Are You Going to do That Little Jump? A life in acting.

Friday, March 16th, 2018

Robert Gillespie on how books are born out of a lifetime of acting.

 

I didn’t expect to have a daughter. I didn’t expect to be English. Or, more accurately, British.

 

I really didn’t think I’d be on the same stage as Richard Burton and Claire Bloom – or Robert Hardy. Heard of them?

 

My adorable, and beautiful, daughter Lucy turned up so late in my life that she wasn’t around for any of this.

 

And so what? I thought.

Then the nagging started – especially from Lucy’s mother. Get some of this story down, there’s forty years of it Lucy’s missed. Tell how you were nearly French, how you slipped – rather late – through Adolf Hitler’s grasping fingers.

 

Write it down!

 

Well, I had written satire for That Was the Week That Was – but a book?! How d’you do that? Every experienced writing pro round me said `get an editor’.

So I did.

 

Oxford Editors’ advice and patient, detailed text work has helped me transform an exciting, but craggy, original into a sleek, spare, enjoyable read.

 

And I wanted the book to be richly illustrated. Paul Warrington – brilliant graphic designer – has done a wonderful job. Before my book, he designed some of my best theatre posters. When I found all kinds of half-forgotten treasures in my personal store Paul magicked them, with huge relish, onto the page to make Are You Going to do That Little Jump? a pleasure to look at, as well as read.

 

Are You Going to do That Little Jump? by Robert Gillespie

Saqi Books

Wednesday, March 14th, 2018

From time to time we discover a publisher we think might be of interest to out clients.

 

Saqi Books is an independent publishing house of quality general interest and academic books on North Africa and the Middle East.

Source: Saqi Books

The best recent thrillers – review roundup | Books | The Guardian

Saturday, March 3rd, 2018

There is nothing quite like a good thriller and, in my opinion, there hasn’t been anything like a good thriller released for a few years now. Here are some suggestions from the Guardian. Email us at info@theoxfordeditors.co.uk if you if have read a good new thriller this year – or if you have written one.

 

Source: The best recent thrillers – review roundup | Books | The Guardian