Slightly early, I know, but we’re only in the office for a couple of hours today.
Coming in the New Year: among other things, an updated and re-edited version of Nick Faith’s Black Box, and a new edition of Roger Graeff’s Talking Blues.
Black Box is the seminal work on air crashes. Apparently, a third of people are scared of flying and I’m ashamed to admit that I’m among them. (In fact, I’m scared of crashing.) Some years ago, ahead of a flight to Australia, I underwent hypnosis to try to cure me. This consisted of three sessions in which I lay there with my eyes closed while the hypnotist (a renowned ladies’ man who admitted to having slept with a number of Miss Coventrys) told me that my fear was like ‘heavy dark liquid’ that would pour out of my body when I opened the taps on the ends of my fingers. I never discovered the taps, and the whole thing was a waste of time; this may have been because I had rather stupidly booked the final session for the day of the flight, specifically about two hours after my flight departed.
The republished Black Box – which may also be retitled – will be available on Kindle, iTunes and as a traditional paperback in the summer.
Talking Blues is also a famous work which sold well on its original publication. Graeff, a well-known and respected documentary maker, interviewed hundreds of serving police officers in the UK, the relatively verbatim interviews forming the text for the book. It’s a fascinating picture of a bygone Britain. Currently, we’re planning to republish it as an eBook initially and then later as a paperback. The eBook should be out in January, I hope.
Finally, a piece of northern soul magic. If you find a copy of this lying around in a junk shop, it’s worth £3,000.
Talking Blues – In my opinion of very true reflection of the way it was when I joined the Police Force …. Happy Days when I loved going to work !!
Should be out as an eBook in the next week or so, S-O-C.