner Phyllis Karas wrote a New York Times bestseller a couple of years ago called Brutal, which was a true crime memoir of Kevin’s time in the mob and centered upon Whitey being, well … Brutal.

Where’s Whitey – out in October – is a novel using a lot of the original material from Brutal that Kevin was uncomfortable with releasing at the time. It is a fictional account of mob life, based entirely on fact, and looks at the possible locations where Whitey could be (Goodfellas meets The Damned United?)

From New York Times number one best-selling writers (Brutal, HarperCollins), comes a fictional account of life inside the Boston mob. Writer Kevin Weeks was top Lieutenant to James ‘Whitey’ Bulger, head of the Boston Mafia and who has now been on the run for 15 years. On the Most Wanted list, Whitey was second only to Osama bin Laden and still has a two million dollar reward on his head for information leading to his capture.

This book is a story of murder, friendship and loyalty within the mob, using many situations that Weeks omitted from Brutal. The story is all based on fact, making it all the more intriguing, and using insider knowledge to more than hint toward the whereabouts of the FBI’s Most Wanted.

When Joey Donahue is released from prison after serving six years for racketeering and crimes committed as deputy to the infamous Boston Irish Mob boss and psychopathic murderer James ‘Whitey’ Bulger, he is determined to stay clear of the life of crime that has supported him for the past twenty-five years. After a year of trying unsuccessfully to find a job due to his notorious association with Bulger, Joey finally surrenders to the temptation of a friend’s offer to join him in a fast score; a simple robbery of a drug dealer that should pay the bills until he finds a viable job. The robbery turns out to be a sting operation set up by the FBI for the express purpose of forcing Joey to cooperate in the frustratingly unsuccessful search for his onetime mentor.

The last confirmed sighting of Bulger was in London in 2002; in December 2010, he’ll have evaded the FBI for 16 years and will recently have turned 81 years old.

The Boston Phoenix ran a great story on the background of Phyllis and Kevin’s working relationship here.

Kevin Weeks has featured on: 60 Minutes (US) in March 2006. In June 2009, he was the main contributor on a special Dateline NBC show discussing the trial of FBI agent John Connolly who, because of Kevin’s testimony, was convicted of murder. He has also been the main focus of shows on FBI Most Wanted, Fox & Friends, Biography Channel, National Geographic and the History Channel.

I’m the dandy highway man that you’re too scared to mention

The first one will be published on 21 October, called The Change Agent: How to Create a Wonderful World.

Info:

It had been 20 years since Andrew Crofts had last seen Jim Martin when I read in the press that he had donated $100-million to Oxford University to found The James Martin 21st Century School. Jim’s latest book, The Meaning of the 21st Century, was the most borrowed non-fiction book from British libraries in 2008, beating Bill Bryson, Peter Kay, Richard Dawkins and all the other famous names. Andrew decided it was time to get back in contact …

‘I’ve bought a private island in Bermuda,’ Jim said. ‘You must come out for a week so we can talk properly. There’s so much to say and so much to be done and so little time.’

This was enough to pique Andrew’s interest. He arrived at Agar’s Island, very unsure of what might lie ahead. The resulting book, The Change Agent: How to Create a Wonderful World, is partly the story of how a working class boy from Ashby-de-la- Zouche ended up with his own school attached to Oxford University. Along the way he has encountered people as varied as Bertrand Russell, David Bowie and Lee Kuan Yew. From prime ministers and presidents to Cold War spies and business leaders, he has been called in to advise them all and his books have been read by millions.

It is about the man’s ideas, which are the reason so many millions of people read his books and attend his lectures. Jim believes we are entering a time of transition during which we could either destroy Homo sapiens, or at least relegate ourselves back to the Dark Ages, or we could use technology to create the most wonderful civilization that has ever existed. He believes that whatever happens, it is now a matter of urgency.

The Change Agent is partly a conversation with a wise man and an old friend, rather like the best-selling Tuesdays with Morrieby Mitch Albom, and partly a Paulo Coelho-style fable of a shy, awkward boy from a poor background who becomes an international guru. In this fascinating popular science and business book, he makes startling predictions about what is going to befall us in the coming decades, explaining how we can avoid the many horrors that the media are constantly threatening us with, and how we could build a global Utopia.

‘James Martin is indeed an influential technology leader.’ Bill Gates

The other book will be out the following week. I’ll post details up on Monday, just in case there’s no other news and I’m stuck for anything to rant about.

Last week was the photoshoot for the cover of Shakespeare & Love (great background feature here). I hired a Shakespeare costume for a week from West Yorkshire Playhouse, so it meant I had plenty of time to try it on and walk around town like a dandy, tipping my hat to the ladies. The photoshoot went really well. Designer extroninaires Elliot Thomson and Nik Barrera at Preamptive and photographer Simon Williams were on hand to direct Raymondo and I was there to keep topping his champagne glass up (I’m good at some things, you know). The cover is now in development and I’ll post details up as soon as. There’s already been Hollywood interest in optioning this book. I want John Malkovich to play Raymond and the Coen Brothers to direct … if either of them are reading this, get your people to talk to my people.

See what I did? You get it?

Right, here’s the SP: I’m going to run a course in Newcastle and /or Leeds at some point soon. If there’s enough demand for it, of course (see, my subliminal use of ‘course’ is working). As mentioned last year, I’m interested in doing this for a few reasons: First, it may be therapeutic for me and I may stop writing blog posts about how not to approach publishers … but more seriously, I do think there’s a bit of a grey area in this whole publishing malarkey and it doesn’t seem like there’s that many places to learn from in a non ‘we’re going to take all your money and tell you stuff you don’t need to know and run off laughing’ capacity.

Tonto has ran courses in the past and, if I say so myself, they’ve always been brill value for money. I’ll be addressing different issues this time round though. It’s not a creative writing course, but I will bring in a few writing elements that many writers fall down on. There’ll be no poncey writing tasks either. Honest. Everything will be gearing you towards having a better chance of getting published – in your work and your approach, as well as practical stuff about self-marketing, making yourself marketable and looking at the business of writing and publishing. You need to know the business process as well as the artistic side – getting published is difficult because no one tells you about why decisions are made. This is the kind of thing they don’t teach you on a MA, but is more important than being able to write, in my opinion.

This year will be kicking off production-wise soon and is set to be a busy one, so I’m aiming to do it in the next month or two. It will be listed on arts mailshots, etc – if they support it – but anyone who reads this will obv have a ‘heads up’. I’d run it on a Saturday and Sunday, full days, depending on venue availability. Cost – no idea yet. I’ll be bringing a few people in to deliver talks and will need to chuck a couple of squids their way. I’ll be sorting a structure out this week, blogging it, sending details out and sticking it on the website. I’ll be talking to my web designer about how payment will work – probably listing in a way the books are and a Paypal account may be required. It’ll be first come, first served, and I’m assuming will need minimum of 10 people approx.

Yep, this week everything will be mostly OK. I can feel it in me bones, like.

Slightly better than OK is two new signings for October. In a deal fiercely negotiated late last week, Andrew Crofts is the latest best-selling author to go with ‘the best thing to come out of Newcastle since coal, Viz and Brown Ale’ (that’s Tonto Books, if you didn’t knaaa). The Change Agent: How To Create A Wonderful World and Lily To Lily, released on October 21 and 28 respectively will soon be up on the website and amazon for pre-order. I’ll post up further info on them this week.

I’ve been dying to sign Andrew up for yonks – here’s his blog with some info on the book, and his website here. The only quote missing on his site is from Ray Winstone ‘Andrew Crofts is the daddy of ghostwriting.’

So, if the current schedule for this year stays, we’ll be publishing thirteen books. It better not be an unlucky number. October is going to be the mental month – it’s always the busiest anyway, but now there are five books planned for that month. Jeez, I’m off to be sick. Last year with three books late in the year was stressful enough. Still, if it doesn’t work out I could always go back to litter picking. That was the bestest job I ever had before this.

I spoke to the author who demanded his manuscript back on Friday too. Although he didn’t and wouldn’t pay postage on his manuscript, he told me I’m legally obliged to go out of my way, against company policy and pay my own money to send it back to him immediately or he’d take me to court. After laughing up my sleeve, I told him I’d wait for his solicitor to send me a letter and we’d sort it out in court. It sounds serious, so I may have to remove this part of the blog in the near future. It’s all fodder for Adventures In Publishing though.

Matt Hilton is launching his new book Slash and Burn in Waterstone’s Carlisle on 31 March at 6.30pm. Get along if you can – there’s a bit of a sesh on after it too.  Matt will be published in Even More Tonto Short Stories on 6 May. I’m sure we’ll have a party to celebrate the EMTSS launch, even if it’s a few cans and a pipe of Pringles behind the Community Centre.

Right, I’m off to let Robert Endeacott out the dungeon. He did a rewrite of Disrepute t’other day and can be released on good behaviour once and for all now.

Brill night out in Leeds last night with Stuart Maconie. He was back at Waterstone’s for a talk on High Teas and did a Q&A sesh after, before a bunch of us went out for a sesh. I didn’t get to ask my stock question of ‘Do you like cats?’ as it would have been a bit silly. Stuart’s talks are always a right old laugh and last night he was on top form. For a few light ales, we crammed into the oldest bar in Leeds (can’t remember its name) and talked about breakfast pies, agonised over the third flavour of original Monster Munch and discussed comedy versions of 24 where nothing happens at CTU. After that, it was off to Fab Cafe for beer and retro sweets. Stuart is up in Newcastle tonight as part of his promo tour – hope some of my mates turn up and take him on a night out! Robert ‘Revie’s England’ Endeacott was out in Leeds after The Stranglers gig and I must apologies for not seeing his text message until I found my phone covered in bits of kebab and sick this morning. It was a good night though. Hopefully Mr Maconie will write a testimonial for one of Tonto’s books soon. I resisted the urge to drunkenly try to poach him away from Ebury. I think.

Mad phone calls this week:

One voicemail saying ‘You have my number now. Call me.’ – Errrr … no.

One from a writer – ‘As you are not publishing the manuscript I sent you, I want it back. You are legally required to send it to me.’ – Errrr … neurgh.

That writer called me when he’d sent it, asking if I’d return if I didn’t publish. I said if he sent the correct postage, I’d gladly send it back. The truth is that it’s not really cost-effective to return stuff unless you enclose a SAE. Average £3 to send a manuscript, average 600 submissions a year (?) = I dunno. A lot of wasted money. Please, if you send me owt in the post and you want it back – send a SAE with it. I’ve got a few in the manuscript pile and will be sending back in due course. Honest, like. I don’t just nick the stamps.

I’m dead chuffed with the new signings for this year. Duncan’s and Martin’s revised manuscripts are in, Sheila’s new novel is in and her TRTH paperback is ready to go to print (with a brill Matt Hilton testimonial!), the other authors are busy writing in the Tonto Writing Dungeon and we’re poised to sign up two more books from Andrew Crofts who I’ve been dying to work with for yonks. Annoyingly, we had to drop three titles due to some rather obscure creative difficulties: One author didn’t want to be edited, even though his manuscript clearly needed it. ‘All I want from you is to tidy the spelling up and make sure it gets stocked,’ said he (it was a science book where not much of it made sense to anyone other than himself). Another one didn’t like being edited, but most of the book wasn’t his own words anyway and then an agent started demanding impossible errrr … demands.

And this all came as I started writing a new book: ‘Adventures In Publishing’ is the working title. It’s an expose of how to make it (or not) in publishing, tips on how to set up, practical advice and ‘expert’ guidance, case studies of what worked and what didn’t work, etc, etc. From being called ‘a smug Geordie tw*t’ by one author to being labelled ‘the saviour of independent publishing’ by errr … someone, and stalking John Blake, being propositioned by a porn star, being cajoled into streaking at a Newcastle v Liverpool match and doing cage fighting with a UFC veteran – all in the name of entertainment. Dunno when it’s going to be out yet – hopefully Tonto will publish it. Hope they send the manuscript back if they reject me.

My mate (poet, novelist and prison regular, Craig Bradley) reckons I sound like John Lennon. He only says it when he’s hammered though. I lived in Liverpool for a couple of weeks once, so I must have picked the accent up. I was kicked out of art college there too, fact fans. Last time I was there, it was to see a play at the Royal Court where I was sat next to the world’s most prolific streaker to watch him invade the stage sans his clothes ‘for a laugh’. True. I was working with him on his memoirs about getting his kit off aal awa the place at sporting events and other inappropriate gatherings. You may notice that the book isn’t on my list of forthcoming titles.

However, you may notice a new addition – The Fifth Pillar: The Extraordinary Pilgrimage of a Muslim Convertby Duncan Lyon. I met Duncan on Tuesday in Waterstone’s in L1 to sign the book up over poncey coffee (in glasses with nee handles, like) and bisquai (plural for biscuits, don’t you know). It’s not often that a story like this lands in your inbox. This is to be Duncan’s first published work and signed up through The McKernan Literary Agency & Consultancy in Edinburgh. This one will be out on 30 September, available on pre-order on the Tonto site and soon to be up on Amazon. I did get a photo of me and Duncan, but it’s too big to put up on here apparently. Any FaceBookers can see this and some comedy snaps taken round Liverpool once I upload them.

Info on the book:

February 2000.  Post-millennial optimism is still in the air.

Duncan Lyon is a 29 year old Scouse living in London. He has a good enough job, good enough friends, a good enough life. But, as he faces his 30th year, he realizes that something is missing.  

Having converted to Islam a number of years ago, he makes a spur of the moment decision that the time is now right to fulfil the once-in-a-lifetime duty – and privilege – that all Muslims have:  to perform the Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca during the holy month; the fifth pillar of Islam. 

So Duncan heads down to Leicester Square to buy a ticket to Saudi Arabia, and embarks on a journey that is extraordinary in so many ways, both in terms of the obstacles that confront him as a white Englishman who shows no outward signs of being a Muslim, and the array of characters – both fellow pilgrims and locals – that he encounters along the way.

And when he finally gets there, he discovers the true meaning of the old adage ‘Be careful of what you wish for’. For now he has to get back home.

Through a labyrinthine bureaucratic process – and his own internal conflicts and realizations as to what is truly important to him – he finds the sense of his spiritual awareness to be heightened. Conversely the mundane and practical difficulties he faces become greater and more imposing:  Encounters with the notoriously strict Saudi police, escaping house arrest, dealings with army checkpoints and finally the ‘privilege’ of pleading his case with inscrutable government ministers.

By the end, he is running across a runway in the middle of the night and the final scene finds him alone on a jetliner – the sole passenger on an eerily empty flight, leaving Saudi as a million more people arrive.

The Fifth Pillar is a unique account – a story that has never been told of a journey that most of us will never be able to experience. Beautifully written – atmospheric and immediate yet with the light touch that comes with the benefit of reflection and hindsight – this is more than just another travel book.

I know … I know …  two blog posts in two days. I must be stuck for things to do.

Info on Robert Endeacott’s latest novel, as mentioned yesterday. It’s up on pre-order on Amazon and on the Tonto website.

Bookseller piece on the book. Annoyingly, my PR said, ‘Avoiding the over-use of football cliches, Wheatman said …’ so the quote just makes me sound like a donkey, rather than comedy genius. And my original said the Shakespeare book had been brought forward, not bought. What can you do, eh? It’s the thought that counts, errr … at the end of the day (I’m at it again!).

Disrepute: Revie’s England

July 4^th, 1974: Don Revie decided to leave Leeds United to take over the England job from the sacked Sir Alf Ramsey.  His departure upset many while his England appointment was hardly met with universal approval either. A long list of enemies including the FA, the Football League and the media, meant managing the national team put him directly in the firing line.  His aim was to restore the nation’s team to its former heights, win over the fans, the doubters and the cynics … but he’d bitten off more than anyone could chew.

The odds were too great: the players, the tactics, the notorious dossiers, money, the mystery, the mayhem and the controversy meant that Revie’s dream was over in three unimpressive years.

Using explosively revealing and previously unpublished material written by the man himself, DisRepute is the true fictionalised account of Revie’s England.

Praise for Robert Endeacott and Dirty Leeds:

‘He writes without pretension, honest and unflinching. Born of dedication and passion.’ David Peace

‘Robert Endeacott has no concerns about stirring up controversy.’ The Yorkshire Post

‘An insightful account of the rise of Leeds United under Don Revie.’ Charles Hutchinson, The York Press

‘As a fiction this is groundbreaking stuff – and might yet make a better film than The Damned United. Highly recommended.’ Leeds Leeds Leeds

‘Part rite of passage and part homage to Revie, it reeks of beef-dripping, sooty black buildings and sherry-doused failure.’ Rick Broadbent, The Times

Some Sheila Quigley stuff to follow this week … keep your mince pies Howard Keeled.

A hectic start to the New Year in Tonto world. March already? WTF is that all about?

There’s been one or two ups and downs. Let’s start with the ups … Tonto has just signed a splendid new book for September: We Are Not Manslaughterers by Martin Knight.

Martin is a prolific writer with an interesting backlist here on amazon.

Here’s some info on the book:

Derby Day 1919 was a day of celebration in Epsom, Surrey, it being the first Derby Stakes to be run back in Epsom since the First World War broke out five years earlier. The euphoria of peace and relief rolled across a squally Epsom Downs. The return of the world’s most famous horse race to its rightful home was a sure sign that life generally was returning to normal. Close to a million people descended on the small rural town that afternoon. With the card finished and Grand Parade the 33-1 victor, the masses streamed home by train, bus, horse and cart and foot and the town’s pavements and pubs were left once again in peace to the locals.
 
Yet only fifteen days later twelve Epsom policemen found themselves defending their quiet, country police station against a 400-strong rioting mob in a vicious hour-long battle of Rorke’s Drift/Zulu proportions. At the end of it many were injured and the dependable Station Sergeant Thomas Green lay dead, his head cracked open from a vicious blow with a bar torn from the station’s own police cell.
 
However, the rioters were not drunken revellers from the racecourse or locals incensed by some injustice or other; they were soldiers, many who had seen gruelling action in France and Belgium and were loyal to the King. Canadian troops stationed at the nearby Woodcote Park Convalescence Camp were bent on releasing their comrades who had been arrested earlier in the evening and locked up in police cells following a minor disturbance in one of the town’s pubs.
 
The murder of a gallant policeman defending his station against the odds was a momentous event then, as it would be now, and never before or since has a policeman died in England at the hands of a mob on police property. Yet the media coverage was relatively subdued, public outrage contained and the path to justice tightly managed. No indictment for murder was ever made. Charges against five Canadians were reduced from manslaughter to riotous assembly and the defendants had been arrested, tried, sentenced, imprisoned, released and were on their way back to their homeland before the year was out.
 
We Are Not Manslaughterers traces the events that led to that final explosion of violence and frustration on June 17, 1919 and explores the reasons why the Government of the day were so keen not to allow the case to become a cause celebre. Future King Edward VIII was scheduled to tour the colonies, including Canada, to thank them for their extraordinary sacrifice for the mother country in World War One. To do this against a backdrop of Canadian soldiers being hung in prisons across Britain did not bear contemplation. Former Prime Minister Lord Rosebery, future Prime Minister Winston Churchill and the then incumbent Prime Minister David Lloyd-George are among the historical figures who were faced with the potential fall-out from the murder; the worst case scenario being the disintegration of the British Empire. Justice was not done for Sgt Green and even his murderer concurred with this.
Among a number of subsequent twists and turns, which include the two daughters of Sgt Green emigrating to Canada soon after, a confession to the murder ten years later and a backdrop of venereal disease this book also unearths a strand to the story which has never been publicly connected and explains even more why the authorities were so keen to wrap up and bury this case so hurriedly and completely as they did. Sgt Thomas Green, it emerges, was not the only fatality of the Epsom riot.
 
Martin Knight, author of Battersea Girl, Common People and George Best’s final autobiography has uncovered and illuminated a fascinating and entertaining slice of social history that is laced with intrigue and mystery as well as a formidable cast of late-Victorian characters.

Martin & Stu sign book deal in York

So, the celeby wedding book is off, Manslaughterers replaces it. A new one gets signed up for October on Tuesday, Shakespeare & Love moves forward to July, Faces was on, then off, then on now definitely off as is My Life on Mars – both due to ‘creative differences’. We’re also looking to get two books signed up by a non-fiction writer I have great admiration for – more news as it happens. So, we lost three titles in three days but gained two and looking to get two more. All good fun.

Robert Endeacott will soon be released from his writing prison if he manages to complete DisRepute: Revie’s England this weekend. He’s been struck down with a rarer form of man illness that I’ve never encountered yet and will be back in the land of the living very soon. His new book will be out in June.