Thanks

Just a quick one for those who are not on Facebook and want to know how things are going. Well - there is still no firm plan for distribution but I have had an offer of help there. I am in contact with Cumbria County Council's media department and I hope to hear from them tomorrow about numbers of children. I am also hoping to hear from the Libraries department to see if a library in the area might not be the best address for sending the books to.

I have had lots of offers of books from authors and illustrators today and I want to thank everyone who has been in touch. But I need more. We can not have too many authors. Please, please, please spread the word. Hope to have more concrete news tomorrow.

Thanks again

Cumbria Q&A

I've just had this email from Josh Lacey. He raises some very good questions

Hi Chris

A couple of thoughts about logistics:

First, how about getting a publisher or publicist to organise it? They're so good at that sort of thing... I'm sure publishers would be happy to donate some books and some time in exchange for a bit of publicity...

Good point - anyone fancy taking that on? A helping hand from anyone involved in publicity would be great.

If not, do you know anyone who lives in the area who could distribute books?

I heard from author Jim Eldridge today. Jim lives in the area and whilst he can't be expected to distribute what I hope might be hundreds or even thousands of books, he is full of useful local contacts.

Second, do you have a list of schools? How many kids are involved? How many writers? How many books would each writer provide?

I am still waiting for accurate numbers from Cumbria County Council. I think we need to have as many writers as possible giving at least one book. I would like to a a couple of hundred (or more) writers and illustrators getting involved

Third, would you ask writers to send books directly to schools? To a distributor? Would someone collect the books and drive them there? Could some of the writers visit the schools to hand out books?

Many of the schools are still closed. The County Council will have to provide collection points and advertise it through the media. Big names among the authors will help this. If I get enough pledges from authors for books I will then certainly ask if some people could actually go up there and be there when the books are handed out. But that is a long way down the line. Without storage, transport and distribution, it won't work.

I just seem to be bombarding you with questions... sorry.

J.

No problem Josh - they are questions that need to be asked (and answered)

Cumbrian Book Appeal

I am interrupting the normal broadcast of blithering on this blog by telling about something a bit more serious and urgent.

As people in the UK will know, Cumbria has suffered terrible flooding recently. Already it seems as though this is no longer newsworthy and yet clearly, it remains a devastating reality for those affected.

It struck me that children's authors have a chance to inject a little bit of good cheer into the lives of children in Cumbria. I thought that we could sign and wrap one (or more) of our books and send them as gifts to those affected.

So far so good. But I also wanted this to happen before Christmas. The books have to be collected, transported and distributed. There are huge problems and I have to confess I don't know that it will work. I just think that it can.

But - I will say that there has been an incredible enthusiasm from authors for the project. I have many, many firm offers. I have been in touch with Cumbria Council and they are keen. The issue of how books get from author to child is still the thing that will potentially scupper the whole thing, but I remain hopeful that someone more practically minded than me will come forward and solve that.

Meanwhile, if you can help in any way or simply have some thoughts, please get in touch via the comment feature on this blog.

The meaning of life

I have spoken about book jackets many times in this blog. Writers underestimate their importance at their peril I think.

A book jacket at its simplest level is just product information. It tells you what the book is and who made it. The blurb is a kind of ingredients list.

All of that is important stuff, and it all needs to be there and readable. But of course a jacket is more than that. The cover can also give a visual impression of the book. It can show one of the characters or a scene from the story. It can give some idea of the setting or the historical period or even the prevailing mood.

But though all those things are important as well in their way, I think the truly vital quality of a book jacket - one that can get lost in all those discussions about typefaces and illustrations - is its ability to make the book a desirable object.

This is clearly a subjective thing: what is desirable to me might not be desirable to a fifteen year-old girl, but that is where clever graphic designers come in. A good book jacket will both confirm tastes we already held, while also intriguing us and showing us something new.

I have bought many books on the strength of their jackets and I find it almost impossible to buy a book - even by an author I like - if it has a bad jacket. And I think I'm far from alone in this. As long as a book does not actually misrepresent a book, I think the main design aim should be to make it as attractive or compelling an object as possible.

Which brings me on to the Oxford University Press A Very Short Introduction series. These books are great. They are perfect for authors in that they give a short grounding in a variety of subjects. They are well-written and thought-provoking.

As well as being short, they are also small - half the size of a normal paperback: perfect for rail journeys as they weigh next to nothing. But they are also beautiful objects. Non-fiction jackets that are a thousand times more desirable than many, or even most, fiction jackets.

I assume the abstract covers (painted by Philip Atkins) were a way of providing a series continuity whilst answering the problem of the diversity in subject matter. But there could have been a crushingly dull solution to that. Go into any bookshop and see.

These jackets are lovely. They bring out the collector in me. They make me want to buy the whole lot.

Turkish tales of terror

Of course I should maybe have pointed out that Boris Karloff (real name, William Henry Pratt) was British - like Colin Clive who plays Frankenstein (Henry, rather than Victor in the movie). The director James Whale was also British, but it is odd to see how early that American conceit of having dubious characters played by Brits actually started.

And I was very pleased to hear that there is to be a Turkish edition of Tales of Terror from the Black Ship. It occurs to me that I haven't seen the Turkish edition yet. By an odd coincidence the Turkish translator of Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror - Zeynep Alpaslan - was kind enough to get in touch a couple of posts back.

So merhaba to all my (existing or potential) Turkish readers.

Happy birthday Boris

It is Boris Karloff's birthday today - or at least would be were he still alive. I was trying to think where I first became aware of that iconic image of him as the monster in James Whale's 1931 Frankenstein movie. I suppose it would have been through parody and cartoons first. It is so ingrained in our consciousness that it feels like we were just born with it.

I first saw that Frankenstein movie when I was in my teens as part of a series - called, I seem to remember, Monster Movies - on TV late on Friday nights. I was spellbound by those early RKO and Universal movies. I haven't seen them for a long time, but they had a huge impact on me and I still think about them now. The series went all the way through to the sexy Hammer movies of the 1960s and I certainly enjoyed those too - though perhaps for other reasons.

I've been thinking a lot about Mary Shelley's Frankenstein of late and although the book bears little resemblance to the James Whale movie - especially in regard to the creature, who is an intelligent and articulate being rather than a shuffling mute - the movie has a resonance all of it's own.

Karloff's performance is superb. Karloff had acted in dozens of movies before but he became synonymous with horror after that. He appeared in so many horror movies it would be boring to list them, but here are a few: FrankensteinThe Old Dark House, The Mummy, The Black Cat, Bride of Frankenstein, The Walking Dead, The Body Snatcher, Isle of the Dead and The Raven. He was great in Peter Bogdanovich's Targets. He had a wonderful voice and even narrated Chuck Jones's animated version of The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.

But it is as that shuffling mute creature that he really got to me. He managed to act through the make-up and diver's boots and made that character both frightening and sympathetic.

And that is such a haunting combination.

Wind and rain

I took my son plus Will Hill and his son, to football today. We were playing on the AstroTurf pitch where the team do their training. Familiarity did not help them - they lost 6-1. It was nice to see Will though and have a chance to chat on the way there and back. We seem to have lived parallel lives in many ways.

The pitch if on the crest of a hill and there was a piercing wind at our backs as we fathers stood moaning on the touchline. It was freezing. I needed several more layers than I was actually wearing and was very jealous of the fact that Malcolm Harding had nipped home to add a layer before the game started.

I had an email back from Helen and Richard who we stay with in the Lake District. They told us what life has been like up there in the recent horrendous weather. It sounds incredible. It is hard to imagine the water levels being that high. Ullswater rose by 4 feet apparently. 4 feet! And there is more rain to come.