Book marks
Assiduous readers of the Financial Times 'Appointments' column may have been mystified by the briefest of brief announcements early last month. A Mr Spencer, we were told, had become chief executive of the Devon publishers David and Charles, the brainchild of exuberant self-styled chairman David St John Thomas ("the fastest publisher in the West"). For those wondering who on earth Mr Spencer can be, I can reveal that he is a nominee of Hambro's Bank, the worried principal backers of David and Charles.
Shy of Montreal
It seems that British publishers are not exactly falling over themselves to exhibit at this week's brand-new supersonic Montreal Book Fair which appears to be aiming to woo European publishers away from the numerous annual shindigs in this half of the world. Several British publishers — the Associated Book Publishers group, for example — have Canadian subsidiaries which produce their own books locally as well as marketing those of their London parents. Some of these companies (ABP for instance) expressed an interest in exhibiting at Montreal. The Fair management said "of course" — provided that they took one stand for their Canadianproduced books and one stand for their London produced books. At which point some publishers like ABP decided to stay put, and leave their Canadian friends to get on with it.
Dog bites dog
Latest newcomers to the publishing fold are the producers of a new two-volume study of package tour prices called Barker's Guide (£5.95 the set). The guide, compiled by a group of travel specialists from information supplied in the tour operators' own brochures, reveals some splendid discrepancies: one operator, for example, offers a fortnight at the Campo del Oro hotel in Ajaccio for £204; another for £396. And the fine print of an Olympic Holidays advertisement informs us: "rooms with sunset view 30p per person extra; rooms with Marina views 90p" when, says Barker, all the rooms face either the sunset or the marina. The editor of Barker's Guide is the former managing director of Lunn Poly., Ray Barker: a case, surely, of dog eating dog.
Segregated
The Middle East kingdom of Qatar now has a magnificent new library which lacks only books. It seems that there is space for 200,000 of the things which, on the face of it, means two different titles per head of the country's 100,000 population. But we should not jump to conclusions. In the best traditions of equality the building is to have a dividing line down the middle to separate the male section from the female, so perhaps the library will carry a duplicate stock. The ubiquitous Oxford library suppliers Blackwells, who are eyeing the prospects hungrily, may soon be laughing on both sides of their face.
Anti-trust antidotes
"The prosecution impending by the Justice Department [against twenty American publishers and, for being "co-conspirator" against the British Publishers Association indirectly] came as a shock to both America and Britain. The prosecution was certainly not engineered by me and I was as surprised as anyone else;' — Australian bookseller Max Harris, writing in Publishers Weekly (May 5).
"The present situation in your [British] export markets is partly the result of myself conning the American Justice Department into calling you co-conspirators'. — Australian bookseller Max Harris, quoted in The Bookseller (May 3).
Bookbuyer
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