The Germans are coming

One of the most enjoyable sidelines of having books published is that sometimes you get foreign translations. These tend to disappear into the ether, as there is inevitably a long delay while they get translated and then, with any luck, out of the blue, a copy of the translation drops on my door mat.

I say 'with any luck' as I'm still waiting for copies of translations of some business books from around 7 years ago. Sometimes the foreign publisher doesn't bother to send the requisite copies... but usually they do.

I've just had two of my popular science books translated into German. The first is Inflight Science, which has appeared with the impressively long title 'Warum Tee im Flugzeug nicht schmeckt und Wolken nicht vom Himmel fallen', which according to my rusty schoolboy German translates as Why tea is tasteless on a plane and clouds don't fall from the sky. Try asking for that in a hurry in Vaterstones.

The second one (which I haven't received copies of yet, but should do any day) was written in English several years earlier, but by coincidence is just coming out now. It was Before the Big Bang, but is now Vor dem Urknall - apparently this is the same (we didn't do Urknalls at school). I have to say, I rather like the cover.

I hope these go down well in Germany...

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