HIDDEN GEMS EXPOSED

The Guardian ran a blog earlier this week about 'the most under-rated authors'. Apart from the fascinating lists of books and authors which people have recommended (also intimidating if , like me, you are a slow reader with many gaps in their literary knowledge) there has also been a running debate in the comments about how fixated British readers are on Anglophone literature, with contributors almost seeming to compete with each other to recommend the most obscure writers from around the planet.

I contributed my own remarks to recommend (as ever) Flann O'Brien and Leonard Cohen (at least, in the case of the latter, Beautiful Losers, as I don't rate The Favourite Game so highly).

It's well worth visiting this blog for the usual inspiration, affirmation and exasperation that such lists provide.

David

TINY BUT PERFECTLY SMALL

Apologies for the Blog lacuna - I wrote a series of Pulitzer-quality articles, but my virtual dog ate them before they could be posted.

Great excitement was unleashed in the Capuchin office today (above the quotidian variety associated with working for such a vibrant and chic publisher) as The Guardian published an on-line piece about The Man who Loved Children. This all stems from the New York Times article by Jonathan Franzen (see previous blog) which has caused ripples of renewed interest in this extraordinary book to spread through the ether.

We are described in the article, for which many thanks must go to Alison Flood, as

tiny press Capuchin Classics, an imprint dedicated to "reviving great works of fiction which have been unjustly forgotten or neglected"

Call us wildly ambitious, but one day we hope to be small.

David