Life and Soul of the Party

Product Information

Dan Franklin, formerly Jonathan Cape publishing director, commented: "When I arrived at Cape, Ian Craig was working for the children’s list, but our paths crossed occasionally, when the legendary John Burningham delivered a book for adults or Ralph Steadman illustrated a Roald Dahl story, and I got to see why a generation of writers and illustrators loved this man." She emphasised his warm and generous nature: “Ian was the person you gravitated to at publishing parties, guaranteed to make everyone laugh, but always with a judicious and kind word if you needed advice.” Lydia Barram, was Craig’s friend from working with him at HarperCollins ( pictured here with Craig and Kerr at Kerr’s 95th birthday party). Now editorial manager at Lego, she said: “Knowing and working with Ian for over a decade was a privilege. We met when I began working on Judith Kerr’s books at HarperCollins, and my friendship with them and our time working together will always be one of the fondest memories of my publishing career.

Someone who is confident in social situations and enjoys them may be called an extrovert: People who work in sales tend to be extroverts. An extrovert often has a wide circle of friends (= a lot of friends) and tends to be good company (=enjoyable to spend time with): Emma’s really fun to hang out with. She’s such good company. I was also born in Birmingham — in my humble opinion the greatest city in the world with the nicest people too. He was the life and soul of any party and a natural ‘bon-viveur’ — but beneath the bonhomie lay a rare intelligence combined with a unique ability to make art and text work together in the most engaging and elegant of ways. He had an astute understanding of the principles of good design, which he shared gregariously and generously with those who worked with him. He leaves a legacy of beautiful and meaningful books — together with a generation of grateful designers many of whom who learnt their craft from him.” To mix is to spend time with people at social events and talk to them: I feel I should be mixing more with my colleagues.Someone who is extremely sociable, going to as many parties as possible, may be called informally a party animal: He used to be a real party animal before he had kids. My Love is an album released by Petula Clark; her first album to feature recording done in the United States, My Love was produced, arranged, and conducted by Tony Hatch. In the US, it was her fourth album licensed to Warner Bros. Records. After the single release of " A Sign of the Times" charted, new pressings of the album were titled A Sign of the Times/My Love. [3] The My Love album is widely considered to be a qualitative high point in Clark's career. Record Collector called it "her musical masterwork" in May 1993. In 1990 Goldmine claimed that "this album encapsulates the sound of popular music in the mid 1960s." Mike Gayle’s character descriptions are vague, some would even say bland. I can understand if this bothers other readers but this doesn’t offend me. I actually like the idea of using my imagination when it comes to the face of a character. As long as I have the basics - eg. gender, age - and there is the (obviously basic) required level of consistency, I’m happy. Unfortunately this vagueness stood out to me a bit more than usual because I didn’t love the story, and more importantly because pretty much all of the characters sounded the same. There’s an argument for TLASOTP being set in a world in which similar characters who are all at a crossroads in life exist. But I think that this is lazy because we do need clearer distinctions between people in books - no matter how similar they are to other characters. I genuinely believe this potential blandness occurred because the author was going for (or attempting to maintain) mass appeal.

Starting with a useful adjective, someone who is sociable likes to meet and spend time with other people. My Love follows the formula of the Downtown LP in that it features almost all original material; the only cover version is the Beatles' " We Can Work It Out". The balance of the album comprises nine Hatch compositions (with Clark a co-writer on five), the first known recording of Randy Newman's "I Can't Remember (Ever Loving You)", and " If I Were a Bell", allowing Clark her penchant for show tunes. In this book we follow the life of 6 friends along a year, through the point of view of them all, and that makes it more interesting. And the fact that we know from the beggining one of the main events of the story makes it more unputdownable and touching. The 1st 2 books by Gayle were ok. I continued buying the others as they came out and enjoyed a lot how he improved and his books are now a high moment. He just has a way of telling a story, making it so real, so down to earth, his characters so beleivable. The stories are real funny and so poignant at the same time, it's quite hard not to spill some tears along the way. I first read TLASOTP when I was eighteen years old, and over ten years later I decided to dust it off (oh man it was dusty) and read it again because I vaguely remembered it being quite a light read, and after some of the dark non-fiction I’ve been reading lately I wanted to read something less depressing.A number of adjectives are used for people who are extroverts. They may be described as outgoing, meaning that they are friendly and like being with other people. An adjective with a similar meaning is gregarious: I think Gayle does a good job of writing a “universal” story. Speech marks again because on a personal level I’m not sure what “universal” means because most stories/films I’ve seen described that way aren’t universal to me - as in some of the stories with that description attached do not have characters that aren’t white, therefore how can that be universal unless you are caucasian? Before I went to university I wanted to be a social worker — I have no idea why. It didn’t last long. There are verbs in this area too. If you socialize, you spend your free time enjoying yourself with other people: He needs to socialize a bit less and study a bit more. They may feel slightly embarrassed or nervous speaking to people they don’t know. An adjective for this is awkward:

Of course, parties and social events are not for everyone. Shy people can find gatherings difficult. They may be introverted, (=shy and preferring to spend time alone): At school, she was quiet and introverted. How do your friends behave at social events? Is one of them the life and soul of the party, chatting, laughing and dancing with everyone? Or perhaps you know a party pooper, someone who spoils other people’s enjoyment by refusing to join in and have fun. This week we’re looking at language that relates to spending time with other people socially. Val Brathwaite, creative director of HarperCollins Children’s Books, said: “We are all incredibly sad to hear of the death of our friend and colleague, Ian. He was the most wonderful person, clever, knowledgeable, kind, creative and the best company. He had an amazing career in publishing and always gave incredible support to authors and artists, including his long-term collaboration and friendship with Judith Kerr. Ian’s legacy shall forever remain here at HarperCollins Children’s Books in all of the wonderful publishing he has been part of and the lovely memories he leaves us with.” I also used to live in Manchester — another great city (although technically I lived in Salford which is next door but that’s sort of splitting hairs). The worst part about Mike Gayle's books is you just have to read them the moment you buy them and they end much too soon, leaving you with that feeling that the book you'll start after it won't be that good.

Meaning

Life and Soul of the Party" was intended to be the lead single, but writer Tony Hatch was incorrectly told by an American that the term meant nothing in the States. Although not a single, the dramatic ballad "Just Say Goodbye" was performed by Clark on The Ed Sullivan Show and The Hollywood Palace. It appears on more than one of her greatest hits compilations. Activities such as dancing make some people uncomfortable because they worry about what other people think of them. The word self-conscious describes this feeling: I’m far too self-conscious to dance in front of my colleagues. Craig worked as a freelance for the last 20 years as Kerr’s creative director and before that worked for HarperCollins and Jonathan Cape. He was based in Scotland with his wife Kate. He died over the weekend after a short illness. The Life and Soul of The Party ain’t bad, and as everyday I read about appalling literacy statistics in the UK, and actually know first hand how little people read, I’d recommend this piece of fiction by Mike Gayle for people who generally aren’t into reading books. And this is simply because it’s not a long book, it’s quite entertaining, and has a soap opera feel - and a lot of people still love soaps here in the UK! My first paid writing gig was for a listings magazine in Birmingham — (Actually my first unpaid writing gig was an interview with Kitchens of Distinction for Salford Student Magazine. I can’t begin to tell you how terrible it was.)