News Videos

On 28 August 2011 Anne Aylor’s novel, The Double Happiness Company, was launched in the United States. A book signing was held in the Cultural Center de Mesilla, hosted by its director, Denise Chavez, an award-winning writer who also runs the annual Border Book Festival in Mesilla, New Mexico. Mil gracias to Denise for making it a wonderful fiesta that included a cake iced with the cover of our first publication!

A punchy 2-minute video remix using only the sounds of an energetic dance workout. Inspired by dance novel The Double Happiness Company, this film was created by Eclectic Method in NYC.

If you haven’t read the book, you can order a copy, or get it on your UK Kindle or priced in US$.

New York-based video remixers, Eclectic Method who performed at the Grammy Awards in LA this year, had the idea of promoting The Double Happiness Company with a video featuring “raw dance”. The piece was conceived by Jonny Wilson of EM and was made in collaboration with the Purchase College Dance Department, State University of New York, with dancers Jessica Miller and Oliver Greene-Cramer.

Jonny wanted to make a film of “what you hear in a ballet studio, sounds you never hear because of the music”. His promo video will be released in a few weeks. Here is Eclectic Method preparing to film Raw Dance Remix.

This short film was made on the night of the launch of Anne Aylor’s new novel. This excellent video was shot and edited by Kieran Conlan of Realta Productions, London.

‘A brilliant novel. I couldn’t put it down. A remarkable insight into the relationships between women and the novel captures perfectly some of the underlying reasons for conflicts between mothers and daughters. Anne Aylor creates an extraordinary “monster mother” and slowly reveals her true nature. The novel is a warning to all women about how easy it is to trust the wrong women in your life. For men, it will be a revelation about how women’s lives can be  dominated by their image of their bodies. But in the end it is a great novel about love.‘ Dorothy Byrne, Head of News & Current Affairs, Channel 4 TV and who spoke at the launch

‘Anne’s writing demonstrates her powers of observation. Dialogue throughout is pitch perfect, and gives Anne some of her pithy chapter headings: “Weirdnik in a tutu”, “Fatso goes Nutzoid”. A keen eye selected the well-chosen period detail: Tangee lipstick, beaded curtains, black-bottom pie, the Frontier coffee shop full of stuffed animals, a velvet picture of Jackie O. All in all, this book is a delight. Read, and enjoy.’ Annemarie Neary, writer, ZenAzzurian and a Bridport prizewinner in 2009

‘I cannot thank you enough, Anne, for last night. What a privilege it was for me to be offered the stage to give a testament of my experience of you. You have no idea how honoured I feel to be associated with someone like you, whose vision, creative power, focus, dedication and graciousness I have drunk like water from a rare wellspring.’ Eugene Skeef, South African percussionist, composer, poet & cultural activist

‘Amazing night last night – just wanted to say WOW. Congratulations and big thanks for having such a great party!‘ Elise Valmorbida of Word Design (left)

‘It was a truly wonderful launch. The readings whetted my appetite for the book, which I began on the way home. I’m hooked! The story can’t fail to draw people in. I thought the venue was fantastic – that marvellous balcony which meant we could all see and hear the speakers. And the music was a lovely touch – again very rare. And delicious food, and, you Anne, looking so glamourous, with your great whoosh of magnificent burnished hair. I wish you and the book every possible success. Black Swan, move out of the way – you’re going to be surpassed!‘ Wendy Perriam, author of 16 novels (most recently Broken Places) & 7 short story collections

‘I am so so soooo happy to have been at the event with your and your dear friends. A beautiful experience! I thank you and the universe for letting us meet. Muchas gracias por tu libro, Anne. Y por tus palabras, un abrazo, un beso.’ Bel Bellvehi Negre of the Bel and Sammy Duet, Figueres, Spain

‘A brilliant book launch. The readings were great, the speeches were great. It felt like BareBone Books had existed for ages, it was such a confident event. It was really good to see your work come to fruition and be celebrated.’ Andrea Michell, Bravura Films

‘Congratulations on a fantastic launch last night!‘ Claire Richman, Senior Account Manager, Midas PR

‘Looked like a very successful night, even to a bibliophobe like me! Best wishes to Anne for the book. Judging by the queue to get it signed yesterday, it’s a winner.’ Robin Beste

‘I wanted to thank you both for including me in this very special event. I felt very honoured to be part of it.’ Nikki Redmond, actor

Sammy Arderiu, Bel Vellvehi Negre, Eugene Skeef

Keirion Carroll, Kim Martelle, Anne Aylor

Ben Okri discusses writing (“I think the purpose of what we’re trying to do in art, finally, is to enchant the human heart and mind into a sense of its true kingdom of magnificence”) and his novel, Starbook.

We are pleased to announce a video trailer for Anne Aylor‘s The Double Happiness Company. It has been created with the help of the New York-based remixers, Eclectic Method. Enjoy!

It was interesting last weekend to read two contrasting articles about the state of ballet today. The first appeared in the Guardian Review where former ballet dancer, Jennifer Homan wrote ’in recent years I have found going to the ballet increasingly dispiriting. With few exceptions, performances are dull and lack vitality.’ The following day in The Observer Ruaridh Nicoll wrote that ‘Ballet is bursting with vitality, spilling beyond the doors of its traditional home in the great opera houses . . . Not only is there a huge amount of activity, there seems to be a growing audience to sustain it .’

Ballet originated in the 15th century, an import from Italy to France (the word comes from balletto, a diminutive of ballo, dance). This then-infant art form was introduced by Catherine de Medici, the new Queen of France, who also brought the civilising Italian custom of eating with forks rather than fingers.

Ballet’s popularity has waxed and waned ever since. Despite the great reforms of Jean-Georges Noverre in the eighteenth century, ballet went into decline in France after 1830 when dancers were relegated to being human statues near lake-side backdrops—les ballerines près de l’eau. Though dying out in France, ballet continued to flourish in Denmark, Italy and Russia. The art form came full circle when Serge Diaghilev brought the intoxicating Ballets Russes to its birthplace, Paris, in 1910.

Ballet has its pendulum swings, its last great upward movement in the 1980s. Homan may be right in saying we have lost our great choreographers, George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Frederick Ashton and Kenneth MacMillan, but the technical abilities of today’s artists are truly breathtaking. Witness the meteoric rise of ‘Rocket Man’, 21-year-old Ivan Vasiliev, in Don Quixote. Even if you hate ballet, this guy will make you gasp.

Someone from an earlier generation who is trying to imbue ballet with its original vitality and dramatic essence is the ballerina Gelsey Kirkland who has her own academy in New York City. I recently came across a video of her in Act I of Giselle, an astonishing performance as she was not dancing Giselle; she was Giselle.

Ten years ago, the film Billy Elliott caused a sensation and now, as a musical, is a permanent feature on stages around the world. Darren Aronofsky’s new film, Black Swan, is a psychological thriller about two ballerinas in Swan Lake. This movie returns ballet to the Big Screen. Its star, Natalie Portman, is being tipped for an Oscar.

The Double Happiness Company is not jumping on the bandwagon of this new ballet boom. The manuscript was started years ago, but has happily come into bloom now. It is a novel that places ballet in a physical and cultural wasteland. Its protagonist, Katie Rivers, desperately wants to escape it to dance and in Flaubert’s phrase, ‘to move the stars to pity’. This book begs to be filmed. Let the offers roll in.

One of the section chapters in The Double Happiness Company is a Spanish proverb: ‘No matter what happens in your life, nobody can take away your dance.’ The writer and poet, Maya Angelou, embodies this philosophy in her work and in her life. Enjoy her wonderful poem, ‘And Still I Rise’.

Elizabeth Gilbert wrote Eat Pray Love which became a worldwide publishing phenomenon. In this TED talk she riffs about many things: the fear of success, about genius (what it meant in ancient Rome and how its meaning has changed), how Tom Waits reacted when the words to a new song came to him when he was driving. And most importantly, why the Spanish say Olé. Well worth 19 minutes of your time.

In this TED talk the writer, Amy Tan talks about the mysterious process of writing. Some of the topics she covers in this 20-minute talk are how uncertainly is good, how Buddhist fishermen rationalise their occupation (‘saving fish from drowning’) and how Chinese ghosts have informed her writing. She is the author of novels such as The Joy Luck Club, The Kitchen God’s Wife and The Bonesetter’s Daughter.