Bookbuyer's Bookend
Britain is unusual among civilised countries in not having a national bestseller list and a good deal of sales baloney has been allowed to pass because of it. Last year the Sunday Times gallantly took it upon themselves to put the matter to rights by laying elaborate plans for a 'definitive' top ten in fiction, non-fiction and paperback titles. In December this column disclosed that someone had quietly stolen a march on them with a simpler but persuasively convincing version based on returns from between 75 and 100 booksellers up and down the country. The originators were the men behind the Gee Report and their two lists — twenty-five fiction and twenty-five general books — have been appearing in Gee's fortnightly sister publication Booksellers' Newsletter since early January.
As if that were not enough, the affair has now taken another interesting turn. While the Sunday Times continues to fulminate, its old friend the Observer has quietly acquired world rights in the Booksellers' Newsletter list and could be running it in the paper by the end of this month.
Bookbuyer welcomes Mr Mark Howell who has now joined Granada's Jim Reynolds and nobody's Gillon Aitken as a distinguished member of the Fibbers Club. Last year Howell joined W. H. Allen to edit that firm's new paperback venture which is scheduled to launch its first titles in September under the 'Star' imprint. (It was to have been called 'Whale' but the publishers, clearly conscious that they were inviting such ribald trade comments as "up the spout," had understandable second thoughts.) .
The job seemed to be going smoothly for Mr Howell until February, when an ever-watchful gentleman of the press heard that he was on the point of leaving. Polite enquiries were made. Could it be true? Might it become true in the near future? Could an answer be given, either on or off the record? "Absolutely no truth whatsoever," replied the disarmingly honest Howell. He is to leave this week, to work in America.
On a more civilised note, it is pleasant to be able to acknowledge the achievement of Arthur Crook, who for the past fifteen years has edited the Times Literary Supplement. He has just retired and can look back on a long career at the centre of literary affairs with justifiable satisfaction. In a book world increasingly characterised by gimmickry and crude opportunism, the TLS has continued. its critical crusade without fear or fashionability. and for that Mr Crook must take most of the credit. Bookbuyer has always had reservations about the paper's cherished practice of anonymous reviewing, but this is not the time to debate it. That opportunity may come quite soon, for it is rumoured that the paper's new editor John Gross (ex-New Statesman, author of the excellent Rise and Fall of the Man of Letters) is in favour of dropping the practice. Sir William Haley, when editor of the Times, would never have allowed it, but then Mr William (just William) Rees-Mogg is a different kettle of fish.
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