Are You Right There, Father?

We asked around in Little, Brown Towers for some recommendations for Father's Day gifts: you can see the full list of ideas here, but these are some of the most interesting reasons behind the choices...

"As a committed -- in fact a professional -- tree-hugger (he’s a forester) and green-living chap, my dad has very admirably renounced air travel out of concern for the environment. So I’ll give him a copy of Richard Grant’s brilliant Bandit Roads, so that he can relive the wilderness escapades of his younger days without leaving his living room!" Rowan, Little, Brown, Abacus & Virago Editorial

"As he’s a bit of a closet muso, I’ll be giving my dad Things the Grandchildren Should Know for Father's Day this year. Written by the wonderful Mr E of the Eels, it charts his bizarre and dark childhood, his adventures in LA and how he eventually broke into the music scene, then constantly reinventing himself with each new album. More than just the stories of his weird and wonderful life being enough to satisfy any music nerd, it also has a great ‘sitting round the kitchen table’ feel to it, as if E is right there with you, talking about his love of crazy girls, over a PG tips. It’s honest and relaxed and very hard to put down. Also, a really beautiful cover so it looks like a very stylish gift." Caroline, Sphere Editorial 

"I nominate Christopher Moore’s A Dirty Job.  It’s the touching, exciting, poignant and downright hilarious tale of a newly widowed Dad trying his best to raise his little girl while holding down his highly unusual new job: Death." Darren, Orbit

"Catching Life by the Throat – to flatter the literary Dad." Lennie, Virago

"Attention All Shipping! It’s a very witty account of the author’s slightly shambolic travels around all the areas of the Radio 4 shipping forecast, finding out exactly where places like Area Lundy actually are, who inhabits them and what goes on there. My dad loves the author’s warmth and humour, and the way his journeys usually result in misadventures, which he retells with self-deprecatory wit. I’ve talked to several people in-house whose dads love it too – one ignored his family completely while he was reading it (and he read it twice)! Charlie is the sort of author you feel you’ve made friends with as you read his books, and my dad’s been nagging me to let him know when Charlie’s next book will be published (it’s actually January 2009)." Sarah, Hachette Digital

Posted 13/06/2008 12:25:49 by Simon Sheffield, Digital Content Manager with 0 comments.