As some of you may know, I run a tiny publishing company called Fidra Books which specialises in rescuing neglected children’s classics. It’s a labour of love which will never make me rich but I do love it and I have a passion for the books that we publish and for making sure that they don’t get forgotten in the headlong rush towards the newest craze in literature. We’ve been publishing since 2005 but while we owned The Edinburgh Bookshop it was difficult to find time to concentrate on it. Now that we’re free of the shop – some days it does feel like freedom, other days I miss it dreadfully – I’m able to concentrate on publishing and it feels great to be cracking on with it again.
Our next book – the inimitable Bunkle Brings It Off by M Pardoe, a 1950s gem featuring Bunkle (so called because his elder siblings say that he talks such a lot of bunk) who encounters a goat, a Russian princess and kidnappers before he saves the day. He also manages to help out his father who does something high-powered and unspecified in the Secret Service. Bunkle is a hero and this, the last book in the series, will be delivered by our printers on the 1st July, slightly later than planned due to paper availability problems.
To celebrate, we’re running a prize draw. Don’t get too excited – you won’t be driving off in a brand-new Aston Martin or anything – but our winner will be able to choose one of our titles and we will ship it anywhere in the world to them. You can enter via our Facebook page (‘like’ the page and add your name to the comments beneath this status update) or by visiting the Fidra Books news page and leaving a comment beneath this blog post. Don’t comment here on this post because that won’t work.
Entries close midnight (UK time) on 25th June, draw will be made on the following day – by my son in the interests of objectivity – and my decision is final (cue Machiavellian cackle).
