Sceptre publishes David Mitchell’s novel The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet in May. In a letter written to all Hachette staff, sending them an advance copy of the book, Tim Hely Hutchinson CEO of Hachette UK said:

“We are all so busy in our jobs that we can sometimes lose sight of the fact that communicating our passion for good books is at the heart of everything we do.  I hope that reading this novel will remind you – as it did me – of why we love working in publishing.

To celebrate publication, we are planning The Week of the Thousand Autumns.  This will be featured on the HUK group intranet, on Hodder.co.uk, on social networking sites* and in the general media. I would love you to be involved in this, so I hope that you will have the opportunity to read the book before then and that you will join us on the intranet during the week to discuss the book and, perhaps, other books you feel passionate about.”

Our Week of the Thousand Autumns is election week.  I have promised myself that during that week, first, I am going to talk more about The Thousand Autumns than about politics and second, I am going to talk more about books than about business.  I am looking forward to that and I hope you will too.”
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet has received starred reviews in Booklist, PW and Kirkus which concludes:
 
“It's as difficult to put this novel down as it is to overestimate Mitchell's virtually unparalleled mastery of dramatic construction, illuminating characterizations and insight into historical conflict and change. Comparisons to Tolstoy are inevitable, and right on the money.”
 
Tim will be tweeting from the London Book Fair from @HodderBooks.

*A thousand tweets for a Thousand Autumns – Tweet a review using the hashtag #thousandautumns.  Comment on the book on Facebook on the ‘A David Mitchell (Author) Fanclub!’ group page. MySpace users can post their reviews at www.myspace.com/thethousandautumns