A few days ago I mentioned a visit I made to a school in Soweto. Here is a picture of Boepakitso Primary School.

A fairly typical and functional piece of architecture and scene by any standards. What it doesn't show is the commitment, verve and vision of the teaching staff and the enthusiasm of the children. The school is partly supported by the Read Educational Trust which is our partner in South African publishing sector's first black empowerment transaction.

For those interested in statistics, our promotional video for Quirkology which I wrote about last week has now been viewed 769,427 times. Now, if each view sells a book...

After my technology-jinxed weekend in Suffolk I'm glad to be independent of guest bloggers but concerned that the guests succeeded kicking traffic numbers up and I suspect fooled readers into expecting higher standards of writing and insight than I can manage.

While on the standard of writing, here is an Observer review of my pick of the moment. Do get hold of a copy of When we were bad and find a few hours to read it. See if you agree with the reviewer and me.

As I'm still stuck in the technological black hole that is deepest darkest Suffolk, I've asked our Digital Publisher Sara Lloyd to expand on the email she pinged off to me last week after reading her Friday copy of Guardian supplement g2...

To adulterate a joke made by that funny doctor bloke Dr Phil Hammond on Have I Got News for You last night, "a qualification as 'Head of Digital Publishing' for a major international publisher is really no substitute for clairvoyancy". I'd like to start from this point to avoid jokes made at my expense later; predicting the future has always been wrought with hazards and I lay no specialist claims to being able to do so.

However, I did get just a teensy weensy bit excited to read Andrew Marr's feature, 'Curling up with a good eBook'  in g2 on Friday. This much loved and respected journalist, broadcaster and writer was given one of the latest eReaders, an Irex Iliad, to road test for a month. It was a case of 'bibliophile, or perhaps bibliomaniac, meets book-killer', as he so Andrew-Marr-ishly put it. You can read the article for yourself, but the results were surprising, in some ways. This key proponent of the book as beautiful object / thing to be read in the bath argument and sniffer of dusty covers in second hand bookshops was 'reluctantly impressed' with his ebook. He could even see a future in which he'd choose the e-version of 'a dozen new novels or biographies' to replace his bulging book bag when travelling, and he could certainly see the advantage of this when combined with an ability to download all the newspapers, magazines and other 'throwaway' content that he needs to digest on a regular basis.

For me the existing ereaders on the market still don't cut it. The 'killer device' - an iPod for books - isn't with us yet, but I think this generation of ereaders could be the beginning of a quiet revolution. As major Internet and computing players enter the fray to carve out a piece of the ebook market which they all believe could be round the corner and the 'download generation' graduate into the consumers of tomorrow, the ground has got to shift. Hasn't it?

It transpires that technology is less developed in Suffolk than in Patagonia.  As a result I've asked 'Woman Publisher of the Year' NPG's Managing Director Annette Thomas to write a few words...

Site licenses have revolutionised the way that researchers access content and numerous studies have shown that there is now more access to more content and at lower prices than ever before.  But this all a bit heavy for a Saturday morning, so on to the point of this posting.

Every summer Nature Publishing Group's site license business unit holds their annual sales conference.  For the past 3 years we've gathered together at the Ocean Resort and Spa on the New Jersey Coast.

Like most sales conferences the days are filled with a mix of work and play and everyone has a good time. The meeting is organised by the excellent Geoff Worton who heads up our world-class sales team.

This year we've changed venues and we'll be meeting at the Hudson Hotel in NYC. It looks very posh (and expensive) but I've been assured that we've negotiated a very good rate.

Yesterday I received the agenda of the meeting and to my shock/horror/surprise/delight I no longer have top billing on the program.  Apparently Richard will be attending and I've been relegated to introducing him.  What to say? What to say?  I'm appealing to readers of this blog to send me their suggestions.

Have a lovely weekend

Annette

Kim was a friend and colleague of mine at Oxford University Press during the 1980s. She was a great person and a great publisher. She died at a ridiculously young age but her memory is kept alive by the annual award of a prize which recognises the professional achievements of women in publishing. The shortlist was announced in April and last night I went to St Anne's College in Oxford for the award celebration overseen by Tim Gardam who was Kim's husband and is now Principal of the college. To my - and I suspect many people's - delight Annette Thomas, Managing Director of Nature Publishing Group won in what was a very strong field (as reported in the Guardian today). It is a tribute to everything that she and the fantastic team at NPG have achieved over the last few years. I am certain that Kim would have approved of the choice. 

While on success, I'd like to point you to this anniversary review of Macmillan New Writing and I can assure you that this is not the result of backscratching or any other underhand measure.

For those of us who remember the glory days of sales to Nigeria in the 1970s this vignette from an old Nigeria hand returning to one of Macmillan's outlying offices will ring a bell.

Yesterday a bomb exploded in Erbil, Kurdistan region of Iraq. Fortunately none of our staff or friends working there was hurt but it does underline the risks that people are taking to bring education to the people of Iraq as I've described before.

On a lighter note, Pan Macmillan are celebrating a number one. Not a book but a video which was made to support the book's marketing. I mentioned Quirkology a few days ago but I had absolutely no idea that the card trick video would reach number one (yesterday for a few hours) on YouTube (and it's still number three as I write with 250,000 hits in a week - 390,000 now, four hours later). I believe this is a first for any publisher's promotional video but I am sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

Most of my readers are probably aware that I am not inordinately fond of book fairs. However, they exist and some of them even generate demand for books. Macmillan will do almost anything to achieve a sale and here is a picture of the RSC Shakespeare at the Bogota International Book Fair (to my shame, it wasn't until searching for that link that I discovered that Bogota has been declared Book Capital of the World - we should be told more).

And while on book fairs, I promised a colleague that I would mention the ever-increasing Cape Town Book Fair. The fair has been so successful that they have had to double the floor space in order to accommodate more and bigger stands. Is this growth in book fair activity in spite of or because of the Internet, I wonder?

There was a unique event last night at the Chelsea Arts Club. We were there to honour and thank Ronnie Williams (OBE, not the comedian) on his retirement from being Chief Executive of the Publishers Association. Some indication of the respect in which he is held is attested by the attendance of eleven past and future PA presidents (in chronological presidential order, Philippa Harrison, Adrian Soar, David Kewley, Simon Master, Anthony Forbes Watson, John Clement, Henry Reece, me, Stephen Page, Mike Boswood and Ian Hudson). Trevor Glover meant to come but was delayed at a concert. I'm not clear what the collective noun for eleven PA presidents is but would be happy to publish any (or more or less any) suggestions.

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: