unmissable

That’s what Louder Than War said about City Baby. They said a lot more, too. In fact, we were tempted to type the whole review out here, word for word*. They called it fascinating, uplifting, a heartening tale of survival, and an essential read. They praised Ross for being so honest and open about the dark times that came along, as well as relating the high jinks and the chaos that has been GBH on the road. And they’re right. City Baby is a funny, entertaining, and wonderfully candid autobiography which deserves every word of praise they’ve lavished on it.
Seeing as we’re blowing our trumpet about it, it seems only right to tell you that Sidewalk magazine (issue 204) made City Baby their Book Of The Month. And said it was an antidote to well-worn rock clichés, a warts’n’all story, a book which has dry humour in spades.
And – of course – our readers have had their say too (if you haven’t yet, you can do so here).
Better than ‘White Line Fever’ by Lemmy.
Easy to read and highly entertaining.
The dogs bollox.
Simply amazing.

And so on.
It’s hard to overstate how important reviews like this are to a small publisher like Ignite. We’ve next to no budget – certainly nothing that allows us to compete on a level playing field with the big boys of the publishing world. Not yet, anyway. This means we have to be inventive. We hold launches in pubs, use social media as much as we can, and we work with bands who’ll take copies of our books out on the road. Rather than worry about what we can’t do, we find out what we can. And then we get on with it.
Above all, this means we rely on word of mouth. The impact of people telling their mates about us is enormous. Especially seeing as Am**on UK – for reasons best known to themselves – still list the book as unreleased, ten days after it was officially published. Anyone would think they don’t want to sell books, or make money. The weirdos. More than ever, we politely suggest it might be a good idea to buy your books from other outlets – independent bookshops, hive.co.uk or even this website. Why give your money to people who don’t care?
And on that enquiring note, we’ll sign off. There are more reviews of City Baby coming over the next few weeks. We can only hope they’re as positive as the two we’ve already had. But even if they’re not, we’ll let you know. In the meantime, whatever you’re doing, wherever you are, all the very best to you and yours. Happy reading!
*Somehow we held out. For those of you who haven’t seen or read the Louder Than War review, or who might want to share it with friends (especially friends who might want to buy the book) here’s a handy link….