Rights Backlist
For additional information please contact:
Andrea Joyce
Jessica Neale
Kirsty Wilson
Caroline Clarke
CANONGATE BOOKS
14 HIGH STREET
EH1 1TE
EDINBURGH
UK
TEL: 0131 524 9343
FAX: 0131 557 5211
E-MAIL: rights@canongate.co.uk
www.canongate.tv
Page | 1
CONTENTS
Page 3
Page 36
Page 40
Page 42
Page 49
Fiction
Canons
Crime
Myths
Rebel
Page 53
Page 54
Page 59
Page 60
Page 62
Page 66
Page 67
Page 69
Page 69
Page 74
Page 76
Page 77
Art
Biography/Memoir
Current Affairs
Humour
Music
Poetry
Natural World
Pop Science
Reflections
Reference
Sport and Adventure
True Crime
Page | 2
FICTION
THE LAW OF DREAMS, Peter Behrens
WINNER OF THE GOVERNOR GENERAL’S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2006
SHORTLISTED FOR THE COMMONWEALTH WRITERS’ PRIZE 2006
“Superb. An emotional epic bearing echoes of Melville and Ondaatje, conveying scents and shimmers of a vanished world
under the skin of our own.” Jonathan Lethem
“This is a top-notch historical novel: dramatic, wincingly violent, tender and extremely well-written.” Guardian
“Peter Behrens writes about the famine and its consequences as if he were an eyewitness. The Law of Dreams is an
absorbing, unsparing and beautifully written account . . . a masterly novel.” New York Times Book Review
It is 1846, the height of the Great Hunger, and young Fergus is forced to grow up fast. Following the destruction of his home, he
loses not only his family but everything he has ever loved. So begins an epic journey from innocence to experience that takes
him from the west coast of Ireland to the docks and bordellos of Liverpool, and across the Atlantic. Along his journey he will
meet bandit chiefs and railway navvies, “pearl boys”, daring girls and the wilful Molly, who will teach him the ways of the world.
RIGHTS HELD: World excluding Canada (House of Anansi) and the USA (Steerforth/Random House)
RIGHTS SOLD: Australia (Text), Brazil (Record), France (Christian Bourgois), Germany (Schoeffling), Italy (Einaudi),
Macedonia (Shkupi), Netherlands (Podium), Romania (Rao), Spain (Anagrama)
JAMRACH’S MENAGERIE, Carol Birch
SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2011
LONGLISTED FOR THE ORANGE PRIZE 2011
“One of the best stories I’ve ever read. A completely original book.” A.S. Byatt
“Put Moby Dick, Treasure Island and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner into a pot, add a pinch of Dickens and
you will get the flavour of Carol Birch’s hugely entertaining novel.” Mail on Sunday
“Gripping, superbly written and a delight.” The Times
“One of the magical qualities of Birch’s story is that it gives that sense of Dickensian sprawl and scope . . . For a new salty
adventure across the watery part of the world, you won’t find a better passage than Jamrach’s Menagerie.” Washington Post
Young Jaffy Brown never expects to escape the slums of Victorian London. Then, aged eight, a chance encounter with Mr
Jamrach changes Jaffy’s stars. And before he knows it, he finds himself at the docks waving goodbye to his beloved Ishbel and
boarding a ship bound for the Indian Ocean. With his friend Tim at his side, Jaffy’s journey will push faith, love and friendship to
their utmost limits.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: ANZ (Text), Brazil (Nova Fronteira), Canada (HarperCollins), China (Yilin), Croatia (Školska), Czech
Republic (Host), Denmark (Lindhardt & Ringhof) Germany (Suhrkamp), Greece (Klidarithmos), Hungary (Gondolat),
Israel (Kinneret), Italy (Rizzoli), Netherlands (Prometheus), Norway (Forlaget), Poland (Znak), Portugal (Bertrand),
Romania (ALLFA), Russia (Atticus), Spain (El Aleph), Taiwan (Ten Point), Turkey (Ithaki), US (Broadway Books)
GROW UP, Ben Brooks
“Brilliantly captures 21st-century youth. Hilarious.” The Times
Page | 3
“Amazing. One of the most hilarious and well observed accounts of teenage debauchery you are ever likely to read.” Dazed &
Confused
“Contagiously funny.” Scotsman
Jasper wants to get on in the world, but life is distracting. He’s got his A-levels to contend with, his mother pushing him to
overachieve, weekly visits to his psychologist, come-downs, YouTube suicides and pregnant one-night-stands. And then there’s
his step-dad – the murderer. Hilarious and heartbreaking by turns, GROW UP is the ultimate twenty-first-century coming-of-age
novel. It paints a vivid portrait of the pills and thrills and bellyaches of growing up today. Funny, smart and twisted, it is the story
of one young man transformed.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: ANZ (Text), Canada (House of Anansi), Czech Republic (Jota), Germany (Berlin Verlag), Italy (ISBN),
Spain Catalan (Grup 62), Spain (Blackie Books), US (Penguin)
GHOSTS AND LIGHTNING, Trevor Byrne
“A scorching burst of new talent . . . a rough, real slice of punkish Dublin low life, a black comedy, a ghost
story and more.” The Times
“Lurching, wisecracking, poignant and drunken . . .fans of Roddy Doyle will be agreeably entertained.” Guardian
“Byrne’s voice crackles with energy and dark humour in a richly-evoked novel of Dublin family life.” Irish Independent
“Very powerful. Often funny, sometimes frightening, always very human. I loved it.” Roddy Doyle
Happy or unhappy, all families are a mystery. And none more than the Cullens. Denny is just beginning to make a life for himself
away from them when a call from his sister brings him back to Dublin, city of his birth. Back to square one. As if squabbling
siblings and reprobate childhood friends were not trouble enough, a ghost starts making appearances in the family home, and
Denny’s life is about to get a lot more complicated. Full of riotous laughter, wonderment and love found in the most unlikely
places, Ghosts and Lightning is a revealing chronicle of our times.
RIGHTS HELD: World excluding US (Doubleday)
RIGHTS SOLD: Italy (Guanda)
THE DEATH OF BUNNY MUNRO, Nick Cave
“Told with verve, studded with scalding humour.” Observer
“Vital . . . to be welcomed and celebrated.” Daily Telegraph
“Every bit as funny and horrific as you’d expect . . . as insane as it is touching.” Rolling Stone
“Pitch black humour . . .The narrative pulses with demented musical energy.” Financial Times
The Death of Bunny Munro recounts the last journey of a salesman in search of a soul. Following the suicide of his wife, Bunny, a
door-to-door salesman and lothario, takes his son on a trip along the south coast of England. He is about to discover that his
days are numbered. With a daring hellride of a plot, it is also a modern morality tale and a major literary event. The Death of
Bunny Munro is a stylish, furious, funny and tender account of one man’s descent and judgment.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: ANZ (Text), Brazil (Record), Bulgaria (Prozoretz), Canada (HarperCollins), China (Shanghai 99), Czech
Republic (Argo), Czech - Audio (Argo), Denmark (Gyldendal), Finland (Like Kustannus Oy), France
(Flammarion), Germany (Kiepenheuer & Witsch), Hungary (Cartaphilus), India (Random House), Israel (Modan), Italy
(Feltrinelli), Korea (SIAA), Netherlands (J.M. Meulenhoff BV), Norway (Aschehoug), Poland (Proszynski), Portugal
(Objectiva), Romania (Polirom), Russia (Corpus AST), Serbia (Evro-Giunti), Slovenia (Modrijan), Spain (Global
Page | 4
Rhythm), Spain - Catalan (Empuries), Sweden (Forum), Taiwan (Ace), Turkey (Siren), US (Farrar, Straus &
Giroux/Faber, Inc.) US Audio (MacMillan)
THE POISON THAT FASCINATES, Jennifer Clement
“Jennifer Clements writes like a painter. Her books are vivid with colour and detail . . . Each colour-soaked page leading us
irresistibly to the next, giving us fresh vision as to how stories can be made.” Kirsty Gunn
“Her prose is poetic in the true sense: precise as a scalpel, lyrical without being indulgent, leaving conventionally important
things potently unspelled-out. But the story, driven by a mystery whose solution precipitates the climax, is unputdownable.”
Guardian
Emily is a studious young woman obsessed with Catholic saints and murderers. She lives at home with her father in Mexico City
and works in the orphanage founded by her grandmother – a relatively quiet life that is turned upside down when she embarks
on a doomed relationship with her mysterious first cousin.
Written in astonishing, poetic prose, this is a startling, beautiful novel. Jennifer Clement conjures a reality heavy with the weight
of Catholic faith and local superstition and despite the modern-day setting there is a timeless quality to the writing that makes it
read like a compelling fable.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Italy (Newton and Compton Editori), Poland (Mala Kurka), Spain (Planeta)
A TRUE STORY BASED ON LIES, Jennifer Clement
LONGLISTED FOR THE ORANGE PRIZE FOR FICTION 2002
SECOND RUNNER-UP FOR THE WILLIAM FAULKNER PRIZE 2000
“[A] bold and innovative novel.” Times Literary Supplement
“A True Story’s poetry is obvious, simple, beautiful and clear, like liturgical music.” Scotsman
This novel explores the consequences of a sexual relationship between a servant and her master and the child that is born from
this union. Although it takes place in Mexico, the discussion it addresses regarding class discrimination, oppression and servitude
is universal. The book experiments in a lyrical though unsentimental prose with the concept of how rumours and lies affect
people’s lives, and explores the violence against women servants in Mexico. The book also opens a window on the country's
Catholic and pagan customs as well as its folklore, magic and corruption.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: France (Autrement), Israel (Hed Arzi), Italy (Instar Libri) , Mexico & Latin America (Plaza y Janes),
Poland (Mala Kurka), Portugal (Temas e Debates)
OWEN NOONE AND THE MARAUDER, Douglas Cowie
“Sparky debut novel ...The youthful Douglas Cowie sings his riff with enormous assurance and offbeat charm.” The Times
“An uncanny ability to evoke time and place ... an intriguing novel.” Scotland On Sunday
Becoming famous is one thing. Being famous is another.
When Owen Noone turns up at an open-mic evening in a Peoria, Illinois bar, he not only brings the house down, he also changes
the life of one shy, introspective student. Together they become Owen Noone and the Marauder, a rock’n’roll band that rises to
fame on the back of an improbable hit single – a folk-meets-punk rendition of ‘Yankee Doodle’. This assured and impressive
debut defies categorisation; the story of a friendship and a road trip, playing a riff on the nature of fame and personality, it
heralds the arrival of a writer of enormous talent.
RIGHTS HELD: World excluding North America (Bloomsbury US)
RIGHTS SOLD: France (Christian Bourgois), Germany (Kiepenheuer & Witsch), Italy (Garzanti)
FILM RIGHTS optioned by Film Four
Page | 5
SCAR CULTURE, Toni Davidson
“Like William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury, Scar Culture is a book not to read, but to reread.” Sunday Herald
“Toni Davidson’s first novel is disturbingly mesmerising, complex in its construction and devastating in its subject of child
abuse … The most chilling aspect of this exceptional fiction is that it could so easily be true.” Observer
Toni Davidson’s Scar Culture is a powerful debut in the tradition of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and The Dice Man that
challenges the way we think about psychotherapy and dysfunctional sexuality. The result is a breathtaking tour de force of a
novel, at times shocking, thought-provoking, humane, erotic and sharp-witted, but always riveting.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Canada (Random House)
TRUE THINGS ABOUT ME, Deborah Kay Davies
“Glinting with pitch-black humour, Davies’ razor-edged style has a lucidity and ferocity that makes much “literary” prose
sound like soggy mush.” Independent
“A little book that packs a huge punch.” The Times
When the narrator of True Things About Me meets a charismatic man at work, she falls immediately under his spell. It is an
intensely physical, lustful affair that becomes increasingly obsessive. But when her lover’s visits become erratic, she decides to
delve into his past and the relationship begins to unravel. True Things About Me is the darkly funny account of a woman who
falls through the cracks of her own life. It is an outstanding debut novel by an enormously talented writer.
RIGHTS HELD: World exc. US (Farrar, Strauss & Giroux
RIGHTS SOLD: Armenia (Guitank), Czech Republic (Kniha Zlin), France (JC Lattès), Germany (Kein & Aber), Macedonia
(Ars Lamina)
ONE PILL MAKES YOU SMALLER, Lisa Dierbeck
A NEW YORK TIME BOOK REVIEW NOTABLE BOOK OF 2003
“Lisa Dierbeck invites us on a journey down the Me Decade rabbit hole in this mischievous recasting of Alice in Wonderland ...
Her Alice is wide-eyed and naive enough to see through a looking glass world of sexual predators and artistic frauds.” Los
Angeles Times
“A stunning debut novel … An up-all-night page turner, an artful Polaroid of a painful girlhood.” Newsday
Eleven-year-old Alice Duncan – the protagonist of Lisa Dierbeck’s electrifying novel of the 1970s’ counterculture – finds herself in
a predicament. Abandoned by her carefree, jet-setting mother and emotionally tortured, artist father, Alice falls under the
erratic supervision of her sixteen-year-old Aunt Esmé. Circumstances go from bad to worse when Alice is dispatched to North
Carolina and the Balthus Institute, an unorthodox art school for gifted children, where young Alice faces the disturbing reality of
reckless excess. Dierbeck’s tale is an audacious and fiercely original portrayal of a young girl’s crossing into adulthood. It is Lolita
from Lolita’s point of view.
RIGHTS HELD: World excluding North America (FSG/Picador),
BEING EMILY, Anne Donovan
“A combination of musical prose and lyrical imagination.” Kate Mosse
“Anne Donovan is to be cherished: funny, immediate and highly empathetic, her scenes may be domestic but her concerns
range refreshingly beyond.” Times Literary Supplement
Page | 6
Set in Glasgow over fifteen years, part coming-of-age, part love story, part family drama, Anne Donovan’s new novel is a
wonderful follow-up to the critically acclaimed Buddha Da. At its heart lies Fiona, the second child in the O’Connell family, whose
home life is more turbulent than most, from her mother’s sudden death and her father’s subsequent breakdown, to the havoc
wreaked by her younger twin sisters, Mona and Rona. Fiona finds escape in her art, in her love of Emily Bronte and ultimately in
the Kaurs, the Sikh family that lives nearby. Moving and funny by turns, it is a heart-warming story of friendship, belonging and
finding one’s place in the world.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Brazil (Editora do Planeta)
BUDDHA DA, Anne Donovan
SHORTLISTED FOR THE ORANGE PRIZE FOR FICTION 2003
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WHITBREAD FIRST NOVEL AWARD 2003
SHORTLISTED FOR THE SCOTTISH BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2004
LONGLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL IMPAC DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD 2004
“Her deliciously corkscrewed tale flows with the sap of everyday life.” Sunday Times
“Donovan’s novel is an accomplished family drama which is quirky and endearing. Don’t wait until your next life to read it.”
Sunday Herald
Anne Marie’s Da, a Glaswegian painter and decorator, has always been game for a laugh. So when he first takes up meditation at
the Buddhist Centre, no one takes him seriously. But as he becomes more involved in a search for the spiritual, his beliefs start
to come into conflict with the needs of his family. With seamless grace and astonishing veracity, Buddha Da treats serious
themes with humour and its characters with humanity. Buddha Da is Anne Donovan’s first novel and was a bestseller in
massmarket paperback.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Germany (btb), US (Carroll & Graf).
FILM RIGHTS: optioned to Wasted Talent.
HIEROGLYPHICS AND OTHER STORIES, Anne Donovan
WINNER OF THE MACALLAN/SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY SHORT STORY COMPETITION 1997
CANONGATE PRIZE WINNER 1999
“The voices sing off the page.” Liz Lochhead
“Funny, meditative, unsettling and surprising.” Daily Telegraph
Donovan offers finely etched portraits of lives lived with barely contained passion. From a young dyslexic girl silently finding her
own way of communicating, to an old woman clinging desperately to her dignity in a retirement home, to a mother coping with
the sudden death of her baby, Donovan’s characters shimmer with intensity. Her immaculate and evocative prose, often
rendered in a Glaswegian voice, resonates with the authenticity of a perfectly played note.
RIGHTS HELD: World excluding Brazil, Portugal, Greece, Turkey and the Baltic Republics
RIGHTS SOLD: Germany (Luchterhand)
THE LAST WEREWOLF, Glen Duncan
“Duncan is the cleverest literary horror merchant since Bram Stoker.” The Times
“Duncan's monstrous narrator makes for memorably rambunctious company.” Times Literary Supplement
Page | 7
“Loaded with beautifully constructed lunatic ravings... It is a horror that never shies from the human side of lycanthropy; it is
a disquisition on the nature of werewolf stories; it is a sublime study in literary elegance. It is bloody (and) brilliant.”
Independent on Sunday
One last full moon - then it will all be over. Jacob Marlowe has lost the will to live. For two hundred years he has wandered the
world, enslaved by his lunatic appetites and tormented by the memory of his first and most monstrous crime. Now, the last of
his kind, he knows he cannot go on. But as Jake counts down to suicide, a violent murder and an extraordinary meeting plunge
him straight back into the desperate pursuit of life - and love.Sexy, smart, bloody and heartbreaking, The Last Werewolf takes
literature by the throat.
Rights Held: World excluding North America
Rights Sold: Australia (Text Publishing), Brazil (Editora Record), Croatia (Algoritam), Czech Republic (Argo Spol),
Denmark (C&K Forlag),Finland (Like Kustannus Oy) France (Editions Denoel), Germany (Fischer Verlag), Hungary
(Agave), Italy (ISBN), Netherlands (Mouria), Poland (REPLIKA), Portugal (Editorial Presenca), Russia (AST Group),
Serbia (Laguna), Slovenia (Videotop), Spain (Random House Mondadori), Turkey (Ithaki)
TALLULA RISING, Glen Duncan
“Magnificent. A sexy, blood-spattered page-turner, beautifully crafted and full of genuine suspense, that tears the thorax out
of the horror genre.” Nick Cave
“It is a sublime study in literary elegance. Bloody (and) brilliant.” Independent on Sunday
“Slick as a pop video, with high-octane poetic prose.” Sunday Times
Talulla Rising pushes the werewolf myth further into uncharted territory and gives us the definitive twenty-first-century female
of the species. Tallula is plunged into a thrilling race against time to recover her lost child, crossing paths with a psychotic new
WOCOP leader, an unlikely human lover, blood-drinking religious fanatics, a pack of London werewolves and (rumour has it) the
oldest living vampire on earth. The Last Werewolf and Talulla Rising are the first two books in a trilogy. The last book, By Blood
We Live, will be published by Canongate in 2013.
Rights Held: World excluding North America
Rights Sold: ANZ (Text), Brazil (Record), Croatia (Algoritam), Czech Republic (Argo), France (Denoel), Germany
(Fischer), Italy (ISBN), Netherlands (UitgeveriJ), Serbia (Laguna), Slovenia (Videotop), Spain (Random House
Mondadori), Turkey (Ithaki), US Audio (Alfread A Knopf)
THE HAUNTED BOOK, Jeremy Dyson
‘Darkly surreal humour . . . seemingly innocent scenarios that veer into deep weirdness’ Daily Express
‘The Haunted Book sets out not merely to entertain, but to embody a creeping menace in the text itself. Open it if you dare...’
Independent on Sunday
‘Gripping, twisted and devilishly enjoyable’ Mark Gatiss
‘Dyson nestles in the little vacant chink between Roald Dahl and Borges’ Observer ‘A moral thriller ... I was enormously
impressed’ Philip Pullman
‘It’s odd to be frightened of a book. Or maybe not. Books are powerful things.’
The Haunted Book is a terrifying and completely compelling novel which tells of one man’s search for haunted places and a book
haunted by another book. What unspeakable horror glimpsed in the basement of a private library drove a man to madness and
an early grave? What led to an underground echo chamber in a recording studio being sealed up for good? What creature walks
the endless sands of Fleetwood Bay, and what connects it to an unmanned craft washed ashore, nearly six thousand miles
away?
In 2009 Jeremy Dyson was contacted by a journalist who wanted help bringing together accounts of true-life hauntings. The
Haunted Book chronicles the journey Dyson, formerly a hardened sceptic, embarked upon to uncover the truth behind these
tales.
Page | 8
RIGHTS HELD: World excluding US (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
RIGHTS SOLD: Turkey (Domingo)
THE GATHERING NIGHT, Margaret Elphinstone
“A vivid tale ... both lyrical and matter-of-fact, at times touched with humour ... Elphinstone persuades us to accept its
entirely different value system without a qualm, and even to regret that humanity ever thought of swapping the hunter’s
spear for the tiller’s spade.” Guardian
“The reader is ultimately engaged by Elphinstone’s beguiling prose to listen well to the strange stories of struggle, stoicism
and survival.” Independent on Sunday
“A brilliant fictional evocation of a time that’s usually given short shrift in history books . . . a very human story, a complex
tale of love, revenge, murder and honour, a book that managed to be both gripping in terms of plot, engaging with character
psychology and a hugely evocative exploration of time and place.” List
Between Grandmother Mountain and the cold sea, Alaia and her family live off the land. But when one of her brothers goes
hunting and never returns, the fragile balance of life is upset. Half-starved and maddened with grief, Alaia’s mother follows her
visions and goes in search of her lost son. Then a stranger from a rival tribe appears on their hearth seeking shelter. Are his
stories of a great wave and a people perished really to be believed? What else could drive a man to travel alone between tribes
in the depths of winter? The Gathering Night is a story of conflict, loss, love, adventure and devastating natural disasters. This
utterly enchanting pre-historical novel is set deep in our stone-age past, but resonates as a parable of our troubled planet 8000
years on.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Canada (McArthur & Company), Germany (DuMont), Italy (Stile Libero)
HY BRASIL, Margaret Elphinstone
“This is a holiday treat of rare distinction: ingenious, gripping, thoughtful, and wonderfully entertaining into the bargain …
Whisky Galore blends into The Shipping News, with a touch of Márquez into the mix.” Independent
Sidony Redruth is a young Englishwoman who, after fraudulently winning a writing competition, is sent by her editor to write the
first-ever travel book on Hy Brasil, a near-mythical island somewhere in the Atlantic. Hy Brasil is both a grown-up adventure
story and a contemporary thriller with literary influences ranging from The Tempest to Moby Dick.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Canada (McArthur & Co.), Germany (Ullstein)
LIGHT, Margaret Elphinstone
“Moving from landlocked to sea-swept Britain, Elphinstone weaves a sparkling adventure from a few strands of (almost) fact
... [a] yarn that fuses history and fantasy into an exuberantly clever romp, swathed in the mist and spray of northern seas.”
Independent
“Elphinstone’s sense of place, time and atmosphere make for eerie reading and give the novel an impressive
authenticity…Light makes for a riveting yet unsettling read.” Scotland on Sunday
It is 1831, and on a tiny island off the Isle of Man a lighthouse provides a harsh living for an unusual family. Lucy and Diya,
sisters-in-law and husbandless, have three children between them. Isolated from the mainland, they have been able to make a
living away from the disapproving eyes of polite society. But the light is on the cusp of a new era, one which jeopardises its
future. The Northern Lighthouse Board has sent Archie Smith to assess whether it should be retained, along with its keepers.
The women knew that their lives would have to change, but neither they nor Archie were prepared for what actually happens.
RIGHTS HELD: World
Page | 9
RIGHTS SOLD: US (Canongate/Grove), Canada (McArthur & Co)
THE SEA ROAD, Margaret Elphinstone
“Forget Richard Branson, the audacious female traveller Gudrid of Iceland is the original explorer’s explorer … Elphinstone has
written a fine tribute to a woman whose tale is as warm and inviting as a hot spring on a clear winter day.” The Times
An unforgettable, compelling historical novel, refreshingly written from a woman’s perspective, The Sea Road is a daring retelling of the 11th-century Icelandic exploration of Greenland and Vinland (North America). Elphinstone’s narrative is complex
but always accessible, tackling themes as diverse as gender, survival and belief.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Canada (McArthur & Co.)
VOYAGEURS, Margaret Elphinstone
“A gripping story of human courage, cultural ignorance, and deep religious faith in a time of turbulence.” Scotsman
“A delicately, wonderfully observed tale interweaving the spiritual with the concrete struggle for survival in a touching story
of a gentle people attempting to come to terms with the brutal reality of war.” Herald
In the early 1800s, Rachel Greenhow, a young Quaker, goes missing in the Canadian wilderness. Unable to accept the
disappearance, her brother Mark leaves his farm in England, determined to bring his sister home. What follows is a gripping
account of Mark’s odyssey and his travels with the ‘voyageurs’ - the men who canoe Canada’s fur-trade route. As adventure and
discovery propel the plot forward, Elphinstone takes the reader back in time and intertwines the story with enduring themes of
love, war and family ties.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: US (Canongate/Grove), Canada (McArthur & Co.), Germany (Ullstein), UK and Comm Audio (Oakhill
Publishing).
THE APPLE - NEW STORIES FROM THE CRIMSON PETAL, Michel Faber
“The tantalising stories in The Apple pick up threads in the lives of Faber’s The Crimson Petal and The White’s richly rendered
cast of Victorian grotesques. … All [the stories] offer a poignant sense of the connections between stories and centuries and,
thanks to Faber’s characteristic mastery of intrigue, the arbitrary nature of endings.” Metro
“This is fabulous stuff: gritty, original and highly entertaining. Faber is incomparable.” Waterstone’s Books Quarterly
While readers of The Crimson Petal and the White will delight in these new stories about beloved characters such as Sugar,
Sophie, Clara and William Rackham, each story also shines on its own, displaying the dazzling wit and imagination of a writer at
the height of his powers.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Australia (Text Publishing), Bulgaria (Ednorog), Canada (HarperCollins), France (Editions de l’Olivier),
Germany (List), Greece (Kastaniotis), Israel (Miskal), Netherlands (Podium), Poland (W.A.B.)
THE COURAGE CONSORT, Michel Faber
“In its refinement, musicality and urbane tone, The Courage Consort inhabits the same territory as Vikram Seth.”
Sunday Telegraph
The Courage Consort, possibly the seventh best-known a cappella vocal ensemble in Britain, are given two weeks in a Belgian
chateau to rehearse their latest commission. The esoteric world of avant-garde classical music is the unlikely setting for a story
of rare power, perhaps the most moving Michel Faber has yet written. From the chaos and hilarity of Partitum Mutante, a
numbed woman comes alive to the realities of friendship, independence and desire.
RIGHTS HELD: World
Page | 10
RIGHTS SOLD: Germany (List)
THE CRIMSON PETAL AND THE WHITE, Michel Faber
“The novel that Dickens might have written had he been allowed to speak freely …” Guardian
“Like John Fowles' The French Lieutenant's Woman, with which it deserves to stand, The Crimson Petal and the White is a post
modern take on the Victorian novel …” Time Magazine
An international bestseller, this immense novel of Victorian proportions is an extraordinarily rich, intricate, intoxicating and
deeply satisfying read. At the heart of this panoramic, multi-layered narrative is the compelling struggle of a young woman to lift
her body and soul out of the gutter. Although Faber’s stunning historical vision illuminates Sugar as a creature of her time, his
compassion and insight give her timeless and universal appeal. The Crimson Petal and the White is Faber’s most ambitious
fictional creation yet and has affirmed his position as one of the most talented and brilliant writers working in Britain today.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Brazil (Record), Canada (HarperCollins), Czech Republic (Argo), Denmark (Gyldendal), Finland (WSOY),
France (Editions de l’Olivier), French Canada (Boreal), Germany (List), Greece (Livani), Korea (Woogjin Think Big),
Latvia (ABC), Netherlands (Podium), Norway (Cappelens), Poland (W.A.B.), Russia (Machinyi Tvoreniya) Sweden
(Brombergs), US (Harcout).
FILM RIGHTS: optioned to BBC
THE FAHRENHEIT TWINS AND OTHER STORIES, Michel Faber
“I read ‘just one more’ of the stories in Michel Faber’s The Fahrenheit Twins until it was three o’clock in the morning, the
book was finished and the next day was a write-off. By turns crepuscular, buoyant, delicate, wry, horrific, otherworldly, this
worldly and organ-rupturingly funny collection is a vitamin-boost for the British short-story.” David Mitchell in the Guardian
Deft and lyrical, fearless and humane, Michel Faber’s new collection is his first in seven years and sealed his reputation as one of
Britain’s most arresting and important authors. Renowned for his pitch-perfect prose and brilliant characterisation, Faber is also
loved for his mastery of wildly different styles. This is a writer at the height of his powers.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Australia (Text Publishing), Canada (HarperCollins), Czech Republic (Drewo), France (Editions de
l’Olivier), Germany (List), Greece (Kastaniotis), US (Harcourt),
FILM RIGHTS: optioned to Nicola Clayton
THE HUNDRED AND NINETY-NINE STEPS, Michel Faber
“This is fiction as poetry of the soul; spare and measured language trailing rich nuances of beauty and pain. It is one of the
best things this extraordinary talent has turned his hand to – and that is saying something.” Birmingham Post
Faber’s dazzling novella takes us up the 199 steps in Whitby that link the twenty-first century with the ruins of the past. Equal
and indissoluble parts thriller, romance, historical ghost story and meditation on the nature of sincerity, this is an ingenious
literary page-turner.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Canada (HarperCollins), Denmark (Gyldendal), Germany (List), Greece (Kastaniotis), Italy (Einaudi),
Japan (Artist House), Netherlands (Podium), Russia (Toymania), Taiwan (Locus), Turkey (Sel), Serbia (Agora) US
(Harcourt),
SOME RAIN MUST FALL AND OTHER STORIES, Michel Faber
WINNER OF THE SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY/MACALLAN SHORT STORY COMPETITION 1996
WINNER OF THE NEIL GUNN PRIZE
WINNER OF THE IAN ST JAMES AWARD 1998
Page | 11
“Lovers of the short story take note: Somerset Maugham has shacked up with Ian McEwan, and Some Rain Must Fall is their
monstrous, magnificent first-born.” Duncan McLean
Ranging from the surreal to the intensely real, Faber’s first collection reveals an incredible diversity of voices. At times funny, at
others unbearably poignant, what they have in common is the creation of an entirely new and credible world in each instance.
Stories from this collection have been anthologised in Spain (Barcelona Review), USA (Story Magazine, Grand Street), Slovakia
(VLNA) and Germany (Spotlight).
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: China (New Star Press), Czech Republic (Kniha Zlin), Russia (Mashiny Tvorenija), US (Harcourt Brace)
UNDER THE SKIN, Michel Faber
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WHITBREAD FIRST NOVEL AWARD 2000
NOMINATED FOR THE IMPAC PRIZE 2002
“Recalling writers such as Jim Crace and Russell Hoban, Under the Skin, like Faber’s short stories, is an extremely assured and
imaginative work. It’ll get to you, one way or another. Of that there is no doubt.” Observer
“Original and unsettling … a deftly paced social satire, an Animal Farm for the new century.” Wall Street Journal
A first novel that defies categorisation, Under the Skin meets all the expectations raised by Faber’s first collection, Some Rain
Must Fall. It centres on a female character, Isserley, who seems to be obsessed with picking up male hitchhikers – just so long as
they are well-muscled and alone. As the novel unfolds, the reader comes to realise that Isserley’s motives are rather unusual…
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Brazil (Record), China (New Star Press),Czech Republic (Euromedia) Denmark (Gyldendal), Finland
(Tammi), Hungary (GABO), Italy (Stile Libero), Korea (Moonhak Soochup), Poland (WAB), Russia (Machinyi Tvoreniya)
Spain (Anagrama), Sweden (Wahlström & Widstrand), Taiwan (KATE) Turkey (Sel Yayinsilik), USA (Harcourt Brace).
FILM RIGHTS: optioned to Industry Entertainment/FilmFour.
BEAUTY TIPS FROM MOOSE JAW, Will Ferguson
AWARDED THE LEACOCK MEDAL FOR HUMOUR
AWARDED THE PIERRE BERTON AWARD
“Mr Ferguson is a very gifted writer.” Bill Bryson
“A hilarious, observant, personable journey from one chilly coast to the next … with a remarkable ability to examine the
weird quirks and cultural absurdities of his motherland [Ferguson] brings humour and real life to his search.” Observer –
Travel Book Of The Week
Will Ferguson spent the past three years criss-crossing Canada. In a helicopter above the barren lands of the sub-arctic; in a
canoe with his four year-old-son; on board seaplanes and along the Underground Railroad, Ferguson’s travels have taken him
from Cape Spear on the remote coast of Newfoundland to the sun-dappled streets of Olde Victoria. Through his engaging and
witty prose style he takes us on a journey of discovery through Canada’s hidden history and landscape. Funny, poignant and
insightful, Beauty Tips from Moose Jaw is a provocative tribute to a quirky and fascinating country from one of Canada’s bestselling writers.
RIGHTS HELD: World, excluding Canada (Knopf);
RIGHTS SOLD: US (Canongate/Grove)
HAPPINESS™, Will Ferguson
SHORTLISTED FOR THE COMMONWEALTH PRIZE BEST FIRST NOVEL
Page | 12
“A wonderfully assured, gleefully twisted and deeply irreligious satire which manages to be as moving as it is funny.”
Independent on Sunday
“A mean, wonderful, hilarious rant, both poisonously funny satire and dead-on indictment.” Anthony Bourdain, author of the
best-selling Kitchen Confidential
From the author of the critically acclaimed Hokkaido Highway Blues (Canongate 2000) comes this hysterically funny debut novel,
a searing and compulsive satire on contemporary America. Happiness™ is a masterpiece of comic fiction, a must for anyone who
has retched on Chicken Soup for the Soul but deep down felt the need for some spiritual and emotional guidance.
RIGHTS HELD: World, excluding Canada (Penguin);
RIGHTS SOLD Italy (Feltrinelli), Sweden (Bonniers), US Paperback (HarperCollins),
HOKKAIDO HIGHWAY BLUES, Will Ferguson
“Ferguson presents a wonderfully true picture of Japan at the grass roots, but the special joy is watching his surrender to the
spell of that enchanting land.” The Times
“Loaded with insights and highly original observations, this is overall an outstanding piece of travel writing.” Insight Japan
It had never been done before. Not in 4,000 years of Japanese recorded history had anyone followed the Cherry Blossom Front
from one end of the country to the other. Nor had anyone hitchhiked the length of Japan. But, heady on sakura and sake, Will
Ferguson bet he could do both. The resulting travelogue is one of the funniest and most illuminating books ever written about
Japan. Ferguson’s ability to laugh at himself, as well as the situations he finds himself in, is extremely refreshing and ultimately
shows how captivated he is by the country he discovers.
RIGHTS HELD: World, excluding Israel
RIGHTS SOLD: Brazil (Companhia das Letras), Canada (Knopf), Italy (Feltrinelli), Poland (Wydawnictwo Dolnoslaskie),
Russia (Astrel),
GRAFFITI MY SOUL, Niven Govinden
“Graffiti My Soul is quite an achievement … Govinden has provided us with a powerful and sobering social commentary.”
Independent on Sunday
“A worryingly exact take on youth culture … paints a picture of the twenty-first-century schoolyard, full of bitter enmity,
boredom and text bullying … thoughtful stuff.” Metro (4 stars – Fiction of the Week)
Graffiti My Soul introduces a memorable teenage voice. Veerapen is a half-Jewish, half-Tamil fifteen-year-old and the fastest
runner in school. It’s leafy Surrey, where nothing bad ever happens. Except Veerapen has just helped bury Moon Suzuki, the girl
he loved. His dad has run off with an optician and his mother’s just started speed-dating. Then there’s his running coach, whose
integrity is in question after allegations of paedophilia. Since when did growing up in the suburbs get this complicated? As the
knots of Moon and Veerapen’s tragic story unravel, Niven Govinden brings to life a misfit hero of the school yard, bristling with
tenderness, venom and vigour. V-pen’s confused state of mind following Moon’s funeral instantly draws us into the sometimes
funny and sometimes ominous events leading up to Moon’s shocking death.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Germany (Kiepenheuer & Witsch), Italy (Newton & Compton Editori)
WHEN TO WALK, Rebecca Gowers
LONGLISTED FOR THE ORANGE PRIZE 2007
“Funny, tragic and inspiring.” Daily Telegraph
“Genius.” Scarlett Thomas
It looks like just another week ahead. Then out of the blue Ramble’s husband ends their marriage over lunch and disappears.
With no rent money and her world in shreds, she is forced to reconsider everything she’s ever been taught by her screwy
Page | 13
relatives, unreliable friends and wayward criminal connections. Should she hide in life’s slipstream, or has the moment come to
break free?
When to Walk is an astonishing debut, lit up with hope and unexpected laughter.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Canada (HarperCollins), US (Canongate/Grove)
ELECTRIC BRAE, Andrew Greig
“Contains neatly plotted, eyes-down-for-the-last-paragraph mysteries … Greig’s men and women are vividly, painfully alive.”
Times Literary Supplement
A first novel of extraordinary intensity and range set in contemporary Scotland. At its centre is the crumbling sea-stack of the Old
Man of Hoy and the consuming relationship between a young artist, Kim, passionate and secretive, and Jimmy, a North Sea
roughneck, engineer and climber. Andrew Greig’s second novel, The Return of John Macnab (Headline), topped the Scottish
bestseller lists.
RIGHTS HELD: World
SARAH THORNHILL, Kate Grenville
“I was thrilled to find myself back beside the river I'd come to know so well in The Secret River. The power with which Kate
Grenville evokes places and people is so remarkable that I could remember the smell of the air there - and it was no surprise
to discover that Sarah Thornhill's story is as gripping and illuminating as her father's was.” Diana Athill
“A graceful, passionate story of love, loss and treacherous family histories.” Marie Claire
Sarah Thornhill is the youngest child of William Thornhill, convict-turned-landowner on the Hawkesbury River. Her stepmother
calls her willful, but handsome Jack Langland loves her and she loves him. Me and Jack, she thinks, how could it go wrong? But
there's an ugly secret in Sarah's family. That secret takes her into the darkness of the past, and across the ocean to the wild
coasts of New Zealand. Among the strangers of that other place, she can begin to understand. Kate Grenville takes us back to
the early Australia of The Secret River and the Thornhill family. This is Sarah's story. It's a story of love lost and found, tangled
histories and how it matters to keep stories alive.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Canada (HarperCollins), Estonia (Eesti Paevaleht) France (Editions Metailie), Germany (C.
Bertelsmann), Norway (Vigmostad & Bjorke), Spain (Siruela), UK Large Print (W.F. Howes) US (Canongate US/Grove
Atlantic)
THE LIEUTENANT, Kate Grenville
‘The Lieutenant is a triumph. Read it at once.’ The Times
‘An original, inviting tale.’ Daily Telegraph
‘In lucid prose and perfectly measured strides, Grenville lays down her riveting tale. A novel aglow with empathy, its author’s
capacious visions still deliver an elemental thrill.’ Daily Mail
‘An enchanting, quietly brilliant novel.’ Irish Times
In 1788 Daniel Rooke sets out on a journey that will change the course of his life. As a lieutenant in the First Fleet, he lands on
the wild and unknown shores of New South Wales. There he sets up an observatory to chart the stars. But this country will prove
far more revelatory than what shines above. Set a quarter of a century before her Man Booker shortlisted novel The Secret
River, The Lieutenant tells an unforgettable story about a friendship that resonates across the oceans and the centuries.
RIGHTS HELD: World, excluding Australia and New Zealand (Text Publishing)
Page | 14
RIGHTS SOLD: Canada (HarperCollins), France (Editions Metailie), Germany (C. Bertelsmann), Greece (Kastaniotis),
Netherlands (Ambo/Anthos), US (Canongate US / Grove Atlantic), US Unabridged Audio (Bolinda), UK Unabridged
Audio, (BBC Audiobooks), UK Abridged Audio, (Little, Brown), UK Large Print (W.F. Howes)
LILIAN’S STORY, Kate Grenville
WINNER OF THE AUSTRALIA/VOGEL AWARD 1984
“Stunning ... Intensely imagined and original.” Observer
“Lilian’s Story takes you into another world, which is rare.” Guardian
Lilian Una Singer starts life at the beginning of the twentieth century as the daughter of a prosperous middle-class Australian
family. She ends it as a cheerfully eccentric bag-lady living on the streets, quoting Shakespeare. This book traces the progress of
her life’s journey, and why she made the choices she did.
RIGHTS HELD: World excluding Australia and New Zealand
SEARCHING FOR THE SECRET RIVER, Kate Grenville
“An enlightening and enjoyable account of how a writer researches and turns history into fiction.” Good Book Guide
Kate Grenville’s The Secret River was one of the most loved novels of 2006. Shortlisted for the Booker Prize, awarded the
Commonwealth Writer’s Prize and longlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award 2006, the story of William Thornhill and his
journey from London to the other side of the world has moved and exhilarated hundreds of thousands of readers. Searching for
the Secret River tells the story of how Grenville came to write this wonderful book. It is in itself an amazing story, beginning with
Grenville’s great-great-great grandfather. Grenville starts to investigate her ancestor, hoping to understand his life. She pursues
him from Sydney to London and back, and slowly she begins to realise she must write about him. Searching for the Secret River
maps this creative journey into fiction, and illuminates the importance of family in all our lives.
RIGHTS HELD: World, excluding Australia and New Zealand (Text Publishing)
THE SECRET RIVER, Kate Grenville
SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2006
SHORTLISTED FOR THE MILES FRANKLIN AWARD 2006
WINNER OF THE COMMONWEALTH WRITERS’ PRIZE 2006
BESTSELLER IN THE UK AND AUSTRALIA
“A sad book, beautifully written and, at times, almost unbearable with the weight of loss, competing distresses and the
impossibility of making amends.” Observer
“An outstanding study of cultures in collision ... a chilling, meticulous account of the sorrows and evils of colonialism.”
Guardian
The Secret River joins a tradition of big-picture historical fiction that stretches from Patrick White’s The Tree of Man and David
Malouf’s Remembering Babylon to Peter Carey’s The True History of the Kelly Gang. It sensuously draws the intense light and
intricate scribble of the Australian bush on to the page, and makes them the backdrop to a story – about ownership, belonging
and identity – whose themes are universal.
RIGHTS HELD: World, excluding Australia and New Zealand (Text Publishing)
RIGHTS SOLD: Canada (HarperCollins), France (Editions Metailie), Germany (C. Bertelsmann), Greece (Kastaniotis) ,
Israel (Kinneret-Zmora), Japan (Gendai Kikakushitsu), Netherlands (Ambo/Anthos), Norway (Font), Poland (Nowa
Proza), Slovenia (Modrijan), Taiwan (Ecus), US (Canongate/Grove), US Unabridged Audio (Blackstone), UK Abridged
Audio (Little, Brown), UK Unabridged Audio (BBC Audiobooks)
Page | 15
THE RADLEYS, Matt Haig
“Haig’s novel is great fun with much enjoyment derived from placing these ancient bloodsuckers in dull English suburbia.”
Vogue
“Pointed, clever and witty.” Independent
“[A] delightfully eccentric comedy ... a strangely moving portrait of a marriage in which both parties are compelled to deny
their own instincts and longings.” Financial Times
Meet the Radleys. Peter, Helen and their teenage children, Clara and Rowan, live in a typical suburban English town. They are an
everyday family, averagely dysfunctional, averagely content. But, as the children have yet to find out, their parents have a
devastating secret. In this moving, thrilling and extraordinary portrait of one unusual family, The Radleys asks what we grow into
when we grow up, and explores what we gain – and lose – when we deny our appetites.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: ANZ (Text), Brazil (Record), Bulgaria (INTENSE), Canada (HarperCollins), Croatia (Algoritam), Czech
Republic (Jota), Denmark (J.P. Politikens), Finland (Atena), France (Albin Michel), Germany (Kiepenheuer & Witsch),
Greece (Patakis), Hungary (Pecsi Direct), Iceland (Bjartur), Israel (Miskal / Yedioth), Latvia (Metodika), Lithuania
(Metodika), Netherlands (The House of Books), Norway (Tiden Norsk), Poland (Świat Książki), Portugal (Bertrand),
Serbia (Stylos Art), Spain (Random House Mondadori), US (Free Press / Simon & Schuster), Taiwan (Spring), UK Large
Print (W.F. Howes), UK Audio (BBC Audiobooks),UK Young Adult (Walker)
Film Rights optioned by Alfonso Cuarón.
THE RAW SHARK TEXTS, Steven Hall
WINNER OF THE BORDERS US ORIGINAL VOICES AWARD 2007
SHORTLISTED FOR THE ARTHUR C. CLARKE AWARD 2008
“The bastard love child of The Matrix, Jaws and The Da Vinci Code. Very entertaining.” Mark Haddon
“His is an innovative, postmodern, metafictional novel . . .The Raw Shark Texts is, for once, a novel that genuinely isn’t like
anything you have ever read before.” Independent
“If Paul Auster and Haruki Murakami collaborated on Moby-Dick crossed with The Wizard of Oz, they might produce
something like Hall’s deliriously ambitious debut, which mixes profound themes with playful plot twists . . . A narrative feat
of hallucinatory imagination.” Kirkus (starred review)
The Raw Shark Texts (a play on “Rorschach Test”) is an unputdownable psychological and cyberpunk thriller, a profound
exploration of grief, a novel-of-ideas about the dangerous qualities of language and the fragile nature of identity, and a tender,
unsettling love story.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Australia (Text Publishing), Brazil (Companhia das Letras), Canada (HarperCollins), Catalan (La
Campana), Denmark (Klim), Finland (WSOY), France (Laffont), Germany (Piper), Greece (Livani), Israel (Kinneret), Italy
(Mondadori), Japan (Kadokawa), Netherlands (Ambo/Anthos), Spain (Salamandra), Sweden (Damm),, US
(Canongate/Grove)
FILM RIGHTS: Optioned to FilmFour in conjunction with Blueprint.
BORN FREE, Laura Hird
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WHITBREAD FIRST NOVEL AWARD 2000
“Confirms [Hird] as one of Scotland’s most talented writers. This bleak tale of urban dismay, set in the badlands of Edinburgh,
is a work of considerable force and maturity.” Daily Telegraph
Page | 16
Following on from the success of her collection Nail, Born Free is a novel of intertwined adolescent and mid-life crises coming
together in the family from hell. Set in Edinburgh, Hird's debut is a punchy, acerbic, sharp-witted, and above all, acutely
observed story of an ordinary family who are all trying to escape from something ... and each other.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Italy (Newton & Compton)
HOPE AND OTHER URBAN TALES, Laura Hird
“Desperately readable, blackly comic and painful, a delight born of dysfunction.” The Times
“Laura Hird’s writing, which is reminiscent of Irvine Welsh (for style) and Iain Banks (for pace), also has the tenderness of
James Kelman’s early work” Times Literary Supplement
Urban tales of despair and dysfunction are Laura Hird’s trademark, yet it is the possibility of hope, just out of reach, that unifies
her new collection of stories.
Set in the low-rent areas of Edinburgh, Hird’s slices of reality are gritty, bleak and often darkly funny. She skillfully shows how,
just as circumstances can reveal the darkness in ‘good’ people, so seemingly irredeemable characters can harbour well-hidden
pockets of humanity.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: France (13e Note)
NAIL, Laura Hird
“Deeply unsettling, deathly comic and peculiarly tender, Hird's stories have a capacity to shock that reminds one of early Ian
McEwan or Iain Banks.” Sunday Times
Laura Hird’s first collection of short stories delves deep into the bizarre and unsettling power struggle between the sexes and the
generations. Set against the bland backdrop of middle-class suburbia, Hird’s world is both brilliantly funny and unremittingly
bleak, filled with petty triumphs and unnoticed acts of vengeance. Individual stories from this collection have been anthologised
abroad in Barcelona Review (Spain), Bang (Sweden), Story Magazine (USA), Grand Street (USA) and BLVD (The Netherlands).
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: France (13e Note)
SHOW ME THE SKY, Nicholas Hogg
“An assured and gripping debut ... At times it felt to me like watching a spider’s web in a gale ... strong but also kind of fragile,
and the further I got into the book, the more impressed I became by the way the strands were still holding together even
though the gale was blowing strongly and I kept thinking I hope he can hold this – and he did.” The Verb
Time is running out for James Dent. On the trail of missing singer Billy K, his team has exhausted every lead. The investigation
has cost Dent his marriage, his home and possibly his job. All he has left is his instinct, and a copy of Show Me The Sky – the
book Billy was reading when he vanished. With only the clothes on his back and £5000 in his wallet, Dent himself disappears. He
believes he can solve this case alone. He can have little idea where this journey will take him.
Mystery, adventure, historical voyage, coming-of-age - Show Me The Sky is all these and more. It is a dazzling novel about the
power of books to change lives, which will keep you guessing until the final page.
RIGHTS HELD : World
RIGHTS SOLD: Italy (Bompiani), US (US Canongate/Grove)
69 THINGS TO DO WITH A DEAD PRINCESS, Stewart Home
“What a strange and marvellous novel this is.” The Times
“I really don’t think anyone who is at all interested in the study of literature has any business not knowing the work of
Stewart Home.” London Review of Books
Page | 17
This is where the novel has a nervous breakdown. Anna Noon is a twenty-year-old student with a taste for perverse sex involving
an enigmatic older man and a ventriloquist’s dummy. This is a book about the body in which it is impossible to distinguish the
ancient from the postmodern. Drawing on literary modernism and recent continental philosophy, as well as pulp appropriations,
69 Things to Do with a Dead Princess illustrates that schizophrenia may well be the only sane response to capitalism.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Italy (Robin Edizioni)
THE THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS OF DRUMMER DONALD MCLEOD, Harry Hopkins
“If Hopkins doesn’t make your blood boil, you should be checked for anaemia.” Guardian
A highly original blend of fact and fiction, this book features the virtually unknown story of the young Highland soldier Donald
McLeod during the time of the Highland Diaspora. Following a military disaster at Rosette near the Nile mouth, Donald is taken
prisoner and sold into slavery to the Egyptian aristocracy. Successively a country doctor, 'mameluke' and a soldier in Egypt's war
against extremists in Arabia, he also becomes the owner of a harem, head of several clans, and friend and favourite dragoman to
British explorers and travellers such as A.W. Kinglake. A page-turner full of hilarious adventures and a polished and vastly
entertaining piece of picaresque literature.
RIGHTS HELD: World
THE BOOK OF LIES, Mary Horlock
LONGLISTED FOR THE GUARDIAN FIRST BOOK AWARD 2011
“She has your undivided attention. The end is brilliantly double-edged, bearing witness, as does the book, to human nature’s
complexity.” Scotland on Sunday
“Horlock has a promising voice all her own.” Daily Mail
We talk about getting away and seeing the world, but we never do. We stay here making the same mistakes over and over ...
Catherine is a teenager with a secret that could tear apart her small community. A fortnight ago, her glamorous best friend fell
from the cliff edge at one of Guernsey’s finest beauty spots. Catherine was the last person to see her alive.
And what connects Catherine to Charlie, a young boy who lived on the island during the Second World War and whose act of
rebellion had such far-reaching consequences? The Book of Lies is a powerful novel about friendship, family, loyalty and love. It
weaves two lives across the decades, and shows that no truth is as simple as it seems.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: ANZ (Text), Canada (HarperCollins), France (POL), Hungary (Scolar), Israel (Modan), Italy (Neri Pozza),
Netherlands (Mouria), UK Audio (W.F. Howes), UK Large Print (AudioGo), UK Reprint (Walker Books), US
(HarperCollins)
CARRY ME DOWN, M. J. Hyland
SHORT-LISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2006
LONG-LISTED FOR THE ORANGE PRIZE 2007
WINNER OF THE ENCORE AWARD 2007
WINNER OF THE HAWTHORNDEN PRIZE 2007
“This is fiction writing of the highest order … John Egan is a brave, resourceful boy, intelligent and self-aware, yet skating on
the edge of madness. The story of John’s twelfth year is both sympathetic and disturbing. It is also rich in understated
humour.” J.M. Coetzee
“Carry Me Down is a remarkable achievement of imaginative sympathy, done without structural gimmicks or stylistic
fireworks, but with language which quietly demands that as John speaks, we speak along with him.” Times Literary
Supplement
Page | 18
John Egan is a misfit, ‘a twelve-year-old in the body of a grown man with the voice of a giant who insists on the ridiculous truth’.
With an obsession for the Guinness Book of Records and faith in his ability to detect when adults are lying, John remains hopeful
despite the unfortunate cards life deals him.
Set in Ireland in 1971, Carry Me Down is a deeply sympathetic take on one sad boyhood told in gripping and at times unsettling
prose. It plays out its tragic plot against a disarmingly familiar background and refuses to portray as easy heroes or villains any of
its lovingly drawn characters.
RIGHTS HELD: World excluding Australia and New Zealand (Penguin)
RIGHTS SOLD: Brazil (Companhia das Letras), Canada (HarperCollins), France (Actes Sud) , Greece (Kastaniotis), India,
Marathi (Mehta), Israel (Kinneret-Zmora), Italy (Bompiani), Netherlands (Mouria), Sweden (Brombergs), US
(Canongate) US Audio Unabridged (Blackstone)
HOW THE LIGHT GETS IN, M. J. Hyland
“[Hyland] brings the long-forgotten teenage sensation of drowning in life’s uncomprehended complexities horribly alive.”
The Times
Lou Connor, a precocious and unhappy sixteen-year-old from Sydney, accepts a place as an exchange student in the USA,
something that she hopes will take her far away from her bleak poverty-stricken childhood. Her acute need for acceptance and
love runs up against the family’s suffocating pursuit of a particular form of suburban perfection. It is a cleverly observed,
complex portrait of a girl on the verge of adulthood whose world – like Holden Caulfield’s before her – is full of mixed messages.
With its shades of American Beauty and the work of A.M. Homes, How The Light Gets In mesmerises the reader from hopeful
beginning to haunting end.
RIGHTS HELD: World excluding Australia;
RIGHTS SOLD: Canada (HarperCollins), France (Actes Sud), Italy (Bompiani), Netherlands (Meulenhoff), UK Reprint
(Walker) US (Canongate/Grove).
FILM RIGHTS optioned to Apocalypso Pictures (Pawel Pawlikowski to direct).
THIS IS HOW, M J Hyland
LONGLISTED FOR THE ORANGE PRIZE 2010
“A tour de force. Hyland illuminates this damaged soul with such a steely, brilliant clarity that your heart breaks for him.”
Helen Garner
“An expertly paced, gripping novel that doesn’t falter and never compromises its emotional truth.” The Times
“A profound achievement.” Guardian
“Moving and compassionate portrait of a human being who is fully himself and yet stands for all of us . . .the best that most
writers can ever hope to achieve.” New York Times Book Review
“This Is How confirms [Hyland] as a true virtuoso of such immersive writing.” Sunday Telegraph
When his fiancée breaks off their engagement, Patrick Oxtoby leaves home and moves into a boarding house in a remote
seaside town. He has the determination to build a better life, but nothing goes to plan and Patrick soon takes a desperate and
chilling course of action.
RIGHTS HELD: World excluding ANZ (Text)
RIGHTS SOLD: Canada (HarperCollins), Czech Republic (Kniha Zlin), France (Actes Sud), Germany (Piper), Italy
(Bompiani), Netherlands (Mouria), Sweden (Brombergs), US (Black Cat/Grove), UK Large Print (W.F.Howes)
ONE PEOPLE, Guy Kennaway
“This year’s funniest, most thoroughly likeable novel.” GQ
Page | 19
Set in a small fishing village on the north coast of Jamaica, One People is a series of interlocking stories that brilliantly brings to
life this tight-knit community. Very funny and evocative of this beautiful but perplexing island.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: France (Inverse)
SUNBATHING NAKED AND OTHER MIRACLE CURES, Guy Kennaway
“Sometimes funny, sometimes sad, frequently shocking and always amazing, this is an honest account of being imperfect.”
Waterstone’s Books Quarterly
This book is for anyone’s who has ever tried to cover up a spot or ever felt their body was less than perfect.With the soothing
lotion of Guy Kennaway’s witty, uproariously un-self-pitying style, Sunbathing Naked is a portrait of a community, a gonzo
journey from Harley Street to the Dead Sea, from fellow sufferers to consultants, quacks to the smooth-skinned few.
RIGHTS HELD: World
THE BIRD ROOM by Chris Killen
“As fresh and honest a take on twenty-first-century relationships as you are likely to find. I was knocked out.” Matt Haig
“Compelling.” Financial Times
“Amazing. Beautiful, iconic and chockablock with uneasy sex.” Richard Milward
“An extremely engaging combo of sex, melancholy and killer one-liners – The Bird Room is a beautiful Chinese puzzle of a
novel.” Toby Litt
When Will meets Alice, he can’t believe his luck. She’s smart, sexy and, much to Will’s surprise, in love with him. Alice brings
meaning to his urban existence. But true love never came easy and soon devotion leads Will to something darker. The Bird
Room is a candid, funny and joyous portrait of love and desire in the modern age.
RIGHTS HELD: World & Film
RIGHTS SOLD: Germany (Kiepenheuer & Witsch), Italy (Einaudi / Stile Libero), Netherlands (Ambo/Anthos), Turkey
(Doğan Egmont), US (HarperPerennial)
THE SPECIMEN, Martha Lea
‘This genre-defying novel mixes romance with high drama, science, feminism and old-fashioned murder mystery and
intrigues, and surprises right up to the last page’ The Times
‘An impressive first novel’ Literary Review
‘Atmospheric, claustrophobic murder mystery. Lea’s intricate plot takes full advantage of the trope of Victorian melodrama:
askew sexuality, off-kilter music hall characters, clandestine relationships, repression, madness, a criminal trial and, yes, a
bearded lady’ Marie Claire
The year is 1866. Edward Scales is a businessman, a butterfly collector, a respectable man. He is the man Gwen Carrick fell in
love with seven years before. Now he is dead and Gwen is on trial for his murder. From country house drawing rooms to the
rainforests of Brazil, The Specimen explores the price one independent young woman might pay for wanting an unorthodox life.
Set in a Victorian world battling between the forces of spiritualism and Darwinism, polite society and the call of clandestine love,
Gwen and Edward’s tale is a gripping melodrama, a romance and a murder mystery that will compel readers to its final thrilling
page.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Germany (Droemer)
Page | 20
CARTHAGE, Ross Leckie
“The final volume of Ross Leckie’s Punic trilogy is the most interesting. Carthage is sombre rather than gruesome. Leckie’s
fine style can only be praised.” Herald
Completing the acclaimed trilogy, Carthage tells of the final Punic War. It is a story of a great city and of a people’s utter
eradication under the relentless rise of Rome.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Italy (Newton and Comptons), Spain (Edhasa)
HANNIBAL, Ross Leckie
“A tremendous novel in the class of I, Claudius.” Allan Massie
“Torture! Carnage! Elephants! Ross Leckie’s first novel Hannibal is a lusty, full-throttle portrait of the great Carthaginian
general. The writing in Hannibal is direct and unflinching.” New York Times
Before Robert Harris’s Imperium and Conn Iggulden’s Emperor came Hannibal, bringing alive one of the greatest heroes of the
ancient world. In the second century BC, two of the greatest empires of the ancient world are locked in a furious struggle – the
Punic wars between Rome and Carthage.
Amid this carnage, an almost mythical figure will emerge: Hannibal. In this first of a breathtaking trilogy, a chronicle of love and
hate, heroism and cruelty, one of humanity’s greatest adventurers is brought to life.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Italy (Newton and Compton), US (Robin Stratus)
FILM RIGHTS: Optioned by Vin Diesel’s production company One Race
SCIPIO, Ross Leckie
“Breathtaking. Leckie brings the battle-tactics and manoeuvres almost cinematically alive and the sense of blood and sweat,
chaos and horror linger powerfully on ... utterly gripping.” Scotsman
In the name of Rome, Scipio Africanus systematically destroyed the hard-won empires of Hannibal and Alexander the Great.
With breathtaking battle scenes and a tale of violent passions, Scipio is a stunning sequel to Hannibal.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Brazil (Ediouro), Italy (Newton and Compton), Serbia (Alfa-Narodna), Slovakia (Slovart), Spain
(Edhasa), US (Regnery)
SAMSON, David Maine
“A blistering and provocative portrait of someone more akin to God’s own gangster than God’s gift to mankind.” Time Out
“Maine keeps the story captivating, a result of the sensationally entertaining voice he’s dialled into. The combination of
archaic language and setting with modern sensibilities again demonstrates Maine’s talent for making the familiar intriguing.”
Publishers Weekly
Samson wreaks havoc whenever he or his Lord have been insulted. But every hard man has a soft spot – and when Samson
meets Dalila, he finds a woman who changes everything...
David Maine’s third novel is an incredible piece of storytelling and a fable for our times.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Israel (Xargol Books)
A DATE WITH MY WIFE, Brian McCabe
Page | 21
“A Date With My Wife is a significant achievement for McCabe. He has given us what few achieve: provocative short stories
which linger in the mind.” Herald
Dysfunctional men form the basis of this stunning new collection from one of Scotland’s most gifted and unpredictable writers.
This is McCabe’s long-awaited third collection of stories. Stylish, lyrical and innovative, McCabe tackles a startling variety of
themes with a unique directness and wit.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: France (Editions Le Passeur), various stories serialised on BBC Radio
THE BABOONS WHO WENT THIS WAY AND THAT, Alexander McCall Smith
This illustrated edition of African tales complements the illustrated edition of The Girl who Married a Lion, comprising of stories
from the unillustrated edition of that work together with several new stories written especially for this collection. It takes both
adults and children to a land where the bizarre is everyday and magic is real.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Sweden (Lind & Co).
THE GIRL WHO MARRIED A LION, Alexander McCall Smith
“A collection of charm and tenderness. And it speaks volumes for the power of very short stories.” Daily Telegraph
“It is McCall Smith’s wit and storytelling gift that turns these engaging tales into such an enjoyable read. Savour alone or with
your children. ” Scotsman
A delightful celebration of African folktales retold with McCall Smith’s customary wit and skill. How can a girl possibly have
married a lion? How can a man have a tree growing out of his head? The stories in this collection make these questions seem
simple, everyday ones – with, as it happens, simple, everyday answers. First published in 1989 as Children of Wax, this new
edition includes six tales written especially for this edition, an introduction by the author and a foreword by Mma Ramotswe
herself. An illustrated children’s edition of this collection was published by Canongate in July 2005.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD, ORIGINAL EDITION: France (10/18),Germany (Bastei Luebbe), USA (Vintage)
RIGHTS SOLD, ILLUSTRATED EDITION: France (Univers Poche)
HEAVENLY DATE AND OTHER FLIRTATIONS, Alexander McCall Smith
“Reminiscent of Roald Dahl in their dark ironies, these tales of the emotional unexpected are perceptive, deftly written and
droll.” Michel Faber
“The people who inhabit these stories are funny, shocking, middle-class and sinister, the author’s wacky imagination being
the only constant we can always take for granted.” Scotsman
This is a superb and very funny collection about the perils and passions of dating. In these hilarious stories of perverse meetings,
casual dates and romantic encounters, we are continually enthralled, saddened, inspired and surprised. McCall Smith, a master
of the unexpected and a seamless storyteller, revels in offering us the quirky complications inherent in entanglements that
human beings engineer for themselves and provides us with delicious insights into the endlessly fascinating peculiarities of the
human condition.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: France (Univers Poche), Spain (Urano), UK Large Print (Chivers/BBC), US (Canongate/Grove), US Large
Print (Thorndike)
YOU ARE NOT THE ONE, Vestal McIntyre
Page | 22
“It is not often that one discovers a writer whose prose pulls you along effortlessly, imperceptibly, till you suddenly realise
that you have finished the book. It’s writing that is clean, lucid, transparent… These eight stories, whose depths and wisdom
are enclosed in a style of measured grace and pellucid balance, bring to mind Lorrie Moore and Tobias Wolff.” The Times
“If you’re interested in the way we live now, read these funny, destabilising and superbly crafted stories.” Edmund White
In these eight compulsively readable stories, Vestal McIntyre combines honesty and compassion with hilarious dialogue.
McIntyre inhabits the lives of his protagonists completely and is as convincing writing about a young woman as he is an aging
married man or a little boy with learning difficulties. This is an extremely confident collection that dazzles as much for its wit as
its tenderness, and leaves the reader wanting more. American reviewers have made comparisons with Alice Munro, Lorrie
Moore, David Sedaris and Adam Haslett.
RIGHTS HELD: World, excluding North America (Carroll & Graf);
RIGHTS SOLD: Italy (Fandango)
FRESH, Mark McNay
WINNER OF THE ARTS FOUNDATION NEW FICTION AWARD 2007
WINNER OF THE SALTIRE AWARD 2007
SHORTLISTED FOR GLEN DIMPLEX NEW WRITERS AWARD
“Mark McNay has all the verbal energy you could hope for in a new writer. He knows how to capture people and places you
don’t often find in British literature and that makes Fresh a beauty of a book that no modern home should be without.”
Andrew O’Hagan
“Fresh moves with all the terrifying inexorability of a factory conveyor belt. It is funny, moving, gripping, magical and tragic. A
brilliant debut.” Niall Griffiths
“Tough-minded and tender-hearted but also drop-dead funny.” The Times
Sean and Maggie’s days are all the same. The factory, chickens ... and Sean’s dreams of escape. But today, his brother Archie
gets out of jail on early release. Which would be great if Archie weren’t a little loose in the head, and if Sean didn’t still owe him
a thousand pounds. Testing the boundaries of brotherly love, this white-knuckle ride brings to life one unforgettable day. With
the scruffy joie de vivre of Roddy Doyle, Mark McNay’s debut will leave you bowled over and breathless. Fresh marks the arrival
of a major new talent.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Canada (Doubleday Canada), France (Éditions du Panama), Germany (DTV), Italy (Piemme), US
(MacAdam/Cage)
OTHER RIGHTS: Georgia Garrett, A.P. Watt
UNDER CONTROL, Mark McNay
“Not for the faint of heart, Under Control features people in and out of control in all the wrong places....he transports his vital
ingredients to Norwich: grit, rage and despair, a dash of Irvine Welsh, and, as in Fresh, a short, sharp timeframe...McNay’s
forte is in creating a book so unmannered, visceral and emotionally manipulative that you want to make it go away and not
let it out of your hand simultaneously. Which takes something.” Scotland on Sunday
‘Instead of coasting on patter and madcap mishaps, McNay looks determined to burrow deeper into our failed society with
every novel.’ Herald
‘A darker, more complex novel [than Fresh]- although delivered in similar breakneck style…a rattling read.’ Big Issue
From the prizewinning novelist Mark McNay comes an exhilarating drama of desire and deceit. Charlie and her boyfriend Gary
are struggling to keep their lives on track in an imperfect world. When the money runs out or the drugs don’t work, love is not
always enough. Help is at hand in the form of social worker and guardian angel Nigel, but as best intentions meet compulsive
Page | 23
desires, the fates of these three very different people are transformed for ever. Under Control is a moving and powerful tale of
everyday heroism and treachery.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Canada (Doubleday), Germany (DTV), Spain (Urano),
THE HEART BROKE IN, James Meek
SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2012 COSTA NOVEL AWARD
‘A moral thriller ... I was enormously impressed’ Philip Pullman
‘Page-turning and absorbing’ Daily Mail
‘Meek’s range, humour and boldness are a joy’ Observer
‘Meek is a novelist of Dostoevskyan intensity and seriousness ... you have to admire the scope and ambition of this operatic
saga’ Guardian
‘A novel shimmering with black humour, which for the sheer verve of the writing deserves a long shelf life’ Sunday Telegraph
Bec Shepherd is a malaria researcher struggling to lead a good life. Ritchie, her brother, is a TV star with a skeleton in his closet.
When Bec refuses an offer of marriage from a powerful newspaper editor and Ritchie’s indiscretions catch up with him, brother
and sister are forced to choose between loyalty and betrayal.
The Heart Broke In is a classic story of modern times, a rich, ambitious family drama of love, death and money in the era of gene
therapy and Internet blackmail. It’s a riveting exploration of what conscience means in the twenty-first century and how we
attempt to make our lives count for something.
RIGHTS HELD: World excluding US (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
RIGHTS SOLD: Canada (HarperCollins), Czech Republic (Barrister & Principal), Denmark (Gyldendal), France (Éditions
Métailié), Germany (DVA), Italy (Mondadori), Latvia (Diena), Netherlands (Xander Uitgevers), Romania (Humanitas)
THE MUSEUM OF DOUBT, James Meek
NOMINATED FOR THE MACMILLAN SILVER PEN AWARD
“The maniac energy of Kerouac pulses throughout the prose, but there is also a hallucinatory horror and hyper-realist
constraint miraculously balanced in a manner which suggests the perfect fusion of Kafka and Kelman.” Scotsman
The Museum of Doubt is an outstanding collection of surreal and unnerving short stories from award-winning writer James
Meek, author of Last Orders. The array of characters who populate Meek’s intriguing and elusive worlds are driven by paranoia
and doubt, as well as hopes and fears of things only half-glimpsed.
RIGHTS HELD: World
THE PEOPLE’S ACT OF LOVE, James Meek
LONGLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2005
WINNER OF THE ONDAATJE PRIZE 2006
WINNER OF THE SCOTTISH ARTS COUNCIL BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2006
SHORTLISTED FOR THE SALTIRE BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2005
NOMINATED FOR THE GLENFIDDICH SPIRIT OF SCOTLAND AWARDS 2005
“The one novel I can remember clearly even after the others have blurred into each other a little … It’s a great Russian story …
full of heart and hot blood, hussars and shamans, brilliant language and weird flourishes, and a fundamental philosophical
hatred of all forms of human pettiness. It’s almost too big for the Booker Prize.” Sunday Herald
Page | 24
“One of this year’s most extraordinary novels … James Meek’s visceral murder mystery has been the recipient of extravagant
critical praise, and deservedly so. Vivid, brutal and exhilarating, it renders the mass of historical fiction pallid by comparison.”
Daily Mail
1919 Siberia. In the outer reaches of a country recently torn apart by civil war live a small Christian sect and its enigmatic leader,
Balashov. Stationed nearby is a regiment of Czech soldiers, desperate to get home but on the losing side of the recent conflict.
Uncertainty prevails. Into this isolated community trudges Samarin, an escapee from Russia’s northernmost gulag. Immediately
apprehended, he is brought for interrogation before Captain Matula, the regiment’s megalomaniac commander. But the
stranger’s arrival has caught the attention of others, including Anna, a beautiful, young war widow. And when the local shaman
lies dead, suspicion and terror engulf the little town …
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Australia (Text Publishing), Canada (HarperCollins), China (PengFeiYiLi), France (Editions Metailie),
Germany (Droemer), Netherlands (Arbeiderspers), Norway (Pax), Romania (Humanitas), Slovakia (Premedia), Spain
(Salamandra), Sweden (Bonniers), US (Canongate/Grove)
WE ARE NOW BEGINNING OUR DESCENT, James Meek
WINNER OF LE PRINCE MAURICE PRIZE 2008
“James Meek charts a post 9/11 route through the front lines of liberal London’s chattering warriors via the War in the
Middle East in search of that elusive thing called 'love'. Compellingly authentic.” Richard E. Grant
"The book is, as I found to my cost close to 4am one morning, damnably hard to put down.” Jonathan Raban, London Review
of Books.
We Are Now Beginning Our Descent is the story of Adam Kellas. Like the world around him at the dawn of the twenty-first
century, his life is showing distinct signs of falling apart. Against his better judgement, Kellas – divorced, unstable, spurned by his
lover and by the world of letters – accepts a war assignment from his newspaper.
It is the beginning of a journey which takes him from the mountains of Afghanistan to the elegant dinner tables of north London,
the marshlands of the American South and, ultimately, to the darkest realms of the human imagination. Only the memory of the
beautiful, elusive Astrid, a fellow reporter in Afghanistan, offers him the possibility of hope.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Australia (Text), Brazil (Record), Canada (HarperCollins), Denmark (H.R Ferdinand), France (Editions
Metailie), Germany (Pendo Verlag), Greece (Motibo/Topos Books), Latvia (Diena), Netherlands (Arbeiderspers), Spain
(Roca Editorial), US (Canongate US)
INDABA MY CHILDREN, Credo Mutwa
“An absorbing collection of legends ... this excellent and human book deserves a wide circle of readers.”
Times Literary Supplement
Initiated into the rituals and secrets of the Bantu tribe by his grandfather who was its High Witchdoctor, Credo Mutwa's account
of African tribal history, legends, customs and religious beliefs is a beautifully written and fascinating book that has been
internationally acclaimed as one of the major works on African folklore.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: USA (Grove)
PYG, Russell Potter
“Delightfully erudite. A multilayered, rumbustious romp which the author pulls off cum laude.” Observer
Page | 25
“In prose that manages to be both dense and arch, Toby relates his escape from the butcher’s knife with the help of his friend
Sam . . . all good clean fun.” The Times
“It is the most ordinary of tales, made extraordinary not by the “freakishness” of its “author” but by the humanity. Which is
what captivates and touches, and makes the book worth reading.” Scotsman
‘Had it not been for the Fortuitous circumstance of Sam’s youthful sentiment, there can be little doubt that, instead of this my
Book before you on your Table, you would have a rasher of Bacon and a Rack of Ribs – and that these would be my only mortal
remains.’
So begin the beguiling memoirs of TOBY, whose meteoric rise to Fame from his humble beginnings on a Salford farm is a story so
Extraordinary you won’t ever be able to forget it. For these are no ordinary Memoirs; these are the memoirs of a PIG. The most
gifted, charming, distinguished (and luckiest) pig in History. PYG is a beguiling, quirky and charming debut novel written with
great skill, warmth and humour. It offers a unique insight on life in the eighteenth century and what it’s like to be an animal in a
human world, but above all it’s a warm, entertaining delight of a book.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Canada (Penguin), Italy (Stile Libero / Einaudi), Sweden (Basil), Turkey (Ithaki), US (Viking Penguin) US
Audio (Penguin Audio)
THE LAST STATION, Jay Parini
“A subtle masterpiece which comes to reveal an ever-deeper distinction and warmth of meaning. Tolstoy would probably
have recognised the work of a true artist.” Times Literary Supplement
“One of those rare works of fiction that manage to demonstrate both scrupulous historical research and true originality of
voice and perception.” New York Times
By 1910, Leo Tolstoy, the world’s most famous author, had become an almost religious figure, surrounded on his lavish estate by
family and followers alike. Set in the tumultuous last year of the count’s life, The Last Station centres on the battle for his soul
waged by his wife and his leading disciple.
RIGHTS HELD: World excluding North America, Iceland and Korea
RIGHTS SOLD: Australia (Text), Brazil (Record), China (Shaanxi People's Publishing House), Finland (Tammi), France
(Editions des Deux Terres), Germany (C.H. Beck), Greece (Motibo/Topos Books), Israel (Keter), Italy (Bompiani),
Netherlands (Meulenhoff), Spain (RBA), Sweden (Wahlstrom & Widstrand), Turkey (Merkez Kitap), UK Large Print
(BBC Audiobooks), UK Unabridged Audio (BBC Audiobooks)
ANTHROPOLOGY, Dan Rhodes
“Tiny flights of absurdist fancy … exquisitely funny.” Guardian
“A hilarious exploration of the challenges faced by the fairer sex.” The Times
Beauty:
My girlfriend is so beautiful that she has never had cause to develop any kind of personality. People are always wildly glad to see
her, even though she does little more than sit around and smoke. She's getting prettier, too. Last time she left the house she
caused six car crashes, two coronaries, about thirty domestic disputes and an estimated six hundred unwanted and
embarrassing erections. She seems to be quite indifferent to the havoc she causes. “I'm going to the shop for cigarettes,” she’ll
say, yawning with that succulent, glossy mouth. “I suppose you'd better call some ambulances or something.”
RIGHTS HELD: World excluding Italy (Le Vespe), Netherlands (Vassallucci), Israel (Kinneret), Hungary (Szukits Kiado),
Portugal (Gotica), Sweden (Lind & Co.), Finland (Sammakko), Russia (Eksmo);
RIGHTS SOLD: US (Canongate/Grove)
DON’T TELL ME THE TRUTH ABOUT LOVE, Dan Rhodes
“These are fairy tales written in the detached, ethereal tones of the brothers Grimm, with an elegant simplicity that lets you
find the humour if you want to.” Daily Telegraph
Page | 26
“The best new writer in Britain.” Guardian
A chance encounter prompts an ageing professor to regret a lifetime of wasted opportunities; a beautiful wife tests her husband
by making herself hideous; for the love of a girl, a boy turns himself into a violoncello … Funny, magical and strange, in these
seven short stories Dan Rhodes lays bare the pain and enchantment of love.
RIGHTS HELD: World excluding Italy (Garzanti), Netherlands (Vassallucci), Finland (Sammakko), Mexico (Oceano);
RIGHTS SOLD: Japan pbk (Chuokoron), US (Canongate/Grove)
GOLD, Dan Rhodes
WINNER OF THE CLARE MACLEAN PRIZE
“Dan Rhodes is a true original, with a fresh, funny, quirky style that seems to owe nothing to other writers, and everything to
his own powers of invention. And after reading Gold, you will never think about sneezing in the same way again.”
Hilary Mantel
“With Gold, Dan Rhodes comes close to perfecting the fragile balance of sadness and humour that has marked out his books
as special for some time. It’s worth stating again – this is a damn funny book . . . had me snorting like a hippo in mud.”
Sunday Herald
Gold is Dan Rhodes’s third novel, full of marvellous and eccentric characters – a sort of Welsh Amélie. Miyuki Woodward, lover
of pints and fast food, always spends her holidays in the same Welsh seaside village. She enjoys the wet walks, The Anchor and,
most of all, the pub quizzes. But this year, after one of the locals goes missing, Miyuki finds herself thrust to the heart of the
village. Tear-inducingly funny and unputdownable, Gold is quintessential Rhodes: a highly original, bittersweet novel about love
and belonging.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Czech Republic (Argo Spol) Denmark (Tiderne Skifter), Finland (Sammakko), Netherlands (De Bezige
Bij), Spain (Alfaguara), US (Canongate/Grove)
LITTLE HANDS CLAPPING, Dan Rhodes
“Totally sick and brilliant, in all the right ways. He sucks you into his world. I loved it.” Douglas Coupland
“Gloriously, mordantly funny.” Independent
“A sublime, brilliant novel.” Scotsman
Once upon a time, in a room above a German museum of suicide, there lived an old man . . . A caretaker by day, by night he
enjoys the sound of silence, broken only by the occasional crunch of a spider between his teeth. However, the old man’s
solitude is disturbed as activities at the museum start to attract attention. A pair of young and outrageously beautiful lovers, a
baker’s son with a passion for the euphonium, and a dog called Hans are just some of the innocents pulled into Rhodes’s
mesmerising world.
RIGHTS HELD: World & Film
RIGHTS SOLD: Denmark (Tiderne Skifter), Finland (Sammakko), Italy (Newton and Compton), Spain (Alfaguara),
Sweden (Basil), World Unabridged Audio (Audible)
MARRY ME, Dan Rhodes
‘Scintillating . . . Impressively, when taken as a whole, Marry Me amounts to a bleak yet funny world view, as if P. G.
Wodehouse and Graham Greene had got together to form a greetings card company’ Independent
‘Original and seriously flippant. Rhodes’s wilfully flat tone makes the way his stories dive into disaster and ricochet through
romance much funnier. He has a comedian’s talent for the deadpan’ Observer
Page | 27
‘Rhodes is brilliant at overturning convention and expected emotion. He takes an idea and elopes with it. This book has a
deflationary zeal throughout . . . it is a great antidote to hot air about romance’ Guardian
Irreverent, ridiculous, honest, romantic and sometimes plain desperate, Marry Me is a wickedly funny take on married life.
Wives, husbands and anyone who’s ever dreamt of nuptial bliss, this is the book for you!
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Hungary (Athenaeum), Italy (Edizioni E/O), US (Europa)
THE LITTLE WHITE CAR, Danuta de Rhodes (Dan Rhodes)
“A clever little number, taking the chick-lit genre and casually turning it, with a bit of je ne sais quoi and sly author
pseudonym, into chic lit.” Elle
“de Rhodes’s debut is breezy, funny and charming.” The Times
When a concept album by The Sofia Experimental Breadboard Octet sparks a relationship-breaking argument, Veronique jumps
into her little white Fiat and drives off into the night … straight into an incident with global ramifications. Featuring a pair of
heroines as ripe and tender as newly picked peaches, The Little White Car is a feel-good buddy novel about two gorgeous French
girls dismantling a car … while an enormous dog sniffs around in the garden.
Danuta de Rhodes grew up in Paris and studied modern and medieval literature in London before moving to New York City,
where she works in the fashion industry. This is her first book.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: France (Editions Stock), Germany (Kiepenheuer & Witsch), Netherlands (De Bezige Bij), Italy
(Garzanti), Spain (Alfaguara), USA (Canongate/Grove)
TIMOLEON VIETA COME HOME, Dan Rhodes
ONE OF GRANTA’S BEST YOUNG NOVELISTS 2003
“Simply put, this short novel is a delight, a masterpiece of beautifully unforced comedy.” Observer
“A story worthy of W.G. Sebald, universal in its scope and ambition.” Rose Tremain, Daily Telegraph
“Timoleon Vieta Come Home ... is by turns hilarious and heart-rending. Rhodes is that real, rare thing – a natural storyteller.”
Sunday Times
When a handsome but surly individual (known only as The Bosnian) arrives on the scene, the strong bond between Cockroft, a
composer and socialite, and his beautiful mongrel dog Timoleon Vieta, is put under strain. Cockroft, forced by The Bosnian into a
choice between the two, abandons Timoleon outside Rome’s Coliseum, from where the dog begins the long journey home ... a
journey of broken hearts, broken minds and broken spirits. In a tragicomic work of macabre beauty, Rhodes amuses and moves
in equal measure and this debut novel marks out him as one of the most singular and exciting new talents to have emerged from
Britain in recent years.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Hungary (Uj-Palatinus), Italy (Newton and Compton), Netherlands (De Bezige Bij), Japan pbk
(Chuokoron)
THE TESTAMENT OF JESSIE LAMB, Jane Rogers
WINNER OF THE ARTHUR C CLARKE AWARD 2012
LONGLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2011
“You'll be blown away by this.” Independent
Page | 28
“Like The Handmaid's Tale colliding with Children Of Men” Herald
Women are dying in their millions. Some blame scientists, some see the hand of God. As she watches her world collapsing, Jessie
Lamb decides she wants to make her life count. Would you let your daughter die if it would save the human race? The
Testament of Jessie Lamb is the story of one daughter's heroism and one father's love.
RIGHTS HELD: World excluding Korea (Viche) and North America (HarperCollins)
RIGHTS SOLD: France (Presses de la Cite), Germany (Heyne), Hungary (Ad Astra), Japan (Hayakawa), Sweden
(Ordfront), Turkey (Nemesis-Cakiltasi)
HIDE & SEEK, Clare Sambrook
SHORTLISTED FOR THE YOUNG MINDS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2005
LONGLISTED FOR THE PRINCE MAURICE PRIZE
“My God, it is beautifully done, probably the best book of its kind since … The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time …
this is a seriously good novel for children and adults. It will creep into your readerly nooks and crannies like ivy up an ancient
wall.” Observer
Meet Harry Pickles, aged nine and a bit. His life is good. He’s premier league. At least, that’s the way it was before the school trip
Clare Sambrook’s unforgettable first novel captures with startling truth and clarity the perspective of a confused nine-year-old.
Poignant and personal, Hide & Seek resonates with authenticity and a brutal honesty that manages to be harrowing, lifeaffirming and funny.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Australia (Text Publishing), France (Galaade), Germany (Kindler), Greece (Modern Times), Italy
(Piemme), Sweden (Bonniers), US (Canongate/Grove).
Film rights optioned to BBC Films/Blast.
HARRY, REVISED, Mark Sarvas
“Mark Sarvas’s first novel is funny and sad, rueful, wised-up and curiously moving. A remarkable debut.”
John Banville, Author of The Sea
“Mark Sarvas has created an enormously compelling character in Harry Rent, a man less at odds with himself than with
certain personas the modern world forces us to inhabit. His ethical and emotional dilemmas drive the story and make Harry,
Revised a scathingly funny but also wise and tender debut.” Sam Lipsyte, author of Home Land
Harry, Revised is the hilarious and tender story of Harry Rent, a down-on-his-luck widower, who tries to reinvent himself
following his wife’s untimely death. Harry’s emotional journey takes him from his own solipsistic and outrageously misdirected
fantasies about an obsidian-haired, twenty-two-year-old waitress at his local greasy spoon, to the tenuous beginnings of an
actual, personal transformation. At once deeply moving and darkly comedic, Harry, Revised is an extraordinary novel about the
measure of a man’s worth.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Australia (Text Publishing), Brazil (Nova Fronteira), France (Laffont), Germany (Kiepenheuer & Witsch),
Greece (Psichogios), Italy (Adelphi), Netherlands (Meulenhoff), Norway (Font), , Spain, Catalan (La Campana), Spain
(Libros del Silencio), UK Large Print (BBC Audiobooks
THE MINOTAUR TAKES A CIGARETTE BREAK, Steven Sherrill
“Sherrill’s prose is clean as a hungry man’s plate and calculatedly prosaic, yet it shimmers with a lyrical grace and sensitivity
than can be traced to his years as a poet.” Sunday Herald
“This is a hugely sympathetic, instantly recognisable, magically well-written account of what it is like to be lonely.” Spectator
Page | 29
Five thousand years on … and the Minotaur is working as a line chef at Grub’s Rib in the American Deep South, keeping to
himself, keeping his horns down, trying in vain to put his past behind him. Inarticulate, socially inept, he has been reduced from
a monster with an appetite for human flesh to a broken creature with very human needs. But during the two weeks covered by
the novel, the Minotaur finds his life dissolving into chaos while he simultaneously awakens to the possibility of love.
RIGHTS HELD: World excluding North America
VISITS FROM THE DROWNED GIRL, Steven Sherrill
“Sherrill’s shimmeringly evocative prose carries the reader through the trauma effortlessly, though not least because every
grotesque or disturbing moment is counterbalanced by divine wit and excruciatingly dark jokes.” Scotsman
“Inventive, wryly perceptive and remarkably skilful in its fusion of tragic and comic elements … it undoubtedly deserves our
attention.” Guardian
Benny Poteat is the only witness to a young woman’s suicide. After undressing and setting up a video camera on the bank of a
river, she simply walks into the water and disappears. Should Benny go to the police? Or keep the biggest secret he has ever
had? With this much-anticipated follow-up to The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break, Sherrill once more manages to fully inhabit
the mind of one of life’s lonely creatures. With heart-breaking honesty and touches of surrealism, Visits From the Drowned Girl
uncovers the secret longings that dwell beneath the surface of everyday lives.
RIGHTS HELD: World excluding North America
RIGHTS SOLD: Germany (Frankfurter Verlagsanstalt), The Netherlands (Ambo/Anthos), Italy (Minimum Fax)
THE PURE LAND, Alan Spence
“Spence's dialogue, description and his ability to evoke a period long past, and to contemplate what lies beyond the scene,
are achieved with great brilliance.” Scotland on Sunday
A stunning historical epic based on Thomas Glover, the so-called “Scottish Samurai”, The Pure Land stretches from Scotland in
the 1850s to Japan in 1945. Always caught between two worlds and consumed by his dream of the promised land, Glover
resonates as a classic tragic hero. He was one of the inspirations behind the Madame Butterfly legend, and interwoven with the
dramatic tales of intrigue, vendetta, and industrialisation are passionate and doomed love stories.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Australia (Text Publishing), Brazil (Nova Fronteira), Finland (Otava), France (Heloise D’Ormesson),
Germany (Karl Blessing Verlag), Israel (Miskal), Netherlands (Ambo/Anthos), Spain (Alfaguara), US (Canongate
US/Grove)
THE EARTH HUMS IN B FLAT, Mari Strachan
WINNER OF AMAZON’S RISING STARS PROMOTION 2009
“Extremely compelling. I loved this novel.” Catherine O’Flynn, author of What Was Lost
“Strachan’s deft handling of a dark subject is both sober and sparkling.” Guardian
“A warm and touching, but blessedly unsentimental, novel.” The Times
Gwenni Morgan is a girl with a special gift: she can fly in her sleep. At night she soars out of the bed she shares with her sister,
up above her village, looking down on the lives of its inhabitants. Set in a remote Welsh village in the 1950s, this is the story of
dark family secrets, written with insight and lightness.
RIGHTS HELD: World excluding Welsh language
RIGHTS SOLD: ANZ (Text), Azerbaijan (Alatoran), Bulgaria (ARKA), Finland (Karisto), France (Laffont), Germany
(DuMont), Italy (Edizioni
Page | 30
Piemme), Ethopia (Hohe), Netherlands (De Bezige Bij), Norway (Aschehoug), Spain (Espasa), Sweden (Forum), Taiwan
(Ace), Turkey (Altin Kitap), US (Canongate US / Grove Atlantic), UK & US Large Print (ISIS)
DEAD MAN’S EMBERS, Mari Strachan
“Strachan’s finest gift is a talent for telling stories with grace and compassion. The book has momentum from first to the
last.” Scotsman
“The lingering sorrow of war is given a distinctive and potent treatment. The novel is a quirky mixture of the earthy and the
ethereal . . . there is an otherworldly quality to Strachan’s writing.” Times Literary Supplement
“The warmth of the storytelling offers compensation while, in the depiction of a nation seeking solace in radical politics and
spiritualist séances, Strachan manages to bring something original to an old, old tale.” Financial Times
In the aftermath of the Great War, Non Davies wakes one morning to find her husband crouching underneath the kitchen table
in a cold sweat, shouldering an imaginary rifle. What has changed her Davey so completely? A clue arrives inside a mysterious
letter, which takes her to London in search of the answer. When she returns home, Non finds that the dark secrets of Davey’s
past are working their way ever closer to the surface. She has to summon all her courage and compassion to restore her beloved
husband and guard the fragile happiness of her war-weary village.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Azerbaijan (Alatoran), Germany (Dumont), Netherlands (De Bezige Bij), UK Large Print (Iris)
SHIRKER, Chad Taylor
“Reminiscent of Paul Auster’s New York Trilogy and with peripheral detail as obsessive as Easton Ellis’s American Psycho …”
The Times
“… miles away from the conventions of your average country-cottage crime or pig-headed cop yarn. One for the
connoisseurs.” Guardian
Ellerslie Penrose is a futures broker obsessed with keeping track of the past in a constantly changing present. When he picks up
a dead man’s wallet at the scene of a murder, he is inexorably drawn into a mystery which forces him to question all he holds to
be true. A literary thriller written in spare, lucid prose, this is the third novel by one of New Zealand’s most talented voices. Chad
Taylor has published several books, including Heaven, which was made into a major film distributed by Miramax.
RIGHTS HELD: World excluding North America (Walker Books)
THE END OF MR. Y, Scarlett Thomas
LONGLISTED FOR THE ORANGE PRIZE 2008
LONGLISTED FOR LE PRINCE MAURICA PRIZE 2008
NOW IN ITS SEVENTH PRINTING
“A masterpiece of tone ... A brilliant, engaging story that in the end makes you rethink the nature of existence and the true
structure of the world.” Douglas Coupland
“The End of Mr. Y deserves all the praise it has already received and much more: it’s destined to become a cult book that
provides readers with just as exciting an escape as Thomas’s imaginary discourse.” Sunday Telegraph
“Smart, stylish and dizzying ... The End of Mr. Y is an accomplished, impressive thought experiment for the twenty-first
century.” New York Times
When Ariel Manto discovers a copy of “The End of Mr. Y” in a second-hand bookshop, she can’t believe her eyes. She knows
enough about its author, the outlandish Victorian scientist Thomas Lumas, to know that copies are exceedingly rare. And cursed.
With “Mr. Y” under her arm, Ariel is thrust into an adventure of faith, physics, love, death and everything in between. Part gothic
Page | 31
mystery, part time-travelling love story, The End of Mr. Y sends us on a wild and irresistible quest into our deepest selves and
our biggest questions.
RIGHTS HELD: World excluding North America (Harcourt)
RIGHTS SOLD: Australia (Text), Denmark (Tiderne Skifter), Egypt (Dar Altanweer), France (Editions Carriere),
Germany (Kindler/Rowohlt), Greece (Psichogios), Italy (Newton & Compton), Japan (Hayakawa), Netherlands
(Querido), Norway (Damm), Poland (Sonia Draga), Sweden(Lindquist), Russia (Corpus) Spain (Paidos), Thailand (Pearl
Publishing) Turkey (April Yayincilik)
OUR TRAGIC UNIVERSE, Scarlett Thomas
“A delight, not least for the quality of Scarlett Thomas’s writing ... Full of life and energy.” Philip Pullman
“Thomas can discuss quantum physics and philosophy while making you think you’re reading a sparkling romantic comedy.”
The Times
If Kelsey Newman’s theory about the end of time is true, we are all going to live forever. For Meg – locked in a hopeless
relationship and with a deadline long-gone for a book that she can’t write – this thought fills her with dread. But could there be
an important connection between a wild beast living on Dartmoor, a ship in a bottle, the science of time, a knitting pattern for
the shape of the universe and the Cottingley Fairies? Or is her life just one long chain of coincidences?
Smart, entrancing and buzzing with big ideas, Our Tragic Universe is a book about how relationships are created and destroyed,
and how a story might just save your life.
RIGHTS HELD: World excluding North America
RIGHTS SOLD: China (Chu Chen), Croatia (Fraktura), Czech Republic (Host), Denmark (Tiderne Skifter), Germany
(Kindler/Rowohlt), Israel (Miskal / Yedioth), Italy (Newton and Compton), Norway (Damm), Russia (Corpus), Slovakia
(Ikar), Spain (Atico de los Libros), Turkey (April), UK Large Print (W.F. Howes)
POPCO, Scarlett Thomas
“This book might just change your life.” Independent on Sunday
“A wonderfully fresh and ambitious novel.” Evening Standard
Alice Butler has been receiving some odd messages - all anonymous, all written in code. Are they from someone at PopCo, the
profit-hungry corporation she works for? Or from Alice's long lost father? Or has someone else been on her trail? The solution,
she is sure, will involve the code-breaking skills she learned from her grandparents and the key she's been wearing round her
neck since she was ten. PopCo is a grown-up adventure of family secrets, puzzles, big business and the power of numbers.
RIGHTS HELD: World excluding North America and Korea
RIGHTS SOLD: Czech Republic (Host), Germany (Rowohlt), Italy (Newton & Compton), Russia (Corpus), Slovakia (Ikar),
Spain (Paidos)
BRIGHT YOUNG THINGS, Scarlett Thomas
“A break for the big time.” Independent
“Invigorating, sexy…clever…” Daily Mail
‘Bright Young Things wanted for Big Project.’
They’re in the prime of their lives but our bright young things are all burnt out. Six sparky twenty-somethings all bored to tears
with their lives and looking for a way out. When a mysterious job is advertised in the newspaper, they all apply. What they least
expect is to find themselves prisoners on a deserted island. There’s food in the fridge and they have a bedroom each, but
there’s no telephone, no television, and no way to escape.
RIGHTS HELD: World excluding Germany (Goldmann), US (Daniel Mandel, Sanford J. Greenburger)
GOING OUT, Scarlett Thomas
Page | 32
“A quirky, affectionate satire of brand-saturated Britain.” New Yorker
Luke is twenty-five, allergic to the sun and housebound. Julie is brilliant, kind and could be changing the world.
Unfortunately she is too terrified of aeroplane crashes, road accidents and potentially lifethreatening bacteria to leave her
home town. When someone contacts Luke and claims that he can cure him, Luke and Julie have to deal with their fears and face
the world outside. With four friends, wellies and a homemade space suit, they set off in a VW Camper van, along Britain’s Broads. It is a journey that might just change their lives.
RIGHTS HELD: World excluding Italy (Newton Compton), US (Random House)
JUSTINE, Alice Thompson
JOINT WINNER OF THE JAMES TAIT BLACK PRIZE FOR FICTION WITH GRAHAM SWIFT'S LAST ORDERS
“There is great hope here that all is not lost for the literate.” Fay Weldon
“Beautifully spare, very visual writing … with its own sly, soft, sympathetic elegance.” Observer
A postmodern and surreal first novel set in contemporary London, Justine is the story of a man's obsession with a woman which
subtly subverts de Sade's novel of the same title. Alice Thompson’s second novel, Pandora’s Box, was published by Little, Brown
in June 1998 to wide acclaim.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Denmark (Munksgaard), France (Denoel), Germany (Piper Verlag), Greece (Medousa), Israel (Zmora
Bitan-Dvir), USA (Counterpoint)
FILM RIGHTS: optioned by Morse Associates
HELEN AND DESIRE, Alexander Trocchi
‘A spicily pornographic tale’ Scotsman
‘The work of a gifted wordsmith’ Scottish Book Review
‘The outlaw prince of Scottish literature, Trocchi set the standard for all subversives and saboteurs – Helen and Desire has a
sophistication unusual for its “porno” genre’ Guardian
How difficult it is to explain! The terribly mute hunger in our bodies! If I touch my thigh here in the near darkness of the tent my
whole body is again instinct with the driving urge that brought me here, and I cannot explain it. As always, it is stronger than
fear. For me it has always been that way . . .
When the irrepressible Helen runs away from the small town she grew up in, she discovers a world of excitement and
experience beyond even her imagination, from Sydney to Singapore, Bombay, Monte Carlo and the Sahara desert. A subversive
and deeply suggestive masterpiece, Helen and Desire is Trocchi’s greatest erotic novel.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Bulgaria (Prozorets), Czech Republic (Argo)
THE ASSASSIN’S SONG, M. J. Vassanji
FINALIST FOR THE GILLER PRIZE 2007
FINALIST FOR THE GOVERNOR GENERAL’S LITERARY AWARD 2007
“The Assassin’s Song is both particular and universal, which is one of the marks of great literature. Historical novel,
bildungsroman and terrorist thriller all rolled into one, it is above all a celebration of religious tolerance.” Guardian
“The book ends and you can’t sleep. The characters and tales toss around in dreams. An unforgettable novel.” Independent
Page | 33
“A resplendent novel.” New Yorker
In the aftermath of the violence that gripped western India in 2002, Karsan Dargawalla, heir to the shrine of a mysterious
medieval Sufi, begins to tell the story of his family and the now destroyed shrine. After a bitter quarrel with his father that led
him to abdicate his birthright, Karsan made a new life for himself in suburban Canada. But when tragedy strikes, he is drawn
back home to see if anything is left for him . . .
RIGHTS HELD: World excluding USA, Canada, India
RIGHTS SOLD: Brazil (Editora Record), Greece (Papyros), Romania (Litera), Turkey (Doğan Egmont)
GO TO SLEEP, Helen Walsh
“One of the more unusual, urgent young voices writing in Britain today . . . Walsh boldly confronts contemporary life, and her
latest novel is a combustible combination of raw emotion and deep compassion.” Independent
“Hard-hitting . . . powerfully told.” Big Issue
As she drinks in the view in front of her, Rachel Massey stands on the cusp of the biggest journey of her life. For Rachel is about
to become a mother. Mere hours from now, her first baby will be here and she can’t wait to meet it. Terrified and excited, there
is nothing she wants more, yet she senses things will never be the same again.
This is the story of Rachel’s voyage into motherhood. Full of the same hopes and dreams as any parent-to-be, she soon realises
that nothing about this new world is as she imagined. As the raw shock of sleep deprivation takes its toll on her and the truth
begins to blur with the unreal, Rachel becomes consumed by one sole desire – to sleep. But how far will she go to get her baby
to sleep? Devastatingly honest and shockingly painful at times, Go To Sleep is a heart-wrenching story about one woman and her
newborn child. It strips motherhood bare in the most unforgettable of ways.
RIGHTS HELD: World excluding USA
RIGHTS SOLD: Czech Republic (Argo), France (Flammarion), Germany (Kiepenheuer & Witsch), Slovakia (Ikar) UK
Large Print (AudioGo)
BRASS, Helen Walsh
RUNNER- UP IN THE BETTY TRASK PRIZE FOR FIRST NOVELS
“The most striking coming-of-age story that I have read for a long time ... Walsh has that rare talent of writing apparently
straight from the heart … She is up there with Irvine Welsh in her ability to show what it is that draws people to the extremes
of pleasure.” Natasha Walter, Vogue
“Brass is a novel whose imagery you won’t easily scrub off the back of your mind. It is spellbinding and utterly unique.”
Independent
Nineteen-year-old Millie O’Reilly is clever, spiky and adored by men – yet utterly forlorn. Increasingly disillusioned with her
university course and fellow students, she seeks an escape in the underbelly of Liverpool. When an encounter with a worldweary prostitute turns into an after-hours odyssey of drink-fuelled abuse, it leads Millie to question who she is and what she
wants out of life.
Shockingly candid, brutally poetic, Helen Walsh has created a portrait of a city and a generation that offers a female perspective
on the harsh truth of growing up in today’s Britain. Brass is an unsettling but ultimately compassionate account of the
possibilities of identity and the desirability of love.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Finland (Oy Like), France (Flammarions), Germany (Kiepenheuer & Witsch), Italy (Einaudi),
Netherlands (Vassallucci), US (Canongate US/Grove)
FILM RIGHTS: Optioned to Wildchild Films/Ruby Films
ONCE UPON A TIME IN ENGLAND, Helen Walsh
Page | 34
“Walsh is the real thing; a serious writer to watch. Once Upon a Time in England is an impressive second book. She just keeps
on getting better.” M.J. Hyland
‘Walsh…is a lively, keen-eyed guide to Warrington and the north west. The subject matter is harrowing but, as with Brass,
Walsh’s writing has a wonderful, propulsive exuberance.’ The Times
Once Upon a Time in England begins on the coldest night of 1975. A young man with shock-red hair tears through the
snowbound streets of Warrington’s toughest housing estate. He is Robbie Fitzgerald, and he is running for his life – and that of
his young family. In his heart, Robbie knows the odds are stacked against them. In this unbending Northern town, he has
married Susheela, the beautiful nurse who once stitched up his wounds. Susheela is his Tamil Princess, but in the real world the
Fitzgeralds have to face up to prejudice, poverty and sheer naked hatred from their neighbours. Now Robbie has seen a way out,
and he’s sprinting to his date with destiny . . .But back at their low-rise flat, Susheela hears a noise. This single moment starts a
chain of events that will reverberate throughout the lives of all four Fitzgeralds – herself, Robbie, their son Vincent and unborn
daughter, Ellie.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Netherlands (Lebowski), France (Flammarion), Italy (Bompiani), Finland (Oy Like), US (Canongate US)
TAMBURLAINE MUST DIE, Louise Welsh
“This bold, imaginative, vibrant novella resonates on several levels. Its claustrophobic airs of menace and betrayal are those
of a thriller. It works as historical fiction and captures the Tudor setting by virtue of Welsh’s extraordinary prose.” Daily
Telegraph
“A fast-paced and sparkling story that needs no literary knowledge to be enjoyed and which should win Welsh, and possibly
even the late Marlowe, some devoted new fans.” Herald
It’s 1593 and, under threat from plague and war, London town is a desperate place where strangers are unwelcome and severed
heads grin from spikes on Tower Bridge. Christopher Marlowe, a contemporary of Shakespeare and a poet, playwright and spy,
has three days to escape death. Three days in which he confronts dangerous government factions, double agents, necromancy,
betrayal and revenge in his search for the murderous Tamburlaine, a killer who has escaped from between the pages of
Marlowe’s most violent play. This is another visceral and compelling piece of writing from an extremely talented author.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Canada (HarperCollins), Greece (Alexandria), Netherlands (De Bezige Bij), Sweden (Norstedts), UK
large print (BBC),US (Canongate/Grove).
BED, David Whitehouse
“Finally someone set a bestseller in my bedroom. And in yours ...” DBC Pierre, author of Vernon God Little
“Hilarious and tragic; a perfectly brilliant debut.” The Times
“A coming-of-age story like no other, as soulful as it is funny.” Guardian
“Staggering, inventive and heartbreakingly beautiful.” Esquire
Mal was always different from the other kids. Larger than life. He was always in the limelight. Trips to pantomimes and seaside
resorts were ruined by him stripping off his clothes. And people loved him, especially Lou. It seemed like their love would last
forever. Then something happened that changed everything ... Mal grew up.
RIGHTS HELD: World excluding US (Scribner)
RIGHTS SOLD: ANZ (Text), Argentina, Chile & Uruguay (Emece/Planeta), Brazil (Rocco), Czech Republic (Jota), France
(Plon), Italy (ISBN), Israel (Kinneret), Korea (Minumsa), Netherlands (Contact), Poland (Proszynski Media), Spain
(Libros del Silencio), Turkey (Domingo) UK Large Print (AudioGo)
Page | 35
CHILDREN OF ALBION ROVERS, ed. Kevin Williamson
“A fistful of Caledonian classics.” Loaded
“Children of Albion Rovers takes a sledgehammer to convention.” New Statesman
A highly praised and best-selling collection of novellas by Irvine Welsh, Alan Warner, Gordon Legge, James Meek, Laura Hird and
Paul Reekie.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Australia (Random House AUS), France (Editions de l'Olivier)
ROVERS RETURN, ed. Kevin Williamson
“The Rovers six remain champions of the short story league.” The Face
Laura Hird, Gordon Legge and James Meek, three of the original Albion Rovers, return here with three more glorious tales of fag
hags, sports presenters and dead fishermen. They are joined by Tony Bourdain, author of three Canongate crime novels and
most recently the best-selling A Cook’s Tour, with an exuberant account of a chef’s night out in New York City; by John King, the
highly acclaimed author of The Football Factory, with a claustrophobic incarceration in a Greek prison; and by Emer Martin’s
bizarre odyssey of love, weird sex and revenge.
RIGHTS HELD: World
Page | 36
CANONS
1982, JANINE, Alasdair Gray
Introduced by Will Self
“[1982, Janine] made me realise that contemporary fiction could still be a vivid and vital way of interpreting the world … it
revived my flagging impetus to continue writing myself.” Jonathan Coe
Originally published by Jonathan Cape, this is Canongate’s first-ever edition of one of Alasdair Gray’s most significant and
controversial novels, together with an introduction by Will Self. 1982, Janine is a searing portrait of male need and inadequacy,
as explored via the lonely sexual fantasies of Jock McLeish, failed husband, lover and businessman. Yet there is hope here, too,
and the humour (if black) and the imaginative and textual energy of the narrative achieves its own kind of redemption in the
end.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Turkey (Altikirkbes)
THE ENDS OF OUR TETHERS: THIRTEEN SORRY STORIES, Alasdair Gray
“One of the most gifted writers who has put pen to paper in the English language.” Irvine Welsh, Guardian
“A truly great collection – funny, righteous, full of sadness and good strong anger and unbelievably inventive with both. Gray
is a necessary genius.” Ali Smith
Peers may describe him as ‘a great writer … perhaps the greatest living in Britain today,’ (Will Self); but Alasdair Gray sees
himself as ‘a fat, spectacled, balding, increasingly old Glasgow pedestrian’. Such is the humour that abounds in Gray’s first work
of fiction in seven years. In these Thirteen Sorry Stories, Gray reaffirms his position as a master of the short story. Illustrated
throughout with the author’s own eccentric drawings, there are tales of love and loss as the body ungracefully ages: stories of
mischievous old men and effective messages from Gray himself, proving he is not at the ‘end of his tether’.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: US (Canongate/Grove)
THE RISE AND FALL OF KELVIN WALKER, Alasdair Gray
“Gray's work is bawdy and exuberant. Here is an original and talented writer plainly in his prime.” Guardian
Subtitled ‘a fable of the Sixties’, this is a short comic novel about a Scotsman on the make in London who becomes a minor
celebrity. Walker is, of course, undone, but not before Gray brilliantly raises questions about personal and political power.
RIGHTS HELD: World
A HISTORY MAKER, Alasdair Gray
“Fantasist, Realist, Parodist, Postmodernist – in just over a decade Alasdair Gray has become no mean literary history maker
himself.” Scotsman
The author describes his most recent novel as ‘a tale of border warfare, military and erotic, set in the twenty-third century. The
women rule the kingdom and the men play war games.’
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: France (Editions de Métailié).US (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
LANARK, Alasdair Gray
Page | 37
Introduced by Janice Galloway
“I was absolutely knocked out by Lanark. I think it's the best in Scottish literature in the twentieth century.” Iain Banks
“It was time Scotland produced a shattering work of fiction in the modern idiom. This is it.” Anthony Burgess
Lanark is the novel that established Alasdair Gray in the literary world and is regarded by many as the most significant piece of
fiction to have come out of Scotland since the war. With its echoes of Dante, Blake, Joyce, Kafka and Lewis Carroll, Lanark has
been translated into over a dozen languages since it first appeared in 1981. This latest edition marks the novel’s return to its
original publisher and has a new introduction by Janice Galloway, as well as a tailpiece by Gray which describes the novel’s
genesis.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Catalan (Marbot), France (Métailié), Norway (Gyldendal), Spain (Marbot), Slovenia (Studentska)
UNLIKELY STORIES, MOSTLY, Alasdair Gray
“An impressive, playful and beautiful book.” Times Literary Supplement
“A dazzling command of rhetoric, a willingness to take large risks. An insistence on the transcendence of the imagination.”
New York Times Book Review
A collection of short stories illustrated by the author. Some of the stories are realistic, others are more like fairy tales, myths or
histories – they all have Gray's characteristic humour and irony.
RIGHTS HELD: World
THE CHANGELING, Robin Jenkins
“Let me alert everyone to the best-kept secret in modern British literature. If you love the novel; if you are interested in
books that are human and wise, not slick and cynical; then treat yourself this year to some Robin Jenkins . . . he is simply
wonderful.” Andrew Marr
“Quite simply a major contemporary writer.” Herald
“A remarkable writer.” The Times
Thirteen-year-old Tom Curdie, the product of a Glasgow slum, is on probation for theft. His teachers admit that he is clever, but
only one, Charles Forbes, sees an uncanny warmth in his reticence and in his seemingly insolent smile. So he decides to take
Tom on holiday with his own family …
This powerful novel explores one of Jenkins’s consistent and most fruitful themes – how goodness and innocence are
compromised when faced with the pressures of growing up and becoming part of society.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: UK Large Print (Isis)
CHILDISH THINGS, Robin Jenkins
“A witty, ironic, intelligent and charming novel.” Punch
“Jenkins laces his themes of greed and selfishness with plenty of lascivious goings-on. For all the humour, this is also a
thoughtful novel and a wry look at ‘what a mess folk make of their lives’.” The Times
Childish Things is a tremendously compelling comic novel whose central character is an adventurer aged seventy-two. Beginning
with a funeral at which Gregor McLeod, a retired school-master, is mourning the death of his wife Kate, it soon becomes evident
that McLeod has been something of a womaniser and, despite his very recent (and heartfelt) bereavement, is being pursued by
an assortment of attractive women …
Page | 38
RIGHTS HELD: World
THE CONE-GATHERERS, Robin Jenkins
“Robin Jenkins is the most outstanding novelist that Scotland has produced since the war.” Compton MacKenzie
“Jenkins is the Scottish Thomas Hardy; he can also be seen as the post-war founder of the movement in Scottish fiction,
culminating in James Kelman and Irvine Welsh, which saw fictionalised escape to a romanticised past as bogus.” Scotsman
Set during the Second World War on a large Scottish estate where two brothers are employed as cone-gatherers. This is
arguably Robin Jenkins’s greatest novel.
With its themes of class conflict, war, evil and envy, The Cone-Gatherers is a towering work of fiction and an immensely powerful
examination of good and evil, and mankind’s propensity for both. It remains as relevant today as when it was first published.
Suspenseful, dark and unforgettable, it is one of the masterpieces of modern Scottish literature.
This novel was previously published in Penguin’s Modern Classics series and was first published by Canongate in 2004.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Czech (Barrister &Principle)
FERGUS LAMONT, Robin Jenkins
“A novel of the very finest quality.” Observer
“Fergus Lamont is the engrossing and moving story of a twentieth-century Scot whose illegitimate birth and Glasgow slum
childhood shape his years to come ... Jenkins’s fine evocation of the cruelties of class, church, poverty and war as they affect
the life of one man make [the book] worthy of notice.” Publishers Weekly
A masterful, picaresque novel of universal appeal. Fergus Lamont, illegitimate child from the slums of Glasgow, sets out to
reclaim his inheritance and to re-create his identity as soldier, poet and would-be aristocrat. Fergus’s unforgettable voice
recounts an ironic, profoundly moving tale of vanity, success, betrayal and redemption.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Italy (Instar Libri); Film rights optioned by Sixteen Films
LADY MAGDALEN, Robin Jenkins
“His uncompromising, deeply ambivalent analysis of human idealism has established him as the greatest living fiction-writer
in Scotland.” Scotsman
Jenkins casts his ironic and informed eye over war-torn 17th-century Scotland, juxtaposing the feminine and domestic with the
political and military ramifications of the era. An effortlessly readable work of historical fiction from a vintage storyteller.
RIGHTS HELD: World
POOR ANGUS, Robin Jenkins
“A blackly comic romp. Poor Angus is a remarkable novel.” Sunday Times
“The novel is reminiscent of a Greek fable, with its seers, muses and magical island ... There is a strange, unsettling
atmosphere to the book which combines racy, down-to-earth sentences with passages of real fire and lyricism.” Scotland on
Sunday
Poor Angus centres around a struggling painter, Angus McAllister, who has returned to the seemingly idyllic Hebridean island of
his birth in the hope that it will inspire him to create his masterpiece. His privacy is invaded by Janet, who has decided that an
affair with an artist would be the simplest way to incense and recapture her husband, a golf fanatic devoid of imagination. So
Page | 39
begins an irresistible story, both comic and serious, which explores the attitudes of men and women to sex and relationships in
general, and which focuses on the psychology of the artist and the justification, if any, for art.
RIGHTS HELD: World
DOCHERTY, William Mcllvanney
WINNER OF THE WHITBREAD AWARD FOR FICTION
“Here a human history is mined with humour and a clenching sense of its sombre inequities: man's squat but lengthening
shadow in the sun.” Guardian
“He has a hard muscular quality to his writing. Some of his phrases hammer against you like a collier's pick.” The Times
“An intense, witty and beautifully wrought novel.” Daily Telegraph
At the end of 1903, in a tough, working-class town in the West of Scotland, Tam Docherty's youngest son, Conn is born. Tam is
determined that life and the pits won't swallow up his boy the way it has him. Courageous and questioning, Docherty emerges
as a leader of almost indomitable strength, but in a close-knit community tradition is a powerful opponent.
RIGHTS HELD: World
THE BIG MAN, William Mcllvanney
The big man is Dan Scoular, legend of physical prowess in a decaying Ayrshire mining community. When a bare-knuckle fight
offers both money and a purpose, he finds it turns into a monumental struggle to keep his heritage and integrity intact. It was
made into a film by Twentieth Century Fox starring Liam Neeson.
RIGHTS HELD: World
ONE MOONLIT NIGHT, Caradog Prichard
Translated by Philip Mitchell
“This is a heart-wrenching work, to be read and re-read; a classic.” Daily Telegraph
The first-ever complete translation of a Welsh literary masterpiece. The novel is written in a deceptively simple, lyrical style.
Narrated in the first person, it starts out as a boy's exuberant view of the world, set against a backdrop of appalling deprivation
around the time of the First World War. As the boy and his friends come of age, the assumed sanity and surety of their world
falls apart and the story builds to an excruciating climax.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Italy (Mobydick)
PEOPLE OF THE SEA, David Thomson
Introduced by Seamus Heaney
“A poetic achievement … readers will be carried away on successive waves of pleasure … these stories [have] an irresistible
holistic beauty.” Seamus Heaney
Thomson’s travels in the Gaelic world of the Hebrides and the west coast of Ireland brought him into contact with a people
whose association with the sea and its fertile lore runs deep. These mysterious and fascinating legends retain their spell-binding
enchantment through the luminous quality of Thomson’s prose. His book is a window onto that vanished Celtic world where
truth and fiction intertwine.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: USA (Counterpoint Press), Germany (Mare BuchVerlag)
Page | 40
CRIME
THE NO. 2 GLOBAL DETECTIVE, Toby Clements
“The book is full of intrigue, cleverly combining four thrillers in one. I was on the edge of my seat.” Woman’s Own
Cuff College of Transgression and Pathology, Oxford. The quiet of the evening is shattered by the discovery of a body in the
Library. The police are baffled. Tom Hurst, a junior lecturer at the College, follows a trail of arcane clues that leads him to
Botswana and Mma Delicious Ontoast. His investigations then take him to Sweden; then to Edinburgh, where he is grudgingly
helped by DI John Rhombus; and finally to Richmond, Virginia, where he meets the brilliant, attractive-in-a-midnight-bluepantsuit, forensic pathologist Dr Su Carpaccio. Sometimes one supersleuth just isn’t enough.
This hilarious satire of crime novels and their heroes will appeal to all fans of Henning Mankell, Ian Rankin, Alexander McCall
Smith, Patricia Cornwell and everyone who wants to poke fun at the genre.
RIGHTS HELD: World
THE TWISTED HEART, Rebecca Gowers
SHORTLISTED FOR THE ORANGE FICTION PRIZE 2010
“A literary jeu d’esprit in the style of Scarlett Thomas’s The End of Mr. Y . . .A genuinely puzzling historical murder mystery.
Fresh and clever and very funny.” Guardian
“Blood swashes between ancient pages and modern pavements, while 21st century love is laid tenderly but unflinchingly bare
in this ultimately strange and lingering novel.” Independent on Sunday
“A dark delight of a novel.” Metro
Kit, a work-obsessed literature student, decides on a whim to go to a dance class. And for a while it looks like Joe, the shadowy
figure she meets there, may tempt her to put her books aside and live a little. But as Joe’s world becomes increasingly
threatening and Kit’s research leads her to stumble on an extraordinary historical mystery, she is faced with a choice. Will she
hide herself away in her studies or will she make the leap of faith that could change her existence forever? Brilliantly weaving
these different threads together, it confirms Gowers as one of the most exciting voices in Britain today.
Rights Held: World
Rights Sold: Canada (HarperCollins)
NEVER SOMEWHERE ELSE, Alex Gray
“In her debut novel, Gray enters the world of Caledonian Noir with a dark page-turner which firmly establishes the existential
DCI Lorimer as the real threat to Inspector Rebus.” Herald
“Gray’s is a supremely confident debut.” The List
Alex Gray’s first novel is a highly visual, stylish and powerfully written tale that leads the reader through the streets of Glasgow on a compelling
journey of discovery that never fails to keep the pages turning.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: UK Paperback (Little, Brown)
MIDNIGHT CAB, James W. Nichol
SHORTLISTED FOR THE CRIME WRITERS’ ASSOCIATION DAGGER 2004
WINNER OF THE CANADIAN CRIME WRITERS’ BEST DEBUT NOVEL AWARD 2003
Page | 41
“An engaging thriller that never lets its metaphorical foot off the clutch and races down mysterious roads … with the aplomb
of Harlan Coben. It also conjures up one of the most sinister and unforgettable villains crime fiction has drawn in a long time.”
Maxim Jakubowski, Guardian
Midnight Cab is a compelling and utterly captivating thriller that heralds the arrival of a formidable new talent. It also features
one of the most chilling and vividly-drawn psychopaths since Hannibal Lecter.
A three-year-old boy is abandoned at the side of a country road. His mother whispers to him to hold on to a wire fence. She
never returns. Sixteen years later, Walker Devereux moves to Toronto to discover the truth about his early life. In pursuit of
answers to the questions that plague him, Walker uncovers his family’s dark secrets and comes within the deadly grasp of a man
whose own early abandonment helped transform a lonely boy into a murderous psychopath …
RIGHTS HELD: World, excluding Canada (Knopf) and Germany (Droemer);
RIGHTS SOLD: Denmark (Forlaget Punktam), Italy (Newton Compton), US (Canongate/Grove)
VENGEANCE, M.S. Power
“A taut, torrid thriller with more twists than a noose, Vengeance is
high-voltage Power.” Sunday Herald
This riveting and dark exploration of revenge comes from a veteran of the crime genre, and winner of both The Hennessy Award
and The Macallan Award. Part thriller, part detective story, this is M.S. Power’s nineteenth novel.
RIGHTS: World
THE BLACKEST BIRD, Joel Rose
“The swagger of this gang-riddled city is ably drawn, and the fast-paced narrative is dense with clues, making the deciphering
exhilarating. But this is also an engaging window onto the petty pilfering and brutal bloodshed of a young New York.” Daily
Telegraph
New York City, 1841. When young, beautiful Mary Rogers is reported missing, the police remain largely unconcerned. For Mary
has gone missing before, only to reappear days later. But this time things turn out rather differently: Mary’s body is found
floating in the Hudson River. She has been savagely murdered. In a sweltering climate of suspicion, ugly secrets come to light at
every turn; and, mysteriously, Hays finds all paths leading to that hopeless romantic and minstrel of the night: Edgar Allan Poe.
RIGHTS HELD: World, excluding Canada (Doubleday) and the US (W.W. Norton)
RIGHTS SOLD: France (Editions Anne Carrière), Germany (Pendo), Greece (Modern Times), Italy (Bompiani), Portugal
(Gotica), Spain (El Aleph)
WHAT DIES IN SUMMER, Tom Wright
LONGLISTED FOR THE CRIME WRITERS ASSOCIATION JOHN CREASEY DAGGER
“A beautifully written and deeply engaging study of loss and innocence, suffused with chilling dread. A haunting novel, a
captivating debut, I loved it.” S. J. Watson
“Terrific…Reminds me of ‘To Kill A Mockingbird” Ian Rankin
'I woke up in a cold sweat, knowing for a definite fact that death was a teenage girl and that she had been standing
silently by my bed during the night...'
Jim Beaudry, or Biscuit as he's known, is a teenage boy trying to stay out of trouble. But trouble has a way of finding
him. Especially after his cousin L.A. turns up on his doorstep. When one summer afternoon Biscuit and L.A. discover
the body of a teenage girl in the Texas wilderness, an investigation begins that will put both of their lives in grave
danger.
Page | 42
RIGHTS HELD: World exc. North America (Norton)
RIGHTS SOLD: Australia (Text), France (Presses de la Cite), Italy (Piemme), Netherlands (Ambo/Anthos), Portugal
(Bertrand), Catalan (Empuries), Spain (Duomo)
Page | 43
MYTHS
A SHORT HISTORY OF MYTH, Karen Armstrong
“Remarkable for its compressions, brevity and range, this book gives an account of myth from 20,000 years ago.” The Times
“What Armstrong does in her skid over the millennia is make comparisons, connections and contrasts in a way that cannot
fail to enlighten the general reader.” Guardian
“Armstrong has provided a valiant and readable account, clearly and concisely written.” Independent
Karen Armstrong's concise yet compelling investigation into the history of myth takes us from the Palaeolithic period and the
mythology of the hunters right up to the 'Great Western Transformation' of the last 500 years She shows us that the history of
myth is the history of humanity, and our stories and beliefs, our curiosity and attempts to understand the world, link us to our
ancestors and each other. Myths help us make sense of the universe, and of ourselves. Armstrong's characteristically insightful
and eloquent book serves as a brilliant and thought-provoking introduction to myth in the broadest sense - and why we dismiss
it only at our peril.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Australia (Text), Canada (Knopf Canada), Canada – French (Editions du Boreal), Finland (Tammi
Publishers), France (Flammarion), India (Penguin Books), Italy (Rizzoli), Netherlands (De Bezige Bij), Romania (SC
LEDA Editserv SRL), Russia (Concern Soyuz Group/Eksmo), Serbia (Geopoetika), Taiwan (Locus Publishing), U.S.A.
(Canongate U.S. JV)
THE PENELOPIAD, Margaret Atwood
“Pragmatic, clever, domestic, mournful, Penelope is a perfect Atwood heroine.” Sam Leith, Spectator
“Atwood takes Penelope’s part with tremendous verve…she explores the very nature of mythic story-telling.” Mary Beard,
Guardian
“As potent as a curse.” Lucy Hughes Hallett, Sunday Times
For Penelope, wife of Odysseus, maintaining a kingdom while her husband was off fighting the Trojan War was not a simple
business. Already aggrieved that he had been lured away due to the shocking behaviour of her beautiful cousin Helen, Penelope
must bring up her wayward son, face down scandalous rumours and keep over a hundred lustful, greedy and bloodthirsty suitors
at bay...And then, when Odysseus finally returns and slaughters the murderous suitors, he brutally hangs Penelope's twelve
beloved maids. What were his motives? And what was Penelope really up to?
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Australia (Text), Canada French (Editions du Boreal), Canada English (Knopf Canada), Egypt (GEBO),
Finland (Tammi Publishers), France (Flammarion), India (Penguin Books), Italy (Rizzoli), Macedonia (Congree Service
Center-Skopje), Romania (SC LEDA Editserv SRL), Russia (Concern Soyuz Group/Eksmo/Ripol Classic), Turkey
(Everest), US (Canongate US)
RAGNAROK, A.S. Byatt
“Byatt’s prose is majestic, the lush descriptive passages – jeweled one minute, gory the next – a pleasure to get lost in.”
Sunday Telegraph
“A brilliant, highly intelligent, fiercely personal rendition of the Scandinavian mythology…a gorgeous enrichment and
interpretation.” Ursula K. Le Guin, Literary Review
“Ragnarok is a clever, lucid, lovely book.” M. John Harrison, Guardian
Page | 44
From the Booker Prize-winning author of Possession and The Children's Book comes a mesmerising tale of the end of the gods
and the destruction of life on this planet. Into her version of Ragnarok, surely one of the most thrilling and apocalyptic of myths,
A.S. Byatt weaves the story of a young girl evacuated to the British countryside during the Second World War. Struggling to
make sense of her life, she is given a book of Norse myths, and her inner and outer worlds are transformed.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Australia (Text), Brazil (Companhia Das Letras), Canada (Editions du Boreal/Knopf Canada), China
(Chong Qing Publishing Group), Finland (Tammi Publishers), France (Flammarion), India (Penguin Books), Japan
(Kadokawa Shoten), Korea (Munhakdonge Publishing Corporation), Spain (Editorial Lumen), Turkey (Ithaki Yayinlari),
U.K. Large Print (Isis), U.S.A. (Canongate US JV/Brilliance Audio)
LION’S HONEY, David Grossman
“Extraordinary, ground-breaking, empoweing.” Guardian
“One of contemporary literature’s most versatile and absorbing writers.” San Francisco Chronicle
In Lion's Honey, award-winning writer David Grossman takes on one of the most vivid and controversial characters in the Bible.
Revisiting Samson's famous battle with the lion, his many women and his betrayal by them all, including the only one he ever
loved. Grossman gives us a provocative new take on the story and its climax, Samson's final act of death, brining down a temple
on himself and three thousand Philistines. In exhilarating and lucid prose, Grossman reveals the journey of a single, lonely and
tortured soul who never found a true home in the world, who was uncomfortable in his very body and who, some might say,
was the precursor of today's suicide bombers.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Australia (Text), Brazil (Companhia Das Letras), Canada (Knopf Canada), Finland (Tammi Publishers),
France (Flammarion), Greece (Oceanida Publications) Iceland (Bjartur), India (Penguin Books), Italy (Rizzoli),
Netherlands (De Bezige Bij), Romania (SC LEDA Editserv SRL), Russia (Concern Soyuz Group/Ripol Classic), Spain
(Publicaciones Y Ediciones Salamandra S.A.), Sweden (Albert Bonniers Foerlag AB), U.S.A. (Canongate US JV)
ORPHANS OF ELDORADO, Milton Hatoum
“Clear in each particular but tantalisingly elusive in its overall meaning, Orphans of Eldorado does what every good telling of a
myth should.” Adrian Turpin, Financial Times
“Delicately crafted and dreamlike.” Financial Times
The setting for this magical fable is Eldorado, the Enchanted city that inhabited the fevered dreams of European navigators and
conquistadors, but eluded all attempts to find it on the map. Some have linked it to Manaus in the Amazon Basin, and it is here
that Arminto Cordovil lives with his father Amando in a white mansion. heirs is a relationship full of passion and limitless
ambition. Separating father and son is a remarkable cast of characters, from Angelina, the dead mother, to Denisio, the infernal
boatman, and at the centre, Dinaura, a girl who betwitches Arminto and dreams of Eldorado...
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Brazil (Companhia Das Letras), Czech Republic (Argo Spol), France (Actes Sud), Germany (Berlin
Verlag), Norway (J.W. Cappelens Forlag), Portugal (Editorial Teorema, Lda), Serbia (Geopoetika), Spain (Edicions de
1984), Sweden (Albert Bonniers Foerlag AB)
THE FIRE GOSPEL, Michel Faber
“The satire is so entertaining, the pace so sharp, the writing so witty . . .it’s effortless to consume.” Observer
“The keyword is wit. This book is deliciously dark and witty, even hilarious, in parts.” Scotsman
“Funny, terrifying, suspenseful, thoughtful and always engaging.” Daily Telegraph
When Theo Griepenkerl happens upon the fifth Gospel in a war-torn Iraqi museum, he can’t believe his luck.
Page | 45
Driven by greed and a lust for fame, he capitalises on his find by publishing it. His book is a sensation. But he can hardly imagine
the incendiary consequences his discovery will have for Christians, Arabs, homicidal maniacs and Amazon customers alike.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Australia (Text), Croatia (Vukovic & Runjic), Denmark (Tiderne Skifter Forlag), France (Editions De
L’Olivier), Italy (Rizzoli), Norway (J.W. Cappelens Forlag), Poland (Grupa Wydawnicza), Portugal (Editorial Teorama,
Lda.), Russia (Eksmo), Slovenia (Police Dubove Cultural and Artistic Association), Sweden (Brombergs Bokfoerlag),
U.S.A. (Canongate US JV)
THE GODDESS CHRONICLE, Natsuo Kirino
“In her wildly far-reaching tale of relations between gods and men, men and women, life and death, darkness and light,
Natsuo Kirino tells a peripatetic, global, and truly satisfying love story of how it is to be human.” Stella Duffy
“A twisted and magical myth from ‘the Japanese crime queen.’” Guardian
In a place like no other, on an island in the shape of a tear drop, two sisters are born into a family of the oracle. Kamikuu, with
creamy skin and almond eyes, is admired far and wide; Namima, small but headstrong, learns to live in her sister's shadow. On
her sixth birthday, Kamikuu is presented with a feast of sea-serpent egg soup, sashimi and salted fish, and a string of pure pearls.
Kamikuu has been chosen as the next Oracle, while Namima is shocked to discover she must serve the goddess of darkness. So
begins an adventure that will take Namima from her first experience of love to the darkness of the underworld. But what
happens when she returns to the island for revenge?
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Australia (Text), Brazil (Editora Rocco Ltda.), China (Chong Qing Publishing Group/Beijing Alpha
Books), Japan (Kadokawa Shoten), Korea (Munhakdonge) Romania (Editura Polirom), Russia (Eksmo), Spain (Duomo
Ediciones), Taiwan (Locus Publishing), Thailand (Earnest Publishing), Turkey (Dogan), U.S.A. (Canongate US JV)
THE HURRICANE PARTY, Klas Östergren
“Wildly imaginative … Östergren’s high-octane weaving together of future dystopia with ancient mythology makes for an
exhilarating adventure that races through times, places and ideas.” Metro
“An insightful and moving work.” Guardian
A brilliant retelling of the myth of Loki from one of Sweden’s most acclaimed contemporary novelists. Set in a dystopian future
that recalls Orwell and Zamyatin, Klas Östergren has woven a dizzying story of magnificent scope and foul play. Moving from the
golden halls to the depths of the underworld, it is about one man’s search for justice for his son in a world on the brink, a place
where true love is so strong it can bring about the end of time.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Denmark (Tiderne Skifter Forlag), Serbia (Geopoetika), Sweden (Albert Bonniers Foerlag AB)
THE HELMET OF HORROR, Victor Pelevin
“A brilliant post-modern, eclectic vision of myth, mind and meaning. And of the human dilemma and its horns, ancient and
modern.” The Times
“Pelevin is a highly inventive writer with a sharp, jaundiced eye and an anarchic sensibility.” Guardian
“For a mind-expanding, surreally funny experience, it’s worth getting lost here.” Scotland on Sunday
When Ariadne helped Theseus escape the Minotaur's labyrinth with the aid of a ball of thread, she led the way for the
bewildered victims of a twenty-first century minotaur. Trapped in an endless maze of Internet chatrooms, a group of mystified
strangers find themselves assigned obscure aliases and commanded by the Helmet of Horror, the Minotaur himself. As they
fumble their way back to reality through a mesmerising world of abundant information but little knowledge, we are forced to
wonder - can technology itself be anything more than a myth?
Page | 46
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Australia (Text), Brazil (Companhia Das Letras), Canada (Knopf), Canada French (Editions Du Boreal),
China (Locus), Finland (Tammi Publishers), France (Flammarion), Hungary (Cartaphilus Kiado Kft), Iceland (Bjartur),
Italy (Rizzoli), Japan (Kadokawa Shoten), Netherlands (De Bezige Bij), Norway (J.W. Cappelens Forlag), Romania (SC
LEDA Editserv SRL), Russia (Concern Soyuz Group/Eksmo/Ripol Classic), Slovenia (Mladinska Knjiga Zalozba), Spain
(Publicaciones Y Ediciones Salamandra S.A.), Sweden (Albert Bonniers Foerlag AB), Taiwan (Locus Publishing), US
(Canongate US JV)
THE GOOD MAN JESUS AND THE SCOUNDREL CHRIST, Philip Pullman
THE NUMBER ONE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
“A small gem or, given its explosive story and exquisite artistry, a hand grenade made by Fabergé.”
Sunday Times
“A very bold and deliberately outrageous fable . . . introducing something quite different, a voice of genuine spiritual
authority. Because that is what Pullman’s Jesus undoubtedly is.” Rowan Williams, Guardian
“Provokingly bold.” Independent
In this ingenious and spellbinding retelling of the life of Jesus, Philip Pullman revisits the most influential story ever told.
Charged with mystery, compassion and enormous power, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ throws fresh light on
who Jesus was and asks the reader questions that will continue to resonate long after the final page is turned. For, above all,
this book is about how stories become stories.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Australia (Text), Brazil (Companhia Das Letras), Canada (Knopf), Denmark (Tiderne Skifter Forlag),
Finland (Tammi Publishers), France (Editions Gallimard), Germany (Fischer Verlag), Greece (Livanis Publishing), India
English (Penguin Books), India Indian (De Bezige Bij), Italy (Gruppo Editorale Mauri Spagnol), Korea (Munhakdonge
Publishing Corporation), Netherlands (De Bezige Bij), Poland (Proszynski Media), Portugal (Editorial Teorama, Lda.),
Russia (Eksmo), Slovenia (Mladinska Knjiga Zalozba), Slovakia (Slovart Publishing Limited), Spain (Edicions La
Campana/Random House Mondadori), Sweden (Leopard), Turkey (Ithaki Yayinlari), UK Large Print (Isis),
US(Canongate US JV) US Audio (Brilliance Audio)
DREAM ANGUS, Alexander McCall Smith
“Alexander McCall Smith’s prose has the merits of simplicity, euphony and precision. This is art that conceals art.”
Sunday Times
If he's in the right mood, divine Angus might grant you sight of your true love in a dream; you might even fall in love with him,
but he'll never love you back. He's too busy making mischief, stealing the palace of the gods from his father, turning his enemies
into pigs etc ; until he is trapped by his own romantic games and falls for an unattainable woman, doomed to seek her forever.
In twentieth-century Scotland, Angus's troubled alter ego searches for his true family and identity; a psychotherapist who helps
people understand their dreams, his life seems to parallel that of his mythic namesake, until we ask, could they be one and the
same?
Mesmerically weaving together the tales of the Celtic god and the Scottish scientist, Alexander McCall Smith unites dream and
reality, leaving us to wonder: what is life, but the pursuit of our dreams?
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Australia (Text), Canada (Knopf), Finland (Tammi Publishers), Germany (Berlin Verlag), Italy (Rizzoli),
Poland (ZNAK), Romania (SC LEDA Editserv SRL), Russia (Eksmo), Turkey (Merkez Kitaplar), U.S.A. (Canongate US JV)
GIRL MEETS BOY, Ali Smith
“As fresh and pungent as new paint.” The Times
Page | 47
“A joyful and playful remix ...an ecstatic, exhilarating helter-skelter ride of a story.” Financial Times
“By the time I finished the book, my heart was beating and tears stood in my eyes, even as I had the biggest smile written all
over my face.” Kirsty Gunn, Observer
Girl meets boy. It’s a story as old as time. But what happens when an old story meets a brand new set of circumstances?
Ali Smith’s re-mix of Ovid’s most joyful metamorphosis is a story about the kind of fluidity that can’t be bottled and sold. It is
about girls and boys, girls and girls, love and transformation, a story of puns and doubles, reversals and revelations. Funny and
fresh, poetic and political, Girl Meets Boy is a myth of metamorphosis for the modern age.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Australia (Text), Brazil (Companhia Das Letras), Canada (Knopf), France (Editions De L’Olivier),
Germany (Berlin Verlag), Greece (Motibo Publishing SA), India (Penguin Books) Italy (Rizzoli), Romania (SC LEDA
Editserv SRL), Spain (Editorial Lumen), Turkey (Turkuvaz Kitapcilik), U.S.A. (Canongate US JV)
BINU AND THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA, Su Tong
“Tong’s narrative reads more like a fairytale adventure than it does a myth – which seek not just to entertain but to help us
make sense of the world…A magical, vast and curious story.” Financial Times
“A gripping, insightful depiction of the lives of commoners under the Qin Dynasty…A tragic tale of female strength, and
ultimately, love.” Time Out
“By the time I finished the book, my heart was beating and tears stood in my eyes, even as I had the biggest smile written all
over my face.” Kirsty Gunn, Observer
In Peach Village, crying is forbidden. But as a child, Binu never learnt to hide her tears. Shunned by the villagers, she faced a
bleak future, until she met Qiliang, an orphan who offered her his hand in marriage. Then one day Qiliang disappears. Binu
learns that he has been transported hundreds of miles and forced to labour on a project of terrifying ambition and scale - the
building of the Great Wall. Binu is determined to find and save her husband. Inspired by her love, she sets out on an
extraordinary journey towards Great Swallow Mountain, with only a blind frog for company. What follows is an unforgettable
story of passion, hardship and magical adventure
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Australia (Text), Brazil (Companhia Das Letras), Canada (Knopf/Editions Du Boreal), China (Chong Qing
Publishing Group/Being Alpha Books), Denmark (Tiderne Skifter Forlag), Finland (Tammi Publishers), France
(Flammarion), Germany (Berlin Verlag), Greece (Oceanida Publications), India (Penguin Books) Italy (Rizzoli),
Netherlands (De Bezige Bij), Norway (J.W. Cappelens Forlag), Romania (SC LEDA Editserv SRL), U.S.A. (Canongate US
JV)
BABA YAGA LAID AN EGG, Dubravka Ugresic
“Ugrešić is a writer to follow, a writer to be cherished.” Susan Sontag
“Skittish at times, affectionately comic, and lavish with improbable and ingenious fairy tale plotting . . .” London Review of
Books
“Its heart has a human warmth and even a silliness that infuses it with the sweet magic of storytelling.” The Times
“Spellbinding … a book packed with intellectual surprises and emotional revelations." Metro
Baba Yaga is an old hag who lives in a house built on chicken legs and kidnaps small children. She is one of the most persuasive
and powerful creatures in all mythology. Award-winning Ugrešić’s clever meditation on femininity, ageing, identity, secrets,
storytelling and love is an extraordinary addition to Canongate’s Myths series.
Page | 48
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Bulgaria (Panorama), Germany (Berlin Verlag), Hungary (BORA Books), Italy (Edizioni Nottetempo),
Latvia (Janis Rozes Apgads), Netherlands (De Bezige Bij), Poland (ZNAK), Russia (Eksmo), Slovenia (VBZ), Turkey
(Ithaki Yayinlari), U.S.A. (Grove/Atlantic)
WHERE THREE ROADS MEET, Salley Vickers
“[A] witty, ingenious novel…Vickers is comically irreverent about her own profession and deft at teasing out the slippery
truths of Oedipus’ tale.” Anushka Asthana, Observer
“This is a book to dwell on, to ponder, and delight in.” Scotsman
“The novel is a bright, hard, fine-cut gem.” The Sunday Times
It is 1938 and Sigmund Freud, suffering from the debilitating effects of cancer, has been permitted by the Nazis to leave Vienna.
He seeks refuge in England, taking up residence in the house in Hampstead in which he will die only fifteen months later. But his
last months are made vivid by the arrival of a stranger, who comes and goes according to Freud's state of health. Who is the
mysterious visitor and why has he come to tell the famed proponent of the Oedipus complex his strange story?
Set partly in pre-war London and partly in ancient Greece, Where Three Roads Meet is as brilliantly compelling as it is moving.
Former psychoanalyst and acclaimed novelist Salley Vickers revisits a crime committed long ago which still has disturbing
reverberations for us all.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Australia (Text), Portugal (Editorial Teorama), Romania (SC LEDA Editserv SRL), South Korea
(Munhakdonge Publishing Corporation), U.S.A. (Canongate US JV)
WEIGHT, Jeanette Winterson
“Weight is a masterpiece…it rewrites and reconfirms what fiction is, was, and might become.” Scotland on Sunday
“Winterson artfully illustrates the interplay of free will and destiny, desire and responsibility. She retells a resonant old story
beautifully.” Independent on Sunday
“Winterson’s precise prose explores issues of loneliness, responsibility and freedom with clarity and vision, offering the gift of
seeing things afresh.” The Good Book Guide
Condemned to shoulder the world "for ever" by the gods he dared defy, freedom seems unattainable to Atlas. But then he
receives an unexpected visit from Heracles, the one man strong enough to share the burden, and it seems they can strike a
bargain that might release him ...
Jeanette Winterson asks difficult questions about the nature of choice and coercion in her dazzling retelling of the myth of Atlas
and Heracles. Visionary and inventive, believable and intimate, Weight turns the familiar on its head to show us ourselves in a
new light.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Australia (Text), Canada (Knopf/), Finland (Tammi Publishers), Germany (Berlin Verlag), Iceland
(Bjartur), India (Penguin Books) Italy (Rizzoli), Netherlands (De Bezige Bij), Norway (J.W. Cappelens Forlag), Romania
(SC LEDA Editserv SRL), Russia (Concern Soyuz Group/Eskmo/Ripol Classic), Spain (Publicaciones Y Ediciones
Salamandra S.A.), Sweden (Albert Bonniers Foerlag AB), Taiwan (Locus Publishing), U.S.A. (Canongate US JV)
Page | 49
REBEL
THE LICENSEE, Hugh Collins
The Licensee is the blistering sequel to Hugh Collins’s acclaimed fiction debut No Smoke. Set in the early Eighties against the
backdrop of Thatcherite rule and the violent clashes between police and miners, The Licensee dives back into the Glasgow
underworld as a new era is ushered in. Honour amongst thieves has given way to brutality, greed and the supergrass. In a novel
that bristles with dark humour and even darker deeds, Collins’s ear for street dialogue never falters.
Hugh Collins was born and brought up in Glasgow and in 1977, after a lifetime of crime, was sentenced to life for murder. He
was released in 1992 and has written two widely acclaimed volumes of memoir, Autobiography of a Murderer (Picador, 1998)
and Walking Away (Canongate, 2000).
RIGHTS HELD: World
NO SMOKE, Hugh Collins
“Light one up for No Smoke – a nicotine fit of a novel that leaves you gasping and craving more.” Douglas E. Winter
“No Smoke is a Glaswegian Goodfellas, with its vertiginous buzz accentuated by a steadfastly unjudgmental narrative voice.”
Christopher Brookmyre
Hugh Collins’s debut novel, the first part of a set of crime novels spanning 25 years, is a vicious, hilarious, and highly original
crime novel set in 1976 in his native Glasgow. No Smoke captures the language, humour and culture of Scotland’s most violent
city in a way unsurpassed since James Kelman.
RIGHTS HELD: World
HOWARD STREET, Nathan Heard
“He is a writer, no question about that. An almost frightening one – his hatred and violence are so intense.” Henry Miller
“Howard Street is the heart of the jungle.” Publishers Weekly
A searingly powerful first novel written in 1969 inside Trenton State Penitentiary dealing with life on the streets of Newark, New
Jersey.
RIGHTS HELD: World excluding North America (Amok)
THE VULTURE, Gil Scott-Heron
“A tense and intriguing murder mystery. Scott-Heron creates a fascinating portrait of late 60s New York.” MOJO
Written when the author was just nineteen, this novel tells the strange story of John Lee's murder from four differing
viewpoints. Set in a predatory New York in the late 1960s, The Vulture is a hip, street-wise and fast-moving thriller. Gil ScottHeron is a poet and musician who has been making records and opening eyes and minds for more than twenty-five years. He is
hugely respected in the underground scene and is widely acknowledged to be the Godfather of Rap. Canongate has also
published his collected lyrics, Now and Then.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: France (Éditions de l'Olivier/Seuil), US (Grove/Atlantic)
THE NIGGER FACTORY, Gil Scott-Heron
“Explosive and enraged.” GQ
Page | 50
This novel is set in Sutton University, Virginia, one of the last black American universities to wise up to changing
attitudes in the 1960s. The depiction of the politicisation of the students creates a biting satire which comments on
how human beings are conditioned; it provides the perfect vehicle for Gil Scott-Heron to fire shots left, right and
centre. In the firing line are politicians, teachers, racists and society as a whole.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: US (Grove/Atlantic)
DEATH WISH, Iceberg Slim
“Ferocious, mean and sexy.” Uncut
Slim’s last published novel is arguably his greatest. Set against a backdrop of the underworld in its entirety, Slim portrays the infighting of an organisation he knew well: the Mafia.
RIGHTS HELD: World excluding North America (Mark Gerald, The Agency)
DOOM FOX, Iceberg Slim
Previously unpublished, Doom Fox is Iceberg Slim’s final written statement on Los Angeles and American life. Centring on the
father-son relationship of the Allen family, it is the inevitable chronicle of doom of those in the deeply-etched groove of waste
and destruction.
RIGHTS HELD: World
MAMA BLACK WIDOW, Iceberg Slim
Ghetto life is recounted straight from the hip by Otis Tilson, a schizophrenic and ageing drag queen. However, the dominating
presence and epicentre of this tragic tale is his suffocating mother – Mama Black Widow.
RIGHTS HELD: World excluding North America (Mark Gerald, The Agency)
RIGHTS SOLD: France (Éditions de l’Olivier/Seuil)
TRICK BABY, Iceberg Slim
Introduced by Ice T.
“Trick Baby is an American classic.” Publishing News
Blue-eyed, light-haired and white-skinned, White Folks – a term normally used for a white Negro who uses his colour as his
trump card – was the most incredible con man the ghetto ever spawned, a hustler in the jungle of Southside Chicago where only
the sharpest survived. This is a raw and street-wise novel that will shock as much as it will grip, taking the reader into a world
rarely seen in print.
RIGHTS HELD: World excluding North America (Mark Gerald, The Agency)
RIGHTS SOLD: France (Éditions de l’Olivier/Seuil), Italy (Shake Edizioni Underground)
LONG WHITE CON, Iceberg Slim
“Reads like Huggy Bear on crack cocaine.” Guardian
Following on from Trick Baby, Long White Con continues the story of White Folks, this time with a new partner, the Vicksburg Kid
– a formidable duo playing for the highest stakes.
RIGHTS HELD: World excluding North America (Mark Gerald, The Agency)
Page | 51
AIRTIGHT WILLIE AND ME, Iceberg Slim
A collection of six tales from the underground, all characterised by the distinctive and unforgettable prose of the man whose
work has come to be regarded as the epitome of street fiction. Compelling always, funny sometimes, and typically bleak in their
endings.
RIGHTS HELD: World excluding North America (Mark Gerald, The Agency)
SNOWBLIND, Robert Sabbag
Introduced by Howard Marks
“A flat-out ballbuster. It moves like a threshing machine with a fuel tank full of ether ... Sabbag is a whip-song writer.”
Hunter S. Thompson
“An extremely rare cut of dry wit, poetry, rock-hard fact and relentless insight.” Rolling Stone
Robert Sabbag's Snowblind remains one of the most compelling and illuminating books ever published about the cocaine
smuggling underworld. It is an all-out, non-stop and timeless look at the cocaine trade through the eyes of smuggler Zachary
Swan, whose intricate scams made him one of the most revered and legendary figures in the cocaine world of the late 1960s and
early 1970s. For a few breathless years he ran rings around police and custom officials alike. The result is one of the funniest and
most illuminating books ever written about drugs – a genuine underground classic.
RIGHTS HELD: World excluding North America (Grove/Atlantic)
RIGHTS SOLD: Italy (Bompiani), Netherlands (Luitingh Sijthoff). Spain (Captian Swing Libros)
THE WORLD ACCORDING TO VICE, Vice
“Make way for the new honesty” Observer
VICE magazine started out as a reaction against the humourless, self-righteous posers of the end of the 90s. Originally a black
and white fanzine, the magazine is published in 30 countries across the globe, and has grown into an international multimedia
empire. A conglomerate of writers, photographers, artists and filmmakers, they report first-hand on war, terrorism, the
environment and how everything is going to hell with as much relish as they do sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll – all served up with a
large dose of humour. Now it’s time to find out for yourself. Welcome to the world of VICE. You’ll like it.
RIGHTS HELD: World exc. North America
RIGHTS SOLD: Germany (Heyne)
THE ULTIMATE DOS AND DON’TS, Vice
“Pure, undiluted magazine genius.” New York Times
In this definitive collection of photographs that document the dizzy heights and murky depths of street fashion – complete with
sniping captions – VICE magazine’s staple humour series is collected in its entire, unabashed glory. The DOs are put on a
pedestal that soars way past God and the DON’Ts are so cruel they sound litigiously close to death threats. This is the ultimate
compendium of the hilarious style commentary that has helped forge VICE’s cult reputation; irreverent, sometimes downright
disrespectful, always roaringly funny, these slices of sartorial judgement are a cult in the happening, and a phenomenon in the
making.
RIGHTS HELD: World exc. North America
Page | 52
Art
THE SCRIBBLINGS OF A MADCAP SHAMBLETON, Noel Fielding
“The boy can paint. What’s more, his offbeat, pop-art pictures are seriously commercial. Stylistically, it’s somewhere
between Henri Rousseau and Tove Jansson, creator of the Moomins.” Independent
Independent
The Psychedelic Dreams of an Jelly Fox channels the creative influences of Henri Rousseau, Roy Lichtenstein and Salvador Dali,
through the strange and singular mind of Noel Fielding. Surreal, hilarious and beautifully produced, Psychedelic Dreams is a
visual feast of a book which will delight and entertain Noel’s millions of fans.
RIGHTS HELD: World
A LIFE IN PICTURES, Alasdair Gray
“A great writer, perhaps the greatest writer living in Britain today.” Will Self
“Gray is a true original, a twentieth-century William Blake.” Observer
“A necessary genius.” Ali Smith
Alasdair Gray is known throughout the world for his writing, but he is also a highly regarded artist who not only illustrates and
designs his own books, but has created many beautiful and intriguing portraits, paintings, posters and murals. Alasdair started
painting and writing from an early age, and in his seventies he’s still vigorously doing both. In this autopictography he gathers
together the work that has mattered most to him over the years, and weaves the story of his life through and around these
pictures in his own unmistakable style. A Life in Pictures is a beautifully and copiously illustrated book, designed by the author.
This is life as seen by one of the millennium’s most entertaining and wry creative geniuses.
RIGHTS HELD: World
WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING? THE ESSENTIAL DAVID SHRIGLEY, David Shrigley
“David Shrigley is probably the funniest gallery-type artist who ever lived.” Dave Eggers
“With a casual gesture Shrigley points to that hideous shape whose name I’ve never known – and then he names it. And the
name is profoundly, embarrassingly familiar. I’m laughing while frantically searching for a pen, so desperate to capture the
feeling he has unearthed in me.” Miranda July
A beautifully designed and darkly comic collection of work, this book collects together the best of Shrigley’s work, old and new.
It is a celebration of the surreal world of one of our finest contemporary artists.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Finland (Gummerus), Spain (Blackie), US (W.W. Norton)
BUKOWSKI IN PICTURES, Howard Sounes
“A magnificently handsome book, with impressive attention to detail.” Beat Scene
“A vast and fascinating array of photographs ... The resulting collection acts as a comprehensive pictorial record of a unique
talent.” The Latest
This is the first pictorial biography of cult writer Charles Bukowski. The writer’s extraordinary private and public life is illustrated
with 150 photographs, most published for the first time. Extracts from Bukowski’s poetry and prose are sprinkled throughout,
together with drawings, cartoons, manuscripts, rare broadsides and personal letters. All photographs have detailed captions by
Page | 53
biographer Howard Sounes, who has also written a powerful introductory text with new revelations gleaned from Bukowki’s
recently declassified FBI file. The end result is a fascinating life in pictures that will be essential for all Bukowski fans.
RIGHTS HELD: World excluding Italy (Mondadori), Japan (Kawade Shobo), Spain (Salamandra)
Page | 54
Biography/Memoir
JULIAN ASSANGE: THE UNAUTHORISED AUTOBIOGRAPHY
“An intriguing self-portrait … Assange reveals a lot about himself … Well worth reading … Although Mr Assange makes an
easy target, he has interesting things to say, however controversial. And the world does sometimes need such annoying,
single minded people to move forward. Mr Assange and his creation, WikiLeaks, have made it a more open and transparent
place, and hence a bit more just.” Economist
“It is not hard to see why Assange is now fretting that, in this text, beautifully crafted … he has given away too much of
himself and said too little about his mission. That is exactly what makes the book such an engrossing read.” Independent
“It is not hard to see why the WikiLeaker turned so coy. The book, written from interviews with him, reveals an extraordinary
character, both inspiring and deeply flawed, who turns on those who fail to see things his way.” Sunday Times
“Beautifully textured … There is something special about him: a scrappiness, a chippiness, a kind of brilliance. Whatever his
doubts, he is well served by this book.” The Times
“A compelling portrait of a brave, complex, difficult, brilliant and essentially humane individual. Assange is not easy to like
but his intellectual gifts, his moral courage and his carelessness of his own physical safety make him impossible not to
admire.” Spectator
“Surpisingly revealing. It reminds us of the huge amount Julian Assange and WikiLeaks have contributed to this epochal time
and how important is the principle of free publication. The most fascinating part is what Assange objects to: the personal
stuff … Remarkably candid.” Observer
Rights Held: World excluding North America
Rights Sold: ANZ (Text), Czech (Jota), China (Yilin), Denmark (Tiderne Skifter), Finland (Sammakko), Hungary,
(TranzPress) India, - Marathi (Ameya) India (DC Books) Japan (Gakken), Korea (Munhakdongne), Malayalam (DC
Books), Marathi (Ameya), Netherlands (De Geus), Portugal (Objectiva), Russia (Eksmo) Spain - Catalan (Ara Llibres),
Spain (Libros del Lince), Sebia (Albion Books), Sweden (Norstedts), Taiwan (Commonwealth), Turkey (Alfa Yayinlari),
Ukraine (ECEM)
DEAR OLIVIA, Mary Contini
“Mary Contini has given her ancestors words and tears and awkward relationships, fear and love and hope. She has done so
with remarkable tenderness, skill and bravery” List
“Hauntingly beautiful” Scotsman
This is Mary Contini's fascinating follow-up to the hugely successful Dear Francesca, in which she reveals the untold story of her
family’s struggle to survive in a foreign country. Compiled from first-hand oral history and extensive research, Contini takes the
reader into the heart of the Crolla and Di Ciacca families, and the lives of the first Italian Scots. Their stories are brought to life in
this charming, moving story – remarkable in its honesty and openness.
RIGHTS HELD: World
GHOSTING: A MEMOIR, Jennie Erdal
LONGLISTED FOR THE J.R. ACKERLEY PRIZE FOR AUTOBIOGRAPHY
“Jennie Erdal’s Ghosting is a HUGE treat. What a relationship! What a character!! And how well she tells that extraordinary
story. I’d kill for an experience like that to write about, and she rises to it magnificently.” Diana Athill, author of Stet
Page | 55
“Ghosting is a little masterpiece about a relationship, superbly written in a funny, down-to-earth style, and as enjoyable as a
good novel.” Sunday Times Culture
Ghosting is a remarkable account of one woman’s life – or, to be more accurate, lives. For fifteen years, Jennie Erdal had a
double existence: officially she worked as a personal editor for one particular man – Tiger – but in reality she was his ghostwriter and in some mysterious sense his alter ego. During this time she wrote a great deal that appeared under his name – from
personal letters and business correspondence to newspaper columns, novels and full-length books.
Ghosting moves from a vivid evocation of an austere upbringing in Fife to superbly rendered portraits of the people with whom
Jennie Erdal worked at a London-based publishing house. This moving and beautifully written memoir is laced throughout with
rich, quiet comedy. It is a meditation on words, identity and creativity, but above all it is a portrait of a uniquely intimate
relationship between a man and a woman.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Canada (Doubleday), Germany (Aufbau), Netherlands (Cossee), Spain, (Alba Editorial) US (Doubleday)
DESPITE THE SYSTEM: ORSON WELLES VERSUS THE HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS, Clinton Heylin
“This is the book Orson Welles always hoped for: one that would, as he put it, ‘set the record straight,’ Clinton Heylin has
done an extraordinary job of groundbreaking research on his subject ... Written with humor and compassion in a nonacademic style, this book is nonetheless authoritative and convincing … I can recognize here the Welles I knew.” Peter
Bogdanovich
“After at least five great books on Orson Welles and numerous important essays and documentaries, you’d think that there’d
be little left to say about the great director. Despite the System shows that this is not the case… A clear and original book.”
Mark Cousins, author of The Story of Film
Containing hitherto unpublished extracts from Welles’ letters and shooting scripts, Despite the System shows brilliantly how
Welles was undone by real people, with real motives – and by the circumstances found in a single time and place, Hollywood at
the end of its golden era – and yet still succeeded in forging a body of work that, whatever its flaws, is without equal in the
history of cinema. Essentially a portrait of one man’s titanic struggles against the Hollywood studio system, it is a book that will
appeal to film lovers far beyond Welles’ established fan base.
RIGHTSHELD: World, excluding North America (Chicago Press)
STARGAZING, Peter Hill
“Both an elegy to an extinct way of life and a tribute to the spirit and expertise of the men who embodied this romance of sea
and sky.” Observer
“A gentle comedy of manners, which pitches the green-around-the-gills Hill, an adolescent idealist, into the intrinsically nononsense, manly world of the lighthouse.” Independent
Hill was nineteen, it was 1973 and, with his head fed by Vietnam, Zappa, Kerouac, Vonnegut and Watergate, he spent six months
on various lighthouses, ‘keeping’ with all manner of unusual and fascinating people. Within thirty years this way of life was to
have disappeared entirely. The resulting book is a charming and beautifully written memoir that is not only a heartfelt lament
for Hill’s own youth and innocence but also for a simpler and more honest age.
RIGHTS HELD: World, excluding Australia and New Zealand (Random House)
RIGHTS SOLD: Canada (McArthur & Co), Germany (Rogner & Bernhard), US (Canongate US/Grove)
WE DIE ALONE, David Howarth
Introduced by Andy McNab
“Fills one with humble admiration for the stubborn courage of a man who refused to die under circumstances that would
have killed ninety-nine men out of a hundred.” New York Times
“Excellent ... a deeply moving Arctic saga.” The Times
Page | 56
In March 1943 a team of expatriate Norwegian commandos sailed from northern England for Nazi-occupied Norway to organise
and support the Norwegian resistance. They were betrayed and only one man survived the ambush by the Nazis. Crippled by
frostbite and snowblind, hunted by the Nazis, Jan Baalsrud managed to find a tiny Arctic village. There – delirious, near death –
he found villagers willing to risk their own lives to save him.
During World War II David Howarth ran a spy ring; he is also the author of two dozen major history books. Howarth died in 1991.
RIGHTS HELD: World excluding North America
RIGHTS SOLD: Czech Republic (Jota), Poland (Gord), UK – Large Print (AudioGo)
RELATIVE STRANGER, Mary Loudon
“Relative Stranger is a truly extraordinary book, not just the subject matter and the wonderful vitality, yet control, of the
style, but also the way Mary Loudon has structured it, the sheer management of all this difficult and wild and elusive
material. And she manages to be so candid without once tipping over into victim speak. I was so impressed.” Joanna Trollope
“Written with great flair, clarity, imaginative intensity, and extraordinary confidence and style. Honest and unvarnished and
without mawkishness of any kind. Convincing, gripping and moving, it deserves to be a triumph.” Jonathan Dimbleby
Relative Stranger is the riveting story of Mary Loudon’s search for her dead sister, whom she had not seen for the last twelve
years of her life. An explicit account of the devastation that schizophrenia can visit upon a person and a family, it will leave no
reader unaffected – offering a profound and uncompromising challenge to the ways in which we think about one another.
Perhaps most compelling of all is the author’s internal journey as she faces head-on her sister’s illness and alter ego. As Loudon
dissects our definitions of sanity and identity, and unpicks our assumptions about familial responsibility, she overhauls
everything we believe about what it means to love, to lose, to die, to live and above all, to belong.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Canada (Doubleday)
CHESTER HIMES: A BIOGRAPHY, Jim Sallis
“Biographies are rarely this courageous or compelling … The definitive take on a blistering genius.” Doug Winter
In the first major biography of one of the greatest black American writers of the twentieth century, Sallis has drawn on many
unused sources as well as conducting a wide range of new interviews. This research, coupled with his superb analysis of Himes’s
fiction, has produced the definitive biography of one of America’s great unsung literary heroes. Poet, critic and novelist, Jim
Sallis has written about Himes and his work for over twenty years.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: France (Payot Rivages), USA (Walker)
MISADVENTURES, Sylvia Smith
“This is the nicest, wisest and funniest book I have read for ages.”
Helen Fielding, author of Bridget Jones’s Diary
“Proof that there's no such thing as a dull life with the right take on human nature, the stories are wickedly funny, mercilessly
well observed, and as warm-hearted as they are spiky.”
New York Magazine
The antithesis of every Bridget Jones clone to have emerged in recent years, Misadventures is part memoir, part comic
monologue; an ensemble of mishaps and anecdotes that, taken together, reveal the ups and downs of one woman’s life. The
deadpan delivery has an almost hypnotic effect, shot through with moments of sandpaper-dry wit and the accumulated impact
of the author’s ‘misadventures’ provides a heart-rending and unforgettable read.
RIGHTS HELD: World
MASKERADO: DANCING AROUND DEATH IN NAZI HUNGARY, Tivadar Soros
Page | 57
Forewords by Paul and George Soros
Translated by Humphrey Tonkin
“An extraordinary account ... a terrifying tale of dangers missed by a hair’s breadth but also a surprising source of wise
thoughts and observations on how to tackle life.” Daily Mail
“Tivadar Soros’s story rings true ... a remarkable account of courage and of grace under pressure.” Literary Review
Written in Esperanto in the early 1960s, this unique account of survival is told by a Budapest lawyer who secured fake Christian
identities for himself, his wife and his two children following the invasion of the Germans in March 1944. In a narrative
reminiscent of the great Primo Levi, Soros views his experiences with a beguiling humour, deep humanity and a wisdom that is
humbling. Maskerado is a unique testament of the Holocaust, a story as wise as it is compelling, of how one man managed not
only to escape, but to retain his integrity, compassion, family unity and humour by ‘dancing around death’.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Germany (Börsenmedien AG), USA (Arcade)
CHICKEN, LOVE FOR SALE ON THE STREETS OF HOLLYWOOD, David Sterry
“A cross between Midnight Cowboy and Boogie Nights, this tell-all memoir of a Hollywood Boulevard-heterosexual-teenboy-male-hustler in the 1970s has all the makings of a week’s worth of Jerry Springer shows.” Publishers Weekly
“Sterry judges the tone carefully. He’s unflinching and perceptive without being mawkish, and often very funny. And the side
of the sex-worker’s story he tells is a rarely heard one.”
Independent on Sunday
Arriving in Hollywood to attend college, but desperate for money, Sterry was introduced to a pimp who established him as a
male prostitute serving wealthy older women. A startlingly honest memoir, Chicken makes for compulsive reading. Sterry’s oneman show based on Chicken showcased in San Francisco, and made its European debut at the 2003 Edinburgh Festival Fringe,
where it sold out and was acclaimed by the Independent as one of the five best shows of the festival.
RIGHTS HELD: World excluding North America (Regan/HarperCollins US), Netherlands (De Kern) and Germany
(Rowohlt)
RIGHTS SOLD: Italy (Adelphi)
UNZIPPED, David Henry Sterry
“His hilarious account of the screaming women, hissy fits, mega drug abuse and eventual death/murder of the charismatic
man behind the act, Nick de Noia, is both engaging and entertaining.” Refresh Magazine
Manhattan, mid-’80s: Madonna is wearing her bullet-bra and Wall Street is cash-happy, while at Chippendales – the world’s
most famous male strip club – it’s raining men, and girls just wanna have fun. David Henry Sterry was at the centre of the
madness as the roller-skating emcee, fanning the flames of lady lust while Rome burned. With unflinching, brutal honesty,
Sterry records the seedy glamour, dirty little secrets and hilarious backstage madness of a world spinning out of control.
Unzipped is the eye-popping story of the ugliest man at Chippendales, and his search for happiness in a sea of G-strings,
desperate housewives behaving badly and twenty-five of the most beautiful men in the world.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: US (Canongate/Grove)
STRANGER TO HISTORY: A SON’S JOURNEY THROUGH ISLAMIC LANDS, Aatish Taseer
“Taseer uses this intensely personal prism to spring a narrative that darts deftly between physical journey and childhood
memoir. The paternal relationship he never had becomes the backbone of the book, which is all the better for it.
Uncomfortable reading for Daddy, certainly, but gripping for the rest of us.”
Literary Review
“Indispensable reading for anyone who wants a wider understanding of the Islamic world, of its history
Page | 58
and its politics.” Financial Times
In 2006 Aatish Taseer set off on an expedition across the Islamic world in search of his own Islamic heritage, as well as to
discover how other young people across the Middle East felt
about theirs. In a post-9/11 world he is forced to confront himself and his relationship with the religious and secular worlds he
moves in, as one of many ‘crisis children living on the faultline of Islam and modernity’. He explores issues of identity and
religious self-discovery with a fascinating crosssection of people ranging from Norwegians considering conversions in Damascus
to Hare Krishnas in Tehran. It is a thought-provoking and emotional journey that ends in Lahore, at his estranged father’s home,
on the day Benazir Bhutto is killed.
Rights Held: World excluding USA
Rights Sold: ANZ (Text), Canada (McClelland & Stewart), China (Law Press China), China – Uighur (Xinjiang People's
Publishing House), France (Buchet-Chastel), Germany (C.H. Beck), India (HarperCollins), India – Malay (DC Books),
India – Marathi (Mauj), Italy (Einaudi), Netherlands (Ambo/ Anthos), Norway (Versal), Portugal (Civilização Editora)
THE ASSASSIN’S CLOAK: AN ANTHOLOGY OF THE WORLD’S GREATEST DIARISTS, Edited by Alan and
Irene Taylor
“A substantial treasury to dip into for years and years, to inspire new thoughts and enlighten all dullness ... it amply fills a gap
in the classics of English-language anthologies.”
Muriel Spark, TLS
This remarkable anthology of the world’s greatest diarists includes over 200 contributors and is the most wide-ranging,
international and comprehensive book of its kind. The scope is international and historical – a typical day sees entries from
Goethe, Boswell, Victor Klemperer, Steinbeck and Warhol. On another, Tolstoy, Plath, de Beauvoir, Waugh, Goebbels, Che
Guevara, Stendhal and Virginia Woolf. The result is a studiously eclectic and gloriously serendipitous gathering which can be
read selectively or continuously.
RIGHTS HELD: World (permission clearance for World English only)
SPY ON THE ROOF OF THE WORLD, Sydney Wignall
“A fascinating tale of great courage and strong determination.” The Dalai Lama
“A combination of Kipling and Le Carré, this book is an enthralling read.” Sir John Mills, CBE
An autobiographical account by a mountaineer and part-time spy amidst the grandeur of the Himalayas. In 1955 Wignall led the
Welsh Himalayan expedition on an assault of Gurla Mandhata, the highest mountain lying completely in Tibet, but he had also
been recruited by Indian Military Intelligence to report on Chinese military activity in the region. Captured by the PLA along with
his two companions, Wignall was subjected to harsh interrogation in appalling conditions. All the while he had to draw on all his
resources of courage, humour and ingenuity to con his jailers while stealthily gathering as much information as he could about
Chinese designs on northern India – information which was to confirm the importance of his mission.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: USA (Lyons and Burford,
Page | 59
CURRENT AFFAIRS
MY FRIEND THE MERCENARY, James Brabazon
“Fully-adrenalized … Not only a beautiful writer but an incredibly brave reporter, and this book reflects both brilliantly.”
Sebastian Junger
“Outstanding … I couldn’t put this book down.” Andy McNab
“Alarmingly frank … a compelling insight into a devastated region that is the playground of rapacious warlords, western
intelligence agents and opportunistic businessmen.”
Sunday Business Post
He wanted a war. And, for his sins, he got one. James Brabazon was an ambitious young war reporter when he entered the
chaos of the Liberian Civil War in 2002. Running with the infamous LURD rebels, he survived numerous deadly ambushes, the
privations of dysentery and a dramatic hundred-mile escape from Government troops through dense equatorial jungle. He even
had a bounty put on his head. Surrounded largely by child soldiers high on drugs, Brabazon was accompanied by Nick du Toit, a
South African mercenary with a dark past. They quickly became best friends. Before long, Nick promised James the scoop of his
life: a front seat, beside Simon Mann, in an audacious coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea. The offer was too good to refuse.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: ANZ (Text), Canada (HarperCollins), Norway (Aschehoug), Poland (W.A.B.), US (Grove / Atlantic)
THE AGE OF DEMOCRACY: TWENTY-TWO YEARS THAT CHANGED THE WORLD, Simon Reid-Henry
The twenty-two-year sweep of The Age of Democracy covers a period of remarkable, accelerated change: rampant globalisation;
the 9/11 wars; the rise of the East; the global economic crisis; and the Arab Spring. Beneath these headline events the world
has also experienced major geographical shifts – the majority of the global population are living in cities for the first time, and
the gap between the rich and poor has become more extreme than ever.
Taking Eric Hobsbawm’s landmark series as his model, acclaimed academic Simon Reid-Henry argues that this is the Age of
Democracy. But while liberal democracy has spread further than ever before, it has also become increasingly compromised as it
seeks to impose its agenda.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Canada (Doubleday), Netherlands (De Geus), Spain (Aguilar), US (Simon & Schuster)
HOPE IN THE DARK: THE UNTOLD HISTORY OF PEOPLE POWER, Rebecca Solnit
“Solnit is who Susan Sontag might have become if Sontag had never forsaken California for Manhattan.” San Francisco
Chronicle
“A jewel of a book … Solnit reveals where we were, where we are, and the step-by-step advances that have been made in
human rights, as we stubbornly stumble out of the darkness … It surges.” Studs Terkel
Hope calls for action; action is impossible without hope.
Multi-award-winning columnist, author and activist, Rebecca Solnit traces a history of political engagement and social change
over the past five decades. Chronicling recent breakthroughs – from the fall of the Berlin Wall to the Zapatista uprising in Mexico
to Seattle in 1999 to the worldwide marches against the war in Iraq – Solnit explores the progression of social change through
the twentieth century and provides new grounds for political engagement in the twenty-first. Drawing from thinkers of the last
century – Woolf, Ghandi, Borges, Benjamin and Havel, amongst others – Hope in the Dark is a manifesto for optimism and a
meditation on hope.
RIGHTS HELD: UK and Commonwealth (excluding Canada) & translation rights (excluding Germany, Japan and Korea)
Page | 60
RIGHTS SOLD: France (Actes Sud), Greece (Okto), Italy (Fandango), Netherlands (Cossee)
RISING TIDES, A HISTORY OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL REVOLUTION AND VISIONS FOR AN ECOLOGICAL AGE,
Rory Spowers
“Spowers is, I believe, on the side of the angels. His blueprint for the future at least demonstrates an attempt to offer
solutions rather than just to damn the problems and problem makers.”
Sunday Times
“Rising Tides is not only exemplary, but invaluable.” John Burnside, Scotsman
Rising Tides is an extensively researched and engagingly written examination of the many factors that have shaped the history of
ecological thought, from the Genesis myth through to the present day. It challenges the basic assumptions of the Western
world-view, exposing the fundamental flaws in a political and economic system which believes in unlimited economic growth
within a finite world, and suggests ways in which we can all plug in, rescue our economic system from manipulation by the
corporate elite and help to create the sort of world we want to live in.
RIGHTS HELD: World
Page | 61
HUMOUR
PRIDE AND PROMISCUITY: THE LOST SEX SCENES OF JANE AUSTEN, Arielle Eckstut
“A decorous and very funny act of literary ventriloquism that echoes Austen’s style with amazing fidelity.” Independent
“A wickedly funny collection.” Elsa Solendar, President of the Jane Austen Society of
North America
In 2002, an amateur Jane Austen scholar, while staying at a Hertfordshire estate, stumbled upon a hidden cache of manuscript
pages and made an extraordinary literary discovery – lost scenes from Jane Austen’s novels that reveal an altogether different
dimension to her oeuvre.
RIGHTS HELD: World excluding North America (Fireside/Simon & Schuster, 2001)
RIGHTS SOLD: Spain (Destino)
THE INCOMPLETE TIM KEY, Tim Key
“Incredibly funny.” The Times
“Key has the soul of a master poet trapped inside the body of a drunken
tramp. With every turn of the page a new adventure into the weird and wonderful world of this abstract genius begins.” Time
Out
“In any other sphere apart from comedy, we’d probably class this way of looking at the world as certifiable. Here it feels like
genius.” Telegraph
The Incomplete Tim Key is full of poems by Key (award-winning) primarily about love, sex, dreams, death and fruit (strawberries,
beans etc). The publishing of the book in no way ties in with things like ‘demand’ or ‘clamour’ but is more a result of Key having
a full English breakfast with the right person at the right time. Key is not the sort of person to take offence if you don’t buy his
book but instead replace it on its shelf or lazily slot it between a couple of DBC Pierres or dump it by a pot plant next to the till.
Key’s just happy that someone has bothered to touch it. That is enough for Key (Newswipe).
RIGHTS HELD: World
AN IDIOT ABROAD, Karl Pilkington with Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant
NO 1. BESTSELLER FOR 3 MONTHS
OVER 700,000 COPIES SOLD
“Genius or mental case? Prepare to be amazed.” Esquire
“The funniest man on the planet.” Spectator
“Not many idiots could make something this funny.” Guardian
Guardian
Presenting the Travel Diaries of Karl Pilkington: Adventurer. Philosopher. Idiot. Karl Pilkington isn’t keen on travelling. Given the
choice, he’ll go on holiday to Devon or Wales or, at a push, eat English food on a package
holiday in Majorca. So what happened when he was convinced by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant (creators of The Office)
to go on an epic adventure to see the Seven Wonders of the World? Travel broadens the mind, right? You’d think so . . .
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Germany (Blanvalet), Hungary (Gabo), Poland (Sonia Draga)
Page | 62
SIMON’S CAT, Simon Tofield
Simon's Cat, is a genuine word-of-mouth phenomenon. Fans from all over the world have fallen for this adorable but anarchic
feline who will do just about anything to be fed. Simon Tofield's beautiful drawings and warm humour come alive on the page in
the first of a series of irresistible stocking-filler humour books.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: ANZ (Text), Brazil (L&PM), Canada (Penguin), China (Modern Press), Czech Republic (Paseka), Denmark
(Politisk Revy), Estonia (Pegasus), Finland (Gummerus), France (Univers Poche), Germany (Goldmann Verlag), Greece
(Motibo/Topos Books), Hungary (Könyvfakasztó), Italy (TEA/Longanesi), Japan (Marbletron), Korea (Human Comedy),
Latvia (Zvaigzne ABC), Lithuania (Trigrama) Netherlands (De Bezige Bij), Norway (Lille Måne), Poland (W.A.B.),
Portugal (Objectiva), Spain (Duomo), Sweden (Brombergs), Turkey (Epsilon), US (Grand Central)
SIMON’S CAT: BEYOND THE FENCE, Simon Tofield
“What sets Tofield’s cartoons apart are the truly comic moments of pure cat-ness: the merciless patting at a half-dead
fly, the single-minded determination, that weird little dance thing that segues seamlessly into a look of utter boredom.” Irish
Times
“The conniving Simon’s Cat continues in his very own book. The quirky felis catus, the creation of award-winning illustrator
and animator Simon Tofield, is a YouTube phenomenon.” Herald
Last year, Simon’s Cat was the surprise hit of the Christmas season, selling 125,000 copies in the UK. This year Simon Tofield
returns with a charming follow-up that sees the adorable but incorrigible cat embark on a series of adventures beyond the
garden fence. Sharply observed and beautifully drawn, this new book promises to be an even bigger hit than the first.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: ANZ (Text), Brazil (L&PM), Canada (Penguin), China (Modern Press), Czech (Paseka) Estonia (Pegasus),
Finland (Gummerus), France (Univers Poche), Germany (Goldmann Verlag), Hungary (Konyvvfakazto) Italy
(TEA/Longanesi), Netherlands (De Bezige Bij), Norway (Lille Måne), Poland (W.A.B.), Portugal (Objectiva), Russia
(Gayatri), Spain (Duomo), Sweden (Brombergs), US (Grand Central)
SIMON’S CAT IN KITTEN CHAOS, Simon Tofield
OVER 230 MILLION YOUTUBE HITS!
Like all great cartoon creations, from Peanuts to Asterix, from Garfield to Tintin, Simon’s Cat has continued to evolve by
introducing new characters and developing new story lines. After the runaway success of the original book, Simon Tofield
returned last year with the further adventures of his feline friend in Simon’s Cat: Beyond the Fence. Now, in 2011 – with over
150 million hits on YouTube – we welcome a cuddly new addition to the family in the form of Simon’s Kitten. It’s an adorable
new chapter in this publishing phenomenon, which is sure to delight Simon’s millions of fans.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Brazil, (L&PM Editores), Czech (Paseka), France (Univers Poche), Finland (Gummerus), Germany
(Goldmann), Italy (TEA/Longanesi), Netherlands (De Bezige Bij), Poland (W.A.B.), Russia (Gayatri), Spain (Duomo), US
(Akashic Books)
SIMON’S CAT VERSUS THE WORLD, Simon Tofield
In the four years since Simon’s cat first leaped into our lives he has starred in more than 15 films, appeared in three best-selling
books and has entertained and delighted millions of fans across the world. This year the nation’s favourite cat faces up to his
toughest challenge yet. With a new kitten in the house, a new girlfriend for Simon and endless new visitors to the garden, it is
time to reassert his position – once and for all – as the undisputed Top Cat. One hundred original cartoons (each one in full
colour), one hundred hilarious encounters: this is Simon’s Cat vs. the World!
Page | 63
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Brazil (L&PM Editores), France (Univers Poche), Finland (Gummerus), Germany (Goldmann), Italy
(TEA), Poland (W.A.B.), Russia (Gaytari), Spain (Duomo), US (Akashic Books)
Page | 64
MUSIC
THE TRUE ADVENTURES OF THE ROLLING STONES, Stanley Booth
“The one authentic masterpiece of rock 'n' roll writing.” Peter Guralnick
“Stanley Booth's book is the only one I can read and say, 'Yeah, that's how it was'.” Keith Richards
“It is the only book about the Stones that I would recommend both to the general reader and to the most devoted fan. Both
will find an epiphany on almost every page.” Robert Palmer, New York Review Times Book Review
The True Adventures of the Rolling Stones is not just the greatest book about the greatest rock 'n' roll band, it is one of the most
important books about the 1960s capturing its zeitgeist - that uneasy mix of excess, violence and idealism - in a way no other
book does.
Stanley Booth was with the Rolling Stones on their 1969 U.S. tour, which culminated in the notorious free concert at Altamont.
But this book is much more than a brilliant piece of journalism. It gives a history of the Rolling Stones from their early rhythm 'n'
blues days in west London clubs to the end of the 1960s; and it interweaves with mastery the two tragic stories of the decline
and death of Brian Jones and the terrifying Altamont concert itself, where the Hells Angels, supposedly providing security, ran
amok and murdered a member of the audience. Although it took nearly fifteen years to write, the book that emerged has been
rightly acclaimed as 'the one authentic masterpiece of rock 'n' writing'.
RIGHTS HELD: World excluding North America (Chicago Review Press)
RIGHTS SOLD: Czech (Mlada Fronta), France (Flammarion), Italy (Feltrinelli), Spain (Temas de Hoy)
THERE’S A RIOT GOING ON: REVOLUTIONARIES, ROCK STARS AND THE RISE AND FALL OF ’60’S COUNTERCULTURE, Peter Doggett
“Meticulously researched, scholarly and often gripping portrait of an era.” Sunday Telegraph
“Essential for anyone who believes that art, sociology and politics are inextricably linked.” The Times
Between 1967 and 1973, political activists around the globe prepared to mount a revolution. While the Vietnam War raged, calls
for black power grew louder and liberation movements erupted everywhere from Africa to Western Europe. Peace
campaigners, feminists, black liberationists, anarchists and urban terrorists joined hands with many of the most important
figures in black and white music to create a revolutionary tide that threatened to alter the face of global politics, before ebbing
away under the pressure of government harassment and rampant egotism.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: US (Canongate/Grove)
BIOPIC: IGGY POP, Gavin Evans
Over the course of ninety minutes, and in front of a lens manned by Gavin Evans, Iggy Pop provides an insight into his life and his
mind in a manner beyond that of the written biography. The result is a series of images more powerful and less constrained,
more beautiful and less deliberate than anything you will have ever viewed of Iggy previously. Gavin Evans is a renowned
portrait photographer whose work has featured in publications such as the New York Times, Sunday Times, Observer and Time
Out. He has photographed subjects as diverse as Harvey Keitel, Brian Wilson, David Bowie, Tricky, Arthur Miller and Dusty
Springfield.
RIGHTS HELD: World
THE ACT YOU’VE KNOWN FOR ALL THESE YEARS, Clinton Heylin
“Clearly intensively researched … Heylin examines the happenings of 1967 in great detail.” Observer
Page | 65
On 1st June 2007, it was forty years to the day since the release of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles, an LP
which changed the face of popular culture. The Act You’ve Known For All These Years reconstructs the life and times of Sgt.
Pepper. Weaving the activities of The Beatles in with those of their contemporaries and rivals – notably the Beach Boys, Bob
Dylan and Syd Barrett’s Pink Floyd – Clinton Heylin reveals the inspirations and explodes the myths behind this talismanic, iconic
album – and the “summer of love” itself.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Brazil (Conrad Livros), Spain (Global Rhythm Press), US (Grove/Atlantic)
THE MOJO COLLECTION, 4TH EDITION, Jim Irvin
“Absorbing.” Independent
“Excellent for stashing away beside bed or toilet and dipping into in an idle moment.” Scotsman
From The Beatles to The Verve, Duke Ellington to Bob Marley, Peggy Lee to Sly Stone, this astonishing book presents an
authoritative and engaging guide to the history of the pop album. The MOJO Collection contains 600 individual album entries,
from the first commercially issued vinyl LP – The Voice Of Frank Sinatra, 1946 – to 1999’s best-sellers Travis, presented
chronologically. Each entry comes with the following: Recording and Production Details; Release Dates and Chart Histories; Full
Personnel and Track Listings; and Currently Available CD. There are also further listening and reading suggestions, including
appropriate websites.
RIGHTS: World
PRINCE: A THIEF IN THE TEMPLE, Brian Morton
“A tightly argued book that is good on the musicality and graced with flair.” Herald
“[Morton] offers up a fascinating album-by-album analysis of how Prince’s revolutionary melding of white rock and black funk
and soul has had a profound impact on modern music.” Metro
It is almost thirty years since Prince Rogers Nelson released his first album. In that time he has been a superstar, a recluse, an
inspiration, an enigma, a slave and a symbol. But throughout all these changes he has remained a prodigiously talented singer,
songwriter, performer and musician. From the highs of Purple Rain and Sign O’ The Times to the bitter quarrels and commercial
failures of the 1990s he has remained a compulsively creative force and a unique voice in rock, pop, soul or whatever music he
turns his hand to. In this critical biography, Brian Morton dissects the man behind the artist and shows emphatically why Prince
still matters in the twenty-first century.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: US (Canongate/Grove)
CROSSTOWN TRAFIC: JIMI HENDRIX AND POST WAR POP, Charles Shaar Murray
“Murray goes so far inside the myth that it dissolves. What is left is a man pursuing his own destiny, piece by piece, day by
day.” Greil Marcus
Jimi Hendrix 'transgressed many boundaries; both arbitrary musical definitions separating blues and soul or jazz and rock, and
also those fundamental divides between the archaic and the avant-garde, between individualist and collectivist philosophies,
between blacks and whites, between America and Britain, between passive acquiescence and furious resistance, between lust
for life and obsession with death.' Charles Shaar Murray
Crosstown Traffic charts the routes Hendrix took to arrive at his 'unique musical formulation'. The result is a bravura study of his
art and life that has become established as the definitive work on 'the most eloquent instrumentalist ever to work in rock.'
Winner of the Ralph Gleason Music Book Award on first publication, this brilliant and ambitious book, hailed as 'the most
compelling and literate essay on rock since Greil Marcus' Mystery Train, is being reissued with an updated introduction.
Page | 66
RIGHTS HELD: World excluding France (Editions du Soleil), Japan (Film Art Sha), US (St Martin’sPress)
NOW AND THEN, GIL SCOTT-HERON
“Some of the funniest and most literate lyrics in all music … From deadpan attacks on racism to withering sarcasm about the
Great Society; from Chomskian rants to parodies of media shallowness - every line comes coated in a sardonically witty turn
of phrase.” Time Out
“A poet and polemicist whose lyrics have inspired and galvanised generations.” GQ
One glance at Now and Then and it becomes evident that this is not merely a collection of a songwriter's lyrics. The song-poems
of this undisputed "bluesologist" triumphantly stand on their own, evoking the rhythm and urgency
Which have distinguished Gil Scott-Heron’s career.
This, the first ever collection of his poems to be published in Britain, carries the reader from the global topics of political
hypocrisy and the dangers posed by capitalist culture to painfully personal themes and the realities of modern day life. His
message is black, political, historically accurate, urgent, uncompromising and mature and as relevant now as it was when he
started, back in the early seventies.
RIGHTS HELD: World
THE LAST HOLIDAY, GIL SCOTT-HERON
“Leave it to Scott-Heron to save some of his best for last. This posthumously published memoir is an elegiac culmination to his
musical and literary career. He’s a real writer, a word man, and it is as wriggling and vital in its way as Bob Dylan’s Chronicles:
Volume One.” New York Times
“This is a marvellous documentary of black America and life lived in the raw.” Spectator
In 1980, Gil Scott-Heron was invited by Stevie Wonder to join him on a tour across America, the purpose of which was to gather
popular support and force legislation to create a national holiday in honour of Martin Luther King, Jr. Scott-Heron uses this
history-making tour as the backbone of his fascinating memoir.
Scott-Heron’s journey to become one of the most influential musicians and songwriters of his generation is a remarkable one.
Frequently cited as the godfather of rap, Scott-Heron’s poetic output spanned from the politically savvy to the savagely satirical,
and from the socially conscious to the tender-hearted. His unexpected death in May 2011 marked the loss of one of the world’s
most vocal and articulate artists. Chuck D of Public Enemy said of him, ‘we do what we do and how we do because of you.’
Eminem added, ‘Scott-Heron influenced all of hip-hop’. This posthumous publication of The Last Holiday is a fitting testament to
the career and achievements of Gil Scott-Heron.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: France (Éditions de l’Olivier), Italy (Libraria), Japan (Space Shower), US (Canongate US / Grove
Atlantic)
THE FALLEN, Dave Simpson
“If it’s me and yer Granny on bongos, it’s The Fall.” Mark E. Smith
“They are always different; they are always the same.” John Peel
“The Fall are my favourite band. I also hate my favourite band. With a passion … I vow never to go to another Fall show and
yet somehow always end up at the next one. I am sick.” Julian Cope
The Fall are one of the world’s most iconic groups, led for the last thirty years by the inimitable and enigmatic Mark E. Smith.
They have released nearly thirty studio albums, with more than fifty musicians passing through their ranks. They are The Fallen;
this is their story. Full of hilarious and shocking anecdotes about life in one of the country’s most intense and insane bands, it’s
also a biography in reflection of Mark E. Smith, a man who runs his group like a football team, for whom no one member is
greater than The Fall.
Page | 67
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Galilee (Israel)
THE HEROES SERIES
“The Heroes series is a new set of handsome mini-hardbacks … there’s as much pungent detail here as you’d find in most fulllength Motown homages.” Scotsman
The Heroes is a new series of music books that sets out to break away from the tendency within music publishing to produce
worthy, overlong biographies of musicians that offer very little by way of genuine insight. The authors we are commissioning
are music writers of the highest calibre, well-known journalists and novelists who are as inspired by music as they are by
literature.
OTIS REDDING
MARVIN GAYE
by Geoff Brown
RIGHTS HELD: World
by Ben Edmonds
RIGHTS HELD: World
NEIL YOUNG
ARTHUR LEE
by Sylvie Simmons
RIGHTS HELD: World
by Barney Hoskyns
RIGHTS HELD: World
GEORGE CLINTON
PRINCE
by Lloyd Bradley
RIGHTS HELD: World
by Brian Morton
RIGHTS HELD: World, RIGHTS SOLD: US (Canongate US JV)
TOM WAITS
by Tim Adams
RIGHTS HELD: World
Page | 68
POETRY
TRANSFORMATRIX, Patience Agbabi
“Agbabi is a fine poet, and her linguistic wit carries satirical fire.” Daily Telegraph
From Hamburg to Jo'burg, Oslo to Soho, Patience Agbabi follows her critically acclaimed debut collection R.A.W., with
Transformatrix, an exploration of women, travel and metamorphosis.
Inspired by 90s poetry, 80s rap and 70s disco, Transformatrix is a celebration of literary form and constitutes a very potent and
telling commentary on the realities of late twentieth century Britain. It is also a self-portrait of a poet whose honesty,
intelligence and wit manages to pack a punch, draw a smile and warm your heart all at once.
RIGHTS HELD: World
BLOODSHOT MONOCHROME, Patience Agbabi
“Thrilling. Has a multi-dimensional richness. It's a bold, brassy work.” Independent on Sunday
“Charged with passion, wit and sheer inventiveness.” New Internationalist
Bloodshot Monochrome is a glorious poetic take on all things black, white and read.
Reinventing the sonnet, Patience Agbabi shines her euphoric, musical lines on everything from growing up to growing old, from
Northern Soul to contract killers, from the retro to the brand new. Whether resurrecting the dead in 'Problem Pages', playing
out noir dramas in 'Vicious Circle', or capturing moments of her own life in perfect snapshot, Agbabi's verse is sublimely lyrical
and spiked with gleeful humour.
RIGHTS HELD: World
IF: A TREASURY OF POEMS FOR EVERY POSSIBILITY, Ali Esiri and Rachel Kelly
“This gorgeous and electrifying anthology should be on the shelf of every child.” Carol Ann Duffy
“A book full of old friends and some new surprises.” Quentin Blake
In this magical new collection of our best-loved poems, discover the joy, solace and beauty of poetry with your family. Whether
you’re after a poem that is charming, funny, sad, silly, magical, sleepy, long or short, there’s something in here for everyone.
From Lear’s The Owl and the Pussycat to Moore’s A Visit from St Nicholas to Carroll’s Jabberwocky, these are poems to pass
down the generations. A favourite poem will stay with you for life, and this beautifully illustrated collection is sure to delight and
entertain for years to come.
From Hamburg to Jo'burg, Oslo to Soho, Patience Agbabi follows her critically acclaimed debut collection R.A.W., with
Transformatrix, an exploration of women, travel and metamorphosis.
Inspired by 90s poetry, 80s rap and 70s disco, Transformatrix is a celebration of literary form and constitutes a very potent and
telling commentary on the realities of late twentieth century Britain. It is also a self-portrait of a poet whose honesty,
intelligence and wit manages to pack a punch, draw a smile and warm your heart all at once.
RIGHTS HELD: World
CLEAR LIGHT, Alan Spence
“One of Scotland's most accomplished literary talents. Alan's poems are glorious. Sharp, clear-eyed, seasonal, cyclical,
devastatingly sensuous little moments that catch the heart with intimations of the whole big thing of being alive, here, now.
So precise they make you want to sneeze, or laugh. A joy and a delight.” Liz Lochead
Clear Light contains 150 haiku bursting with Alan Spence's characteristic verve and wit. Mythic and mesmerising, inspiring and
hilarious, these poems shed clear light on the delights, hardships, breakthroughs and frustrations of the world of the
Page | 69
momentary. Simple in form, these haiku request a fresh look at the familiar and leave us reeling at how much in the world, from
the exotic to the everyday, we have yet to observe.
RIGHTS HELD: World
SEASONS OF THE HEART, Alan Spence
“One of Scotland's most accomplished literary talents.” The Times
This is Spence's first book of poetry since "Glasgow Zen". In this collection he evokes the essence of the seasons with this cycle
of haiku.
RIGHTS HELD: World
GLASGOW ZEN, Alan Spence
“Memorable poignancy and poetic compression.” Sunday Times
“The 150 pieces in this exquisite collection take the reader through the unfolding beauty of the passing seasons, their fleeting
delights presented in a pleasing pocket-size format.” Scotland on Sunday
A superb new collection of haiku and other short poetic forms on the theme of Glasgow - its people, landscape, culture. As
always, Spence is uniquely illuminating, witty and delightful. Incorporating some of the poems which appeared decades ago in
the much sought-after collection of the same title, Glasgow Zen includes mostly new material from this highly popular and
exquisite poet.
RIGHTS HELD: World
Page | 70
NATURAL WORLD
AT THE WATER’S EDGE: A PERSONAL QUEST FOR WILDNESS, John Lister-Kaye
“One of the finest nature writers in the English language.” Scotsman
“One of the most joyful, inspirational naturalists I know. This wonderful collection of wildlife encounters will make anyone
want to pull on their boots and re-discover the world on our doorsteps.” Kate Humble
“Lister-Kaye’s writing takes you on a glorious and enriching Scottish ramble.” Bookseller
For the last thirty years, John Lister-Kaye has taken the same circular walk from his home deep in the Scottish Highlands and out
to the local loch. Every day brings a new observation or an unexpected encounter – a fragile spider’s web or a play-fight
between two dog otters. And every day, on his return home, he records his thoughts in a journal. Drawing on this lifetime of
close observation, John Lister-Kaye’s new book encourages us to look again at the nature around us. It also forges wonderful
connections between the most unlikely subjects, from photosynthesis to overpopulation to Norse mythology. At the Water’s
Edge is a lyrical hymn to the wildlife around us, and a powerful warning to respect and protect it.
RIGHTS HELD: World
TO THE RIVER – A JOURNEY BENEATH THE SURFACE, Olivia Laing
“A magical book … By turns lyrical, melancholic and exultant, To the River just makes you want to follow Olivia Laing all the
way to the sea.” Sunday Telegraph
“Without wanting to sound too gushing, her writing at its most sublime reminds me of Richard Mabey’s nature prose and the
poetry of Alice Oswald.” The Times
To the River is the story of a writer and a river – Virginia Woolf and the Ouse, the river in which she drowned in 1941. One
midsummer week over sixty years later, Olivia Laing walked Woolf ’s river from source to sea. The result is a passionate
investigation into how history resides in a landscape – and how ghosts never quite leave the places they love.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Netherlands (De Bezige Bij), Turkey (Ithaki Yayinlari)
THE LIVING MOUNTAIN, Nan Shepherd
“I was giddy with something halfway between delight and vertigo, and wondering whether calling it “the finest book ever
written on” etc was not in itself somehow mealy mouthed and inadequate praise.” Guardian
“Nan Shepherd’s aimless, sensual exploration of the Cairngorms is bracingly different.” Robert Macfarlane
The Living Mountain is a lyrical testament in praise of the Cairngorms. It is a work deeply rooted in Nan Shepherd’s knowledge of
the natural world, and a poetic and philosophical meditation on our longing for high and holy places. Drawing on different
perspectives of the mountain environment, Shepherd makes the familiar strange and the strange awe-inspiring. Her sensitivity
and powers of observation put her into the front rank of nature writers.
RIGHTS HELD: World
Page | 71
POP SCIENCE
TIME WARPED, Claudia Hammond
SHORTLISTED FOR THE POPULAR SCIENCE CATEGORY OF THE BRITISH PSYCHOLOGICAL SOCIETY BOOK AWARD 2013
“A fascinating and at times mind-boggling book that will change the way you think about time.” Financial Times
Have you ever tried to spend a day without looking at a clock or checking your watch? It's almost impossible. Time rules our
lives, but how much do we understand about it? And is it possible to retrain our brains and improve our relationship with it?
Drawing on the latest research from the fields of psychology, neuroscience and biology, and using original research on the way
memory shapes our understanding of time, the acclaimed writer and broadcaster Claudia Hammond delves into the mysteries of
time perception.
Along the way, Claudia introduces us to an extraordinary array of characters willing to go to great lengths in the interests of
research, such as the French speleologist Michel, who spends two months in an ice cave in complete darkness. We meet one
group of volunteers who steer themselves towards the edge of a stairwell, blindfolded, and another who are strapped into a
harness and dropped off the edge of tower block.
Time Warped shows us how to manage our time more efficiently, speed time up and slow it down at will, plan for the future
with more accuracy and, ultimately, use the warping of time to our own advantage.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Canada (House of Anansi), China (Hunan Science and Technology) Estonia (Aripaev), Itlay (Einaudi),
Japan (Intershift), Korea (Wisdom), Netherlands (Atlas Contact), Poland (Carta Blanca), Russia (Livebook), US
(HarperCollins)
HEAL THYSELF, Jo Marchant
Heal Thyself begins with a very simple question: can our minds really heal our bodies?
We know that negative thoughts make us ill. Stress is often held responsible for a number of medical conditions, and it takes us
longer to recover from illness when we are stressed. But what about positive thoughts? Can they make us better? Jo Marchant,
a geneticist and science writer, investigates recent clinical studies into the healing power of our minds – from placebo to
meditation and religious belief – to explain the science behind the power of our minds.
Drawing on the latest clinical studies, Jo Marchant explains how severe burns patients are being successfully treated through
‘virtual reality hypnosis’ involving immersion into a fantasy ice world, and how being surrounded by patients who are recovering
from a condition similar to our own will make us recover faster. She explores the reasons why in a trial involving fifty patients
with advanced lung cancer, those judged to have greater ‘spiritual faith’ responded better to chemotherapy and lived longer,
and how artificial flowers can trigger immune reactions in hay fever sufferers. The book, which began as New Scientist’s
bestselling cover story of 2011, reclaims the miracle of mind over matter from the realm of pseudoscience. It will reunite mind
and body in a fascinating journey through the pioneering scientific studies, and explain why the two are so perfectly integrated
that it makes no sense to consider one without the other.
RIGHTS HELD: World excluding North America (Crown)
RIGHTS SOLD: ANZ (Text), Brazil (Record), Czech Republic (Euromedia), Denmark (Gyldendal), Finland (Atena), France
(Flammarion), Germany (Rowohlt), Hungary (Libri), Israel (Kinneret), Italy (Mondadori), Japan (Kodansha), Korea
(Random House), Netherlands (Atlas¦Contact), Portugal (Lua de Papel), Russia (Atticus), Slovakia (Ikar), Spain
(Aguilar), Taiwan (Emily Publishing)
Page | 72
REFLECTIONS
LEAVING ALEXANDRIA, Richard Holloway
WINNER OF THE PEN ACKERLEY PRIZE 2013
“Richard Holloway’s story is a profound guide to spirituality for the godless. This is a portrait of a formerly devoted Christian
who, by confessing his faults and doubts to us, becomes exemplary, an Everyman, and a guide to how we too might lose faith
without sacrificing our souls.” Alain de Botton, The Times
“Nobody, whether interested in religion or not, could fail to be intensely moved by the last chapters of the memoir . . . What
a deeply lovable man; and what a wonderful book he has written.” Observer
“This is the kind of thoughtful, meditative, compassionate book that brings the journey between faith and doubt to vivid,
pulsing life.” Scotsman
The acclaimed writer, respected thinker and outspoken former bishop Richard Holloway recounts a life defined by the biggest
questions: Who am I? And what is God?
At fourteen, Richard Holloway left his home in the Vale of Leven, north of Glasgow, and travelled hundreds of miles to be
educated and trained for the priesthood by a religious order in an English monastery. By twenty-five he had been ordained and
was working in the slums of Glasgow. Throughout the following forty years, Richard touched the lives of many people in the
Church and in the wider community. But behind his confident public face lay a restless, unquiet heart and a constantly searching
mind. In his long-awaited memoir, Richard seeks to answer these questions and to explain how, after many crises of faith, he
finally and painfully left the Church. It is a wise, poetic and fiercely honest book.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: ANZ (Text), UK – Large Print (AudioGo)
BETWEEN THE MONSTER AND THE SAINT: THE DIVIDED SPIRIT OF HUMANITY, Richard Holloway
“This is an inspirational writer at the height of his powers who does not shy away from personal revelation . . . His message
deserves to be widely heard. It stands between us and chaos.” Daily Mail
“Holloway’s reflections on the problem of evil are arresting and profound.” Literary Review
“Richard Holloway brilliantly illuminates the divided spirit of man.” Observer
Being human isn’t easy. We like to think that consciousness and free will give us control over our lives, but our minds are
dangerous and unpredictable places. Every day we are pulled between our higher and lower impulses. In this brilliantly argued
book, Richard Holloway holds a mirror up to the human condition, and shows us how we can stand up to the seductive power of
the monster and draw closer to the fierce challenge of the saint.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Australia (Text), Brazil (Record), Finland (Like)
DOUBTS AND LOVES: WHAT IS LEFT OF CHRISTIANITY, Richard Holloway
“At my age I don’t often feel ‘silenced upon a peak in Darien’, but that was the effect on me of this book. It answers the
seemingly unanswerable tormenting questions in a completely satisfying way.” Ruth Rendell
“Doubts and Loves is a sensitive, brave and inspiring book, which responds honestly and with great intelligence to the
religious dilemma of our times.” Karen Armstrong
Richard Holloway’s new book, a bold and necessary work, argues that it is better to use Christianity as good poetry than as bad
science. Although the author sets out to deconstruct its doctrines, he does so because he is anxious to release the power of
Page | 73
these great themes from the antiquated containers that convey them. Holloway’s previous book, Godless Morality, was
published by Canongate in 1999 to wide acclaim.
RIGHTS HELD: World
GODLESS MORALITY, RICHARD HOLLOWAY
“The title of this book might suggest it is an unusual one for the Bishop of Edinburgh to have written, but one can't help be
glad that he did . . . Holloway's language and style are engaging, his research conscientious and his conclusions thoughtful and
frequently wise.” Sunday Times
“The lucid, forthright arguments of this short collection of lectures reveal a character who is brave enough not to try to define
a morality based on the present rather than the past . . . mixes thought-provoking references not only to the Bible, but to
such varied influences as Wilfred Owen, Nietszche and Gulliver's Travels, and forces us to recognise the necessity of an
improvised morality rather than one based on fear and bigotry.” Scotsman
The use of God in moral debate is so problematic as to be almost worthless. We can argue with one another as to whether this
or that alleged claim genuinely emanated from God, but surely it is better to leave God out of the argument and find strong
Human reasons for supporting the systems we advocate.
We need a sensible and practical approach that will help us pick our way through the moral maze that confronts us in the
pluralistic society we live in. Godless Morality offers exactly this - a human-centred justification for contemporary morality.
RIGHTS HELD: World
LOOKING IN THE DISTANCE: THE HUMAN SEARCH FOR MEANING, Richard Holloway
“A profound meditation on spiritual tolerance ... A truly wonderful book by a man who has the courage to doubt” Observer
“This is exhilarating and inspiring stuff.” The Times
With organised religions seemingly out of touch and yet people wanting spiritual guidance as much now as ever before, Richard
Holloway’s timely new book offers as good, and as liberating, a guide to living as you will find. Looking in the Distance celebrates
the possibilities that life affords whilst examining how doubts and fears too often paralyze people, especially as they get older. It
is a highly personal and meditative work that will inspire whoever reads it, helping us to understand better the different ways in
which the human search for wholeness and healing can be approached.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Brazil (Editora Record), Canada (House of Anansi),Finland (Like),Germany (Goldmann Verlag), Turkey
(Kapital Medya Hizmetleri), US (Canongate US/Grove)
ON FORGIVENESS: HOW CAN WE FORGIVE THE UNFORGIVABLE? Richard Holloway
“I read this book with admiration and gratitude.” Jacques Derrida
“Full of human wisdom, this is a psychologically acute and absorbing approach to a very important subject.” Philip Pullman
On Forgiveness is a discourse on how forgiveness works, where it came from and how the need to embrace it is essential if we
are to free ourselves from the binds of the past. Drawing on philosophers and writers of the calibre of George Steiner, Friederic
Nietzsche, Jacques Derrida, Hannah Arendt and Nelson Mandela, this is a fascinating and timely book. One of the most
outspoken and best-loved figures in the modern church, Richard Holloway stood down as the Bishop of Edinburgh in 2000.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Brazil (Planeta), Finland (Atena Kustannus)
REVELATIONS, PERSONAL RESPONSES TO THE BOOKS OF THE BIBLE
Page | 74
Introduced by Richard Holloway
“A superior bluffer’s guide to Scripture. And I mean superior: the subject matter has inspired some terrific writers to sparkling
insights.” Literary Review
“This series of personal and sometimes controversial responses will have you musing long after the Easter eggs have all been
munched.” Sunday Express
“For non-believers, Revelations offers a series of thought-provoking essays, rigorously argued in a multitude of voices … For
believers, these essays offer fresh slants, invigorating well-known sacred texts by analysing them as stories …” Daily Mail
This unique anthology collects together for the first time the introductions to the books of the Bible first published by Canongate
in the hugely acclaimed and internationally successful ‘Pocket Canons’ series in 1998. Revelations features a wonderfully diverse
group of writers, each of whom provides considered, personal and sometimes controversial responses to individual books of
both the Old and New Testaments, be it Bono on Psalms, A.S. Byatt on the Song of Solomon, Louis de Bernières on Job or the
Dalai Lama on the Epistles. Other contributors include Peter Ackroyd, Karen Armstrong, Nick Cave, PD James, Ruth Rendell, Will
Self, Benjamin Prado, Ray Loriga, Pier Paolo Pasolini, E.L. Doctorow and Thor Heyerdahl.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Canada (Penguin), Germany (Fischer), Italy (ISBN), Russia (Ad Marginem)
THE GIFT: HOW THE CREATIVE SPIRIT TRANSFORMS THE WORLD, Lewis Hyde
“A masterpiece . . . The Gift is the best book I know for the aspiring young, for talented but unacknowledged creators, or
even for those who have achieved material success and are worried that this means they’ve sold out.” Margaret Atwood
“A manifesto of sorts for anyone who makes art, cares for it and understands that our most precious possessions are not for
sale and the greatest contracts are achieved without anyone signing on the dotted line.” Zadie Smith
First published in America in 1983, The Gift is a modern classic. It is a brilliantly argued defence of the place of creativity in our
increasingly market-orientated society. The Gift takes as its opening premise the idea that a work of art is a gift and not a
commodity. Hyde shows how the “commerce of the creative spirit” functions in the lives of artists and within culture as a whole,
backing up his radical thesis with illuminating examples from economics, literature, anthropology and psychology.
RIGHTS HELD: World, excluding: Italy (Bollati Borighieri), Japan (Hosei University), North America (Vintage), Taiwan
(Business Weekly)
RIGHTS SOLD: Brazil (Record), Croatia (Algoritam), China (Commercial Press), Germany (Fischer), Korea
(Munhakdogne), Romania (Midgal), Russia (Pokolenie), Spain (RBA), Turkey (Metis)
TRICKSTER, Lewis Hyde
“I’m pretty much convinced that Hyde is one of our true superstars of non fiction –this book not only covers its subject in
more depth and comprehension than anything before (anything I’ve read, anyway) but it also ends up being about…well,
everything. The guy’s both brilliant (intellectually, literarily) and wise (psychologically, spiritually, you-name-itally).”
David Foster Wallace
Reading Trickster Makes This World – an act of pure pleasure from first to last – forever altered, and profoundly deepened,
my understanding of the relationship between storytelling and the world.’ Michael Chabon
“Brilliant…By the time he is done he has folded language, culture, and the very habit of being human into his ken.” The New
Yorker
Trickster Makes This World brings to life the playful and disruptive side of the human imagination as it is embodied in trickster
mythology. Most at home on the road or at the twilight edge of town, tricksters are consummate boundary-crossers, slipping
through keyholes, breaching walls and subverting defence systems. Always out to satisfy their inordinate appetites, lying,
cheating and stealing, tricksters are a great bother to have around but paradoxically they are also indispensable heroes.
Page | 75
The old myths say that the trickster made the world as it actually is. Other gods set out to create a world more perfect and ideal,
but this world, with its complexity and ambiguity, its beauty and its dirt, was the trickster’s creation, and the work is not yet
finished.
RIGHTS HELD: World excluding Japan and North America
RIGHTS SOLD: Brazil (Editora Record)
DUEL, A TRUE STORY OF DEATH AND HONOUR, James Landale
“Interwoven with the lethal, often bizarre history of duelling, this is also a local story of
middle-class merchants caught up in centuries-old codes of honour and aristocratic bloodletting. Gripping, unusual and
splendidly-written.” Andrew Marr
“Not only a compelling, colourful and entertaining tale of death, honour and duelling, but also a fascinating history of the rise
and fall of the duel itself.” Simon Sebag Montefiore
A fresh, accessible and gripping account of the extraordinary social phenomena which drove so many young men to tempt
death.
In 1826 a merchant called David Landale shot dead his bank manager. Two centuries later, newly discovered legal archives have
made it possible for one of his descendants, James Landale, to reconstruct that duel, and the circumstances surrounding it.
James Landale tells the story of duelling itself, explaining where this extraordinary social phenomenon came from, and why, in
the middle of the nineteenth century, it suddenly lost its social legitimacy. Above all, Duel grippingly explains why this curious
thing called honour drove so many young men to an early death.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Canada (Thomas Allen), Sweden (Norstedts), US (Canongate US/Grove),
THE OPTIMIST, LAURENCE SHORTER
‘Genius.’ The Times
‘This non fiction gem should cheer the bleakest of days.’ Bookseller
‘Fast, compelling, sympathetic.’ Observer
‘Deliciously quirky and enormously funny, it brims over with the sort of joie de vivre that would brighten the darkest day.’
Good Book Guide
Collapsing stock markets, melting icecaps, floods, tornadoes, terrorism . . . when it comes to bad news, we’ve never had it so
good. Perhaps it is time to be a little more optimistic? That’s what Laurence Shorter decided. And that’s why he set himself the
challenge of meeting the world’s most cheerful people. Surely with the help of Desmond Tutu, Richard Branson, Mick Jagger
and Bill Clinton, Laurence can find the secret to inner happiness. But first things first: how on earth is he going to get to meet
them?
RIGHTS HELD: World excluding North America
RIGHTS SOLD: Brazil (Agir), France (JC Lattes), Italy (Newton & Compton), Korea (Bookie), Netherlands
(Forum/Meulenhoff), Taiwan (Sun Color), UK Large Print (W.F. Howes)
A SHORT HISTORY OF PROGRESS, Ronald Wright
WINNER OF THE CBC NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD
“In prose that is balefully evocative and irreducibly precise, Wright is in effect reading us our rights, giving us our options ...
This wise, timely and brilliant book will be a bulwark against the short-sighted and the self-interested, and may also ironically
save them from themselves.” Globe and Mail, Canada
“Rarely have I read a book that is so gripping, so immediate and so important to our times. Jared Diamond will be jealous.”
ABC
Page | 76
Albert Einstein called progress ‘the axe in the hand of the pathological criminal’, and in this timely book Ronald Wright shows
how the twentieth century’s runaway growth in human population, consumption and technology has placed a murderous
burden on the planet. Asking where this growth will lead, whether it can be consolidated or sustained and what kind of world
the present is bequeathing to the future, he argues that our modern predicament is as old as civilisation, a 10,000-year
experiment we have participated in but seldom controlled. Only by understanding the patterns of triumph and disaster that
humanity has repeated since the Stone Age can we recognise the experiment’s inherent dangers, and, with luck and wisdom,
shape its outcome. Already a runaway bestseller in Canada, A Short History of Progress is pithy, engaging and highly readable.
RIGHTS HELD: World excluding US (Carroll & Graf), Canada (House of Anansi), Australia (Text)
RIGHTS SOLD: Brazil (Record), China (Hainan), France (Naïve), French Canada (Hurtubise), Germany (Rowohlt), Italy
(Mondadori), Japan (Japan Broadcast Corporation), Korea (Theory and Praxis), Netherlands (Cossee), Poland (Pointa),
Portugal (Dom Quixote), Russia (Amphora), Serbia (Geopoetika), Spain (Urano), Taiwan (Ye-Ren,) Turkey (Versus)
THE CANONGATE POCKET BIBLE SERIES
“The most radical repackaging of the bible for decades.” Guardian
The authorised King James version of the Bible, translated during 1603-11, coincided with an extraordinary flowering of English
literature. This version, more than any other, and possibly more than any other work in history, has had an enormous impact on
the language we speak and write today. In presenting each book as a separate work and in a modern prose format, this series
allows the individual books to be read as literature in their own right.
The first twelve books in the series encompass categories and themes as diverse and distinct as history, fiction, erotic poetry,
devotional verse and law. Each introduction, newly commissioned from an impressive range of internationally admired writers,
gives a unique angle on the nature and qualities of each book.
FIRST SERIES INTRODUCERS:
A. S. BYATT (Song of Solomon)
NICK CAVE (Mark)
LOUIS de BERNIÈRES (Job)
DAVID GROSSMAN (Exodus)
CHARLES JOHNSON (Proverbs)
DORIS LESSING (Ecclesiastes)
BLAKE MORRISON (John)
WILL SELF (Revelation)
STEVEN ROSE (Genesis)
RICHARD HOLLOWAY (Luke)
FAY WELDON (Corinthians)
A. N. WILSON (Matthew)
SECOND SERIES INTRODUCERS:
PETER ACKROYD (Isaiah)
MEIR SHALEV (Samuel)
JOANNA TROLLOPE (Ruth and Esther)
RUTH RENDELL (Romans)
ALASDAIR GRAY (Jonah, Nahum, Micah)
P. D. JAMES (Acts)
KAREN ARMSTRONG (Hebrews)
BONO (Psalms)
PIERS PAUL READ (Wisdom)
THE DALAI LAMA (Epistles)
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Australia and New Zealand (Text), Brazil (Editora Objetiva), France (Serpent à Plumes),Italy (Einaudi),
Netherlands (Atlas), Portugal (Lyon),Spain (Muchnik), USA/Canada (Grove/Atlantic).
Page | 77
REFERENCE
THE MALT WHISKY FILE, 3RD EDITION, John Lamond and Robin Tucek
“Unquestionably the best guide to Scotland’s finest whiskies.” Esquire
Compiled by Master of Malt and past president of Scotland’s Institute of Wines and Spirits John Lamond, this exhaustive work
has more tasting notes (over 400) than any comparable guide. It also incorporates a unique and helpful rating system that
classifies each malt according to its sweetness, peatiness and availability, thereby allowing the reader to compare malts in a way
which actually means something. In short, The Malt Whisky File is the indispensable reference work for all whisky lovers around
the world and the perfect accompaniment to a wee dram or two.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Japan (non-trade edition)
THE DVD STACK: THE BEST DVDS OF THE BEST MOVIES FROM AROUND THE WORLD, Tim Robey and
Nick Bradshaw
The DVD Stack is the definitive guide to 400 classic movies on DVD, right down to the best possible edition of the movie – and
where in the world to find it.
Nick Bradshaw is currently a film and video postgraduate student at the California Institute of the Arts. Formerly Deputy Film
Editor of Time Out London, he edits the Film and DVD pages of plan b, an independent music and culture magazine, and has
written for publications including the Daily Telegraph, the Sunday Times, Sight and Sound and LOVEFiLM.
Tim Robey is Deputy Film Critic for the Daily Telegraph. He also writes regularly for Sight and Sound. He lives in London.
RIGHTS HELD: World
THE PEOPLE SPEAK: DEMOCRACY IS NOT A SPECTATOR SPORT, Colin Firth and Anthony Arnove with
David Horspool
“The end result is like a protest rally championing the act of protest itself.” Telegraph
The People Speak tells the story of Britain through the voices of the visionaries, dissenters, rebels and everyday folk who took on
the Establishment and stood up for what they believed in. Here are their stories, letters, speeches and songs, from John Ball to
Daniel Defoe; from Thomas Paine to Oscar Wilde; from the peasants' revolts to the suffragists to the anti-war demonstrators of
today. Spanning almost 1,000 years and over 150 individual voices, these are some of the most powerful words in our history.
Compiled by Academy Award-winning actor Colin Firth, influential writer Anthony Arnove and acclaimed historian David
Horspool, The People Speak reminds us that history is not something gathering dust on a library shelf - and that democracy has
never been a spectator sport.
RIGHTS HELD: World
MONKEYS WITH TYPEWRITERS: HOW TO WRITE FICTION AND UNLOCK THE SECRET POWER OF STORIES,
Scarlett Thomas
“Thomas has the mesmerising power of a great storyteller.” Financial Times
Stories are everywhere...
Exploring the great plots from Plato to The Matrix and from Tolstoy to Toy Story, this is a book for anyone who wants to unlock
Page | 78
any narrative and learn to create their own. With startling and original insights into how we construct stories, this is a creative
writing book like no other. It will show you how to read and write better.
RIGHTS HELD: World
THE BOOK OF LISTS, David Wallechinsky and Amy Wallace
“Served up with style and humour, The Book of Lists is the original compendium of odd facts and surprising information. This
is the long-awaited, up-to-date new edition … Much more than just a book of lists, this can become compulsive.” Buzz
“Packed with more fascinating, trivial, vital and perverse non sequiturs than you can shake an encyclopedia at.”
New York Times Book Review
Where can you investigate 13 possible sites for the Garden of Eden and assess 16 cases of people killed by God? In which book
can you learn the day of extinction for 8 birds and 5 body parts named after Italians? Where else would Philip Pullman discuss
his 10 best tools and Ian Rankin rank his 7 best gigs? The Book of Lists of course. For nearly three decades the editors have been
researching curious facts and unusual statistics, and the incredible stories behind them. This thoroughly up-to-date edition
cements the book’s reputation as seriously addictive and undeniably entertaining.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Brazil (Editora Record), Canada (Knopf), Estonia (Tanapaev), Finland (Tammi), France (Plon), Germany
(Ullstein List), Italy (Sperling & Kupfer), Japan (Shufunotomo)Korea (Minumsa), Netherlands (De Bezige Bij), Russia
(Astrel), Sweden (Bonniers), US (Canongate/Grove).
Page | 79
SPORT AND
ADVENTURE
BATTING ON THE BOSPHORUS, Angus Bell
“Very funny. Dave Gorman meets Andrew Flintoff in clothes borrowed from Billy Connolly.” The Times
“Weird and wonderful . . . one of the maddest, most enterprising cricket tours of all time.” Guardian
“It deserves to be as big a hit as the blow Bell dealt a cricket ball on the bridge over the Bosphorus, propelling it from Europe
into Asia.” Daily Telegraph
Following a chance encounter with a psychic, Angus Bell sets off on an 8,000-mile Skoda-powered road trip across Eastern
Europe in search of a cricket match. It’s a gloriously batty adventure which brings Bell face-to-face with fingerless fielders in the
Czech Republic, Serbian MI6 agents and the realisation that England’s most eccentric game is being played with passion in the
furthest corners of the continent.
RIGHTS HELD: World excluding South Africa
RIGHTS SOLD: Canada (Greystone)
AFRICA UNITED, STEVE BLOOMFIELD
‘Unlike most books on offer to mark the World Cup, Bloomfield’s work will endure beyond next month’s final . . . A must for
football fans with more than just a cultured left foot.’ Independent on Sunday
‘It will all still just be football, but after a few hours in the company of [Africa United] you’ll have a grasp of why it would also
be so much more than that.’ Observer
‘A superior travelogue in which Bloomfield, a self-declared Aston Villa fan, makes for good company.’ Independent
Football inspires competition and inflames passions nowhere as strongly as in Africa. Take the player born and raised in Congo,
who scored the winning goal for Rwanda against the country of his birth and promptly had his house burnt down for his trouble.
The two countries’ football rivalry is set against the history of the Rwandan genocide, which spilt across the borders of Congo,
where the greatest insult is to be called ‘Rwandan’. Steve Bloomfield’s incisive book investigates Africa’s love of football, the
build-up to the 2010 World Cup, and the social and political backdrop to the greatest show on Earth, from a continent ready to
discard an image associated with charity appeals and celebrity adoptions.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Argentina and Uruguay (Revisto Un Cano), France (Globe), Japan (Hakusui-sha), Nigeria (Cassava Republic), US &
Canada (HarperCollins),
DOUGAL HASTON: THE PHILOSOPHY OF RISK, Jeff Connor
“[A] worthy homily to one of the giants of mountaineering … that will delight committed fans.” Sunday Times
“Jeff Connor’s new book on Dougal fills an essential void in climbing records … This is a definitive and thought-provoking work
… Connor has done us all a great service.” Scotsman
The untimely death of Dougal Haston in a freak avalanche in 1977 robbed climbing of one of its most charismatic, controversial
and enigmatic figures. A man of extremes, who managed to combine a sybaritic lifestyle with a career at the cutting edge of
world mountaineering, Haston remains a cult figure whose deeds have inspired climbers worldwide. Connor traces the career of
Page | 80
a great climber, but more than this, he explores the agonized development of Haston the man.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Italy (Versante Sud)
FOR RICHER FOR POORER, VICTORIA COREN
‘For Richer, For Poorer seizes the reader with its first sentence and never lets go. Victoria Coren writes, on several levels, with
wit, honesty and perfect freshness.’ Martin Amis
‘So rich in detail, so full of laughter, that you feel as if the coolest member of your family has just let you in on a secret so
delicious you will savour it forever.’ The Times
‘A terrific poker book and a terrific memoir . . . engaging, lucid, full of verve and a pleasure to read.’
Observer
‘Honest, funny, highly personal and notalgic memoir about friendship and belonging.’ Financial Times
What does it take to win big in the world’s most popular card game? In September 2006, Victoria Coren won a million dollars on
the European Poker Tour. In this, her long-awaited memoir, Coren tells the story of that victory, but also of a twenty-year
obsession with the game. It is a journey which has taken Coren from a secret culture of illegal cash games to the highstakes
glamour of Las Vegas and Monte Carlo, and brought with it friendship, laughter and money, but also loneliness, heartbreak and
defeat. With disarming honesty, Victoria Coren lays all of this bare.
Rights Held: World
Rights Sold: ANZ (Text), Canada (McClelland & Stewart), Italy (Newton Compton)
Page | 81
TRUE CRIME
DOLCE VITA, Stephen Gundle
‘A brilliant, methodical investigation of a murder scandal that convulsed the Roman political and social establishment in the
1950s … The strength of Gundle’s book lies not only in its careful scholarship but in the way that Rome itself emerges as a
character in the drama.’ Financial Times
‘An intense, claustrophobic narrative of murder, mystery and scandal worthy of a Verdi opera.’ Scotsman
‘Inspired … The whole gloriously unimproving narrative provides the essential backstory for the Berlusconian bunga-bunga of
Italy in our own day.’ Literary Review
On 9 April 1953, an attractive twenty-oneyear- old woman went missing from her family home in Rome. Thirty-six hours later
her body was found washed up on a neglected beach at Torvaianica. Some said it was suicide; others, a tragic accident. But as
the police tried to close down the case, darker rumours started bubbling to the surface.
Dolce Vita casts fascinating light on the colours and contradictions of Rome in the 1950s. It is Rome as a film
set – embodied by Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck in Roman Holiday. But the murder of Wilma Montesi exposed the other
side of this beautiful city – a city of carnal crimes, sex, drugs, corruption and endless cover-ups.
RIGHTS HELD: World
RIGHTS SOLD: Italy (Rizzoli), Spain (Seix Barral)
THE CORNER: A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF AN INNER-CITY NEIGHBOURHOOD, DAVID SIMON & ED BURNS
‘Mind-blowing . . . less a book, more a way of life.’ The Times
‘A staggering depiction of broken urban hearts of America . . . This is reportage
of the highest order.’ Irish Times
The notorious corner of West Fayette and Monroe Streets in Baltimore is a twentyfour-hour
open-air drug market that provides the economic fuel for a dying neighbourhood. Through the eyes of one broken family – two
drug-addicted adults and their smart, vulnerable fifteen-year-old son, DeAndre McCullough – Simon and Burns examine the
sinister realities of inner cities across the USA and unflinchingly assess why law enforcement policies, moral crusades and the
welfare system have accomplished so little. This extraordinary book is a crucial look at the price of the drug culture and the
poignant scenes of hope, caring, and love that astonishingly rise in the midst of a place America has abandoned.
RIGHTS HELD: World excluding US & Canada (Doubleday)
RIGHTS SOLD: France (Editions Florent Massot), Germany (Antje Kunstmann Verlag), Netherlands (Ambo Anthos),
Spain (Ático de los Libros)
Page | 82