Legend Press

'White Summer' relaunched tomorrow

Tomorrow sees the relaunch of Luke Bitmead's fast-paced and vibrant comedy 'White Summer'. Here is just some of the glowing reviews the book has received:

‘Great stuff. Wonderfully witty and sexy.’ Deborah Wright, bestselling author

‘Reading White Summer is like a breath of fresh air’ Roundtable Review

‘White Summer is a page-turner, punctuated with humorous incidents that will ring true to all men and women.’ BBC Oxford Radio.

‘A sparkling debut from an author with an eye for details and wit.’ Essence Magazine.

Order your copy now - £5.99 

Lucy

Future Legend Press events June-July

28th June - Re-release of White Summer by Luke Bitmead.

28th June - Catherine Richard's, co-author of Heading South will be doing a book-signing at Birstall Borders from 1pm.

5th July - UK Indepedence Day - Legend Press authors will be travelling to Speaker's Corner Hyde Park to do readings!

24th July - Winner of Luke Bitmead Bursary announced.

26th July - Launch party of Josie Henley-Einion's novel Silence at Waterstone's Cardiff.

UK's Independence Day

On Saturday 5th July Legend Press authors will be going to Hyde Park Speaker's Corner to read/talk/preach in public about books (Legend Press books in particular!)

We shall be starting at 12pm sharp so come along and listen. We are not quite sure what's going to happen, so it should be interesting to say the least!

The event is part of London Lit Plus - an open literary festival for London running for two weeks from 5th-19th July!

Lucy

mucha mucha gran hora

Just a quick note to remind you that I'm still around. Currently in Argentina on a publishing tour arranged by the British Council. A very rare opportunity (sad to report very rarely get taken anywhere exotic with work) and has been fantastic so far. We're in Buenos Aires for two weeks with the exception of three days next week in Rosario (2nd biggest city in Argentina).

We're being worked hard as lots has been packed into an unbelievably good programme but is a fantastic experience personally and work-wise. Buenos Aires is an amazing city and can't praise it enough as a place you must stay in at some point if at all possible. Before anyone calls me a jammy git, I will be back to work and the grindstone on the 30th and am still on email in the meantime should anyone need to get hold of me.

Buenos dias!

Tom

Mark Piggott week at the View from Here Magazine

The View from Here online Magazine, are having a week of postings about Mark Liam Piggott and his fabulous debut novel Fire Horses - with a review and two part interview to be published. There is also a competition to win a signed copy of Mark's book later in the week!

The first part of Mark's interview is available to read now, with the second installment to follow on Friday. Here's a tasty:

What's your ideal night out/in?

Out: a pub with friends, solving the world’s problems with humour.

In: a meal with my wife and kids, then they go to bed without a fight leaving us to drink wine and watch something funny. Boring, eh?

No I don't think so, but then I'm 41 myself! What's your favorite program at the moment?

Peep Show – absolutely brilliant writing, acting and above all its concept – that we all have this image of us that we think is how others see us and its poles apart from what they do actually see. I mean, I look like an angry, yobbish Northerner, whereas in fact I’m only an angry, yobbish Northerner on the outside – inside I’m crying.

Order your copy now - £5.99 

Lucy

Fire Horses - 'Shiny stuff from rubbish - go buy it and see for yourself'.

Another excellent review for Mark Piggott's debut novel Fire Horses has just come in from Revish.com.

"As a debut novel it shines, both in the quality of the writing and the insights into mankind and modern history."

"Blur's, Modern Life is Rubbish, sums up this book well. Yet despite this, or because of this, there is hope and redemption threaded throughout the book. Mark Piggott shows us the rubbish, but embraces it and produces art and a life for Joe that has beauty once Mark has shown you how to look."

To read the review in full click here.

Order your copy now - £5.99 

Lucy

And the Legend Press Author of the week is...

Congratulations Rob Ainsley for winning Legend Press Author of the week. Rob's book 50 Quiky Bike Rides is published by Eye Books and is out now!

How does it feel to be Legend Press Author of the week?
Hooray for small-publisher networking – there’s so much great stuff out there

Describe your book in 10 word
My favourite 50 biking experiences in England - hopefully yours too

If your book could have a theme tune what would it be?
Bach’s 48 Preludes and Fugues. Shame he was too busy to write 50

Tell us one fact about yourself that we won't believe?
I was on Blue Peter in 2001 for having been to all the places called Bath in the world

If we weren't asking you questions right now, what would you be doing?
Sitting in a pub or cafe after a bike ride, waiting for Rebecca to choose something that’s not quite on the menu.

Who would play you in the movie of your life?

Stephen Fry. Or possibly Rowan Atkinson.

Lucy

Harrison Dextrose a 'Top Mover & Shaker' once again!

Following on from yesterday's great endorsement from hugely-popular website PopBitch.com (see below), IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF HARRISON DEXTROSE by Nick Griffiths stormed up the Amazon chart last night. In fact, it was recorded as the 'No.1 Mover and Shaker' of the day - i.e. seeing sharping sales action than any other book!

Unbelievable I hear you say. Well, lightning does strike twice in the instance of this great book as just before it's recent launch it also charted number one on the chart, showing how popular it is proving. And rightly so. Plus Amazon seems the one chart that writers can regularly check and so seeing the books going like hot cakes there is fantastic.

Of course, if you haven't already, you'll want to order one now:

Order your copy now - £5.99 

Harrison Dextrose is a 'summer delight'

The spectacular IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF HARRISON DEXTROSE by Nick Griffiths has already been listed as the book to buy in the Times and today hugely-popular site PopBitch.com has listed it second in their Summer Delights - 'nice things to help you waste June'.

Have been inundated with people contacting me to tell me how much they have enjoyed/are enjoying this fantastic book and it's great to hear more superb endorsement from PopBitch.

If you haven't yet got in on the act, make sure you order your copy right now (and at just £5.99!):

Order your copy now - £5.99 

Donald Trump meets Sir William Coles

With the final of The Apprentice yesterday, a show that's been the talk of the office for a while and which I have unsurprisingly found myself getting into (although I am still in full fury over the firing of Raef), it seems timely that the 'original' Sir Alan Sugar, Donald Trump, should appear on the blog this morning. I can't resist pointing out here that as far as I'm aware Sir Alan made most of his money out of property and not those slightly dodgy computers (though he didn't do too bad out of them...).

But anyway, the reason for Trump's mention is that our very own author William Coles has written a feature on him for the Wall Street Journal. Coles, who used to be the Sun's New York Correspondent, was even kind enough to give Legend Press a plug at the end.  Very nice of him and if Mr Trump wants to invest any of his millions just let me know... Actually forget that, I'm going to get in touch with Raef.

Tom

Piggott's Porkies (or not as the case may be)

Piggott's Porkies #5: Is Piggott Batman?

Long before his novel, Fire Horses, reached the shops, Piggott was actually in the movies. In fact he even appears in the first Batman film, as he himself here explicates now below this point:

“Me brother in law was a driver at Pinewood right, and he asked if I wanted to help out on’t first Batman film (1989). So there I was driving around in the Batmobile. If you look closely, you can see me standing on the bonnet in that crowd scene.”

Sadly, Piggott’s movie career was short-lived.

“I had to call it a day ‘cos Kim Basinger, who played Robin, wouldn’t stop hassling me for me autograph and that. She were parked outsider me trailer day and night pestering me for me phone number – but she got nowt.”

Order your copy now - £5.99 

Lucy

Complete our Legend Press national reading survey...

At the moment we are conducting a survey to understand the reading habits of the UK, to aid our future marketing and publicity activities.

It would be great if you could take a few minutes of your time to fill in our short questionnaire. Results will be collated later this month. Thank you for your time.

Click Here to take survey

Lucy

And the author of the week is...

Congratulations Josie for winning author of the week! I spoke to Josie earlier to get her reaction:

How does it feel to be Legend Press Author of the week?
I’m ecstatic! And may I say about time too. I imagined that I’d be nominated a lot earlier than that Coles bloke.

Describe your book in 10 words?
Caffienated roadtrip through time&space featuring murder&mayhem, sex, politics and cats. (think I may have cheated a bit with the contractions but it was hellishly difficult to get the whole thing into ten words!)

If your novel could have a theme tune what would it be?
Victims by Culture Club.

Tell us one fact about yourself that we won't believe?
I used to be a young Christian (shocking isn’t it?)

If we weren't asking you questions right now, what would you be doing?
Going to view an allotment that we are planning to rent.

Who would play you in the movie of your life?
Pink for the earlier years, Madonna for the later, and if I could choose for the future me, that would be Sandi Toksvig.

Pre-order your copy now - £5.99 

Lucy

Free tickets to a legendary night!

We're very excited about hosting a Legend Press Authors Night this Thursday at the Phoenix Artists' Club on Charing Cross Road, London (starting 6.30pm). Not just one but countless numbers of our authors will be there for this unique evening - a great chance to hear from them and celebrate all of our books published to date.

And as we want to make it as open as possible, we're offering 20 free tickets! They're already going very fast so please leave a comment or email Lucy at lucyboguslawski@legendpress.co.uk ASAP to book your place if you can make it.

Can't wait and look forward to seeing everyone there!

Tom

Coverage from Mark's home town

It seems Fire Horses is a bit of a hit already in Mark's home town. Coverage for the book has been splashed all over www.hebdenbridge.co.uk. Mark will hopefully be returning to the town in the next month or two to promote the book further. Thank you for everyone who came to watch Mark at Borders Oxford Street last night. If you couldn't make it down, they have a few signed copies left, so go down and grab your copy before Tuesday when Mark will be appearing in the London Paper!

Order your copy now - £5.99 

Lucy

William Coles advances to Stockton tonight

William Coles will be speaking at Stockton Central Library tonight at 7pm. Tickets are £3, including wine and refreshments and can be ordered directly from the library on 01642 526522, or alternatively can be bought on the night.

Order your copy of The Well-Tempered Clavier now for just £5.99

Order your copy now - £5.99 

Lucy

Mark Piggott at Borders Oxford Street TONIGHT 6PM

Mark will be talking and signing copies of his fantastic debut novel 'Fire Horses' tonight at Borders Oxford Street at 6:30pm. The book is getting lots of exciting coverage - and Mark has just been interviewed for the London Paper so look out for that in your papers next week! I thought I would slip in a nice picture from Mark's launch on Tuesday night! We had the launch at London Met University, and much fun was had by all!

Order your copy now - £5.99 

Lucy

New title 'In dependence' announced...

We are excited to announce that we have signed author Sarah Ladipo Manyika, who is based in San Francisco. The thought-provoking novel, In dependence, is to be pushed through for publication on 27th September 2008. The novel is to be backed by a major promotional campaign.

In dependence takes the reader on a rich historical journey starting with the legacy of Empire, through the post colonial period, and onto modern day Africa and its diaspora. It is through Tayo and Vanessa’s story, each with their own references to the African leaders, writers, and artists who shaped the historical period, that the author offers a new and exciting glimpse into contemporary West Africa. Tayo and Vanessa’s tragic romance mirrors the tragedy of Europe and America’s relationship with the third world. Where mutual dependence has always existed, the unfettered love affair remains an elusive dream.

 

Tom commented to the press: “We are really excited about publishing Sarah’s novel. It is a rich story about important issues, which we feel will engage and also challenge readers. The historically important setting of the novel is particularly relevant to today’s volatile political environment."

 

Lucy

Fire Horses launching in style

The frankly magnificent FIRE HORSES by Mark Liam Piggott hit the bookshops on Saturday and included in Blackwell's Summer Read Campaign, along with cover quotes from Jonathan Trigell and John King, we have extremely high hopes for this unforgettably brilliant novel.

And to celebrate its launch, we have an event tonight at London Met University on Holloway Road, London and this will be followed by two major book signings - at Borders on Oxford Street, London (this Thursday - 5th June) and at the flagship Waterstone's, 14-16 Bold Street, Liverpool on Saturday 14th June.

If you do one thing over the next two weeks I would make sure you make it to one of these events. Fire Horses has launched. And as I know you won't be able to wait, you can order at just £5.99 right now:

Order your copy now - £5.99 

And the author of the week is...

 

David Caddy the poet poet, whose latest collection 'Man in Black' is published by Penned in the Margins. David is dubbed the ‘Robert Frost of the Blackmore Vale!'

How does it feel to be Legend Press Author of the week?
Good, now where's the champagne?

Describe your book in 10 words?
A localised study of cultural memory featuring men in black

If your novel could have a theme tune what would it be?
The Wanderer by U2 featuring Johnny Cash

Tell us one fact about yourself that we won't believe?
David is very good in bed

If we weren't asking you questions right now, what would you be doing?
Eating a brie and watercress sandwich listening to Test Match Special

Who would play you in the movie of your life?
Daniel Day-Lewis

Lucy