Why it deserved better by Dan Franklin, Jonathan Cape: "This was hugely successful in France. The book: Stylish graphic novel focusing on three teenage girls in Yop City on the Ivory Coast in the 1970s. I just loved it - inventive, funny, charming, heavenly (at the risk of punning), just great."Īya de Yopugon, by Marguerite Abouet and Clément Oubrerie The book I wish I'd published: "Gods Behaving Badly by Marie Phillips. I put this down to music editors' dislike of someone amateur being on their patch and the fact that there was also a radio series with the same name, which may have led people to think that it had already been covered." Why it deserved better by Roland Philipps, John Murray: "Everywhere Jim went to do appearances he was mobbed, but there have only been two reviews. The book: Highly readable and personal wanderings through musical history, packed with anecdote and Naughtie's authentic passion. The Making of Music: A Journey With Notes, by James Naughtie It's a book that - in a parallel dimension where I could actually cycle 14,000 miles, let alone write - I even wish I could have written." Elegant, erudite, full of arcane information about language, people, landscapes.
The book I wish I'd published: "Graham Robb's The Discovery of France. It wasn't completely ignored by critics or even bookshops, but somehow my passion for its dark European sensibility, lit with sparks of irony, hasn't yet translated into the success I'd expected." Why it deserved better by Alison Samuel, Chatto & Windus: "This strange, compelling story takes the reader from rural Holland to the second world war and the Soviet labour camps, by way of a curious jazz band in Minsk and Moscow.
The book: A lyrical first novel about an estrangement between a Dutch industrialist who finds himself caught up in the liberation of Auschwitz and his more ethereal, nature-loving son. There are eye-popping details throughout and it explained to me why my parents' fridge was always full of tiny bowls containing two peas and a forlorn carrot." The book I wish I'd published: "The book I've loved most is David Kynaston's Austerity Britain, which I cussedly enjoyed in a wet French caravan park. We had to cancel the author tour when it became clear she would have to field lots of questions about it, and the BBC had scheduled it for their Book at Bedtime but pulled out fearing they would upset listeners." Why it deserved better by Richard Beswick, Little, Brown: "This got some glowing reviews but it was published three weeks after Madeleine McCann disappeared. The book: Chilling and subtle novel about the abduction of a beautiful nine-year-old girl where each character is helpless in their own way - persecutor as well as victim.
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