Beryl Nicholson writes from Albania:

As you will be back from your holiday, may I tell you about this beautiful evening in Tirana. It is so mild I am wandering around in short sleeves. All day the sky has been bright blue, and the sun shines every day.

So to business: I expect to go to the Tirana book fair towards the end of next month, always a stimulating event. Besides spending too much money, I wonder if I might make some useful contacts. Could you perhaps mention this to people you [and in some cases I] know who might be interested in having their books translated? Would it be useful to get details of potential publishers – chatting them up first – or does one give them contact information, web addresses, etc.? Don’t you have a blog or something? There is definitely a market here, small, but eager to read. The papers carry a lot of cultural news too. If this is just a mad idea, let me know, but if it is not, ditto.

Beryl is something of an expert on all things Albanian, not just the academic (though she is that too) but also the best internet cafés, where to eat, etc. and we’ll be passing on her offer to those of our clients and contacts we think might appreciate it. (If you think we’ve missed you out, do get in touch.)

Cornwell Internet returned from holiday, and plunged straight into the Durham Book Festival. Although we no longer sponsor the Festival, and no longer have any connection with the running of its web site, we still live in Durham and love books, so we would want to make the most of the Festival, quite apart from the number of events which involve our clients.

As a result, our first week home from holiday included two visits to Bishop Cosin’s seventeenth century library on Palace Green (to consider the past and present of the book as an object), a book launch by Vane Women, two separate readings by poets published by Flambard Press, a session organised by Mslexia at which Valerie Laws was one of the readers, and a Book Fair in the Town Hall.

The fair was small, but we were amused to see how many Cornwell Internet clients were present. Looking around the hall I counted Smokestack Books, Chaz Brenchley (selling his elegant ghost story anthologies, Phantoms at the Phil, Red Squirrel Press (who must win the prize for best sales technique!) and Diamond Twig (pictured above, in the place of honour in front of the hall’s spectacular fireplace).