The Penguin Blog

Take the Anna Karenina challenge

The average novel probably takes the average reader just a couple of weeks to read, (assuming you’re fitting it in around everything else you’ve got going on).

Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, at an admittedly hefty 829 pages, will undoubtedly take a lot longer, but then again, it most certainly isn’t your average novel…

To give you an idea of quite how brilliant it is, when the great American novelist William Faulkner was asked to name the three best novels ever written, he replied: ‘Anna Karenina, Anna Karenina, Anna Karenina.’ On top of that, the likes of Vladimir Nabokov and Fyodor Dostoyevsky have praised it as one of the most magical and perfect novels ever written.

                   

In other words, it’s long because it’s a rich and complex masterpiece; a multi-layered tale of love and adultery set against the backdrop of high society in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. And with a lavish-looking film adaptation due out in September, starring Keira Knightley and Jude Law, with a screenplay by none other than Tom Stoppard and direction from Joe Wright (of Atonement and Pride and Prejudice fame), there’s never been a better time to start reading it.

So we’re setting you, and ourselves, the challenge of reading (or re-reading) this incredible book before Christmas.
 
Given that, on average, we read 200 words per minute, this 200,000 word novel should take you, the desperate-to-be-distracted commuter, approximately 1000 minutes to read. And given that there are around 5000 commuting minutes remaining until Christmas, we reckon this is easily achievable.

If we all add up the time we spend staring into space on the train every morning and evening, or even just steal an extra 20 minutes before bed, we’ll have devoured it in no time.

We’ll all be reading it here at Penguin HQ, blogging about our progress and reactions along the way, and we’d love you to get involved too - whether on your own, with your book group, or with friends – by letting us know how you’re getting on.

So, here we go. Watch this space for our first update next week, where we’ll be discussing our reactions to the opening, and the implications of that first line…

 

Dion Wilson
Marketing Assistant, Penguin Press

 

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Internationally acclaimed author, Michelle Paver, shares the inspiration behind her new series Gods and Warriors

Michelle Paver is the international bestselling author of Wolf Brother, and the first in her brand new series for Puffin, Gods and Warriors, publishes on 28^th August. Read all about her inspirations, research and insights into the Mediterranean Bronze Age … 

A boy is on the run in the mountains.  His camp has just been attacked by mysterious warriors in black rawhide armour.  Now his dog is dead, his sister's missing, and he's running for his life.

This is where it all starts for the hero of my new five-book series, Gods and Warriors.  Like my previous series, Chronicles of Ancient Darkness, it takes place in prehistory; but this isn't Stone Age Scandinavia, it's the Mediterranean Bronze A ge.

I've loved this period since I was a child, when I pestered my mother to visit the mummified animals at the British Museum, and I devoured Roger Lancelyn Green's luminous retellings of the myths of Ancient Greece and Ancient Egypt. Gods and Warriors is my attempt to recreate the spectacular, exotic, magical world of the great Bronze Age civilizations: the Mycenaeans, the Minoans and of course the Ancient Egyptians. 

This was a time of enormous uncertainty, when survival depended on the vast, unpredictable forces of the wild: the sea, the sky, earthquakes, volcanoes.  It was a world in which the stranger you meet on the mountainside might just be a spirit in disguise, and the falcon circling overhead might be a messenger from the gods...

Over five books, Gods and Warriors will follow the story of Hylas, the Mycenaean outsider who starts life as a goatherd, but grows to be a hero.  It's also the story of Pirra, the daughter of the High Priestess of Keftiu (Crete), and her quest for freedom.  And it's the story of the three wild creatures who will become their best friends: a dolphin, a falcon and a lion.  (And as in Chronicles of Ancient Darkness, parts of each story will be told from the animal's point of view.)

I've been travelling to Greece and Egypt for decades, but to create the world of Gods and Warriors, I went back and tried to experience as much as I could of what Hylas, Pirra and their dolphin ally will experience in book one. 

In Greece I explored the Cretan ruins of Knossos and Phaestos, as well as lesser-known sites in the Peloponnese, including the hugely evocative Menelaion outside modern-day Sparta, and the eerie underground cave system at Vlychada.  I also spent several days wandering the Taygetos Mountains; and to get to know dolphins, I swam with a socialized one in Florida, and then with wild dolphins in the Azores.  That was an unforgettable experience which, more than anything else, helped me imagine what it's like to be a dolphin.

But I don't do this research in order to teach, or to show how painstaking I've been.  I do it to make the story real.  I want the reader - whether they're nine or ninety, boy or girl - to feel that they're right there, living the adventure alongside Hylas and Pirra.  And of course that means leaving out most of the research, and only including the odd startling detail which will bring it alive without slowing it down.

So as I said, Gods and Warriors is an adventure, and like Chronicles of Ancient Darkness, it's written mainly with children in mind.  However one of the things I'm enjoying about writing it (if this doesn't sound too pretentious) is that the great themes of fate and free will, hubris and nemesis, do seem to arise naturally from the Bronze Age world, and to cry out for dramatization.  And of course I'm also having quite a lot of fun being a dolphin, a falcon and a lion.

So that's Gods and Warriors.  I really hope you enjoy it.

Michelle Paver

www.michellepaver.com

 

Interning at Penguin: Hear from Kalle, Penguin Press social media intern

There are three things that I’ve learnt which I believe you should know about Penguin. Or actually four, but the last one isn’t out until November.

Number one, the people here are daring. This is what I’m Thinking, Fast and Slow as I make my way through the suited crowds on the Strand and into the Penguin Towers. Everyone on this street might look like a penguin, but it is my t-shirt clad self who’s actually one (or as I see it, won). In my generation, publishing is not the most popular career or the safest either. But it’s incredibly rewarding. That saying about dead fish swimming with the current? Applicable to penguins too. It takes guts to go down this path, to not follow the crowds to investment banking. And that’s why people here are driven by unusual Paper Promises: exceptional books.

Which leads me to my second point: that the work at Penguin is groundbreaking. I’m reminded of this everyday as I walk down the corridor at Penguin Press. One of the most respected brands in publishing, it’s in this division that books are printed not because they’ll be successful, but because they’ll change the world. These are works that further knowledge, add to the public conversation and offer pioneering ideas. They’re Pathfinders; Where Good Ideas Come From; The Better Angels of Our Nature. The risks here aren’t really risks: when you publish a phenomenal book and it doesn’t sell very well, you will have still made a difference. And when The Black Swan eventually surfaces, you know the world will never be the same. Working here is like Moonwalking with Einstein, or rather, several of them: charting unknown territory; taking small steps for humanity; dancing instead of walking.

And that’s why, thirdly, the internships at Penguin are unlike any others. Work and fun here are not mutually exclusive, not in social media marketing. It’s all about disrupting platforms; outdoing your predecessors. That means you have to be as creative as you possibly can. Sometimes my ideas seem outrageous even to myself, but it’s often those insane concepts that end up making the cut. In my role as a social media intern, I’ve run several successful competitions on Facebook and Twitter, contemplated our strategy, reached out to influencers, put up a new Tumblr website (http://penguinpress.co.uk) and much, much more. Instead of coffee runs, I’ve been given responsibility and taught How to be an Explorer of the World, sitting in on meetings from Penguin Australia to the next Spanish bestseller.

Which, by the way, is phenomenal and the fourth thing you absolutely need to know about. Let’s go back in time to my third week here: I’m Feeling Lucky. I’ve just read the manuscript for one of the biggest titles this autumn and now I’m taking part in an exclusive meeting on its upcoming marketing campaign. They’re talking about how they’re going to make the author a celebrity in the UK. And not just talking; detailing exactly how that’s going to happen. ‘I’m so excited,’ one of the editors says with a smile on her face. She has no idea: I can barely sit still. I wonder if they can tell?

Weeks later, I’m asked to stay on as a freelancer in the company and help execute a digital marketing campaign for the book. I can hardly wait. And I promise, neither can you, in approximately 2-3 months.

So, the gist of it all? Don’t follow trends. Set them. That Spanish bestseller? The Yellow World by Albert Espinosa. Out? 1 November. Facebook? At www.facebook.com/theyellowworld My internship? The best ever. Your next job application? Addressed to Penguin Books UK, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL.

Kalle Mattila
Penguin Internship Scheme

The Penguin Essentials: Part 2.

Don’t judge a book by its cover, goes the adage. All well and true, but how wonderful is a book with a cover as lovely and enticing as its insides? And how great is it when you choose a book based – don’t judge, everyone does it – on its irresistible cover and find that, in doing so, you have accidentally stumbled across a writer destined to be a favourite for ever? That’s how I first came to read The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett, and I will be forever grateful to the designer of the edition I idly picked up for introducing me to the addictive pleasures of hard boiled crime.

Which brings me to the Penguin Essentials, Mark Two (featuring, I’m happy to say, The Thin Man). What are the Penguin Essentials? Exactly what they say on the tin, that is to say, truly essential books. But what does that mean, I hear you ask, and what are the criteria for choosing these ‘essential’ titles? Well. These are books that have stood the test of time, that are still read and loved today, that will change the way you look at things, and linger in your mind long after you’ve turned the final page, redesigned with beautiful, unexpected new covers.

www.penguin.co.uk/essentials

Richard Bravery and the Penguin General Art department did a fantastic job with the first set of Penguin Essentials last year and they have really pulled out the stops with our second Essentials collection. From In Cold Blood, Truman Capote’s chilling reconstruction of the brutal murder of a Kansas family to The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Muriel Spark’s tale of a schoolmistress no-one will ever forget, there is a book here to appeal to everyone – with covers to die for, by a diverse and exciting group of artists, illustrators, and designers.

For obsessive hoarders like me, these are beautiful editions (and, ahem, affordable pieces of original art) that are crying out to be added to your bookshelf. And, for readers coming to these books for the first time, the Essentials offer the enviable chance to discover a whole bunch of new favourite books, with covers as wonderful and intriguing as their contents.

 

Sophie Missing
Assistant Editor, Fig Tree

 

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Interning at Penguin: Hear from Nadia, designer with Special Sales

Recently I’ve found myself leaving the house earlier and earlier in the morning; I never thought I’d have a job that I couldn’t wait to get to, and Designer with Special Sales at Penguin Books is it.

The simple fact is that everyone at 80 Strand says hello in the morning, and I get smiles from people in the corridor (sometimes having no idea who they are or what they do). I don’t know where that impression of ‘people in London are so miserable’ came from; learning from my simple life up North, I even started talking to people on public transport! And found that anyone will chat back.

This, and the fact that I really love what I’ve been doing. Sitting on InDesign all day is a dream job; I play around with existing book covers and make actual books, I’ve designed a presentation, which will continue to be used in the future; I’ve amended book covers that have actually gone to print, and brought profit into Penguin. It’s all very exciting.

What I have really loved over the past two months is the fact that I’m treated like a part of the team. Jobs come in quickly in Special Sales, sometimes with tight deadlines, and I do them and so contribute to the team. I get invited to all the meetings, and all the (paid-for) breakfasts and lunches. And drinks and dinners. This has been a great opportunity to get to know people outside of work, and experience the world of publishing with Penguin. I’ve been doing a Masters degree in Publishing in Edinburgh, and the Scottish publishing industry – though I’ve always known it was small – is like another world. Although feeling like a tiny fish in a massive pond for a while, I’ve liked getting to know the structure of Penguin and where I fit in.

As I knew I was moving to London for two months from Edinburgh, I brought a couple of books with me. I now have three massive piles sitting on my desk, and scattered all over the floor. Walking up the corridor on Floor 7, a telltale crowd give away the fact that things have been added to the pulp shelf. The pulp shelves often harbour some rare find, or a book that ‘I’ve been meaning to read’. Going along to sales meetings has also meant getting to see new releases that won’t be on the shelves until Spring 2013, and just when I’m getting excited about something (like Emily McKay’s The Farm) I get given a proof copy. Being a book-lover and hoarder, that’s another thing I love: the books that are around the office, piled on desks and spilling out of bookshelves, being proudly displayed as a top seller. I love the shouts of excitement (and the celebratory prosecco) coming from sales when a book is at number 4 in the Amazon charts.

Most importantly, this internship has reaffirmed the fact that publishing is what I want to do, and Penguin is where I want to be.

 

Nadia Suchdev
Pearson Diversity Summer Internship Programme

 

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CEO Tom Weldon introduces Penguin's internship schemes

I am extremely proud to introduce the internship schemes that run across Penguin. From the Penguin Internship Scheme which was newly-launched for 2012 to the positive-action traineeships like the Pearson Diversity Summer Internship Programme and the Helen Fraser Fellowship, there are a wide range of opportunities to get involved with the company and start your career in publishing.

These programmes exist to try and open up the prospect of a career in publishing to as wide a group of people as possible. As we all know, getting into publishing can be incredibly tough and so the premise behind our programmes is to give our interns a meaningful, paid experience at Penguin and a proper introduction to the publishing world. Each manager who hosts an intern has to come up with a project for the person to get stuck into during their time here – i.e. on our internship schemes you won’t be confined to the photocopier!

But don’t take my word for it – some of our current interns have kindly agreed to write for the Penguin Blog so you can see first-hand what life is like for an intern at Penguin. 

 

 

 

 

 

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