December 2008

• Abrams Amulet Books USA are publishing new editions of the currently out of print books in my Dance Sequence. They launched the first two this summer, Breaktime and Dance on my Grave. I've written a new Afterword for each book. NIK: Now I Know and The Toll Bridge follow soon.

• My Swedish publisher, Rabén & Sjögren, published Det här är allt: Cordelia Kenns Kuddbok (This Is All), translated by Katarina Kuick, during the Göteborg Book Fair in September.

• The Swedish publisher, En Bok för Alla, published a new paperback edition of Vykort Från Ingen Mans Land (Postcards from No Man's Land), translated by Katarina Kuick and with an Afterword by Jan Hansson, earlier this year.

• I received an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of Gloucestershire at a very happy and well arranged graduation ceremony on 3 December. For the text of my three minute acceptance speech please click here.

• My Italian publisher, Rizzoli, published a new translation by Giorgia Grilli of Danza Sulla Mia Tomba (Dance on My Grave) this summer. They now have all of the Dance Sequence in print.

 

• Signing copies of the Swedish edition of This Is All at the Göteborg Book Fair.

• As the first publication produced by Print on Demand from Thimble Press, using our Line by Line imprint, we've produced a diary of mine that recorded my first visit to Israel in 1984, which I've called Driving down to Galilee (ISBN 978-0-903355-51-3, £10 post and packing included. Order form on the Thimble Press website, www.thimblepress.co.uk) For more information go to the Line by Line page from the drop-down menu above, BOOKS.

 

• The 'Definitions' paperback edition of This Is All:The Pillow Book of Cordelia Kenn was published in January. It includes an Afterword, specially written for this edition, describing how This Is All fits into the Dance Sequence of six novels, of which it is the last. New also in this edition is an Index to help readers who want to track down scenes and passages to reread or study. Definitions (Random House UK) ISBN 978-0-099-41776-7 824pp, £7.99.

•New 'Definitions', uniform paperback editions of the other five novels in the Dance Sequence were published in January along with This Is All. Each volume includes a specially written Afterword describing something about the writing of each book and its major features. Breaktime and Dance on My Grave are in one volume. ISBN 978-1-862-30288-4, £6.99 Now I Know and The Toll Bridge are in one volume. ISBN 978-1-862-30287-7, £6.99 Postcards from No Man's Land is in a volume on its own. ISBN 978-1-862-30284-6, £6.99 The new covers are also on the COVERS page

 

 

• Now that the Dance Sequence is complete, it's possible for readers to consider how the six books are linked, how they relate and how they differ, and, by reading them in chronological order of their publication, see how the shared themes develop. Already one critic, Betty Greenway, a professor of English at Youngstown State University, has produced a book which surveys and comments on the Sequence. Professor Greenway devotes a chapter to each novel in the order of their publication, after an Introduction, a Chronological outline, and a brief biography. Betty Greenway, Aidan Chambers: Master Literary Choreographer, The Scarecrow Press, 2006, 133pp, ISBN 978-0-8108-5087-3.

 

 

All contents are ©Aidan Chambers unless otherwise stated.