The Dangerous Book for Granddads

 ‘Granddads are there to help the grandchildren get into mischief they haven’t thought of yet!’ Gene Perret

RHE Media is proud to announce the publication of The Dangerous Book forGranddads by J.C. Jeremy Hobson.

Jeremy Hobson offers granddads 86 ideas for getting into mischief with the grandchildren based on:

•     pastimes that they had when they were a child;
•          skills that granddads and the grandchildren can learn together;
•          activities where the grandchildren can teach granddad a thing or two!

Becoming a granddad doesn’t automatically mean you will gain all the expertise necessary to enjoy adventures with your grandchildren overnight. For most, it’s a case of identifying the basic techniques and subsequently learning together. The main thing is - ‘just do it’. Hopefully, The Dangerous Book for Granddads will provide inspiration, stimulation – and may possibly also cause perspiration!

This fully illustrated scrapbook includes many images to remind you of childhood escapades and exploits. Full of practical advice (and a few danger warnings), this guide for granddads will have you leaping from your armchair to plan some daring deeds!

Sadly, there is much in the current media about how today’s children prefer to play computer games rather than participate in the kind of activities so enjoyed by their parents and grand-parents. Without the encouragement to climb trees, kick through autumn leaves, collect bugs and paddle about in ditches and streams, the psychologists worry that future generations will succumb to ‘epidemic obesity, attention-deficit disorder, isolation and childhood depression.’

Parents busy with work often rely on active retired grandparents to help with child care at the end of the school day, weekends and during school holidays. Not only are people living longer, they are thinking ‘younger’ and the modern attitude of mind is that all things are possible. I’m sure that, as I enter my sixth decade, I don’t think or act like grandparents would have done two or three generations ago… today’s maxim must surely be ‘You’re never too old’!Therefore, grandparents are often ideally placed to encourage youngsters to get active - and what is good for children is also good for granddad!

RHE Media’s mission statement is ‘Adding Years to Your Life and Life to Your Years’ – this mission is at the heart of all we publish, although we realise this goal in different ways. The Dangerous Book for Granddads exemplifies our mission and the book is also closely connected with the Five Ways to Wellbeing as described by the New Economics Foundation (for more information see our blog post of 15 January this year - http://www.wordstothewise.co.uk/blog/how-to-boost-wellbeing-through-hobbies-and-activities  These five ways:

•          Connect;
•          Be Active;
•          Take Notice;
•          Learn, and
•          Give …

can all be found in the 86 activities in The Dangerous Book for Granddads – not overtly (this certainly isn’t a boring old textbook!) but through having fun with grandchildren. The book actively encourages granddads to have a second childhood by revisiting the fun they had in their youth, passing on skills that they learned as boys and engaging with the things that today’s children enjoy.

As Jeremy says in his Preface to the book,

It can be a long time before one realises where the true lessons of life are learnt. DNA and genetics are all well and good, but despite having all that flowing through your veins, you still need an enthusiastic teacher and, regardless of his aura to others, Granddad was mine. Without him I doubt that I would be anything like the person I am today and would most certainly not have much of the knowledge I’m fortunate enough to possess.

Blackberries - It's a Thin Line Between Love and Hate!

Elizabeth Adela Forbes - Blackberry Gathering 1912

Last year’s August blog post on Jamming and Pickling in a West Country Kitchen was really written a month too early. Now that September is here, and the sun is shining, it is the perfect time to pick blackberries. As I said in the earlier post, bramble jelly is my favourite jam but I am not a fan of blackberries au naturel (too many pips) and I don’t like blackberry and apple pie or crumble very much. However, for those who love this pie, here is the WI’s recipe - http://www.thewi.org.uk/what-we-do/recipes/cakes-and-desserts/apple-and-blackberry-pie I feel it is only fitting that I include a WI recipe as this is their centenary year and blackberries and pie-making are quintessential Women’s Institute, speaking as they do of thrift and adding value to food for free.

Our publication, Mrs Beeton’s Jam-making and Preserves, includes recipes for apple and blackberry jam, blackberry jam, blackberry syrup (which I think might make a lovely Kir Royale with champagne) and the following recipe for blackberry jelly (which is really blackberry and apple jelly):

Take 6lb. of blackberries, 6 medium-sized sour apples, the juice of 1 lemon and ¾ of a pint of water.

Stalk the blackberries, wipe, peel, core and slice the apples. Place the apples, water and lemon-juice into a preserving­ pan. Cook until the apples are soft, then add the black­berries and continue to boil until they are soft. Strain off the liquid through a fine hair sieve or cloth. Do not rub the fruit, only press it lightly to extract the juice.

Wash out the pan, allow 1 lb. of sugar to each pint of juice and boil in the pan until it will jelly if a little is cooled on a plate. Pour it into dry, warm jars, cover, tie down, and store in a cool place.

This beautiful weather is perfect for donning wellies, stuffing plastic bags into coat pockets and grabbing a walking stick in order to scour the fields for blackberries. The walking stick is not for weary legs (although it can come in handy for that purpose too!). Instead, a ‘proper’ stick with a curved handle is ideal for pulling down brambles that are too high to reach. The stick is also useful for bashing nettles that are in the way and for fending off prickly brambles that are determined to leave you with battle scars as you rob them of their berries.

A bumper blackberry harvest is good for people but also vital for animals trying to fatten up before winter. Domestic animals love blackberries too. Our dog used to enjoy delicately picking and eating low hanging blackberries when we were out foraging. Also, Mum’s pony enjoyed eating bramble leaves when we took her out for a walk. She was old and arthriticky so we walked her down the Dorset green lanes for exercise and fresh air. They say that there are only a few animals (those that are particularly close to humans) that understand and will follow a human’s pointing finger and I can confirm that horses are one of these animals. I would point out good brambles to the pony and she would follow my finger and move to eat the leaves that she enjoyed so much.

Anton Seder - Blackberries, Raspberries, Goldfinch

Blackberries do have health-giving properties according to the Elizabethan herbalist John Gerard (1545 – 1612):

They heale the eies that hang out.

The ripe fruit is sweet, and containeth in it much juyce of a temperate heate, therefore it is not unpleasant to be eaten

The leaves of the Bramble boyled in water, with honey, allum, and a little white wine added thereto, make a most excellent lotion or washing water, and the same decoction fastneth the teeth.

Nicholas Culpeper (1616 – 1654) also has a lot to say on the ‘virtues’ of blackberries:

It is a plant of Venus in Aries. If any ask the reason why Venus is so prickly? Tell them it is because she is in the house of Mars. The buds, leaves, and branches, while they are green, are of good use in the ulcers and putrid sores of the mouth and throat, and of the quinsy [a complication of tonsillitis], and likewise to heal other fresh wounds and sores; but the flowers and fruit unripe are very binding, and so are profitable for the bloody flux, lasks, [diarrhoea] and are a fit remedy for spitting of blood.

Culpeper goes on to say that the bramble is good for kidney stones, the berries are a remedy against snake venom and the juice of the berries helps with sores and ulcers.

I am particularly struck by the connection between brambles and eyes. Gerard proposes that blackberries can help with ‘eies that hang out’ – really? Does he mean ‘eyes’ here? I would have thought that brambles are more likely the cause of eyes hanging out than the remedy. After all, I have been scratched across the face by brambles several times while out riding down green lanes. There are also three instances of brambles causing blindness in fairytales and legend. Rapunzel’s prince is blinded when he falls from her tower into a bramble patch. In some versions of Sleeping Beauty the prince is blinded by the brambles that spring up around the castle in which the princess and her court are sleeping. Also, the mortal Bellerophon is blinded by brambles when he falls from Pegasus after trying to ride him to Olympus, home of the Gods – an instance of the association of blackberries with arrogance. Perhaps Gerard is proponent of the ancient belief in ‘the hair of the dog that bit you’ – i.e. a small amount of what caused your suffering can also be part of the cure.

'Blackberries' by Raphaelle Peale, c. 1813

There is certainly an interesting love/hate tension regarding blackberries, as highlighted by Culpeper when he says that it is hardly surprising that a plant of loving Venus is prickly when it is in the house of warmongering Mars. This is reinforced by folklore about brambles. On the one hand they are associated with the Devil, as in the old story of Lucifer falling into brambles when he is thrown out of heaven. This apparently happened on Michaelmas Day (old Michaelmas Day is 11 October) and it is unlucky to harvest blackberries after this date because the Devil cursed them and urinated on them. It is certainly true that tannins in the fruit will accumulate over time, making the berries bitter later in the year. Also, when it is damp, fungus quickly spreads over the berries – as Seamus Heaney discovered (listen to his poem at the end of this post).

On the other hand, it is said that brambles have many healing properties and blackberry remedies are found in many cultures from the Ancient Greeks and Native Americans to the Chinese. In magic the thorny branches are used for protection and healing spells. Apparently, blackberries can protect you against vampires. If you plant a bramble outside your house a vampire won’t enter because it obsessively counts the berries and forgets to come in and bite you. The berries are often associated with the feminine and earthy elements – they represent abundant harvests and prosperity. Thus, the bramble with its white flowers and black fruit, its sweet berries and ferocious thorns, is a perfect representation of the tension between light and dark, good and evil, and the ambiguity of male attitudes to women throughout history and general feelings of ambiguity towards nature – provider of abundance and healing and also savage scratcher of skin and remover of eyes. It’s a thin line between love and hate with the blackberry.

This ambiguity and tension is beautifully captured in Seamus Heaney’s poem Blackberry Picking – read here by the man himself https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhBK5_zLwJY

For more blog posts from Words to the Wise visit our website at www.wordstothewise.co.uk/blog  

EIGHT REASONS WHY RHE MEDIA PHOTOGRAPHY EBOOKS ARE BETTER THAN PRINT BOOKS

Image from 'Developing a Photographic Style' by David Penprase

RHE Media is producing brand new photography books as ebooks. Why are we doing this and what are the benefits of photography ebooks for photographers? I believe there are eight key reasons why photography ebooks are better than print books:

• ·        The reproduction of the photos is better. After all, you are seeing the photograph in the form in which most images are created today – digitally. There are no print quality issues.
• ·        Our photography ebooks are fixed layout and specifically designed for ebook delivery. They are not poor quality conversions of existing print books and they don’t have the boring layout of a reflowable ebook.
• ·        You can pinch and zoom images to focus in on particular details or to enlarge the image to get a better view.
• ·        You get more photos for your money – photography ebooks are much better value for money because prices are lower and you get more high quality images. Our PhotoWise Masterclass title by David Penprase, Developing a Photographic Style, is a perfect example – you get a great deal of valuable advice on how to develop your photographic style plus a gallery of 81 images by a master craftsman all for about £9 inc. VAT or $10. A similar print book might set you back nearly £30/$40.
• ·        It is easier to take a ‘How to’ photography ebook with you into the field on your phone or tablet, or to have it open beside you at your desk. Ebooks always lie flat and open at the right page! Peter Cope’s practical guide to free image manipulation software includes advice on basic image manipulation techniques. This is an ideal resource to have open beside you when you are exploring freeware such as Snapseed, Gimp or smart phone apps.
• ·        Live links – our photography ebooks are interactive – we link our text out to a wide variety of online content, thus extending the range of information available.
• ·        We can cover topics in our photography ebooks that many print publishers would not regard as viable commercial propositions.

 We make no compromises with our photography ebooks – they are professionally edited and designed and they are written by fantastic photographers who are also experienced authors. We publish our own books but we are also happy to produce photography books for authors who want to self-publish. Contact us if you would like to discuss a self-publishing project.

Light up your Life - Daylight and Wellbeing

Fanciulla_sulla_roccia_a_Sorrento by Filippo Palizzi

We are told that a Mediterranean diet is one of the most healthy – lots of colourful vegetables, olive oil, fish, grains, etc. But there is something else that the Mediterranean has in abundance and is often celebrated for and that is daylight (beautifully captured in the painting here by Filippo Palizzi). Daylight is never mentioned as a component of a Mediterranean diet but there is plenty of research that says it should be.

Daylight is vital to physical and psychological wellbeing in many ways. Here are just a few.

Vitamin D

Sunlight on your skin produces Vitamin D – the vitamin your body needs to absorb calcium. Calcium is necessary for strong healthy bones and lack of calcium is a major factor in the development of osteoporosis. Vitamin D deficiency has also been linked to several cancers and one study showed that Vitamin D supplements for postmenopausal women reduced the chance of getting any cancer by 60%. Now, we do need to be sceptical about such claims made by researchers and about claims for taking vitamin supplements. But, with the other benefits of daylight exposure described below, we should all prescribe ourselves a daily dose of daylight to boost our Vitamin D levels.

In my blog post on our edition of Heath Robinson’s How to Make a Garden Grow I describe the concerns about the health of the nation in the 1920s and 1930s. Many of the working class recruited as soldiers for fighting in the First World War didn’t not meet the health requirements. Rickets is also caused by Vitamin D deficiency and many children who lived in slum housing at the beginning of the twentieth century didn’t get enough daylight or enough Vitamin D in their diet for healthy bone growth. At the time there was a lot of talk about fresh air and exercise. What they didn’t know then but we do know now is that it was the lack of daylight that was largely the cause of many of the health problems identified during and after the First World War. The relationship between light and health is also covered in my blog post on How to Live in a Flat by Heath Robinson and we see the impact of these concerns on the design of housing in the early twentieth century.

Sleep

Our sleep patterns are regulated by the hormone melatonin. The blue light part of the daylight spectrum enters the eye and sends a message along the optic nerve to the gland that produces melatonin. While blue light is entering our eyes, the amount of melatonin produced is suppressed and we feel awake. When it gets dark and the amount of blue light entering the eye is reduced, the amount of melatonin produced increases, we feel sleepy and our body prepares for sleep.

There is a very interesting article about blue light on this website http://moreintelligentlife.co.uk/content/features/rosie-blau/light-and-health?page=full I quote one particularly interesting section from this article, relating to the work of Kazuo Tsubota, professor of ophthalmology at Keio University School of Medicine in Japan:

Tsubota’s ambition as an ophthalmologist is “to protect the eye for this long-lived society”. We all know that our eyesight fades with age—what he calls “the eye as a camera”—but “the eye as a clock” does too. As we get older, our lens yellows, so less light reaches the receptor at the back of the eye to tell our brains what time it is—and we need more daytime rays to reset our body clock. “At 58 years, my lens is a third as good at receiving blue light as the 20-year-old lens,” says Tsubota, who talks with a wide smile and waving hands. “In order to have a proper amount of light, I have to play outside three times as much as a 20-year-old boy,” he says and laughs. “That gives me a good excuse to ski, go swimming, jogging.”

Tsubota says he is motivated by gokigen, meaning a life filled with happiness. This is not idle chat, he insists. Happiness is one of three things that help to stave off the depredations of age, along with diet and exercise. His remedy is not to sing and laugh, or even to get rich or get married, but to sleep: “It has almost the same beneficial effect on health as smoking has a bad one.” And getting a good night depends on having the right amount of light at the right time of day.

Much of his research focuses on his own cataract patients. After a cataract operation, people usually have fewer falls, their mood lifts and they think more sharply. Tsubota also found that his patients’ sleep “dramatically improved”. He believes many of the other benefits of the operation flow from this: “The surgery replaces the opaque lens and suddenly 90% of the blue light is received, you are like a five-year-old. So cataract is a treatment for the clock as well as the camera.”

The relationship between sleep and wellbeing is now well-known. However, I find this quotation fascinating for the insight it gives into the interrelationship between eye health, light, sleep and wellbeing. But, in simple terms, the equation is: more daylight = better sleep = health and wellbeing.

You may also notice another thread running through several of my blog posts – my references to Japanese philosophy such as Wabi Sabi and, here, gokigen. The Japanese are famously long-lived and are healthier for longer so they are able to add years to their lives and life to their years. Their diet is often given as the reason for this but I think there are other factors too, connected with their way of living.

Psychological wellbeing

We also know that quality sleep and physical health improve our psychological wellbeing. But daylight itself improves our feelings of wellbeing and quite a lot of research is now being done into the reasons why this is the case. Much of this research is collated in the following literature review http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy02osti/30769.pdf This is a long read so, again, I will quote the section that struck me particularly:

Humans are affected both psychologically and physiologically by the different spectrums provided by the various types of light. These effects are the less quantifiable and easily overlooked benefits of daylighting. Daylighting has been associated with improved mood, enhanced morale, lower fatigue, and reduced eyestrain. One of the important psychological aspects from daylighting is meeting a need for contact with the outside living environment (Robbins 1986). According to Dr. Ott (Ott Biolight Systems, Inc. 1997a), the body uses light as a nutrient for metabolic processes similar to water or food. Natural light stimulates essential biological functions in the brain and is divided into colors that are vital to our health. On a cloudy day or under poor lighting conditions, the inability to perceive the colors from light can affect our mood and energy level. Dr. Liberman (1994) also mentioned that light plays a role in maintaining health: When we speak about health, balance, and physiological regulation, we are referring to the function of the body’s major health keepers; the nervous system and the endocrine system. These major control centers of the body are directly stimulated and regulated by light, to an extent far beyond what modern science…has been willing to accept.

We know that being outside in the sunshine makes us feel good – we don’t need research to tell us that. What the research is beginning to confirm is that it is exposure to daylight that is the reason why we feel good.

Recipe for the daylight part of our Mediterranean diet

Hang on, you may say, we are constantly being warned about spending too long in the sun, risking skin cancer, cataracts, wrinkles, etc. How do we get more daylight without incurring all these risks? Well, here is the Words to the Wise recipe for your daylight diet:

•       Take a 20-minute walk every morning (even in winter – in fact, especially in winter) and expose as much skin to the daylight as is decent and without getting frostbite! You only need a 15-minute exposure to create enough Vitamin D for the day and walking in the morning means you are not exposed to strong mid-day sunlight that will damage your skin. A morning walk will also help to wake you up as the blue light will start the reduction in melatonin levels. Older Chinese people who start the day with Tai Chi outside have the right idea – gentle exercise in daylight (not artificial light) will help you to live longer, be healthier and feel good.
•       For the rest of the day, take every opportunity to get some daylight. If you can’t go outside then sit near a window. Keep windows clean and open the curtains as soon as you get up. At work insist on your ‘right to light’ – show your employer the literature review I refer to above. I am sure he or she will be keen to improve productivity!
•      In the evening turn off all screens (TV, tablet, mobile phone, etc.) at least two hours before you go to bed. Screens emit blue light and this will continue to suppress melatonin levels, which will make it harder to get to sleep. Make sure your bedroom is as dark as possible.

Add this recipe to your vegetables, olive oil, nuts and fruit to get the full benefit of the Mediterranean diet.

There is a lovely quotation that accompanies the Filippo Palizzi painting above:

Sul bordo dello scoglio vi è una scritta: Egli, che mi pose a giacere su questa roccia, mi dice di guardarti da mattina a sera e dirti sempre: sii felice. Felice.

On the edge of the cliff there is an inscription: He placed me to lie on this rock, tells me to look at you from morning to night and tell you: be happy. Happy.

P.S.: Our Photography books are all about capturing and recording light. Photography also gets you outside for your daily dose of daylight. Our first title on Developinga Photographic Style by David Penprase has just been published. For more information about our Photography titles visit www.RHEMediaPhotography.co.uk

Let's go Fly a Kite!

Remember the Peter Powell ^TM stunt kite? Apparently the Toy of the Year in 1976 is back http://www.peterpowellkites.co.uk and better than ever! I had one – a blue plastic kite with a long tail that would inflate in the wind. We used to take it up to the playing field to fly. On a good day, with a steady breeze, it was extremely exciting to put the kite through its paces, spiralling one way and then back the other while being pulled across the grass by the surprisingly strong kite with its aluminium struts. It was thrilling to develop a feel for the kite and the wind, to make the kite perform at its limits and to test your strength against the tug of the kite that seemed desperate to get away and fly on its own. On a bad day, I would spend most of my time untangling the two flying lines, running frantically backwards to no avail time and time again, dealing with the frustration of the parent or brother who had to throw the kite back into the air after each crash and then, when I gave up, spending ages getting the air out of the tail so that I could roll it up. 

Before the Peter Powell kite arrived, we children had made various attempts at making a kite out of sticks, paper and a piece of string – most were very disappointing and ended up stuck in trees. The best things about the Peter Powell kite were the dual control lines and its robust construction. Mine crashed into the ground on numerous occasions but it was easy to repair and would be back in the air quite quickly (as long as your ‘thrower’ hadn't got bored and gone home for a cup of tea!).

Here is a link to a YouTube video of someone flying stunt kites in stacks of 3-6. They look wonderful flying together like this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJXv5Lt06_s

Trying to describe the thrill of kite flying reminded me of the descriptions of the thrill of flying in our two aviation titles – The Boys’ Book of Aeroplanes and Sky Roads of the World. Amy Johnson and Hubbard and Turner are far better at describing what it is like to fly than I am at describing kite-flying. Of course, when these authors were flying they were doing so when manned flight was at the exciting visceral stage, where they stared death in the face on numerous occasions and when the skills needed to fly a plane made of balsa wood, paper and wire were being learned through trial and error by everyone.

The Boys’ Book of Aeroplanes was written only nine years after the Wright brothers made their first successful motor-driven flight. Here Hubbard and Turner describe the thrill of flying in an aeroplane for the first time:

The machine is held back, the motor started by swinging the propeller, and the wild clamour of the motor arises, obliterating all other sounds. The pilot seated by him raises his arm, the machine is released and rushes over the ground, and before the passenger has time to realise it, the machine is in the air, climbing steadily. Glancing right and left he sees the country spreading out like a map, and then looking down he sees the ground, far below, shrinking between his feet. The wind blows hard in his face, but it is not unpleasant, and he soon gets used to it, and also hardly notices the unending roar of the motor behind him. Movements of the pilot's hand and foot on lever and cross-bar footrest send the machine turning, tilting over towards the side to which the turn is made. There is no sensation of giddiness, certainly none of fear; he feels as secure as in an armchair in his own home. Far below, now, he can see the roofs of the aeroplane sheds, and the little black dots, which are in reality men, moving very slowly over the ground. Another turn, and the machine is passing over a belt of trees, and for the first time he feels an indescribable thrill - a thrill of inexplicable pleasure. To fly over the tops of trees is to experience a mystical exultation; flying over grass is nothing, over houses nothing, over water a mere incident, but over trees is a mysterious delight - a riddle that a Sphinx might propound but no Oedipus ever satisfactorily answer.

Another half-circle and the machine heads back towards the sheds, and then the pilot, momentarily turning his face, shouts two words which the passenger fails to hear, but assumes, and rightly, to be "Hold tight!" The nose of the machine suddenly dips sharply downwards, and immediately the noise of the motor ceases, for the pilot has switched off for a glide. The passenger grips the upright spar on his right very tightly, thrusting his legs very firmly against the foot-rest. He misses the noise of the motor now it has stopped, though previously he had been hardly conscious of it. He hears the wind singing against the planes and wires, and sees between his feet the ground rushing up to meet him. High up, the ground, by a simple optical delusion, seems to move very slowly, but increases its apparent motion the nearer one is to it. Faster and faster flows the ground, and then, obeying a slight movement of the lever, just as the passenger imagines a collision with the earth is inevitable, the machine gradually straightens out; there is an almost imperceptible shock at the moment the wheels touch; the machine runs along the ground, losing speed rapidly, and finally stops; and the passenger, his mind still in a whirl with his novel experiences, finds himself at the door of the shed. There is no noise, no rushing wind, only a few spectators standing in front of the machine asking him casual questions which he cannot, for the life of him, answer. He wants to sit still and think, but he is hustled out of his seat, and becomes, to his growing disgust, a mere crawling pedestrian once more.

Fantastic. This description is followed by an even more dramatic description of what it is like to make your first solo flight. Amy Johnson too, a few years later in Sky Roads of The World, is eloquent about the excitement and sheer joy of flying:

As dawn breaks you are treated to such a vision of beauty that you find it difficult to concentrate on the prosaic tasks of fuelling your plane and preparing for the take-off. Brilliant stars in black velvet sky have gently faded away, gracefully giving first place to the rising splendour of the sun. Knowing full well our poor eyes could not stand the sudden sight of an African sun in all its glory, it first sends out faint warning rays of pearly grey, shading to lemon, then pale rose and dim gold, growing ever deeper and more intense till suddenly, as though losing patience, it bursts with dazzling radiance on the uncaring world.

Breathing the dry, tonic air, you jump aboard your plane, longing to be away in the light blue sky, already feeling the fascination of the desert.

First you will be flying over the oasis belt. Tiny groups of mud huts shining whitely in the glowing sun nestle amongst clumps of towering green palms. Some of the ground between is stony and rocky, much of it covered with a fine film of sand. South of the oasis of Tarhit, to my mind most beautiful of them all, stretch three hundred miles of golden sand dunes, wave after enormous wave, as though some god had stretched his arm over a restless sea, petrifying its restlessness into waves of stone.

Amy was the first to see many parts of the world from the air. What a privilege to be the first to appreciate our beautiful planet in a completely new way.

Escaping gravity was the desperate dream of so many people for centuries. It took so long for them to work out the science of flying but that didn’t stop them trying. It was only when the Wright brothers grasped the scientific method – proper experimentation (and without killing yourself in the process) – that the answer finally revealed itself. The Wright brothers’ experiments in flight is covered in some detail in The Boys’ Book of Aeroplanes. What is so delightful about the two descriptions above is that they demonstrate that those centuries of effort proved to be worth it – flying was a wonderful experience, particularly for those flying in an open cockpit, ‘close to the wind’.

Our final extract extolling the thrill of flying is a poem called High Flight, written by Pilot Officer John Magee RCAF (1922-1941) who died aged only 19 during World War II.

Oh I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,

And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;

Sunwards I’ve climbed and joined the tumbling mirth

Of sun-spilt clouds – and done a thousand things

You have not dreamed of – wheeled and soared and swung

High in the sunlit silence, hovering there,

I’ve chased the shouting wind along and flung

My eager craft through footless halls of air,

Up, up the long delirious burning blue

I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace,

Where never lark, or even eagle flew;

And, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod

The high untrespassed sanctity of space,

Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

Kite-flying is as close as many of us can, or wish to, come to the experience of physically controlling an air-borne object. It does require patience and a certain amount of determination. One day someone will create a kite that you can get into the air on your own, without needing a bored parent or sibling to launch it for you. Also, a kite whose control lines didn’t get tangled would be a great innovation. Sadly, kite-flying has been out of fashion for some time and many children prefer the artificial thrill of simulated flying on their tablet or computer. Perhaps adults who remember the Peter Powell stunt kite can take a lead, get out into the fresh air and show their children or grandchildren what they are missing.

Ten Ways to Improve your Discoverability

Self-publishing, discoverability and commercial success

Aside from the self-satisfaction derived from communicating thoughts and ideas, most writers are also striving for critical and commercial success. A survey of authors at Digital Book World 2014 found that their number one priority was to publish a book that people will buy and, secondly, to build a career as a writer, sharing stories with others. Attaining success is not easy and, for a self-publishing author, it presents a particular challenge.

In my previous blog I highlighted five barriers to self-publishing success and showed how these could be overcome. I emphasised that, firstly, you have to demonstrate knowledge of your audience, then select an appropriate subject matter and, most obviously perhaps, write well. Add the assistance of an experienced editor and good design for both the cover and the internal layout and these factors combined will give you a great opportunity to maximise your success as a writer.

Unfortunately just removing these barriers is not enough. You now possess a beautifully crafted book, of which you are rightly proud, but you need to get it read, reviewed, discussed and debated. This is where discoverability comes in.

Discoverability is about making sure your title stands out from all the others competing for attention; and it is a very crowded and noisy marketplace. In the UK alone a new book is published every 20 minutes. This over-saturation of the market poses a daunting challenge for a self-publisher, as you have to ensure that your book finds its audience and that your readers find you. Your voice has to be heard so that your potential readers know your book exists.

Discoverability is down to the publisher or, in this case you as self-publisher, and it requires considerable effort. The reader’s role in the discovery process is, by comparison, somewhat passive. They will react to stimuli that provoke interest and thus learn about the existence of your book. As publisher you have to provide that stimulation and make the reader’s discovery an easy and inevitable process that then converts into a sale.

Books sell by a combination of active promotion and word of mouth. Promotion primes the process by drawing the attention of not only readers but also other influencers such as reviewers, bloggers and reader communities such as Goodreads. The ideal situation is created when, as more people read your book, like it, talk about it and then recommend it to others, the velocity of discoverability increases with more readers drawn into a virtuous circle that propels your book to commercial success.

But what are the steps towards discoverability? Although promotion is one of the cornerstones for commercial success it is a part of a much broader marketing activity. Marketing starts early in the process that is publishing your book. It is about understanding markets, defining your target audience, creating an audience development plan (which PPS can help you with) and identifying influencers such as the leading bloggers, reading communities, Twitter accounts, Facebook groups, and so forth that are interested in your genre/subject area.

Promotion is concerned with getting the message about your book to your target market and those influencers: enhancing discoverability.

Finally comes sales, the activity required to turn a lead into a sale. This will include demonstrating a USP – why your book is a ‘must-have’ rather than a ‘might-like’ – and the provision of discounts, offers and negotiation with retailers.

In marketing terms the complete selling process is frequently described as a funnel that represents, in sequence from the broad top of the funnel to its narrow tip: Awareness–Interest–Desire–Action.  Discoverability is concerned with that very first step, showing readers that your title exists. Solving this challenge is crucial and that means creating awareness among your audience. It is unlikely that more than a few readers will find you by serendipity or accident. Therefore, the process needs to be proactive and you have to take your book to the readers.

Andrew Rhomberg, the founder of Jelly Books (www.jellybooks.com), has identified five ways in which readers are stimulated to discover books beyond simple perusal of the Amazon or newspaper bestseller lists. These are:

·         Serendipitous discovery—the random stumbling over a book;

·         Social discovery—word of mouth and trusted recommendations;

·         Distributed discovery—discovering books from sources of distribution such as book reviews, conferences, blogs, etc.;

·         Data-driven discovery—books marketed to readers through data, such as apps or adverts personalised based on shopping habits or previous purchases;

·         Incentivized discovery—book giveaways, contest rewards, promotions, etc.

Consideration of these channels can help with your promotion plan as you determine how you can influence the discovery process.

The first thing to do is to put yourself in the shoes of the reader. Where do you find out about the books you like to read? Where do you search for these books? How do you search? Which of the five discovery channels above do you use most frequently, or infrequently? What is it about a book that catches your attention? How do you find out about new authors?

Many questions can be asked but the purpose of this activity is to identify how your readers behave. It continues and extends the ‘Need to know your audience’ that I highlighted when considering barriers to success. Having mapped this behavior in an audience development plan you can then more tightly focus your promotional activity.

So here are some tips and ideas.

TEN WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR DISCOVERABILITY

11)      Your personal website

Effective promotion for a self-publishing writer starts with the creation of a personal website that features you as the author and provides a showcase for you and your writing. You can engage a web-designer but at PPS we know that it is feasible to construct your own site quickly and easily using one of the many free or low-cost options, such as Weebly or Wordpress. If you do only one thing to enhance discoverability this should be it.

22)      Get active on social media

Your website should be supplemented by widespread use of social media promoting you and your books. Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and others can all be used to build a presence, generate interest and develop a following. The emphasis here is on proactivity. It is not sufficient to expect readers to discover you via a Google search. Readers normally search by title or author, which indicates that they are already know what they are looking for.

33)      Build contacts

One advantage of establishing an interested audience is that you can build a database of contacts and use this to communicate directly with these people in future. Obtain email and contact details as a minimum and add more data if you can, although there is a balance between maximizing your data gathering and turning away readers. A list of influencers and potential customers is a valuable asset. Regular communication with them ensures you maximize opportunities for promotion.

44)      Blogging

Regular blogging and blog tours are an important part of the promotion process. You are a writer so this should be easy! Offering opinion, providing comment and insight as well as responding to other blogs will raise your profile. There is a lot of information available on the web that suggests how you can use blogs to good effect. At PPS we monitor our website analytics and have noticed that regular blogging significantly increases website engagement.

55)      Community websites

Active participation in relevant reader community websites will grow your presence and build audience contact points. Use your blogs and website to facilitate the development of your own online reader community. This offers an opportunity for readers to gather, socialize and share their thoughts. Traditional publishers use this concept to establish a direct rapport with their readers, as do successful self-publishing authors.

66)      Offline activities

Authors have traditionally used book festivals to promote themselves and increase their profile. Although usually the preserve of traditional publishers who want to highlight their ‘stable’ of authors, festivals and other events provide an opportunity for the self-publisher too. Depending on the nature of your book these can include attending local interest societies, a reading at your local bookshop or library and school events. Such events lend themselves to printed books but it is possible, with some imagination, to promote your ebook effectively too through these kind of activities.

77)      Data

Website and social media sites can provide a lot of useful data and analytics about usage of your sites by visitors. It is possible to track the behavior of readers, their interests, buying habits and purchasing activity. Accessing and considering this information can indicate what is, or is not, generating interest and enable you to fine tune your web presence in order to maximize engagement with readers and influencers.

88)      Incentives

Offering readers an incentive to engage with your site or provide information such as email addresses is a classic way of driving more traffic towards you and your books. Sample chapters, free ebooks, free downloads of ancillary material, or even competitions, are all examples of incentives that can attract attention and encourage potential readers and customers.

99)      Reader devices

Unless you have decided only to publish in printed form it is important that your ebooks are compatible with the wide variety of reader devices available. Whether an ereader, smartphone, iPad, laptop or tablet your book should be available and look its best. At PPS we have seen many ebooks that are poorly laid-out or incompatible for certain devices. This applies to your promotional tools as well as to the book itself as readers will miss the discoverability opportunity if their device is not supported or the ebook is of low quality.

110)  Building sales advances

The principle objective should be to have sufficient advanced orders and sales leads to sell enough books on publication that you cover the cost of production. To achieve this you have to plan your discoverability campaign well in advance of publication. Traditional publishers have always done this, positioning their authors and books to maximum advantage so awareness and interest have been aroused and a desire created among potential readers. The successful outcome is a large pre-order and customers desperate to get hold of a copy of the book on the day of release. As a self-publisher you need to work on discoverability from the start and thus maximize your potential for commercial success.

And finally…

Commitment and persistence does pay. Review your audience development plan regularly, update it and add to it. Promotion should be frequent and regular, particularly so within social media and among online communities where acknowledgement is often ephemeral and your presence can be forgotten quickly.

Valentine's Day Advice from Heath Robinson

With Valentine’s Day almost upon us some words of wisdom on the subject of love and romance may be helpful for those looking to use St Valentine as an excuse to ‘pop the question’. Words to the Wise has the perfect guide for old-fashioned men who prefer to do the popping themselves (rather than waiting for a Leap Year and hoping that their partner does the popping for them). The advice in How to be a Perfect Husband by W. Heath Robinson and K.R.G. Browne certainly stands the test of time. The book covers everything from selecting a mate, courtship and proposal, the wedding and then married life, having children and finally the challenges of marriage for the middle aged.

William Heath Robinson was clearly a romantic old soul. Indeed, as Geoffrey Beare points out in his Foreword to our Heath Robinson titles:

Heath Robinson received much teasing from his family about the choice of subject for the second book, How to be a Perfect Husband, but looking back over his cartoons one finds that romance and courtship had been among his most frequently chosen subjects, from early ‘Cupid’ cartoons to such pictures as ‘The Coquette’ and ‘Stolen Kisses’ which were repro­duced in Absurdities in 1934.

Here are some selected extracts to whet the appetite for further invaluable guidance from Heath Robinson and Browne. As How to be aPerfect Husband is now available as an ebook you can get your hands on this vital pre-reading before Saturday. Firstly, we have the authors’ ideas for courtship and, in particular, for attracting her interest by sharing your beloved’s interests:

Is she an ardent swimmer, counting that day wasted on which she does not astound the onlookers with her skilful trudgeon? Then he must conquer his natural distaste for water in any form, master the rudiments of the breast-stroke, and flounder manfully beside her. (By the way, may I draw the attention of all to the Heath Robinson Bathing-Suit for Evening Wear, designed for formal aquatic occasions? Though we cannot hope to outshine the peacock, we can at least look pretty snappy as we stand poised at the water’s edge, bronzed and fit and the cynosure of all eyes.)

Another good way of attracting a woman’s interest is to give her things – pearls, small yachts, two-seaters, mink coats, and the like. The youth who cannot afford such gestures can try his luck with packets of cigarettes or bunches of cow-parsley; but naturally he will not get such quick results. As for the swain whose means will not permit him to lay even a bag of acid-drops at the feet of his adored, I can only advise him to take her for a series of moonlight walks. True, the British moon is seldom there when needed for this purpose, while in recent years it has been greatly over-advertised by dance-band vocalists with their mouths full (apparently) of suet; but the pale orb of night (copyright in all countries, including that little pinkish bit between Siam and China) can still be blamed for a good many announcements in The Times.

However, the nervous swain may be unsure that his romantic feelings are reciprocated by the object of his affection. Heath Robinson and Browne can help with this too:

Personally, I hold that the Tapioca Test is as good a method as any of deciding this vital question. The young man has only to take the girl out to dinner and at the appropriate moment offer her tapioca. The girl, naturally, will refuse with a delicate shudder, whereupon her cavalier should observe casually:  “No? Now, I could never marry a girl who didn’t like tapioca.” This is the crucial moment, for if the wench replies: “Oh, yeah?” and asks for a banana, it is clear that she is still heart-whole and fancy-free. If, however, she hesitates for about three seconds, and then says shyly: “On second thoughts, Mr. Dumbell, I think I will have some tapioca. It’s so delightfully vitaminous, isn’t it?” then her companion can fling up his hat and rejoice, for he has found True Love at last.

Once a man is sure his beloved is open to offers, he can contemplate making a proposal. Here again K.R.G. Browne provides valuable insight into the modern method of plighting one’s troth:

As to the actual manner of the proposal, this has changed considerably in the past hundred years. In the Victorian age, when men’s features lurked unsuspected behind a zareba of whisker, and the bustle was more of a garment than a habit, it took the form of a lengthy oration, delivered usually from the knees and prefaced by a gift of hollyhocks – or whatever flower it is that signifies to the initiated: “I’m that way about you, Baby.” Beginning: “Miss Throttlebutt, you cannot, I venture to believe, be wholly insensible of the nature of the sentiments I have long entertained towards you…” and ending, rather hoarsely: “…so let me implore you, dear Miss Throttlebutt – dare I call you Susan? – to put an end to my suspense and make me the happiest man in England – nay, in all Europe! – by bestowing upon me the inexpressible honour of your hand in marriage”, it lasted a full twenty-five minutes and did no good to the knees of the trousers.

But things are very different today. The modern suitor cannot absent himself from his office long enough to do the thing in the grand Victorian manner, while no modern girl can sit motionless and mum-chance for more than five minutes at a time. The modern proposal, therefore, is a brisk and business-like affair, averaging little more than a minute and a half from question-pop to troth-plight.

The direct method of attack, of course, is still the best: “Marry me?” “Yup,” Many young men, however, are compelled by circumstances, shyness, or an impediment in their speech to approach the subject in a more round-about manner; and it is for the benefit of such that Mr. Heath Robinson – as kindly a man as ever refrained from kicking a stray cat – has devised and illustrated divers methods whereby tongue-tied swains (though not necessarily divers; dentists, deans, and even dukes will find them useful, too) can convey to the Only Girl in the World that they are simply cuckoo about her.

To find out what Heath Robinson’s methods are for shy young men to propose I recommend that you purchase a copy of How to be a Perfect Husband (available from Amazon and all other good ebook retailers). A quick read before Saturday will ensure that your Valentine’s Day is everything you might hope for. Also, on the day that the film Fifty Shades of Grey opens in cinemas, many will prefer to turn to a more gentle approach to wooing a partner. Indeed, in How to be a Perfect Husband, Heath Robinson and Browne make it clear that they are strongly against wife beating (and, of course, husband beating too)!