Bookbuyer's
Bookend
Nothing is more calculated to send a frisson of horror down a publiSher's spine than when a reviewer starts murmuring " bestseller." It is , the kiss of death. In a spirit of some perversity, therefore, Bookbuyer offers this week a up ' ster's list of the Christmas season bestsellers, his guilt assuaged by the thought that should he be proved wrong, he has given publishers a golden and doubtless eagerly -awaited excuse for the foulest abuse.
High on the list of what yod will be buying is the new nutty Monty Python book, the new Goon Show Scripts, and probably The Till Death Us Do Part Scripts. Spike Milligan's Rommel should prove irresistible, and You Can't Have Your Kayak and Heat It by Muir and Norden is worth tipping for its title alone. The Art of Coarse Drinking will strike a few thousand chords.
Among the autobiographies — the latest instalments of Macmillan, Muggeridge, Cecil Beaton, Emlyn Williams and Henri (Papillon) Charriere, with Nazheda Mandelstam's Hope Abandoned as a high-brow outsider. Three literary biographies seem destined to dominate the scene: Nigel Nicolson's Portrait of a Marriage (that of his parents), V. S. Pritchett's BaLzac and Sybil Bedford's Aidous Huxley, . plus Lady Antonia's Cromwell for old time's sake and Michael Foot's Aneurin Bevan, though it is hardly seasonal fare.
, Graham Greene's The Honorary Consul will probably pulverise most of the fiction opposition, which could include among its bestsellers more serious works than in previous years — new .novels are due from Angus Wilson, J. P. Donleavy, David Storey and Patrick White. More popular than any recipient of the Booker Prize will be the latest offerings from Leslie • Thomas, Len Deighton,Jacqueline Susann, Eric Segal, Catherine Cookson, Catherine Gavin, Dick Francis and Miss Read, as well as two substantial sagas from Nicolas Monsarrat (The Kapillan of Malta) and the late R. F. Del ' derfield (Give Us This Day) — though the real successes will once again. be Alastair Maclean, Agatha Christie, Victoria Holt, Jean Plaidy, Mary Stewart and Georgette Heyer, though surprisingly Miss Heyer has nothing new to offer.
It goes practically without saying that Lord Clark's The Romantic Rebellion, Dr. Bronowski's The Ascent of Man, Alastair Cooke's America and Mark Arnold-Foster's The World at War will all, quite apart from their intrinsic merit, succeed because they derive from the telly. And of the other historical books, .1, B. Priestley's The English is too good a Christmas concoction to miss. It is a George Rainbird book — that is, lavish and lovely — and So is The Cecils of Hatfield House by David Cecil. Claud Cockbum's The Devil's Decade combines the right elements of nostalgia and an arresting title and should confound the publisher who once said that no book with the word ' devil ' in the title would ever succeed.
For the coffee table: Cowardy Custard (all about the Master) and Keith Money's Fonteyn. Christmas bestsellers always include something on travel (so, Everest South-West Face, and books by ocean sailors Dougal Robertson and Rosalie Swale); also natural history (The ABC of House Plants, Hugh Johnson on trees, and the latest Durrell); and art (Miss Carter Came With Us and anything on Chinese treasures); and love(theFaberor Penguin books of love poems, and an anthology called Love is My Meaning). Of the children's books — new editions of Kate Greenaway's Alphabet, The Little Train and Follyfoot Farm, anything by Richard Scarry, and new books by Alan Garner, Graham Oakley and Helen Oxenbury.
Bearing in mind that every one of these winners will be eclipsed by Tolkein, The Guiness Book of Records, books on cookery and Princess Anne, boxed paperback sets and football annuals. Bookbuyer concludes by tipping two superbly promising outsiders: Supernature and The Butterfly Bali You will hear more of them later, by which time this columnist will, for safety's sake, be in hiding.
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