Sponsor a Walk for BookPower!

On 24 June Alexandra Fortescue, the 16-year old daughter of one of our trustees, will attempt to walk 50 miles in less than 18 hours, starting at 4 pm and walking through the night.

This sterling effort will take place within Charterhouse School's annual charity walk from Brighton to Godalming, but only Alexandra will walk for BookPower.

Please download the form below to sponsor her and help provide more higher education textbooks for students in low-income countries. It's so much easier than walking ...

The distance Alexandra actually walks will be posted on our website before the end of June.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
Sponsor Form (click here to download)

Donate At No Cost

You can now support Bookpower at no cost to yourselves by shopping online at easyfundraising.org.uk/bookpower and/or searching the web via bookpower.easysearch.org.uk/ (easyfundraising is an organisational member of the Institute of Fundraising)

New BookPower Chairman Passionate About Assisting Developing Countries

Seymour Fortescue stood down as Chairman wef 20 June 2007 after tirelessly championing the BookPower scheme for more than six years. The Board is delighted that he will continue to serve as a trustee and undertake fundraising for the charity.

The new Chairman, Sonny Leong, has been a BookPower trustee since June 2005; and in academic and scholarly publishing for the last twenty five years. He was the UK's leading independent law publisher for sixteen years until selling his business in January 2006. He is now the Executive Chairman of Routledge-Cavendish.

Sonny Leong was former Chairman of the Independent Publishers Guild, a trade association representating over 500 members. He is currently Chairman of the International Board of the Publishers Association in the United Kingdom. Recently he worked tirelessly with Gordon Banks, MP in setting up the All Party Parliamentary Group on Publishing.

He is a regular speaker at major international conferences and seminars on the contribution of the publishing sector to the creative industries economy. He is passionate on the need for publishers in developed countries to contribute and assist those on low incomes in developing countries, particularly Africa.

New Paediatrics Title

We are very proud to announce publication of an outstanding new paediatrics title.

Strobel et al: The Great Ormond Street Colour Handbook of Paediatrics and Child Health  

• offers a unique range of expertise from a world centre of excellence both in teaching and in medical and surgical practice.
• is both a colour atlas and a short textbook covering epidemiology, aetiology, clinical features, diagnosis, treatment and prognosis.
• is invaluable for senior medical students, paediatricians and paediatric surgeons in training and practice, candidates for higher qualifications, GPs and paediatric nurses.
• provides lasting, worldwide value.
• authors/editors and contributors are or were affiliated to the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, London and the Institute of Child Health, University College, London.

Cape Town Book Fair: BookPower exhibited a selection of titles, catalogues and information leaflets on the UK Publishers Association stand at the Cape Town Book Fair. This provided a good opportunity for interested African booksellers and librarians to learn more about the scheme and see at first hand the quality of the books included.

9 April: at 7.55 am &
9.26 pm
13 April: at 3.27 pm -

The Pen is Mightier than the Rucksack: a fundraising lecture by Michael Palin at the Royal Geographical Society, Kensington Gore, London .

This very successful evening was attended by 760 people. Michael Palin explored the umbilical link between travel and the written word. "From notebooks to guide-books to personal accounts: why do travellers feel the need to write it all down?" For details of the books he quoted click here. The lecture was followed by a book signing.

Seminar on Books for Developing Countries in the Platinum Suite, ExCeL London

Around forty members of the booktrade in Africa and the Caribbean discussed the current provision of tertiary education resources in developing countries, how they could be improved and the relationship between international and locally-published textbooks. It was generally agreed that at present the number of locally-published textbooks is very small and until it increases substantially the BookPower scheme provides valuable, affordable access to international scholarship. In comparison to cheap editions imported from India, BookPower titles are carefully-chosen and of higher quality. Prices cannot be unreasonably marked up as they are printed on each book and are an important factor used by local distributors to promote the scheme. Participants called for more UK Higher Education publishers to participate in the BookPower scheme.