Miscellany

M I S C E L L A N Y The world of writing

An indestructible book, indefatigable translators, not-so-unrepeatable images and an irreplaceable loss – traversing the highs and lows of the wide world of writing

BURNING ISSUE

To raise awareness about proliferating book banning and censorship in American schools, as well as to raise money to support PEN America ’ s opposition, Margaret Atwood, Penguin Random House and creative agency Rethink recently joined forces to make a unique limited edition of one, a fireproof edition of Atwood’ s regularly banned The Handmaid’ s Tale. Dubbed The Unburnable Book, the edition was designed by Noma Bar, made from fireproof materials by print-and-bindery master craftsman Jeremy Martin and produced in Toronto by graphic arts specialty and bookbinding atelier The Gas Company Inc. The finished volume was auctioned in June by Sotheby ’ s, raising $130,000 for PEN America ’ s anti-censorship work. That organisation recorded that in the US between 1 July 2021 and 31 March this year there were 1,586 known instances of individual books being banned in public schools, affecting 1,145 unique book titles.

Sotheby ’ s described the book as: ‘8vo. Printed on black-and-whitecoated aluminum Cinefoils, used in film production to wrap hot lights, which are stable to 660°C/1,220°F, textblock hand-sewn with nickel wire, often used in electrical components, which is stable to 1,400°C/2,600°F, head and tail bands are woven stainless steel, used in aerospace manufacturing, which are stable up to 1,530°C/2,790°F. Boards 3mm phenolic sheets, used in electronics manufacturing, which are stable to 540°F/282°C, opaque white and CMYK printing produced on an OKI five-colour digital press, with inks stable to 1200°C/2200°F. ’

The auction house noted that, ‘All materials were tested by fire during manufacturing to validate these specifications. ’

And as we all know, thanks to Ray Bradbury, a regular book would be aflame by the time it passed 451ºF.

Find out more at https://writ.rs/ unburnt Gary Dalkin

FINDING VOICES

Literary translator Zenia Tompkins has been talking to Poets & Writers about the mission of her non-profit Tompkins Agency for Ukrainian Literature in Translation, which she founded in 2019, about the way the Russian invasion has impacted on TAULT’ s work.

‘The most significant change is the sudden and very enthusiastic interest of American, British and European agents in representing Ukrainian authors ’ work to presses, ’ she said. ‘We ’ ve also been able to streamline the process of Ukrainian authors being published in journals due to journals seeking us out. Since the invasion we ’ ve really amped up the speed and frequency of our interactions with journals. We ’ re now also in the process of setting up a collective of agents in Ukraine that will work alongside our translator collective to handles synopses, chapter outlines and author bios, as well as scout new authors. ’

Since Russia invaded, Zenia

’ s inbox has been flooded. ‘Since the invasion, our collective – which had already worked with over 100 Ukrainian authors in our first three years – has made every effort to work with any Ukrainian author or press that has approached us by the logic that everyone in Ukraine needs financial assistance and moral support right now. ’

HASTA A VISTA, COSTA

The inhabitants of WM Towers have shed a few tears at the demise of the Costa Awards, which had a fifty-year history of supporting and showcasing wonderful and brilliant books, many of which were by new and independently published authors – both of which we ’ re all about championing from our book-lined eyrie here at WM. As just one example, Caleb Azumah’ s debut Open Water, which was already scheduled as a Waterstones Book of the Month, went on to be Waterstones ’ second-most successful debut ever, because of its Costa win.

And then there ’ s the 2020 Costa Novel of the Year winner, Monique Roffey ’ s The Mermaid of Black Conch, published by the indie Peepal Tree Press. ‘When it was shortlisted I was astonished, when it won novel of the year I was dumbfounded and when it won novel of the year I was flabbergasted. ’ Monique told The Guardian. ‘I still am. None of the mainstream publishers would touch me... they think that middle-class readers who, like it or not, are the main book buyers, are never going to enjoy a book written in creole by a white Trinidadian about a black mermaid, but that ’ s not true. The Costas mainstreamed a book that had been excluded. ’

The Costas started life as the Whitbread Awards back in 1971, with judges including Margaret Drabble. Book of the Year winners include Kate Atkinson for her debut, Behind the Scenes at the Museum and The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman – the first children ’ s novel to win. The Costa Short Story Award launched in 2012. There have been some wonderful winners. Cheers, Costa. You ’ ve done great things, and drawn attention to a lot of good books that might have been overlooked without you. We ’ll miss you. You ’ ve been grand.

DOUBLE IMAGES

WM has discovered a perplexing mystery involving mystery novels. As a 50-plus year resident of Dorset, your intrepid correspondent knew something was amiss when he saw the cover of Long Man ’ s Shadow by Anne Wilkinson. The cover art was a photo of Gold Hill, the most famous street in Dorset, but the strapline, right at the top of the cover, announced that the novel was set in ‘leafy Sussex ’ .

This was peculiar, given even people not fortunate enough to live in Dorset instantly recognise Gold Hill. Though that ’ s usually due to director Ridley Scott ’ s very famous Hovis commercial, which passed the street off as somewhere ‘ oop north’ . Nevertheless, the cover designer had just one job, to choose a cover image for a novel that boldly declares it ’ s set in Sussex that doesn ’ t immediately scream Dorset to all and sundry.

But then I came across another crime novel with a photo of Gold Hill on the cover, The Bookshop Murder by Merryn Allingham. This made me curious enough to check if – what are the odds? – it was also set in Sussex. And astonishingly, it was. The blurb begins: ‘Sussex, 1955… ’

The coincidence doesn ’ t end there. Both books are cosy crime novels written by female authors which are part of series about female amateur investigators who work in shops. In Sussex. The heroine in one novel one owns a bookshop. The heroine of the other works in ‘ a retro-vintage shop ’ . I’ll leave it to your deductive powers to work out which is which.

But really what are the chances that both these Sussex-set cosy crime novels would end up with a photo of Dorset ’ s most famous street on their cover? And why? What is going on? Writing Magazine wants to know. Perhaps someone will write a book about it. But what to put on the cover? Gary Dalkin

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