Changes

Essentially, the three authors (all of whom have long careers in the book industry) revel in the idea of being whining old curmudgeons who miss the good old days of publishing. This unashamed nostalgia provides the focus of the book and allows the writers to recount numerous anecdotes from their days in the publishing business. Whilst the primary audience for this book may well be students of creative writing and media studies, it also serves as an interesting exploration of an aspect of modern history: how a once-burgeoning industry is now a shell of its former self, much like a lot of manufacturing. Because of this, I was disappointed that no space was given to a consideration of how the rise of the e-book and Kindle has directly damaged both the sale of books and the potential for new books to be written (fewer real books sold = fewer financial advances paid to writers = fewer books written). Also, given the clear love of books as treasured artifacts, the dismissal of the Harry Potter phenomenon seems truculent, given the impetus the series gave to reading amongst both the young and adults.

The book is full of critiques of writing and publishing, of diarised reminiscences of writers and characters that populated the book world in Britain during its boom years. Some of the stories about writers such as John Osbourne and John Mortimer undeniably amount to little more than gossip, but this adds to the picture of the book industry seeing itself much like the theatre (or any other branch of the arts), where certain people were considered not part of the gang. Unlike many other types of celebrity gossip though, this comes across as neither fawning or mean-spirited, but genuinely affectionate.