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2025
September 05th 2025, London - Written by Alix Daniel
“When a society is strong and confident, like 19th-century France, it can tolerate negative literature. Inversely, today’s French society seeks reassurance and cannot stand even slight traces of negativity or realism.”
Michel Houellebecq, 2006 (Buzz Littéraire)
Nearly 20 years after Michel Houellebecq’s observation, French society appears to be grappling with a deepening loss of confidence, affecting everything from the economy to family life.
Yet, a spark of rebellion is in the air. Next week, a planned nationwide blockade will demand President Emmanuel Macron’s resignation, reflecting widespread frustration with leaders and the so-called in French bien-pensants, the politically correct elite who claim to understand the public but more than ever miss the mark.
Despite Houellebecq’s claim that French society craves reassurance, the literary world has leaned heavily into “negative” realism. Annie Ernaux, whose books sell hundreds of thousands annually, exemplifies this trend with her raw, introspective autofiction. Her work, while critically acclaimed is very negative. This highlights a disconnect between the publishing industry, the readers of such literature, and the broader public.
Publishers have prioritised such narratives, but are they meeting readers’ growing desire for positivity, escapism and fun?
The Rentrée Littéraire is happening now. It’s a quintessentially annual French tradition and has been since the 1950s. Publishers flood bookstores with hundreds of new titles between late August and early November. This annual deluge, blending all genres and styles, coincides with major literary awards and aims to captivate readers through sheer volume and visual impact. This year, 400 new books will be released for attention, offering a snapshot of France’s societal mood and literary trends.
Could this year’s Rentrée mark a shift toward more uplifting, literary stories? Here are three notable release and one significant absence, that suggest a potential change:
1. ‘Perpétuité’ by Guillaume Poix (not yet translated into English)
This captivating novel, more literary and poetic than overtly political, immerses readers in the world of prison guards and managers, offering a fresh perspective with narrative depth.
2. ‘James’ by Percival Everett (translated into French by Anne-Laure Tissut)
The 2024 Pulitzer Prize winner reimagines Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of Jim, Huck’s enslaved companion. Everett’s ingenious storytelling, just like Mark Twain before, blends wit and humanity, making it a standout for readers seeking both substance and engagement.
3. ‘Frankenstein’ by Mary Shelley, translated by the author Marie Darrieussecq (Published by Monsieur Toussaint L’Ouverture)
This new translation from an up-and-coming French publisher promises to preserve Shelley’s beautifully naïve and feminine voice while highlighting her prescient concerns about scientific hubris. A classic reimagined for today’s readers.
4. The Absence of Annie Ernaux
In 2022, Annie Ernaux won the Nobel Prize in Literature for her fearless exploration of personal memory and trauma in works like ‘Simple Passion’, ‘Happening’, and ‘A Girl’s Story’. Yet her repetitive focus on painful autofiction embodies the “negative literature” Houellebecq critiqued. Her absence from this year’s Rentrée Littéraire may signal that publishers are finally making room for more optimistic voices.
Will this year’s Rentrée Littéraire deliver more positive stories for escapism and fun readers crave? Only time will tell, but Cybirdy next books and these few releases from France already offer hope for a literary landscape that uplifts as much as it challenges.
So, with Cybirdy and others, keep positive and keep reading!
2025
August 8th 2025, London
After a short two-week break, we’re back in your inbox—with a concise update and a special gift we think you’ll love.
Cameron Scott Kirk’s latest novel, Fires of Atonement, is out now and available on Amazon. If you enjoy dark fantasy with haunting depth, this one’s for you. If you wish to dive deeper into Cameron’s Grim Dark world check out his blog
To celebrate the new release and our love for Cameron’s immersive fantasy world-building, we’re offering 10% off his novel The Beautiful Harpies in all formats:
• Special illustrated print edition
• eBook
• Audiobook
August 14th 2025, London - Written by Alix Daniel
“The man’s jaw moved up and down in a silent scream as his eyes widened. The fire seized the moment, darting into his eyes, which sizzled as they began to melt. They dribbled and boiled out of their sockets, running down his face. His jaw spasmed, severing his tongue. His clothes had fused to his torso.”
Excerpt from The Rioting of Inferno by E.J Cousins
A lot is going on at Cybirdy. Last week, Katherine wrote the following review of The Rioting of Inferno :
“I thought this would be gothic stories. It isnt. It's a trail of repugnant outpouring of a sick mind”
And this week, another reviewer named David, wrote about the same book:
“The content is deliciously vile, tackling themes of mental health, the torment of being trapped in one’s own skin, the restless mind, and the desperate urge to break free through violence and chaos. This anthology is a treat for those who revel in the extreme edges of literature”
Even if very different opinions are always valid and must be acknowledged and respected, we regret any confusion that led the first reviewer to expect Gothic tales from The Rioting of Inferno. Horror and Gothic literature are indeed distinct, despite some overlaps.
So, let’s make the point here. Gothic literature emerged in the Anglo-Saxon world as a reaction to the rationalism of the 18th-century Enlightenment and its revolutionary aftermath. At the centre of Gothic literature is the affirmation that supernatural power is plausible and that there is beauty in the dark side. Both Gothic and horror genres evoke fear, they differ in focus and execution. Gothic literature explores the psychological effects of fear, often embracing supernatural elements, decaying settings like castles or haunted ruins, and a melancholic, mysterious atmosphere.
In contrast, horror leans into visceral fear, disgust, and shock, using graphic violence and psychological terror to unsettle readers. Where Gothic is melancholic and mystical, horror is raw, unthinkable, visceral and repulsive.
For many, Gothic literature holds broad appeal, but horror is a taste for a minority. Horror readers and writers are, as Thomas Ligotti describes in his essay The Conspiracy Against the Human Race, a unique breed: “someone in need of tasting treats inconsistent with their personal welfare.” He adds, “We have been force-fed for so long the shudders of a thousand graveyards that, seeking a macabre redemption, a salvation by horror, we willingly consume the terrors of the tomb… and find them to our liking.”
Our Anglo-Saxon ancestors created Gothic literature to rebel against the Enlightenment’s encroaching rationality and fatalism by creating works like The Castle of Otranto, Dracula, Wuthering Heights, and Frankenstein. Horror literature, with Lovecraft and Allan Edgar Poe pushed this rebellion of the creative mind further, and today, while many enjoy these classics, others continue to explore the genre’s extremes.
Rationality will never fully conquer inquisitive minds which yearn to escape bleakness and confront the fear of death through imagination. At Cybirdy, we champion poetry and fiction as antidotes to totalitarian rationality and as vehicles for boundless creativity.
While we are proud to have published The Rioting of Inferno by E.J. Cousins—a rising star in creativity —we will not specialise in horror or even gothic genres alone. Instead, we shall remain committed to a multiplicity of forms, always driven by poetry and fiction that expand the imagination and can liberate our minds from the overwhelming rationalisation of our lives.
So if you dare to experience The Rioting of Inferno for yourself, get your copy or listen to the audiobook
August 22nd 2025, London - Written by Alix Daniel
Human beings are unique on this blue planet, not only for their intellectual drive to seek meaning and progress but also for our social needs rooted in highly individualised identities. No one can dispute that each of us is distinct, endowed with innate talents and a desire to stand out.
Does a cow dream of being a goat? We may never know. But we do know, and understand, that a child playing pretend or that a girl on a migrant boat to Dover dreams of becoming like Taylor Swift. These aspirations are not just plausible but real.
We are all born with the potential to dream of being someone special, and art, in all its forms, serves as a lodestone for our inquisitive minds.
In the 20th century, eugenicists misapplied Darwin’s theory of adaptation to human genetics, with no success. Instead, their efforts fostered social divisions that crystallized into ideologies like Zionism, fascism, Nazism, racism, wokism and even certain interpretations of feminism. These movements are deadly and have often deepened societal rifts rather than uniting us.
We are not defined by our race, religion, or sex. We are shaped by our names, families, and societal bonds. We are multiple and each of us must cherish an intimate, private soul and an identity rooted in our core values and multifaceted nature.
The 2006 book Race Differences in Intelligence: An Evolutionary Analysis by Richard Lynn has been widely debunked as unfounded and harmful. Genetic and racial analyses of intelligence, such as those proposed by Lynn, lack scientific rigor, and IQ as a marker has proven unreliable. Before his death, Lynn faced significant backlash, with his university revoking his emeritus professor title due to his controversial and flawed writings.
I have since stopped reading essays on social theories and generally avoid discussions on these topics. I am not here to lecture but to share a personal example, one I know intimately, as it is my own. So let me introduce myself:
I am Alix Lucienne Daniel, born in Brittany, France. My mother was Paulette, my father Arthur. I was named after one of my father’s acquaintances, and my middle name honours my maternal grandmother. I have 8 brothers and sisters. I have two children, Mehdi and Edouard, and two grandchildren, Clement and Mina. Educated in Brittany and later Paris and London, I dreamed early in life of becoming a doctor, a rock singer, roaming the roads of North America. David Bowie, AC/DC, and punk music were the soundtrack to my secret adolescent life.
Now, I live in London, the urban home I have chosen for the rest of my life. I carry a French passport, pay taxes, and respect the laws of this land that has welcomed me. I am a medical doctor, entrepreneur, poet, translator, narrator, and the writer of this newsletter. My genes, sexuality, religion, and political views are private matters, not for public discussion. However, I am always open to sharing my values: respect for humanity and all life on Earth, acknowledgment of our differences, and I reject brutal divisions and distanciation, especially those cloaked in so-called “scientific” justifications.
If you wish to know more about my multiplicity, now is the time. Cybirdy is offering a discount on Hippocrates of London and 84-19 Rhapsodies & co from I.
I wish you happy reading and happy searching of your own multiplicity.
August 29th 2025, London - Written by Alix Daniel
“And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer.”
F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
Let’s make Great Britain a happy place again feels like a rallying cry, a spark of hope for renewal. As far as we and Google know, no political party has claimed “Let’s Make Great Britain a Happy Place Again” as a slogan, so, together, let’s adopt it for the next few minutes of your reading.
At Cybirdy, like the Greaty Gatsby, we’re embracing the sunshine and gearing up for a transformation.
Our mission extends beyond publishing, we want to spread happiness and positivity across Great Britain, a land we cherish for its vibrant spirit, shared values, and sense of community and respect.
As someone who’s lived here for decades, I believe that every small action counts. Beyond politics, even the tiniest contribution can spark a butterfly effect, banishing gloom and fostering joy. It may sound naïve, but small changes can ripple outward to transform a nation.
I arrived in London from France in 1998 for a year of study. Twenty-seven years later, I’m still here, captivated by the wit of jolly Londoners, the electric rock scene, the multiculturalism and the blend of punky rebellion with refined elegance.
This vibrant mix, coupled with my love for France, my homeland, inspired me to stay and realise one of my dreams: founding Cybirdy, a publishing company dedicated to connecting new authors with their audiences and creating stories that endure—perhaps even reaching readers on Mars one day.
But dreams and slogans alone don’t drive change. Success or dream realisation requires a well-timed plan, a blend of vision, skills, and purpose. For Cybirdy, that moment is now. Our upcoming revamp of Bookcybirdy.com will prioritize interactivity, transparency, and stunning visuals.
So, get ready for a refreshed Bookcybirdy.com launching in September! Expect a vibrant platform with a free Cybirdy family subscription and a lively, informative Q&A session packed with British wit and global curiosity.
Great Britain is a land of rock music, punk art, rebellious yet refined fashion. It’s a nation of people who cherish their families, homes, gardens, and animals while respecting others’ privacy.
This is a land of warmth, politeness, and community—a place where people quietly do what’s right. The Cybirdy team, hailing from diverse corners of the world, is proud to call London home. This is where Cybirdy was born, and where we’ll continue to grow, crafting stories for today and tomorrow.
Spread the word, join the Cybirdy family, and let’s make Great Britain a happy place again.
“Veil after veil of thin dusky gauze is lifted, and by degrees the forms and colours of things are restored to them, and we watch the dawn remaking the world in its antique pattern.”
Oscar Wilde, The picture of Dorian Gray
2025
Focus on Adventure
July 4th 2025, London - Written by Alix Daniel
“No, no! The adventures first, explanations take such a dreadful time.”
Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland / Through the Looking-Glass
At Cybirdy, like in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, adventure comes first, and explanations, if needed, follow later. We are the adventurous kind, unable to engage with dull content, or tedious, didactic work. We thrive on discovering the unexpected and embrace risks without fear. We hold one strong conviction though: a well-written story with a compelling adventure is never dull, always carries deep meaning to uncover, and can find its fandom on the web, in libraries and in book shops.
All the stories we choose to publish feature at least one element of adventure, as defined by the primary sense of the word meaning “about to happen”.
Over the past two decades, there has been a book trade push towards more genres, subgenres in the context of woke mandates, awareness of sensitive readers and a societal trend towards risk aversion. This has sidelined the very notion of adventure in fiction. For example, The Beautiful Harpies by Cameron Scott Kirk and A Second Revolution by Kelly Noll are adventure stories, yet in bookshops, The Beautiful Harpies has been classified as dark fantasy or grimdark, and A Second Revolution as a dystopia.
Such cautious, but complex classifications may explain another oversight: Silent Riders of the Sea by John Gerard Fagan is a brilliant epic nautical adventure, which promises to the reader a tragic ride in the Artic Sea, yet, it has been labelled and underestimated as a nautical novel.
To understand more about the representation of adventure books, we have asked both Google and Grok to quote the 6 best adventure books. Interestingly, the two AI systems produced quite different lists to the same question:
Google with the mention “From sources across the web”:
Grok from X with the mention: Here’s a list of six highly regarded adventure books, based on their enduring popularity, critical acclaim, and influence in the genre. These are in no strict order, as "best" is subjective, but they’re widely celebrated:
While the list produced by Grok makes more sense to us, there is much to comprehend and discuss. We may cover this in a future blog. On your side, please feel free to email comments at contact@cybirdypublishing.co.uk
At Cybirdy, we still ponder and while we lament the lack of straightforward, down-to-earth classifications, for the sake of literature, we shall continue sailing Melville’s forbidden seas, embracing unpredictable storms and risky ventures. And, we dream of one day publishing a masterful adventure comparable to our modern preferred adventure book, American Gods by Neil Gaiman, a novel by a gifted storyteller who can weave mythology, digitalisation, globalisation, migration and human tragedy into an epic tale to be remembered and read again and again for generations to come.
“As for me, I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote. I love to sail forbidden seas, and land on barbarous coasts.”
Herman Melville, Moby-Dick or, The Whale
July 11th 2025, London - Written by Alix Daniel
Demon alcohol,
let's party
I'm sick and tired of resolutions You've quit me time and time again Don't speak of suicide solutions You took my hand, I'm here to stay
This time it's you or me I'll never set you free
Lyrics from Ozzy Osbourne
All substances, from alcohol to drugs and even painkillers, carry major risks. Yet, no one can deny the soothing and exhilarating effect of an intoxicated state. It can make us feel good, really good. The dangers, however, we know them, they are undeniable. These substances can ruin lives in just one day or over years, like a slow poison destroying bit by bit one’s physical health and vital social bonds. Still, most of us cannot resist the temptation, the temptation of intoxication and/or dependency. Those in power just know that very fact. The American opioid crisis and even the worldwide leadership of Israel in medical marijuana exemplify the deleterious control of the mass by those in power.
“Every one of my bad drinking partners is dead. No one’s come back and said, ‘hi, Oz, it’s cooler on this side.”
Ozzy’s sound conclusion said it all. We drink and take drugs and then if we survive, we can only cry for our dead friends and keep going, as life remains the best option, no?
Last Saturday, Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath performed their epic farewell concert in Birmingham before 400,000 fans who travelled from around the world for this very special event. Ozzy, seated on a black throne due to his Parkinson’s disease, sang with as much passion as ever. Tears flowed during his solo set. A symbiotic nearly religious connection happened between the band that changed forever rock music and the multi-generational aficionado fandom, with kids and grand parents alike singing in concert with Ozzi.
The rock star, now 75, has battled Parkinson’s since 2003. He recently said, “ I can’t walk, but I’m still alive”. Through his career, he struggled with drugs and alcohol use, a topic he sang about and has openly discussed in interviews.
Writers like musicians have long been candid about their substance abuse and its impact on their work and relationships. Andrew Komarnyckyj, our friend and the author of our new release Marathon D’Écriture, recently wrote two excellent Substack posts about that very subject. He cautioned:
“If you use drink to get the words flowing, don’t blame me if you become an alcoholic like Jack London, or get ulcers, or your liver gets completely fucked, or you ruin all your relationship.”
I’m 60 years old and have never used drugs, nor will I. The tragic fact that my father, victim of alcohol-related dementia was interned in a psychiatric hospital and in fact abandoned me when I was only one may have something to do with my cautious attitude. Also, I’ve always thought that taking speed or acid might dangerously amplify my overactive imagination, sparking even more new ideas and worse insanity. I have to admit that I really enjoy an occasional binge, not too often though, the hangovers and migraine are too much to pay for.
That said, I’ve experienced, as a medical doctor, intoxication-like euphoria states after I have saved the life of a few, but also when reading or writing.
I vividly recall reading in my 17th, Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald (Gatsby le Magnifique translation by Victor Llona). I didn’t move from my chair until I finished, I was utterly captivated. Another unforgettable moment was in my early 50s, waking up one morning with the prologue of Hippocrates of London fully formed in my mind. After a quick breakfast in silence, I wrote the piece in one go, exactly as I’d envisioned it a few moments before and nearly as it is now published. I was intoxicated by the words; I remember it as beautifully cathartic. I should mention that before that morning, I’ve even never thought of a prologue for Hippocrates of London. I still wonder why it happened, I hadn’t drunk the night before, nor did I recall any dreams or remarkable events to spark this inspiration. May be, Charles Baudelaire was and is still right when he suggested that one should be by any means intoxicated in Life.
So, do not hesitate, get intoxicated, but be lucid and choose your way, a safe one.
"You have to be always drunk. That’s all there is to it—it’s the only way. So as not to feel the horrible burden of time that breaks your back and bends you to the earth, you have to be continually drunk.
But on what? Wine, poetry or virtue, as you wish. But be drunk."
Charles Baudelaire
2025
June 6th 2025, London - Written by Alix Daniel
"I’m kind of old-school and love nothing more than sitting, opening a book, and reading it. By I also love listening to audiobooks”
Nick Cave
Nick Cave isn’t alone. More and more people, regardless of age or culture, are both curling up with a physical book and enjoying audiobooks on the go. These formats are not only compatible but also complementary.
To meet the needs of versatile 21st-century readers and listeners, Cybirdy audiobooks and eBooks are from this very week available for purchase at Bookcybirdy.com. From the outset, we recognised the important of simultaneous multimedia publishing to align with modern trends. This vision is now a reality, with our digital products accessible on our platform. Starting in 2026, we will release all formats, prints, eBook, and audiobook on one single publication date.
You may have noticed that our eBooks and audiobooks are also available on major global streaming platforms, including Libro.fm, Apple, Storytel, Kobo, Kindle or Audible.
We carefully select stories that resonate with readers and pair them with the perfect voice, stamina and character. We’re already collaborating with talented narrators and exploring new technologies to create immersive audio experience with sound effects and music.
Rest assured, despite the attractive low costs and advancements in AI-generated voices, Cybirdy remains committed to high-quality projects featuring hand-picked human narrators
Our partnership with Book Brothers in Helsinki will bring unique Finnish stories to English speaking audiences through translated audio and print editions.
We are also proud to support readers with print disabilities by providing audiobooks through our partnership with Calibre Audio, a UK-based charity.
The UK audiobook market has experienced remarkable growth, driven by evolving reader-listener habits, technological advancements, and greater accessibility. This continues a trend, with a 71% sales increase from 2018 to 2022, making audiobooks a natural choice for listeners and readers alike.
Join us in this exciting venture! We’d love to hear about your reading and listening habits through our contact page.
Happy Reading and Happy listening too!
"Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens"
Jimi Hendrix
June 13th 2025, London - Written by Alix Daniel
“This world is full of the most outrageous nonsense. Sometimes things happen which you would hardly think possible.”
Nikolai Gogol
In the solitude of his room, Alan Bland confronts the shattering loss of his enigmatic best friend, known only as X. Armed with a typewriter and a heart on tenterhooks, the writer embarks on a marathonian six-day, six-night challenge, pouring out a torrent of memories to unravel the man who was both his confidant and rival.
Though the title is French, this captivating tale is written in impeccable English by Andrew Komarnyckyj, a British writer from Huddersfield and a descendant of early 20th-century Eastern European immigrants.
Andrew Komarnyckyj is a compelling storyteller whose eclectic career fuels his sharp, genre defying fiction. From lawyer to hospital porter, PR consultant to kitchen porter, his kaleidoscope of experiences described by himself as a “happy accident” lends his novels a rare depth, intellectual strength and authenticity. Best known for Literary Fiction, Andrew also writes psychological thrillers and horror using the pen-names Jack D McLean and A K Reynolds. His work often defies classification. The only genre to which it truly belongs is Komarnyckyj and is defined by a sharp wit and literary finesse with clear postmodernist and alt-lit tendencies.
For readers familiar to Ezra Slef, The Next Nobel Laureate in Literature or The Revenge of Joe Wild, rest assured that Marathon D’Écriture will intrigue, challenge, and surprise you with its unexpected humour.
Her’s a taste: X, a figure shrouded in unsettling secrecy, forms one pinnacle of a tangled love triangle with Alan and the elusive Amara, a woman whose magnetic allure proves both captivating and destructive. As Alan recounts their fraught romance, he lays bare the wounds of Amara’s choice. As the hours blur and exhaustion takes hold, Alan’s prose frays, veering into fevered, semi-conscious revelations. Nearing collapse after hitting the wall, he summons a supreme effort at the climax of his tale to unveil the startling truth about A.
This dark romantic and intellectually provocative story is laced with mordant humour and profound insight. It promises to the readers a journey that will resonate with anyone who has wrestled with the ghosts of love, secrecy, memory of loss.
If you’ve ever been captivated by dark romances such as:
Then, Marathon D’Écriture is must-read.
Pre-order here and while waiting, keep reading.
June 20th 2025, London - Written by Alix Daniel
“Fold your arms round me close and strain me so that our hearts may break and our souls go free at last. Take me to that happy place of which you told me long ago. The fields whence none return, but where great singers sing their songs forever.”
Joseph Bédier, The Romance of Tristan and Iseult
In London, trembling under the shadow of war, with news of lives lost and cities destroyed, I find myself unable to open a romance novel. The weight of human suffering feels too near, too vast, and too unescapable. Yet, I can still relate to stories of love, from ancient legends to modern tales, because love is what makes us human and able to protect and care for our human communities. Love is the power that literature captures, fragile yet defiant, refusing to fade even in despair. In this June newsletter, I trace love’s enduring thread through time, from mythic passion and fidelities to today’s escapist reads, and ask: can romance still hold us when the world feels broken?
Love, as we assume it in Western literature, was born in the 12th century with Tristan and Iseult. This tale of doomed lovers, bound by a potion and torn by duty, set the template for romance: longing that defies reason, fates that spares no one. The story, retold across centuries, isn’t just passion, it’s a mirror of humanity’s ache for connection and virtues, even at the cost of ruin. Tristan’s whispered vows to Iseult, carried on a heavy treacherous sea, feel like a rebellion against a world that demand loyalty over love.
In 2025, with borders tightening, missiles humming, and recurrent programmed killing of leaders or scientists in their home surrounded by their loved ones, that rebellion resonates. Love, as Tristan and Iseult’s tale remind us, is exclusively human and it dares to burn brightly, even briefly against the dark and evil.
Today, readers, especially women, are flocking to Rebecca Harris’ novels, where steamy romance and emotional depth in a fantasist world offer escape. Posts on social medias buzz with fans praising her heroines, who navigate heartbreak to find solace in strong arms. This trend, spiking amid global unrest, suggest a hunger for stories where love conquers chaos. Rebecca Harris’ book, with their tidy resolutions, are a balm for readers weary of headlines about current genocide and war’s toll.
Yet, as I try to lose myself in her pages, I can’t and I wonder if this type of escape risks numbing us to reality. Can we read romance without forgetting those who, in real wars, cling to love as their only shield?
Cybirdy’s latest release, Marathon D’Écriture by Andrew Komarnyckyj, offers a different lens: dark romance, where love struggles in shadows. This novel, born from a writing challenge, entwines passion with grit, its lovers grappling against a backdrop of betrayal and death. Komarnyckyj’s prose, raw and unflinching, echoes the truth that love is no fairy tale, it’s a human struggle, fierce and flawed. For readers drawn to romance with teeth, this book is a must, a reminder that love’s power lies in its refusal to despair.
That same despair haunts Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë’s masterpiece of love as torment. Heathcliff and Cathy’s bond, forged on the desolate moors, is no gentle romance but a storm of obsession and pain. “I am Heathcliff”, Cathy cries, her words a testimonial to love’s consuming fire, even in a world that starves it. Set against a bleak, unforgiving landscape, their story feels like a warning: love, if not cared for, can destroy as much as it saves,
Today, with WWIII’s spectre looming, I see their tale as a call to spread love with courage and without any ideological or partisan restraint. My heart, heavy with news of people dying in conflicts I won’t name here, resists romance’s pull. Yet, I believe love is everywhere, woven in humanity’s core. The ultimate and universal human language, literature, from Tristan’s doomed vows to Heathcliff’s anguished cries, show us love’s cost and power. If love disappear, so will we, for it’s the thread that binds us through chaos and make us write, read, sing, dance and of course make babies.
If you are like me, not inclined to read fantasies or romances, but still want to know more, I recommend Afaf Shour’s recent article:
If you are like me, not inclined to read fantasies or romances, but still want to know more, I recommend Afaf Shour’s recent article:
When Love and Danger Share the Page: The Rise of Romantasy
on Cybirdy Book Blog and pretty soon, I should narrate my translation of the beautifully classic poem Indian Serenade by Percy Shelley to be listened to on our YouTube channel.
“Something magical has happened to me: like a dream when one feels frightened and creepy and suddenly wakes up to the knowledge that no such terrors exist. I have wakened up.”
Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
June 27th 2025, London - Written by Alix Daniel
"A kindly tongue is the lodestone of the hearts of men."
Metaphor attributed to Bahá’u’llàh, XIX century Iranian religious and intellectual
We are thrilled to introduce our new initiative, the Cybirdy Lodestone Circle. Starting 17 July, this monthly promotion will run for five consecutive days, offering all our paperbacks, eBooks and audiobooks at a single price: £2.99.
Purchasing a book is more than acquiring an item for your shelf, it opens a world of possibilities for you, your family, friends and is a legacy for future generations. Adding a new book to your collection expands your horizons, fosters personal growth, and sparks inspiration.
Psychologists call this prospective thinking, a mindset that reinforces our lives. A book is a source of comfort, a wellspring of ideas and a tangible connection to stories that transcend.
At Cybirdy, we understand that buying books online requires confidence and a balance between desire and certainty. Our team strives to make your choices easier with curated reviews, clear and engaging blurbs, and now, our monthly Lodestone Circle. Inspired by the lodestone, and its magnetic nearly magical power as a natural magnet that guides the way, this initiative serves as a signpost, leading you to Cybirdy’s intelligent and alternative literature. We hope it opens the door to our diverse collection, across genres for readers seeking something unique.
However, why not offering free books?
Our goal is to provide value while ensuring sustainability, allowing our authors to thrive and us to continue curating exceptional literature.
The Lodestone Circle makes our books accessible at an irresistible price, encouraging you to explore new titles with confidence.
So, put the date in your diary! The first ever Cybirdy Lodestone Circle begins on 17 July and runs until 21 July at 12 pm. Spread the word, set a reminder and join us on this literary journey.
Deep down in your lodestone soul,
Do you really feel, can feelings reach
The seething magnetite that’s there?
Patti Masterman
2025
May 9th 2025, London
Written by Alix Daniel
"We’re all living in Amerika
Amerika ist wunderbar
We’re all living in Amerika
Amerika, Amerika"
Rammstein 2024
We have today a special announcement for our American friends and family.
1. A Second Revolution by Kelly Noll
2. Letters to you, to her and to no one by Vasilena Spasova
3. The Rioting of Inferno by E.J Cousins
Are available at a discount price between 8-12 May as part the American Mother’s Day at Barnes &Nobles.
People and stories from America hold a special place in our hearts. What’s more, we believe in their collective dream, the American Dream.
So today, in the spirit of celebration of American mothers, with the American dream in mind, let’s reflect on the meaning of the word itself together with its cultural contribution.
The word “America” first appeared in 1507 in cartographer Martin Waldseemüller’s treatise, “Cosmographia Introductio”. America referred to the New Continent. It was named after Amerigo Vespucci, a navigator who made two trips to the New World and claimed it was a distinct continent, which he called Novus Mundus, meaning New World.
Following Christopher Columbus voyages and the subsequent colonisation, the term Americanus referred to the indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere. By 1765, the term began to describe North American inhabitants of European descent as opposed of indigenous named American Indians and thereafter native Americans.
According to Grok 3, the word “America” is often used in social media anywhere in the world to discuss culture and emotional topics, while “US” is preferred for political, geopolitical, economic and scientific contexts.
Are we all living in America, as suggested by Rammstein’s lyrics? Is our global culture primarily American? These are bold and complex questions we won’t answer today.
However, there is no doubt that a global culture exists. We like to comprehend it as a dynamic matrix of shared creativity and knowledge interwoven with local traditions. This matrix has developed through constant exchange, various fusions and adaptations. While it may have ancient roots, the discovery of America, the subsequent global trade and technology have no doubt accelerated its spread.
Today, people worldwide use digital devices, social medias, virtual meetings and online banking. People wear jeans, listen to jazz, rock and rap, read the same classics, watch the same films, smoke Malboro or Blue American Spirit, drink Jack Daniels or Coca cola, love eating burghers, doughnuts and chew American gums.
Our latest blog, Dav Kennedy reflections on Frankenstein, illustrate this point vividly. American cinema, rooted in European culture, transformed Shelley’s tale, imagined in Switzerland a century before and written between England and Italy, into a global myth of today.
Our publications are a testimony of the connection, respect and understanding of this global culture and its the American Dream.
Cameron Scott Kirk’s The Beautiful Harpies is set up in a dystopian city, Dysael which could have existed in Scotland’s past, New Zealand or America. The choice depends on the reader, his/her cultural background and imagination.
Kelly’s Noll’s A Second Revolution blends authentic and local American culture with timeless values of family and respect, touching readers hearts globally. Kelly’s debut novel introduces Jerrett, a father and a motorcross community’s member from the Appalachia in Pennsylvania, whose fight for his family and community against the backdrop of a new war can resonate anywhere in the world.
And finally, our latest projects including YouTube Cyber Duets with rising American poet from LA, John Elkin Anthropoetry and a forthcoming work inspired by Marilyn Monroe will strengthen our connection with American people and the global culture.
In the meantime, you can count on us in helping to keep alive the idea of the American dream and please join us and spread the words for American mother’s day.
“I used to think as I looked out on the Hollywood night — there must be thousands of girls sitting alone like me, dreaming of becoming a movie star. But I'm not going to worry about them. I'm dreaming the hardest.”
Marylin Monroe
May 16th 2025, London - Written by Alix Daniel
As in the soft and sweet eclipse,
WHEN SOUL MEETS SOUL ON LOVERS’ LIPS,
High hearts are calm, and brightest eyes are dull
From Prometheus Unbound, Percy Bysshe Shelley
Two recent novels, Ariel Percy Bysshe Shelley (new translation by Alix Daniel) and The Aziola’s cry: A novel of the Shelleys by Ezra Harker Shaw recount the tumultuous and tragic journey of Mary and Percy Shelley, two remarkable artists.
In their rebellious quest for free love, literary excellence, and commitment to social change, the young lovers faced rejection and financial abuse from their families and years of hardship. Mary and Percy suffered the devastating loss of two children, close friends and family members. However, their shared love, hardships and intellectual complicity till the end and this profoundly shaped their literary work.
Mary’s Frankenstein pioneered science fiction, while Percy’s poetry and political essays continue to captivate scholars, avid readers, and new enthusiasts alike.
On social media, interest in the Shelleys and Romanticism is growing, particularly among younger audiences who seek emotional truth, character depth, and the coexistence of beauty and danger in literature. On platforms like X, poets share bite-sized verses, and poetry slams thrive in urban settings.
Books sales for contemporary poets like Rupi Kaur and Ocean Vuong reflect that trend. Social media has made poetry more accessible, with Instagram stanzas, TikTok recitals, and innovative projects like Cybirdy Cyber Duets on YouTube, featuring poets performing in two languages.
Poetry is no longer confined to dusty anthologies: it’s vibrant, multilingual and tied up to identity and emotion.
The romantic movement of the 19th century is also experiencing a global revival. Ariel Percy Bysshe Shelley, a fictional biography written in French following the World War 1 and newly translated by Alix Daniel, is gaining worldwide attention. Its modern aesthetic appeals to both older and younger readers. Pop culture further fuels this resurgence, films like Bright Star and references in shows like Bridgerton keep the Romantics in the zeitgeist. Poetry communities on Instagram or Reddit often remix lines from Keats’ Ode to a Nightingale or Lord Byron’s She walks in beauty into contemporary aesthetics.
This revival is more than a niche trend; it reflects a craving for depth and substance in a fast-paced digital world. With this mind, we turn to Mary and Percy, whose works and lives offer profound insights. Both were major figures of the Romantic movement: Percy, an exceptional poet and Mary, a groundbreaking novelist. United by love, their belief of the necessity of free love, their immersion in classics and reverence for nature’s beauty and its eternity, Mary and Percy produced powerful artistic narrative on grief but also on freedom, hope and the triumph of love and idealism over oppression.
Mary, though not a poet, was a novelist in the modern sense, with a precocious intellect and grand passions. Her high culture, multilingualism, and dedication to literature remain admirable. However, her marriage to Percy was marred by rejection from Percy’s father and financial abuse by her own father. After Percy’s tragic death at only 29 years old, Timothey Shelley, his father prevented posthumous publication of his son’s work until his own death and refused to acknowledge Mary and Percy Florence, her son.
Despite this, Mary remained devoted to Percy’s memory, raising Percy Florence honourably and supporting them financially through her writing.
A year after her death, a poignant discovery was made, locks of her deceased children’s hair, a notebook shared with Percy, and a copy of his poem Adonaïs with one page folded around a silk parcel containing some of his ashes and the remains of his heart.
Mary and Percy’s romance and commitment to each other in the face of hardship resonate deeply today. Their indubitable connection to the Eternal and to the Sublime should inform how we read their work and understand their legacy.
To learn more, we invite you to explore Ariel Percy Bysshe Shelley (check our promotion starting this week), read Adonaïs in full, check our book blog or listen to John Elkin and Alix Daniel Cyber duets To a Skylark and Mutability.
The breath whose might I have invok'd in song
Descends on me; my spirit's bark is driven,
Far from the shore, far from the trembling throng
Whose sails were never to the tempest given;
The massy earth and sphered skies are riven!
I am borne darkly, fearfully, afar;
Whilst, burning through the inmost veil of Heaven,
The soul of Adonais, like a star,
Beacons from the abode where the Eternal are.
Percy Bysshe Shelley , Adonaïs
May 23rd 2025, London - Written by Alix Daniel
For, be it joy or sorrow, The path of its departure still is free;
Man's yesterday may ne'er be like his morrow; Nought may endure but Mutability.
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley opens his exquisite poem Mutability with a vivid metaphor:
“We are just as clouds that veil the midnight moon.”
In just a few deftly woven words, Shelley captures the ceaseless flux of the universe and invite us to see our lives mirrored in the ever-shifting shapes of clouds. Mutability offers timeless metaphors that can only resonate in our troubled world, because mutability remains one of the most enduring and powerful forces.
If you find yourself weary of the brutality of today’s binary thinking and its pseudo-scientific jargon, classic poetry offers an enticing escape. Shelley’s Mutability, our chosen poem of today suggests that change is not only unavoidable but is also a profound and beautiful feature of existence, even amidst a world filled with contradiction and in search of stability.
The word “mutability” itself is sublimely kind yet rarely used. As Albert Camus once noted, misnaming things adds misery to the world, while naming them rightly brings goodness.
Consider the word “resilience”, so often misused in modern discours. Many assumes it denotes psychological or emotional toughness, an ability to bounce back from life’s challenges.
However, in its original sense, resilience refers to a material’s capacity to return to its shape. It cannot be a human trait. The ability to bounce back after an event, depends more of the help you get, rather than some treat of your character alone. And it is rare a person simply bounces back, because:
Man's yesterday may ne'er be like his morrow
While the term resilience gained traction in the 1970’s within social science, children psychology and the culture of resentment, its current overuse and misinterpretation reflects the may be too large part, medical and psychological ideas and visions are holding into our everyday language and communication.
This, sadly, can obscure the richness and human character, reducing complex emotions to clinical labels.
Words matter. Poetry, with its truth and beauty, avoids such pitfalls. As far as we know, no poet dwells on “resilience”, yet their verses continue to brim with hope, love, courage and the beauty of nature.
We invite you to read poetry aloud, to memorise a few lines, and let its momentum carry you beyond the ordinary, to feel its rhythmic power and kind sound and meaning.
We invite you to experience Shelley Mutability through our new Cyber bilingual Duet on Youtube, with John Elkin and Alix Daniel.
Let close with a positive note, with Emily Dickinson’s timeless poem:
Hope
“Hope” is the thing with feathers -
That perches in the soul -
And sings the tune without the words -
And never stops - at all -
.
And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -
And sore must be the storm -
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm -
.
I’ve heard it in the chillest land -
And on the strangest Sea -
Yet - never - in Extremity,
It asked a crumb - of me.
May 30th 2025, London - Written by Alix Daniel
Are you feeling the buzz? Amid the debates, politics, critiques, AI growth, endless social media posts and our shared sense of being hopeless spectators of a brutal world, something positive is emerging, a quest for renewal.
From Cybirdy’s perspective, a new era is unfolding. We see it in words, prose, images, cinema, music, fashion and beyond. Creative individuals, industrious artists, movers and shakers, eager beavers, or busy bees are all working tirelessly. These are real people, not bots, and we’re thrilled to welcome them into our community and cyberspace. Their work inspires us; we thrive on their creativity.
We’re excited to introduce our Fellow Dynamos of the moment:
This list is not exhaustive, as new talents continually cross our creative radar.
Here are some updates:
Let’s face it, human vision is thriving. Dreams and hopes for a better, multi-planetary and wiser future are taking shape. Artists, visionary scientists and businesspeople are making it happen, and Cybirdy is proud and grateful to play its humble part at this vibrant crossroads.
To support this movement, remember that artists can make it happen and that they need more than admiration, artists need to be listened to. Books need to be read, reviewed and discussed. Join the buzz! Read with Cybirdy and share your comments or reviews at www.bookcybirdy.com
2025
April 4th 2025, London
Un livre, c’est un jardin, un verger, un grenier, une fête, une entreprise d’ailleurs, un conseiller, une multitude de conseillers
Charles Beaudelaire
A book is a garden, an orchard, a storehouse, a feast, an unfamiliar enterprise, an advisor, a multitude of advisors”
Alix Daniel’s translation
You may have recently read Richard Godwin’s article in the Guardian, “More are published than could ever succeed: are there too many books?” Godwin attributes the recent surge in book production to the rise of self-publishing. Indeed, in 2023 alone, of the 8 million books published, 2.6 million were self-published.
While a few authors achieved stellar success through this avenue, many others were left behind, their works filling distributors’ warehouses and bookstores with challenging stock management issues for the trade.
This overproduction, however, predates the self-publishing boom. Readers are unpredictable, a reality that drives publishers to produce a wide array of titles in the hope that one out of 25 will rise to prominence. Although Amazon sparked the self-publishing tsunami through digitalisation, advancements in technology such as print on demand offer a solution to prevent the overproduction of physical books. Nevertheless, the sheer number of titles available will likely remain overwhelming for readers to navigate.
At Cybirdy, we recognise that the primary challenge for readers is finding a truly good book amid the multitude, one that transforms in their mind into “ a garden, an orchard, a storehouse, a feast, an unfamiliar enterprise, or a multitude of advisors”, as Charles Beaudelaire so eloquently described centuries ago.
That’s why our core mission is to bring books closer to readers, wherever they may be. As a nimble, sustainable company, we are committed to helping our authors achieve the success they deserve while maintaining an eco-friendly approach for years to come. We reject the notion of waste and refuse to let our books languish in warehouses for years, only to end up as remainders.
As a modern, polyglot, and fully digitalised published house, we strive to connect with readers, fulfilling their desire for escapism and knowledge. Our goal is to establish Cybirdy as a trusted name, celebrated for delivering high-quality, alternative, and ever-surprising new literary fiction alongside remastered modern classics. Let’s meet again on that subject in a few years. In the meantime, you can count on us, we will work hard at it.
April 11th 2025, London
"Every brushstroke, every word, is a piece of my soul that I share with the world,"
Gabriel Dante Rossetti
When we collaborated with Eva Spasova on the bilingual edition of The Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti, we considered Gabriel Dante Rossetti’s illustrations from its first edition. However, we deliberately avoided studying them in depth or sharing them with Eva. Our goal was to give her the freedom and create her own work and express her unique interpretation of the story. We firmly believe, as Christina Rossetti’s brother so eloquently stated nearly two centuries ago, that every brushstroke, line, and word should reflect a piece of the artist’s soul.
In hindsight, we invite readers of our special edition to compare the two sets of illustrations withing their distinct cultural and historical contexts. On one hand, we have a man at the pinnacle of his craft, a London artist from the late 19th century, drawing to capture the essence of his sister’s clever, powerful and sensual poem. On the other, we have a young Bulgarian student, making her debut as an illustrator, interpreting The Goblin Market through her own lens.
At Cybirdy, we partner with both authors and visual artists to produce our illustrated special editions. We believe that drawings enhance storytelling, bringing characters to life and enriching the story’s backdrop. This approach allows readers to immerse themselves fully in the narrative.
Anwot, a London artist from our community has contributed significantly to our projects. Following his illustrations for The Beautiful Harpies and The Rioting of Inferno, Anwot took on a major work for Ariel Percy Bysshe Shelley, the new translation of André Maurois’ Jazz biography and romance. His punk-inspired drawings breath fresh life into the great pre-Darwinian poet and his wife, Mary Shelley, who, we imagine, would be punk artists themselves today. Anwot even boldly included Frankenstein in his work, an absent detail from Maurois’ original text, adding an authentic layer to the romantic narrative.
Victor Hugo, both an illustrator and a writer, famously described his drawing process as “using up spare ink” and his drawing as stains exemplified a fusional and spontaneous approach in art, we adhere to. The great author seamlessly expressed his poetry through both words and illustrations. His iconic drawing of Cosette from Les Miserables, for instance, has become as much a part of our collective culture as the literary masterpiece itself. Through his work, he immortalised his stories and characters.
To anyone captivated by art and its multifaceted power to express human imagination, we invite you to visit Astonishing Things: The Drawings of Victor Hugo, an exhibition at the Royal Academy running until 29 June 2025.
At Cybirdy, we are committed to working through literature and creativity for the future of human intelligence. At times, we feel playful and wonder: Will Anwot’ s depiction of Ariel become a defining image for Percy Bysshe Shelley? Will Eva Spasova’s portrait of Alexandre Dumas one day achieve lasting recognition? Only today’s readers and those of tomorrow will decide.
Eva Spasova has graciously shared her thoughts on her portrait of Alexandre Dumas, offering insight into her unique drawing process. For more, we invite you to visit the Cybirdy Book blog next week.
In the meantime, Happy Reading!
“ If you’re like me, then most words you read not only elicit an emotional reaction out of you but a visual one as well. The white page shifts to light and the letters break and coil into shadows to form an abstract image that only feeds the bliss you feel as you pick up a book. It is one of the greatest gifts of literature – imagination”.
Eva Spasova, illustrator
April 18h 2025, London
Written by Alix Daniel
"Every solution to every problem is simple. It’s within the distance between the two where the mystery lies."
Derek Landy
Are you a book geek, someone deeply passionate about a specific genre, author, book or even about the art of collecting them? If you’re and under 40, you might proudly claim the “book geek” title. If you’re older, like me, you’re likely to be recognised as a “serious reader”. Regardless of the label, the love of books and the volition to read, unite us.
On 30th March, I visited the Forbidden Planet Megastore in London to meet Derek Landy, the acclaimed author of Skulduggery Pleasant, and his fans , book geeks of our time. The store buzzed with energy as over 100 people queued patiently, their demeanour a mix of quiet anticipation and geeky excitement. Many clutched one to five books for signing, carrying them with the same reverence I remember from my younger days. These fans waited eagerly, their enthusiasm inspiring and comforting me, as a mother and a writer.
Derek was remarkable, engaging each fan with genuine interest, listening attentively, and fostering a warm, civil atmosphere. It was, without question, the most memorable book-signing event I’ve ever attended.
The vibe at Forbidden Planet’s book event stood in stark contrast to traditional book signings at stores like Waterstone, Foyles, or Daunt Books. I rarely queue for anything, but this time, I relishes the experience, surrounded by fellow readers in a unique bookshop, knowing I’d have the chance to chat with Derek Landy, whose creation of Valkyrie Cain, I deeply admire.
Forbidden Planet, the world’s largest and best-known retailer of comics, science fiction, fantasy, and cult entertainment, has brilliantly adapted to the mindset of today’s readers. These readers crave immersive fiction, relatable characters, and serialised stories, a trend transforming books into precious objects once again. The Megastore is a haven where geeks of all kinds, whether seeking figurines, comics, art books, or fiction, find their treasures. Her, geek culture seamlessly blends with classic literature, art, history, mythology and translations, positioning Forbidden Planet as a trailblazer in the literary world.
Gen Z, often stereotyped as screen-obsessed, taught me a valuable lesson. Recent date shows they’re surprisingly avid readers: about 55% read at least once a week, 40 % read daily, and 35 % report reading more than they did 2 years before.
Physical books dominate, with 80% of book sales in the 13-24 age from 2021 to 2022 being print, not e-books. Bookshops, too, are experiencing a revival.
Though I’m not Gen Z or a book geek, perhaps too old for the latter, I’m proud to be a serious reader. Places like the Forbidden Planet Megastore allow me to connect with younger readers and share in their enthusiasm. The rise of book geek culture is renewing literature and it’s time for us, older generation, to embrace this shift. Let’s listen to our children, draw inspiration from their enthusiasm, and share our own appreciation for fiction and literature, without compromising our standards, of course!
I hope bookshops like Waterstones, Foyles and Daunt will move soon beyond the didactic tone of traditional book talks and host vibrant, inclusive book signings where every reader, regardless of age, can enjoy a quick chat, and a photo with their favourite author.
As the founder of Cybirdy, I wish all serious readers and book geeks a joyful Easter filled with kindness, chocolate, and, of course, great books.
"Bookstores are lonely forts, spilling light onto the sidewalk. They civilise their neighborhoods"
John Updike
April 25h 2025, London
Written by Alix Daniel
“So, a voice in the mountain is enough to let loose an avalanche. A word too much may be followed by a caving in. If the word had not been spoken, it would not have happened”.
Victor Hugo
Victor Hugo, the mastermind behind Les Miserables, understood the power of human voice, a vital part of human life on Earth, serving first as a vehicle for sound, language, emotion and meaning.
Each person’s voice is individual as an integral part of personality.
While some have sadly divided humanity by skin colour, no theory or classification based on voice differentiation could ever separate or classify us. Every human voice will remain uniquely personal.
The voices of others are essential too. Prior meeting Friday, Crusoe spoke aloud to himself and to God. When he finally met Friday, another human being, Robinson first gave him a name and taught him English.
Voices can be perceived as soft, mellow, comforting, sensuous, soothing, sexy, deep, mesmerizing, ethereal, piercing, ear-splitting, guttural, cacophonous or hateful. They can be manipulated or enhanced for acting or political purposes. Mussolini and Adolf Hitler were among the first to use the microphones to amplify the political power of political speech, using carefully designed rhetoric to captivate and influence crowds.
At Cybirdy, we are not concerned with power or politics. Our focus is poetry and storytelling, endeavours that are equally essential to the human experience. We feel that our mission is to create stories that are audible and resonate with listeners, whether today or in the future. We know the first few words of a narration determine whether a listener will continue or tune out and that if the quality or authenticity of the narration falters, the listener may simply tune off.
Audible, Apple Books and Spotify and others, all gather data on how long audiobooks are listened to and pay the publisher or narrator accordingly. You would be surprised on the amount of audiobooks which are only partially listened to, with those featuring AI-generated or cloned voices often abandoned quickly.
In contrast, audiobooks with high-quality recordings or narrated by the author or by well-known voices tend to hold listeners’ attention.
At Cybirdy, our team of sound technicians, editors, readers and narrators works tirelessly to ensure quality and authenticity. Our artistic challenge is to match the narrator’s voice with the perceived voice of the writer and his/her characters. The thought that people worldwide, now and in the future, will enjoy our audiobooks fuels our dedication and creativity.
If the voices of loved ones can be compared to a caress to the soul, we like to think of storytelling as a unique and necessary otherworldly caress to the human mind.
And what of the birds? Londoners, do you recall the days of the Covid Lockdown, when birdsong pierced the silent skies? We do. We remember walking through the deserted streets, bin bags, masks and litter scattered around, yet the birds sang louder than ever. We perceived their songs as a comforting reality that careless wildlife kept going. Hope was not defeated.
Poets worldwide have always celebrated birdsong. So today, if you need a remedy for the soul, we kindly recommend reading your favourite poem aloud, letting the words soothe your ear, heart and spirit.
Our favourite poem is without hesitation To A Skylark by Percy Bysshe Shelley. For those of you who read French, we suggest its exquisite translation recently published on Cybirdy Book Blog. And for all of you, we recommend our first Cyber Duet featuring Alix Daniel and the American poet John Elkin and which should be online next week.
We wish you a good weekend!
Better than all measures
Of delightful sound,
Better than all treasures
That in books are found,
Thy skill to poet were, thou scorner of the ground!
Teach me half the gladness
That thy brain must know,
Such harmonious madness
From my lips would flow
The world should listen then, as I am listening now.
Last verses of To a Skylark by Percy Bysshe Shelley
2025
March 7th 2025, London
“The skalds, the bards, the writers are not separate and exclusive. From the beginning, their functions, their duties, their responsibilities have been decreed by our species.”
Extract from John Steinbeck’s Nobel Prize speech, 1962
It’s Friday! But today is far more than another Friday, it’s a truly special day for our great city. We stand on the eve of the 2025 London book fair! The publishing world will gather for this grand rendezvous, and at Cybirdy, we’ll be there with enthusiasm and a clear plan.
Our goals are simple yet ambitious:
1. To entertain and share laughter with our international partners from Chennai and Helsinki.
2. Champion cybirdy’s authors and their unusual, avant-garde, and poetic fiction.
3. Highlight our fascination with audiobooks and the resurgence of oral literature.
4. Listen, learn, and share the latest news from the international publishing trade.
5. Connect with potential partners to expand our green initiatives and market our books globally.
We’ll communicate in English, French, Portuguese, Hungarian and Slovak, though we expect attendees will have a strong commend of English. In our backpacks, we’ll carry a few copies of Ariel Percy Bysshe Shelley by André Maurois, Silent Riders of the Sea by John Gerard Fagan, A Second Revolution by Kelly Noll and The Beautiful Harpies by Cameron Scott Kirk.
We’ll take notes and relay any questions or feedback to our authors. Our ultimate business aim? To secure a deal with a marketer for American, Asia, and emerging markets. We’ll pursue this with hard work, simplicity, and our core identity as wordsmiths. This year, the Cybirdy team will attend with a spirit of fun, humility, and, echoing Fitzgerald “infinite hope”.
If you spot us, please stop by for a chat! We’d love to hear about you, especially if you resonate with Steinbeck’s words quoted at the top of this newsletter.
“Reserving judgments is a matter of infinite hope”
Nick Carraway in the Great Gatsby by Ernest Hemingway
March 14th 2025, London
“….the writer is delegated to declare and to celebrate man’s proven capacity from greatness of heart and spirit, for gallantry in defeat, for courage, compassion and love. In the endless war against weakness and despair, these are the bright rally-flags of hope and of emulation.”
Extract of John Steinbeck Nobel Prize Speech 1962
The past three days at the London Book Fair have been an incredible showcase of knowledge, creativity and passion for books and literature. With John Steinbeck’s wise words in mind, we navigated the event, distributing our catalogues and showcasing our titles, including : Ariel Percy Bysshe Shelley, Silent Riders of the Sea, The Beautiful Harpies and A Second Revolution . We connected with over 20 companies, attended insightful lectures, and immersed ourselves in the atmosphere, listening and observing.
The mood was neither radiant nor gloomy, rather, it felt quiet and reserved. The absence of voices from Palestine, or book trade representatives from Russia and Iran, nations with rich literary and poetic traditions was deeply felt. Their missing presence left us uncomfortable, and we sincerely hope that peace will prevail soon allowing authors, books, literature and ideas to move freely across the globe once more.
At Cybirdy, despite these absences, we strengthened ties with our partners from UK, Finland and India, while forging new connections with other countries. These interactions will support our ambitious plans for the year ahead:
1. Publish 3 new authors and additional new translations of modern classics
2. Maintain high quality, sustainable local printing
3. Create exquisite, limited -editions box for the end of the year festivities.
Last year, we were joined by the brilliant young author E.J Cousins for the launch of his remarkable short story collection, The Rioting of Inferno. If you don’t already own a print or audio copy of The Rioting of Inferno, keep an eye out for our special St Patrick Day offer!
March 21st 2025, London
“We believed in the existence in this country of a vast reading public for intelligent books at a low price and staked everything on it.”
Allen Lane , Penguin’s founder
In 1935, Allen Lane founded Penguin House with two bold ambitions:
1. To publish intelligent books.
2. To sell them at a price of a pack of cigarettes.
In doing so, he created one of the world’s most iconic publishing houses, radically transforming access to literature for all. Ninety years later, Penguin remains synonymous with literary quality. Yet today, anyone echoing Allen Lane’s words in UK-calling a book “intelligent” or envisioning a “vast reading public” for literature might be met with misunderstanding, contempt, or even accusations of being naïve.
The rise of commercial fiction may partly explain this resistance, even denial, of literature’s universal appeal. Readers may gravitate towards the appealing and abundant offerings of commercial fiction, but we believe that, sooner or later, a few will stumble upon a book that changes their life, unlocking their imagination and opening the Pandora’s box of literature.
At Cybirdy, we hold fast to Allen Lane’s vision. Literary fiction remains essential to all because it represents the most sophisticated from of human language, capable of elevating anyone towards the sublime. While it offers the reader, escape, acquisition of knowledge and magic, it offers writers a vast canvas, with endless possibilities for exploring character, setting, theme and style, while reimagining ancient myths and embracing ambiguity.
At Cybirdy, we believe we are made for literature. It’s what we know, what we do and what define us. We support our authors to create without the pressure of trends, genre classifications, or the too often overwhelming machinery of marketing and trade aimed at producing bestsellers.
While we dream of one day publishing a bestseller, we don’t chase it. If a work of literary fiction is destined to capture the world, it will happen organically. The readers will decide.
March 28th 2025, London
“Read, read, read. Read everything -- trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You'll absorb it. Then write. If it's good, you'll find out. If it's not, throw it out of the window.”
William Faulkne
At Cybirdy, we agree with Faulkner and believe that any well written text, in any form or shape, is simply worth reading. While we strive to be consistent in publishing well written fiction, newsletters and articles, we want more. Our community want to surprise you with thought provoking ideas, new books or new translations while, in our minds, the knowledge of the potential to “synchronize a community” as per the words of Clay Shirky, the author of :
Here comes everybody: How change happens when people come together
Furthermore, we do know that coming across a writing from an author outside a novel, for example, in the form of a letter, article or a blog can be just delectable for anyone.
This is why, we just enjoy reading again and again:
The Crack-Up, Note Books from Scott Fitzgerald
edited by the great literary reviewer Edmund Wilson in 1945. One of our finding was the phrase:
“All good writing is swimming under water and holding your breath”
A phrase from one of Scott Fitzgerald’s letter to his daughter and mentioned in The Crack-up which has become a quote much understood and that our founder quotes many times.
At Cybirdy Books Blog, our community’s wordsmiths, illustrators, street artists, narrators and performers will keep writing about:
1. Some extracts from our titles
2. Translations in both and English of modern classic poems
3. Literature and AI
4. Cinematographic inspirations
And we shall soon add some interviews of authors or artists we are inspired by.
We hope you synchronise with our community at some point. But for now, two recommendations, if we may:
1. If you read French, check out Alix Daniel’s new translation of Percy Bysshe Shelley beautiful ode to nature, To A Skylark, to be published this weekend.
2. Find on the net and read the excellent piece of writing with the name: Avoiding the automation of your heart, Gurwinder’s correspondence with Freya India.
Bye for Now, and remember:
“All good writing is swimming under water and holding your breath”
Scott Fitzgerald
2025
February 7th 2025, London
“I saw—with shut eyes, but acute mental vision—I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together. I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life and stir with an uneasy, half-vital motion. Frightful must it be, for supremely frightful would be the effect of any human endeavor to mock the stupendous mechanism of the Creator of the world.”
From Mary Shelley introduction to Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus 1831
If Science Fiction started with the publication of Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus, Sublime Fiction, or New Mythology could soon make a comeback helped by the exploration of the pre-Darwinian literature, which was chiefly in search of the sublime.
Mary Shelley, prior Darwin’s theory of evolution and the subsequent modern adulation of science, was already concerned by medical science with the disturbing cadaver’s commerce of the anatomists. Following conversations on the subject with Lord Byron and her husband, she imagined the dangers of modern science. Frankenstein was created as a modern Prometheus, a practician of ‘unhallowing arts’ who, in playing god created a sad, lonely and dangerous monster of a new kind.
Since then, rational science fiction characters, such as dangerous scientists or monsters together with futuristic multi planetary wars or dystopias have been part of Western culture.
When Mary Shelley envisioned Frankenstein and the dangers of morally questionable practices, Percy, her husband revisited the antique myths. In Prometheus Unbound, he imagined a new destiny for the titan. With optimism and in quest of the sublime, he imagined a reconciliation between the titan and Jupiter, and, in doing so wrote a good ending, sublime to read and learn by heart even today.
Even if Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus is not mentioned anywhere in Ariel Percy Bysshe Shelley, Cybirdy new publication of André Maurois’ fictionalised, yet, well documented biography explores the creativity of the two lovers and their intellectual collaboration as a natural part of their domestic and love life.
Even if for the past 200 years, we have collectively chosen rationality together with Science Fiction, one can only be in awe of a possible connection, or ‘entente cordiale’ between the rational and the sublime within the life of the couple, one member gearing towards rationality and modern unbound science, the other one towards the sublime and the revisitation of ancient myths.
At Global level, Science Fiction has been since Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein a source of inspiration and imagination for many. Meanwhile, and we do not know if this could be directly related, modern science has been adulated and, since the project Manhattan has been dangerously running unchecked with the development of mass destruction weapons and the creation of genetically modified life, such as plants, humanised rats and pigs, mosquitoes and viruses.
Is it now urgent to limit our adulation for science and instead try to conceive a better world where the sublime interact with rationality?
Covid Pandemic, starting with an accidental laboratory leak, ended up being engineered from start to finish, and only by the few with godlike power.
As the truth behind the unhallowed and immoral engineering of the Covid pandemic is unravelling and with the purpose to prevent such a catastrophe ever happening again, we have to not only stop and punish the culprits but also comprehend their monstruous rationality and the extent of their evil spell.
John Steinbeck told in his 1962 Nobel Prize speech:
Having taken Godlike power, we must seek in ourselves for the responsibility and the wisdom we once prayed some deity might have. Man himself has become our greatest hazard and our only hope.
Reading and not forgetting both Mary and Shelley as Pre Darwinian thinkers should help us to question science, open our minds and hope for a renewed perspective in imagining sublimed futures with may be, one day soon, a writer, a poet, an artist somewhere on our blue planet creating a titan like character who shall entertain the world for centuries to come.
To suffer woes which Hope thinks infinite;
To forgive wrongs darker than death or night;
To defy Power, which seems omnipotent;
To love, and bear; to hope till Hope creates
From its own wreck the thing it contemplates;
Neither to change, nor falter, nor repent;
This, like thy glory, Titan, is to be
Good, great and joyous, beautiful and free;
This is alone Life; Joy, Empire, and Victory
End of Prometheus Unbound by Percy Shelley
February 14th 2025, London
I wanna be loved by you, just you Nobody else but you I wanna be loved by you, alone! Boop-boop-a-doop!…
Marylin Monroe
Je suis déja d’amour tanné
Ma très douce Valentine
I’m already wearied by love,
my very sweet Valentine.
From the first recorded Valentine poem by Charles Duke of Orleans
Did you know that Valentine’s Day was imagined by Medieval Catholic priests to lead Christians marrying in the Lord to stop pagan and free relationships they judged at the time irreverent?
They imagined the following miracle: Before his execution in Rome, the martyr Valentin left behind a signed letter “from your Valentine” to his jailer’s daughter and in doing so healed her from blindness. Our ancestors believed it.
The oldest known Valentine poem still exists today at the British Library. It was written by the French Charles Duke of Orléans to his wife, while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London following his capture at the Battle of Agincourt.
Since then, people have kept writing love words to their valentine and its name day has developed to become the worldwide celebration of love, across culture and religions, we all know about.
The celebrations of 14 February and it’s immortal spreading of love will happen all around the world, from Philippines where it is the occasion for mass weddings.
As well as in Tokyo, Chennai, Moscow, Kiev, Oman, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Europe, in Africa from Bamako to Cape Town and in America, from Antarctica to Alaska.The festivities will extend to China. Where Qixi festivities for the lovers is usually celebrated in August, there will certainly be Valentine celebrations on the now traditional Valentine 14 February.
As wordsmiths and publishers of fiction and poetry, we deal with love words daily and do know that romance is eternally human and far reaching, regardless of gender or connection, be it romantic, platonic and all in between.
Thinking of possible delayed love strikes, or for the ever-procrastinating lovebirds, everyone deserves as much love as the next, the known and unknown.
Which is why we have decided to prolong our promotional offer for any “other half” to be until 72 hours after Valentines.
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And check out this amazing YouTube video by clicking HERE!
Boop-boop-a-doop!…
February 21tst 2025, London
“Curation comes up when people realize that it isn’t just about information seeking, it’s also about synchronizing a community”
Clay Shirky
That’s what we know at Cybirdy. As an indie publishing company, our duty to our readership is to curate literary content. We should not focus on grabbing attention from illusive information seekers but synchronise a community of intelligent readers anywhere on the planet.
That is what we are striving for, publishing and curating contents for readers to synchronize a community of strangers all around the world, who, at some point in time, are reading one of our book or new blogs.
And we can tell you that the acknowledgement that someone is reading us somewhere at one moment of time is just uplifting and heartwarming. That’s what synchronisation is about!
At Cybirdy Books Blog, without any condescendence what’s so ever and away from the most alluring narrative, we shall remain borderline rebellious, true to ourselves whatever the subject we may tackle. We shall focus on what we know best, our publications, literature and art. Quotes, tips, links and even suggestions shall be plenty.
Wordsmiths, illustrators, street artists, narrators and performers from our community will take part to this new venture making 2025 productive with many blogs about:
1. Promotion of our titles with publications of extracts of our titles
2. Modern classics in translation
3. Literature and AI
4. Cinematographic inspirations
5. Interview of authors we are inspired by
Check out our blog, join our community and read, read, read!
“Read, read, read. Read everything -- trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You'll absorb it. Then write. If it's good, you'll find out. If it's not, throw it out of the window.”
William Faulkner
February 28th 2025, London
“We live now in a global village and we are in one single family. It’s our responsibility to bring friendship and love from all different places around the world and live together in peace”
Jackie Chan
“For, a friend with an understanding heart is worth no less than a brother”
Homer
The meaning of brotherhood, friendship and human positive connections are universal and, when comparing the two quotes just mentioned above, we can conclude it has always been.
As London Book Fair (LBF) is opening soon, we, at Cybirdy are getting ready with that simple but important fact of life in mind!
If last year, LBF has been the perfect launchpad to make international connections, partnerships and friendships, we want to make it happen again.
Both of our global partners, Simons and Sons from Chennai and Book Brothers from Helsinki have meant new friendships between our local Artist community, India and Finland but, and importantly has also meant glocalization with high quality digital edition productions and the production of the state-of-the-art Audiobooks, we are proud of.
Quality is and will never be negotiable at Cybirdy. So, this year we hope to glocalise even more, acknowledging, listening, connecting while sharing our work ethic and values with people from all around the world. We want to build trust and share our objective to make multimedia epic world building fiction and at the same time revive great modern classics with crafty, clever and arty editions.
Glocalization is a fascinating concept that blends the global with the local, think of it as the way global ideas, products, or trends get adapted to fit the unique cultures, tastes, or needs of specific communities. It’s not just globalisation steamrolling everything into sameness; it’s more dynamic, a two-way street where local flavours shape the global as much as the global influences the local, it is in a way more about acknowledgment of the differences between us with Homer’s ‘understanding heart’.
You may not know but the term itself comes from combining globalisation with localisation. It popped up in the late 20th century, often credited to Japanese business practices like dochakuka, a word meaning adapting to local conditions, which was used to describe how companies tailored their strategies to different markets. Sociologist Rolan Robertson helped popularised it in the West, framing it as a counterpoint to the idea that globalisation just creates a homogenized world.
So, even if we prefer the kinder and foreign sound of the word dochakuka, we shall connect at the London Book Fair with the western word glocalization and remembering John Steinbeck words at his 1962 Nobel Prize speech:
“Literature is as old as speech. It grew out of human need for it and it has not changed except to become more needed. The skalds, the bards, the writers are not separate and exclusive. From the beginning, their functions, their duties, their responsibilities have been decreed by our species.”
2025
January 03rd 2025, London
“The heart will break, but broken live on” Lord Byron
From the bottom of our human hearts, and from the top of our keyboards, we wish you all a Happy New Year!
As eternal optimists, we have gone through the 2024 extreme cruelty, in cancelling, like many of young people around the world, the Legacy Media’s scaremongers and plan keeping doing so.
This does not prevent us, to know what is going on with this tormented world. Powerless but not fatalist, we shall go through 2025 clinging to the hope for peace and the end of the AI assisted genocide in Palestine. Truth must prevail and World leaders must urgently stop and acknowledge the dangers of AI and create a clear global ethical and legal framework to prevent such atrocities to ever happen again.
Like the sack of Rome became a byword for wanton brutality, the sack of Gaza may become the byword for AI assisted cruelty.
At Cybirdy, we will wait for literary productions on that subject with Paul Veyne’s
(author of Did The Greeks believe in their Myths ) words in mind:
“It is imagination that rules, not reality, reason or the ongoing work of the negative”
While celebrating human intelligence through literature for another year, we should keep on our good work with the publication of new translations and multi-genre avant-garde books from all around the world, and also with the high-quality bespoke production of audiobooks, where the voice identity matches the art of the prose.
As an Indie company, we will not cease to connect personally with authors and translators we have carefully selected for their talent with 2 debut novels and 5 top-secret translations.
2025 starts with the publication of Ariel Percy Bysshe Shelley, an escapist classic bio romance translated by Alix Daniel and audaciously illustrated by Anwot. It will be followed by the French version of Hippocrates of London by Docteur Cybirdy and 2 new thought-provoking satirist novels by Andrew Komarnyckyj with the addition of 3 avant-garde Cybirdy grand multi-experience Box-sets to finish the year with brio.
On the starting block for the publication of 2025 Cybirdy Books, from the bottom of our hearts and the top of our keyboards, we wish you a happy, healthy and Peaceful reading year.
January 10th 2025, London
Let’s kickstart the New Year with this opportunity for sharing knowledge and reading experience. Here is the list of 25 of the titles we have used for our work as a publisher in 2024.
The list is heteroclite, multi-genre with no classification. The titles appear in order of use over 2024, with the first on the list being the first book ‘worked out’.
Concision is the rule. The title is followed by the author name, sometimes the translator, illustrator or narrator in case of an audiobook. The Publisher of the Edition we have used is also mentioned.
No critics, interpretation, value judgments, etc have been attached.
To know more, as usual, google the title or reach out at contact@cybirdypublishing.co.uk.
All 25 books are available around the world in any shops online or audiobook platforms of your choice.
1. 1984 The Graphic Novel, George Orwell, Illustrated by Fido Nesti, Penguin
2. Why I write, George Orwell, Penguin
3. Burma Sahib, Paul Theroux, Penguin
4. Merchants of doubt, Erik M. Conway & Naomi Oreske, Bloomsbury
5. The Black Count, Tom Reiss, Vintage Books
6. Der Codex Manesse, WBG edition
7. The conspiracy against the Human Race, Thomas Ligotti, Penguin
8. 🎧The Rioting of Inferno, E.J Cousins, narrated by Dav Kennedy
9. The Beautiful Harpies, Cameron Scott Kirk, Cybirdy Publishing
10. American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis, Picador
11. The Shards, Bret Easton Ellis, Swift
12. 🎧The Porridge of the Countess Berthe, Alexandre Dumas, First Translation
13. The Empire of Pain, Patrick Radden Keefe, Picador
14. Novelist as a Vocation, Murakami Vintage Books
15. 🎧Goblin Market, Christina Rossetti, narrated by Anita Kyoda
16. 🎧Le Marché des Gobelins, Christina Rossetti, narrated by Alix Daniel
17. The Odyssey, translated, Stephen Mitchell, Atria Books
18. The Shipping News, Annie Proulx, 1994 Scribner Publication
19. The toilers of the Sea, Victor Hugo, Random House
20. 🎧Rhapsodies & Co from I, Docteur Cybirdy, Narrated by Dav Kennedy
21. Life 3.0, Max Tegmark, Penguin
22. Ariel ou la vie de Shelley, André Maurois, first edition Librairie Grasset
23. Venice, Pure City, Peter Ackroyd, Vintage Books
24. Romantics, their lives, works and inspiration, Nathaniel Harris, WHSMITH exclusive books
25. Silent Riders of the Sea, John Gerard Fagan, Cybirdy Publishing
Happy New Year and best wishes from Cybirdy for your reading!
January 17th 2025, London
This is official, Facebook is ditching fact-checks, with as the result, more autonomy for users and communities alike.
Indeed, in a video posted on Facebook on 7 January 2025 Mark Zuckerberg announced sweeping changes to the company’s approach to content moderation with the elimination of fast-checkers in the US to be replaced with a “community notes” system similar to X.
At Cybirdy, we view Facebook's move as a paradigm shift towards autonomy of the People and communities alike in a renewed Cyberspace.
With much anticipation, we are getting ready for the quality promotion of the wonderland of literature in a Cyberspace where imagination should be freer than ever.
So, let’s again share more books ideas with 25 titles from our 2025 reading workout list.
Here they are:
1. The Anxious Generation, Jonathan Haidt, Penguin
2. Persistence du Merveilleux, Nicolas Nova, Premier Parallele ( French)
3. Life 3.0, Max Tegmark, Penguin
4. Ariel ou la vie de Shelley, André Maurois, Grasset 1923 (French)
5. Ariel Percy Bysshe Shelley, New translation by Alix Daniel, Cybirdy
6. A Daybreak in Gaza, Matthew Taylor, Mahmoud Muna, Juliette Touma, Jayyab Abusafin
7. Atlas of Bible History, Collins
8. Did the Greeks believe in their myths? Paul Veyne, The University of Chicago Press
9. The Bill Gates Problem, Tim Schwab, Penguin
10. Billionaire Nerd Saviour King, Anupreeta Das, Simon & Schuster
11. Studiolo, Giorgio Agamben, Seagull books
12. The English Soul, Peter Ackroyd
13. A Russian Journal, John Steinbeck, Penguin Books 2001
14. Michel Strogoff, Jules Verne, J.Hetzel
15. Le nuage pourpre, M.P Shiel, ed l’Arbre Vengeur (French)
16. Dictionary of Quotations, A. Norman Jeffares & Martin Gray, Collins
17. Born to run, Christopher McDougall, Profilebooks
18. Burma Sahib, Paul Theroux, Penguin Random House
19. Merchants of Doubt, Naomi Oreskes & Erik M. Conway, Bloomsbury
20. C.G. Jung and The Sioux Traditions, Vine Deloria, Philip J. Deloria & Jerome S, Bernstein Editors
21. Blood Meridian, Cormac Mc Carthy, Picador
22. Krakatoa The day the world exploded, Simon Winchester, Penguin
23. 🎧Coming soon: The Beautiful Harpies
24. 🎧Coming soon: Ariel Percy Bysshe Shelley
25. Marathon D’Ècriture, Andrew Komarnycki, Cybirdy May 2025
"Read, read, read. Read everything-trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master”
William Faulkner
January 24th 2025, London
Tonight is Burns Night. Many all around the world shall celebrate the Scottish Bard en bonne et du forme, that is by the book, with a traditional Scottish supper, music and of course Burns poetry reading.
Like in Scotland and beyond, many London restaurants and bars will hold Burns Nights, serving up suppers of haggis and tatties with a wee dram of Scottish whisky. We shall certainly be at one of those place!
For those who have read Silent Riders of the Sea by John Gerard Fagan and appreciated the Scottish poetry in its simplicity and dramatic power, we highly recommend Tonight is Burns Night poetry, even a glimpse of it.
His work has appeared in hundreds of films and TV programmes, including Hollywood classics like 'It’s a Wonderful Life' (1946), 'When Harry Met Sally' (1989) and 'Forrest Gump' (1994).
John Steinbeck’s classic 1937 novel, 'Of Mice and Men' took its name from a line in the Burns poem To a Mouse
“The best laid schemes o’ mice an men
Gang aft agley”.
And, Auld Lang Syne is recognised by the Guinness Book of World Records as one of the top three most popular songs in the entire English language.
Robert Burns’ fame has been going on for centuries and shall continue.
In 1923, in his Jazz Age biography, Ariel ou la vie de Shelley, André Maurois imagined Shelley, pondering about the sad termination of his first marriage in reciting Burns;
“Et il récitait mélancoliquement la strophe de Burns:
Le bonheur ressemble à ces fleurs des champs
Que la main qui les cueille, tue.
Ou bien à la neige sur les étangs
Blanche un moment, puis disparue
To be in 2025 translated and transcribed by Alix Daniel in Cybirdy new publication, Ariel Percy Byshhe Shelley as follow:
Then, he recited methodically Burn’s verse:
“But pleasures are like poppies spread,
Your seize the flower, its bloom is shed;
Or like the snowfall in the river
A moment white, then melts for ever”
Read, Read, Read and Wishing you all a happy Burns Night
January 31st 2025, London
So I turned to the garden of love
That so many sweet flowers bore
And I saw it was filled with graves
William Blake
Quote opening Ariel Percy Bysshe Shelley
In September 2024 Ann Morgan chose the first translation of Ariel by André Maurois as the book of the month in her literary blog A Year reading the World.
She wrote:
“This is one of the joys of reading internationally: it allows us to recognise the narrowness of certain ideas and assumptions by throwing them into relief against stories that work on quite different terms. All credit, then, to Penguin pioneer Allen Lane for launching his bid to take the mass market by storm with a translation – and not just any translation but a reprint of a biography of a poet to boot. What commercial house today would do the same?”
Cybirdy Publishing has done it!
On the month of that blog, unbeknown to Ann Morgan, the new translation by Alix Daniel of André Maurois’ Jazz biography was edited and proofread by Cybirdy’s team, while illustrations were finalised by the Londoner Artist named Anwot.
And, on 29th January 2025:
Ariel Percy Bysshe Shelley was released and pre-orders fulfilled.
Remembering that 90 years ago Allen Lane launched successfully one of the most successful publishing company all around the world targeting the mass market with the translation of Ariel, Cybirdy strongly believes that Alix Daniel’s new translation of this literary gem augmented by the audacious Anwot’s illustrations will give a new life to this incredible story, freeing it from the past and give the opportunity to many all around the world to immerse themselves in the tale of Percy Shelley’s tragic life who touched the sublime with his poetry and intelligence.
2024
The World of "Ariel"
December 06th 2024, London
The word ‘Ariel’ refers to many different things. It refers to an archangel or, a spirit, a gazella, one of the moons of Saturn, the Little Mermaid of Walt Disney or even to a washing liquid. The romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley named his boat Ariel as per Shakespeare’s famous, delicate and powerful spirit in The Tempest.
Whatever the meaning, the word itself evokes something aerial, some entity which is lifting and liberating, something delicate closer to the infinity than to the ground. Its etymologic meaning is probably from the biblical Hebrew word meaning Lion of God.
In our cyberspace, led by absolute and worldwide frequency of the use of any word, rather than any kind of hierarchical meaning, Ariel refers most frequently to The Little Mermaid of Walt Disney or to Ariel, the world-wide famous washing liquid.
However, both professionals and passionate of culture, history and literature are all as active as ever at helping humanity to keep access to a perpetually renewed imaginary world, where Ariel belongs too.
Both Ariel, the spirit of William Shakespeare’s Tempest and Ariel the name André Maurois gave to his famous Percy Bysshe Shelley biography seem to gain more presence on the web.
In London, two major events could accelerate that trend.
1. The new production of The Tempest by Jamie Lloyd Company should start at the Theatre Royal Drury lane within days. The legendary Sigourney Weaver shall make her debut in London as Prospero alongside the up-and-coming actor Mason Alexander Park as Ariel.
2. Next month, Cybirdy shall release Ariel Percy Bysshe Shelley. This is a new illustrated unabridged translation by Alix Daniel of Ariel ou la vie de Shelley, the French fictional biography by André Maurois which was written in 1923 and first translated in English in 1929.
Ariel tells Percy Bysshe Shelley’s tragic story with a sense of historical authenticity together with poetic flair and had so much success in both France and England that Allen Lane chose its translation as the first ever Penguin book to be published. Penguin success was immediate with 60 000 copies sold in the first year.
Cybirdy hopes that its new translation illustrated with audacity by the London artist Anwot brings back to life this literary biopic, where the reader can follow the genius and rebellious Percy life with his wife Mary Shelley (author of Frankenstein or the modern Prometheus), Lord Byron and other artists and intellectuals of the time.
Like the new production of The Tempest by Jamie Lloyd company, this Cybirdy special edition should revive Ariel, as a mystical and ethical entity, with an unusual and fascinating read for anyone eager to discover what could have been the life of the prodigy English poet referred later by the American critic Harold Bloom as:
"One of the most advanced skeptical intellects ever to write a poem".
Words in Translation
December 13th 2024, London
“In 1809, King George III appointed Doctor John Keate as Eton College’s headmaster. He was a small and terrible man, who considered beating as a necessary method to lead to moral perfection.”
This is the beginning of Ariel Percy Bysshe Shelley, the new translation of the elegant André Maurois fictionalised biography, in French, of the genius romantic poet, Percy Shelley:
The life of Percy Shelley is fascinating, it exemplifies the 19th century English Romantism in both its extremes of extravagant ecstasy and saturnine despair.
In 1923, 101 years after Shelley tragic death, André Maurois biography met immediate success, so much so that later on, Allen Lane chose its translation for the first ever book of his newly created company, Penguin Publishing. There again, the work met immediate success with 60 000 copies sold the first year.
One can wonder how a fictionalised biography written first in French could have been so successful. It may be that in general, well written fiction about a real character is more attractive to the readers than scholastic or journalistic work. Indeed, Literature is the art of the parable. It is the most sophisticated human language and the most truthful human expression, hence its enduring and universal attractiveness.
Furthermore, to survive, literature, just like people, has to cross languages, borders and time to survive. Translation is essential to that effect, not mere literal translation, that is word for word. Translation must be more artistic and skilfully worked on. To be revived, the original poetry and aesthetic of a story need to be lifted just like the colours of an ancient painting restored by a painting conservator.
E.V Rieu, the famous translator of The Iliad and Odysseus once wrote:
“ It is the translator’s job to make the text explain itself, remembering always that it is not erudition we want to teach but appreciation”
The translator, Alix Daniel has tried her best to that effect. She has gone far beyond modernisation of the dated language in lifting up the text from the past while preserving the rich poetic and elegant account using the ‘Thought for Thought’ technique developed by E.V Rieu and sometimes referred as the principle of dynamic equivalence.
We hope this translation, together with the audacious illustrations from the London artist Anwot will revive Ariel another time. And for now, let’s remember William Faulkner thoughtful words:
“The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”
December 20th 2024, London
You probably have taken notice of our star rating, you may have also use it before purchasing one of our books. However, have you ever read the reviews attached to them?
We do, and the authors too!
Reading reviews are essential to our work. It helps us to understand and evaluate the reception and appreciation of our titles. Whatever the writer behind the words is, The consequence of digitalisation is that Knowledge and literature now belongs to the people.
Wherever he/she come from, an anonymous reader, a review influencer or even a reviewer from a journal, reviews consistently provide us with fair, unbiased , objective and sometimes emotional feedbacks. We find that the reviews have been most of the time well thought, well documented, on occasion beautifully written and reflect the personal impression of the reviewer, who obviously has read the whole book.
Authors love reviews too, even the negative one. For them, reviews do not only consist of feedback, or a kind of gratification, reviews have the power to reconnect the author with his/her characters. It’s a bit like someone telling about living with a good friend you have lived with for months sometimes years. Reviews also help the author to step back with his/her writing, and reflect on how to improve or even if another story should be written to revive one well received character. Did not specially like the first story about Charloke holmes, however, the reception was so intense, that he wrote further adventures which are still read and enjoyed more than 100 years later.
You cannot imagine how Docteur Cybirdy was thrilled when she read the review from the late Jon from Word on Water about her debut novel: Hippocrates of London :
“The presentation of strong female characters and the positive interaction between reads as realistic and uncontrived. The honest presentation of lived experiences and medical case studies is harnesses to Ancient Greek philosophy in a completely convincing way”
Or from Francis Booth:
“ Novels of ideas are very rare in English, though not so rare in French, so it is no surprise to find that the author is in fact French herself. English may be her second language but the pseudymous Docteur Cybirdy writes it in a crystalline, clear, Fraubertian way……”
E.J Cousins, who is right now studying at Warwick University and writing something very special, appreciated reading about his debut short stories The rioting of Inferno:
“ Really cool read. I’ve read it 2 or 3 times now and it still manages to be creepy and keep me at the edge of my seat. The detail in each story is gory and well written……”
John Gerard Fagan is impressed and appreciative by the number of reviewers for Silent Riders of the Sea. After only 5 weeks of the book being alive, many are posting on Bookcybirdy.com, Amazon or Goodreads. Not only the review from and worse reading to anybody willing to buy this book, this review from has segmented.
“The writing is sparse but so well crafted: I felt I was there frozen with grief. Fagan is fast becoming one of my favorite writers. The village in Scotland Jack was from reminded me of my mother’s in Sweden. And we lost many of our men to the sea”.
"The writing is sparse but so well crafted; I felt I was there frozen with grief. Fagan is fast becoming one of my favorite writers. The village in Scotland Jack was from reminded me of my mother's in Sweden. And we lost many of our men to the sea."
One might think that literary critics from the legacy media would be more beneficial to the success of a book. We do not think so. The Gen Z does not rely anymore on biased legacy media, and often do not trust the packaging, the oversell and over prized is a bit too much, and furthermore no required, thanks to the reviews from the people. The consequence of digitalisation is that knowledge and literature now belongs to the people.
Furthermore, famous critics have been many times wrong in their judgment.
Roger Rosenblatt of New York times was the first ever critic to review American Psycho in calling it “the most loathsome offering of the season” in his review he titles "Snuff this book! Will Brett Eason Ellis get away with murder”
With the recent tendency of pre-packaging an author, the overselling smelling some kind of financial transactions and the wokism and its sensitive readers to protect, the public is becoming less inclined to buy a book, after reading such a review.
It is still the case for famous writers or people but is not the case for debut novels which can diffuse only if they are good and got reviews, in other words, if they have the potential to start a cyber conversation with words about the book spreading on the net and adding data to the star rating, universally used by buyers of any kind, as an essential element to basic transaction.
So, if you are one of those readers who carefully and in all honesty write reviews of a book you have read, we want at Cybirdy, on behalf of our team and the talented authors we represent to thank you for your work! And please remember that your review, once posted on the internet, will stay connected to the book, adding precious meta-data and semantic will stay Ad Vitam Eternam connected to the book in the cyberspace and possibly in the memory of another human being who discover the book because of your words.
The consequence of digitalisation is that knowledge and literature now belongs to the people.
December 27th 2024, London
“For it is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty founder was a child himself.”
In countless ways, 2024 Christmas was different than the one of Charles Dickens’ novella:
A Christmas Carol.
Yet, nearly two centuries later, and 2024 years following the birth of Jesus Christ, its mighty founder, Christmas remains a Gift-giving celebration made magical and wonderful by Father Christmas together with his scout elves and his 9 reindeers Rudolph, Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Blitzen and Donner.
Saint Nicholas, who inspired the figure of Father Christmas was an early Christian bishop
who lived at the time of the Roman Empire in the city of Patara, Anatolia. He was famous for his kindness and was known for secretly leaving coins for vulnerable families by dropping them down their chimney.
The story of Saint Nicholas kindness has been since then transmitted to Father Christmas and repeated every year to our children to remind all of us that Gift-giving comes from the human heart.
Christmas is known and welcome by any child in the world, from Bethlehem to Gaza and beyond. You may have spotted on the cyberspace that on 24th December, Palestinian scouts demonstrated in silence, carrying banners where those simple, yet tragic words were written in various languages:
"We want life, not death"
This happened not far from Gaza, in the streets of Bethlehem, Jesus Christ’s birthplace.
Christmas is a global tradition, here to remind all of us that children want life, and a life where joy and sharing are both possible. This simple fact just cannot be ignored for long!
Gift giving not only humanised, but it is also a tradition which does not have any colour or even religion attached to it. Christmas’ Gift giving is essential to human communities as a guarantee for our children to get the chance to live in joyful peace with adults, fairies, ghosts, reindeers and Father Christmas alike.
“Peace on Earth, good-will to men”
wrote Lewis Caroll in his poem Christmas Greeting from a Fairy Tale.
2024 Christmas has now past, it is Christmastide! So, as a Cybirdy Fairy treat, for the children of Gaza, Bethlehem and beyond, for you and the ones you love and befriend, here is in its entirety Lewis Caroll’s :
Christmas Greeting from a Fairy to a Child
Lady dear, if Fairies may
For a moment lay aside
Cunning tricks and elfish play,
Tis at happy Christmastide.
We have heard the children say-
Gentle children, whom we love-
Long ago, on Christmas Day,
Came a message from above.
Still, as Christmastide comes around,
They remember it again-
Echo still the joyful sound
Peace on Earth, good-will to men!
Yet the hearts must childlike be
Where such heavenly guests abide:
Unto children, in their glee,
All the year is Christmastide
Thus, forgetting tricks and play,
For a moment, lady dear,
We would wish you, if we may,
Merry Christmas, if we may.
We hope you are having a happy Christmastide and wish you all a Happy New year!
“Peace on Earth, good-will to men”
2024
November 1st 2024, London
Charles Baudelaire told us:
“Always be a poet, even in prose”
But what of both together? When the lines of form and structure blur, when a writer is driven to imbue a story with lyricism to convey meaning – then something magical can happen, think James Joyce, Virginia Woolf. It can be a risk to play with the boundaries and it takes a brave writer to manifest their artistic expression beyond conventions.
In our latest release Silent Riders of the Sea, author John Gerard Fagan does just that. Perhaps best described as a verse novel John stretches form with purpose.
Set in freezing Arctic waters, the sea with its ferocious temper is the meter for all that unravels for the men on board. Needle stabbing, salty waves painfully penetrate the narrative to the very heart and soul of Jack, a miner grieving the loss of his young son, desperate to escape his misery.
Together, the nautical rhythm and verse weave with a deep resonance, where we float or ride on the words, just as the author intends this story to be read. Rich, emphatic and densely packed with meaning, the text enhance the ambiguity of poetry.
It is an astonishingly masterful storytelling, where the distance of time and space are removed by an intoxicating mix of evocative poetry and charged prose, where no punctuation is to be seen.
Silent Riders of the Sea reminds us of the power and tenderness the written word of the poet has to offer in all its forms. Highly recommended!
November 8th 2024, London
We're delighted to tell about our first ever Cybirdy Publishing Book Festival in London and in collaboration with Word on the Water, The Dev, pub venue and Raven Records coffee shop.
As a start-up working in the heart of the King Cross community, we have joined forces with the famous Book Barge bookshop to bring to the London scene new authors and their books beautifully published as illustrated special editions.
Our very special guest is Scottish writer John Gerard Fagan, who's powerful second novel, Silent Riders of the Sea, will be released on 10th November. John will join us at Word on the Water on Wednesday 13th and Thursday 14th to talk about the creative process and his unique style.
We should also have an unmissable mix of blistering novels featured at Word on the Water from:
1. A Second Revolution, a topical dystopia from American author Kelly Noll,
2. The Beautiful Harpies a striking grimdark story of mystery and murder by Cameron Scott Kirk,
3. Goblin Market/Marché des Gobelins a brand new and unabridged French translation of the famous sensual and beautiful classic long poem originally written by Christina Rossetti and which famously inspired Alice Adventures in The Wonderland.
4. The Rioting of Inferno collection of horror short stories that delve into the darkest corners of the human psyche by 17 years old promising writer, E.J. Cousins.
Beyond Kings Cross, if you are curious about the art of literary translation you can join Alix Daniel, as she talks about her radical interpretation of Goblin Market at Raven Records, Camden on Tuesday 12th,
And, on Wednesday 13th, Docteur Cybirdy will be at the Pub Venue The Dev, in Conversation with David Kennedy aka Dav about her special collection inspired by 1984:
84-19 Rhapsodies & Co from I, rebellious rhapsodies written during COVID.
Come and join us and start the dialogue! We look forward meeting you all.
November 15th 2024, London
“ Hell is other people”
Line from the famous one-act play from Jean Paul "Sartre No Exit, Huit clos" in French
That is simply not true!
At Cybirdy, we believe that Jean Paul Sartre was wrong and that most of humanity would agree with us. On the contrary, no exit, lockdown and isolation from others is hell.
This week, Cybirdy book festival has connected authors with strangers. Our new author, John Gerard Fagan attended the four days of event. He travelled from Scotland with his parents, his greatest readers of all.
John Gerard Fagan launched his new book Silent Riders of the Sea, a violent tale of grieving, suffering and isolation from any possibility of care and joy. It is the poignant story of Jack the miner attempting to leave his past behind for good to embark in Arctic fishing, a voyage with no mercy in the harshest sea on Earth.
We already sold many of his books and look forward reading reviews on bookcybirdy.com, Amazon and Goodreads.
Next week, we will ask him to reflect on the event, but we can assure you that John enjoyed very much the dialogue with his readers of now and of the future.
Alix Daniel aka Docteur Cybirdy was there too. She talked about her collection of Rhapsodies 84-19 Rhapsodies & co from I and told us about her life transformation through poetry, music and the re reading of George Orwell in an attempt to not only escape but circumvolute the dictatorial cyber and scientific language used during Covid time.
E.J Cousins, now student at Warwick University the promising author of The Rioting of Inferno connected and appeared virtually during our closure event.
And finally, Kelly Noll talked to us from America about her new novel A Second Revolution, a dystopia written in 2017 not to miss for anyone interested in the American sense of freedom.
At Cybirdy, beyond freedom, we believe that Language is owned by people, and not by academia, media, experts or politics. Dialogue and proximity are both essential to the writer connection with the community. It is essential for the creation of a good book and more, for the continuity of its main message. And this depends so much of the readers and the pop up connections between the authors and readers.
Writers are notoriously solitary beings. Indeed, to write a book, you need that mind space. However, once the book is published, the writer needs more than reviews. He or she needs readers and occasional joyful life connection to carry on the creative process.
Proximity is the key of human happiness, but also of emotional and intellectual development. At the time a total digitalisation of our social life, and dehumanisation by wars assisted with AI, it is urgent to share ideas, and more, to dialogue and nurture our communities with a shared hope for peace. So together, let’s get creative to preserve the fire of human goodness. Join us, dialogue, listen, read seriously and be part of our like-minded community.
November 22nd 2024, London
Last week, I took the train down to London from Dunbar in Scotland for the launch of my new novel Silent Riders of the Sea, and it was well worth the trip. I read and signed books at the world-famous Word on the Water bookshop over two days and did Q and As at the Camden Pub venue, The Dev and at the scenic Enclave for the closure private party of the Book Festival.
It was great to meet so many different people and not only talk about how my novel came to be and the other books that inspired it but also learn more about the different writers that have published under the Cybirdy umbrella and the direction the publishing house is going.
Word of mouth is the biggest tool with indie publishing and getting people talking about my novel is imperative, so this was a great opportunity to do exactly that. Having had my last book Fish Town launched online due to Covid restrictions, it was refreshing to be able to take Silent Riders of the Sea into the world at these great venues, directly to readers, and give it the best start possible.
I am truly thankful for everyone’s hard work at Cybirdy Publishing and I look forward to doing more events in the future.
November 29th 2024, London
Black matters, white too. In fact, any colours human eye can perceive does matter to our humanity. Colours matter to our perception and understanding of the world and to the imagination and creativity.
Words and their meaning matter too.
Black Friday does not mean that Black Friday is of black colour because Friday cannot have a colour to be perceived by a human eye. Indeed, Friday is not a being, neither an object, nor a value or an idea. Friday is a day, a measure of time precise in timing and duration accepted and understood by any cultures around the world.
Black Friday does not mean that it is a particular dark day.
So what does mean the terminology Black Friday? Of course, we all know what Black Friday is about, it is a special day of the year at the end of November, it is the day to get deals mostly to purchase gifts for our love ones.
Over the years, the meaning of the terminology has evolved, initially referring to calamitous days, with a notable early instance being 1869 Black Friday when a gold panic broke out in the United States, triggering a financial crisis as the result of the Gold ring, a conspiration lead by two financial chancers and one single corrupted speculator.
The term was later used in American retail, starting ambiguously in the 1950s. Initially associated with workforce absenteeism post-Thanksgiving, it was reinterpreted later by the police in Philadelphia to describe the shopping-induced congestion.
Attempts at rebranding to Big Friday failed, and the term Black Friday solidified by the 1980s, referring to the pivotal point where retailers purportedly shifted from loss ("in the red") to profit ("in the black").
Today Black Friday marks the unofficial start of the end of the year and the festivities season.
In the cyber space, the event carried on morphing into Cyber Monday to the point where Cyber sales often continue through the following week, with a cyber week of good deals and great sales happening away from the shops since 2013.
For the book trade, it is an important time. 10 times more books are sold during that period, and most of those books are bought for gifts.
William Faulkner wrote
“Gratitude is a quality similar to electricity. It must be produced and discharged and used up in order to exist at all”.
At Cybirdy, more than agreeing with this beautiful and sound phrase, we believe that offering a book is gratitude with high positive impact. Books have a quality similar to energy which must be produced and used up in order to exist at all and often have an impact on somebody’s life.
This Black Friday and till Cyber Monday, we offer to Cybirdy readers and followers The Rioting of Inferno audio by E.J cousins, narrated by Dav Kennedy, as a free add-on to any who buy one of our books.
You can check out www.bookcybirdy.com the helpful summaries and reviews.
Wishing you all a Happy Black Friday and Cyber Monday!
2024
October 4th 2024, London
With the advent of our new Audiobook release "The Rioting of Inferno" by E.J.Cousins, this week at Cybirdy we are questioning the latest book consuming trends.
Have you ever sat around a campfire listening to tales of years gone by? Do you have indelible memories of the wonders of storytelling?
Before widespread social literacy, storytellers would recount tales in what was a unique human communal experience, where the power of a compelling voice could grip our imaginations. In our fast-paced, image-scrolling lives, how often can we say that we really listen? With 80% of our information coming from the visual world, the spoken word today is the significant minority and audiobooks could be the antidote.
While the acts of reading and listening are distinctly different, the way we process and understand a story involves the same parts of the brain, regardless of the source of the information. In other words, the meanings, understanding, and feelings that books offer are the same and enhance our lives, no matter how we access them.
Methods of audio content consumption are stronger than ever. Big online platforms such as Audible, Spotify and Libro.FM are convenient, inclusive, mobile, and with advent of smartphones you can now access books from almost anywhere. This is where our passion for books crosses with our passion for technology and innovation.
For some readers, audiobooks are better than written ones, especially for commuters, people with disabilities, those who can’t read, and those who can’t access printed words, such as the crew members of the International Space Station (ISS). The digital world penetrates the heart of accessibility and inclusivity.
At Cybirdy, we want you have the opportunity to engage with our books, with the words, the stories and the possible meaning or teaching behind them, whoever you are, whatever mean you have, and whatever type of reader you are. That is why, choosing the right voice for each book is important to us.
We work collaboratively with authors, musicians, technicians and narrators to bring a story to life, lifting the words from the page to create a direct connection between a story and a quiet mind.
October 11th 2024, London
Finding a niche for both readers and writers is a cathartic sweet spot. While the mood of a book can transcend genre, for authors, knowing their audience is invaluable in finding a home for their work and essential to a book’s success. For a reader, the anticipation of being immersed a story that meets expectations informs choices in the pursuit of literary satisfaction.
To answer the question, how many genres there are, depends on who you ask. With the nuances of subgenres, the number can run into hundreds but on X the self-proclaimed ‘home to the literature conversation in Europe’ there much fewer with Mystery hitting the top of the list.
As untamed northerly winds blow in the darkened hues of autumn this week, we find ourselves thinking of eerie fireside stories and ghostly Halloween tales. Our carefully curated catalogue of mystery, dystopian fiction and horror is a perfect fit for spooky nights of reading with an eclectic collection of poetry, fairytales and novels.
Our newest release, the first illustrated bi-lingual edition of Goblin Market/Marché de Gobelins by Christina Rossetti feted as a surrealist masterpiece about magic, diabolical goblins portrayed as beastly devils, forbidden fruits and guilty pleasure. This Victorian text, once believed to be feminist text, Alix Daniel, the translator’s interpretation in her forward leans towards the journey into drug addiction.
On the list of mystery genre reading is also The Beautiful Harpies, a chilling tale of disappearances and death that sits at the grim dark end of the mystery genre spectrum. It plays on what scares us all and admits that there is evil in the world. It’s important for us to ensure our authors work reaches its audience and Mystery and Horror lover alike will find this read a perfect addition to their journey of literary discovery.
At Cybirdy we are striving to fulfil reader expectations.
October 18th 2024, London
This week we have been looking forward to the release of our newest book Silent Riders of the Sea by Scottish author John Gerard Fagan, out on 10th November 2024!
Jack, a Scottish miner trapped by poverty and grief is attempting to escape misery and despair. John Gerard Fagan is taking us on a ride to the Arctic Ocean, tracing the tragedy of Jack’s past, to the hopelessness of his search for a better future. The story is violent, it is the story of broken men being pushed boundlessly towards the harsh side of life, with limited control over their destiny.
Born in the 1980s when the mines were closing all over Scotland and inspired by his grandfather and great grandfather, John Gerard Fagan always wanted to write a story about the proud and epic occupation of his ancestors. Drawn himself to the sea and its nautical fiction, he combined the two to craft his second book to be set around the harsh, often bleak backdrop of Arctic fishing.
His first, Fish Town, published in 2021 is a compelling debut memoir about life after buying a one-way ticket to rural Japan. It has been acclaimed by many in UK, Japan and America.
We hope to be soon in conversation with John to talk about the inspiration for his first work of fiction, as well as his unique instinctive writing method of which he says ‘I never make a plan before I start writing. I take a character, put them somewhere, and see what comes out.’
You can find out more about Silent Riders of The Sea by visiting us at various venues around Kings Cross and Camden during our Book Festival from 11th – 14th November where you will be able to meet the John Gerard Fagan in-person and pick up a signed copy of his new book.
Silent Riders of the Sea will be part of a curated collection featured at Word on the Water – The London Book barge in King Cross as part of the Cybirdy Publishing Book Festival.
Come to see us, meet the makers and celebrate intelligence through literature. A list of all our books can be found on www.bookcybirdy.com where you can already pre-order your copy of Silent Riders of the Sea.
October 25th 2024, London
John Steinbeck told in 1962 at his nobel prize ceremony:
The danger and the glory and the choice rest finally in man. The test of his perfectibility is at hand.
Having taken Godlike power, we must seek in ourselves for the responsibility and the wisdom we once prayed some deity might have.
Man himself has become our greatest hazard and our only hope.
So that today, St. John the apostle may well be paraphrased …
In the end is the Word, and the Word is Man – and the Word is with Men.
This week, Cybirdy team is back from the Frankfurt Book Fair.
We want to share some snipped ideas and tips we took back from our visit.
In the midst of a palpable gloom and worries with a few written, whispered or even unspoken words about war, genocide, Nazism and racism, Alix, our founder felt a reassuring multilingual positive quest for meaning and signs of hope for peace through literature beyond rhetoric, activism, politics and mediatisation.
We met people eager to share not only their ideas and business opportunities. People were eager to talk about new authors, new books and about new technology. Furthermore, creativity, new literature, art and crafts, translation and the amazing interest and development of audiobooks, all concurred to make the international fair very attractive and positive, and this, in spite of the current terrible killings.
From the boom of Nordics literature to a more civilised and agreeable approach of accessibility for all by the Italians, from translation work and AI to the very human diversity of new ideas, from the technological advances in Asia to the robotic development in printing, we, at Cybirdy are happy to report that literature is thriving and is indeed spreading fast on the planet while and amazingly, interest for new translations of classics and the production of Audiobooks bring us back to the magic of the pre-print literature.
Three aphorisms have caught our attention:
1. Reading is Seeing
2. Read, Reflect, Relate
3. Roots in the future
Reading is seeing. It is a known fact for writers and readers alike that the more one read, the more observational skills he or she develops, as his or her mind becomes clear and open to objectivity and dialogue. At Cybirdy, we do believe that a good writer has to be a good reader, and that a good reader becomes a better person as a better and objective observer and communicant.
Read, Reflect, Relate could be the best advice to our readers at this point of time really. If one wish to be a better person, should he or she be first reflexive and then reactive when he or she can?
Roots in the future was the slogan of this year guest of honour, Italy. Literature, like Italy is intemporal. Literature instantly links the past to the future. It seems to us that while anchored in its gigantic and majestic past with its eternal and wonderful classic antiquity, Italia, but also literature can look towards the future with more confidence than some of today’s pessimist scientists and scaremongers.
At Cybirdy, we believe like John Steinbeck in the perfectibility of human kind. We are all lovers of words, language and literature too. And we remain confident of the power of literature to shape a peaceful future.
We hope to share this passion and hope to meet some of you at our first festival in King Cross and Camden in just a few days.
From 11 November, we shall be in person at the Word on Water, the Black Raven Record and the Dev in Camden. We want so dearly to get any opportunity to dialogue with our readers, to reflect and to relate with the public on the ground.
Visitors at The Book Barge Word on Water, or in Camden at the Dev should have the opportunity to talk or send a direct post to our authors and meet up with narrators of some of our audiobooks.
2024
September 10th 2024, London
Welcome to the world of thoughtful, relevant, intelligent voices from incredible new authors, poets and revised translations of classics. This is a personal all-inclusive invitation for you to join Cybirdy in a journey though beautifully clever writing.
Cybirdy was conceived from the ambition to spread worldwide traditional publishing, the penetrating echoes of Allen Lane, the founder of Penguin Books, ‘quality books at a price everyone can afford' reverberate through everything we do, may the legacy continue.
Just as a little bird, brave and free, Cybirdy is a small independent company taking flight, navigating and collaborating to bring to life progressive debut novels and works of literature from diverse backgrounds.
What you can expect from this space is news, reviews and discussion for writers and readers alike. We want you to share our adventure, exploring literature in all its forms, and be part of our Cybirdy tribe.
To end this first newsletter on a positive note, we have created a new promotion that offers FREE SHIPPPING across the whole store, starting this Friday 13th at 8AM until the 15th of September at 11:59PM to kickstart your Cybirdy experience on this special weekend.
We hope to reach out to you on our next newsletter and thank for your support!
Cybirdy Team
September 20th 2024, London
This week at Cybirdy we have been thinking about ideas of solidarity and how books in all their forms can build unity through shared experience.
It starts with an idea, a writer’s ambition to tell a story, a need to express something important to him or to her, a determination to impart knowledge. But creating the written word often happens in isolation, a lonely solo activity. An authors words germinate, the literary soil fed by collaboration between writers, editors and artists allow storybook seedlings to emerge.
As a small publishing company Cybirdy nurtures the solidarity of creatives to make books happen, but sustainable growth comes from the warm rays of sunlight that can only be reflected by readers. This is where our own piece of cyberspace can extraordinarily create a profound catharsis, a space without borders, where we can find similarities in places we’re taught there are differences. A place to nurture lifelong friendships, that will grow into an integral part of our mutual support structure.
Readers want to feel, to learn, to share, and the online world really matters in offering freedom to create meaningful relationships of substance – the place of Eduardo Galeno’s ‘horizontal solidarity’ where we can respect the other person – the place we can bridge the gap between readers and writers democratically, in a way that counts.
Join us in our journey of solidarity as Albert Jacquard said “between all inhabitants of the Earth”
September 27th 2024, London
Last week we talked about solidarity and the role of literature in erasing borders. This week here at Cybirdy we have been focussing on translation as one way we are seeking to expand our literary world. A borderless global society is predicated on the ability to exchange information and ideas. In the words of revered literary critic and essayist George Steiner,
‘Every language is a world. Without translation we could inhabit parishes bordering on silence.’
The dialogue between cultures that translation allows requires more than just choosing words though, to communicate meaning from one language to another also requires a thorough understanding of the origins of a text, to get under the skin of the language, to the essence of the writer’s creative expression. Translators must be empathetic to an author’s idiolect to get to the heart of what they are really trying to express.
As we break down the barriers between cultures and cross-pollination spreads between readers, writers and thinkers, it is time to overcome the silence and read the world with Cybirdy.
At Cybirdy we aspire to the pursuit of celebrated Penguin Classics translator E.V. Rieu’s methodology
‘To make the text explain itself, remembering always that it is not erudition we want to teach but appreciation.’
Our profoundly literary mission is to champion the form by curating a collection of relevant, timeless English or French classics from XIX and early XX century, making them accessible to new audiences. Our translations are unabridged, preserving the style and tone of the original text.
Books were delivered VERY promptly and the books were excellent reads.
I'm grateful to Cybirdy for (a) drawing my attention to the novel Silent Riders of the Sea, and (b) dealing with my order of a hard copy of the novel in a very timely, professional, and efficient manner.
So easy! Book chosen in less than an hour, delivered to my door in 48 hours and read in 5 days !
