Haus Publishing

Alice, Lewis and Jenny

2010-03-10T12:09:00.003Z

Lewis Carroll: 10 Facts
Jenny Woolf is the author of our new book The Mystery of Lewis Carroll. She shared with us ten intriguing facts about the life of one of literature's most enigmatic figures.

1. Although Carroll went part way towards ordination as a priest of the Church of England, he was never fully ordained. He did not want to be a vicar with a parish, and was content to remain a mere deacon of the church and assist at service. Nobody has ever discovered exactly why this was.

2. Carroll paid for the publication of his books himself. Macmillan & Co’s name is on the spine, but Carroll organised and paid for the illustrations, printing and binding himself, in an early version of self-publishing. Carroll thought he’d be lucky to sell 2,000 copies, but “Alice” has sold so many copies that nobody can count them.

3. Alice’s illustrator, John Tenniel, was a really unusual choice of illustrator. A political cartoonist, he’d never illustrated any other children’s books. He was also very famous, and very expensive. But Carroll knew he was the right man for the job, and backed his intuition by paying Tenniel’s high fee.

4. At first, Tenniel refused to illustrate Through the Looking Glass, the follow-up to Wonderland. Carroll considered several other top illustrators before Tenniel finally changed his mind. Carroll paid him a fee for Looking Glass that was well over half his own annual income.

5. All his life, Carroll was very close to his family. The oldest son of eleven children, he took on all responsibility for his brothers and sisters after his father’s death.

6. When Carroll was young, his family was poor. They grew their own food and kept animals, and his father took in pupils to make money. He also educated Carroll at home till the boy was 12.

7. His father helped him find a good post at Christ Church, Oxford, where he became a mathematics tutor. Carroll was expected to be ordained as a priest and stay celibate as part of his job. If he did decide to marry, that was fine – but he would lose the job.

8. Even though it’s often said that Lewis Carroll was in love with little Alice Liddell, there’s no evidence for this at all. In fact, in his diary and letters, Carroll mentioned Alice’s brother Harry and her sister Ina more than he mentioned Alice. And he stayed friendly with Ina, not Alice, in later life.

9. Although Carroll is popularly supposed to have been a drug user, there’s no evidence that he took recreational drugs. In reality, he was a fan of homeopathy, using homeopathic remedies and administering them to his friends.

10. Carroll financially supported many humanitarian and medical charities without telling anyone. He also gave large sums of money to friends who were in need. This information was hidden in his bank account for 100 years, and only recently discovered.

Jenny's book has had some great reviews, including in The Sunday Times, The Daily Telegraph and The Wall Street Journal Europe. To see more about the book and reviews, click here.

Mandela and Smuts: Two anniversaries, two great leaders of South Africa. Could Smuts have prevented the Second World War?

2010-02-11T14:42:00.006Z

(Both leaders have statues in Parliament Square)

Nelson Mandela was released from Victor-Verster Prison in Paarl 20 years ago today.

90 years ago today, the Council of the League of Nations met in London for the first time. The man responsible for much of the Covenant of the League – and 25 years and a World War later for the Charter of the United Nations – was General Jan Christian Smuts.

As a founding father of the Union of South Africa, Smuts originally favoured apartheid. Yet Mandela wrote magnanimously of Smuts: ‘I cared more that he had helped the foundation of the League of Nations, promoting freedom throughout the world, than the fact that he had repressed freedom at home.’

As a student, Nelson Mandela went to hear Smuts speak. He recalls in his memoirs that his first impression was that he spoke better English than Smuts, but it is clear that he admired him.

In a book published today, General Smuts: South Africa author Antony Lentin recounts how, had Smuts’s advice on the Treaty of Versailles been heeded in 1919, a Second World War might have been prevented. The Treaty, he warned, ‘should not be capable of moral repudiation by the German people hereafter’.

Time and again at the Paris Peace Conference, greatly influenced by the magnanimity Britain had shown him and his Afrikaners after the Boer War, Smuts pleaded with the leaders of the Great Powers to negotiate with the Germans face to face. But he was outmanoeuvred – not least by our own Prime Minister David Lloyd George.

Smuts said that direct negotiation with the German delegation, representing after all the hopes of a liberal democratic Germany, would make the treaty’s ‘moral authority’ ‘all the more binding, free of unnecessary dictation’. And if you don’t, you will get a Diktat ‘signed at the point of the bayonet’, that will prove a mere ‘scrap of paper’.

Author, Antony Lentin, formerly a Professor of History at the Open University, is a Senior Member of Wolfson College, Cambridge, a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a barrister. Antony Lentin says, “Both were magnanimous men who embodied reconciliation.”

In all, three books are published today by Haus Publishing in the Makers of the Modern World series (£12.99 hb), marking the 90th anniversary of the meeting of the Council of The League of Nations in London:

The League of Nations by Ruth Henig (ISBN 978-1-905791-75-0);

General Smuts: South Africa by Antony Lentin (ISBN 978-1-905791-82-8); and

Paul Hymans: Belgium by Sally Marks (ISBN 978-1-905791-81-1)

The first title examines the League and its legacy today, one is on the extraordinary General Smuts, and his instrumental role in the formation of the League (and a great deal more besides), and one is on Belgium and Paul Hymans, the first President of the League.

Peace-meal

Launch event at the House of Lords

2010-01-15T10:41:00.004Z

This week we celebrated three upcoming titles in our Makers of the Modern World series.

On Wednesday evening, The Baroness Henig, author of The League of Nations, sponsored an event at the House of Lords.

The three new titles are all published by Haus Publishng on Thursday 11th January:

1) The League of Nations by Ruth Henig;

2) Paul Hymans: Belgium by Sally Marks; and

3) General Smuts: South Africa by Antony Lentin.

The 11th of February is a significant date, being the anniversary of the first time the League of Nations met in London in 1920. For Haus Publishing, the publication of these three titles brings us to the half-way point in the release of the 32-volume Makers of the Modern World series.

“the vastness of the work still called for”

2009-12-11T18:05:00.005Z

The words of President Woodrow Wilson on receiving the Nobel Peace Prize for 1919

Caption: President Barack Obama, 2009, with a detail of President Woodrow Wilson from Sir William Orpen’s painting: The Signing of the peace in the Hall of Mirrors, Versailles 28 June 1919.

Exactly 90 years ago today (10th December 2009) as President Barack Obama receives the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009, President Woodrow Wilson would have received his Nobel Peace Prize for 1919 on 10 December, following the signing of the Versailles Peace Treaty 6 months earlier. Yet unusually Wilson’s award was delayed and finally presented 10 December 1920 in a double ceremony with that year’s winner. The first presentation of the Prize following the end of the First World War.
In his acceptance speech, in an observation that mirrors today’s presentation, President Wilson said that he was moved “by a very poignant humility before the vastness of the work still called for by this cause".
One of Wilson’s lasting achievements following the Paris Peace Treaties, was his work in the formation of the League of Nations on 10 January 1920 – but only as a springboard to the United Nations after the Second World War. The League was to fail just before the outbreak of that war.
As part of their ambitious series Makers of the Modern World (32 books describing the personalities, events and legacy of the Paris Peace Treaties for each the 32 countries that took part in the war), Haus Publishing has recently published:

Woodrow Wilson: United States by Brian Morton.

On 10 January 2010, the 90 anniversary of the birth of The League of Nations, they will publish:

The League of Nations by Ruth Henig

Ruth Henig CBE is an Honorary Fellow at Lancaster University where she lectured in Modern History. She was made a Life Peer in 2004, becoming Baroness Henig of Lancaster. Her books include League of Nations (ed) (1973), Versailles and After 1919–33 (1984), The Origins of the Second World War (1985), The Origins of the First World War (1989), Weimar Republic (1998), and, as co-author, Modern Europe 1870–1945 (1997).

Peace-meal

Haus starts a new partnership - supporting READ International

2009-12-07T16:28:00.002Z

November 2009 marked the beginning of an exciting, new, sustainable partnership between Haus Publishing and READ International.

READ International, the 2007 Charity Times award winner for Best New UK Charity, began in 2004 and has shipped over 564,000 books to Tanzania for under-resourced and disadvantaged schools. READ is also currently supporting the renovation of dozens of school libraries so that access to these books is improved.

Learn more about READ and their work at: http://www.readinternational.org.uk/

Haus has provided READ with over 200 gratis books on history, biography and travel to support their 'recycling education' initiative.

Mannerheim: President, Soldier, Spy (Published by Haus in November 2009)

2009-11-12T14:51:00.002Z

“Mannerheim spent much of his life, as he put it, ‘racing the storm’, watching the political horizon… He was cursed, as he might have observed himself, ‘to live in interesting times’”

Gustaf Mannerheim was one of the key figures of the twentieth century, and is still a national symbol in his home country of Finland, where a 2004 television survey voted him the ‘Greatest Finn of All Time.’ Born in 1867, he served in the Russian army during his youth, witnessing the coronation of the last Tsar in 1896 and fighting in the Russo-Japanese war, then spent two years undercover in Asia, posing as a Swedish anthropologist as he took part in the ‘Great Game’ of espionage. He crossed China on horseback, stopping en route to teach the 13th Dalai Lama how to shoot with a pistol, and spying on the Japanese navy on his way home. When the Russian Revolution broke out in 1917, he narrowly escaped St Petersburg, then led anti-Bolshevik forces during the civil war in Finland. However, his finest hour arguably came at the age of 73, when he led Finland in the 1940 ‘Winter War’ against the Russians, his former masters.

Jonathan Clements’ biography is the first life of Mannerheim to be published for over a decade, and includes a significant amount of new historical material on Mannerheim’s time in China. Avoiding both the reverent attitude of older Swedish and Finnish accounts, and the sensational, myth-busting tendency of more modern writing, Clements portrays Mannerheim as human enough to grumble, when a long-coveted promotion brought with it a stamp duty charge of 4000 Finnish marks, ‘It’s a good thing they haven’t made me a more important man’, but also as the legendary leader who stated ‘The rights of nations are not defended by means of declarations… There must be the desire to defend one’s country by deeds and sacrifices.’ This encapsulated his country’s attitude; on hearing of the declaration of war between Finland and Russia in 1940, in which the Finns would be outnumbered at least five to one, one of his countrymen remarked: ‘We are so few, and they are so many. Where will we find the room to bury them all?’

Jonathan Clements lives and works in Finland and London. He has written biographies of Mao, Marco Polo and most recently of Wellington Koo and Prince Saionji in the Makers of the Modern World series.

He was interviewed on Finnish TV this week on the launch of his book: http://areena.yle.fi/video/542830

Jonathan will be speaking at the Finnish Institute at 6pm on Wednesday 18th November 2009 as part of the launch of this biography. If you would like more information about this event or the book itself, please contact Haus Publishing (telephone: 020 7838 9055) or email sustainability@hauspublishing.com

Mannerheim: President, Soldier, Spy
by Jonathan Clements is published by Haus Publishing in November 2009 (£17.99 hardback)

What about Simone Veil?

2009-11-03T10:58:00.004Z

Agnès Poirier made a convincing point in The Times last week about Blair’s bid for the EU presdidency. ‘What Europe needs is a figure that can incarnate the very idea of Europe, not a schemer who can pull his weight in the negotiations of banana exports. What Europe needs is a wise leader whose personal experience of the ordeals and triumphs of the 20th century makes for a commanding figure in the world, somebody who makes people stop and listen’. What’s needed, in short, is a candidate like ‘Simone Veil, a Holocaust survivor and French politician…the first elected President of the European Parliament and everybody there remembers her political clout and moral authority’. Having read her memoirs, published by Haus earlier this year, it’s hard to disagree that Veil embodies all the characteristics of the sort of president we should be looking for.

Sustainability e-books launched

2009-09-11T15:28:00.000+01:00

e-books now available for The Sustainability Project series

“A gift to sustainability science” - School Library Review, Sept. 2009

In 2009, Haus Publishing launched The Sustainability Project – a comprehensive 12 book series on climate change, globalization and sustainable development.

Written by leading international experts, each title focuses in depth on one of the critical environmental, economic and social pressure points that must be addressed by individuals and policy makers in the next thirty years.
Together, they give an unparalleled view of our responsibilities to the future.

The books are now being offered in e-book format, complete with bookmark, notes and search features.
Customers have the option to view 20 pages for free before committing to any purchase.
Institutional (multi-user) packages are available.
Please contact us and we can discuss your needs: sustainability@hauspublishing.com

For more information please see http://www.haus-ebooks.com/
£6.99 each or £4.00 for weekly access.

Economic crisis overcome by guile and persistence

2009-09-09T17:58:00.000+01:00

The ‘economic crisis’ currently facing many country leaders in Europe is just a sneeze compared to the crisis Karl Renner faced exactly 90 years ago tomorrow in Austria when he began the task of leading a new country left with land only able to produce:
- a quarter of the food it needed to feed its population, and
- a seventh of the coal the country needed for power etc.
(and it was impossible to cover these imports with exports, as all the export industries were stripped from German-Austria by the Treaty of St Germain-en-Laye.)

Yet by reading Karl Renner: Austria by Jamie Bulloch, published tomorrow (Thursday 10th September 2009) you realise that Austria survived and eventually prospered due to one man’s guile and persistence.

Karl Renner: Austria by Jamie Bulloch is published by Haus Publishing in the Makers of the Modern World series on the 90th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of St Germain-en-Laye with Austria (£12.99 hb ISBN 978-1-905791-89-7).

Peace-meal

Poland and The Second World War – the blue touch-paper was lit 20 years earlier

2009-09-02T12:00:00.001+01:00

It is interesting that today we all look towards Poland on the 70th anniversary of the start of the Second World War and its subsequent invasions. A major consideration must also be the festering, bitter resentment of German reparations demanded and enforced territorial distribution of the vanquished states following the First World War.

During the Paris Treaties (1919-23) the Polish Question was an issue that divided the Central Powers in their approach to reparations, reconstitution of Poland's territories and self-determination of minorities within the newly re-created country. Lloyd George, Clemenceau and Woodrow Wilson all had strong opinions on Poland's political and geostrategic importance, as well as its fervent desire to reconstruct its historical land.

These questions are all addressed in Ignacy Paderewski: Poland by Anita Prazmowska, one of 32 books being published by Haus Publishing within the Makers of the Modern World series. This series describes the personalities, circumstances and events surrounding the countries that were remade after the Paris Treaties.

Poland, a country poised to be reborn after its multiple partitions between the Prussian, Russian and Austro-Hungarian Empires, became a pawn for the Central Powers who all wanted a strong Poland for different reasons. Its restoration was seen as a problem which had wider European implications.

Ignacy Paderewski: Poland by Anita Prazmowska is published on 7th December 2009, the 90th anniversary of the date Paderewski resigned in 1919

(Picture Caption) Ignacy Jan Paderewski, pianist of international renown. His main repertoire included Chopin and Liszt. Polish delegate to the Paris Peace talks. Before the outbreak of the war he was associated with Polish exile groups campaigning for the restoration of Poland. The outbreak of the war led to his abandonment of his musical career and focus on highlighting the Polish case, mainly in the United States. On his arrival in Paris in April 1920 he could count on securing the support of the international statesmen for Poland’s aspirations, as he knew most of them personally and was very much socially at ease in the Paris salons.

Peace-meal

In 80 books around the world

2009-08-17T12:11:00.000+01:00

When Haus published its first Armchair Traveller in 2005 we chose a very special location for the launch: commemorating the 100th anniversary of the death of Jules Verne who lets Phileas Fogg place his bet, that it is possible to circumnavigate the globe in 80 days, in the Reform Club we decided to do the same. In the glorious library of that London club I promised the assembled crowd that we would publish 80 books which would enable everybody to travel around the world without living the comfort of their armchair.

I am pleased to say that we are almost there: we have published 29 of these very distinctive (almost) square books so far, we have added a few paperbacks (easier to carry) and some beautifully linen-bound gift books to the mix and let our authors take us up rivers, across oceans, over mountains and along some seriously dusty paths. We have searched for Eden, went on the Hajj and reached the end of the earth. And it was always them, our authors, who had to do the hard work: they got sea-sick, stung by the mosquitoes or had to nurse their blisters along the way. Their descriptions made it possible that we could smell the spices, taste fish and hear the muezzin as if we had been there ourselves. As one of them put it: read journeys are often more vivid and always less dusty.

And in order to speed us along the way around the world I have enlisted the help of some publishing friends: first came the American University in Cairo Press, who added world-class literature from the Arab world to the mix. And then Barnaby Rogerson introduced me to his wonderful series 'Poetry of Place'. When our friends from Arris Publishing let us have some of their marvelous Traveller's History books I decided to rearrange the bookHaus and group the books on the shelves by country. And by continents, of course, if we count Antarctica and the Liquid Continent as Nicholas Woodsworth called the Mediterranean. Don't forget the oceans, from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

If you are going away - you lucky devil! - I think I will have a book on your destination to slip into your travel bag. If you have just returned from the trip of a lifetime you might enjoy reminiscing with a book about your dream destination. Or alternatively, if you have decided to stay at home, mindful of your carbon footprint, then do come to the bookHaus, sit in the Armchair which inspired the series, have an espresso on the Haus (pardon the pun) and let your eyes do the traveling. In 80 books around the world!

Launch of The Sustainability Project

2009-08-03T10:52:00.000+01:00

The Sustainability Project

A 12 book series facing up to the challenges posed by climate change and globalization

How much more can our planet take?

The Sustainability Project aims to present the key issues of climate change, globalization and sustainable development in an accessible format. By arming each and every one of us with the knowledge required, we can all understand the science and take meaningful action.

On Monday 13th July, The Sustainability Project was launched at the RSA in London, with 200 RSA Fellows, guests and interested members of the public attending. During the panel discussion, three of our expert authors presented their books through topical discussions on the issues of today in each of their respective fields. Our Guest Speaker, Jeremy Legget, added insights from the solar sector in relation to his work with Solarcentury. The panel chair, Tricia Holly Davis, was fantastic in leadnig the discussion which generated some very relevant and thought-provoking questions from the audience.

Click here to listen to the audio: http://www.thersa.org/events/audio-and-past-events/the-sustainability-project-how-much-more-can-our-planet-take

Panellists included:

Klaus Hahlbrock, Professor emeritus of Biochemistry, Vice President of the Max Planck Society and author of Feeding the Planet
Stefan H E Kaufmann, Professor for Microbiology and Immunology, founding director of the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, Berlin and author of The New Plagues
Harald Müller, former adviser to Kofi Annan, Head of the Peace Research Institute, Frankfurt and author of Building a New World Order
Guest speaker: Jeremy Leggett, social entrepreneur, founder and chairman of Solarcentury and SolarAid and author of The Solar Century

To purchase individual titles or the 12-book series of The Sustainability Project, visit our website: http://www.hauspublishing.com/books/13

For more information and background, please visit the commissioning foundation's website - the Forum for Responsibility in Germany: http://www.forum-fuer-verantwortung.de/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=54&Itemid=59&lang=en

For review copies, press releases or more information on The Sustainability Project, please contact: sustainability@hauspublishing.com

A hidden nugget about Boris Johnson

2009-07-23T15:19:00.000+01:00

Tomorrow, Friday 24th July, marks the 86th anniversary of the day Turkey signed the Treaty of Lausanne. It is a fitting time to publish the second in the Makers of the Modern World series that was announced last autumn: From the Sultan to Atatürk: Turkey by Andrew Mango (price £12.99 hardback on its own, £9.99 to subscribers of the series).

32 nations fought in the First World War. This 32-book series looks at the seminal events surrounding the Paris peace treaties through the eyes of the key leaders involved – genuinely the Makers of the Modern World.

Andrew Mango’s text is full of intriguing background stories giving context to the events and decisions surrounding the Treaty.

Boris Johnson’s great grandfather, Ali Kemal enters the story on page 150. Ali Kemal is a journalist too, but he is also an advisor to the Sultan. Ali Kemal is hated by the nationalists, whose lynch mob beat him to death. Andrew reveals that the panic at the brutal death of Ali Kemal caused the last Ottoman Sultan to flee his palace and was pivotal to the fall of the Ottoman Empire.

Following Ali Kemal’s death, Turks who had cooperated with the Allies in Istanbul were terrified and they sought refuge in the embassies and consulate of Allied states. It stoked the panic that caused Vehadettin, the last Ottoman Sultan to flee the Ylidiz Palace at dawn, smuggled out in the back of an ambulance to a waiting British warship on 17th November 1922. The full story in the book has other colourful details surrounding the event.

Andrew Mango is the author of Atatürk (1999), The Turks Today (2004) and several other books on the region. He was head of BBC Turkish broadcasting for 14 years, and later Head of its South European Service.

Picture Caption: Ali Kemal’s wedding

The New Communities Writing Workshop

2009-07-01T10:43:00.001+01:00

We were honoured to host to the New Communities Writing Workshop at the bookhaus on Monday evening. It was the last session of a 12 week course and a chance for the participants to read their work to an audience. The New Communities Writing Workshop is sponsored by English PEN. Click on each of the images below to enlarge.

Marion Drew reading her poem The Sandwitch

Carlo Bellanova, who read an extract from his fable In Memory of a Tomato

Stephen Ifill prepares for his reading

The New Communities Writing Workshop is made possible for English PEN readers and writers through the support of MRC, Lottery Funding and the John Lyon's Charity, part of the Harrow School Foundation.

Review of WHY THIS WORLD: A Biography of Clarice Lispector

2009-06-08T11:48:00.000+01:00

We are delighted to be publishing Benjamin Moser's biography of the celebrated Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector in August - and here's the first reviewFrom Publishers Weekly:

Why This World: A Biography of Clarice Lispector by Benjamin Moser

This pioneering biography of Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector (1920–1977)—a genius of character as much as a literary magician—captures the luminescent and singular author for an English-speaking audience that may not be familiar with her. She was born Chaya Pinkhasovna in 1921; soon after, her family left pogrom-torn Ukraine, arriving in Brazil in 1922. She became a law student seeking justice for prisoners and then a journalist, and in 1943, around the time of her marriage to a career diplomat, Lispector published her first book, the critically esteemed Near to the Wild Heart. The life of the roving diplomatic wife took its toll on the visionary and strikingly beautiful Lispector, who also had a longtime love for the homosexual poet Lúcio Cardoso among others. One of her sons was diagnosed as schizophrenic, which further fostered Lispector's sense of isolation. Among her champions was Elizabeth Bishop, but Lispector remains under the Anglo-American literary radar. This well-researched biography by Moser, New Books columnist for Harper's, should send readers in search of this indescribable author, whose work in many ways is closer to cabalistic writing than to more contemporary modernists like Woolf, Kafka or Joyce. 37 b&w photos. (Aug.)

On this day 30 years ago...

2009-05-04T11:34:00.000+01:00

4 May 1979 – Margaret Thatcher became the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, following the defeat of James Callaghan's incumbent Labourgovernment in the previous day's general election.

To find out more about the 20 Prime Ministers of the 20th century don't miss our anniversary promotion: buy the whole set for £99 - this is a promotion ends 30th May 2009. Please contact: bree@hauspublishing.com

Famous in Finland

2009-05-04T09:10:00.000+01:00

A forthcoming Haus book has already attracted attention in Finland, where it has made the pages of the country’s best-selling newspaper, the Helsingin Sanomat. Mannerheim: President, Soldier, Spy chronicles the adventures of a cavalry officer in the Tsar’s service, who spent two years crossing China on horseback and posing as an anthropologist. In fact, Carl Gustaf Mannerheim was one of the Tsar’s secret agents, spying on China to allay Russian fears of a new war in the Far East.

Mannerheim was a career cavalry officer, who gave up the easy life of a palace guardsman in Saint Petersburg for active service fighting the Japanese in Manchuria. After his two-year spying mission in China, Mannerheim found later fame as a general, regent and eventually president of Finland, which broke away from Tsarist Russia amid the upheavals of 1917. He is mainly remembered for leading the country’s defence from Soviet attack in WW2. But Marco Polo author Jonathan Clements was drawn to the oriental adventures of the young Mannerheim, who taught the 13th Dalai Lama how to use a gun, sent home notes on the Japanese navy in invisible ink, and once accidentally camped on top of the site of the legendary Terracotta Army. In particular, Clements was intrigued by the young Mannerheim’s feud with the French explorers who were supposed to provide his cover story.

The distinguished orientalist Paul Pelliot was forced to take Mannerheim along on his own cross-Asia expedition as the price of a visa for Russian Turkestan. Pelliot was increasingly jumpy about the presence of a spy in his party, and the military Mannerheim and the scholarly Pelliot were constantly at odds, eventually icily parting company.

But while Mannerheim’s thoughts on Pelliot are known, Pelliot’s impressions of Mannerheim have only been made available recently, with the publication of Carnets de Route, Pelliot’s account of his own Asian journey. Mining this new French-language source for detail, Jonathan Clements found himself suddenly facing enquiries from eager Finns, keen to add to the country’s cottage industry in Mannerheim Studies, several months ahead of the book’s scheduled publication.

The Helsingin Sanomat article is now available in online English translation here:

http://www.hs.fi/english/article/British%20historian%20writes%20book%20on%20Mannerheim__s%20journey%20through%20Asia/1135244374867

Mannerheim: President, Soldier, Spy will be released by Haus Publishing in October 2009.

The New Plagues: Pandemics and Poverty in a Globalized World

2009-05-01T15:20:00.000+01:00

Stefan H. E. Kaufmann's contribution to The Sustainability Project is out today; we promise that we haven't embarked on any viral marketing.

Professor Kaufmann's book is probably the most topical book possible at the moment - accessible, comprehensive and up-to-date, it deals with the ‘new plagues’ that threaten every one of us. Yes, we can fight the spread of transmissible diseases; we have the knowledge and the financial means, but innovative approaches are called for to change political will and make a real difference.

“It is not the strongest species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change.” (Charles Darwin)

Pathogens are proving to be the major winners in the globalization of our world: microorganisms are able to respond to changes and adapt to new situations faster than any other form of life on Earth. A pathogen that affects one person in the city of Oaxaca, Mexico can spread to the entire world within one to two days: more than ever before people are in constant interaction with each other. We are witnessing a resurgence of transmissible diseases – and we only have ourselves to blame. Multiple factors linked to globalization (e.g.travel and international food trade) are opening up unprecedented opportunities for pathogens. But humans also have more means to defend themselves against pathogens than ever before. We understand precisely how they emerge and cause diseases; we are able to detect outbreaks promptly; and we have at our disposal an arsenal of diagnostic agents, vaccines, and drugs. What we lack, however, is a determined will to act, to apply the available resources, and to develop new strategies. We have shown ourselves incapable of supplying poorer countries with vaccines and antibiotics in sufficient quantities. And now, in the 21st century, we are running out of options. Drugs and vaccines simply generate too little profit for the market to provide sufficient incentives for their development and production. New, innovative approaches are called for, but we need to act now.

In The New Plagues: Pandemics and Poverty in a Globalized World, Kaufmann first introduces ‘The Invaders’ and ‘The Defenders’: in a scientifically precise but immediately accessible style, he briefly explains the biology and survival strategies of microorganisms, before presenting the types of defenses the human body mounts to fight them. He goes on to discuss those transmissible diseases that are of greatest concern at the moment, and the means we have available for treating and preventing them. The results are surprising; respiratory infections are number one, particularly TB, which he dubs ‘The White Plague’. This is closely linked to HIV/AIDS, and particularly dramatic increases have been seen recently in Eastern Europe, East and Central Asia. He then address the question of why today’s world is a rich breeding ground for ‘old’ diseases, such as cholera and malaria, and new pathogens, like SARS or the H5N1 virus.

Finally, and most importantly, he proposes workable solutions for preventing new outbreaks of infectious diseases and for combating existing ones. There is a comprehensive chapter on governmental and non-governmental organizations whose mission is to uphold the basic right to health stated by the UN Charter. Kaufmann frankly evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of, e.g. the IMF, Doctors Without Borders, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Kaufmann also peppers his text with proverbs and wisdom he has collected from all over the world. They serve to highlight that, at a basic level, this is a universal human problem that demands a simple common-sense approach, and this is what he delivers. During the five minutes or so it will take you to read the introduction to this book, fifty people – not just in a remote village in Africa – will have become infected with HIV. In addition, tuberculosis will claim seventeen lives, and malaria will kill ten children. Had we already done what we are capable of and exploited our resources more effectively, many of those people would still be alive. “If you think you’re too small to make a difference, try sleeping in a room with a mosquito.” (African proverb)

Shedding light on 'The Dark Side of Love'

2009-04-29T09:48:00.000+01:00

My personal favourite of all the titles published by Arabia Books, Rafik Schami's beautiful Syrian epic, The Dark Side of Love, is receiving wonderful reviews from as far afield as the USA and Oman.

Publisher's Weekly have recommended it as one of their Summer Reads, aptly describing it as:

"A doorstop of a novel, this story of love and blood feuds set in Damascus, filled with myths and legends and enough tragedy to last a few lifetimes, opens with a murder and goes deep into a century of Syria's history, politics and religion. Break out the baklava and let it rain."

And in the blogosphere, qunfuz has given a glowing and insightful review, invoking Marquez and Tolstoy, as well as the Arabian Nights, to describe the range and compass of Schami's writing.

It is the ideal book for the summer, but it comes with a word of warning: make sure you've got a few clear days of uninterupted reading, because once you begin, you will be so gripped that wherever you are, and whatever the weather, you'll be with Rana and Farid in stormy, enchanting Damascus.

India meets Arabia

2009-04-23T17:17:00.000+01:00

The London Book Fair 2009 closed yesterday, but will be fondly remembered by the Haus team because it gave us the opportunity for a double celebration: exactly one year ago, when the London Book Fair had its sights firmly focused on the Arab World, we founded a new company called Arabia Books. This year, when the market focus was India, we launched our fifth co-publishing project with Penguin India: Shah Jahan by Fergus Nicoll follows in the footsteps of a brilliant biography of Gandhi by Rajmohan Gandhi, the grandson of the Mahatma, the glorious photographic book of the only Indian Magnum photographer Raghu Rai and two travelogues by Ilija Trojanow, one describing his journey along the Ganges and another which best symbolizes the connection between last year and this year's London Book Fair: From Mumbai to Mecca.

Anybody who has visited the Taj Mahal will know the story of Shah Jahan and his beloved wife Mumtaz. But maybe only part of the story. Fergus Nicoll places the Taj Mahal itself in context, within the span of Shah Jahan’s long rule and his three marriages. Commissioned in 1631 after the death in childbirth of his second, Shiite wife, Arjumand ‘Mumtaz-Mahal’, the glittering monument took twelve years to complete, at a cost of five million silver rupees, approximately 2½ percent of annual imperial revenue. Yet in the long and frequently bloody tale of Shah Jahan – general, rebel prince and patron of the arts – the tomb to Mumtaz-Mahal plays but a small part. This is a complex tale of romance and violence, of marital fidelity and clan betrayal, of exquisite artistry and ugly intolerance. For the Mughal court was a world where brutally violent politics, internecine conflict, pedantic quadruplicate bureaucracy and high art all coexisted under the same royal roof. Before his usurpation by his own son, Shah Jahan reigned for 32 years as an enlightened despot: a man who endowed countless social and cultural projects but who ignored plague rampaging through the countryside.

Prince Khurram won the title Shah Jahan from his father, the Emperor Salim Jahangir, after serving him loyally in a series of military campaigns against enemies both internal and external. But then, his ambitions frustrated, he turned renegade and launched a disastrous attempt on the throne that left him in the wilderness, his every step dogged by imperial troopers, for six arduous years. As emperor – in the wake of the murder of Jahangir’s protégé, Dawar-Bakhsh – he moved away from the free-for-all hybridised religion of his grandfather Akbar to a more entrenched and conservative Islam, yet managed Sunni-Shiite sectarian tensions and the rival ambitions of subordinate Hindu princes to preserve the integrity of a multi-faith court, bureaucracy and army. Above all, he was a creative man and an aesthete: accomplished in and appreciative of the disciplines of the poet’s metre and the architect’s drawing-board – a man whose legacy will for ever be measured in the stones that he had laid: the fortresses, mosques, schools, caravanserais and gardens now crumbling in all corners of his vast empire.

In reconstructing this intriguing tale from contemporary documents, including the vivid pen-portraits and panegyrics of court biographers, Shah Jahan’s own stern edicts and a surprising volume of correspondence with the neighbouring Persian Empire, new light has been shed on many old mysteries. For the first time it is revealed why Mumtaz-Mahal was cast aside for five years between their engagement in Kabul in April 1607 and their eventual marriage at Agra in May 1612. For the first time, too, the emperor’s staggering personal wealth is made clear, with the ruling family and no more than seven hundred named individuals dividing between them a treasury that dwarfed that of any contemporary European monarch and enabled Shah Jahan to spend eye-watering sums on vanity projects such as the eleven-million-rupee Ornamented Throne. As well as delving into the archives, Nicoll has travelled the length and breadth of Shah Jahan’s empire to find new evidence of his military campaigns and his architectural legacy.

Christopher Somerville on BBC Radio 4 Excess Baggage

2009-04-11T16:00:00.000+01:00

If you have missed Christopher Somerville talk to Sandi Toksvig about his book Somerville's 100 Best Walks then you can listen to it again by clicking HERE

Italian Earthquake

2009-04-10T09:18:00.000+01:00

The whole Haus family is happy to report that one of ours is safe and well. Patricia Clough, the author of our Armchair Traveller books on Umbria has emailed from Italy: 'We feel the quakes, which are no fun at all, but mercifully we are too far away to have suffered any damage.' The Umbrian hills, where Patricia lives, are located on the same fault line as the centre of the earthquake of L'Aquila. In previous years her region was not as lucky as it was this time: the famous Basilica di San Francesco in Assisi was hit by the devastating twin earthquakes that shook Umbria in 1997 and severely damaged, but reopened less than 2 years later. It is our firm hope that the neighboring province of Abruzzo will prove equally resilient, but in order to show our support Haus will donate 20% of each copy of Umbria by Patricia Clough sold through the bookHaus (please contact bree@hauspublishing.com) to a charity identified by the author to help the victims of the earthquake.

Spring Awakening

2009-04-04T12:50:00.001+01:00

Just a quick note from the bookseller of the group.... The bookHaus is looking particularly adorable and spring-like at the moment, with a fresh bunch of new publications on display. Prepare for the shameless sell...

Up first and taking centre stage is the wonderful and epic story of murder and forbidden love, The Dark Side of Love by bestselling Syrian author Rafik Schami. It is published for the first time in the UK by our imprint, Arabia Books. We can't praise it highly enough. Rafik is a fantastic storyteller and The Dark Side of Love has just been longlisted for the Richard & Judy Book Club, so hopefully he will be the new name on reader's lips.

There is also the essential summer companion, Somerville's 100 Best Walks by renowned Telegraph columnist Christopher Somerville. As you might have guessed, it's a collection of his 100 favourite walks around the UK, with hand illustrated maps and a handy list of watering holes along the way... We hope to organize a walk in London to promote the launch of the book, so keep your eyes peeled on the Haus blog for more information on that, and other upcoming events.

Other new titles this month include Umbria and Budapest in our Armchair Traveller series and two more books, Overcrowded World? and The Earth, from our topical 12 book series, The Sustainability Project. So get over to the bookHaus if you want them hot off the press!

A vade mecum of French life as lived from the 1930s to the Present Day

2009-03-23T18:04:00.000Z

‘The Life story is a debased genre, but occasionally someone writes one who actually has something to say. Simone Veil is one of those.’ Read former Europe Minister Denis MacShane’s full review of A Life, A Memoir by Simone Veil from last Sunday's Observer here.

The Past is the Present

2009-03-19T09:32:00.000Z

When he first took office in 2005, President of Hungary László Sólyom undertook to spend part of every Hungarian National Day with one of the Hungarian minorities in neighbouring countries- minorities created when the Treaty of Trianon deprived Hungary of two-thirds of her territory and half her population. This year, 2009, President Sólyom had planned to spend the afternoon of 15 March- the National Day on which Hungary commemorates the 1848 revolution- with part of the Hungarian minority in Transylvania, the region of historic Hungary awarded to Romania by the Treaty. The Romanian authorities initially gave permission for the President’s aircraft to land at Marosvásárhely in Transylvania. At the last minute, this permission was annulled for no apparent reason. The President, aged 67, was therefore obliged to travel 700km to that region of Transylvania (Szekélyföld) by car; his car was held up for 20 minutes at the Romanian frontier. He delivered a speech, in a snowstorm, on one of the battlefields of the 1849 War of Independence and then travelled another 700 km by road back to Budapest, arriving in time to preside over the traditional ceremonies on the morning of 15 March.

This all too characteristic act of spite by the Romanian government towards the Head of State of a partner in the European Union indicates that Bryan Cartledge, in the Epilogue of his book about the Treaty of Trianon Károlyi & Bethlen: Hungary, was over-optimistic in predicting that the accession of Hungary’s neighbours to the EU “should reduce the significance, and the damaging impact, of the frontiers drawn up by the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. The old animosities, legacy of a flawed Treaty, smoulder on.

all this will be discussed at the Book Launch
Tuesday, 24 March 2009 7.30 pm

Károlyi & Bethlen: Hungary

The Hungarian Cultural Centre, in association with Haus Publishing Ltd., is pleased to host the launch of Mihály Károlyi and István Bethlen: Hungary by Bryan Cartledge.
The book forms part of a 32-volume series, Makers of the Modern World: The Paris Peace Conferences 1919-23, Their Aftermath and Legacy, edited by Professor Alan Sharp. The individual volumes in the series seek to illuminate the deliberations and the legacy of the delegates, representing 32 nations, who tried to create ‘the peace to end all war’. Each volume looks at the history of one or more of the countries involved, intertwined with the life or lives of those who were sent to take part in the negotiations. Although Mihály Károlyi had left office by the time that Hungary was at last invited to attend the Paris Conference, he was deeply involved in the events which preceded the invitation; and István Bethlen not only attended the Conference but dealt, as Prime Minister, with the tragic consequences for Hungary of the Conference’s decisions. In this new account, built around the lives of these two men, Bryan Cartledge examines the genesis of the Treaty of Trianon and describes its legacy.

Sir Bryan Cartledge served as British Ambassador to Hungary from 1980 to 1983, and subsequently as Ambassador to the USSR. From 1988 until 1996, he was Principal of Linacre College, Oxford. His first book on Hungary, The Will to Survive: a History of Hungary, was launched at the HCC in April, 2006 and its two editions have sold out. It was published in Budapest in Hungarian, under the title Megmaradni, in July, 2008.