BookBlast® is a creative company founded by industry insiders. We report on book publishing and offer translation, writing and editing services to the book trade, authors and translators.
Team BookBlast® offers you a unique set of practices, knowledge, craft skills and values thanks to three decades of experience working within book publishing and the creative economy.
Translation & Editing
We are familiar with publishing standards and conventions, and are skilled at translating ideas into engaging content.
We can evaluate and/or translate French-language texts, and supply a reader's report as required;
Troubleshoot problematic manuscripts;
Ghostwrite or mentor translation projects;
Identify and eliminate repetition, inaccuracies and improve word choice;
Copy edit your translation for accurate English usage.
Online journal, The BookBlast® Diary has showcased independent trade publishing, new writing and translation with a focus on Francophone literature since 2016.
The BookBlast® Diary's curated celebration of independent publishing includes good book reviews; interviews with leading writers, translators, creatives and publishers; podcasts; journalism from the archive; and Spotlight specials.
Testimonials
MacLehose Press – “Brilliant work. And what work. Huge salutes” Maggie Gee, novelist & Professor of Creative Writing at Bath Spa University – “A true lover of writing and writers” Starhaven Press — "Enterprising. Dedicated. Tireless” Claire Armitstead, The Guardian – “Excellent work”
New Society | December 1980 The Three Faces of Elton Mayo by the late J H Smith, Professor of Sociology, Co-Founder of New Technology Research Group, University of Southampton: “Towards the end of his life, through his association with the Harvard Business School and the Hawthorne Studies, Elton Mayo enjoyed a public acclaim granted to few social scientists of his day. None however would have envied him the fall from grace which was to follow his death.”
Writers' France: The Riviera | BBC Radio 4, Jan. 1998
An overview of the Romantic Riviera of The Ballets Russes, Scott Fitzgerald, Somerset Maugham and Katherine Mansfield. Includes an interview with Lesley Blanch.
Events & Special Projects
The BookBlast® Podcast
Our response to enforced confinement because of the unprecedented Covid-19/Coronavirus pandemic was to create and release a special 15-part podcast series,
Bridging the Divide: Translation & The Art of Empathy.
Hosted by editor, Georgia de Chamberet, and journalist, Lucy Popescu,
the podcast line-up features award-winning authors from across Europe, including Lars Mytting, J.S. Margot, Tahar Ben Jelloun, and Tommy Wieringa, as well as interviews with their publishers Adam Freudenheim, Philip Gwyn Jones and the publisher behind Nordic Noir, Christopher MacLehose.
Boyd Tonkin, The Arts Desk – “A great line-up – congratulations!”
The series follows on from the success of the first BookBlast® 10x10 Tour, in association with Waterstones, around the regions of England, held in 2018.