Book review - Death, Destruction and a packet of Peanuts by Chris Pascoe

As someone who doesn't drink and has no interest in history, this book didn't seem particularly promising. A bloke goes on a massive pub crawl, while visiting sites of major battlefields of the English Civil War.
By the end of the second page, I was hooked. The author, Chris Pascoe, is a very funny writer - I defy anyone not to laugh at his story of the shed-eating dog or the American tourist rewriting history. But even more impressively, he brings the Civil War, a subject I've always associated with memorising dates at school, to full technicolour life. Some of the descriptions of battles are breathtaking and the characters mesemerising. Prince Rupert was my favourite, a man who didn't seem to have any concept of personal safety.
And then there was Pete. Pete was the author's traveling companion and a one-man disaster zone. His adventures are enough to make a book on their own, the highlights being an ill-advised toilet seat attack on a skinhead.
Throw in an incoherent Northerner called Dave and a dog of the same name, and you've got a book that I couldn't put down. Highly recommended.

Does this mean what I think it means?

Is this suggesting that the buyer's mother and girlfriend are one and the same ? Isn't there a law against this kind of thing?

Amanda goes to Russia

No, we don't know what it says, either. But it's the Russian version of Amanda, as licensed to Otkrytoe Pis’mo and available in your favourite Russian card shops soon for a very reasonable amount of roubles. До свидания!

A flurry of activity

The year is ending well for your favourite greeting card publishers. We've signed a deal to license Birthday Wishes, our bestselling range, into the UK - it should be in the shops by the end of the month. The same range is coming out in the USA in January and the Americans have also taken 10 of our Christmas designs for 2007. Cath Tate has licensed 8 new "Things to Do" designs, while there is also unexpected activity involving Russia and another of our ranges - more of that when the contract has been signed.
Finally, here's a Christmas card especially for YOU, with love from us all at Stripey Jumper.

Mike's modeling debut

This is from our latest Birthday Wishes range - 12 new designs for 2007 and each one of them fabulous. Finding a model for this particular card was proving difficult - the photo library options were useless. And then Liz had a brainwave - and this is the result. These are being distrubted by Incognito in the UK - Phone 0161 929 6471.

Mike's first ever blog post.

Hi, I am the third person in the Stripey Jumper story, the sales guy. You know the one, never lets a 'no' worry him, always asking the question “shall I go ahead and order those cards for you", never gets offended and keeps calling and begging our clients to buy more cards.

I have been in media sales for 25 years and have heard pretty much all of the objections that anyone could throw at me. Whenever a client says 'no' to me I automatically think “know” - they want to know more and keep on going. When they say “what part of no do you not understand", then I know I have gone a little too far.

I must admit that the greetings card game is a whole new sales enviroment, and we have discovered that getting in front of distributors can be a challenge.

What I have learnt is that we had to go to them, and they were in the UK and around the world. We did and it seemed to have worked.

Enough of that sales speak for now and onto my favourite series of cards. My favourite range (of ours, anyway) is Birthday Wishes, specifically farting and Shopping. Keep an eye out for the new one on sports channels - that is me on the cover…

Dave's favourite cards

Cute pictures of cats? Pah! Badly drawn teddy bears? Pah! again. Unfunny funny cards? Yet another Pah! Whatever happened to IDEAS?
Try THESE. Love you long time. Their designs woke me up from my total lack of enthusiasm for any cards other than ours. The illustrations are fantastic - fresh and cute, without being cutesy-cute (if you know what I mean) and the lines are spot-on.
My favourites? Their astrology range. Look out for them - they're fab.
As for other publishers - hmmm. After flicking through the trade mags, I'm struggling. Pigment's Venus and Mars cards are ones I'd probably buy, while Edward Monkton are consistently good. And Cath Tate's cards always make me laugh (even the ones she licenses from Stripey Jumper).