Regent’s Park – early morning
- Regent’s Park – the children’s playground
- Regent’s Park – the countryside comes to the city
Jan21
London Snow 0
a perfect afternoon's nutrition
Today we said a cake-laden thank you and farewell to Valerie, who’s been working with Two Roads since we started. Off to a new job closer to home, we sent her off in typical Two Roads fashion.
sugar rush
Good luck.
banana and chocolate - surprising combination
Category:Two Roads
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Will Schwalbe & Jamie Oliver at the launch of The End of Your Life Book Club in London, October 2012.
Category:End of Your Life Book Club, Jamie Oliver, Will Schwalbe
Tags: IRC UK, Jamie Oliver, The End of Your Life Book Club, Will Schwalbe
The End of Your Life Book Club is launched tonight at an event hosted by The International Rescue Committee UK. As well as launching Will’s book about his mother and their shared love of books, the event celebrates the life and work of Mary Anne Schwalbe, founder of the IRC-UK, who died in 2009.
Marina Vaizey wrote a moving obituary in the Guardian.
Mary Anne Schwalbe, who has died aged 75, was one of my closest friends for more than 50 years. We met when she was the head girl at school – and a subtly effective leader at that early age. Mary Anne was an outstanding listener and teacher, which even encompassed passing on grandparenting practice.
Her first love had been theatre. She attended Radcliffe college, Massachusetts, and directed American auditions for Lamda, the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. As a senior educational administrator, she worked at Radcliffe and subsequently at Harvard University. Returning to New York City, she continued her career in education, but in her last two decades she worked directly with refugeesworldwide.
She spent six months in Thai refugee camps, seeing the plight of the dispossessed. This led to her involvement with the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and the founding of the Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children. Her British connections inspired her to persuade the IRC to set up a UK office. She recently raised funding for a library in Kabul and travelling libraries for Afghanistan. Hers was an art of persuasion, delicately and effectively employed.
This dynamo of energy was contained in a small, quiet, smiling, elegantly dressed woman, who could appear as conventional as a lady who lunched, but travelled the world often in desperately trying circumstances: she was an electoral observer in the Balkans, and was shot at in Afghanistan. Mary Anne saw the worst and believed the best.
She is survived by her husband, Douglas, sons Will and Doug, daughter Nina and five grandchildren.
Category:End of Your Life Book Club, International Rescue Committee, Mary Anne Schwalbe
Tags: from harm to home, Mary Anne Schwalbe, The End of Your Life Book Club, Will Schwalbe
This month’s book club took a slightly different tack in the form of a conversation between Will Schwalbe and Lisa Highton, respectively author and publisher of The End of Your Life Book Club, but both connected through publishing to The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch.
The Last Lecture was one of the last books that Will was involved with before resigning his position as Editor in Chief of Hyperion Books, New York, in January 2008. Ironically, given that The Last Lecture is a book concerned with the imminent death of a man with pancreatic cancer, Will’s own mother had just been diagnosed with the same insidious disease. Lisa published the UK edition of The Last Lecture.
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LH: The publishing of The Last Lecture was big news in the publishing world. The story of a man given a short time to live, and his ‘message in a bottle’ to his wife and young family, touched millions of people. Your mother read this in manuscript, didn’t she? Did you feel a little awkward giving her a book which so precisely mirrored her condition?
WS: I’d already left Hyperion when the finished manuscript came in – but my friends there shared it with me. Mom knew about Randy Pausch from a video of his last lecture that had gone viral, and from the news, and from my telling her about the book when my colleagues acquired the right to publish it. But I still wasn’t sure if she’d actually want to read it – I was worried that it would be too close. So instead of giving it to her to read, I mentioned that I was reading it, and then left it out in the open, on a table, for her to find. She read it right away – and had a reaction to it that surprised me. She said it made her feel lucky. I asked her how that could be, given that she had the exact same disease. ‘But he’s got three small children and will never see them grow up,’ she said. ‘And he’ll never know what it’s like to have grandchildren.’
I’m curious what elements of The Last Lecture spoke most directly to you, Lisa. Were there particular aspects of Pausch’s life or his approach to his death that were especially compelling for you when you were acquiring the right to publish the book in the UK?
LH: I think I must find approaching death compelling on some level. That may be age of course! But I’ve published a lot of books on this topic – some famous like Tuesdays With Morrie or The Last Lecture, others less so. I think the fascination is seeing what people do with their lives when they know how little of it they have left. Randy Pausch approached his demise with a kind of muscular energy and a goal oriented (dare I say male) list. His aim being to achieve his childhood dreams but also to leave ‘a message in a bottle’ for his children so they could understand his love for them. Do you think the appeal is as much in its wake-up call for all of us not to fritter our lives away and drift?
WS: Yes, I do think that’s part of it – we all know we need to ‘seize the day’ but most of us need to remind ourselves constantly of that. One of the things I love about the Pausch book is that he’s so specific. He starts by describing his situation as an ‘engineering problem’. The question he poses himself is how to spend what he knows is a limited amount of time, using lessons he’s learned from throughout his whole life. Even a simple thing like rethinking how you handle the telephone (Pausch said he never put his feet up when talking on the phone) is valuable to ponder. Handling the phone differently doesn’t just give you back hours every week – it changes how you look at your priorities, where you choose to spend whatever time you have left.
Do you find yourself employing any of Pausch’s more specific tips? I’d also love to learn more about lessons you learned from Jai Pausch’s book.
LH: One of my favourite chapters is ‘The Park is Open till 8pm’, when Randy’s preparing to get his diagnosis. It’s a perfect example of glass half-full. Whatever the outcome, he says to Jai, this is a wonderful day, right here right now. I also like his nod to manners and old fashioned courtesy, e.g. dance with the one who brung you (that metaphor could go far and wide!) and that a hand-written thank you note can make all the difference. Both are a reminder that the simple courtesies and respect for other people should never be forgotten, no matter how busy we are. Always take time to stop and say thank you – people like to be appreciated. We all need to remember to do that. So, thank you and I’ll leave it to you to have the last word on The Last Lecture.
WS: One of the best things about The Last Lecture is that it isn’t really possible to have the last word on it – it’s a book you can revisit constantly and it constantly gives new gifts and insights. But I think I’ll end by pointing out something we haven’t yet discussed – the incredible contribution of Jeff Zaslow, who wrote the first article on Pausch’s lecture and who helped Randy Pausch write the book. Tragically, Jeff died in a car accident on February 10, 2012, while promoting a wonderful new book he had written. Jeff Zaslow also left an indelible legacy. So I’d like to leave this post with heartfelt thanks to Randy and to Jeff, for their books and lives.
Category:death and dying, The Last Lecture, Two Roads Book Club, Will Schwalbe
Tags: Mary Anne Schwalbe, pancreatic cancer, Randy Pausch
We are proud to announce a new acquisition for our spring list, UNTIL I SAY GOODBYE: My Year of Living With Joy by Susan Spencer-Wendel with Bret Witter.
Susan and her husband John during a 'mango party' at their Florida home
Diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease) in 2011, journalist and mother of three, Susan Spencer-Wendel was determined to make every day count with her friends and family. And, as a writer, her response is to write about it, with the support of Bret Witter, of DEWEY fame.
Described as THE LAST LECTURE for women, UNTIL I SAY GOODBYE is both the story of Susan’s determination to make the most of these final days and a series of inspirational reflections. Her end-of-life bucket list has taken her, so far, to the Yukon to see the northern lights; Northern California to see her birth mother; Budapest, where she and her husband spent the first two years of their marriage; Cyprus, to connect with her birth father’s family; and New York with her 14-year-old daughter to visit a bridal shop . . . for a future moment she can never share.
Lisa met Susan when she was in London, recently, and listened to Susan’s husband, John, reading out a moving extract from the book. Because of the progression of her illness, Susan’s now writing it all on her iPhone. But her skills as a writer are unimpaired, and her spirit, feisty humour and love of life shine through on every page.
This is a very special project – moving and inspirational – and we’re thrilled to be Susan’s publisher, along with seventeen other publishers around the world. Like THE LAST LECTURE and TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE, UNTIL I SAY GOODBYE is sure to touch people and remind them what matters in life, however long or short the time we have.
‘I’m glad people are moved. I’m happy {to} have stumbled, accidently, on something that crystallizes what it means to be a family, to grow up, to dream, to die, but more importantly to live fully and joyfully.’ Susan Spencer-Wendel
Category:ALS, death and dying, Memoir, Susan Spencer-Wendel, The Last Lecture, Two Roads, Until I Say Goodbye
Tags: ALS, Bret Witter, Lou Gehrig's Disease, Susan Spencer-Wendel
Jun25
Book Expo New York 0
Book Expo is the foremost US book trade fair and, I think, fair to say unique around the world. I don’t know of anywhere else that has such total focus on connecting booksellers, librarians, bloggers, influencers of all shades and writers and their new books from breakfast to nightfall. Booksellers, librarians, publishers and authors come from all over the country to beguile and be beguiled — publishers are doing everything in their power to help make good word of mouth happen. And there’s no formula for that, it really is magic.
A small shot of the fair, with the Hachette stand in sight
As well as authors speaking almost continuously for four days there are the signing sessions, hundreds and hundreds of proofs given away and booksellers lining up to get them signed and to chat with their authors (in some case their heroes, e.g. Ian McEwan, Zadie Smith and in some cases complete unknowns). These are held in what’s called the sheep pens, a remarkably democratic affair, reducing all authors to a talking Sharpie (the ubiquitous signing pen). Even the editors get in on the act. There is a session called the Editors Buzz Panel (or Editoridol as it’s nicknamed), in which 6 prominent editors speak passionately about the book on their list they love the most. This year’s six were:
- The People Of Forever Are Not Afraid by Shani Boianjiu
- The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
- In the Shadow of the Banyan by Vaddey Ratner
- Brain on Fire by Susannah Cahalan
- Panorama City by Antoine Wilson
- A Million Heavens by John Brandon
Karen signs proofs of The Stockholm Octavo at BEA
Interesting to check out their fates in a year’s time.
Will signs The End of Your Life Book Club proofs at BEA
Three Two Roads authors were also working hard at BEA. Karen Engelmann, THE STOCKHOLM OCTAVO; Will Schwalbe, THE END OF YOUR LIFE BOOK CLUB and Gretchen Rubin, HAPPIER AT HOME. Here are some shots of their signing sessions and some general pics of the weird and the wonderful!
For as much as publishing is a very professional business, with much at stake BEA also has a streak of daftness. Long may that continue.
There are more postings and photos of BEA on our Facebook page here
Category:Book Expo, book signings, New York
Tags: BEA, Book Expo, book signings, publishing
Guest blogger: Valerie Appleby, Assistant Editor Two Roads
I’m not much of a mystery reader, but something about Josephine Tey’s Brat Farrar intrigued me. Perhaps it was the horse on the front cover, or perhaps the title that I just couldn’t place (I admit, I thought it was a Gaelic phrase before discovering it was actually just the name of the protagonist), but when I first discovered this book in the manuscript pages of Will Schwalbe’s The End of Your Life Book Club, I was tempted to read it right away.
As it happened, I wasn’t alone. After selecting Brat Farrar for the eighth Two Roads book club, I was inundated by requests to join from my colleagues in Hodder towers. Several of my peers mentioned it was one of their favourite books, others proclaimed they’d been dying to read. I’m pleased to announce that this book lived up to all its hype.
Brat Farrar is a mystery of sorts (we’ll get to that) about the Ashbys, a family of seven on a large estate in southern England. When Mr and Mrs Ashby die in a plane crash, the value of their estate is frozen until their eldest child (who is also a twin) turns twenty-one and legally inherits the property. But shortly after his parents’ death, he mysteriously vanishes, assumed to have committed suicide. continue reading »
Category:book groups, Brat Farrar, End of Your Life Book Club, Josephine Tey, mysteries, Two Roads Book Club
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Six weeks working in New York has been amazing and a privilege…but all good things come to an end and I must face good British rain.
Thank you New York, you’ve been excellent company. Until next time…
The Flatiron
