J. M. Coetzee comes to Oxford!

J. M. Coetzee is coming to Oxford in June! We will be going to hear him at the Sheldonian Theatre on the 11th, and he has also generously agreed to sign some books for us to help raise funds! To celebrate, here, from the archives, is a video of him signing title pages for us at the former Oak Tree Fine Press base in South Africa:

For details of the JM Coetzee event at the Sheldonian, click here.

Air - Water - Fire - Earth

Had a couple of chaps from Oxfam in the office earlier this week. Oxfam are producing four small paperback publications featuring new and extract texts from numerous well known authors. They are also considering doing a special signed collector's edition and came round to ask for advice. It was pretty heartening to realise how much we have learned over the last few years, and Andy Ray and Frank Atterbury were also both on hand to give expert guidance. Looking forward to seeing what you do, Oxfam!

In Perfect English: Woodcuts & Polar Bears

Like polar bears? Love Philip Pullman? Crazy for fantastic woodcuts? If so, be sure to check out Andy English's blog. Andy is one of three woodcut artists who have contributed original woodcut artwork for Philip Pullman's A Outrance.
For a step by step look at how he created his incredible images, check out his blog here.

PS - The other woodcut artists working on the book are Chris Daunt and Harry Brockway.
PPS - sorry about the blisters, Andy

Beside the sea!

Oak Tree Fine Press has received a wonderful report from volunteers at Thusong Children’s Centre in Kimberley, South Africa, in which they describe a trip to the seaside over the Easter Break. Fifty four children from the Centre visited the beach, went on a coastal walk with other kids from a local children’s centre, went shopping in the huge Port Elizabeth mall, enjoyed a game drive at Addo Elephant Park, went on an airport-tour, ate a lot of good food, competed in a dance-off at a specially organised disco and even caught a dolphin show at the Bayworld Aquarium!

“We worked hard to make this trip happen because we wanted to give our children the opportunity to get a bigger world view. Most of the kids have never been on holidays or seen the ocean before. It was great for them to swim in the sea and explore a different part of their beautiful country.”

Oak Tree Fine Press is a longstanding supporter of Thusong Children’s Centre and, with your help, assisted in funding the travel for this trip.

From tiny seeds grow mighty oaks... kinda...

Following on from Bruce's interview with Jo Thoenes on BBC Radio Oxford (see here), we are now featured on the BBC website under the surprising headline 'Seeds of Change'. We were even the feature story on bbc.co.uk/england for one glorious day! This is fantastic stuff, even if the article does suggest that we're married (wanna see a picture of Bruce and Nancy Bray, anyone?) and that Bruce both started the company and subsequently joined it... All good laughter fodder for a sunny Monday. To read the article click here.

Oligarch editions?!!!

Drawing your attention to a funky little item on the First Chapter Series by Magers & Quinn Booksellers. As "the biggest independent bookstore in Minneapolis" I think they can afford our books! A very funny blog which doesn't hold back on the sarcasm, so it's good to see we get the thumbs up!

Man Booker Website

Just a quick note to point out that we've got some pretty good coverage of our Booker Prize First Chapter Series on the Man Booker Website. We're really inspired by the way they've taken an interest in our Series and got behind us with loads of support. Their website contains loads of interesting interviews, articles and discussions related to the Booker Prize, and it's great to see our books included.