Blog
It's Summer Time!
Although it might not feel like it, British summer time officially started on Sunday. If the sun isn't shining outside make sure it feels like summer in your kitchen with Simon Dougan's recipe for Summer Pudding, from his cookbook, The Yellow Door. 
What you will need - 400g mixed summer berries, plus extra to serve : around 50ml dessert wine, Madeira or sherry : icing sugar to taste : 10 slices of white bread, crusts removed and halved lengthways clotted cream, to serve Serves 4 - Purée half the berries with the wine in a blender. Taste for sweetness and add a little icing sugar if necessary. - Line four individual pudding moulds, about 150ml capacity each, with clingfilm. I recommend using three or four layers to ensure that the clingfilm goes right down into the edges. Simply place the layers of clingfilm on top of one another on your work surface, flatten and use as normal. (This is a good tip for lining any kind of mould.) - Line each mould with the pieces of bread, first dipping each slice into the purée on one side. Place the dipped sides out against the mould. Overlap the slices, and make sure that each mould is completely lined. You should have 4 pieces left to make lids. Give the remaining berries a little crush with the back of a spoon and then divide them among the four moulds. - Spoon about three-quarters of the remaining purée into the moulds, dividing it equally among them. Cut a circle of bread to cover each mould neatly. Dip the circles of bread in the reserved purée before using to cover the puddings, dipped sides down. Cover the tops of the moulds with clingfilm and place on a tray. Weigh the moulds down with cups or cans, ensuring the puddings are under a little pressure. Chill for at least 3–4 hours or overnight. Unmould the puddings, remove the clingfilm and serve with clotted cream and extra fresh berries. © Simon Dougan, taken from The Yellow Door: Our Story, Our Recipes |
Yule B-Log
7 December 2009
’Tis the season to be jolly once again, and if any of you have ever been lucky enough to attend a celebration catered by The Yellow Door you’ll know that their wonderful range of canapés are second to none.
In addition to sharing some of their party-planning expertise, The Yellow Door: Our Story, Our Recipes features a delicious array of nibbles and drinks perfect for impressing your friends and family this Christmas. As a special Christmas treat from Blackstaff Press, here’s a mulled wine recipe from the book that is guaranteed to get your guests into the festive spirit!
Yellow Door Mulled Wine
Mulled wine is great for a family Christmas get together. I love to serve it with mini mince pies and petit-four-sized Christmas puddings. Cheesy I know, but it certainly puts everyone in the festive mood.
Serves 20
450g unrefined brown sugar
3 vanilla pods, split lengthways
10 cloves
3 star anise
1–2 cinnamon sticks
grated zest and juice of 2 unwaxed oranges
grated zest and juice of 2 unwaxed lemons
4 bottles medium- to full-bodied red wine, Rioja, for example
500ml cranberry juice
1 orange, sliced
1 lemon, sliced
Place the brown sugar, vanilla pods, cloves, star anise, cinnamon sticks, orange zest and juice, and lemon zest and juice in a pan. Bring to the boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar and simmer over low heat for 30 minutes to extract the flavour from the aromatics.
Place the wine, cranberry juice and sliced orange and lemon into another pan, then strain in the syrup. Place over medium heat and bring to the boil. Taste to check the sweetness and add more sugar as necessary.
Serve the mulled wine straight from the pan, or pour into jugs.
Variation
Non-alcoholic Mulled Wine
Use the same recipe to make drivers and kids feel part of the party, too: simply use grape juice instead of the wine and reduce the sugar by half.
© Simon Dougan, taken from The Yellow Door: Our Story, Our Recipes
4 November 2009
As a lover of great books I’ve always felt very proud of the rich literary tradition we have here in Ireland.
And it is, undoubtedly, thanks to authors like
Sam Hanna Bell that we are internationally renowned as a place where the arts thrive. So it was fitting that on Friday 16 October, on the centenary of Bell’s birth, a distinguished crowd assembled to pay tribute to his life and work, the grand surroundings of the Linen Hall Library providing a fitting backdrop to the line-up of speeches, poetry and song.
Poet Paul Muldoon treated the crowd to a reading from his foreword to
A Salute From the Banderol, describing the awe he had felt as a young BBC producer working alongside Bell, who, in fact, ‘needed no production whatsoever’ and who ‘understood more profoundly than anyone … how to combine narration, dramatic dialogue, music and sound effects to conjure mystery and magic’.
We are delighted that
A Salute From the Banderol brings some of the ‘mystery and magic’ Bell brought to his work as a radio broadcaster into print for the first time by including three of his radio scripts. And you can still visit
A Man Flourishing, an exhibition celebrating his legacy, running at the Linen Hall’s
Vertical Gallery until 14 November.
Ireland’s continued contribution to world-class literature is the focus of
The Great Irish Book Week (Saturday 24 – Saturday 31 October 2009). Thirty titles, including Blackstaff’s own
Flying Finn and
Tales of the Dogs, have been selected by an independent panel to give readers a taste of the fantastic range of books being published in Ireland today. If you buy any book from the list displaying a Great Irish Book Week sticker you will receive a free copy of Be Inspired – Gems from Irish Publishing – a 208-page paperback containing an extract from each of the thirty recommended reads.
I can’t think of a better way to support Ireland’s authors and publishers and of ensuring that we can continue to take pride in our nation’s literary excellence for many more years to come.
JS
29 October 2009
Islandmore on Strangford Lough provides inspiration not only for Mike Faulkner, author of The Blue Cabin and Still on the Sound (available soon), but also for his wife Lynn McGregor RSW, who is a professional artist, painting semi-abstracted landscapes.
Lynn has a solo exhibition running at Ross's, May Street, Belfast at the moment. It opened on Tuesday night and is running until Friday. Mike and Lynn were interviewed on Radio Ulster's Arts Extra last night and there's lots more exciting publicity for Lynn, and for Mike's new book, to come.
Visit Lynn's website to view the paintings from the exhibition, and keep an eye on the Blue Cabin website for all the latest news from the island.
9 October 2009
Hello all. This is not only my first blog as a member of the Blackstaff Press team (having only started on Monday morning) but it is also my first blog ever. Unlike my namesake Julie Powell of Julie and Julia fame I have, to date, been a stranger to what I believe they call ‘the blogosphere’ but it’s great to have finally arrived.
I’m also very fortunate to have arrived at Blackstaff at a really exciting time, just as a number of our forthcoming titles are on their way to press and the launches for recent titles are taking place. Indeed this Sunday (11 October) we’ll be making our way up to Ballymoney where Flying Finn, Stephen Davison’s tribute to Martin Finnegan, one of Ireland’s best-loved and most successful road racers, will be launched at the Joey Dunlop Leisure Centre between 1.30 and 5.30pm. While next Friday evening sees the launch of A Salute from the Banderol: The Selected Writings of Sam Hanna Bell as part of a weekend long programme of events at the Linen Hall Library to celebrate the centenary of this great Northern Irish author’s birth.
Hope to see some of you there, and now that I’ve cracked this blogging business I’ll be sure to keep you all up to date with any future Blackstaff books or events I think you might enjoy.
JS
11 September 2009
John Martin's Tales of the Dogs: A Celebration of the Irish and their Greyhounds is out now. The launch of the book is on Wednesday 16 September, but my husband and I had an amazing introduction to the greyhound racing experience at Shelbourne Park last Saturday, when we went to the semi-final of the Irish Greyhound Derby.
We soon got a general grasp of the terminology and by the end of the night, were feeling confident enough to place combi bets. We're now hooked and my husband is off to the bookies at lunchtime to place our bet for tomorrow night's Derby final . . .
Thank you to Orla and everyone at the Irish Greyhound Board for a great night.
27 August 2009
The August bank holiday weekend is a great time to cook for family and friends. The weather forecast looks woeful, for NI anyway, but this lovely recipe from The Yellow Door: Our Story, Our Recipes is sure to brighten the rainiest day.
Seafood Stew with Saffron and Tomatoes
This golden-orange fish stew is one of my favourite suppers to share with friends. It is easy to prepare, very versatile and just hits the spot in late summer – a ray of sunshine in a bowl.
Serves 6
3–4 tbsp olive oil
2 onions, thinly sliced
1 leek, white part only, finely sliced
4 garlic cloves, chopped
2 glasses of white wine
1 x 400g can tomatoes
500ml fish stock
pinch of dried chilli flakes
large pinch of saffron threads
grated zest of ½ lemon or orange
2 bay leaves
bunch of marjoram stalks
bunch of parsley stalks
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1.5kg mixed fish, such as hake, mullet and monkfish, skinned, filleted and cut into chunks
500g raw shellfish, such as mussels, clams and prawns, scrubbed and beards removed from mussels
2 tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley or coriander leaves
Heat the oil in a large frying pan or skillet. Add the onions, leek and garlic and cook for 3–4 minutes. Do not allow to colour. Add the wine, tomatoes, stock, chilli flakes, saffron and lemon or orange zest. Tie the bay leaves into a bunch with the marjoram and parsley stalks, then add them to the pan with some salt and pepper. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat to low, and simmer for 25 minutes, after which time the tomatoes will have started to break down. Give the tomatoes a squash with a wooden spoon to help them along.
Add the chunks of fish, firmest fish first, and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the shellfish, discarding any open mussels or clams that do not close when tapped, and cook for a further 4–5 minutes until the prawns are cooked and the mussels and clams have opened. Discard any unopened mussels or clams.
Remove the bunch of herbs and add the chopped parsley or coriander. Serve the stew immediately, with big chunks of crusty bread and a bottle of well-chilled crisp white wine.
© Simon Dougan, taken from The Yellow Door: Our Story, Our Recipes
21 August 2009
I haven’t read Liam McIlvanney’s
All the Colours of the Town but already I’m looking forward to it. Set between Glasgow, where I was born and grew up, and Belfast, where I’ve now spent nearly half my life, I couldn’t fail to be drawn to McIlvanney’s crime thriller. And it’s had a great press – a quick look on Amazon shows that it’s had 32 reviews since it was published on 6 August. Good going, by anyone’s standards. I must admit I’m biased in favour of this novel, not just because of the Glasgow-Belfast content but also because I’ve met Liam and he is sharp as a tack and is blessed with that dry wit that I associate with both cities. He also comes from impressive writing stock – he’s the son of celebrated Scottish writer William McIlvanney, who wrote
Laidlaw, a terrific crime novel and an inspiration for Rankin’s Rebus novels. I still remember my excitement when I read
Laidlaw about ten years ago, and here’s why:
‘Laidlaw sat at his desk, feeling a bleakness that wasn’t unfamiliar to him. Intermittently he found himself doing penance for being him. When the mood seeped into him, nothing mattered. He could think of no imaginable success, no way of life, no dream of wishes fulfilled that would satisfy … He was drinking too much – not for pleasure, just sipping systematically, like low proof hemlock. His marriage was a maze that nobody had ever mapped, an infinity of habit and hurt and betrayal down which Ena and he wandered separately, meeting occasionally in the children. He was a policeman, a Detective Inspector, and more and more he wondered how that had happened. And he was nearly forty.’
Liam McIvanney is reading from
All the Colours of the Town in
No Alibis on Wednesday 26 August at 7 p.m.
18 August 2009
I’ve finally discovered Stuart Neville’s The Twelve, after everyone else in the world, it seems. I was having coffee with Glenn Patterson yesterday and he asked me if I had read The Twelve. I remembered that I’d heard something about it on William Crawley’s Sunday Sequence but weirdly I thought it was called The Seven! Anyway, having heard from Glenn the story of how the novel came to be published and of how gripping and interesting he thought the book was, I rushed out to get it. And when I got to work this morning I was full of excitement, ready to tell everyone about it, only to find that most people already knew about it. Damn!
The last novel I read about the North was David Park’s wonderful The Truth Commissioner. I’m interested to see what Stuart Neville can do with a similar kind of territory. Will keep you posted.
Blackstaff Press Poetry Lung Soup 14 August 2009
Lung Soup, by Andrew Elliott
Lung Soup draws the reader into a surreal and dangerously unstable world. This new collection blurs the boundaries between fact and fiction and dreams and reality to create a powerful portrait of of the creative mind. Lung Soup is an extraordinary collection of breathtaking poetic range and imaginative daring.
An exclusive extract from Andrew's powerful second collection, Lung Soup.
Great Beauty
Amy is not a great beauty – lipless, hipless, I could go on –
but her red hair is to the wind what the word wind
is to the mind of a woman like Sabrina who can remember
the red flags flying from the guns of the ships in Kiel harbour
and who would later take the train to Berlin in time to hear
proclaimed too late – from a balcony of the Kaiser’s castle,
backlit by crystal chandeliers – in words that were carried away
by an east wind bringing to the twilight snow like a message
indecipherable to all but the few, that Sabrina should pass herself
off as a boy and find herself rising on a steep learning curve
at whose pinnacle her heart was to glow like a star and then
come falling back to earth like a charcoal sketch by Käthe Kollwitz
of a woman in whose eye, had you been there ... standing behind her ...
waiting for a tram ... watching her watching ... over her shoulder ...
you’d have noted like an ember ... flaring in the wind ... Berlin,
like a strongman, having brought them so close, preparing
to part them like a chest expander ... when suddenly the wind
blows Amy over (as gusts can do to all such tall, untethered things)
and Sabrina, looking neither left nor right, shouts, I’m a doctor! –
L’me through! It fools no one but people are people, what can they do?
Hail a cab! shouts Sabrina, cradling Amy, who’s a little concussed,
in her lap. A cab in its own good time pulls up and Sabrina asks,
Where do you live? Amy, oddly, can’t remember so Sabrina
says, I’ll take you to my place ... She shouts an address in Wedding
and the driver, like a Doberman pinscher, would have sniffed at it
over his shoulder if Sabrina hadn’t snapped, And where the hell
are you from driver, Dalldorf ? Had I been that driver I’d have driven
like the wind drives all before it with an eye on the rearview mirror.
Return to The Blue Cabin 5 August 2009
When I first arrived at Blackstaff over three years ago, one of the first books I worked on was Mike Faulkner’s first book, The Blue Cabin: Living by the Tides on Islandmore. I loved this book from the first time I read the manuscript and, whenever I look at it to check something quickly – such as the way a page was laid out, or to check the ISBN – I find myself drawn back in.
Mike has written a new book for us, which we’ll publish in October. To read the rest of this article, including an extract from Mike's new book click here
John Richardson 30 July 2009
We had a visit this morning from our Amazon-storming author, John Richardson. John's book, Dream On: One Hacker's Challenge to Break Par in a Year was number one sports book on Amazon for a week, and made number thirteen on the overall chart. It's still riding high and selling brilliantly, and we're all delighted.
John signed 50 copies of his book for us when he came in, and these copies are available to buy exclusively from the Blackstaff website and via our direct order line (0845 1200 386 (UK); +44 (0) 28 9073 0112 (outside UK). First come, first served, for a signed first edition!
HW
Greyhounds 24 July 2009
It has been a very busy couple of weeks here. At this time of year, a lot of our autumn books go to print, which often means that I wake up in the night worrying about the punctuation of a caption or the colour of the book's endpapers.
Tales of the Dogs: A Celebration of the Irish and their Greyhounds will be going to the printers on Monday. It's a 192-page hardback, with more than 120 photographs and illustrations, so it's a whopper. I have loved working on it – knowing very little about greyhounds, coursing or racing, I have learned so much and everyone from the world of greyhounds who has helped with the book has been terrific. The book should be available at the beginning of September. Keep an eye on the website for more information.
I have yet to go to a race, though, and am looking forward to experiencing at least some of the Irish Greyhound Derby at Shelbourne Park in September. And hoping to make a trip to our local track at Drumbo before too long. New book, new hobby?
HW
08 July 2009
I am very much the type of person who hoards things. I never throw anything out, and I have kept every book, CD and video that I’ve ever bought, despite quickly running out of storage space. This is a trait that I have been very grateful for of late, because this month I found, and have been reading, boxes upon boxes worth of old X-Men comics.
X-Men has been running since the 1960’s so, as you can imagine, trying to get a hold of all of the back issues is a near-impossible task. I have been doing what I can with the help of Ebay, Amazon and our local comics store, Forbidden Planet but it’s not enough – I haven’t even made a dent into obtaining all the back copies of every issue, every stand-alone or every spin-off.
So this has raised a new issue with me – while I have always been adamant that I would never succumb to the new-fangledness of an e-reader, preferring instead the real thing, I do have to admit that e-books may have their advantages. Many X-Men issues are now long out of print, with little hope of re-appearing (at least in an affordable format) and I think it would be fantastic, given that this may be the only way I could ever read these, if Marvel were to release and sell e-versions of all backlist titles. Though I suppose I wouldn’t envy the person who had to scan all of those in!
MG
10 June 2009
DREAM ON
There are many stages in a book’s life, from agreeing a cover design and presenting the title at sales meetings, to editing, proofreading and printing. But there’s no more exciting part of the process than when the book comes in from the printer – although you’ve seen the pages and cover separately countless times, the book itself is always much more than the sum of its parts and somehow becomes something completely new once printed.
So when the book has come in, we’re able to start sending it out – to the author (of course), to all the people who have worked on it, and to the media for review coverage. Cue another big moment: when the book makes its first media appearances.
Dream On: One Hacker’s Challenge to Break Par in a Year is one of our books currently making its media debut. It's the fantastic story of a standard weekend golfer who set himself the challenge of breaking par in a year – which meant he needed to take 33 strokes off his game. Author John Richardson appeared on the Saturday Magazine show on BBC Radio Ulster last weekend, got a great feature in the Irish News this Saturday, and a business-led piece in last night’s Belfast Telegraph supplement. We’re looking forward to much more coverage to come, as well as a continued online sales drive.
To find out more, keep an eye on the Blackstaff blog, John’s blog, and follow John on twitter.
26 May 2009
Fully refreshed after our three-day weekend, I am very much looking forward to the official launch of C.L. Dallat’s
Year of Not Dancing which takes place this Thursday (28th May 2009) at 6.00 in the Welcome Centre at Queen's.
Cahal is a wonderful poet and so I am very much looking forward to a glass of wine and the chance to hear him read again.
If you are reading this and feel like coming along yourself, please do – all are welcome!
28 April 2009
Just in time to watch my newly-purchased Twilight DVD, I have finally finished reading the saga by Stephanie Meyer. I thoroughly enjoyed this teen-fantasy saga and now feel almost lost without my fix of Forks. Imagine my pleasant surprise to find then that the author has a long term plan to add to the series by re-writing the first book from the perspective of Edward – a much more likeable character than Bella, the heroine of the series – and calling it Midnight Sun.
Unfortunately this good news is tainted somewhat by the revelation that a rough draft of the first twelve chapters made its way illegally onto the internet, causing Meyer to postpone indefinitely the release of this title – though to her credit, she has now permitted a version of these chapters to appear on her own site, www.stepheniemeyer.com. A shame for the fans, but a lesson in the fallout of copyright theft nonetheless.
I may just have to make do with another of her titles, The Host which is due for a new paperback release later this year.
16 April 2009
This week, and more than I usually do, I am looking forward to the weekend. The reason for this is that the John Hewitt Spring Festival is on this Saturday.
The events will be taking place at Carnlough’s Londonderry Arms Hotel on the Antrim coast and (as usual) they have a winnng line up. This, the seventh John Hewitt Spring Festival, offers an exciting day of literature and the arts with Polly Devlin, Brian Keenan, Hector McDonnell, Colette Bryce, Chris Spurr, Malachi O’Doherty and Anne-Marie Fyfe.
Blackstaff are particularly pleased to announce that one of our authors, C.L. Dallat will also be reading from his new poetry collection, The Year of Not Dancing at 4.30.
So make sure to visit www.johnhewittsociety.org for further information and to book your tickets!
7 April 2009
OK, so I’ll be the first to make the inevitable leap from discussing the printed word and drag down the tone of the entire blog by extolling the wonders of television.
Red Dwarf is back on our screens this Easter weekend thanks to the Dave channel on cable / satellite. Having watched the shows religiously, and read all of the books in the collection (see, I’ve made the connection to books somehow!) I am very excited to see how the creators take this much-loved series forward.
And, now that Lent is nearly over, I will be able to plonk down on the sofa, surround myself with chocolate and juice, and have a very Happy Easter indeed.
Hope you all have a great one too.
5 March 2009
Happy World Book Day everyone.
I hope that these adverse weather conditions (namely the inch of snow which resulted in my having to dig out my poor car this morning!) hasn’t put anyone off travelling to a local bookstore; clicking on Amazon’s book section; or even trading with the people in your workplace, for the latest addition to your bookshelf.
Blackstaff are particularly proud to have made our own small contribution to World Book Day by donating some of our back catalogue to the good people at Oxfam Books. The team at the Rosemary Street store will be offering free tea and coffee all day to help us warm up from the cold, so grab some of the old, unwanted books which are cluttering up your shelves and donate them to a good cause. And of course, if you happen to find a replacement read while you’re there … all the better!
Happy reading!
27 February 2009
How valid or authentic is the best historical fiction? Can the contemporary writer really enter – even partially – into the consciousness and language of another era? How or when exactly, in fact, do we conceptualize the boundary between the contemporary and non-contemporary? What about writers like Tolstoy or Shakespeare, for whom the historical setting was an essential imaginative category?
If you find yourself asking yourself these questions on a regular basis, then you need to get down to the Belfast Book Festival’s debate on historical fiction this evening in the Linen Hall Library.
These and other fascinating questions will be discussed by the English novelist Toby Litt, the Irish novelist Ronan Bennett, and the Irish critic and biographer Patricia Craig. The debate will be introduced by Chris Agee, Editor of Irish Pages, and moderated by the broadcaster William Crawley.
Toby Litt’s most recent collection of short stories is I Play the Drums in a Band Called Okay (Penguin, 2008). Ronan Bennett is the author of six novels, most recently the historical thriller Zugswang (Longitude Books, 2006). Blackstaff author Patricia Craig’s most recent book is a memoir, Asking for Trouble.
26 February 2009
I went to two events at the Belfast Book Festival yesterday. Simon Dougan, author of The Yellow Door, gave a cookery demonstration at lunchtime, and Kate O’Hanlon, of Sister Kate fame, gave a talk yesterday evening (of which more later). Both events were really well attended and great fun – felt very lucky, once again, to be in a job that involves great authors and the odd jaunt out of the office.
Simon’s demonstration was very impressive as – due to fire restrictions – he couldn't use any heat. So he showed us all how to make three simple but delicious canapés that don’t require much cooking – hot-smoked salmon with crème fraiche and horseradish in crisp wonton wrappers; beetroot, Boilíe goat’s cheese (now made at Fivemiletown Creamery) and baby rocket on melba toasts; and crab in Thai red curry dressing on croûtes.
Simon prepared enough for fifty of us, while chatting and answering questions, within an hour. Very inspiring and, as my husband had to go back to work before he could try the last canapé, I’m planning to make it this weekend.
The recipe for the Thai Red Curry Dressing is as follows:
3 garlic cloves
1 red chilli, roughly chopped
3cm piece fresh root ginger, peeled and chopped
1 lemongrass stalk, white part only, chopped
freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp Thai red curry paste
4 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp nam pla (Thai fish sauce)
grated zest and juice of ½ lime
bunch of coriander leaves, chopped
1 tsp honey
100ml groundnut oil
Place the garlic, chilli, ginger, lemongrass and salt in a food processor and blitz to a paste. Add the curry paste, soy sauce, nam pla, lime zest and juice, coriander, honey and oil and blitz again until everything is just combined. Add a little more oil if necessary – the mixture should have a soupy consistency. Serve immediately, or store in a covered container in the fridge – it will keep for 2–3 weeks.
At yesterday’s event, Simon avoided the food processor, and instead grated the ginger and garlic on a fine microplane grater, finely chopped the lemongrass, roughly chopped the coriander and mixed everything together. Made for a dressing with more texture, I think, and a quieter demonstration!
Simon then stirred the dressing into fresh crab meat, spooned it onto wonton croûtes and we all tucked in.
24 February 2009
Today is the start of the Belfast Book Festival and I’m feeling really excited about it. Okay, I know that sounds a bit exuberant but, come on, Belfast is going to have its own Book Festival! Woo hoo! That really is something to celebrate.
Apart from the fact that there should be more people buying books – always a good thing in my book (groan!) – it just seems that large groups of people gathered together talking about books and writing and publishing and all those wonderful things can only be a force for good in the world. I think it’s great that the Festival is embracing all kinds of different genres and styles in its programme – from kids and schools events to cookery, poetry, and creative writing workshops.
We’re really pleased to be involved in the Festival as a supporting partner and a number of our authors are involved in events. Look out for Simon Dougan at the Linen Hall Library at 1 o’clock and Kate O’Hanlon in The Central Library at 7pm, both events taking place on 25 Feb.
Me, I’m looking forward to taking a couple of wee ones to the Hullabaloo performance of Peter Pan at the Central Library on Saturday morning. Brandishing a cutlass and eye patch, of course.
9 February 2009
I recently heard of a great initiative organised by NI Railway which I thought was worth a mention. They have put into action a sort of travellers book club in which people about to take the train can choose from hundreds of free ‘read and return’ books which are available in stations and which people can take home or on holiday to finish and then leave back, at their leisure, for others to enjoy. What a great way to spend your journey! For more information visit: www.nirailways.co.uk
However the most ingenious element to the book club is the ‘Bookcrossing’ service which allows readers to find out more about the book’s worldly travels, how others have reviewed it and even allow people to make their own journal entry. Definitely worth a look.
4 February 2009
I don’t often feel driven to recommend another publisher’s books on our website, but I read about How NOT to Write a Novel: 200 mistakes to avoid at all costs if you ever want to get published the other day, and thought it was worth a mention here. It’s about the many ways that prospective authors sabotage their own work. We have some experience of such saboteurs here: there’s nothing more disheartening than reading a manuscript that has howlers galore on the opening page. How NOT to Write a Novel is currently half price on amazon and sounds like a great investment for any aspiring novelists.
14 January 2009
Just a quick post about a recent online discovery – the Book Cover Archive, a US-run site featuring over eight hundred covers that the operators of the site really rate. I find the site slightly addictive – click on an author’s name to find any other books they have in the archive; click on a designer’s name to see all the work by that designer.
Tuesday 16 December 2008
The Yellow Door by Simon Dougan is one of my favourite books of the year. Simon’s personality and passion for food leap out from every page and, of course, the recipes are great. A colleague tried his method of cooking steak at the weekend and was delighted; I tried it last night and was equally thrilled. It’s so good, it’s worth sharing here:
Before you cook a really nice piece of fillet, rib-eye or sirloin you firstly have to purchase it – easier said than done. I suggest starting with your local butcher: he will be able to advise you on the best cut for the dish you are planning, and should be able to give you lots of information on the provenance of the meat, how long it has been hung for and so on. The steak you get should be slightly brown, even purple, and should have a slightly (I know it sounds strange) rubbery feel – not wet or dry.
1 steak
salt and pepper
groundnut oil
knob of butter
Heat a frying pan over high heat. Turn your extractor fan on full as cooking a steak is sure to generate a lot of smoke. Smear a little oil over both sides of the steak and season it quite heavily on one side, rubbing the salt and pepper into the meat. When, and only when, the pan is leaping hot, add the steak, seasoned side down, and cook it for at least 1½ minutes. Season the steak carefully before turning it over. Cook for another minute or so. You may add a little more oil at this stage if the pan looks dry.
Reduce the heat a little and add a nice fat knob of butter (weighing about 40g). Using a spoon, baste the steak with the melted butter until it is cooked to your liking.
Contrary to common Irish belief, a rare prime cut steak will always be far more tender than a well-done one. This is because the protein in the meat will contract and toughen during grilling or frying, so the more you cook it the harder and dryer it will become. If you employ a slow, moist cooking method, the protein and connective tissue will eventually break down, but this takes a couple of hours.
The other important thing to remember when you go to a restaurant is that the well-done steak will end up smaller than the rare one, even if they start out at the same raw weight. This is because of the moisture loss during cooking. I would encourage ‘well doners’ to try your steak medium at least, to experience a more juicy, flavoursome and tender piece of meat.
© Simon Dougan, taken from The Yellow Door: Our Story, Our Recipes
12 December 2008
Wednesday evening saw a couple of us in the beautiful surroundings of the Oak Room at the Mansion House in Dublin for the launch of
Memories, Milestones and New Horizons: Reflections on the Regeneration of Ballymun. It’s the final book of our autumn season to launch, so it was cause for a double celebration for us, and a great event.
We were lucky enough to hear Dermot Bolger read from his
Ballymun Incantation (a poem first performed at night in the open air as the centrepiece of the public wake to mark the destruction of the first tower in Ballymun); and to hear speeches from Ronan King, chairman of Ballymun Regeneration Limited, Aibhlín McCrann, who edited the collection, and Eibhlin Byrne, the Lord Mayor of Dublin.
The innovative and ambitious regeneration project in Ballymun began ten years ago and we’re very proud to be publishing the book that marks this anniversary and the remarkable things that have taken place there. Find out more at the
Ballymun Regeneration website, and in the book!
HW
Monday 1 December 2008
Welcome to the Blackstaff blog, where you can read all about what’s happening at Blackstaff Press.
When we first decided that we needed a new website – the old site was looking a bit the worse for wear, let’s face it – we all thought a blog should be part of it. We wanted to be able to tell you about our books and our authors, and to give you an insight into what it’s like being a small independent publisher.
The fact that it would give us the chance to tell you about the things that make us happy – chocolate, red wine and books – or to moan and rant about the things that really annoy us, didn’t cross our minds for one minute.
Anyway, today I’m in a good mood. The new website is up and running, and I think it looks brilliant. It’s been a nightmare to pull all the information together – mental note: implement better information management systems – but now it all seems worthwhile. We really hope you like the new site and we would love to hear your thoughts on it, so please email any feedback to webmaster@blackstaffpress.com.
I’m also in a good mood because Derek Mahon listed Gerald Dawe’s anthology of Irish war poetry, Earth Voices Whispering, as one of his books of the year in Saturday’s Irish Times. I know I’m biased, but Earth Voices Whispering is a terrific, truly groundbreaking book and it’s great to see it getting the attention it deserves.
Our Belfast launch of the book took place on Wednesday 19 November and it was a really significant event – the celebration marked not just the launch of the anthology, but also the fiftieth birthday of The Bookshop at Queen’s. There was a great crowd and a great atmosphere, and it was brilliant to see all that support for the Northern Ireland’s oldest independent bookshop. Long may it thrive!
All but one our books are out in the shops now. The Yellow Door – a collection of recipes by those fabulous foodies who run The Yellow Door delis and cater for all the best parties – and the fourth volume of The Yellow Nib, the literary journal of the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry, were published just last week.
Of course, the work isn’t over when the books hit the shops and our publicist, Cormac, is flat out ferrying authors here and there for interviews and signings, as well as trying to get reviews and features for our books. Tune in to Arts Extra next Monday night to hear Patricia Craig talking about Blackstaff’s new edition of George Benn’s A History of the Town of Belfast, and look out for a feature in the Daily Mail on Kate O’Hanlon and her book, Sister Kate: Nursing through the Troubles.
While Cormac’s busy with that, the rest of us are already working hard on our books for spring 2009. No rest for the wicked!
Patsy Horton, Managing Editor
27 August 2007
27 August 2009
The August bank holiday weekend is a great time to cook for family and friends. The weather forecast looks woeful, for NI anyway, but this lovely recipe from The Yellow Door: Our Story, Our Recipes is sure to brighten the rainiest day.
Seafood Stew with Saffron and Tomatoes
This golden-orange fish stew is one of my favourite suppers to share with friends. It is easy to prepare, very versatile and just hits the spot in late summer – a ray of sunshine in a bowl.
Serves 6
3–4 tbsp olive oil
2 onions, thinly sliced
1 leek, white part only, finely sliced
4 garlic cloves, chopped
2 glasses of white wine
1 x 400g can tomatoes
500ml fish stock
pinch of dried chilli flakes
large pinch of saffron threads
grated zest of ½ lemon or orange
2 bay leaves
bunch of marjoram stalks
bunch of parsley stalks
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1.5kg mixed fish, such as hake, mullet and monkfish, skinned, filleted and cut into chunks
500g raw shellfish, such as mussels, clams and prawns, scrubbed and beards removed from mussels
2 tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley or coriander leaves
Heat the oil in a large frying pan or skillet. Add the onions, leek and garlic and cook for 3–4 minutes. Do not allow to colour. Add the wine, tomatoes, stock, chilli flakes, saffron and lemon or orange zest. Tie the bay leaves into a bunch with the marjoram and parsley stalks, then add them to the pan with some salt and pepper. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat to low, and simmer for 25 minutes, after which time the tomatoes will have started to break down. Give the tomatoes a squash with a wooden spoon to help them along.
Add the chunks of fish, firmest fish first, and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the shellfish, discarding any open mussels or clams that do not close when tapped, and cook for a further 4–5 minutes until the prawns are cooked and the mussels and clams have opened. Discard any unopened mussels or clams.
Remove the bunch of herbs and add the chopped parsley or coriander. Serve the stew immediately, with big chunks of crusty bread and a bottle of well-chilled crisp white wine.
© Simon Dougan, taken from The Yellow Door: Our Story, Our Recipes