In 2016, Holland House Books released Evan Guilford-Blake’s American Blues. Four years have passed since, but once we got invited to dive into it, the notion of time definitely disappeared.
Time definitely flew by once we started reading the five stories forming the book. Seduced by the narrative and the author’s active curiosity, we’re delighted to share with you some of our thoughts today.
Paper Sparrows, written by Nathalie Abi-Ezzi (find her Why I Write here) could be your moving cure in these time of stillness and uncertainty.
In a few words: Layla, a 19 year old music undergraduate, travels from London back to Lebanon for the summer holidays, only to find that her brother has gone missing. Without a second thought, she sets off to find him in Beirut.
This book is a tale of youth, a tale of war, a tale of links, a tale of truth. A noble cocktail of feelings, rebounds and profound reality set in the summer of 2006.
– On another note, our friend Gabriel Birnbaum just released the excellent Ambien Jukebox album. If you like to improve your reading experience with solid soundtracks, this suggestion could be perfect for you.
But for now… back to Paper Sparrows!
Writer, broadcaster, filmmaker, pataphysician: Kevin Jackson expressed his curiosity and his fierce desire for creation through more means that you could imagine in a lifetime. A few lifetimes could be necessary, to be honest. Kevin Jackson must be a cat. A cat who wrote a story with a dog. Yes, you read that right.
His last book Greta and the Labrador (Holland House) is a poignant tale of getaway, loyalty and love. One drop in the ocean of a critically-acclaimed career, but a beautiful and remarkable one.
Kevin Jackson is a generous, thoughtful character himself. He agreed to share some of his colors with us and we couldn’t be happier to share them with you today.
This is an interview, but the rumor says that a Why I Write could be on the works.
We have the pleasure today to introduce you to Nathalie Abi-Ezzi, author of Paper Sparrows, a brilliant tale of disappearance, exploration and war.
We’ll have the pleasure to review her last novel, Paper Sparrows, very soon. For now, find more details about this book at the end of this Why I Write.
Bio: Emma Darwin’s new creative non-fiction, This is Not a Book About Charles Darwin (Holland House Books), was published in 2019; it was acclaimed by the Literary Review as ‘unsparingly honest…wise, witty and informative’. She is the author of two historical novels: The Mathematics of Love (Headline Review) – which is probably the only book ever to have been nominated simultaneously for the Commonwealth Writers’ Best First Book, and the RNA Novel of the Year – and A Secret Alchemy (Headline Review). Her non-fiction Get Started in Writing Historical Fiction is published by Teach Yourself / John Murray, she has a PhD in Creative Writing from Goldsmiths, and is a creative writing mentor and tutor with a hugely popular blog, This Itch of Writing (link below).
Picture by JP Masclet.
Why I Write, by Emma Darwin.
The Novella Project (tutored by Holland House Books and supported by Arts Council England) is the ambitious reunion of two teams, each working on two books published each year.
Each party (including the author) comes from under-represented minorities and/or working class backgrounds. The main goal of The Novella Project is to learn: the merry teams are composed of interns with bright dreams and ever-growing motivations. Layout, marketing, editing, typography… Many fields and duties are put under the spotlight. Of course, authors can be directly involved too.
With the precious help of Holland House Books founder Robert Peett, we were lucky enough to interview Phaidra Robinson, Mia Skevington, Yinka Olanyia and Isabel Cash, all team members of The Novella Project. Find the results of their work at the end of this article!
Teamwork, responsibilities, communication and business vision, this interview is your opportunity to learn from these publishers in the making.