I am waiting for some photos of the school I visited yesterday in Soweto. I'll post them for a simple reason. The picture below is most people's image of the township. The reality, as you will see, is different. More anon.

Our new rep in the Free State is called Macmillan Mareka. Apparently a first name of Macmillan is not that rare in South Africa, particularly among people born shortly after Harold Macmillan's Winds of Change speech in Cape Town in 1960. But I still think it shows commitment to the cause. Perhaps all our reps should be called Macmillan.

Back in the UK now and saying farewell to my term as an officer of the Publishers Association at their annual general meeting in a few minutes. So must rush. I wouldn't want my term extended in absentia.

If you have a few minutes to spare and you're interested in the importance of design, check out this video. I love the guy's name, Jesse James Garrett - but still not as good as Macmillan Mareka.

Board and strategy meetings today in our Johannesburg offices which overlook the Wanderers cricket ground, although our view is not quite this good.

At long last we have a respectable Macmillan South Africa website. The first item is the announcement of our black empowerment initiative which we have been working on for more than a year. We decided to take this step as part of our partnership with South African education.

And it's not just South Africa. We are the largest publisher in the Southern Africa region with significant operations in Botswana, Swaziland, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia and, of course, the unfortunate Zimbabwe.

For some reason mention of Zimbabwe reminds me of my former boss (a short-lived experience), Robert Maxwell. There was a wonderful BBC documentary of parts of his life starring David Suchet (who,incidentally, was my dormitory captain at my first boarding school) in the title role. His performance was chilling and accurate - well worth getting to see the programme.

I've just arrived in Johannesburg, but thought you might like to see some more pictures from my Mexico trip.

As you can see below, Macmillan is taking global warming seriously. Our company there has organised to have its own energy-saving train for freighting books from the docks to the new warehouse in Mexico City and for onward despatch to bookshops and schools:

The first record (78rpm) I remember listening to was Magic Moments by Perry Como. Not only was the melody (Burt Bacharach) addictive but the lyrics (Hal David) were superb. Imagine how I felt when, after blogging what I thought was the worst pop lyric couplet of all time:

Can't complain, mustn't grumble,
Help yourself to another piece of apple crumble

I came across a letter in The Times claiming this masterpiece from Magic Moments to be a competitor for worst couplet. I think it is up there with the very best. You need to hum the melody for best effect:

The way that we cheered whenever our team was scoring a touchdown,The time that the floor fell out of my car when I put the clutch down

I promised to share the results of yesterday's Gordon Ramsay traffic enhancement experiment. I'm afraid it's inconclusive. We had 2152 visits yesterday compared with 2612 the day before (a Friday) and compared with 1850 the previous Saturday. I couldn't detect any surfers searching for GR and getting RC but there's hope yet. Maybe Gordon Ramsay has a long tail.

Back to books or maybe it's just another magic moment. Richard Wiseman is a scientist dedicated to explaining science (and in particular psychology) to the general public. It's a tough assignment, not least because much media coverage is both slight and wrong. However, his new book Quirkology looks like it will break down all resistance. Stephen Dumughn has described part of the publication process in The Digitalist blog which is only available to Macmillan UK web users. So here it is for the world.

Ok, I want you to try something for me. Put down your afternoon cup of tea and draw the capital letter Q on your forehead. Done it? Good. Believe it or not, that simple test will tell you something profound about your personality. If you drew the Q with the tail on the right side of your forehead (ie as you would see it) then you are a self-centered personality type (not as bad as it sounds). If you drew it with the tail on the left, you are other-centered.* Intrigued? For more detailed results click here.

Welcome to the world of 'Quirkology', a world I feel I've been inhabiting for the last 6 months or so as we have built up to the publication of the book Quirkology today. Using simple experiments like the one above, behavioural scientist Professor Richard Wiseman has spent 20 years examining the quirky science and psychology behind our everyday lives, and the results are truly fascinating. How can you tell when someone is lying? Why do incompetent politicians win elections? What is the best chat-up line? Can you really be born lucky? Does frowning make you miserable? Richard knows all the answers to these questions and tons more like them, and the results will certainly surprise and entertain you.

The non-fiction team here were so fascinated when the book proposal of his work came in last year we fell over ourselves to publish it. And we're very glad we did - Quirkology is currently getting the kind of pre-publication trade buzz and media attention that comes along all too rarely. The book is proving to be a dream to promote - packed full of hooks and angles that instantly pique people's interest. And we've had a lot of fun with the marketing of it - we've got the book trade to take part in experiments all the way through the sell-in period and even turned the book jacket itself into an experiment. The hub of the marketing is the website we've built specifically for the book at www.quirkology.com. Here you can read more about the book and the author, take some simple tests (like the Q test above) and watch the video of Richard performing the 'colour-changing card experiment' which really has to be seen to be believed. If you do you won't be alone - the video has had over 26,000 hits on YouTube since it went up two days ago.

But the key to making this work has been Richard himself. The man is a human dynamo - one of those 600 ideas before breakfast guys, all of them good. Together with his incomparable publicist Dusty Miller, they have been blitzing the media with a series of Richard's projects, generating what you could genuinely call 'blanket' coverage. Stories running at the moment include a study into how your surname affects your life with The Telegraph, why men write the best personal ads with The Times, extracts from the book including the search for the world's funniest joke with The Guardian and myriad interviews, features and offshoot stories across national TV, Radio and the rest of the press. The latest story to break has been Richard's study with the British Council into comparing the pace of life in 32 cities around the globe, with major coverage in The Times again (twice) and the BBC. With more stories expected (we're currently trying to place a sports story on the science of penalty-taking) the media storm looks let to continue. All the latest stories will be on the website, which will be continually updated throughout the summer in the run-up to Richard's major TV series with the BBC in the autumn - a fascinating 20 part series developed from Richard's Quirkology ideas. Watch this space . . .

*Of course, if you drew the Q with a pen and not your finger then you are a bit of an idiot in either case.

I was told by a restaurant critic that a sure way of increasing visits to a website is to mention Gordon Ramsay. Hence today's title. I'll let you know if it works.

My career has been blessed by the colleagues I have worked with and for. Perhaps one of the most important times was in the eighties working at Oxford University Press in various roles with Robin Denniston as my boss. He is the son of Alastair Denniston who was a key figure in British intelligence during the war and has recently published a biography of his father entitled Thirty Secret Years which I wrote about a little while ago. Robin has also published some fascinating extracts from his childhood diaries in the Daily Telegraph. Robin is in the middle of the front row.

Now, for publishing historians and current and former Macmillan employees this link opens up a treasury of nostalgia. The team working in the Macmillan Archive in Basingstoke, with the help of Macmillan India, have digitised all back issues of Macmillan News (the Charkinblog of its time?) and these are now searchable and deliverable as pdfs. Random browsing throws up gems even for non-Macmillan people. Give it a try. I wish OUP would digitise and make available Robin Denniston's (see above) newsletter from the olden days.

I'm off to Johannesburg tomorrow if I can find a way to Heathrow through the Chelsea and Arsenal fans (witnessing what might be the decider for the soccer premiership title) who will be blocking the streets near my home at just the time I need to leave. A few weeks ago I wrote that Macmillan South Africa was participating fully in black empowerment. We have now announced an imaginative scheme to establish a virtual training campus for South African teachers. I have been sent photos of the launch event. Most of them are very high-quality shots of the distinguished speakers but I thought this picture more entertainingly sums up the spirit of modern South Africa.

I was cheered up on the way to work this morning to hear about about a BBC6 competition to establish the worst pop song lyrics of all time. The one that stands out and deserves everything it gets is from a song by ABC with the same title as this posting. Here is the last verse for your Friday enjoyment.

More Sacrifices than an Aztec priest,
Standing here straining at that leash,
All fall down,
Can't complain, mustn't grumble,
Help yourself to another piece of apple crumble

There's a bit of momentum in the UK book world at the moment in support of independent publishing. Both Waterstone's and Borders have announced schemes to support independents such as free window displays, front-of-store promotions at no cost etc. There are, however, a couple of problems.

First, what is an independent publisher? Is it defined by membership of the Independent Publishers Guild? If so, what would happen if, for instance, Random House were to join the IPG? Is the word 'independent' a euphemism for 'small'? If so, is Faber, as an example, small enough? If it means 'privately owned and funded' can Macmillan benefit from these excellent opportunities? If it means 'free to publish non-mainstream books' then Picador should be a candidate.

Second, assuming that there is a finite amount of money and prime retail space then a benefit to one sector of the industry must be a disbenefit to the rest. In other words a publisher such as Hachette Livres is being forced to subsidise some of its competitors by one of its distributors. Is that a sustainable or acceptable situation? I hope UK booksellers either recognise that Macmillan is an independent publisher and warrants the same generous treatment as the officially-designated independent publishers or allow us to negotiate lower discounts in view of our having less-favoured treatment.

A little while ago I blogged about a letter to the Harvard Business Review complaining about their policy on on-line subscriptions. They have now responded and turned a complaining reader into a loyal customer and, as Ann Michaels rightly says, that's good marketing.

Another way of creating loyal customers is equally obvious (and equally often forgotten). It is to encourage customers to tell you what they think - and tell each other. We are launching a new blog today with the somewhat inelegant (to my eyes) title connect2mec which is there to help teachers of English keep in touch with us, share ideas with each other and find out about the latest available lesson plans, study aids and how to best integrate Macmillan English Campus into a blended learning programme within their institution. Here's the team.

And here's a press release about Editorial Estrada which was issued this morning in Buenos Aires.

Ángel Estrada y Compañía S.A. has reached an agreement with Macmillan Publishers Limited

Buenos Aires,  May 2007.  On April 30th, Ángel Estrada y Compañía S.A., a company with 130 years’ tradition in educational publishing in Argentina, reached a non-binding agreement with Macmillan Publishers Limited pursuant to which Macmillan will acquire the company’s publishing business through the purchase of the shares of Editorial Estrada, S.A, a company controlled by Ángel Estrada y Compañía S.A.

Completion of the purchase of Editorial Estrada S.A. by Macmillan Publishers Limited is subject, among other conditions, to legal and financial due diligence, at the end of which both parties will agree the final price of the transaction.

Ángel Estrada y Compañía S.A. will continue to operate, concentrating on its school and business stationery  division.

The Securities Exchange Commission and the Stock Exchange have been informed of this agreement.

Press Relations in Estrada:

María Eugenia Fernández Blanco

RRWW Comunicaciones

mefernandezblanco@rrww.com.ar

Ph: (+5411) 4556-0099

Contact in Macmillan:

Christopher West

Ph: (+5411) 4717 0088

Ángel Estrada & Cía S.A. was founded in 1869 and is Argentina’s first publishing company.  Its stationery brands include Arte and Rivadavia:the latter has been in the Argentine market for 90 years.  The company has two business divisions: school and business stationery under the brands Rivadavia, América, el Nene and Arte; and high quality, creative educational texts and complementary teaching materials.    The stationery factory in La Rioja province dates back to 1982 and the company has a modern distribution facility in Spegazzini, in Buenos Aires province, which distributes its products nationwide. 

Macmillan Publishers Limited  was founded in 1843 and is part of the German media group Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck GmbH.   The Macmillan group has been established in Argentina since 1998 and is a market leader in textbooks for teaching the English language.

Arrived back in London this morning having missed the Booksellers Association Conference which was held in Harrogate this year. Apparently there was a dearth of booksellers which rather misses the point. It would be awful if it were to become just another get-together for publishers.

However, the good news from Harrogate is that Pan Macmillan's brilliant rights director, Chantal Noel, was voted rights professional of the year. I'm amazed she hasn't won it before but better late than never. I tried googling Chantal for a photo, only to discover there is another Chantal Noel who is not in the least like ours.

And another friend was voted young publisher of the year - Clare Christian, managing director of The Friday Project.

Trivial fact of the day. I was discussing the differences in style between American and British dictionaries - in partcicular between Webster's Third International and the Oxford English Dictionary. The American approach is to be far more descriptive (for instance, check out Webster's definition of 'hotel'). The British approach is to describe a word accurately with as few words as possible. I believe the greatest (and least helpful) example of this was in the sixth edition of the Concise Oxford Dictionary where the brilliant but pedantic editor, John Sykes, defined 'aspirin' in two words, analgesic febrifuge.