And but so I got a big, unexpected package from Macmillan in the post today. Given the way my publishing career has been going, my heart sank as I figured it was a few off the top of some huge pile of returns they were about to pulp. Imagine my surprise and glee when it was actually the Czech edition of The Manuscript.
I was as chuffed as surprised that they not only put Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton on the cover but they used the Leighton portrait! I've long thought that this painting of Burton, and this one nearly alone (amongst a handful of extant photos and paintings ), makes him look like the complete and utter ass-kicking bad-ass that he so very emphatically was. (*) (You can, as I often do, drop into the National Portrait Gallery off Trafalgar Square and take it in in person.)
Anyway, it's also otherwise a really lovely volume slick dust jacket and lovely artwork and design and even a bookmark. I'm well-flattered. Of course I have no way of evalutating the translation, but it looks good to me! (The character names seem to be the same, but with some having "ovą" appended Dana Stecklerovą, Celeste Browningovą. Ha! And Usenet postings look funny in Czech.)
It even seems to be on sale in some places. Here are some, erm, screenshots that I took.