A Sip of Claret News
- Claret Press
- 9 hours ago
- 3 min read
August 2025
Publication day is nearly here for the four new Claret Press Titles
for more details
But for now
Summer Is Here
It’s an odd feeling, defensive and furtive, to be on holiday as the world grapples with war. I feel a need to explain:
I’m not really bunking off. I’m spending time with my dementia-ridden mother in a suburb of Toronto and sorting out better internet at the family place north of Toronto.
I want to assure people, I’m not having fun, I’m not, I swear, it’ll be miserable.
But we all know that’s not true. I mean, it is because there’s nothing more miserable than seeing my formidable and adored mother folded up in a chair, unable to recognise anyone, let alone me.
But equally, there will be friends and family to see, kayaking and swimming, leisurely sitting at lake’s edge, beer in one hand and book in the other. It’s not going to be all bad, not by a long shot.
It is this complex interplay of fun and sadness that reminded me of Dangerous Skies by Brian James.
It was one of the first books I published. And I shouldn't have. It's a children book written by an old man, also now in a care home with dementia. He’d lived as a small child through the Battle of Britain, the relentless aerial bombardment of London, Coventry and other strategic sites in England. He wrote a book to explain it to his grandchildren. He grew up to be an award-winning journalist with the BBC but as a child, running free in Clapham and Brixton, he got ensnared in a gang to loot abandoned houses, mostly for food.
What I like about the book is the experience of being a boy during war, where he and his friends would pretend to be pilots, dropping bombs on the populace below. Where mothers are deeply preoccupied and men were conspicuously absent. Where schools didn’t bother to teach and desks are suddenly vacant. Where the black market thrived in public and criminals operated with impunity.
The story has that ring of truth where playing is mixed with fear – of the neighbourhood bullies and the Luftwaffe – and London is a both home and a battleground.
This thin but richly illustrated book is without the mindless nostalgia of Nigel Farage and surprisingly without rage. Instead, it’s full of humanity and, unexpectantly, thrills. Will the little boy escape the clutches of the Fagin-like gang of thieves? Or will death come first from above?
I recommend it to everyone of all ages, not just children. Dangerous Skies by Brian James.
Order it from here or from any bookstore or eplatform.
Sammy with Dippy the Dinosaur reading Dangerous Skies at the National History Museum.
OPEN TO SUBMISSIONS
Are you, or someone you know, a writer looking to get published?
Do you have a polished draft prepared?
If the answer is yes, we are delighted to announce we will be open to submissions this July and August!
For more information on what we're looking for and our submission guidelines, please follow the link below:
If you like my blogs, please subscribe to my more frequent blogging about publishing on Substack. It's free and infrequent.
Or follow us on social media because we always announce our blogging on it as well.
BlueSky @claretpress.bsky.social
AND if you are interested in any of the fabulous titles on the Claret Press backlist, please consider buying from our website where we sell cheaper bundles, have sales of individual titles and will also kiss the air near an envelope before sealing it: Many of our ebooks have been reduced to 99p for summer fun. So pick up titles from our backlist super cheap while the summer lasts! |  |
CLARET FAMILY NEWS
Gilles Madan came and went from Claret Press relatively quickly. He's interested in working in rights, like former Claret Press intern Ines Palmer, now happily ensconced at an international rights agency and loving it there. So we did the obvious thing and put them in contact with each other. And then we all went out for a beer. Nobody can say how many.....
With thanks for the illustration by Claret Press author Jill Culiner, award-winning author of Contrary Journey with Velvel Zharzher, Bard; and Those Absent on the Great Hungarian Plain.
Jill is originally from Canada so she knows about the bugs of summer. Read about Jill here. She's quite extraordinary (and so are her books). https://www.claretpress.com/author/jill-culiner
“Old men can make war, but it is children who will make history.”
Ray Merritt, author
We wish you the best this summer.
See you in the autumn.
