Short Books Club

I am very pleased to let you all know about this exciting event for any budding writers out there:

Writers’ Retreats

Find your inspiration.  Exercise your creativity.

Writing workshops at Lower Coxbridge House near Glastonbury.

One day course: Saturday 25th February 2012 10.00am – 4.00pm

Weekend residential course: Friday 27th April to Sunday 29th April 2012

Short Books author Emma Craigie (Chocolate Cake with Hitler) will lead writing workshops to help you create powerful stories.  At the weekend workshop Rebecca Nicolson, founder of Short Books, will lead a sessions on what publishers look for in potential authors.

There will also be opportunities to walk in the beautiful countryside surrounding Lower Coxbridge House,  and optional yoga sessions, led by Sarah Orme, to keep you focussed and refreshed.

Delicious meals and refreshments cooked by Nicole Leathley.

Maximum 12 places.  For more information: info@somersetstudiospace.co.uk.

www.somersetstudiospace.co.uk,  www.emmacraigie.wordpress.com

Many thanks to all those who entered and the winners this month are…

Sonia Hawes – Eydon Book Group

Elizabeth Webb – Minster Readers

Csaba Bali

Jan Willetts

Tracey Atchison – Fairwarp WI Book Group

Jill Hailey

John Hausrath

Susan Pollard – Southway Readers Group

Please can those of you who haven’t sent me your mailing addresses drop me an email (clemmie@shortbooks.co.uk).

In the meantime – CONGRATULATIONS.

NB: For those that had problems signing in – I have received your emails and entered you into the competition. If you would like to enter just leave a comment below or email clemmie@shortbooks.co.uk

Free proof copies of Cooking for Claudine by John Baxter for the first 10 book groups…

We don’t like to start Christmas too early but as the lights are up on Oxford Street and the first Christmas tree has been spotted near the office, we thought we would be forgiven for offering you a festive reading feast this month. We have just published Cooking for Claudine this month and it is just the ticket to get you in the mood for the fast approaching onslaught of turkey, baubles and mince pies.

John Baxter, an acclaimed film critic and foodie, impulsively moved to Paris to marry the woman he loved, only to discover the first test of his intentions would come in the form of a challenge: to cook Christmas dinner for her formidable, grand French family. His year-long quest to produce the perfect meal takes his readers to the farthest corners of France in search of the country’s finest receipes and ingredients. It is a charming, improbabale (but true!) tale of how a man raised on white bread, who didn’t speak a word of French, had to cook his way to the heart of his new family.

It has been a big hit in both the US and Australia so far. Here’s what they had to say about the book:

‘John Baxter is so erudite while being so funny. He’s much more than a tourist ‐ he’s got it all.’ ‐ Diane Johnson, bestselling author of Le Divorce

‘This is a gentle, amusing and elegant memoir… full of amusing tales of being an Aussie in France, a love affair with cooking and, most importantly his endless quest for the best ingredients to make a French Christmas dinner. The result is a sublime and entertaining celebration of a fascinating life ‘ – Sydney Morning Herald, Spectrum

‘This sweet old‐fashioned memoir is wrapped around the first time he cooks for [his wife’s] formidable French family… his quest for the perfect meal is a joyous food tour through France, navigating the strict local conventions about eating’ ‐ Herald Sun

‘Cooking for Claudine is Gallic gastroporn with a soupcon of crackling for good measure to rival Babette’s Feast. A tasty culinary education’ ‐ Vogue Australia

To enter the competition leave a comment below this post. As I have had problems getting people’s addresses off them, please sign in to the blog before you leave your comment so that I can email you if I have any problems.
On another note: I would love to hear from anyone who has been reading The White Lie, which was the September offer. All your thoughts are very welcome, whether good or bad!

Just to give you fair warning of another monthly free books offer tomorrow. This month is is Cooking with Claudine by John Baxter – the PERFECT Christmas read. Paris, food, family – what’s not to love. The books will go on offer tomorrow at 4pm. To enter you need to sign into the blog (that way I don’t get winner’s I can’t get in touch with) and then leave a comment on the post.

If you want to find out more about the book you can go here.

“John Baxter is so erudite while being so funny. He’s much more than a tourist – he’s got it all.” Diane Johnson, bestselling author of Le Divorce

Little do you know, but you are about to be bombarded by these three likely chaps, whose second series on Channel 4 is about to be launched. Challenged with surviving on no money and just their foraging, blagging and culinary skills by River Cottage’s Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, the three boys embark on a serious boy’s own adventure. They are a brilliant gang and their eco-minded, intrepid spirit deserves as much support as we can muster – at least that’s what we think. If you can’t wait until the series starts at the end of the month, then you can find out more about them here, and here. And you can get a sneaky preview of their book below.

As Hugh FW says:

“Tim, Thom and Trevor have a great take on food, on foraging, on fun. It’s a charming recipe and everyone should have a slice”

You can only begin to imagine what the life of Justin Webb must be like with all those early mornings starts to present the Today Programme on Radio Four – pretty busy, I suspect. So we managed to grab five minutes with the ex-US correspondent for the BBC to hear what he had to say on his latest book and the highs and lows of life at the sharp-end of radio.

You can read his post here – where the good people of Amazon have hosted it.

A fabulous 8 page pull-out of Simon Barnes’ guide to winter birds in The Times this weekend, with fantastic illustrations by Natalie Lee. It is also accompanied by Simon’s brilliant podcast on birdsong that will take you from listening to the robin to recognising the nightingale. You can find the guide here. Or, if you aren’t a Times subscriber you can find both book info and the podcast here.

Another lovely foodie book we have coming out this Christmas is Cooking for Claudine by John Baxter. It will be on offer soon but I thought I would flag it up and also the great review written by one of our Short Books Club regulars, Anne, on her blog Random Things Through My Letterbox. Many thanks Anne!

A little treat for our loyal book clubbers… Cita Stelzer has kindly signed a few copies of her brilliant book, Dinner with Churchill, for the Short Books Club (they would make a great Christmas pressie for anyone interested in either history or food). If you would like a copy you just need to leave a comment below telling us what three course dinner you would feed the hungry WWII Prime Minister, were he to be sitting in your kitchen waiting for his supper. The five most imaginative menus (decided by consensus in the office) will win a copy. Feel free to go wild, after all, Churchill was partial to bowl of turtle soup or a morsel of pigs head. Top tip: he certainly wasn’t on a diet and wrote that he “didn’t want to go by sun-time… but by ‘tummy time’!”

All has been rather quiet here on the blog front for a couple of weeks, what with the new website going live, things have been rather busy. I do hope you are enjoying the new home of Short Books – do take a moment to have a look around and if you find something you like,  just let me know and we will see if we can add it to a monthly free offer. Speaking of offers, there will be a free book offer at the end of next week, so get ready, steady.

In further exciting news, Short Books is participating in the Love Your Indie loyalty card campaign. You just need to pick up a loyalty card at your participating indie bookshop and for every ten pounds you spend you get a stamp. Ten stamps and you get a free book from one of the participating Independent Alliance publishers. We cannot encourage you enough to support your local bookshops whenever possible. In these current financial times they need our help! For more information on this you can click here.