23 February 2015
Hello!
You know, I was about to start this letter with a comment on the weather. What the hell? It’s like my English genes just couldn’t help themselves. But I’ll spare you. It’s raining, it’s not raining, winter’s nearly done. Weather’s all very well - but let’s get to the main programme. This is a newsletter. And, as usual, we have news for you.
First of all we’re having a sale on our website. I pause here, wondering whether this is actually news or more of an advert… But anyway, here’s the important information: We need a bit of cash fast to pay a printers’ bill, so, oh my God, we’ve knocked 40% off just about everything. That means there is approximately one metric-shit-tonne of bargains to grab. Including, if you can find the secret way into it, some very lovely black-jacket copies of A Girl Is A Half-formed Thing, that we found round the back of a sofa…. I’m told* that these go for about £50 on Ebay nowadays.
*Okay, I google it all the time.
Right. Here’s some proper news. We have new books on the way. Lots of them.
First up is The Weightless World by Anthony Trevelyan, which is coming in June. I’ve mentioned this one before. But it’s getting ever more real. Now we have a cover:
Anthony is just going through the final edits. And soon it’s going to the printers and you’ll be able to see why we’re so crazy about this novel. In the meantime, this blurb might help:
‘Raymond Ess is going to kill me.’ So begins The Weightless World – the latest discovery from Galley Beggar Press. This beautifully written debut held us entranced from that first sentence – and line-by-line, it is nothing short of delightful. It also helps that it has a fantastic premise:‘Raymond Ess is fifty-six, a senior executive, an important man. I’m twenty-eight, his personal assistant, not important at all. We work for Resolute Aviation and we’ve come to India to buy an antigravity machine.’That's right. An anti-gravity machine. And it seems crazy – to the narrator, to the reader, possibly even to Ess himself. But the existence of such an instrument also makes perfect sense. Because after all, Ess, Steven (and us, the readers) live in a world where technology is so advanced that even our phones might as well operate by magic, for all that we understand them. We live in an age when things that would once have seemed miraculous are starting to seem mundane – even if they still, sometimes, bring with them profound implications...In The Weightless World, Anthony Trevelyan – a new, supremely talented voice in fiction – takes us right up to (and beyond) the limits of possibility. He also weaves a story of deep-rooted humanity, packed with unforgettable characters – and, at its core, an account of friendship, love and loss, which will touch your heart.
Later on in the year, we’re also going to release a book called Playthings by Alex Pheby. The story behind Playthings is that we almost turned it down on the grounds that it would be impossible to explain and sell to the public. Which means you. And damn it, I’m sorry we almost underestimated you. Almost. But we didn’t. We have faith. We also suspected that (like A Girl Is A Half-formed Thing) it might just be a masterpiece. Luckily - just as we prepared to sit down to write the rejection email – we realised that not publishing it would be an act of cowardice. We had set Galley Beggar up with the specific aim of nurturing challenging writers, and that meant rising to the challenge. So we returned to the book, we took Alex on, and we are now overjoyed - because the better we come to understand Playthings, the ever-more special it seems.
I’ll be telling you much more about this incredible book soon, but for now, let me hit you with the premise: Playthings is an intense and poetic exploration of a period in the life of Paul Schreber, a late nineteenth century German judge who spent large chunks of his later life in an asylum and wrote the hugely influential Memoirs Of My Nervous Illness. Oh yes.
Awlright! And that’s not all.
We’re finally moving into non-fiction. We're working with Elspeth Barker, author of that lovely masterpiece O Caledonia, on her memoirs. And oh boy. Does she have some memories.
We also have another non-fiction work on the way, Megan Dunn, a fantastic new talent, has joined us with Tinderbox, a - hang on - no - can’t resist the pun - fiery investigation of bookselling, creative writing, the Bradbury Estate…
Then the summer of next year we'll have more fiction from Adam Biles with Feeding Time. And when I tell you that it’s about rebellion in an old people's home, I’m not even beginning to describe how unusual and special this book is.
Back in the present tense, I’m delighted to say that our gamble in launching a line of print short story collections appears to be paying off. The tender melancholy of DJ Taylor’s Wrote For Luck is touching reviewers too. Other people love it! There are few better pleasures for a publisher. He’s been getting just the applause he deserves, which makes the joy and honour of working on this book all the sweeter. Here’s a sample of the feedback he’s been getting:
“David Taylor has an eye for landscape and an ear for human foible. In Wrote for Luck he offers a precise survey of the psychogeography of our times, shrewdly mapping the both the inner and outer terrain. Meaning and pattern eludes his characters but not his reader, in these poised, witty, melancholy tales.”
Hilary Mantel
“Wrote For Luck confirms Taylor's assurance as a chronicler of our times, setting the decline of cultural and social status and influence against the backdrop of rain-swept East Anglia. There is an almost Chekhovian undertow to this impressive and rewarding collection.”
David Collard, The Literary Review
'These short stories are sophisticated morsels of modern life, needle-sharp, and touchingly aware of the social subtext... Excellent.'
Kate Saunders, The Times
Kate Saunders, The Times
'Sharp and clever... Taylor has a great knack of pulling the reader in, and his endings, which spin out into rather mournful, very British epiphanies, linger long in the mind.'
James Smart, The Guardian
James Smart, The Guardian
"Taylor is a smart finisher – the Gary Lineker of end paragraphs, perhaps.”
James Kidd, The Independent
James Kidd, The Independent
And:
“His eye for human sadness makes this a consistently superb collection.”
i
‘Taylor proves that he is an acute commentator on contemporary manners.’
- The South China Morning Post (I know!)
More short stories soon then! And thank you everyone who has bought the book from us and helped this thing work.
Okay. I know I always write this. But this letter is long. A couple of weeks ago, I didn’t even know what I was going to be able to put. But here I am, still typing furiously, and I haven’t even got to Jeff Bezos yet. (Don’t worry. I will get to him.)
Right - onwards.
Look at this lovely cover:
Knotweed grows fast and grows strong. Helena has something growing in her too. Which is just part of the reason she can't live in Hackney any more...
I've got so many jokes about how this story is going to - you know - grow on you, wrap itself around you and everything else that it hurts - it hurts! - not to use them, but I don't want to spoil the lovely effect of this gentle, but gently unsettling story. Just please read it. I'm sure you'll like it.
It’s available in our store for £1 will be in other places very soon and Singles Club Subscribers have already been sent copies.
Meanwhile, here’s a nice coincidence. Bearded East London band Liu Bei have just released a song called Knotweed and it’s rather lovely. There’s another track on the EP with vocals by Rachel from Slowdive too. Why not listen to it while reading Gary’s story?
Right! Three more things to tell you.
Firstly, Jonathan Gibbs, author of that wonderful book Randall, is going to be teaching at a summer school in Greece this June. So am I. But only if enough people sign up. Jonathan’s going to be teaching advanced fiction writing I’ll be telling people about putting together non-fiction books and proposals. Guaranteed sunshine - and Greece! Come on. Anything we can do to help has to be a good thing. Think Byron. Think sticking it to The Man.
Secondly, a book called The End Of Vandalism has just been released by Old Street Press and it’s a beauty. I reviewed it for The Independent and I can’t tell you how much I love it. The man himself will be appearing this Thursday - 26 February - at The Bookseller Crow in Crystal Palace, London. If you’re in the Great Wen, please go. Please meet him. You’ll understand why this matters once you’ve read the book. Details here
Thidly - East Anglians! We're making an exhibition of ourselves right in the middle of Norwich. We'll be showcasing the work of our superb cover designers. There's a private view on 18 March too at around 18:00 and it's not all that private - because as readers of this letter, we'd love you to come along. We'll be selling books, admiring pictures and talking. Please come and say hello.
Okay. Jeff Bezos. I may have mentioned that I don’t like the way he and Amazon do business before in these newsletters, I can’t remember. Anyway, the point is that I’ve been doing some research recently, and you won’t believe the things I’ve discovered.
Did you know, for instance, that Jeff Bezos is putting his horcruxes inside Kindles? He gets to make one every time a publisher dies or a bookshop closes. And he doesn’t even care that his soul is splitting into broken twisted shards.
Jeff Bezos also drinks unicorn blood. Not to preserve his life, or anything like that. Just because he enjoys killing unicorns and revelling in their agonies.
Jeff Bezos laughed when Dobby died.
But Jeff Bezos cried when Margaret Thatcher passed on.
Jeff Bezos still can’t understand what Uriah Heep did that was so very wrong.
Jeff Bezos doesn’t have a heart. Jeff Bezos actually runs on nuclear power.
Jeff Bezos does not have a male organ either. Instead he has a mini version of his own naked body sticking out of him. That too has a mini version of his own body instead of a penis. And yes, that in turn, has sticking out from its middle, a tiny naked Jeff Bezos… And so on, in an infinite loop of ever smaller men with shiny heads sticking out of men with shiny heads.
No one knows how Jeff Bezos goes to the toilet.
Jeff Bezos broke your favourite doll. That’s right. It was Jeff Bezos.
Jeff Bezos is responsible for all the Spam email sent since 1993. He sends each one personally and individually. He has broken the laws of space-time specifically to enable him to do this just because he just wants to piss you off.
Jeff Bezos runs a company that does not pay its fair share of tax.
Jeff Bezos hates the spring.
Jeff Bezos hates you.
Thanks for reading!
Fondly,
Sam
As usual, I'm also going to use the end of the newsletter for a few more adverts, where you can safely ignore them, or kindly indulge me, depending on your fancy:
Firstly, please join The Singles Club so we can pay writers to write. Here's the blurb:
We have a fantastic new subscription system set up for our Singles Club so that you now only have to make one payment to get hold of 12 stories. But how to go through the ins and outs of paypal payment systems without boring the dirtbox off you, I don't know. Probably the best thing to do is to head over to the relevant page on our site, where I've tried to give a brief, but to the point explanation, and to take it from there. The important things to know are that:
(1) Subscribing saves you the trouble of going to the site every month to get your fix of superb ebook literature – we'll just email you the files every month.
(2) Subscribing (so long as enough people do it) will enable us to start giving our authors money up front on for each story. Yes! We are going to pay people to write short stories. It's like the golden days of the 1920s. Only they'll be in electronic book format instead of Strand magazine… Anyway! You get the idea. This is a mighty fine way to keep authors doing what they do best – entertaining you.
(3) It costs £12 a year, or £1 a month, or less than a meal in Pizza Express. Unless you have a voucher.
Secondly, please be our friend! Become a Galley Buddy. It's a good deal for us, and a great deal for you.
Thirdly, to donate to Galley Beggar Press and earn yet more of our gratitude, click here.
Fourthly, go on, buy a postcard set. They're lovely:
Fifthly, thanks for reading write down to the bottom. There's no prize, but I sure do like you. Today's bonus information is that we've been nominated for an IPG award. This is very pleasing, but I couldn't think of a way of putting it into the main letter without sounding like a big show off. Anyway, it's very lovely to have been shortlisted. We're chuffed to beans.
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