I meant to post this in early November. But, eh, we all know what happened that month…

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A conversation two weeks ago on Twitter:

This pleases me enormously (the link in the first tweet leads to an excellent review). In our household we call Ammonite the little book that could. It started life twenty years ago as a cut-price mass-market paperback with what looked like a jellybean spaceship on the cover–all in lurid orange and yellow.

Then it was rereleased with a new cover–still in mass market–to match the nifty original cover of Slow River.

Then it went out of print in 2001 for a few weeks–long enough for me to get a series of anguished emails from academics who’d been planning to teach the book at the beginning of the academic year. I forwarded the emails to my publisher. After a bit of head-scratching they agreed to a brand new contract and a lovely new trade paperback edition, complete with map. I admit, I never really understood the latest cover–which to me looks like a woman wrapped in a bedsheet–but it seems to sell okay so everyone’s happy.

But, wow, Ammonite moving through the generations, mother to daughter? I can’t tell you how that warms the cockles of my heart.
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And hopefully later this month I’ll be able to tell you more about a project I’ve been working on with an artist. We meant it to be ready last year, to celebrate Ammonite‘s 20th anniversary, but each of us has been extraordinarily busy with both expected and unexpected (some good, some bad) stuff. Stay tuned…