The literary great and good collected in Daunts Marylebone last night for the launch of Sam Leith (pictured)'s debut novel, The Continuum Transponder. I mean The Coincidence Engine. Attended by journos, hacks, a bearded Sebastian Faulks, and sundry other types wot have written books and so on (including Amanda Craig, Charles Cumming (so tall!), Louise Doughty, Lynn Barber and every literary editor the world has ever seen) the party went along rather swishingly. Sam's editor, Michael Fishwick, gave a speech in which he demonstrated how the idea for the book had come up over a lunch (those were the good old days); the book itself is about a man who invents a machine that can manipulate probability. If you had chained all the people in the room to typewriters for eternity I wonder what we would have produced? Sam's book has been chosen as a Waterstones Eleven debut, which is marvellous news. His new baby is also scheduled to be born on the same day as his book. I suggest 'Coincidenta' if a girl, 'Douglas' (after Adams / Coupland) if a boy. Congratulations to Mr Leith, his book, and his new family member.
A trailer for the book (dread practice, but now seemingly necessary) is below.
Sam's joke about his unborn baby sticking to its embargo date was a good one, I thought!
ReplyDeleteIt was very good indeed. Lit editors fall about larfing.
ReplyDeleteWhat's the difference between a journo and a hack?
ReplyDeleteWhat's the difference between a hawk and a handsaw? Well, the difference between a journo and a hack is that a hack is a bit less classy.
ReplyDelete