Feasts of India Catch-Up

The Jaggnath Publishing team plus friends and family were re-united last week for a fantastic meal prepared by author Mridu Thanki in her beautiful New Town apartment. It was wonderful catching up with the team and hearing about what everyone is getting up to next: Sandra de Matos the illustrator is London bound to do her Masters, Sushil is also going into (even further)Education to advance his teaching diploma and Mridu is going to be on the radio!

Tune in to Leith FM 98.8 from 12pm onwards to hear Mridu promote Feasts of India and talk about the making of her book and the mouth watering recipes featured inside!

Feasts Of India

Written by: Mridu Thanki
Illustrated by: Sandra de Matos
Design/layout/typsetting/additional editing: Calum Ross

Paperback

Jaggnath Publishing

Feasts Of India: The Launch!

The book launch for Feasts Of India was a huge success! I'm so pleased with how it turned out! To be honest, I was half expecting the launch to just have myself, the author and illustrator and a few people who we knew. I thought it would be a pretty low-key affair, but the whole venue was packed-with the PUBLIC! Yes, that means people we didn't even know! Mridu managed to shift all but nine copies in total on the day which is pretty bloody good!

The day consisted of lots of freshly prepared food curtosy of Mridu Thanki as well as a speech from yours truly on the design and concept behind the book, poetry readings by Gordon Peters and then a word from Mridu herself followed by book signing.

The official after party was where it kicked off though, a lot of champagne was consumed (or was it just white wine? I dont know what it was, but i drank a lot of it) and even more food fresh from Mridu's kitchen.

I have to say I'm going to miss working on this project as i've been working on it for so long, but it feels great to finally have it completed and out THERE in the real world.

You can buy Feasts Of India at Amazon.co.uk and at Word Power

In The Kitchen with Feasts Of India

An article all about Mridu Thanki and Feasts Of India has been published on the Leith Open Space. Mridu talks about family, cooking and, of course, about the book.

Read the whole article here on Leith Open Space

Here's a lovely quote:

"Beautifully illustrated by Sandra de Matos and designed by Calum Ross, it has the look and feel of a handcrafted book and the friendly conversational tone of a natural cook who simply wants to share the vegetarian recipes that she enjoys cooking."

Feasts Of India: a preview

Again, just to reiterate:

Feats Of India Launch Party

12th December
12pm to 1pm
At McDonald Road Library, Edinburgh

There will be delicious samples of some of the recipes in the book along with other refreshments as well as opportunities to talk to the author and the contributing artists such as illustrator Sandra de Matos. Oh, and I'm giving a short speech as well...

They're here!

700 copies of the first edition of Feasts Of India have arrived safe and sound (after a minor hiccup at customs) all the way from Nirman Impresse in Mumbai. As you can see, 700 books don't travel light.. and that's not all of them in that photo!

Feasts Of India in The List

More promotional material for Feasts Of India cropped up in the current issue of The List magazine.  If you have a copy of The List  just flick through to page 11 to see the Hit List: Food books for Christmas. Have a click on the image to see a larger version and read the entire article. 

Also, the book has a had a nod of approval from the Vegetarian Society in London

 

" a very beautiful and interesting recipe book"

  Jayent Patel, The Vegetarian Society, London

Feedback from many people who have received copies of the book have been flooding in and I will publish some more of the wonderful things people have been saying about Feasts Of India soon.

Feasts Of India Promotion

5pm, a UK based free online restaurant reservation operation have featured Feasts Of India on their blog! It's great to see publicity is being generated about this fantastic project which I've been practically attached to by the umbilical these past few months. You can read the full blog post Here

Speaking of blogs, it appears I've popped up elsewhere on the old internet on Cherry Hurren's blog too!

The List

Donald Reid, an Editor at The List has confirmed he will be featuring Feasts Of India in the December 5th issue. The article, I believe, will be promoting the book launch event, but it might also be a revue (?). Either way, my designs will be in the article alongside it (ie. the front cover) so that's a little bit exciting isn't it?

More on Feasts of India book launch

Working on some of the promotional materials for the book launch. I think the leaflet (pictured above-work in progress-and yet to be proofread before any smartarses start pointing out all the mistakes in the body copy, I have already noticed I've named the venue incorrectly and it's been ammended), posters etc. will be printed onto a coloured stock, possibly with a similar texture to the stock used in the book as the illustrations are all in black and white. However, if it were printed on a thick, glossy stock, it would also look good. Suggestions? 

Feasts Of India Book Launch

Confirmation of the official launch party for Mridu Thanki's Feasts Of India:

Will be held on 12th December @ McEwan Library, McDonald Rd, Edinburgh.

For those who do not know, Feasts Of India, by Mridu Thanki and Jaggnath Publishing, is a vegetarian cookery book which I have been typesetting, doing layout for and designing in collaboration with Sandra de Matos a French/Portuguese Illustrator. The concept of the book is interesting- rather than full colour, glossy photography of the dishes, the entire thing is hand illustrated, with images influenced by traditional Indian folk art. The reasoning behind this bold decision is so that those who read it get more involved in the PROCESS of cooking, rather than concentrating on the image in the book (which is varnished and quite frankly doesnt even closely resemble what you produce), which in a way takes away the enjoyment of cooking as you try too hard to make something perfect like in the image..resulting in you getting just a bit stressed out. So, in that sense, this is quite an original cookery book..and at roughly 300 pages long, its a beast!

The book was sent to India last week to be bound and printed and should be with us towards the end of the month