Better than Bond?

Here in the UK, cinemas are buzzing following the release of the latest James Bond movie. And so they should be. After fifty years on screen, Ian Fleming’s creation is still going strong… but he’s not the only one.

Modesty Blaise, a character originally created by Peter O’Donnell for a strip cartoon, features in 13 books, all published by Souvenir Press. The first Modesty Blaise novel was published in the 1960s, featuring a hard-hitting heroine with a murky past, and her trusty sidekick, Willie Garvin. We reckon they could give Bond a run for his money in a fight!

The Modesty Blaise novels were described by Tribune as “better than James Bond, and funnier”, and The Times reckons the books are “the best escapist thrillers ever written”. High praise indeed!

For more information on all 13 Modesty Blaise titles, take a look at the Souvenir Press website.

Better than Great

As October draws to a close, November creeps up on us, and for many writers, that can only mean one thing: NaNoWriMo. For those of you not in the know, National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo for short) is an online community built around one thing: writing. In November, writers from across the globe take their seats and begin working on a novel, the aim being to produce 50,000 words in the 30 days. 1,667 words a day. It’s got its critics – it values quantity over quality, but many writers find it helpful as a means of getting started, getting stuck in to that elusive first draft. It encourages you to put pen to paper – or fingers to keyboard, perhaps.

If you’re one of the thousands of writers preparing to jump in on November 1st, then we’ve got just the book for you. Available in paperback and e-book, this is one that will definitely get your creativity flowing.

Better Than Great is a unique thesaurus of praise and acclaim, containing humankind’s largest gathering of fresh, potent and larky superlatives for anyone struggling to describe extraordinary things or experiences in ways that will do them justice. The English language has thousands of words to praise but cool , good and great have become our default choices. In Better Than Great Arthur Plotnik adds fresh and engaging new words to our vocabulary of praise, sorted into appropriate categories for easy use. The book is an entertainment in itself, drawing on all levels of expression and offering bonus lists, quotes, sidebar features and the author’s spirited advice and observations on each type of acclaim. Better Than Great draws its terms from slang dictionaries, contemporary writing, specialised glossaries and various quirky sources including the author’s right brain. It presents its inventive terms not simply as fixed locutions but as springboards for further creativity. It is the must-have reference for anyone seeking to rise above tired phrases when quality matters. Critics, journalists, novelists, public speakers, sales reps, marketers, bloggers, Twitterers any writer across the digital and literary spectrum will all find ways to recharge their acclamatory powers and the perfect alternatives to those worn-out phrases that are used too often.

Freaky Sleepers

Do you have trouble sleeping? If so, you’re not the only one – though it may feel like it at times.

The stresses of modern life means that sleep disorders are on the increase, from sleep-talking to more bizarre sleep disorders including sleep-eating. Sleep therapist Dr Nerina Ramlakhan, author of the best-selling TIRED BUT WIRED: The Essential Sleep Toolkit has filmed an exclusive documentary with Channel 4 titled ‘Freaky Sleepers’. The documentary will air on Channel 4 tomorrow night, Thursday 25th October, at 10pm (repeated, of course, on Channel 4+1 at 11pm).

The documentary will take a look at more extreme sleep disorders, including sleep-eating, sleep-texting, extreme night terrors and “sexsomnia”. To find out more about the documentary, visit the Channel 4 website, and tune in tomorrow to watch!

Dr Nerina Ramlakhan’s book is available in paperback and as an e-book, and is out now.

Are you a FitMama?

Last month saw the publication of THE FITMAMA METHOD by Marie Behenna.

As everyone knows, pregnancy is tough on a woman’s body. Muscles, joints, organs… It turns out that growing a person is hard work! And this is where Marie Behenna comes in. A specialist in ante- and post-natal fitness, she has recently opened her own FitMama Studio in Basingstoke, running classes for mums-to-be and mums with babies.

THE FITMAMA METHOD is a complete guide to confidence and fitness through pregnancy and birth. It covers safe exercises for pregnancy designed to build stamina and fitness – two crucial elements for when it comes to giving birth. It even covers breathing techniques for labour, and a section on how partners can best help during the birth. After delivery, the book looks at gentle exercises designed to help women repair the core damage done during pregnancy and birth, making this the ideal book for a fit and healthy pregnancy, and beyond.

It has been named Prima Baby’s book of the month for November 2012, has a rave review in the November issue of Women’s Fitness magazine, and has no fewer than twelve (twelve!) five-star reviews on Amazon. Pregnancy fitness? No problem.

Like the book? Like it on Facebook!

Welcome (Back) To Biscuit Land!

At the end of last month we saw our book WELCOME TO BISCUIT LAND featured in The Daily Mail (read our blog post about it) in a fantastic two-page spread prior to publication.

The book has now been featured in The Observer yesterday (Sunday 14th) – this time it was given four pages in the magazine, but if you missed it you can read the extract online here. The book is out now, and you can find it in most Waterstones stores, as well as online – Amazon, The Book Depository, and in e-book format for Kindle, iBooks, Kobo, Sony and more.

To celebrate the publication of WELCOME TO BISCUIT LAND, author Jessica Thom held a launch party on Friday evening, which was a roaring success. The book has also been reviewed in Ham & High:

“It was a joy and an eye-opener then, to read Jessica Thom’s new book, ‘Welcome to Biscuit Land’.”

With rave reviews also coming in from customers on Amazon (at time of posting there are five reviews on the site – all five stars), it is clear that WELCOME TO BISCUIT LAND is touching the hearts of everyone who reads it.

You can also like the book on Facebook, and read an interview that Jessica did with Disability Now. Welcome to Biscuit Land, everybody!

World Mental Health Day 2012

Today, October 10th, is World Mental Health Day. This year’s theme is “Depression: A Global Crisis”.

“Depression affects more than 350 million people of all ages, in all communities, and is a significant contributor to the global burden of disease. Although there are known effective treatments for depression, access to treatment is a problem in most countries and in some countries fewer than 10% of those who need it receive such treatment.” — World Health Organization

If depression is something that affects you, or a loved one, then we recommend UNDOING DEPRESSION by Richard O’Connor. And we’re not the only ones. You can read the Depression Alliance review of the book here, as well as the countless reviews on Amazon, where it is rated 4.8 out of 5 stars.

UNDOING DEPRESSION demonstrates how to replace depressive patterns of thinking, it offers the possibility of replacing these habits with new, more effective skills. This is a practical answer to helping those who suffer from depression.

Available in paperback and in e-book format, including Kindle, iBooks, Kobo, Sony and more.

Dyslexia Awareness Week

This week is Dyslexia Awareness Week 2012, and in the run up to this there have been a few interesting news articles about dyslexia doing the rounds. Most interesting, in my opinion, is this one from the BBC about the OpenDyslexic font – a free-to-use font designed to help people with dyslexia read online content.

At Souvenir Press we may not design fonts, but we do have a wonderful book called THE GIFT OF DYSLEXIA, which is one of the best-selling education books in the world, providing the practical skills that allow students of all ages to express their innate gifts and succeed in their lives. It has been praised by places including ‘Disability Now’ and ‘Times Educational Supplement’, and is held in high regard by those who have read it, as you will see from customer reviews on the Amazon product page.

“Presented in a dyslexia friendly style… I would recommend this book, both for people with dyslexia and parents and teachers. It describes the problems so well, but even more importantly it radiates optimism and encouragement and offers a programme for success.” – ‘Disability Now’

Related reading:

Dyspraxia: Developmental Co-ordination Disorder: The Hidden Handicap by Amanda Kirby

The Fear of Maths: How to Overcome It by Steve Chinn

The Elephant in the Classroom: Helping Children Learn and Love Maths by Jo Boaler

Black History Month (part 2)

As October is celebrated as Black History Month here in the UK, we at Souvenir Press have put together a few book recommendations for you. You can find the first part of this post series here, where we recommended the fantastic BLACK LIKE ME by John Howard Griffin, and the equally brilliant A SOFT VENGEANCE OF A FREEDOM FIGHTER by Albie Sachs.

We now have two more titles to recommend to you as part of our Black History Month series of blog posts.

STRIDE TOWARDS FREEDOM – Martin Luther King Jr.

“Telling the inspiring story of the Civil Rights movement… A very important and moving book which tells the story of the movement that transported and changed not only America but globally”. – ‘Black History Live’

This is the account of the birth of a national Civil Rights movement in America, that pivotal turning point in American history, told through Martin Luther King Jr’s own experiences and stories, chronicling his community’s refusal to accept the injustices of racial discrimination. He described ‘Stride Toward Freedom’ as “the chronicle of 50,000 Negroes who took to heart the principles of non-violence, who learned to fight for their rights with the weapon of love, and who, in the process, acquired a new estimate of their own human worth.”

THE HORN – John Clellon Holmes

“This is a book you can return to again and again just for the writing alone… Holmes is a writer, not a musician, but somehow he captures the life of a jazz musician in the first half of the twentieth century… It should be on the reading list of anyone who cares about jazz.” – http://www.sandybrownjazz.co.uk

Edgar Pool is the Horn, the greatest tenor saxophonist of his generation, the man who created bop and who has become a myth for younger musicians. The Horn lives no life but jazz, his nights are spent in the crowded nightclubs of New York where the wistful, throaty sounds of his saxophone speak of the desires and pasts of his audience. After being out-played for the first time by a younger man the Horn sets out to stumble through New York for the last time. As his friends and lovers search for him they remember his life, and try to find the truth of his brilliant and tragic career. The Horn is a brilliant evocation of the world of jazz and a vivid memorial to the musicians who created it.

Black History Month

Here in the UK, October is Black History Month, and here at Souvenir Press we’ve got a great selection of titles to recommend! We will highlight four fantastic titles over the course of the month – two in this post, and two to follow in a later post. So join us as we celebrate Black History month here at Souvenir Press!

BLACK LIKE ME – John Howard Griffin

One of the most extraordinary books ever written about relations between the races. – The Today Programme, BBC Radio 4.

In 1959, before the Civil Rights movement spread across the United States, John Howard Griffin underwent medical treatments to disguise himself as a black man. He then travelled through the segregated Deep South of America, exchanging the privileged life of a white man for the disenfranchisement of the black man, and experienced the racism that was endured by millions on a daily basis. From the threat of violence to the indignities of being unable to use a drinking fountain or buy food from a particular shop Griffin documented his experience of racism and opened the eyes of white America to the abuses going on in their country.

THE SOFT VENGEANCE OF A FREEDOM FIGHTER

An extraordinary man, a living testimony to the belief that the human spirit can overcome all adversity… That he survived not just to exist but make so fulsome a contribution to the life of a new, altogether better South Africa is a triumph. – The Independent

In 1988 after decades as an anti-apartheid activist, Albie Sachs lost his right arm and an eye when his car was blown up by South African security agents. This is his own moving account of his recovery in and his gradual re-entry into life and politics and the parallel emergence of an apartheid-free South Africa. Sachs writes of his years spent working for justice in South Africa, as well as expressing his euphoria at finding himself alive day after day. Was it worth it? he asks. His unforgettable and inspiring answer is a resounding yes . The soft vengeance he has achieved is not to inflict pain and injustice on those who attacked him but to help in the creation of a society where humanity and justice triumph over cruelty and racist division.

Peace Day 2012 and Souvenir Press

In celebration of Peace Day 2012, a memorial to the thousands of  Prisoners of War who suffered and lost their lives in the Far East during World War Two was unveiled in Mornington Crescent.

Friday 21st September 2012 saw the unveiling of this new memorial, featuring the a reproduction of a drawing by Souvenir Press author Ronald Searle (who sadly passed away at the end of 2011, aged 91). Searle himself was a Prisoner of War who worked on the Burma Railway, and was eventually liberated in 1945 after the defeat of the Japanese. Throughout his captivity, Searle drew in secret on scraps of paper, keeping them hidden from the guards.

Taken from Searle’s book TO THE KWAI – AND BACK: WAR DRAWINGS 1939-1945, the illustration featured on the memorial is accompanied by the words: They ask for nothing but remembrance of their lives and a promise of peace for future generations.

The memorial was unveiled by Viscount Slim, President of the Burma Star Association, in the presence of veterans and their families. Souvenir Press managing director Ernest Hecht attended the unveiling of the memorial as Ronald Searle’s representative.

The memorial’s architect, Chris Roche, wrote in the programme to accompany the unveiling that he was inspired in equal parts by Searle’s TO THE KWAI – AND BACK and by the 1957 movie A BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI. Of the memorial, he wrote: “I hope in viewing this memorial, the people of Camden will […] come to appreciate that despite the suffering, the prisoners were able to build something of immense value which outlived the war, and which continues to inspire and uplift in times of peace”.

HRH Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh unfortunately could not be present on the day, but sent a wonderful letter which began: “I am very pleased to know that a memorial to all those who served in the Far East during the war, and particularly to those who were imprisoned, is being erected in Camden.” You can read the full letter from the Duke of Edinburgh on the Camden New Journal website.