London Book Fair 2019 is back again with the UK Book Blog Awards!

The UK Book Blog Awards at the London Book Fair 2019. A Book Podcast of the Year category has been added to the awards this year, joining the three returning categories: Book Blogger of the Year, Bookstagrammer of the Year and BookTuber of the Year.

Celebrating the important contribution of social media influencers to the book industry, the UK Book Blog Awards debuted last year, with winners including popular blog The Literary Edit, Bookstagrammer Faroukh Naseem, and YouTuber Lauren Wade.

This year’s judging panel will include Rosie Beaumont-Thomas (Waterstones), Paul Black (Andersen Press) and author Shahroo Izadi (The Kindness Method).

It's official! The hunt to find the most influential book bloggers, bookstagrammers, book podcasters and booktubers of 2019 in the UK is on! click here to find out more

Press release: London, 9 January 2019: The London Book Fair is delighted to announce the return of the UK Book Blog Awards @ LBF, with a new category being added for Book Podcast of the Year.

Bloggers, social media influencers, members of the publishing industry, and the general public are invited to contribute nominations for Book Podcast of the Year, as well as for the three returning categories: Book Blogger of the Year, Bookstagrammer of the Year and BookTuber of the Year.

Once the shortlist has been revealed, a panel of judges will select one winner in each category, who will be honoured at a special awards ceremony at The London Book Fair. Building on the success of last year’s programme, the Fair will include seminars and networking events focused on bringing the social media influencer community closer to the publishing world.

Vote Now for your favourite or most influential Book Blogger, Bookstaggrammer, BookTuber or Book Podcaster of the Year. Do it now! Voting closes 1st Feb at 5 pm

Book Blogger of the Year
Bookstagrammer of the Year
BookTuber of the Year
Book Podcaster of the Year

Helen Clifford, Marketing Manager at The London Book Fair commented:

“Social media is a vital part of the publishing landscape, and the addition of a podcast category award highlights the growing number of ways in which influencers help promote authors and their titles. We are thrilled to recognise the important link between the influencer community and publishing once again with the UK Book Blog Awards @ LBF.”

The awards are open to any UK based book blogger, YouTuber, podcaster or Instagrammer. To put forward a nomination, or to nominate your own blog/podcast/Instagram account/YouTube channel visit: https://www.londonbookfair.co.uk/Whats-On/Awards1/The-London-Book-Fair-UK-Blog-Awards/

For further information please contact Ben McCluskey at Midas Public Relations on 0207 361 7860 ben.mccluskey@midaspr.co.uk

Go to www.londonbookfair.co.uk 
Follow @LondonBookFair

So, this is happening and can I just say finally! It's about time the UK book industry took note of the effective marketing machine on social media powered by hungry and happy bookworms. Bookbloggers, Bookstagrammers and Booktubers who create hype, share their recommendations and reviews all over social media are an underrated tool of the publishing world.
Enter your favourite Bookbloggers, Bookstagrammers and Booktubers, and you can even enter your own BookBlog, Bookstagramm or BookTube!

THE LONDON BOOK FAIR UK BOOK BLOG AWARDS – TERMS & CONDITIONS

- THE UK BOOK BLOG AWARDS 2019 are open to any blogger, YouTuber, podcaster or Instagrammer featuring books, who is based in the UK.

- Blogs, Instagram profiles, podcasts and YouTube channels can be entered by the brand owners, affiliates, or members of the public.

- The deadline for entries is Friday 1st February 2019 (the “Closing Date”).

- Judging: a panel of expert judges will decide a shortlist of three entries per category, one of whom will be the overall winner in each category.

- The Judges’ decision is final on all matters and no correspondence will be entered into.

- If the judging panel feels that none of the entries in a category reaches the standard outlined to them   in guidance notes, The London Book Fair may (under exceptional circumstances) cancel the category.


- The Winners will be announced at The London Book Fair, 12-14 March 2019

ENTER Book Blogger of the Year

ENTER Bookstagrammer of the Year

ENTER BookTuber of the Year

ENTER Book Podcaster of the Year

London Book Fair Show Dates
Tue 12th March 2019:  09:00 - 18:30
Wed 13th March 2019: 09:00 - 18:30
Thu 14th March 2019:  09:00 - 17:00

Location
Olympia London, Hammersmith Road, Kensington, London, W14 8UX

Download the London Book Fair app here

Do you have a favourite Bookblogger, Bookstagrammer or BookTuber? Go ahead and nominate them now!

#BlogTour The Bespokist Society Guide to ...London

Welcome to the BlogTour for The Bespokist Society Guide to..London. Today you are in for something a little different. The Bespokist Society is the exception to the rule when it comes to guide books. It is the kind of inside info you just know your friends are going to be gagging to hear about, and please do not miss the excellent Q&A with The Bespokist Society and the people behind the idea.

About the Authors
Who are we?
A social collective with a passion for the curated and the bespoke. Current chairman is Tommy Sponge.
Where did it begin?
Like the impressionists who forged an artistic movement in the fin de siecle coffee shops of Paris, The Bespokist Society began in a biospheric winery in Norbiton in 2013.

Jez Tapano
Born : Easter Island
Lives : Plaistow
Favourite drink : Messy Monk IPA
Favourite food : Heritage carrots
Favourite hangout : Vine n Vinyl of course!

Nastya Petrov
Born : Vladivostock
Lives : Harrow on the Hill
Favourite drink : Dagenham Gin on the rocks
Favourite food : Rare breed walrus
Favourite hangout : Nina Saviceu gallery

Follow @TheBespokist on Twitter
Visit  bespokistsociety.com
Buy The Bespokist Society Guide to...London

About the book
As the first travel book produced by the hugely influential Bespokist Society, this handy guide takes you to a London you’ve never seen: a London of challenging Etruscan restaurants, edgy branding parlours, emoji hotels and hidden Icelandic communities; a London where 8-ply toilet paper is a thing.

On the way, meet an eclectic band of inspiring Londoners - from scriveners to socialites via urban wordsmiths and coffee preachers - and see why London is now the global epicentre of Bespokist consciousness, community and culture.

Q&A
The Q&A is just as amusing as The Bespokist Society Guide itself...please enjoy:

When did you realise that we all need this particular type of guide, especially anyone living in or visiting London? I think the trigger was when our chairman, Tommy Sponge, went into WH Smiths in Norbiton and was unable to find any guide book showcasing genuinely bespoke destinations! He wrote a furious letter to the Chairman of WH Smiths but in the end decided that the Bespokist Society needed to write its own guide.

Have you got any inside tips on catching The Yeast Extractors before the Marmite sandwiches are sold out every morning. Damn those Wilmots they’re elusive to say the least.
We know that there are whole internet chat rooms where fans use complex, randomised logarithms to predict the next truck location. Unfortunately without success. The problem is that there is really no substitute for a Marmite sandwich from the Yeast Extractors. Tommy Sponge tried to make his own version at home recently and the results were disastrous!

There is a pretty pricey FREE membership tag to join the society.  I don’t do cheques, would you take payment in the form of 449 newly polished pennies? You are forgetting that membership also entitles you to restricted view seats at See it, Say it, Sorted The Musical!
Unfortunately we don’t accept newly polished pennies but we would be delighted to offer you one of our bespoke payment plans personally tailored to your needs (*55% APR **your home is at risk if you do not keep up payments)

With such a vast variety of Bespokist venues to visit and the number rising by the minute I would love to know where TBS is headed next? A guide to Edinburgh, Newcastle or perhaps even over the water to mainland Europe? Think of the places you might find in Amsterdam…sorry I meant to say the places you will definitely find in Amsterdam. We’d love to. For us Peterborough is probably the natural next destination with its huge range of micro-vineyards and bespoke spinneries.

The Bespokist Society is the brainchild of Nastya Petrov and Jez Tepano the following questions are for you:

How did the idea for this guide and the society come about? What was/is your inspiration? Hate to break it to you but Nastya and Jez aren’t real! I was inspired by modern life in general but in particular reading ridiculous menus featuring foraged things I hadn’t heard of. I also remember walking past a very trendy place in Soho and being completely unsure whether it was a shop, office, gallery or restaurant. Not sure the people inside knew either.

Is the play on the acronym BS intentional?
Definitely! The name of The Bespokist Society actually came because I wanted to use BS as the initials!

I have to tell you my main concern is someone reading the Bespokist Guide and actually looking forward to trying out some of your well-described venues, although that says more about them and kind of makes your point for you. Yes, quite a few people do think the places are real. Which I find quite funny.

Is the book/guide intended as a tongue-in-cheek type or is the BSG your way of pointing a big finger at the shallow ‘I would like to buy the Emperor’s new clothes’ mindset of 21st century society? I wanted to keep the book light-hearted and message-free but I do think that 21st century earnestness needs a bit of a poke.

Will there be a sequel or is there something equally as droll on the horizon? We’re going to do an update and launch a new edition for Christmas. But I also want to create a spoof cookbook : Etrusci – The Cookbook, featuring delicious recipes and lifestyle tips from 500BC.

Thank you for answering all of my questions! 

Review
The Guide is a tongue-in-cheek sarcastic swipe at society and our sense of self-importance. If taken with the pinch of salt, as it is intended, then this is a really amusing read. If you take yourself too seriously you can ask The BS for specific details on how to find the venues. Please take pics and post to social media, I can't wait to see and read all about it.

That's my main concern, someone reading the Bespokist Guide to London and actually looking forward to trying out some of these well-described venues, although that says more about them and kind of makes the point of the book.

Unfortunately the 21st century has created something akin to the yuppie version of the hippy, a version mixed with the characteristics of an eco-warrior, health fanatic and overall saviour of the earth. I mean that in the nicest way possible, but one does get the feeling that it is sometimes more about appearances and less about saving the planet.

I just don't get the urge to drink coffee made from poop, eat grasshopper tacos (yes that's a thing), drink mushroom coffee (also a thing), or sniff ancient woolly mammoth faeces (hopefully never a thing). However there are a lot of people, who are always looking for the latest fad or following the latest craze, who might just enjoy it.

This is the perfect gift for friends with an unusual sense of humour or perhaps as coffee table book and an ice-breaker. It will certainly get conversations going, especially if some of your friends get excited about visiting one of the venues.

Finally, albeit reluctantly, I have to admit I would probably go looking for a few of those venues too.

Buy The Bespokist Society at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer.

Limitless (Out of the Box) by Robert J. Crane

Two years have passed since the events in Power ( The Girl in the Box #10) took place.The team has scattered to various different corners of the earth. I say team and that is exactly how I perceived them in the books.

Unfortunately neither Sienna nor the others seem to think of themselves as such. More is the pity, because the thing they all have in common, well nearly all of them, is their particular brand of being different. They should be standing together and supporting each other, especially now certain Meta are being tortured and murdered again.

Sienna seems a little tired of being the go to person for every non-Meta authority when it comes to Meta crimes, murders and problems. Why? Because those same authorities and governments have created a very intense layer of laws, rules and regulations against the Meta community. Now those laws are becoming even more restrictive, because there is a new nasty in town.

Interesting that the Meta have gone from being a or the controlling factor in the world, to persona non grata and a minority group. It makes for a whole different ball game, despite their strength and multitude of abilities.

The new villain in town is a person with an axe to grind, skin to flay (literally) and with a long list of potential victims he intends to dispose of. Yes, that does include Sienna. Does it ever not include her?

Meanwhile Sienna is trying to find out exactly who she is dealing with in order to halt their reign of murder and mayhem. She has been partnered with a human, and I think the two of them have a few sparks going off between them. Not sure what Webster was thinking when he decided to put the main target of a psycho torture gang up in his mother's house. Haven't thought that through completely mate, have ya?

I think Crane created that particular scenario so Sienna would be confronted with her internal need for some kind of maternal comfort, which in turn makes her think about the loss of her mother and how much Sienna misunderstood her intentions.

So, after the intense ending and closure to the The Girl in the Box series Crane has made a fierce start with this new series featuring Sienna, but this time she is well and truly Out of the Box.
I received a copy of this book courtesy of the author.

To find out more about Robert J. Crane and his books, go have a nosy at www.robertjcrane.com

Severed Streets by Paul Cornell

This is the second in the James Quill series.

I wasn't really keen on the beginning of the book, the few pages before the murder of the politician.

I found them a wee bit confusing and lacking clarity, which isn't always a good way to draw potential readers in.

Fortunately Cornell gets to the nitty-gritty darkness fairly quickly.

His Sci-Fi plot weaving is mixed with police procedural story-lines, which makes sense when you consider his background as a Dr. Who scribe. He also uses the historical backdrop and urban myths associated with London.

Cornell seems to enjoy the quagmire of despair, suffering and pain when it comes to his characters, especially the good guys. Lots of bleak moments for them unfortunately. Hopefully, as the series progresses some of them will get some lucky mojo come their way.

I know the fact he has Neil Gaiman play a role in his story is a bit of topic in reviewing circles, however I think it was more of a nudge nudge wink wink move,  perhaps because elements of the first James Quill book London Falling was compared to Gaiman's work.

It will be interesting to see where Cornell takes this series and his eclectic combination of genres.
I received a copy of this via NetGalley.