'Read wisely,' Sceptre urges as it marks 30th year

Hodder & Stoughton literary imprint Sceptre will mark its 30th anniversary this year with a series of events and promotions, branded with a motto that says "Read wisely. Read Sceptre."

Six "classic" Sceptre titles – Chris Cleave's The Other Hand, Andrew Miller's Pure, David Mitchell's Ghostwritten, Melvyn Bragg's The Adventure of English, Siri Hustvedt's What I Loved and Thomas Keneally's Schindler's Ark – will be issued with new covers, new afterwords by the authors, and sprayed edges at £9.99 apiece (below).

Cleave, Mitchell and Keneally will also be among a raft of authors taking part in a series of "salon" events at Waterstone's Piccadilly and Foyles Charing Cross Road, kicking off at Foyles on 18th April, with Cleave (Everyone Brave is Forgiven, 21st April), alongside Clare Morral (When the Floods Came, available) and Tristan Gooley (How to Read Water, published on April 7th).

Australian writer Keneally will speak at Waterstones Piccadilly on 3rd June, alongside Icelandic writer Sjon and Jill Dawson, author of Patricia Highsmith novel The Crime Writer (out 2nd June); meanwhile David Mitchell will speak at Foyles on 15th July (along with Ned Beauman and Jenn Ashworth); while Miller will do a Waterstones event on 24th August, alongside Peter Ho Davies and Rowan Hisayo Buchanan.

Sceptre said the salons would "provide an excellent opportunity to showcase and cross-pollinate our authors, books and talking points."   

A blogger tour involving "30 seconds with" authors from around the globe will run from April to the end of the year, with questions crowd-sourced "from passionate readers" through social media channels, media partners and events, using #Sceptre30.

Sceptre said its motto for the year reflected the fact that "Our authors lavish time on their work. The Sceptre team devotes time to bringing it to fruition. Together we offer books we believe will be worth readers' time, and books that will stand the test of time."