Amazon.co.uk:
How did the idea for Short Books come about?
Rebecca Nicolson:
There were two things that inspired Short Books: when we were
working in journalism, we found that writers often suggested excellent ideas
for pieces which deserved more space than we could offer in our limited
newspaper slots. At the same time, publishers did not appear to be
commissioning books that were less than 40 or 50 thousand words and we felt we
could bridge the gap between newspapers and publishing. The other inspiration
came from our own reading habits. We wanted to read more and increase our
general knowledge yet somehow we never had the time to finish the huge great
doorstoppers that were arriving on our desks at an ever-increasing rate. The
solution for both problems was THE SHORT BOOK.
Amazon.co.uk:
What was the criteria for the Short Lives series?
Nicolson:
Short Lives is a series of 20,000-word biographies which go
backstage to tell the real-life stories behind the big events of the past. The
series focuses not on the iconic figures, the Churchills and the Mussolinis,
but on the sidelights, the unassuming protagonists who played a vital role in
their time and whose stories are all the more revealing because they come at
history from an oblique angle.
Amazon.co.uk:
The subjects of Short Lives are very varied--from the Elizabethan
Bess of Hardwick (
A Material
Girl) to King Camp Gillette, (
Inventor of the
Disposable Culture) the inventor of the disposable safety
razor--what made you decide to feature these figures in particular?
Nicolson:
We felt the subjects fitted the criteria above: some of them were
our ideas (King Camp Gillette, Bess of Hardwick ...); others came from the
authors (Adam Nicolson had just completed a paper on Carrie Kipling (
The Hated
Wife) for the Kipling Society and suggested she would make an
ideal subject for a short life; Edward Fox had looked into Alexander Csoma de
Koros--
The Hungarian Who Walked
to Heaven--as part of a larger investigation into unusual travel
writers, etc.)
Amazon.co.uk:
You have a very high calibre of authors writing for you--for
example, Paul Theroux and John Sutherland--did you find them easy to recruit?
Nicolson:
While working in journalism we built up a strong list of writers.
And those who worked for us have gone on to recommend us to other writers.
Amazon.co.uk:
You have two series forthcoming--Front Lines, reportage and
essays, including journalists William Leith and David Sexton on the state of
British teeth and the reclusive author Thomas Harris--and The H-Files--quirky
narrative non-fiction for children. Have you any thoughts to publish short
fiction or poetry in the future?
Nicolson:
We are publishing a collection of poems by WG Sebald this
Christmas but we have no other plans to publish more poetry. As far as fiction
goes, we may consider doing something in the future.
Amazon.co.uk:
Do you think the idea of Short Books exemplifies contemporary
living--not necessarily a short attention span on the part of the reader but
the brevity implied by the massive use of e-mail, text messaging etc and even
the need to cram as much as possible into day-to-day life?
Nicolson:
There is definitely a squeeze on time now that there are so many
more mediums for entertainment available and I am sure that Short Books is
partly a reflection of that. But there also seems to be a tendency in
publishing for books which could be half the length, which editors don't appear
to have either the time or the inclination to cut down.
