EnvelopeBooks

09/05/2024

What did Apollo do when he couldn't get to the symposium of the Muses? He sent his Apollogies.

13/04/2024

Why doesn’t anyone think that discipline in poetry matters? Why do they profess to love it, and put it to work for them (for greetings cards and wedding speeches) to signify their sincerity, but treat it so badly? Why the deafness to metre and scansion?

Here’s an example: Nairn Oatcakes has this little bit of trash on the side of its “Marmite and Cheese” flavoured products. In no other context would anyone allow anything as ham-fisted as this to appear; but because it’s “poetry”, they’re happy to let it go.

What’s excruciating about it is that whoever wrote it obviously set off with good intentions, because the first two lines are plausible, but then didn’t have the stamina to keep it up any longer than that.

02/04/2024

Here's an example of modern scholarship. A psychology lecturer at a Midlands university wrote a story in an online newspaper today that claimed, in its first, attention-seeking paragraph, that "If you’ve seen portraits painted by Pablo Picasso or Francis Bacon, you might not be surprised to hear that both men may have suffered from a disorder that affects how faces are perceived."

Not another word was said about either artist - not surprisingly, because there is no such evidence. Instead, the author linked to an article from three years ago in Science Direct, which said "In real life, Pablo Picasso and Francis Bacon may have experienced [the disorder] themselves, judging by the split and otherwise distorted faces featuring in their art (Ferrari & Haan, 2000; Safran, Sanda, & Sahel, 2014)."

"May have"?

And that was it. Later in this link, it was reported that two patients suffering from the disorder referred to said that faces looked to them "like a Picasso painting". There was no further reference to Bacon, except for a link to another source (Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 2014) titled "A neurological disorder presumably underlies painter Francis Bacon distorted world perception."

"Presumably"?

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to modern academia - all promoted by an online quasi-academic newspaper (The Conversation) that I have enjoyed reading in the past but which, in the last year, appears to have been taken over by babies (and unaccountable babies, too; they no longer reply to user follow-up, so insecure are they).

I thought it was just Gaza, Putin, Covid, Trump, the Tories, the Labour Party and China that I was worried about. I didn't realise I now have to start fighting fires in the world of post-graduate research as well. It's a lot to ask.

A highly unusual new case is giving scientists insights about what causes illusions of facial distortion

29/03/2024

Remember when there used to be four fat telephone directories for London—A to D, E to K, L to R, and S to Z—with a fifth just for the City? This is the best that BT can manage now: 110 flimsy pages on a narrowed page—and they still haven’t solved the problem of inadequate addresses, with roads appearing simply as being in “London” but no postcodes to identify where in London that might be. It’s surely illustrative of how a once rather grand monopoly completely lost its way.

25/03/2024

Interested in architecture? Thirty-two amazing books made it into the five shortlists for this year's Architectural Book of the Year awards. See pages 10 to 15 in the latest edition of Booklaunch - in print or online here: https://www.booklaunch.london

22/03/2024

HAVE WE ARRIVED YET?
Q: How do you know when you’ve arrived?
A: When one of your books is in an Oxfam shop window! Rejoice! Joy! Congratulations, Marguerite Poland: it’s such a powerful book. I’m so glad to have published it.

16/03/2024

London Book Fair 2024 is over. We posted these responses in reply to a celebratory social media post by the LBF’s publicity team. (But will our posts survive the censor?)

15/03/2024

A lot of people can't be bothered to object when a webpage asks them to allow third parties to monitor their usage and, indeed, see where they head next. If you don't actively say No, then here are just some of the companies that will thereby be able to track you:

1plusX 1trn 22-Visions 2KDirect Inc. 33Across 42 Ads 6Sense Insights, Inc 90Degree [24]7.ai (successor to EngageClick) A Million Ads Limited A1 PerformanceFactory Aarki * abilicom ablida activecore Acuityads Ad Lightning Ad Optima Digital Ad2iction Ad360 Adacado * Adagio Adara Media * Adbalancer Adblade ADBOX AdButler Adcash ADCELL Adcombi Addroid Adelaide Metrics Inc AdElement Adello ADEX ADEX * AdFalcon Adflare Adform * AdGear AdGibbon BV Adhese adhood Adikteev * Adimo Adjust Digital A/S Adjust GmbH AdKernel AdLib Digital Limited adlocal.net ADLOOP Adloox * Adludio * ADman Media AdMaxim * Admedo * Admetrics * Admixer Admo.TV Admost ADn.AI Adnami ApS adnanny.com Adnetic Adnuntius AS Adobe Advertising Cloud * AdotMob AdPlay AdPlayer.Pro AdPlugg Adpone AdPredictive adQuery AdRetarget Adriver adrule Adsniper ADSOCY Adsolutions BV Adsonica AdSpirit AdServer Adssets Adstra AdsWizz Inc. adTarget.me Adtelligence Adtelligent Inc. AdTheorent, Inc. Adthos AdTile AdTiming Adtoox AdTrader AdTriba * AdUnity LTD advanced STORE GmbH * Advanse Adventive Adventori * Adverline Advertserve advolution.control * Advrtas Adwatch Adways SAS Adzerk Adzymic AerServ Affiliate Future Affle India Aidata Airtory Akamai * AKTYVUS SEKTORIUS AlgoriX AlikeAudience Alion Alkami Technology, Inc. Alkemics Allegro.pl sp. z o. o. Aller Media AS Alooma Alphalyr SAS Alphonso.tv Altice Media Ads & Connect Amazon * Amino Payments, Inc. Amobee * Amp.ai by Scaled Inference Amplified Intelligence Analights * Animmoov Media AniView Ltd Anonymised Ansira Partners Answer Media AntVoice APEX Mobile Media APNIC AppGrowth Inc. Appier AppLovin Corp. * AppNexus (Xandr) Inc * Appreciate AppsFlyer appTV Arbigo Inc. Arcspire Arkeero Armis Arpeely Arrivalist * Art of Click Artsai Artworx AS Aryel s.r.l. Ask Locala (F.K.A Fusio by S4M) * Astromotion AT Internet Atedra Audience Solutions Audience2Media AudienceProject * AudienceRate AudienceRun Audiencevalue Audigent Audion Aunica * Avantis Video Avocet * Awin Axel Kaufmann ApS Axonix Azameo AZURE TECH PTY LTD B2BIQ - AdServer bam! Interactive marketing GmbH Bank Millennium SA Bannercloud.io Bannerflow * BannerNow Bannerse OÜ Bannerwise BanterX Inc Barometric Basis Technologies * Batch Media * Bauhof Group AS BDSK Handels GmbH & Co. KG * Beeswax * Beintoo Belboon bet365 Betgenius * Better Ads GmbH BEYOND X Biddeo Ad Server Bidease Bidmachine Bidtellect Bidtheatre Big Happy Bigabid BIGOAds Bilendi Bizible BLIINK Blingby Blismedia * Bliss Point Media Blockthrough Blue Blue Billywig Blue Face co.,Ltd Bluecore, Inc. Bluesummit bly BMind BMS Bombora * Bonzai Booking.com * Boomplay Bose Boston Consulting Group BounceX Brainworkz Branch Brand Metrics Brandhouse/Subsero A/S Bridgewell BridTV BritePool, Inc. BSmartData Bucksense Butlers GmbH & Co. KG Buzzoola Bytelogics C WIRE C3 Metrics * Cablato * Calzedonia CapitalData Captify Carrefour Cauly Cavai Cazamba Serviços de Internet Ltda Cedato Celtra * Chalk Digital Channel Four Television Corporation Channel99 ChannelAdvisor Chartboost Cheetah Mobile Cheq Chocolate Platform Cint * Clario clean.io Click2Buy Clickadu Clickagy ClickForce ClickOcean Clickpoint Clickwise Clinch * Clipcentric, Inc. Clipr Cloud Technologies * Cloudflare * Cloudinary, Inc. CoAdvertise Coinzilla CollegeHumor Combell Commanders Act * communicationAds comScore * congstar Connatix ConnectAd Realtime GmbH Connected-Stories Connexity Conrad Constant Contact Constellation Software, Inc Consumable Content Ignite CONTXTFUL Converge Digital Conversion Logic Conversive Convo Ink Cortex Corvidae Coupang coupling media Credebat Crimtan * Criteo * CrossInstall, Inc Crucial Interactive Inc. Crutchfield CTP TECH, LLC CUBED * Cuebiq Cxense CyberAgent Czech Publisher Exchange z.s.p.o. D4 DAC Dailymotion DAPP GLOBAL LIMITED Data2Decisions Datablocks, Inc DataExchanger Datafy Datalicious Dataseat Dativa DaVinci11 DAX from Global Decentralised Advertising DeepIntent Delta Air Lines DeltaX Demand Side Science, Inc. Demandbase * DENTSU * Dentsu Aegis Network * Dianomi Digiseg * Digital Ad Systems, Corp. Digital Hub Hannover GmbH digitalAudience Digitaleast Digitalist Group Digitalsunray direct interactive Discover-Tech LTD Display.direct DISQO DistroScale Divvit AB Domob Double Check DoubleVerify * DPG Media BV Dstillery * DT Exchange (Fyber Monetization) Dumarca Gaming Ltd Duration Media DynAd DYNADMIC DynAdmic Corporation Dynamic 1001 GmbH Dynamic Yield Dynamo.video Dynata * E-Contenta E-Planning E.ON Energie Deutschland GmbH Eacnur EASY Marketing GmbH EASYmedia * EasyPlatform eBay * ebuilders * econda GmbH Edge NPD Effinity * EFICIENS eMarketingSolutions Emerse emetriq * Emodo EMX Digital Enbritely engageBDR Ensighten * ENVISIONX LTD Epic Combo Epom Epsilon * Erate ETARGET ETERNA Eulerian Technologies Euvic 360e-com EVC Everflow – Partner Marketing Platform Evidon * Evolution Tech Exactag * Exit Bee Limited Expedia, Inc. Exponential * Exposebox Extreme Reach Eyeota Eyereturn Marketing F Sharp F@N communications Factual Inc. Fastbooking SAS FIDUCIA DLT First-id firststars Fiverr Flarie Flashtalking by Mediaocean * Flexitive fluct Flyads OÜ FLYWHEEL Forbes FORTVISION Foursquare Fractional Media * FranceTV Publicité fraud0 Fraudlogix FreeWheel Fresh8 Gaming Frii ApS Furniture Village FXCM.com Gameloft SE Gamesight GAMNED GDM Services, Inc d/b/a Fiksu DSP Gemius * geolad GmbH GeoProve Limited GetIntent Getquanty GfK * Giantmedia Glassdoor, Inc. GlobalWebIndex Go Mobile Go Mobile Inc GO.PL GoBID GoldSpot Media Good-Loop Goodeed Goodway Group GP One * Grabit Interactive Graphyte Gridsum GroovinAds GroundhogTech GroundTruth GROUPE M6 GroupM * Gruuv Interactive Gruvi gskinner * GumGum, Inc Haensel AMS * Happydemics Happyfication inc Hargreaves Lansdown Hashtag'd HasOffer - Tune, Inc Havas Media France - DBi * hbfsTech HockeyCurve HOPLA Ads Hotels.com L. P. Housing.com HQ GmbH HueAds Human Made Machine Limited hurra.com * Hybrid Theory hybrid.ai HYP Pty Ltd hyScore.io GmbH IAB Tech Lab iAGE Engineering iBILLBOARD IBM * ID5 IGAWorks Ignition One * IgnitionAI Illuma Technology IMAGIN.studio imonomy Impact * IMPACT+ Impactify Improve Digital * INCUBIQ Indeed Index Exchange * INFINIA INFOnline Ingenious Technologies Inmind InMobi Choice Innity Innovid * Inskin Media Instinctive Intango Ltd. Integral Ad Science * intelliAd * internetstores GmbH Interpolls Intimate Merger IOTEC IPONWEB * iPROM iProspect IQM ironSource Mobile Isobar Czech Republic IVO IVS JamLoop Jampp Jetpack Jivox * Journey by CAKE Joystick Interactive jsdelivr Justpremium JustWatch JW Player JYSK LINNEN'N FURNITURE OÜ Kadam Kaden Kantar * Kargo Kaufda KAYAK Kayzen KEEN Kelkoo KeyCDN Keymantics Kidoz Kimia Group Kinesso Kiosked Knorex Kobler * Kochava * Koninklijke Philips N.V. KPI Solutions Kubico Kubient Kupona Kwanko Kwanza DSP Kwanzoo Lacuna LANDS' END lead alliance GmbH LeadBolt LeadsRx Leanback Digital LendGo & Innovative Metrics LendingTree Lentainform LIDL SUPERMERCADOS, S.A.U. Lifesight LifeStreet * Liftoff * Ligatus LINE LINK Institut LinkedIn Linkstorm LiquidM ListenLoop LiveIntent LivelyImpact LivePartners LiveRamp * LKQD LnData Loblaw Media Localsensor * Localstars Location Sciences Logiq Digital Marketing LOKA Research Loopa LoopMe * Lotame * LotLinx® Louder Lucid Lucidity Luna Media Group Lupon Media M,P,NEWMEDIA, Machine Advertising Macromill group * MADGIC MADINAD Madington Maelico LTD Magnite * Mail.ru MainADV * Malaberg Ltd Manage.com * Market Points, Inc. Marketing Science Consulting Group, Inc. * Marketing Town Markit Mashero Maverick MaxCDN Maytrics Media Lab Limited Media.net MediaGo Mediahead mediaintelligence Medialabs MediaMath * MEDIAN MediaPal Mediarithmics mediasmart MediaWallah Melvad Merkury Meta * MetaAds Metalyzer Method Media Intelligence MG-Comm MGID Inc. MHU MI DSP Miaozhen Systems MicroAd Microsoft Milanoo Millemedia MindTake Research * MiQ Mixmarket Affiliate Network Mixpo MMG Mobfox Mobidriven mobilcom-debitel Mobile Innovations Mobinner Mobitrans * Mobkoi Mobpro * MOBSUCCESS Mobusi Mobvista/Mintegral modellbau universe GbR ModiFace Moloco Ads * MoMAGIC Momentum Mopedo MoPub (a division of Twitter, Inc.) Movable Ink Mozoo MSI-ACI * MT-TECHNOLOGIES LLC N2 Nano Interactive * Native Touch NativeAds.com nativeMsg Navegg * NDS Sales Inc Neodata Group * NEORY GmbH * Net Info NETBET Netflix * Netquest * Netscore NetSuccess Neural.ONE * Neustar * Newsroom AI NEXD Next Next Level – Affiliate Marketing Next Media NextRoll, Inc. * Nexus Soft Nielsen * Nimbus NinthDecimal Nomura Nordisk Film A/S Norstat Novatiq Novem Nowbetnow Nubo LTD numberly * NUROFY AS Nørgård Mikkelsen A/S Objective Partners * OCM Ogury Ltd Oktawave Okube Omnicom Media Group * OmniVirt On Device Research * OneDash OneDigitalAd Technologies OneTag * Onseo OpenJS Foundation OpenLedger ApS OpenSlate OpenX Technologies * Opera Software Ireland Ltd OpinionAds Opt Out Advertising Optimise Optimize LCC D.B.A Genius Monkey Optomaton * Oracle Data Cloud * Orange Advertising Orbis Video OSCARO COM OTM Worldwide LLC OTTO * Outbrain Inc. OVC GmbH Overstock Oxford BioChronometrics OXY AGENCY PadSquad Pandora Pangle DSP Paradox Media Tech Parrable Parship Partnerize PASS3 Pathmatics PebblePost Peer39 Pelmorex Corp Perfect Audience PERMODO * Persona.ly Pexi B.V. Phaistos Networks Phoenix Marketing International Pi-rate / pubintl Pixalate * PixFuture Piximedia Placed Plan.Net Performance Platform161 * PlatformOne Playable Factory PLAYGROUND XYZ Playrcart PML innovative media Polar Polldaddy Porsche AG Position2 PowerLinks Media Ltd. POWSTER Prebid.org Preciso Primis * Prism Partner ProData Media Prodege, LLC. Programmatic Ecosystem LLC ProgSol.cz Project Agora Ltd. Protected Media * Proxistore Publicis Media * PubMatic * PubWise Pulpo (An Entravision Company) PulsePoint * Pure Cobalt Pure Local Media GmbH Purple Patch Qantas QREALM SINGLE-MEMBER S.A. Qriously Inc Quality Media Network GmbH Qualtrics Quantasy Quantcast * QuarticON Quiet Media Quintesse QWARRY R.O.EYE Limited RAAS LAB Rackspace * Rakuten Marketing * RAM Rambla Raptor Services Reactive Read Peak Realytics Realzeit Reas Travel Group Recreativ Recruit JP Red Cubes Ltd REES46 Relay42 * Reliz Ad Platform Remerge * Reset Digital Europe Ltd Resolution Media * Resonate * Resono ResponsiveAds Retail Rocket LLC Retargetly RETENCY Revcontent RevenueMantra RevJet * Rezonence Rich Audience RIESENIA.com Rippll Ltd RMS (Ermes) Rockerbox Roku Advertising Services * ROMIR Rontar Roq.ad * Roy Morgan Research RTB House * Sabio, Inc Salesforce DMP * Samba TV Sape SAS One Planet Only ScaleMonk Scenestealer * SCIBIDS TECHNOLOGY Scigineer Scoota * Seedtag Seenthis * Sellpoints Semasio GmbH * SFR * Sharethrough, Inc. ShowHeroes Shutterstock, Inc. Sift Media * Signal Silver Egg Technology Silverbullet Data Services Group SilverMob Simplaex GmBH Simpli.fi * Singular Labs Inc. Sirdata Sixide Sizmek * Sketchfab, Inc. Skoiy Skypiea Tech Co.,Limited Smaato * Smadex * Smart * Smart.bid ltd smartclip Europe GmbH Smartly.io Solutions Oy Smartology * SMARTSTREAM SmartyAds Smartzer Smile Wanted SMN Corporation Snap Inc. Snapupp Technologies SL Snitcher.com Softcrylic Softcube Sojern * Solocal * Solution Coupons Somo Audience Somplo Sonobi, Inc Soundcast SourceKnowledge Sovrn * SPACE ADSERVER Spartoo Spicy Mobile SpiderAF Spirable Splicky Sportradar Spotad * Spotible Spring Venture Group SpringServe Squeezely StackAdapt Stailamedia StartApp STEP A/S Stratio Big Data Stream Stream Eye StreamRail StreamShop Technologies Ströer SSP GmbH STRÖER SSP GmbH * Sub2 Technologies Sublime Skinz SUITE 66 SunMedia SUNT Content Supership SW Research Swaven Synkd Systemina t2ó TabMo * Taboola * TACTIC™ Real-Time Marketing * Tagtoo Tail Taiwan Mobile Co Ltd Tangoo Tapad tapCLIQ Tapjoy Tapklik Tappx TAPTAP Taptica Target RTB Tchibo GmbH tD-GDN Teads * Tealium TEEMO * Telecoming TemuDSP TenMax TF1 - FR The Reach Group The Trade Desk * The Very Group TheINDUSTRY AG Thomann GmbH ThoughtLeadr Throtle Thunder TimeOne Tinkoff.ru Tonefuse TorchAD TotalJobs Group Ltd TraceAd Tradedoubler AB * Tradelab TrafficGuard Trafmag Transmit.Live travel audience – An Amadeus Company * Travel Data Collective * TravelClick Treepodia Trend Research TreSensa * Tribes Research TripAdvisor TripleLift * Triton Digital TROVIT True Wave Technologies Limited TruEffect * TrustArc * Tuky Data Turbo TVadSync TVSquared twiago Twinpine twyn TypeA Holdings Uber Technologies Inc. UberMedia Ubex DSP ucfunnel Umeng Plus Beijing Technology Limited Company Underdog Media Undertone unerry Inc UNICORN Unity Ads Unitymedia UnrulyX * uppr GmbH Upwave usemax (Emego GmbH) * Userneeds Ve Interactive VECTAURY Venatus Vertoz Vertriebswerk Verve Group * VF Visual Fantastix Tanner VIADS ADVERTISING S.L. Viant Vidazoo Video Research Interactive Videostori Vidoomy Vidstart LTD Viewbix ViewersLogic LTD Viewst Vimeo * Vinstant Viomba Virtual Minds * Visarity Vital Media VIVALU VIZNET Vizury VMG Vodafone GmbH * Vpon VRTCAL Vserv Vyde Wagawin Walmart Wavenet Waystack * We Adapt Webgains Weborama * WHATROCKS Whichit UK Ltd White Ops * Widespace * Wish Wizaly * Wonderbly Woobi WooTag X-Social xCheck Xiaomi DSP xpln.ai Yabbi Yahoo * Yahoo! Japan Yandex YDigital Media YieldMo YOC YOOSE YouAppi YouGov YRGLM Inc. YSO Corp Yusp Zebestof Zeit Agency zeotap Zeta Global ZMS * Zucks Zuuvi Zynga 世纪富轩科技发展（北京）有限公司 北京泛为信息科技有限公司 顶新

02/03/2024

Out now: Our thoughts on defeating Trump. The shortlist for this year’s Architectural Book Awards. Lots of new books. And our quiz. Look out for it, free, with next week’s New Statesman and in the Spectator in two weeks’ time. You can also subscribe here: https://www.booklaunch.london

02/03/2024

Out now: Our thoughts on defeating Trump. The shortlist for this year’s Architectural Book Awards. Lots of new books. And our quiz. Look out for it, free, with next week’s New Statesman and in the Spectator in two weeks’ time. You can also subscribe, here:

A quarterly digest of non-mainstream books, in print and online, with discount sales, a free-access digital archive, and follow-text podcasts.

26/02/2024

Did anyone hear this week’s edition of The Moral Maze on Radio 4? A panel of four carnivores was allowed to scrutinise the moral case against veganism. The editor of the programme, Tim Pemberton, and its host, Michael Buerk, and its producer, Jonathan Hallewell, and its assistant producer, Ruth Purser, did not caution themselves to find even one panellist who was themselves a vegan; nor did any of the panellists recuse themselves.

How odd that in a programme that’s very much about laying out the moral high ground, no one involved could see anything wrong with choosing four panellists who all eat and enjoy meat to adjudicate on veganism. Would they also allow an all-white jury in a trial against a black defendant? Or an all-Muslim jury in a trial against an Israeli? Or an all-male jury in a trial against a ra**st?

Apparently they would, because in this case, they showed that moral balance is not a factor that weighs heavily with them. That pigs, for example, are daily gassed in the equivalent of Auschwitz concentration camps, or that half-dead cattle are allowed to writhe in pain in their own faeces, or that chickens are hung upside down and electrocuted (or not) before having their heads sliced off, or that the wealthy enjoy killing birds with guns—none of that was of any serious concern. Nor was the notion that opponents of meat-eating ought to be represented in weighing up its rights and wrongs. What the programme made clear was that it considered meat-eating the default position, in the way that being English was once the default position in adjudicating on huge rights of Africans.

In that context, it was astonishing to hear panellists like Ash Sarkar, otherwise so censorious about the death of people (i .e. Palestinians), laughing off her “guilty” “weak-willed”preference for eating a lamb biriyani over the bloody question of how it arrived on her plate or the planetary cost of factory-farming other sentient beings that have the misfortune (for them) of walking on four legs or flying.

I had not had a measure for calculating Sarkar’s hypocrisy before; I do now.

18/02/2024

A short history of Russia and Ukraine, with seven maps that illustrate Vladimir Putin’s distortion of history. (From The Economist)

18/02/2024

The bruised body of Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader, has been found in a hospital morgue in the Arctic, two days after he died in a nearby prison ... . Perhaps he’ll become Russia's new Jesus—the sacrificial offering around whom a new resistance rises. (Maybe that’s what he aspired to, after what had been thrown at him by Putin.)

18/01/2024

We’re looking for crucial new additions to our team, especially in sales, marketing and accounts. See our website and drop us a line if you can add value to our unique publishing brand.

17/01/2024

We need to grow and we need help. EnvelopeBooks is looking for a sales manager who can get our books into gift shops, and a publicist who can make TikTok and Instagram reel, and an accountant/bookkeeper with experience of the publishing sector. Please visit our site and send us a message if you're interested or know someone who might be. Thanks!

We create and publish books, in partnership with www.booklaunch.london. We provide authors the best advice. We don’t take short cuts and we don’t prey on innocence, as some do. We take writing seriously and we’re conscientious. We work tirelessly to make your words as good as they'll need to b...

28/12/2023

Feel assailed by double standards? Tell us about it. See this:

28/12/2023

Delighted to see that Steve Cuden has posted an interview with me in his StoryBeat podcast.

Author-publisher Stephen Games came to publishing after a lifetime of reflecting on the creative arts. Stephen is a former architecture correspondent for

03/12/2023

FREE THIS WEEKEND!

The Christmas edition of Booklaunch inside every copy of the New Statesman

* Prof. Doug Clelland and Dr Nigel Moor on the siting of a new Senate for the UK
* Chris Smaje takes issue with George Monbiot on agro-modernism
* Prof. Jody Mason on the independence of independent publishing
* Editor Stephen Games distrusts Anna Funder's view of George Orwell
* David Curcio relishes movies about boxing
* Elizabeth Legge on writing about the Habsburgs
* Brook Manville, Josiah Ober, Steve Taylor and Alison L. Young consider how to save Democracy
* Andrew Apostolou compares the latest movie version of All Quiet on the Western Front with the original novel
* Martin Venning on writing about international crime
* Keith Kahn-Harris on the choosing of political sides
* Plus our Lingualia feature and quiz

Brilliant book-related writing, free this week only with the New Statesman. Also available online at https://www.booklaunch.london

To promote your book, write about others or get published, contact:

Maggie Bawden, Assistant Editor
[email protected]

18/09/2023

Sir Ian McKellen LOVES EnvelopeBooks's Belle Nash novels. He said so to The Times, so it must be true. See top right corner.

15/09/2023

They love Fatima Kara's book "The Train House on Lobengula Street" in Zimbabwe. Here's an interview with her from the Herald in Harare:

Zimbabwe's largest daily newspaper

12/09/2023

Jack Rochester at The Fictional Café conducted a very generous interview with EnvelopeBooks recently, and has now published the conversation online. See:

An FC publisher interview with British entrepreneur-publisher Stephen Games in which he discusses his unique cover branding.

23/07/2023

I have just received an email from an aspiring writer, asking me if I would like to publish a newly written manuscript. The book is special, I am promised, because it is not just an ordinary zombie apocalypse novel. I'm relieved because I thought it might well be an ordinary zombie apocalypse novel.

06/07/2023

It's Summer Party time!

The awards ceremony for this year's Architectural Book Awards is taking place next week and we'd like to invite you to come along and share the joy!

The party is being hosted by the Zaha Hadid Foundation, set up to conserve the archive left by the pioneering Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid, and offers an opportunity to see a small exhibition of her first completed project outside the UK – the Moonsoon bar and restaurant (1989-90).

We'll be announcing the winners of the three categories that we previewed in our last edition – best history, best monograph and best reference work – and the overall winner of the entire competition.

Do join us on the evening of Wednesday 12 July at the ZHF base (note: not ZHA) in Clerkenwell, London EC1, from 6:30 to 8:30.

To book your ticket, visit this page and fill in your details https://www.booklaunch.london/summer-party-2023?utm_campaign=3054b5df-8f3e-46ec-bc00-017c8bb5be99&utm_source=so&utm_medium=mail&cid=3d4ca417-ad8f-4d66-852c-431c502b73e5,
and we'll send more detailed instructions.

We look forward to seeing you!

10/05/2023

In addition to having turned into a bearded gnome (well, it was a very cold winter), our publisher - Stephen Games - is being hailed in the USA's "Authority Magazine" as an expert on publishing and writing (rightly, of course!) with the following handy advice for aspirant authors. See this feature, just published:

One word of advice: seek out a good editor and be open to criticism. Ask your friends, by all means, but remember that they’ll want to…

14/04/2023

Booklaunch issue 16 is out at last, with four pages on the shortlist for this year's Architectural Book Awards, thoughts about the Second Gulf War 20 years ago, a mortician's memories of coping with Covid in its early stages, and lots more - including a luscious new picture book from Getty, and a couple of quizzes.

The Spring 2023 issue of Booklaunch, the UK's quarterly digest of extracts from non-mainstream books.

12/04/2023

Hooray! Our wonderful novel A Sin of Omission by Marguerite Poland has been longlisted for the RSL Ondaatje prize. More news here:

Shehan Karunatilaka, Anthony Anaxagorou and Philippa Holloway are among the writers longlisted for the £10,000 RSL Ondaatje Prize, The Royal Society of Literature has announced.

18/01/2023

One of our authors, in Lagos, tells me he has never been into a post office. He's in his early 30s. He's passed by them but never gone in. He thinks of them as barely functional, he says. Either the building has been taken over by lizards, cobwebs and spiders, or the government has converted it for some other use. That's an eye-opener. Look out for Tunde Ososanya's book "Lagos, Life and Sexual Distraction", out in April. Order early for a pre-publication discount.

17/01/2023

If you or any friends have written about architecture in the last year, or have a book due for publication up to 30 June of this year, do remind the publishers to enter it for the 2023 Architectural Book Awards. The judges cannot take account of books that haven't been submitted, and only publishers can make the submission, not authors. For further information, the rules are set out here:

The first annual Architectural Book Awards. Enter now. Results: June 2023.

28/12/2022

We're looking for an adman or woman to sell advertising into our revamped books magazine, Booklaunch, which is now set to grow. Must have access to the big agencies and big national accounts. Contact the editor: editor @ booklaunch.london