Welcome back to Bear Alley. This week we have another pair of covers to reveal for our reprints of the Bill Kellaway series by Gwyn Evans. Each of the four books has a beautifully designed cover by Martin Baines, which capture the essence of these thrillers from the Thirties.
A brash, bright young ex-reporter who had spent years in Africa, returning to England when Egypt regained its sovereignty, readers first meet Bill Kellaway at his lowest. Penniless, he stands by Cleopatra's Needle on Victoria Embankment, wondering where he can find the money to pay for a cigarette... and then he feels a hand touch his sleeve and a voice asks: "Would you like a million pounds, my friend?"
A born venturer, Kellaway follows the stranger and finds himself at the whim of a group of millionaires who challenge him to complete six tasks that will acquaint him well with the underworld. On condition that his agreement remains a secret and that he makes no attempt to identify his employers, or seek their help if arrested, Kellaway receives the first of his six "labours" in a note attached to a dead body.
I've had proofs back for the four books and with some minor adjustments they should be available for sale within the next few weeks. I'm currently putting together a version of my Gwyn Evans biography, The Lunatic, the Lover and the Poet, so that it will appear in the same trade paperback format alongside the quartet of Kellaway books. The original A4-sized edition will continue to be available as this was fully illustrated with images from across Evans' writings in Detective Magazine, Union Jack, Detective Weekly, The Thriller and elsewhere. Both books contain three almost impossible-to-find short stories and two otherwise unpublished poems.
These books were planned way back in March 2019 and were meant to be my Christmas project for that year, with the books being published in March 2020. That didn't quite happen, although I was able to put out three books that month — the Rocket index, plus reissues of the Hurricane/Champion index and the Complete Eagles Over the Western Front. Although I doubt if the Evans books will sell many, one of the reasons for setting up Bear Alley Books was so I could publish a few titles that deserved to be available even if there wasn't necessarily a big audience for them.
I had a similar "Christmas Project" planned for this year that I've had to put on hold in order to get other things done. Hopefully all this delay and catching up on things that I've been meaning to get to over the past few years, will mean that Bear Alley Books can celebrate its 10th Anniversary in a few weeks time with some new titles and on a firmer footing as we enter our second decade.
Before our birthday in March I'll be having a little sale, so that's something to look forward to if there are any of the 30 or so titles that I currently have in print. More news on that soon.
I'm also planning for a couple of books that have previously only been available on Amazon to be made available through my usual channels. I've had to make some minor adjustments to some books, so I'm getting proofs of those delivered ahead of making any announcements.
I've also got a couple of short articles to write for cold, hard cash. Once they're out of the way I should be able to get back to BAM! full time. I'm still hopeful of getting the first issue out in February and I'm already working on the second issue and looking for features for issue three.
There... I think that's all the news that's fit to print. More next week!
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