Great news! A Brief Illustrated History of Romanians is now available from Amazon UK!
Speaking at the London Book Fair 2014
Today I had the privilege to speak about the translation at the London Book Fair as part of the opening event of the Romanian Cultural Institute’s programme there. The event was titled “Tackling the fateful 3%” – in reference to the fact that of all the books published annually in the UK, only 3% are translations from other languages. Lovely to meet and hear from Nick Hunt and Stela Brînzeanu, two brilliant upcoming writers.
The London Book Fair is one of the biggest events in the publishing industry and it was truly bewildering to see such a range of events and exhibitors. Very lucky to have been there – even more so since I got to attend a few talks in a dedicated area for translators.
I’m very grateful to the RCI for their support and the chance to make my work known to the British public. Their dedicated blog includes a post about my talk at the fair (in Romanian).
Check out the Gallery for more pictures!
Speaking about the translation at the 2014 London Book Fair
Unexpected coverage
Really surprised to find that the launch of the translation was covered by the Romanian national TV station! It was a short piece and they did call me a “professor” – which I’m not – but still, very grateful for that news piece. Had to call my mom in a hurry to make sure my parents caught the 10 o’clock news!
Article and video here (in Romanian).
On top of that, today I got an early morning call from a news editor of Radio Romania International who asked for an interview for their English language service. I must have sounded a little funny (not a morning person) but hopefully it’ll be OK in the editing – will post it shortly.
A special day
Yesterday was a very special day for three reasons: first and foremost, I got to meet and speak to Neagu Djuvara, the man whose history documentaries I used to watch as a kid back in the 90s – what an incredible honour! Second of all, I was part of the launch of A Brief Illustrated History of Romanians, the book that had an initial target of one – my wife, Kasia – and will now hopefully reach… well, anyone who speaks English; it was a very humbling thing to be able to speak alongside the book’s illustrious author and HE Martin Harris, the British ambassador, who read a great excerpt from the final chapter of the book. Third of all, I saw old friends and colleagues I had not seen for over 5 years – thanks for the beers, mici and a lovely evening guys!
Visit the Gallery to see more photos from the launch.
Book launch in the news
Pretty impressed with Humanitas’ PR people – the launch of the translation made it into the Culture section of Adevărul.ro, the online edition of a prominent Romanian newspaper:
Book launch announced
Humanitas publishing house have put out this brilliant poster about the launch of the book! I will have the privilege to speak alongside the British and Irish ambassadors, and of course Mr Djuvara himself. Getting a bit surreal.
A Brief Illustrated History of Romanians published!
I am delighted to announce the publication of a book I’ve had the honour to translate – Neagu Djuvara’s A Brief Illustrated History of Romanians – by one of Romania’s foremost publishing houses, Humanitas. Ebook version coming soon to the Apple iBookstore and (hopefully) more! This started because I wanted to give my wife a decent, honest book about the history of my country – and could not think of a better one. And I still can’t believe that Neagu Djuvara believed in me enough to back it. But here it is, two years down the line.
cristian anton freelance 