New Irish books magazine!

Exciting news, exciting news- what looks like a legit, interesting online books quarterly. I do hope they keep up what they started, and who knows, I might do a little parkbenching in there, too. Wouldn't that be nice. They probably don't pay, but neither do some other very reliable books sites. Have a look at the sharp-looking Dublin Review of Books. Good work, folks. You have the Irish blogging community paying attention, anyway, which is certainly a great start. But where, I ask myself, is 36, College Green? Are these trinnerskids? And if not, how'd they get such a jammy office? Hmmm...


At any rate, serious-minded criticism in an accessible format, highly recommended by yours truly.

Obviously, another winner, for similar reasons and bearing a similar title, is the more tangible Dublin Review. A lot of care goes into it, and it shows- it's respected and enjoyed by people who know their stuff, but interests the youngins like myself. Going strong for some years now, it contains all sorts of literary gorgeousness, criticism, short fiction, long essays, autobiographical stories, dabblings of new travel writers and esteemed authors. Worth its weight in gold, and well produced. Simple words, with a *gasp* design concept? Well laid out, simple, consistently entertaining reading, and one of those things you're proud to say you read. Your challenge for the week? Use the words munken cream at the next possible opportunity.

Barack Hits Scotland

Big news: UK rights for the Barack Obama book were snapped up by the achingly savvy Canongate. Not their usual tack, but quite the coup nonetheless.

The Scotsman adores Jamie Byng and, well, understandably so. The man is practically single-handedly responsible for revitalising Scottish publishing. Check out their take on the new buy.

To give the appropriate disclaimer, I should probably admit here that was once paid a startling compliment by said publisher. What was even better was that the praise was passed through the newspaper editor who took a chance on giving me decent reviewing slots. One of them was Canongate's stunning jacketed paperback publication of the complex, dense and gorgeous My Father's Notebook by Kader Abdollah. So, I'm biased, but they really are a great house... Have a look, although their site needs a little formatting help.

I'm excited about Obama and everything, but really, folks, it's Clinton. More on that later.

P.S.- just saw that Eoin Purcell beat me to it :) Must get that handy dandy Bookseller bulletin set up.

A pleasant day in Camden

There's a first time for everything. Welcome to a pictoral record of my first truly lovely wander through Camden Town. Astonishingly, I was not pushed, offered hash, asked if I had some smack, or called a stupid whore by dodgy passers by. I'll let the pictures do the talking, and later, I'll chat about Shanghai Nights by Juan Marsé, recently published in paper by the ever-gorgeous Harvill Secker. Meanwhile... Go to see this astonishing coffee, um, roastery, where one quiet man of indeterminate origins roasts a short dozen different coffees in a sooty olfactory paradise.













And in keeping with this sensual overload, we have the audio...

and the gastronomical,
with some beautiful Moroccan stews in the nice bit of the Camden Lock Market.

Oh, dear. It's the fruit of my labours.

So you read. You read a lot. Forty, a hundred pages, three manuscripts per editor per week, two editors. You review, write reports, synopses, opinions, comparisons researched on the internet, in catalogues, the papers. You chat with colleagues, fight your corner, humour your editor, or not. You find foreign language readers, second readers, second opinions and insider insights. Africans, Irish, amateur botanists, historians, Middle East specialists, social workers. Whatever. The winners make it to the editorial meeting, where they might well still get shot down by dubious sales (UK or export), other editors, the MD...

For the rest, someone on the editorial side drafts the rejection letter, trying to be honest, constructive, fair, specific and yet vague enough to cover up the fact that most submissions aren't read past the first forty pages - if that. They try to maintain carefully-wrought relationships with agents, keeping them sweet but outlining an editor's likes, dislikes, likely buys and no-hope-in-Hell case scenarios yet still appearing to be open to the agents' every whim for fear they pass up the next Harry Potter or The Day of the Jackal. You tried, you all tried, and then? Then you see a website like this, and you hope that you or your office haven't been responsible for any of the worst rejection letters ever.

Now, whether Mr Hallamshire is a writer of note is of absolutely no import. I don't know of his work, nor, like the fine folks at A.P. Watt, is science fiction my thing, but I would never, ever write or be permitted to send anything so laid back, so dismissive, so... bad. What is disturbing here is the total lack of writing ability on the part of the editorial staff. Sure, time is a problem, as is the volume coming in from agents is astonishing, and on the agenting end, well, God only knows. If we get three or four fiction submissions per editor per day, I can but imagine what the agents get. But oi. If this is legit, try harder.