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In Memoriam
Who's that atop the Snowbooks' Christmas tree? Could it be one of the great writers who got their wings this year?
Along with Saul Bellow, Edward Bunker, Helen Cresswell, Evan Hunter (better known as Ed McBain), John Fowles, Robert Sheckley and many others, the King of Gonzo, Hunter S. Thompson, died in 2005.
His suicide in April was accompanied by a note headed 'Football Season Is Over', and Johnny Depp paid for his ashes to be fired over his Colorado estate from a 150-foot cannon in the shape of a clenched fist, but his greatest memorial is undoubtedly the one that begins "We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold..."
Dearly loved and sadly departed authors: Snowbooks salutes you.
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2006 and all that
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Snow Cookies
From today's Bookseller:
"A disgruntled publisher called the Organ's offices last week, pleading for a moratorium on articles on rival independent Snowbooks. "How do they manage to get in the magazine so much?" he complained. The next day, the answer to Snowbooks' PR success arrived in the office--boxes of festive Snow Cookies for all. Bribery will get you everywhere."
Ooh, I do hope so. Thank you, The Bookseller, for writing such nice words about us throughout 2005. Back atcha.
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'A Few Tricks For Christmas'
Still looking for that elusive Christmas present for your mum / dad / brother / sister / aunt / uncle / cat / imaginary friend or relative? Today's Guardian features an exclusive, seasonally-themed extract from A. A. Milne's The Sunny Side, a collection of essays, poetry and other writings which Snowbooks' has single-handedly brought back from undeserved obscurity for your reading and gifting pleasure:
"Now that the "festive season" (copyright) is approaching, it behooves us all to prepare ourselves in some way to contribute to the gaiety of the Christmas house-party. A clever conjurer is welcome anywhere, and those of us whose powers of entertainment are limited to the setting of booby-traps or the arranging of apple-pie beds must view with envy the much greater tribute of laughter and applause which is the lot of the prestidigitator with some natural gift for legerdemain."
Read the full extract on the Guardian website, and buy the book at Amazon.co.uk, or a Waterstones near you.
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High urnings
I promised you an urn, and an urn you've got. See how sizeable it is - note the festive Snowbooks gingerbread house used in the photo for scale.
Actually, it's quite a diminutive urn - I only got a runner up prize at the Everywoman Awards yesterday. However, Fiona Bruce (for it was she who presented the awards) read a bit out about Snowbooks and sounded very impressed. A man on the table next to ours (it was at the Savoy over lunch, with 300 important-looking guests) harrumphed in an impressed way too. I made sure that it said in my profile which she read out that we couldn't have done it all without Waterstone's; although they'll never know it, it makes me feel good to thank them publicly.
The lunch was also an opportunity for people to give to Refuge, the domestic violence charity. 1 in 4 women is the subject of domestic violence, can you believe, and the lunch raised £3000 for their cause, which was excellent.
The overall winner was Elaine Fairfax from Animal Friends Insurance who was a very worthy winner. Read about her excellent business that gives its profits to animal charities here.