Peter Owen Interview

A version of the interview with our founder, Peter Owen, has appeared in the magazine Vice

Milorad Pavic, 1929 - 2009

We were very sorry to hear of the death of one of our authors, Milorad Pavic, announced in the The Guardian and New York Times. Peter Owen published his acclaimed novel, Last Love In Constantinople

Welcome To Tomorrow Books on the Web

Tomorrow Books is a new website devoted to unpublished work by established writers.
Its inaugural edition carries extracts from:
Poet, Knight, Anarchist, Piers Paul Read’s memoir of his father Sir Herbert Read

Big School, Ysenda Maxtone Graham’s first book for children

The Window, Sophie Frank’s novel about the life of a fourteenth-century anchoress

Michael Meylac’s collection of interviews – with dancers such as Alexandra Danilova – about the companies which emerged from the Ballets Russes

Rosanna Kelly and Gail Hallyburton’s eccentric cookbook Student Suppers

Tomorrow Books
was devised by Anthony Gardner, editor of The Royal Society of Literature Review. His own novel The Rivers of Heaven has just been published by Starhaven.

Press Coverage . . . for The Press Book

In the last edition of the The Big Issue we had an editorial by one of our authors, Brian Braithwaite, who is the author of The Press Book, a study of the development of post-war print media. Look out for an extended piece on this subject featuring Brian on the Media Guardian website

Another Robin Hood Review

We have had another review for Robin Hood, which appeared in the Wootton Wawen Magazine. See above for a glowing review. . .

Robin Hood Review

Our book on Robin Hood has been reviewed by one of the destinations for purchasers of Robin Hood products http://www.robinhood.ltd.uk/ . The review is by the Chairman of the World Wide Robin Hood Society and can be found here

Interview with Peter Owen

The founder and owner of Peter Owen was recently interviewed about the company and its history for the 3am website. This is an extensive piece going back over many years. Part 1 and Part 2 can now be viewed

Welcome to IndieBooks on the web

Peter Owen are very pleased to be involved in an exciting new online venture, IndieBooks, which can be found here. IndieBooks is the first book retail website exclusively for Independent Publishers, bringing together a unique range of voices in publishing and providing a range of titles for readers with an eclectic and inspired taste.

In addition to the wide-range of books, covering fiction and non-fiction, the website will include features on authors, publishers, event listings and advice for writers. Opening titles from us include The Year of the Hare, I Live Under A Black Sun and Exile but there are also some other highly interesting publishers on there too, so log on and find out more now

Edgar Allan Poe Review

Our book on Edgar Allan Poe, A Dream Within A Dream, is now released in the United States and has received a very positive review in Publishers Weekly. Library Journal will also be reviewing this important work soon

Idle Years reviewed in the Review of Middle Easter Studies

We have had a very positive review of The Idle Years from the Review of Middle Eastern Studies. This was the first English translation of one of the giants of Turkish literature. Click here for more details on this great writer

Year of the Hare on Book Group

Bookgroup Info is a highly recommended site providing information for readers, book groups, reading groups and book clubs. We were very pleased to hear from them as they have chosen to review The Year of the Hare this month. To see this review and find out more about them, click here

Coverage for the Press Book

John Slattery, the respected media commentator, has mentioned
The Press Book by Brian Braithwaite here

Circus Mania mention in The Stage

The author of our forthcoming book on the circus, Douglas McPherson has written a piece for The Stage where the book gets a mention. Circus Mania will be released in the New Year.

Arthur's Day coverage for Arthur's Round

The celebrations in Ireland and across the world has seen us getting coverage for our book on the brewing legend by his direct descendent, Patrick Guinness. Arthur's Round has been mentioned in both The Irish Times and The Irish Daily Mail

Anita Desai in the Guardian

As crazy as it may sound, we sometimes find that we forget how many international writers we have first published who have gone on to gain wider recognition. Last weekend's Guardian saw a quiet reference to us from Anita Desai whom we first published in 1963.

Exile by Padraic O'Conaire - review from DovegreyReader

Our thanks to Dovegreyreader for their
review of the classic Padraic O'Conaire novel Exile.

'A magnificent and terribly readable collection'

These are the words of Patricia Duncker, of Manchester University Press who joined our editor on today's Radio 4 Woman's Hour programme to discuss The Darker Sex. Huge thanks to all of them - the book has shot up in the last few hours to No 1 in Amazon's Victorian Ghost Stories category in the last couple of hours!

Mike Ashley, Darker Sex editor on Radio 4

Mike Ashley, the editor of our collection of supernatural stories by Victorian women, The Darker Sex will be appearing in a discussion on Woman's Hour on Radio 4 tomorrow, Friday 18th September, about the genius of women writers with Gothic tales. Woman's Hour is on at 10.00-10.45 or you can pick up the programme on the Listen Again facility

Recommended Blog

We are happy to recommend The Compulsive Reader – they call it a haven for book lovers and we think you will find it so too.

Circus Mania

In the not-too-distant future, we will be publishing a new book on the Circus, called Circus Mania, by Douglas McPherson. We will be setting up a web page for this shortly but the author has set up a blog for all those with an interest in this durably popular entertainment art.

Year of the Hare review

We've had a fair share of reviews for The Year of the Hare over the years, but it's especially nice to see one from one of our favourite websites, dovegreyreader which can be found
here

Patwant Singh Obituary

In yesterday's Guardian, there was an obituary for Patwant Singh, the author of
Empire of the Sikhs, above

Bookseller coverage on Peter Owen Rare Books

We've just opened a Rare Books page on our website and The Bookseller has given us a mention in its latest issue.

Notes On Ithell Colquhoun

This week we have been pleased to hear from Sara Hughes, curator at Tate St Ives. This splendid gallery at Porthmeor Beach in Cornwall is holding an exhibition starting in October called The Dark Monarch: Magic and Modernity in British Art, exploring the influence of folklore, mythology and the occult on British artists. Also included is Ithell Colquhoun, whose novel, Goose of Hermogenes we publish. Colquhoun has always had a cult following but her audience is growing. By chance we also found in our archive a copy of a book we published in 1956 above – Ithell designed the book cover for this one. We are currently assessing our archive for a major retrospective in 2011, our 60th anniversary year. The first stage of this process is our Rare Books Page which is now open for browsing (and buying) - watch this space for more on this exciting venture into our past

Prinny & His Pals review

Another review for Prinny and His Pals and this comes from Townswomen who have been kind enough to place it in their regular book club

5 Star Review for A Scarcity of Love

This is a very well written review of Kavan's A Scarcity of Love on Amazon

Darker Sex Features

Our latest publication, The Darker Sex has been featured on The Bronte Blog (which we highly recommend by the way) and we see that it is also highly placed in Amazon's Victorian Ghost Stories in the Bestsellers In Books category.

Ice Palace Review in the States

Another review (giving 5 stars!) for our new edition of The Ice Palace, this time from an American review site

Ice Palace Review at Life Wordsmith

Thanks to literary blog Life Wordsmith for their review of the classic by Vessas, The Ice Palace which we have just re-issued with a new cover in our Modern Classics series

Recommended: Damian Flanagan and Japanese Books Reviewer

Peter Owen has had a long and fruitful association with Damian Flanagan, the author and critic. He has written introductions to two Soseki works for us, The Gate and Kokoro, as well as Endo's Scandal – and he translated Soskeki's Tower of London. His site above is a recommended stop for those interested in Japanese and world literature. In turn, he has recommended Jonathan Collier, who teaches history at Manchester Grammar school, for his reviews of Japanese masters such as Endo, Mishima and Soseki which are here

Muriel Spark

The Guardian had an interesting review/article re Muriel Spark which mentions Peter Owen. Muriel Spark was the first editor here at Peter Owen Publishers

US review for the Alan Sillitoe biography

Quoted below is edited text of a review for The Life of a Long Distance Writer from American magazine World Literature Today. Richard Bradford's biography of Philip Larkin First Boredom, Then Fear is currently being featured in Waterstones recent promotion.



"Richard Bradford's authorized biography, The Life of a Long-Distance
Writer, draws extensively on Sillitoe's voluminous private papers as
well as extensive interviews to present a remarkable narrative of
Sillitoe's life and to assert a compelling argument for his central
importance in English literature of the last fifty years."

"In contrast to Roger Lewis's splenetic, vituperative biography of
Anthony Burgess (2004), which cataloged its subject's flaws while
ignoring the most "writerly" aspects of Burgess's phenomenally prolific
life, Bradford's biography deftly makes Sillitoe's daily writing routine
central, even in his introduction. His claim that Sillitoe's "fiction .
. . is extraordinarily good: quixotic, magnetic, and unimprovable" and
"that Sillitoe can lay claim to being the most accomplished practitioner
of [the] genre of the last fifty years" may quite intentionally provoke
much-needed debate about, and reappraisal of, Sillitoe's literary
standing. Bradford will get no dissent about that from me, and this
thoughtful, eminently readable biography makes his case formidably."

The Darker Sex featuring Emily Bronte and many more

Our new book, The Darker Sex is a treasure trove of Victorian Women Writing, centred on the Gothic genre. It features Emily Bronte, E Nesbit and many more - we are looking forward to seeing a review at some point from a great new website/blog we found called Bronte Blog , well worth checking out if this genre is your scene

Praise from A Good Read

Here are some quotes from A Good Read which featured
Empire of the Sikhs last week.

Indarjit Singh: 'This was wonderful period in Indian history, almost unknown in this country . . . The book is written in a very chatty, easy-to-read style, but it becomes more poignant when the authors talk about how the empire disintegrated after the Ranjit Singh's death . . . as the strength of his reign was his tolerance.'

Kate Mosse (presenter): 'I was really grateful to have read the book. I knew very little about Sikhism. I was very interested to learn about its history and about Ranjit Singh being a contemporary of Napoleon's, with these two completely different ways of working – in India and Europe . . . I think there is no doubt that the two authors are scholars, and the research here is fantastic . . . I loved the early chapters' description of the birth of Sikhism and the beauty of its texts, and it’s made me want to know more . . . I also loved the fact that this book is written in Indian English - it hasn't been Americanized, and there is that sense of richness about it.'

Empire of the Sikhs - on Radio 4 and at the Library of Congress

Empire of the Sikhs was not only featured on Radio 4's A Good Read, it has also been launched in the US at no less a venue than the Library of Congress - a suitable counterpart to the V & A in London (see previous blogs). A couple of pics here of the evening, including authors Patwant Singh and Jyoti M. Rai signing copies and Mr Singh giving a talk

Recommended Book Site

We were recently contacted by Robert Burdock who runs a really interesting website here. He was enquiring about Endo's Silence - here's his preview - we're looking forward to seeing the review....

Prinny and His Pals - Daily Express Review

Our thanks to that unique writer Duncan Fallowell for his review of Prinny and His Pals in the
Daily Express

Prinny and His Pals - Book of the Month

Our new book on George IV, Prinny and His Pals has been selected as Book of the Month by our friends at Majesty magazine

Blur Reunion latest

Er, well, we haven't got much news on that here (not to mention no ticket) but some fans of Graham Coxon may not know that he contributed an acclaimed foreword to Narcissus and Goldmund, one of the most important in the Modern Classics series. Any self-respecting fan of Graham, maybe even Blur, should have it - please get in touch if you want to know about Hermann Hesse or any of the Modern Classics writers.

Now BBC chooses a Peter Owen Title

Having just said that, we've also found that Radio 4 will also be featuring a Peter Owen title soon on A Good Read. Presenter Kate Mosse and selected guests choose their favourite reads of the last few weeks. Indarjit Singh, who regularly features on 'Thought For The Day', will be talking about our Empire of the Sikhs. Transmission date 7.7.09 at 4.30 and it is repeated on the following Friday

BBC showcases Collins' Sensation Stories

Fans of Radio 4's Classic Serial will be listening to a 'Sensation Story' called 'Armadale'. The Sensation Story ushered in the modern mystery genre and new fans will surely be interested in our very own collection by Wilkie Collins here which includes ten of the best from Collins. Please contact sales@peterowen.com or call 0207 370 6093 to order a copy at 50% discount and with free postage.

Shusaku Endo

Peter Owen introduced Shusaku Endo to the Western world, as well as a number of other brilliant Japanese writers. The next Endo work to be published this year is Foreign Studies, due in August. Four Endo titles are now in the re-designed Modern Classics, as seen in our specially-designed bookmarks as above. Please e-mail, phone or write for a free catalogue (and bookmark) detailing all our Modern Classics authors – Endo, Hesse, Mishima, Kavan and many more.

News on Endo's Silence, as filmed by Martin Scorsese

It seems from the above that the long-awaited film version of Silence by Martin Scorsese will be with us soon. Martin Scorsese wrote a powerful introduction to this, perhaps Endo's greatest work, when we re-published this in our famous Modern Classics series.

Boy In Darkness Review

Our thanks goes to Liberator for their review of Boy In Darkness above. Incidentally, we will be soon be announcing a major addition to our list of Mervyn Peake titles - watch this space

Peake video

Check out this BBC interview that Sebastian Peake gave on his father Mervyn Peake. We are currently hard at work on a radically revised version of Vast Alchemies, an authorised biography of Mervyn Peake by Peter Owen author G. Peter Winnington. Look for it this fall!

Know your Peake:
The Man and His Art (edited by Winnington)
Boy In Darkness
A Book of Nonsense

Guilty Review

A little behind on this one but here you go anyway – a readysteadybook review of Anna Kavan's Guilty.

Local Shout-Out

The Man Who Planted Trees is currently a recommended title at our local branch of Waterstones (High St Kensington). If you're in the area head over and check out this environmental classic.

Kirkup

Saturday's Guardian ran an obituary on our author James Kirkup.

Review

This past January The Tablet ran a review on Empire of the Sikhs.

James Kirkup

We were sorry to learn that one of our most illustrious authors, James Kirkup - poet, translator, travel writer and scourge of the National Viewers and Listeners Association - died on the 10th May 2009. Obituarues from the Times and Telegraph follow.


Times
Telegraph

Two New Reviews

The Sikh Messenger, a quarterly UK magazine, featured a book review of Empire of the Sikhs by Patwant Singh and Jyoti M. Rai. Also reviewed was Villa Fleurie by Deanna Maclaren in the June-August edition of Overseas magazine.

Idle Years Review

This past sunday the Balkan Chronicle published a review of Orhan Kemal's The Idle Years.

James Purdy

On March 13th Peter Owen author James Purdy, a prolific and controversial writer, passed away at the age of 94.


The Telegraph
The Guardian
The Scotsman
The Huffington Post
The Times

We were pleased to see that Louis de Bernières, author of Captain Corelli's Mandolin, reviewed The Idle Years by Orhan Kemal.

Here is a brief review of Orhan Kemal's The Idle Years in the current edition of Cornucopia magazine.

Iain Finlayson, of The Times, featured A Dream Within a Dream: The Life of Edgar Allan Poe in his nonfiction reviews section. Also, blogger/author Ben Hoare included In the Shadow of the Dreamchild on his list of '20 auto/biographies that you should read.'

Amazon Review

An Amazon customer recently posted this lovely review of Nigel Barnes's A Dream Within a Dream: The Life of Edgar Allan Poe.

Lots of reviews this week...

Pushkin's Second Wife was reviewed by Irene Minkina. The Midwest Book Review has a brief blurb about In Love. Publishers Weekly reviewed Jeremy Reed's The Grid, and finally posted above is a review from The Bookseller on Cora Sandel's Alberta and Jacob.

The ones that got away...

In Love by Alfred Hayes was included in Saturday's Guardian 'The ones that got away: Love.'

Poe Review

This past weekend one of our new titles, A Dream Within a Dream: The Life of Edgar Allan Poe, by Nigel Barnes, was reviewed in The Guardian.

O'Conaire Review

The Irish Catholic recently reviewed Padraic O'Conaire's novel Exile. This book, by one of Ireland's greatest Gaelic writers, is on sale in the UK next month.

The Guardian's 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read

We were gratified to see a range of our authors listed in this fascinating and well-written series that The Guardian ran last week. Familiar names such as Hesse and Endo were there but also people like Machado de Assis (for Don Casmurro, unfortunately currently not in print) and Dacia Mariani (for Silent Duchess, ditto) but here are some unforgettable titles by Hermann Hesse, Shusaku Endo, Cesare Pavese and Cora Sandel which were all justly celebrated in the Guardian's definitive list – and they're all currently available: Narcissus and Goldmund, Silence,The Moon and The Bonfire and Alberta and Jacob

Another Sillitoe/Bradford Review

We have another review for one of the best biographies of last year, The Life of a Long Distance Writer, this time from The Independent. We are also pleased to be one of the first to announce that Alan Sillitoe has been put forward for the Nobel Prize by not only the author (Professor) Richard Bradford but some other leading English academics.

Guardian Review for Life of a Long-Distance Writer

Richard Bradford's The Life of a Long-Distance Writer has received another review, this time in The Observer.