PR: Avengerworld - The Avengers in Our Lives (Charity Title)

Alan · Post by **Alan** » Thu Feb 04, 2016 6:55 pm

Published this Saturday by Hidden Tiger to mark what would have been
Patrick Macnee's 94th birthday:

The Avengers is a remarkable television series...
and its fans are remarkable, too!

From its debut in 1961, The Avengers soon became a worldwide cultural phenomenon, rewriting the rulebook of television drama along the way. It was a revolutionary series that led by example, always playfully pushing the boundaries, twisting perceptions and defying those who wished to pigeonhole it. Despite its lofty achievements, it never forgot that its primary objective was to entertain its audience. And entertain it most certainly did, inspiring successive generations to welcome The Avengers into their hearts and engage in fandom.

Right from its foreword by pioneering television historian Dave Rogers to its afterword by Jason Whiton of SpyVibe, Avengerworld celebrates the series, its international fandom and its fans. Over the course of more than forty essays, Avengers fans the world over relate how they first encountered the series, how they grew up with it at their sides, forged friendships, engaged with fandom, and were inspired to do extraordinary things.

Proceeds from this book will be donated to Champion Chanzige, a charity organisation that exists to improve conditions for underprivileged children at a primary school in Southern Tanzania – and helps them to do extraordinary things, too.

Essays written by:
Tatiana Bakina
Roy Bettridge
Vincenzo Boccini
Koen Braem
Barry Clarke
Derek Dubery
Barnaby Eaton-Jones
Ben Elshout
Robert Fairclough
David Fakrikian
J.Z. Ferguson
Dick Fiddy
Margaret Gordon
Sarah Hadley
Alan Hayes
Alys Hayes
Martin Holder
Frank Hui
John Humphreys
Lauren Humphries-Brooks
Piers Johnson
B. Jones
Brendan Jones
Denis Kirsanov
Jan van Leeuwen
Joseph Lloyd
Rodney Marshall
Dave Matthews
Richard McGinlay
Alistair McGown
Anthony McKay
Mona Morstein
Peter Motte
Irina Nikitina
Alex Pinfold
Michael Richardson
Dave Rogers
Joris Royer
James Speirs
Christine Stutz
Olga Svecharnik
Kimberly Thompson
Jason Whiton
Stanislaw Wiatrowski
Jaz Wiseman

This title will be issued in these editions:
• Deluxe Hardcover with Dust Jacket
• Perfect Bound Paperback

228mm x 152mm - US Trade Size
294 pages - English language

Watch this space!

mrs_emma_peel · Post by **mrs_emma_peel** » Fri Feb 05, 2016 4:56 pm

6th February - a very special, and the perfect, publishing date - Patrick Macnee's birthday.
It's a stylishly attractive looking book with a stunning cast list of Avengers authors -
I've just ordered hardback and softback copies.
Thank you, Alan, for compiling, editing and writing for such a very fine anthology.
I think Patrick would have loved it

Alan · Post by **Alan** » Fri Feb 05, 2016 8:25 pm

In case anyone's wondering how mrs_emma_peel could have ordered copies before the launch - contributors were offered the chance to get orders in early as a thank you for all their hard work.

Thanks for ordering!

I have some quite remarkable news regarding the fundraising to share tomorrow.

Alan · Post by **Alan** » Sat Feb 06, 2016 12:33 am

Avengerworld now published and available to buy. Proper PR in the morning, but anyone who fancies getting an order in early, here are the links.

The charity Champion Chanzige benefits from each sale, and already - thanks to contributor purchases - the amount raised by the book stands at £164.26. Mighty impressive!

HARDCOVER - http://www.lulu.com/content/hardcover-b ... b/18224075

PAPERBACK - http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-b ... s/18224033

The promo code LULURC should save purchasers 25% and get free shipping too. This won't affect the charity's revenues.

If it doesn't work FWD15 will discount by 15%.

Alan · Post by **Alan** » Sat Feb 06, 2016 9:54 am

Avengerworld - Official Announcement

I'm delighted to announce that today, to coincide with what would have been the late, great Patrick Macnee's 94th birthday, Avengerworld, a charity anthology that I have co-ordinated and edited is published in his memory. The book's been in the works for more than a year and obviously it didn't start out as a tribute to Patrick, but the news of his sad death last year and the focus of many essays on what an inspiration he was... well, it just seemed to be the perfect thing to dedicate to one of the great heroes of television drama.

The essays (and there are 43 of them!) take the theme "The Avengers in my life" and each author approaches the subject from his or her unique perspective. Fans from many nations are represented in the book and they reveal what it was like to grow up with The Avengers in different parts of the world - Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Russia, the UK and the USA.

Among the writers are the pioneering television historian Dave Rogers, who has written the foreword - returning to write about The Avengers after more than ten years - and Jason Whiton of SpyVibe, who delivers the afterword. It wouldn't be fair to highlight specific writers beyond these two, but suffice it to say that the quality of writing is very high throughout the book. There are names that you may well recognise and others that will be new to you. I've worked with all these people over the last year, and I must say it has been a huge pleasure to co-ordinate the Avengerworld book - one of the highlights of my time in fandom.

The book is, I believe, valuable in the way that it documents fan experiences in different cultures and environments, but it is doubly important in that it is a charity title which will help improve the lives of underprivileged children at a primary school in Chanzige, South Tanzania. Each book sold benefits our charity partner Champion Chanzige, a small but very worthy organisation which makes a real difference to the children and staff at the school.

Pre-launch sales to contributors have meant that £183.86 has been raised for the cause already as a result of Avengerworld purchases. I hope that this is a good sign for the success of the book and our aim to send a lot of money the way of Champion Chanzige.

Full details are available at Hidden Tiger: Avengerworld - The Avengers in Our Lives.

The discount code LULURC should save purchasers 25% and gain them free priority shipping. The code has proved itself not valid in some countries, but it is possible to get the code to work in countries where it appears not to Changing Store to United States.

Please note that use of these promotional codes will not affect the charity's revenues.

MikeR · Post by **MikeR** » Sun Feb 07, 2016 10:12 am

This is almost an international Who’s Who (got the episode title in there) of Avengers fandom and I think Alan has achieved a very positive thing with this volume bringing the various enthusiasts of The Avengers and The New Avengers together. Personally, one of the reasons I go to forums is to get away from the real world, which can be very unpleasant at times and so again its good thing that a lot of us who met on the net through our combined interest in the series are doing some good in the real world.

My chapter covers how I became interested in where The Avengers was filmed and how I began tracking down the actual filming locations. This in turn led to the involvement of Time Screen magazine with Tony McKay, Andrew Pixley and Annette Hill joining me in location hunting, which eventually brought about the Dead Man’s Treasure Hunt event and Tony’s website A Guide to Avengerland.

Alan · Post by **Alan** » Sun Feb 07, 2016 12:27 pm

Thanks for the kind words, Mike. It's been a great pleasure co-ordinating this project and working with so many talented writers with such great stories to tell.

Your own story is fascinating as many of us just take for granted that this episode was filmed in this place, and that one was filmed in that place, but people like you, Tony, Annette and many others actually went out and found them - and it's splendid to have that story documented.

There are many other stories equally fascinating in the book, so if anyone's thinking this book sounds interesting... It is! Buy it and support a very good cause in Chanzige, Tanzania.

HARDCOVER - http://www.lulu.com/content/hardcover-b ... b/18224075
PAPERBACK - http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-b ... s/18224033

Remember to use the code LULURC to save bundles without affecting the charity's revenues!

Current funds raised for Champion Chanzige: £303!

Dan · Post by **Dan** » Sun Feb 07, 2016 2:50 pm

Can't wait to read this - it sounds fascinating. I've always been curious about how other folks came to be avid Avenger fans.

frank · Post by **frank** » Sun Feb 07, 2016 5:58 pm

Yes I look forward to this as well. I feel lucky that money came up to allow me to order the book

For me, the Avengers has always had a very personal effect on me and my relationship with my family. Strangely enough this is the first time I ever talked about "my story".

Mike's story sounds like a grand adventure and I always envied the people who got to attend the treasure hunt

Alan · Post by **Alan** » Sun Feb 07, 2016 7:55 pm

The Treasure Hunt still runs today... and people from the States do come over for it... so never say never.

I love your essay, Frank. It's one I regularly sent out to other writers as an example of how to do it!