Eastley Books, a by-word in the publishing industry for ill-judged, poorly timed and just plain wrong publishing ventures, has reported a significant annual trading loss for the fourth year on the trot .
"It's been another tough year for us" admitted CEO Bob Vines "We had high hopes for the December launch of the NRA's 'Assault Rifle Etiquette', but this completely misfired on us. Coming so soon after 'The Jimmy Savile Childcare and Development Guide' debacle it was a bitter pill to swallow."
Bob also revealed that the company had really suffered with the inexplicable failure of the various spin-off products generated by the Paris Olympics.
There had been a glimmer of hope from the collaborative re-work of 'How to make Friends and influence People' with Bashar Assad.
"There were reports that they were literally flying off the shelves" reminisced Bob fondly "But this was later attributed to a car-bomb outside the distribution centre"
But the blindly oblivious and almost moronically optimistic CEO knows that however beleaguered the company is, the staff are always 100% behind him.
"They support me through thin and thinner - it is truly inspiring" admits Bob, although staff have revealed that this is mostly morbid curiosity on their part.
Bob is typically upbeat about the prospects in the pipeline
"we've just released the Chris Huhne volume in the Great Parlimentarians series : expect to see that one speeding up the best seller list. And we have got a new cookbook for the UK market, real cutting edge stuff. 'Horses for Courses' - it'll run and run"