Q&A and Twitterspherical activity

A neat plug from the Medway News team in this week’s issue (October 28): a fun Q&A session for their regular 'Who Are Ya?' feature. Favourite questions: I get annoyed when… 'My lottery ticket doesn’t come up again. There’s definitely a conspiracy – I’m convinced now.' If you could change your name by deed poll, what would you change it to? 'Being a writer, Stieg Larsson. Then I could throw my lottery ticket away.'

You can also now follow Philip Dodd on Twitter – Philip says 'I am endeavouring only to Tweet either news about books and events I’m involved in and some stimulating links and Retweets, as well as offering a regular weekly piece of writing advice…’' To collect Philip’s (obviously highly cultured) pearls of wisdom, click on @thephilipdodd, or any of the Twitter symbols at the bottom of each page on this website.



James Caan does the job

The top floor of the Tate Modern, with its spectacular Thameside views, was the venue on Wednesday 13th October for Penguin’s launch of its global business imprint, Penguin Portfolio. One of the imprint’s flagship new titles is How To Get The Job You Really Want, by James Caan, due to be published in January 2011 – Philip worked with James on the book during the spring and summer of this year.
 
James, who had just presented Dragons’ Den: What Happened Next? on BBC2 in the wake of his fourth series as a Dragon, was the co-host of the Portfolio party. In his speech he made the point that if a publishing company was going to launch an imprint during a recession, then a business list was the perfect choice, because this is a time when readers genuinely need guidance and inspiration to start working towards an improving future.
 
In How To Get The Job You Really Want, James (pictured at the event with Adrian Zackheim, Publisher of Penguin Portfolio, and Editorial Director Joel Rickett) has drawn on all his extensive, hands-on experience in the recruitment market – he founded both Alexander Mann and Humana International – to set out his informed, practical and very individual thoughts on how to get that vital extra edge in a tough job market: reading the book is like having a personal mentoring session with him.
 
Other Portfolio titles include Microsoft founder Paul Allen’s autobiography Idea Man and Stuart Diamond’s Getting More: How You Can Negotiate To Succeed In Work & Life. For more details on all Portfolio titles click here.



Nick Mason spreads the word

Passion For Speed, the brand-new edition of the book formerly known as Into The Red – or TBFKAITR as presumably we’ll have to call it now… – has just been released by Carlton, and Nick Mason and co-author Mark Hales (the book’s very own Stig) are on the road to promote the launch.

If you missed Nick's book signing sessions at the Goodwood Revival meeting you will be able meet Nick and Mark during two signings at Motorbooks in London (13/15 Cecil Court, WC2N 4AN), at 1pm on both Tuesday 21 September and Thursday 25 November, and at Waterstones in Leadenhall Market (1-3 Whittington Avenue, London EC3V 1PJ) from noon on Wednesday 13 October.

National radio appearances: Nick was a guest on Steve Wright’s Radio 2 show on Thursday 16 September (go to Listen Again and jump to 1h 37mins for Nick’s piece) and is due to appear on Fi Glover’s Saturday Live on Radio 4 and Kate Silverton’s Radio 5 Sunday morning show – we’ll post dates and times for both as soon as they are confirmed.