Gripped

BBC pensioner Mark Byford, who turned 56 yesterday, dips his toes in the world of book festivals this August.

£7 (£5 concessions) gets you an hour with the author of Vietnam/WWII parallel-history-opus 'A Name On A Wall', at the Edinburgh Book Festival, on 20th August.   With Ming Campbell in the chair, 175 seats are on offer.

"A Name On A Wall" has recently been endorsed as 'gripping' by irrepressible Man From Uncle star, Robert Vaughn.

• If you're feeling flush, you can move straight on to the slightly-more-expensive Kate Adie, BBC pensioner and presenter (£10 - £8), with 570 seats available to hear her opine on women of the First World War, in her treatise 'Fighting On The Home Front'. 

Wordsmith

Sometimes the best thing about a book is its title. Mark Thompson's first will be called "Enough Said".

Former BBC DG Mark, now president and chief executive of The New York Times Company, is building upon a series of more-or-less penetrable lectures delivered at St Peter's College, Oxford in 2012, under the equally opaque banner, "The Cloud of Unknowing".

Bodley Head will publish in the UK in 2015. In a bid to drive sales into the low hundreds, Mr Thompson said earlier this month, “Thanks to the web and the smartphone, we’ve never had more access to information or more opportunity to deliberate and help decide the great issues of the day. Yet public understanding of and engagement with the most important issues of the day is faltering.”

You can read the original lectures here.

Christmas reading

We noted just ahead of publication that Mark Byford's first book A Name on a Wall: Two Men, Two Wars, Two Destinies had secured some pretty high-profile notices - from Andrew Marr, John Simpson, Sir Michael Parkinson and Dame Jenni Murray.

Now there are some familiar names appearing on the Amazon review pages for the book. My old boss, Richard Sambrook, who worked to Mark at the BBC; Ronald B.J. Neil, who was Mark's boss, and later his employee on putting things right post-Hutton; David Seymour, former presenter of Look North, where Mark started his BBC career; and Alan Pardon.  Pardon ?  Ah, yes,.finance director of the RLNI, where Mark is a Trustee.

Other writers are available

Ah, the Yentob industry. Former Stuckist artist, Billy Chyldish (aka Childish) is, by my estimation, £2,325 better off, after selling out a series of three signed posters at £25 each, with the slogans "Yentob thinks Beyonce is Vincent Van Gogh", "Oi, Yentob, shut your gob !" and, my favourite, "Yentob is mates with anyone famous".

Last night we had a Culture Show special, with Alan interviewing Hanif Kureishi on the publication of his latest novel, "The Last Word".  It featured Stephen Frears, former-BBC-arts-producer-turned-film-producer Kevin Loader, and film director Roger Michell.

This, from Mick Brown in the Telegraph in 2010:

Stephen Frears lives between Dorset and a house in Notting Hill, London. When in town, he is usually to be found each Friday morning at a cafe a short walk from his home, where over the years an informal salon has grown up. At any given time this will probably include Frears's close friend Hanif Kureishi, the BBC's Alan Yentob and a revolving selection of writers and film people.

Modern Scottish Writing

Never mind Gary Barlow and BBC promotion. We warned you to watch out for more Jim Naughtie than is reasonable coming in February, to coincide with the publication of his "sophisticated" Cold War thriller, The Madness Of July.  Now we have an alert for chef, break-dancer and tv mogul Kirsty Wark, who's been using train journeys between London and Glasgow to write her first novel, The Legacy of Elizabeth Pringle, "a multi-generational story of love and belonging set on the Scottish island of Arran". This will be published in March.

We're told she's already started on a second book.

Kirsty's publishers are Two Roads Books, an imprint of Hodder & Stoughton, who are also publishing Sally Magnusson's book about her mother, Where Memories Go: Why Dementia Changes Everything.

Talking books

News judgements are occasionally left at the door at CNN, where Piers Morgan has been interviewed about his new book, "Shooting Straight" by the channel's breakfast show, New Day; the afternoon show, with Jake Tapper; and The Situation Room, by Wolf Blitzer.

Next February sees the publication of James Naughtie's "Madness of July", 'a sophisticated thriller about loyalty, survival and family rivalry in the endgame of the Cold War'. We'll be counting....

East Lothian question

Beware serious news breaking out over the first weekend in November. It's the fifth Lennoxlove Book Festival, and, from the BBC corner, it features Jeremy Paxman, Kirsty Wark, Sally Magnusson, Mark Lawson, Peter Snow and Jim Naughtie.

Jim's name has yet to feature in the advance listings for Good Morning Scotland - where Gary Robertson and Hayley Millar currently struggle on five days a week, awaiting the insights of the Great Man Who Understands Scottish Politics. The Scottish press is warming up for his arrival at the microphone, perhaps even more than the picture editors in London are waiting for Mishal Husain to debut on Today.

Silver and gold

As we await the PAC, spare a thought for the subject of "Project Silver", Mark Byford. The exit strategy for the BBC's most recent DDG, and perhaps only Director of Journalism, has been subject to extraordinary scrutiny. We know about lump sums, payment in lieu of notice and in respect of holidays missed. We know there was no pension augmentation - so Mark either had to hang on for his full pension at 55 (birthday in June this year) or took it early at a discount, aged 53, when he finally handed on the candle of journalism in June 2011.  One presumes it was based on his full salary, rather than the part-time role he finished up with. By my calcs, his basic for 32 years' service without discount could be £250k pa - but it's likely he purchased additional years over time, and the maximum would earn him just over £316k pa.

Anyway, relief will be at hand in November, when Mark's first book, A Name on a Wall: Two Men, Two Wars, Two Destinies, about his father and a US Army victim of the Vietnam War with the same surname, will be published. Since I last mentioned it, the work has acquired some serious endorsements.

"One of the finest and most moving books I have read in a long time. It is calm and understated, and yet written with great emotional intensity. I found it hard to think about anything else for days after reading it" (John Simpson, BBC world affairs editor)

 "We gaze at the names on war memorials and wonder, and now I know the reason why. This book is meticulous in its research, compelling in its structure. A marvellous book" (Sir Michael Parkinson, broadcaster)

"Quite simply a beautiful book. Mark Byford has a curious nature and a tender heart. I shall never look at a war memorial again without wondering who was the young man whose name is on a wall" (Dame Jenni Murray, broadcaster and author)

 "A remarkable story that skilfully knits together heroic family history and the broader sweep of the tragedy of the Vietnam war. So moving and thoughtful, there has been no history of that conflict remotely like this one " (Andrew Marr, journalist and broadcaster)

Three Byfords - one book

Former BBC DDG Mark Byford is supplementing his pension with a book, coming in November, from Mainstream Publishing. It'll be one of the non-fiction specialists' last titles - the publishers are closing their office in Edinburgh at the end of this year.

Mark's been tracking the story of another Byford, whose name he spotted on the Vietnam war memorial in Washington. According to the blurb Mark's travelled more than 30,000 miles to complete the story of draftee Larry Byford, who died in the summer of 1967, aged 22.

There's another Byford in the book - Mark's father, Lawry (Sir Lawrence Byford to you and me - formerly HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary) - who was drafted in the Second World War. The book will be called A Name On A Wall: Two Men, Two Wars, Two Destinies - billed as "a gripping, true story which focuses on duty, heroism and fate." £16.99 is the forecast price...

Identity parade

A physical copy of the Sunday Times reveals an opportunity for those who can't tell the difference between Alan Yentob and Salman Rushdie to nail it once and for all. Alan is to front an Imagine special, handily scheduled on BBC1 on 19th September, on Salman, the day after publication of his book about life under a fatwa.

Simon Amstell's fictional grandmother, in Grandma's House, was confused about the two. His fictional mother, played by Rebecca Front, was prepared to sleep with Yentob, to help her son's career.

Alan will be the one asking the questions of Salman. I think...

Here we go again

Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction: The Assessment of the British Government, also known as the September Dossier, was published on 24 September 2002. That day, the Commons was recalled to discuss its contents.  It was part of an ongoing investigation by the government into weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, which ultimately led to the 2003 invasion.

10 years later, and we're heading for one of those media anniversary fests. Kicking it off is a book from former Today editor, Kevin Marsh, who was in charge when reporter Andrew Gilligan made his report on the veracity of the dossier in May 2003.  "Stumbling Over The Truth" is published on September 20th, by Biteback Publishing, the imprint of blogger, broadcaster, and Conservative, Iain Dale.

It'll be an anxious time for senior editors at the BBC - apart from Dr David Kelly and Saddam's Iraqi regime, far too many of the dramatis personae are still around, and the temptation to re-stage debates will be high in the minds of younger producers...

Odds and ends

In all the years he was on Radio 2, I don't think Jimmy Young was ever invited to review the newspapers on Breakfast with Frost, or its successor, the Andrew Marr Show. Jeremy Vine, who apparently has a book out, was with Andrew this morning. Andrew has provided the cover endorsement for "It's All News To Me".

Is it time we asked for a total of Vine's BBC appearances over recent weeks, and perhaps compared them to invitations to shows on ITV and commercial radio ?

Creeper

Congratulations to Jeremy Vine, award an honorary degree in civil law at his alma mater, Durham University today, as he continues his whistle-stop tour to promote the story of his life so far.

Let's hope they got his name right on the piece of paper. Caption writers at BBC Breakfast earlier this week weren't so certain.

Achingly trendy

Oh yes, this blog is now available on Kindle !

Reduced

Once again, I fail to understand the rough, tough world of book publishing. Jeremy Vine's latest oeuvre, "It's All News to Me", launched this month by Simon & Schuster in hardback at £18.99, has been cut to a mere £9.50 on Amazon.  Delivered FREE in the UK, as they exhort.

Sales may not be helped by the only reader review so far posted, by one Tim Kevan from Devon "I once heard that champion table tennis players in China spend their first few years learning the discipline of all the moves and only when they have truly mastered this is the humble ping pong ball added into the mix to bring the game alive. This is a little how it feels reading Jeremy Vine's wonderful new book It's All News to Me."

Viticulture

June 7th has been set as publication day for Jeremy Vine's memoirs, entitled "It's All News To Me", with the tag line "How I got trapped inside the BBC for 25 years".  How many BBC appearances will Jezzer make to whip up a storm of interest ?

I clearly don't understand modern publishing; the jacket price for the hardback is £18.99, yet it's available to pre-order on Amazon for just £9.50, or £9.99 on a Kindle. Jeremy is now with Simon & Schuster, but his two previous oeuvres were published by Hodder Christian Paperbacks. "The Whole World In My Hands", a novel about rival male and female vicars, is available from 1p secondhand, plus delivery - but should you want a mint copy, the price goes up to £127.95.

"Forget Heaven, Just Kiss Me", is from 1993, "The Rev Mark Empringham takes up a job as assistant vicar in one of the biggest churches in the country. Very soon, he is propelled into the top job and an elaborate web of deception, for he has a secret - he has no faith at all. But in the end, he encounters the God he has derided".  Again, it's yours, secondhand for 1p, but an untouched edition runs at £24.37.

• The cover endorsement of the memoirs is from Andrew Marr. "Witty, self-knowing, and sometimes delightlyfully acid", all good so far, "This is the ultimate insider's account of today's BBC" - is that ultimate as in brilliant, or most recent, Andy ? - "Jeremy Vine shows himself as good a writer as he is a broadcaster". So do you like the show, Mr Marr ?

Showdown

After two letters from the Society of Authors on cuts to Radio 4 short stories, Mark Thompson has finally responded - offering a meeting on 20th December with Controller R4 Gwyneth Williams, with Tim Davie, Director of Audio and Music riding shotgun.   Hope the Authors take Michael Jecks along - you can hear him on Feedback this Friday.

History awaits

At least BBC2 Controller Janice Hadlow can concentrate on spinning the DQF cuts this autumn. Her elusive book, on the story of George III's six daughters, seems to have been put back yet again in her publisher's schedules.

Originally entitled "The Nunnery: The six daughters of George III", and co-authored with her husband Martin Davidson (who commissions history and business programmes for BBC1, 2 and 4), it was first "about to be published" in 2004. Indeed, Channel 4 interviewed Janet for a history programme on the strength of it. It got as far as an ISBN number and a planned 512 pages in 2006's lists. However, it seems it wasn't quite ready, and Janet took "a short sabbatical" from the role of Controller BBC4 in 2007 to complete it (giving George Entwistle his first go at running a channel).

It re-emerged with a new title "Strangest Family: George III's Extraordinary Experiment in Domestic Happiness". Some online booksellers have been offering it in August and October this year. Now Play.com have it listed for 7th June 2012 (already discounted from £24.99 to £15.29).

And the tagline seems to concentrate on Janice: "An intensely moving account of George III's doomed attempt to create a happy, harmonious family, written with astonishing emotional force from a stunning new history writer."

Let's hope all remains harmonious in the Hadlow household.

Back to the trenches

Meanwhile at Radio 4, Gwyneth Williams' mixture of smiles and sincerity hasn't washed with the writers of short stories.  Despite explanatory blogs and appearances on Feedback and Trevor Dann's Radio Academy podcast, the Society of Authors, alongside the Writer's Guild and Equity, have reported her to the DG and The Trust.  This one will run for a while....

Stories by numbers

Gwyneth Williams' first firestorm as Radio 4 Controller is still raging.  She blogs today that critics of her move to cut the numbers of short stories she commissions, and which would see only two short stories a week regularly scheduled on Radio 4, misunderstand the reduction, and, I think mistakenly, trades figures.

She says there will be 104 short stories commissioned for the station from April next year, and she'll also broadcast the five that make the final shortlist for the BBC National Short Story award.  Then, she argues, listeners with DAB will find 25 new short stories a year on Radio 4 Extra.  So, says Gwyneth, whose meetings today are with authors, not listeners, the overall cut in new commissions is from 144 to 134.

It looks so close to a u-turn that it seems hardly worth making the cut.  The problem, however, is also one of scheduling. Radio 4 listeners have fond memories of a daily daytime oasis in their lives when they could drift off "into a world of pure imagination" (copyright Bricusse/Newley 'Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory").  In fact, the current schedule runs them Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday at 3.30pm.   From April, weekday listeners will get one story - at 3.45 on Fridays, and weekend listeners will get one, at 7.45 on Sundays.  Lord knows where the 25 on Radio 4 Extra will turn up.

So Gwyneth may be appeasing the authors with numbers, but I'm not sure she's yet got the listeners back in line.