We had a really lovely lunch at The Hospital Club yesterday to celebrate the launch of Catherine Sanderson’s wonderful book Petite Anglaise . Joining me and Catherine were Jessica Craig who is masterminding the international rights sales of the book, Alex Elam who sold the serial rights to The Sunday Times and The Guardian, Katy Follain (who acquired and edited the book for Penguin), Clare Pollock (who is responsible for the extraordinary amount of publicity generated this week) and my former colleague and partner-in-crime Sarah Ballard who worked with Catherine at proposal stage. Read Catherine’s blog for an account of the whistle-stop tour and, of course, buy the book here.
Archive for February, 2008
Mark Lewisohn, who is currently writing what will be the lasting word on The Beatles, is appearing at this year’s Hamburg Sound Festival2. The first volume of Mark’s mammoth and genre-defining biographical study has been signed up by Little, Brown for the UK, Crown Publishing for the USA, and Kawade Shobo Shinsha for Japan. Watch this space….
Niamh Greene, whose debut novel THE SECRET DIARY OF A DEMENTED HOUSEWIFE sold in excess of 100,000 copies is publishing a new volume featuring the wonderful ‘demented’ Susie Hunt in June of this year. Entitled Confessions of a Demented Housewife: The Celebrity Year it promises to be a huge smash-hit and Niamh has just signed a new two-book deal with Patricia Deevey at Penguin Ireland to produce a new book a year from now on to meet the ever-increasing demand. Watch this space for some more exciting news about Niamh in the next three weeks.
The nominees for the 2007 Tähtivaeltaja award have been announced.
- Haiteksti (The Raw Shark Texts) by Steven Hall (WSOY)
- Olen legenda (I Am Legend) by Richard Matheson (Vaskikirjat)
- Nedut (original novel) by J. Pekka Mäkelä (Like)
- Marsin ikävä ja muita kertomuksia (short story collection) by M. G. Soikkeli (Turbator)
- Musiikkia miesäänille ja lentäville lautasille (short story collection) by Howard Waldrop (Kirjava)
The award is given annually to the best science fiction book published in Finnish (either translation or original work) by the Helsinki Science Fiction Society since 1986. The jury consists of journalist Hannu Blommila, critic Toni Jerrman, critic Elli Leppä, and journalist Vesa Sisättö. The winner will be announced later in the spring.
I have taken some new author photos of Catherine Banner. Many of these will be used worldwide on foreign and English language editions of her long-awaited trilogy THE EYES OF A KING which is launched in Canada, the UK, Italy, Holland and the US before the year is out. To view all the photos visit my flickr site here.
I am the guest speaker at an Arvon course STARTING TO WRITE A NOVEL being held at Totleigh Barton in Devon on April 19th. It is being hosted by novelists Alex Wheatle and Tiffany Murphy. As it says on the tin……….
‘An Arvon residential writing course provides a nurturing environment where newcomers can begin writing, and existing writers can expand their skills and hone their craft. With expert tuition and the support and encouragement of a writing community, all our participants experience an irresistible chemistry of collective enthusiasm and individual breakthrough’.
I am thrilled to have taken over the representation of Claire Kilroy - one of the most exciting upcoming talents to emerge from the ever vibrant Irish literary scene. Her most recent novel TENDERWIRE received widespread critical acclaim and her forthcoming novel, teasingly entitled DRAFT seems set to build on that reputation. Expect publication sometime in 2008/2009 from Angus Cargill at Faber and if you haven’t discovered Claire’s prose yet then check her out here.
With the amazing news reaching my office on Friday that the Spanish edition of John Boyne’s novel THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS has sold an awesome 670,000 copies already we are now in a position to confirm that it has now sold well over a million copies worldwide. With the Disney/Miramax/Heyday film release happening later this year the sky is the limit for this extraordinary novel. More than 2 years after it was first published, the novel is now spending its 64th week at no.1 in ireland and my colleague Jane Willis has just concluded a deal for the novel to appear in Hindi.
If you have yet to experience it then visit John’s website.
Very sad news indeed - the literary world has lost the very lovely Kate Jones who died this morning. I have known Kate for 15 years or so from her days as a great editor at Hamish Hamilton up to the present day as the head of ICM Books in London. Kate was a wonderfully warm individual with an infectious smile and the sort of passion for her work that inspired loyalty from her authors both as an editor and an agent. There will be a memorial party in due course and we will all raise a glass to her memory.
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