Bibliofile

A Penguin In Malaysia

It's always a good sign of how business is booming when a publishing house takes its team to exotic locales for their annual meet. Last week Penguin's sales team was in Malaysia for brainstorming. One item that must have been struck off their agenda is how to cut out book launch parties. An insider confessed that when news of Penguin trimming down its book dos leaked out, there were so many angry calls from writers that they were forced to give up the belt-tightening.

Lucid Luce
But book parties are not always fun for the author, as Edward Luce discovered at the launch of his In Spite of the Gods. Hardly had he climbed down from the podium in search of a much-deserved drink than he was ambushed by a youthful brigade of quote brigands. "They'd obviously been sent out with instructions not to return without two quotes or two soundbites and nothing could stop them," says a rueful Luce.