So! Bite-Sized Books is celebrating its 10th birthday.
Our founder, now Chairman, Paul Davies, created the unique publishing idea of putting out shorter 10-12,000 word books covering topics concisely: readable in one two-hour sitting. They’ve always been the antidote to the unread pile on the bedside table. For business books ‘bite-sized’ is very much the continuing plan – but we’ve lifted the lid on word-count for novels and politics.
Over the years since I joined Paul in 2021, we’ve added poetry, comedy, children’s, and greatly added to our catalogue of business books, biographies, climate change & environment, politics & current affairs, health, science and novels.
Publishing wisdom suggests specialisation. We don’t do that. We’re having too much fun.
A massive thank you to all our authors and book buyers – we wouldn’t be here but for you.
A special thanks to ‘Hackademic’ editor John Mair, with whom we’ve published over 30 books covering topics such as the BBC, the Pandemic, Populism, Guyana’s oil market, Oxford’s literary greats, and a guide to TV detective MORSE’s Oxford.
And we can’t miss out another special thanks to the amazing illustrator Dean Stockton. Dean is the master of the digital collage. He’s made great books greater. Actually, you can judge a book by its cover!
And a final thanks to Amelia Costley who has created our business book series covers amongst others.
NEW BOOKS FOR THE BEACH
THE TERRORS OF YESTERDAY – TALES OF THE 1980’S – ROGER SCHAFIR
Ideal for that train or plane journey, or for that hour or two anywhere, here are five stories – medium length but packed with action – four harking back to the 1980s, a period brought back vividly to life.
The stories range from a dark drama of evil incongruously set in everyday English suburbia, a sardonic comedy of conceit and non-awareness, a truly sad story of a life dominated by a delusion which must never be shattered, but then, in opposite mode, a crazy wild comedy set in student days, and finally one imaginative short science fiction story set in the far future. They are here to intrigue, amuse and startle. Enjoy, as they say before a meal!
Roger Schafir
Roger Schafir has combined two activities during his career: writing, and mathematical physics, in which he has published several technical papers in quantum mechanics and pre-quantum classical theory. In Bite-Sized Books he is also the co-author of Another Way, calling for a new approach to British foreign and defence policy.
A FATAL FRIENSHIP – ATIMA SRIVASTAVA
Marina the wild spirited artist and Renu the quiet lonely housewife are the best of friends, but when Marina falls violently in love with a younger man and determines to do the worst thing Renu can imagine, their friendship is severely tested. Renu devises what she thinks will be a fool proof plan to protect her friend, but when the amateur sleuth Pallavi enters the scene and begins a cock-eyed investigation, things start to fall apart. It’s enough to drive a woman to murder.
A riveting tale of love and loyalty, and a femme fatale with a deadly secret.
Atima Srivastava
Atima Srivastava was born in Mumbai in 1961 and came to London at age 10. She was a film editor for 16 years and then a university lecturer developing and teaching courses in Literature, Film and Immigration. She has published five other novels, as well as several screenplays and short stories and been a Visiting British Writer in Residence at universities in over 50 cities including Seoul, Mumbai, Mainz, Sophia, Bern, Köln, Lugano and Singapore.
A PRAYER AND A PINT: CHURCHES AND PUBS OF THE WAVENEY VALLEY
– CHRISTOPHER REEVE AND JANET PEACHEY
This is a wonderful guide to the Waveney Valley for lovers of churches, pubs and the joys of rural discovery.
Author Chris Reeve, “About ten years ago Janet and I devised the plan of touring the Waveney Valley from the source of the river at Redgrave to its mingling with the North Sea at Gorleston.
We wanted to develop a tourist guide that would encourage people to visit the area and discover some of its gems
Janet and I both agree that it’s the most exciting and enjoyable project we’ve ever had, and hope that readers will get as much pleasure from touring the region, and visiting its ancient Churches and Pubs, as we have.”
Christopher Reeve & Janet Peachey
Christopher Reeve, born in Bungay in 1946, studied theology at St. Andrew’s University and worked in museums, becoming Keeper of Fine & Decorative Arts in Bury St. Edmunds. In 2000, as Bungay’s Community Project Officer, he met Janet Peachey, doing the same role in Beccles. Now retired, Reeve writes extensively on local history. Janet, educated in Diss with a BA in Geography and a certificate in Landscape History, began photography while working for Norfolk Rural Community Council. She met Reeve again in 2008, and they bonded over their shared love of community, landscape, and heritage, forming a lasting friendship.
BUY HERE
2084 DISCOVERING AMBLYTOPIA – BIG BROTHER AFTER 100 YEARS? – PAUL DAVIES
Post neo-liberalism, post sado-populism, the unimaginably wealthy and powerful have created a global neo-age where need has been all but eliminated – so where is the human spirit now?
The dystopian vision of Orwell’s 1984 is recreated in 2084.
Nation states have been subsumed into a global world controlled by seven trillionaires. That world is grey and meaningless and there is no spur for human development or aspiration – a neo-age of amblytopia. Paradoxically Imagination has become highly prized and yet trivialised.
How do individuals survive and live with themselves?
Paul Davies
Paul Davies is founder and chairman of Bite-Sized Books Ltd, advising on new titles. After ten years teaching English, he held senior IT roles worldwide, including as managing director of Unisys India. In 2003, he launched Onshore Offshore Ltd, specialising in offshoring, fraud detection, and rescuing failing companies across multiple regions. He’s authored several business books, including What’s This India Business? and bestselling Bite-Sized titles like Contract Management for Non-Experts. He holds a PhD on George Eliot and edited Still Crazy about George Eliot after 200 Years. Paul lives in Goring-on-Thames with his wife, with four children and four grandchildren.
WHAT DO BOYS WANT? –- WHY I NEVER
WANTED A DOLL – JOHN REDWOOD
What makes a boy tick? Has our view of boys evolved as society has changed? Is boyishness in the genes or learned after birth?
John Redwood shares with the reader his experiences as a young boy growing up in post War Britain when boys were told to be boys. With an unusually long memory of childhood stretching for him back into the pram he takes us through what it felt like to be a baby then a boy responding to the adult world around him. Sitting on a chair was an exercise in mountaineering. Trying those first steps instead of crawling fast around the floors were dogged by fears of falling over. First day at school was a revelation putting him into a world that was made for his size and understanding. Listening to little understood adult conversations over his head, and trying to respond to well-meant remarks was difficult to handle.
He reminds readers of the close relationships young boys have with their mothers, charged with keeping them out of harm all day long. He identifies crucial events and conversations that took him step by step to independent judgement and eventually to a scholarship to Oxford which changed his life.
John Redwood
John Redwood is a businessman by background who has led industrial companies and set up an investment management business. An MP since 1987, he has been a government Minister and was Head of Margaret Thatcher’s Policy Unit in her middle period in office.
ANOREXIA – MY TOUGH LOVE – DARE TO
BREAK FREE! – RAPHA ELLE
How do you break free from denial and truly acknowledge anorexia?
What if healing could emerge from the most unexpected paths?
With rare intensity, Rapha Elle takes us deep into the insidious grip of this all-consuming illness: a ravenous hunger for control, the fear of excess, the obsession with emptiness.
For eighteen years, her body became a battlefield, ruled by a relentless inner voice. This book is both a cry from the soul and a call from the body, an intimate journey through the unfathomable struggles of anorexia.
It is also a vibrant ode, propelled by poetic surges and a free, spontaneous prose, reflecting a spirit in search of truth.
Far from conventional molds, within these pages, you’ll explore powerful ways to navigate overwhelming thoughts, find peace within your body, reconnect with others, and bring meaning and colours back into your life.
Whether you are personally affected, a parent, a caregiver, a therapist, or simply seeking a deeper understanding, this book offers a transformative perspective, one that shifts the focus from food and calories to something far more vital: rediscovering the will to live.
A bold and original approach to healing, one that dares to go beyond the surface and into the heart of true recovery.
“Rapha ELLE – profound testimony, recounting her search for meaning through anorexia and her determined struggle to overcome it and discover a new dimension of being. It stands as proof of the immense potential within us, ready to rise even in the face of adversity. A vital lesson in courage and mindful presence.” Marc de Smedt, writer, philosopher, journalist.
Rapha Elle
Rapha Elle’s journey is driven by curiosity, viewing life as a playground of endless possibilities. For over a decade, she explored the world through work in art and culture before settling in southern France as a cultural attaché, librarian, and photographer. Inspired by a deep desire to support those facing anorexia, she wrote this book and created innovative workshops. She is also involved in an equine therapy centre that supports individuals with mental health challenges, eating disorders, addiction, and burnout. The strength and calm of horses play a vital role in enhancing her unique and compassionate therapeutic approach.
BUY HERE
THE CLOUD FACTORY – EMMA WOOLLACOTT
This lovely little drawing will be the front cover of THE CLOUD FACTORY, a wonderful children’s book we’ll be publishing soon.
Like all great books for children, it’s written on two levels; the parent and the child. Emma had me laughing out loud. And the child, being read to, will get lost in the magical story and the enchanting drawings.
Emma Woollacott
Emma Woollacott is a technology, business and science writer who has written for most British national newspapers, including the Times, Daily Telegraph, Financial Times and Guardian, as well as many leading magazines and websites. Regular commitments currently include technology industry news for Private Eye and a short weekly slot on BBC Radio Oxford
September launch date
NO LAST WORD – PAUSING TO PRAISE PINTER – DAVID ERDOS
Starting out as a review of the BFI’s PINTER AT THE BBC collection of unreleased television masterpieces, this monograph soon bloomed into a reflection on Harold Pinter’s work as a whole and his contribution to world drama and our understanding of it.
Accompanied by a suite of poems that commemorate his passing, alongside tributes to such luminous Pinter peers as Heathcote Williams, Edward Bond, Bernard Kops, Trevor Griffiths and Henry Woolf, NO LAST WORD is an attempt to spread and honour the word of a previous generation to those that follow.
It is a book which mixes the critical with the creative through a lifetime’s devotion, study and practice, directed at those whose interest lays in a true writer’s theatre.
David Erdos
David Erdos is an Actor, Writer, Director, Teacher and a widely published Poet, Playwright and Critic. A regular International Times contributor, Literary Editor for MU magazine and Series Editor for Bite-Sized Books’ The Return to Reason Series, David’s YouTube Channel chronicles The Covidian Age and his album Between Bright Worlds is Spotifindable. He is celebrated for his expertise in the Poem-Review.