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No, not the knitted variety, although we do indeed need the woolly pully these days here in the UK, but the wonder of woolies going into administration. A sad day for Woolworths - what a pity that it won't quite make its 100th anniversary in the UK. When it opened its doors to the great British public in Liverpool in 1909 crowds flocked to buy its cheap goods and the chain store created by American sales assistant, F. W Woolworth, went from strength to strength. It seems rather ironical to me that the cheap sixpenny store that grew out of the era of mass production has succumbed to the financial crisis just when the country seems to be going through a revival of an austerity phase where cheap and cheerful will (or is) becoming once again more fashionable. But poor old Woolies made a loss of £72.5 million in the six months to August 2 and no shining knight in white armour came to its rescue. It is indeed the end of an era though the UK stores outlasted its US parent, which closed it...

Here are the answers to the publishing quiz I devised after attending a Society of Authors panel event on 6 October 2008. On the panel were Jonny Geller, Managing Director of the agency Curtis Brown; Alexandra Pringle, the Editor-in-Chief of Bloomsbury Publishing, (they of Harry Potter fame), and Graham Rand, Commercial Director of the book wholesalers, Bertrams/THE. He is also President of the Booksellers Association. So who said what? 1. ‘If a publisher wishes to back a book with money then we’ll get behind it more.’ Rand 2. ‘EPOS is a nightmare. People can’t lie anymore.’ Pringle 3. ‘The Author has to become a Brand.’ Geller 4. ‘Choice is based on personal taste. If you’ve got enough people who like it in house then we’ll take it on.’ Pringle 5. ‘Publishers will get hit in the recession and will have to put up prices (of books) and/or work hard with the distributors to change prices.’ Geller 6. ‘There is a lack of choice. Publishers are only chasing Big Brands.’ Geller 7. ‘Publi...

The Society of Authors meeting in London on Monday was fascinating for many reasons: the venue, the characters in the audience, the panel and what they said. I’ve picked out some quotes from the panel of experts (a publisher, an agent and a book wholesaler) and thought I’d let you decide who said what with the offer of a FREE signed edition of one of my novels if you guess correctly. But first a little more about the event. The Conway Hall, (built in 1929) where the event was held, is a strange little place tucked away off Red Lion Square (itself a delightful little park complete with tea shop, sleeping tramps and scavenging down and outs, who didn’t bother a soul) and based in Holborn, London. Whilst around this tiny oasis of greenery are new and swish modern buildings Conway Hall is like something from ‘The 39 Steps’ ( the Robert Donat version, 1935). In fact, I think they must have filmed the sequence there where Donat is pretending to be the politician and giving a speech. I half ...

This week I hope to reveal some exciting news in relation to my writing career, before that though I am off to London tomorrow to the Society of Authors AGM. I’ve been a member for almost ten years and although I don’t get to attend every meeting or function I have used the Society’s extremely helpful service on publishing copyright and contracts many times. The SOA has (as its web site declares) been serving the interests of professional writers for more than a century, and has more than 8,500 members writing in all areas of the profession. These include novelists, textbook writers, ghost writers, broadcasters, academics, illustrators and translators. Being a member helps me to keep in touch with the current issues in the publishing world, and I also receive a very useful quarterly journal, The Author. The Society maintains a database of writers and their specialism, so you never know who is going to contact you with a tempting offer or work! Tomorrow, after the AGM, there is book-...

Then all will be revealed. Has In Cold Daylight made it to the Top Ten of the World Book Day, Spread The Word Prize? Have I mustered enough votes to get through? It's nail biting time and I thought I'd reproduce here an article I wrote on how it feels as an author to be in the running for this prize. This article is published in a magazine called Book Time. It is a free publication and very professionally produced by the book wholesaler, Bertrams. You can pick up a copy in the UK from any independent book shop or from your local library. The Spread The Word article is on pages 28 and 29 where ten books are featured, including: In Cold Daylight “Before fire-fighter Jack Bartholomew can reveal the cause of his own – and his colleagues cancer- he is murdered and silenced forever. But in a cryptic message he orchestrated before his untimely death, he has left a trail of clues that will lead his best friend into a labyrinth of lies, secrets and government conspiracy.” "Have I ...