Bookbuyer's
Bookend
The four founders of Quartet Books, who left Granada in 1972 to do their own thing, appear to be in something of a state. Two weeks ago the SundayTimes gave a rather splendid review to a hardback called Jump for Joy and Money or is it Sex Again? And diligently recorded the fact that it was also available as a Quartet Midway edition at £1.25. The publishers' pleasure soon evaporated, however, when they saw the book reviewed alongside their own — Mike Farren's The Texts of Festival — billed as a 'Granada Midway.'
Losing their customary cool and good humour, the Quartet men spraing into action and cooked up an advertisement to remind booksellers that only two other publishers had and cooked up an advertisement to remind booksellers that only two other publishers had been given permission to use the term 'Midway' and that Granada was not among them. Granada countered by saying that they had never at any stage attempted to use the word, and inferred that its appearance in the newspaper review must have arisen through an editorial error. Had either Quartet or Granada taken the trouble to check with the Sunday Times first, they might have discovered the real answer. The trivial little fault did not lie with the paper's literary department, nor with any other branch of Lord Thomson's empire. It lay, where many trivial faults lie, in the bowels of a publisher's publicity department.
Talking of Quartet (and sex) there was another unfortunate incident the other day. One of their major 1974 oeuvres is Alex Comfort's The Joy of Sex, a hot little illustrated property in more senses than one. The book was dreamt up by Bookbuyer's old friends Mitchell Beazley who have proceeded to sell the rights to ,a cluster of publishers overseas — where it has enjoyed phenomenal sales — and to Quartet in Britain, where it will appear shortly. To celebrate, they held a party for all concerned, and in a gesture of rare male chauvinist porkery decided not to invite any members of the fairer sex. One of several offended parties was Quartet's energetic PR girl Carmen Callil, who for the past few weeks has been busily engaged in drumming up enthusiasm for The Joy of Sex.
One MP who has been awaiting Mr Heath's election peregrinations with more than political interest is Mr John Grant, Labour Spokesman for btoadcasting and the press. This week sees the appearance of his book Member of Parliament, an account of an MPs working life which he anticipates may niggle some of his colleagues at Westminster The trouble is, there won't be any interviews. Now that the Great Date is known TV and radio appearances by MPs are strictly rationed so as to give more or less equal time to the major parties. Mr Grant's only hope. Bookbuyer fancifully suggests, is to find a Conservative or Liberal MP with a book coming out too.
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