more and more

Yesterday received a lovely big order for prints and cards from a gallery in Scotland - and heard that there's a nice article with a photo (of me and my aunt) in the Glasgow Jewish Telegraph - great! Packed up loads of books and cards and prints yesterday and sorted out a small binding glitch with the printers. Still sorting out a large Post Office Box glitch with Royal Mail (apparently about 15 letters got sent back to their senders between April and June... if that's you, they and I are sorry, and please re-send your order to the address on the Hannah Frank website!)

Mainstream Bookstores!

I have just had a call from Gardners saying that they would like to order this book...that should mean that the mainstream bookshops (Waterstones, Ottakars, Borders, and Amazon) will improve their service and their stocking policies....
so that's good!

Barry Landman, editor of Newark News, with Pamela Robertson, Senior Curator and Professor of Mackintosh Studies at the Hunterian Art Gallery, Glasgow University - at the launch of 'Hannah Frank, A Glasgow Artist - Drawings and Sculpture' - Westacres Care Home, 1st September 2004.  

Hannah Frank, August 2004, at the Glasgow Society for Women Artists' exhibition, Torrance Gallery, Edinburgh - with one of her drawings in the background 

Hannah Frank with Fiona Frank at the Torrance Gallery, Edinburgh - booksigning with 'Seated Figure' 1989. 

Hannah Frank signing one of her books in Edinburgh, August 2004 

Hannah's cousin Bobby Rosenberg, at 82, with the sculpture she made of him 50 years earlier in 1932. 

Sunday Herald?

Waiting to see if there's a mention of my aunt in the Sunday Herald today - this is a Scottish paper and I'm in England but I have lots of informants out there. If not this week, then next time perhaps?

Apparently I need to take a sample copy round to every single individual Waterstones and Ottakars and persuade them that there is going to be enough publicity that the books will sell.....

Hannah Frank pic of the week in the Sunday Herald!

Yes - one of my aunt's pix, 'Dance', (my favourite!) is Picture of the Week in the Scottish Herald magazine today - page five - with a little writeup and a link to the website and to Amazon so people can buy the book - this is going well!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

bookshop orders

I have just had a couple of orders from my first Bookshop.... though I presume that most will order from Gardners (professional book distribution company that deals with Waterstones and Ottakars). I have a nice poster to email to bookshops which will take the book... I wonder how to get libraries to buy it?!

adding a new post

I am sitting in my PhD supervisor's office - he is a technophobe and I am showing him how amazingly quick it is to publish your thoughts on the web. Here goes!

Miriam Margolyes!

I have just had an email from Miriam Margolyes - who played one of the Professors in the last Harry Potter film - saying that she LOVES THE WORK and the website, and wants to buy some cards....I asked if I could use her quote on the website, and she said I could..... so now beginneth the 'celebrities love Hannah Frank' section! Her late father comes from the Glasgow Jewish community, and she'd been emailed about the book by Harvey Kaplan from the Scottish Jewish Archives Centre who have published it.... good stuff! Now I want to find Shell from Big Brother UK 2004 and get a photo of her holding the book or meeting my auntie....any ideas?

Also - I met a friend on the train to Manchester this morning who suggested a solution to a problem that I've had with the printing of the book. There are some copies which are 'seconds' - there are small globs of glue on the inside back cover of some of the books, and I'm waiting to talk to the printer about them. But she suggested that I offer them at half price to people who couldn't afford the whole price book! And then, I realised, I could also offer the 'non cleaned up version' of the print The Mocking Fairy at the same deal! - and she said that actually, people might be interested in buying that one anyway, as it shows the artists' intentions - it's a version showing the ruled pencil lines underneath the black lettering and the moon, etc... you can see the cleaned up version of the print on the Hannah Frank website http://www.hannahfrank.org.uk (and go to 'see the drawings'). She being one of the people who can't afford the whole book but loves the art, was VERY pleased with this idea, as am I! I hope the MD of the printers will think it's a good idea too. I just have to make sure that they will manually check all the books....

Hannah Frank at her graduation from Glasgow University in November 1930: aged 22. 

Hannah Frank in 2003

and here is a picture of my aunt Hannah, in 2003, with one of her sculptures (you could see it so much better if you bought the book, of course! only £21.50 for a 208 page book...) go to www.hannahfrank.org.uk for how to buy it, or www.amazon.co.uk and search for Hannah Frank - buying it through the 'marketplace' is best please!

Here's a Hannah Frank exhibition poster from the Lancaster city exhibition which took place in May this year - which is going to be touring for the next four years.... 

Here is a 1925 picture, Fairies in a Wood, which was done when my aunt was 17 - and which was recently found on the Internet in a London gallery

Fairies in a wood

my first blog

Yesterday was the booklaunch of the book of the complete works - drawings and sculpture - of my aunt Hannah Frank. The book is:

Hannah Frank: A Glasgow Artist - Drawings and Sculpture - edited by Fiona Frank - published by the Scottish Jewish Archives Centre, available from www.amazon.co.uk (go to Hannah Frank Art Sales in the 'marketplace')and by order from Waterstones and Ottakars bookshops.


We held the event at Westacres, in Newton Mearns, where Hannah Frank lives. It was such a great event - loads of people came, and we video'd it and took lots of photos so that when Phil Keen the video man has done the editing, everyone will be able to see what happened. My aunt even said one of her poems at the event. The food and drink was lovely and after my auntie had signed lots of books, she went in for tea and everyone else went upstairs to watch a beautifully edited video of the Lancaster exhibition of my aunt's art. A great time was had by all!

I gave a speech: so did Harvey Kaplan from the Scottish Jewish Archives Centre (who had published the book)....so did Angela Ryan, housekeeper at Westacres; so did Malcolm Maddox, Chief Executive of Newark Care. I may include mine and Harvey's speeches later on this blog - but it's the first one I've done so I'm still learning about that sort of thing!

I've now listed the book for sale through Amazon Marketplace, and arranged with my printers that they will stick barcode labels on the book when needed for Gardners, who do professional distribution to Waterstones and Ottakars etc... there's lots to learn in this book publishing lark.