What impeccable manners (and it’s our pleasure, guys!) —
One serving of adorable
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Oh, Don
It started innocently enough. In preparation for our launch of Don Dunstan, Intimacy and Liberty, we’ve been throwing some costume ideas around the office. Seventies, defs. This is the man who made those hot pink shorts so famous (see the book cover for proof). There’s also that mini yukata from his resignation. The paisley blazer at his 70th. Or whatever it is that’s going on here.
How would we ever live up to his sartorial standards?
And then our very own Michael Deves dug out this little gem:
The white Levis! The leather bag! The sandals! The setting! What a man!
This was promptly followed by Liz’s adorable schoolgirl photo from around the same time:
If I had that blue dress, I would wear it every day – just by the by. Points for guessing which one’s Liz!
To top it all, Michael Bollen pulled out this doozy:
Ain’t nothing can compete with that hair.
And then, just to really get into the mood of the thing, Devesy called our attention to this cultural time capsule:
Someone better come check on us, because WP HQ is timewarping hard right now.
This is but a taste of some of the delights that will be on show at the launch of Don Dunstan, Intimacy and Liberty on the 22 May. Yes, we will be dressing up, and yes, it will be a riot – come join us for the fun!
Wednesday links
Here’s a few good links for your Wednesday morning:
First of all, Wakefield author Derek Pedley has written a ripper of a piece on the impact of SA police not speaking to the media. This is fascinating from a true crime perspective (get on Dead by Friday if you haven’t already, by the by) but also important reading for every SA citizen.
Next, we have this article about hashtags and how they signify meaning (fascinating and highly recommended for all you wordnerds out there). Contains the brilliant NY Times quote:
When Slate‘s Julia Turner profiled the hashtag in 2012—months before it would be named the American Dialect Society’s Word of the Year—she noticed that it allowed “the best writers to operate in multiple registers at once, in a compressed space.” She concluded, “It’s the Tuvan throat singing of the Internet.”
Next (and on theme), we have some Tuvan throat singing:
Last but not least, there’s the SA Writers Centre‘s editing boot camp program, which has just been released. I guess we all know about SAWC, about how they were the first of their type in Australia, how they continue to serve as a model for writers’ centres around the world, how they manage to do so much for literary culture in SA … (oh we’re bloody lucky over here).
Happy Wednesday guys!
The smell of freshly brewed Wakefield Press
To be honest, the Wakefield offices are pretty damn quirky.
Firstly, there’s the decor, which a recent visitor described as ‘Mad Men-esque’. So true! I’m not quite Peggy Olson, and if you try to smoke inside we’ll bludgeon you with books, but the vibe in here is Mad Men to a tee.
Secondly, there’s the layout, which can be a little confusing to any first-time visitor – especially if you stumble into the warehouse and get lost amongst the stacks!
Finally – and this has always struck me – there’s the faintest perfume in the office. Eau de Wakefield, if you will. It is the smell of freshly brewed books. Faint, sweet, clean: a fresh from the printers smell.
So, of course, that’s the first thing I thought of when Charlotte showed me the ‘Old Books’ scented candle on Lost at E Minor. How cool! My only question is – are any old books harmed in the making of the candle?
Or you could just buy a few WP titles and get the real deal!
Partial Eclipse of the Sun
We’re very excited about the partial solar eclipse happening right now(!! right now!!!) – so much so that Charlotte and I just half-blinded ourselves trying to look at it.
In dedication, here’s a song (and a video clip) that never goes out of style:
WP and the Women’s and Children’s Hospital
If there’s one thing John Butler Trio taught us, it’s to Treat Yo’ Mama With Respect.
(You all know what I’m talking about right? Right?? Right???)
And we’ve been thinking a lot about mamas over here at WP, with Mother’s Day peeking around the corner.
So we’ve decided to show a bit of our love, our care, our respect, by partnering up with the Women’s and Children’s Hospital this May, and donating 15% of every purchase from our online shop or our Kent Town store to the state’s best-known women’s and children’s healthcare facility.
It means every Wakefield Mother’s Day gift will be giving twice!
Don’t know about you guys, but that’s giving us the fuzzies over here.
(PS – Stuck for Mother’s Day present ideas? I have put together a few suggestions that mothers may enjoy – yes yes, feel free to pass them off as your own. Oh, and this one‘s back in stock too! Don’t click on that link, Mum – you’ll ruin the surprise.)
(PPS – We got you inspired? If you want to make a personal donation to the Women’s and Children’s Hospital Foundation charity, click on over here.)
Our authors are the best authors
Am I repeating myself? Because they’re ace. We’ve always known it, but it’s nice when they get the recognition they deserve, as is happening at the moment —
Hard on the heels of Margaret Merrilees’s shortlisting for the Glenda Adams Prize for New Writing, we now have not one but two longlistings from the Nita B. Kibble Awards as well!
The first is Rachel Hennessy, whose novel The Heaven I Swallowed was runner-up for the Australian/Vogel award before it was even published. Now it has been longlisted for the Kibble Literary Award for an established Australian female author. This is a HUGE deal, but then again The Heaven I Swallowed deserves every word of praise it gets.
The second is Margaret again! The First Week has now been longlisted for the Dobbie Literary Award, awarded each year for a first published work from an Australian woman writer.
These are two powerful books, written by two of the most talented authors working in Australia today. Today, us Wakefieldians are feeling pretty bloody proud.
(Also a bit sick. Celebratory Easter chocolate is getting out of hand over here. Is it wine time yet? HAPPY EASTER, KIDS!!)
From the archives
It’s true: Geoffrey Abbott’s Amazing True Stories of Female Executions contains some of the best collected tales of martyrs, murderesses and madwomen you’ll ever read.
It’s also pretty grisly stuff.
There’s the Reading Baby-farmer, who tied ribbons around the necks of her young victims and dumped them in the Thames, and the Yorkshire Witch, who sold potions for good health that turned out, incidentally, to be fatal.
Almost worse than the crimes themselves, are the punishments devised for the guilty. A description of thumbscrews explains the process of screws cutting into the wicks of the victim’s fingernails, concluding:
In some parts, Scotland in particular, thumbscrews were also known as pilliwinks, pilniwinks, penny-winks or pyrowinks: whatever their name, the result was pain.
Indeed. And then there are the witches’ bridles – the less said on that topic the better. And poor Margaret Clitheroe, a martyr whose hand was taken from her corpse and preserved in a reliquary. It appears that particular hand is lost, but here‘s St James’s, which I’m sure looks much the same, ie gross.
The problem with all this, is that I just. can’t. stop. reading.
Hampers! Books! Chocolate! Bliss!
Need another reason to come along to our pre-Easter sale? Well, there’s always the fact that you’ll get the chance to win one of these two bad boys:
Question is, books or chocolate? Delayed or immediate gratification? Oh, and there’s some awesome Fox Creek wine in there too.
God. Can I take both?
ALL OF THE FEELINGS
Guess who has just been shortlisted for the Glenda Adams Prize for New Fiction?
CONGRATULATIONS MARGARET! Not that anyone here at Wakefield HQ is surprised. The First Week is gripping, beautifully written, and stays with you for a long time after you’ve finished reading. Click here to read an extract.