Adult Spring Rights Guide 2021

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contents

Fiction Literary – New Titles 3 Literary 19 Commercial / Crime & Thriller – New Titles 34 Commercial 50 Crime & Thriller 54

Non-Fiction General 57 Memoir 72 History 81 Illustrated 89

Estates 91 International Representation 92 Agents 93

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FICTION LITERARY

NEW TITLES

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Christy Edwall (AW) HISTORY KEEPS ME AWAKE AT NIGHT

A sharp, smart debut novel about fractured identity and online obsession.

Margit is drifting aimlessly from one precarious London job to the next when one day a news story catches her attention. 43 Mexican student teachers have gone missing, their bus ambushed by police and everyone on board disappeared without a trace. So begins Margit’s obsession and her quixotic search for the truth of what happened to the ‘desaparecidos’, as they came to be known in Mexico.

Her quest for answers, which is conducted entirely from London, starts taking over her life. As Margit disappears down various rabbit holes into her online Mexican investigation, her London life starts to recede. Her career, her marriage, her friendships all begin to unravel. In an effort to reconnect with her real life, she decides throw a party to celebrate the Day of the Dead, and things come to a head…

History Keeps Me Awake At Night is an exciting, intelligent and often funny debut novel which examines the increasingly complicated line between our offline and online selves.

UK: on submission Word count: 53,000

Christy Edwall was born in South Africa in 1985. She has a DPhil in English Literature from New College, Oxford. Her short fiction has been published by Granta and the Stinging Fly, and is forthcoming in the Southern Review. She lives in West Sussex.

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Patrick Gale (CK) MOTHER’S BOY

Set in Cornwall between the two wars, Mother’s Boy is the moving story of a young boy and his devoted mother.

When Charles’s father dies from TB when he is five, his mother undertakes the hard work of a washerwoman in order to provide a respectable life for them both. The novel follows Charles, who is among, yet apart from his fellows, in thrall to, yet at a distance from his own mother; a man being shaped for a long, remarkable and revered life spent hiding in plain sight. But it is equally the story of the dauntless mother who will continue to shield him long after the dangers of war are past.

Closely based on the lives of the great Cornish poet Charles Causley and his washerwoman mother, Laura, Mother’s Boy is a tender, emotional gift of a book, from one of the best writers working today.

UK: Tinder Press/ Imogen Taylor Publication: March 2022 Word count: 112,000

Patrick Gale published his first novel, The Aerodynamics Of Pork, at the age of twenty-one and has now published twenty highly acclaimed novels, among them Little Bits Of Baby, Kansas In August, The Facts Of Life and Tree Surgery For Beginners. As well as writing and reviewing fiction, he has published a biography of Armistead Maupin, a short history of the Dorchester Hotel and chapters on Mozart’s piano and mechanical music for H C Robbins Landon’s The Mozart Compendium. Notes From An Exhibition was selected as one of Richard & Judy's Book Club picks for 2008. A Place Called Winter was published to great acclaim in 2015 and his most recent novel, Take Nothing With You, was published by Tinder Press in Spring 2018.

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Tessa Hadley (CD/SS) FREE LOVE

A new novel from “one of the greatest stylists alive”, Free Love is Tessa Hadley writing at her best.

On a balmy, late-summer’s evening in Surrey, Phyllis Fischer sits at her dressing table getting ready for a dinner party. Her husband is on his way home from his job at the Foreign Office and her two children are downstairs. The year is 1967. The events of the evening will set in motion a series consquences which none of them could have ever foreseen.

Set in final years of the 1960s, Free Love is the story of a woman who abandons the constraints of her suburban family life for London and a relationship with a much younger man. Written in immaculate prose and full of psychological depth, humour, and exquisite attention paid to the small moments that make up life, Free Love has all the hallmarks of the best of Tessa Hadley’s writing.

UK: Jonathon Cape/ Michal Shavit; US: HarperCollins/ Jennifer Barth Publication: November 2021 Word count: 86,000

Rights sold: Catalan: 1984; German: Kampa; Italian: Bompiani; Portuguese (Portugal): Infinito Particular; Swedish: Wahlstrom & Widstrand

Praise for previous novel Late in the Day:

“Tessa Hadley is one of our finest writers. The sensitivity of her psychological insight and understanding is unmatched by anyone writing today.” The Times

“With each new book by Tessa Hadley, I grow more convinced that she’s one of the greatest stylists alive… her quietly elegant style and muted wit are triumphs… the everyday tragedies and betrayals of domestic life [are] rendered by Hadley’s prose into something extraordinary.” Washington Post

“You know you are in safe hands with Tessa Hadley who, on a sheer sentence-by-sentence level, delivers more enjoyment than almost any other living writer... you'll be hanging on to every word.” Daily Mail

Rights sold in previous novel Late in the Day:

Catalan: 1984; French: Christian Bourgois; German: Kampa; Greek: Dardanos; Italian: Bompiani; Spanish: Sexto Piso; Swedish: Wahlstrom & Widstrand

Tessa Hadley is the author of six highly acclaimed novels and three short-story collections. In 2016 she was awarded the Windham Campbell Prize and the Hawthornden Prize. She teaches literature and creative writing at Bath Spa University. Her stories appear regularly in the New Yorker, Granta and other magazines. 6

Ben Hinshaw (AW) EXACTLY WHAT YOU MEAN

For fans of A Visit from the Goon Squad and David Szalay comes a beautifuly crafted and intriguing debut about missed opportunites, hidden heartaches and unitended consequences.

Exactly What You Mean is a moving collection of linked stories which explores the unforeseen significance of small moments and chance encounters, as well secret yearnings and things left unsaid. Focusing at first on two young brothers, it gradually widens its gaze to include a broad cast of characters whose lives, to quote from its epigraph, become “enigmatically entangled” - whether they know it or not.

The stories fan out from Guernsey all the way to the Californian wild fires and the African plains, and thrillingly examine the same set of events through different points of view, often only revealing their true, and sometimes tragic, meaning at a slow burn.

UK: Viking/ Mary Mount Publication: 2022 Word count: 55,000 words

Ben Hinshaw is a British-American writer whose short fiction has appeared in Harvard Review, Story, the White Review and elsewhere. His writing has been supported by grants and scholarships from the Elizabeth George Foundation, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and the Community of Writers. Ben holds MAs in creative writing and cultural geography. He grew up on the island of Guernsey and has also lived in London, Nottingham and Northern California.

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Lauren John Joseph (ZR) AT CERTAIN POINTS WE TOUCH

A gorgeous, heart-breaking debut, with hints of Olivia Laing and Ocean Vuong.

Narrated by a trans writer living in Mexico City and coming to terms with the death of a lover, At Certain Points We Touch is a riotous, razor-sharp bildungsroman which deftly unpicks the story of a doomed loved affair. After their ex lover dies in a tragic accident the book departs from this moment, eventually circling back to it, and explores the way we are dogged through time and space by the ghosts of our past. It’s at once cerebral and poetic, and visceral and vicious.

UK: Bloomsbury/ Paul Baggaley/ Allegra Le Fanu Publication: Spring 2022 Word count: 104,000

Rights sold: German: dtv

Lauren John Joseph is a British born American-educated artist and writer, who works at the intersection of video, text, and live performance. They have written extensively on contemporary culture, art, performance, pornography, gender theory and the Golden Age of Hollywood, contributing in print and online to publications including iD, the Independent, Sleek, the Guardian, Time Out, Attitude, and Amuse.

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Sheena Joughin (CD/SS) THE END ROOM

Judy and Carla, both artists, rent adjacent rooms from which to work, in a house in 1980s Hammersmith Grove. They break regularly for a drink and a cigarette in the shared kitchen, watched over by their doleful landlord, Mike, and spend long hours in their favourite pub, The Duchess. They share friends, sometimes lovers, a precarious existence which nevertheless feels secure, until impulsive Judy marries a nineteen year old, and then doesn’t behave as a wife should.

Amidst the chaos, Mike takes a new lodger - Ralph - and old loyalties begin to be broken apart for new ones. There is something dangerous between them all, and tragedy is the almost inevitable result. But who, if anyone, is to blame?

UK: on submission Word count: 65,000

Praise for previous novel Things To Do Indoors:

“An exciting new talent.” Sunday Telegraph

“Sheena Joughin has an unusual clarity of voice and a crafty duality, something both brooding and light, in her writing. The hurts and nastinesses between her characters are paralleled with a casual persistence of good nature and good humour in this funny, piercing book about lostness, childishness and growing up.” The Times Literary Supplement

Sheena Joughin is twice winner of the London Short Story Competition, and a regular reviewer and contributor to the Times Literary Supplement. Her two previous novels, Things To Do Indoors and Swimming Underwater, were published by Doubleday in 2003 and 2005, and her writing described by Ali Smith as having “an unusual clarity of voice and a crafty duality, something both brooding and light.”

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Francesca Kay (AW) THE BOOK OF DAYS

Written in beautiful, lyrical prose, The Book of Days is a haunting novel of quiet intensity.

Set in England in the 16th Century, The Book of Days tells the story of Alice, a young wife to an ailing, older husband who is watching the erection of the bombastic family tomb in the chapel adjacent to their house. She is mourning, both her husband who still lives, and her first child who lived only a few days. As the mausoleum is nearing completion and the household prepares for his death, Alice increasingly feels entombed by her own life.

The Book of Days is a novel about morality, but also about survival and endurance. It deals with questions of faith and belief, and with what happens when all the certainties of life are taken away. Kay’s poetic, meditative novel is about nature’s passing through the seasons, and the acceptance of life as it is.

UK: on submission Word count: 78,000

Francesca Kay grew up in Southeast Asia and India, and has subsequently lived in Jamaica, the United States, Germany and now lives in Oxford. Her first novel, An Equal Stillness, was published in 2009 and was read on Radio 4's Book at Bedtime. In June 2009 it won the Orange Award for New Writers. In 2011 Francesca's second novel, The Translation Of The Bones, was longlisted for the 2012 Bailey's Women's Prize for Fiction. Her most recent novel, The Long Room, was published by Faber in January 2016.

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Dr Yasmin Khan (JG) EDGEWARE ROAD

Khalid Quraishi intends to be a man about town; always immaculately dressed and perfectly groomed, he’s tasting the high life as a croupier at the Playboy Club on Park Lane. He’s left Pakistan for London, arriving armed only with his charm, looks and pin-sharp brain. The sparkling, rotten Eighties are just dawning, and Khalid has big dreams for himself, his ex-model wife Suzie, and their small daughter, Alia. Dreams that will take them out of the Queen Caroline Estate in Hammersmith, and into the heart of the glamour and the moneyed lifestyle they deserve, but which Khalid has turned his back on in Karachi.

Except, somehow, Khalid becomes entangled with the Bank of Credit and Commerce International – Pakistan’s great global-finance success story – just as his bank balance calls time on his love affair with the bookies. Before long, he’s drawn into a whirlpool of gambling, money-laundering, arms-dealing and industrial-scale fraud – and finds himself a player in the greatest banking scandal of the twentieth century.

Twenty years later, Alia Quraishi, now an academic, sits in dingy rented digs in Oxford, and tries to piece it all together, and find out why her father’s dead body washed up on the south coast, miles away from his west London territory.

Moving between Karachi and London, through the long shadows cast by Partition and the bustling turbulence of Thatcher’s Britain, Edgware Road is a novel about silences across generations, wealth and corruption, and the bond between fathers and daughters.

UK: Head of Zeus/ Clare Gordon Word count: 100,000

Dr Yasmin Khan is University Lecturer in 18th to early 20th century British History at the University of Oxford. She did a PhD on the History of the British Empire at Oxford University and has taught at the Edinburgh University and Royal Holloway, University of London. Her first book, The Great Partition: the making of India and Pakistan, won the Gladstone Prize for History from the Royal Historical Society. Dr Khan has written for the New Statesman and the Guardian and appeared on BBC radio and television, and is an editor of History Workshop Journal and a trustee of the Charles Wallace India Trust.

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Nell Leyshon (AW/SJD) THE SINGING SCHOOL

Ellyn is a young, peasant girl in 1537 who can’t read or write but has an extraordinary singing voice. She lives hand-to-mouth alongside her family - she milks the cow, fights with her brother, cares for her new baby sister, does what her mother tells her to do - and, when she’s out of earshot, she sings to herself, knowing that singing is a luxury they can’t afford.

One day, two men overhear her and tell her about a singing school in a nearby town. Girls can’t attend, but if her brother’s voice is anything like hers then he’d be guaranteed a scholarship. Desperate for a chance, Ellyn cuts off her hair, dresses up in her brother’s clothes and wins a place, leaving her family behind.

At the school, she not only learns how to master her voice but how to use language. She begins to appreciate beauty and put names to her emotions. The world opens up as she begins to understand concepts that were never available to her before.

UK: on submission Word count: 31,000

Rights sold: German: Eisele

Praise for previous novel The Colour of Milk:

“Haunting, distinctive voices... Nell Leyshon's imaginative powers are considerable.” Independent

“Brontë-esque undertones… a disturbing statement on the social constraints faced by 19th- century women.” Financial Times

An established author, Nell Leyshon is also an award-winning playwright, and regularly writes for radio. The Colour Of Milk was published by Fig Tree in May 2012 and won the Libro del Ano prize in Spain, the Prix de l’Union Intéralliée in France, and was runner up for the Prix Femina. Her latest novel, Memoirs Of A Dipper, was published by Fig Tree in June 2015. She lives in Dorset.

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Karina Lickorish Quinn (SA) THE DUST NEVER SETTLES

A mesmerising debut novel with echoes of great Latin American authors.

Anais Echeverria has been living in London but returned to her native Peru in order to sign the papers which will finally confirm the sale of Casa Echeverria, known throughout Lima as The Yellow House. She is the last member of the family to sign, and she’s finding it hard to let go of the house that she grew up in. The Yellow House has been in the family for generations, built by her wealthy ancestors, now falling to ruins.

When she left for London, Anais dared to hope she might have left the echoing voices of her ancestors behind - voices that reverberate through the corridors of the family mansion. But now she finds herself submerging once more in the constant whispers of her deceased relatives. What begins as an uneasy homecoming soon becomes a reckoning with secrets that refuse to stay buried in this gorgeously atmospheric debut from an unforgettable new literary voice.

UK: Oneworld/ Juliet Mabey Publication: September 2021 Word count: 119,000

Karina Lickorish Quinn is a bilingual, Peruvian-British writer raised in the English Midlands, Lima and New York. She has a BA from Oxford University, an MA from UCL and is about to complete her PhD at Queen Mary University of London. Karina is currently the Teaching Fellow in Creative Writing at the University of Leeds. Karina’s short fiction features in Un Nuevo Sol, the first major anthology of British-Latin writers published by Flipped Eye Publishing. Her work has also been published in the Offing, Asymptote, the Journal of Latina Critical Feminism, and Palabritas. In 2016 she was shortlisted for the White Review’s short story prize.

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Sarah Moss (AW) KINDER DOWNFALL

Kinder Downfall takes place over the course of one very long day, during which a woman confined at home under quarantine goes out for a walk up the hill as dusk gathers. What started off as a furtive solitary walk soon turns into a mountain rescue operation with an uncertain outcome. Morally inquisitive, unbearably suspenseful, humane and often funny, Kinder Downfall is a short masterpiece.

UK: Picador/ Sophie Jonathan Publication: Autumn 2021 Word count: 35,000

Rights sold in previous novel Summerwater:

Dutch: Orlando; French: Actes Sud; Italian: Bompiani; Swedish: Atlas; Turkish: Kafka Kitap

Praise for previous novel Summerwater:

“Moss’s ability to conjure up the fleeting and sometimes agonised tenderness of family life is unmatched… A great part of a novelist’s skill lies in the breadth of their sympathies and their ability to enter into the lives of people unlike themselves. Moss does this so naturally and comprehensively… there is an artfulness to her writing so accomplished as to conceal itself.” Guardian

“This latest display of Moss’s imaginative versatility shine[s] with intelligence.” The Sunday Times

“Sharp, searching, thoroughly imagined, it is utterly of the moment, placing its anxious human dots against a vast indifferent landscape; with its wit and verve and beautiful organisation it throws much contemporary writing into the shade!” Hilary Mantel

Sarah Moss is the author of seven novels and a memoir of her year living in Iceland, Names for the Sea, which was shortlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize. Three of her novels, Bodies of Light, Signs for Lost Children, and The Tidal Zone, were shortlisted for the Wellcome BookPrize. Ghost Wall was shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction in 2019.

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Michael Rosen (CW) MANY DIFFERENT KINDS OF LOVE: A story of life, death and the NHS

A national treasure's journey to the brink and back.

'Will I wake up?' 'There's a 50:50 chance.'

Michael Rosen wasn't feeling well. Soon he was struggling to breathe, and then he was admitted to hospital, suffering from coronavirus as the nation teetered on the edge of a global pandemic.

What followed was months on the wards: six weeks in an induced coma, and many more weeks of rehab and recovery as the NHS saved Michael's life, and then got him back on his feet. Throughout Michael's stay in intensive care, a notebook lay at the end of his bed, where the nurses who cared for him wrote letters of hope and support. Embarking on the long road to recovery, Michael was soon ready to start writing about his near-death experience.

Combining stunning new prose poems by one of Britain's best loved poets and the moving coronavirus diaries of his nurses, doctors and wife Emma-Louise Williams, this is a beautiful book about love, life and the NHS. Featuring original illustrations by Chris Riddell, each page celebrates the power of community, the importance of kind gestures in dark times, and the indomitable spirits of the people who keep us well.

UK: Ebury/ Robyn Drury Publication: March 2021 Word count: 26,000

Michael Rosen is one of the best-known figures in the children's book world. He is renowned for his work as a poet, performer, broadcaster and scriptwriter. He is Professor of Children's Literature at Goldsmiths, University of London and visits schools with his one-man show to enthuse children with his passion for books and poetry. In 2007 he was appointed Children's Laureate, a role which he held until 2009. While Laureate, he set up The Roald Dahl Funny Prize. He currently lives in London with his wife and children.

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Sophie Ward (LM) THE SCHOOLHOUSE

Detective Sally Carter is looking for a missing child and time is running out. Her only witness is Isobel Williams and Isobel is in trouble. Isobel has a job and a home where she feels safe, but the girl’s disappearance stirs up the past. When a letter from one of her old teachers at The Schoolhouse threatens to destroy the new life she has built, Isobel is forced to come to terms with her own guilt.

“This book is based on the experimental schools of the 70s. I wanted to explore the importance of letting children have a voice. It is a very different book to the last one, but together with my next, forms what I hope will be a trilogy of ideas, in different genres, about the power of language and its connection to consciousness.” – Sophie Ward

UK: Little, Brown/ Sarah Castleton Publication: August 2021 Word count: 85,000

Rights sold in previous novel Love and Other Thought Experiments:

Korean: Munhakdongne; Russian: Eksmo; Spanish: Alianza; Turkish: Epsilon

Praise for previous novel Love and Other Thought Experiments:

“This ingenious debut novel is a philosophical investigation into love, loss and the nature of reality…often moving, exuberant and sensitive.” Guardian

“Ward has achieved something quite extraordinary: a super-smart metaphysical romp that’s also warm, wistful and heartfelt. A book that declares, winningly, that just because it’s all in your head it doesn’t mean it’s not real.” Telegraph

“Brimming with close observation . . . the sheer literary ambition on show is impressive, with Ward producing a highly original first novel that echoes European experimentalists such as Kundera and Krasznahorkai.” Spectator

Sophie Ward is an actor and writer who has worked in film and television since her feature film debut in Steven Spielberg’s Young Sherlock Holmes, and in theatre, most notably with the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow. Sophie has been an active campaigner for LGBT rights and her non-fiction book, A Marriage Proposal, was published by the Guardian in 2014.

Her first novel, Love and Other Thought Experiments, was longlisted for the Booker prize in 2020.

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James Yorkston (JG) THE BOOK OF THE GAELS

Joseph and Paul. Paul and Joseph. Two young brothers trying to fill their cold, hungry home. Two boys who have learned to make themselves as small as possible; to go without. Father’s less of a presence than an absence; tortured by drink and haunted by poetry. Absence is what fills their shabby house at the end of the lane – a place where something is missing.

The boys are slowly starving and father is quickly rotting, so when a letter arrives with a summons to Dublin and the promise of publication, it offers a chink of light – the hope of rescue. But Dublin is a long, wet way from West Cork in the mid-70s, especially when you have no money – just the clothes they stand up in, and a battered suitcase containing one clean shirt and a sheaf of flimsy typewritten pages.

So begins a roadtrip of flipsides and contradictions, dreams and nightmares, promises and disappointments, generosity and meanness, neglect and unconditional love.

UK: on submission Word count: 67,000

James Yorkston is a musician, author and screenwriter. Over a career of more than 20 years, he has released 14 acclaimed albums and toured thed world, showcasing a balance of folk and contemporary roots, often drawing deeply on traditional Scottish songs and narrative heritage. James has published two books; It’s Lovely to Be Here: The Touring Diaries of a Scottish Gent and a novel, Three Craws, as well as writing the screenplay adapted from his novel Tommy the Bruce, optioned for the screen by Sam Heughan and currently in development.

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An Yu (AW) FACING THE SOUTHERN CLOUDS

A vividly atmospheric novel about grief, loneliness, music and mushrooms.

Facing The Southern Clouds is set in Beijing and concerns a young woman trapped in an unhappy marriage. Music teacher Song Yan wants to start a family but her husband Bowen is reluctant, saying that he’s too busy with work. One day Song Yan receives a call from a woman saying she is Bowen’s ex-wife, that their son has drowned, and the river in the village where they lived has turned orange. Increasingly estranged from her family, Song embarks on a friendship with Bai Yu, a famous pianist who went missing years ago. A mushroom grows, engulfing an entire house that was forgotten by time. As the novel progresses, the orange spreads, like silence.

Written in An Yu’s recognizable, dreamlike style, Facing The Southern Clouds is a mercurial new novel from the author of Braised Pork.

UK: Harvill Secker/ Kate Harvey; US: Grove/ Peter Blackstock Publication: 2022 Word count: 53,000

Prase for previous novel Braised Pork:

“A startlingly original imagination... Braised Pork is a sensitive portrait of alienated young womanhood as it is set free.” Guardian

“An elegant, dreamlike tale of a woman’s self-realisation in contemporary Beijing. Yu’s writing has an arresting, unadorned lyricism.” Telegraph

Rights sold in previous novel Braised Pork:

French: Editions Delcourt; German: dtv; Italian: Mondadori Libri; Portuguese (Portugal): Quetzal Editores; Russian: Eksmo; Turkish: Harfa

An Yu grew up in Beijing and spent parts of her life studying and working in New York and Paris. She received her M.F.A. from New York University, during which she wrote her first novel, Braised Pork. Her short stories were finalists for the Short-Story Award For New Writers from Glimmer Train and the Annual Contest from Dogwood Journal. Apart from writing, she is the co-founder of YU, a jade jewellery brand based in Hong Kong.

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FICTION LITERARY

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Nina Allan (AW) THE GOOD NEIGHBOURS

The facts of the case were straightforward, or at least they appeared to be…

Cath works in a record shop in Glasgow and has an unorthodox hobby: in her spare time she photographs houses where murders have occurred. The root of her fascination can be traced back to her teenage years on a remote Scottish island, where her best friend Shirley Craigie was murdered, along with her mother and three- year-old brother, in their family home. The obvious suspect at the time was Shirley’s father, a strange and controlling man who was found dead in his pickup truck shortly after, having crashed off a road on the island’s west coast.

Over ten years later, seeking closure and reeling from the end of an affair with her married photography tutor, Cath returns to the island. She takes her camera and goes to Shirley’s old house. There, she befriends its current resident – a woman named Alice, who guesses the real reason for Cath’s interest in the place. The strangeness of the situation brings them closer, leading them to reinvestigate the Craigie murder. Now, within the walls of the Craigie house, Cath can uncover the nefarious truths and curious nature of John Craigie, his hidden obsessions, and alternatives to the accepted story of the Craigie deaths.

The Good Neighbours is an enquiry into the unknowability of the past and our attempts to make events fit our need to interpret them; the fallibility of recollection; the power of myths in shaping human narratives. Nina Allan skilfully weaves the imagined and the real to create a magically haunting story of memory, obsession and the liminal spaces that our minds frequent to escape trauma.

UK: riverrun/ Jon Riley Publication: June 2021 Word count: 80,000

Rights sold: French; Tristram

Praise for previous novel The Dollmaker:

“Beautifully written and deeply strange […] Allan writes about neglect and transgression very well […] Wonderfully taut.” The Sunday Times

“In clean, beautiful, agile prose, Nina Allan is able to conjure a recognisable England and a place of deep enchantment.” Andrew O’Hagan

Nina Allan studied German and Russian at Exeter University and Corpus Christi College, Oxford. Her debut novel, The Race, was shortlisted for the Kitschies Red Tentacle and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award in 2015. She also won The Novella Award for The Harlequin. The Rift was shortlisted for both the Prix Medicis Etranger and Prix Femina Etranger 2019. Nina lives and works on the Isle of Bute.

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Oana Aristide (SS) UNDER THE BLUE

A road trip beneath clear blue skies and a blazing sun: a reclusive artist is forced to abandon his home and follow two young sisters across a postpandemic Europe in search of a safe place. Is this the end of the world?

Meanwhile two computer scientists have been educating their baby in a remote location. Their baby is called Talos, and he is an advanced AI program. Every week they feed him data, starting from the beginning of written history, era by era, and ask him to predict what will happen next to the human race. At the same time they’re involved in a increasingly fraught philosophical debate about why human life is sacred and why the purpose for which he was built - to predict threats to human life to help us avoid them - is a worthwhile and ethical pursuit.

These two strands come together in a way that is always suspenseful, surprising and intellectually provocative: this is an extraordinarily prescient and vital work of fiction - an apocalyptic literary road novel to frighten and thrill.

UK: Serpent’s Tail/ Hannah Westland Publication: March 2021 Word count: 76,000

Oana Aristide was born in a small German-speaking community in Transylvania, to parents of Romanian, Greek and Yemeni background. After the fall of communism the family emigrated to Sweden. Oana studied macroeconomics before embarking on a varied career in the field, including roles as chief economist of a City financial institution, advisor to Romania’s Prime Minister, and writer for the Economist. In 2018 she took on the task of converting a heritage villa into a boutique hotel on the Greek island of Syros, during which time she also wrote Under the Blue. She now divides her time between Syros and London, where she hopes eventually to live as a full time writer. Under The Blue is her first book.

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Alice Ash (ZR) PARADISE BLOCK

In Paradise Block, mould grows as thick as fur along the walls, alarms ring out at unexpected hours and none of the neighbours are quite what they seem. A little girl boils endless eggs in her family's burnt-out flat, an isolated old woman entices a new friend with gifts of cutlery and cufflinks, and a young bride grows frustrated with her unappreciative husband, the caretaker of creaking, dilapidated Paradise Block.

With a haunting sense of place and a keen eye for the absurd, these thirteen surreal stories lure us into a topsy-turvy world where fleatraps are more important than babies and sales calls for luxury coffins provide a welcome distraction. Lonely residents live in close proximity while longing for connection.

UK: Serpent’s Tail/ Hannah Westland/ Leonora Craig-Cohen Published: February 2021 Word count: 47,000

Praise for Paradise Block:

“In these brilliant stories Alice Ash taps into a deep and compelling strangeness with vigour and humour and heart. This is a disturbing and moving collection, an unusual combination I'd like to encounter more often. "I cannot look away", one of her narrators remarks; that's how I felt, too.” Chris Power, author of Mothers

“A powerful testimony to the reality of life on the margins. Raw, bizarre, disturbing, funny and uncanny.” Cathy Sweeney, author of Modern Times

“Engaging, funny and surprising in equal measure, these stories are the work of a wonderfully unconventional imagination.” Laura Kaye, author of English Animals

Alice Ash is a writer from Brighton. Her work has been featured in Mslexia, Dryland Literature, Galavant Literary Journal and Squawkback, among others. She has performed her writing in Brighton and London, and notable readings include the Beyond the Sheets Conference at Goldsmiths University, at the Brighton Fringe Festival, and at Lit Live in London. Alice was a winner of Ali Smith’s Guest Director Directs prize and has won competitions with The Literary Consultancy and IdeasTap.

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Caleb Azumah Nelson (SA) OPEN WATER A stunning, shattering debut novel about two young artists falling in, and out, of love.

Open Water is a love story set in South London. Two Black artists in their twenties are introduced by a mutual friend and know from the moment they meet that the intensity of their connection will take them somewhere they have never been before. Tentatively, tenderly, they fall in love. But two people who seem destined to be together can still be torn apart by fear and violence.

At once an achingly beautiful love story and a potent insight into race and masculinity, Open Water asks what it means to be vulnerable when you are only respected for strength, to find safety in love, only to lose it. It’s a novel about longing, honesty, intimacy and desire; about the vulnerability of being truly seen by another person; about language, music and art. It’s a novel infused with lyricism and a depth of emotion that lingers long after you finish reading.

With gorgeous, soulful intensity, Caleb Azumah Nelson has written the most essential debut of recent years.

UK: Viking/ Isabel Wall; US: Grove/ Katie Raissian Published: February 2021 Word count: 42,000

Rights sold: Dutch: Querido; French: Denoel; German: Kampa; Hebrew: Lesa; Italian: Edizioni di Atlantide srl; Russian: Eksmo Publishers; Spanish: under offer; Turkish: Umami Kitap

Praise for Open Water:

“A tender and touching love story, beautifully told.” Observer

“Urgent and all consuming.” Daily Mail

“[Azumah’s] presentation of the narrative in sensual but precisely paced sentences with elegant refrains and motifs imbues Open Water with a rhythm of its own. His descriptions of his lovers’ physicality provide the clearest examples of his supple prose.” Guardian

“An exhilarating new voice in British fiction.” Vogue

“Nelson’s prose is intense and lyrical.” New Statesman

Caleb Azumah Nelson is a British-Ghanaian writer and photographer, living in South East London. He is shortlisted for the prestigious BBC National Short Story Award 2020. His writing has been published in Litro, and his photography was shortlisted for the Palm Photo Prize and won the People’s Choice prize. Open Water is his first novel.

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A.K. Blakemore (ZR) THE MANNINGTREE WITCHES

England, 1643. Parliament is battling the King; the war between the Roundheads and the Cavaliers rages. Puritanical fervour has gripped the nation, and the hot terror of damnation burns black in every shadow. In Manningtree, depleted of men since the wars began, the women are left to their own devices.

At the margins of this diminished community are those who are barely tolerated by the affluent villagers - the old, the poor, the unmarried, the sharp-tongued. Rebecca West, daughter of the formidable Beldam West, fatherless and husbandless, chafes against the drudgery of her days, livened only by her infatuation with the clerk John Edes. But then newcomer Matthew Hopkins, a mysterious, pious figure dressed from head to toe in black, takes over The Thorn Inn and begins to ask questions about the women of the margins.

When a child falls ill with a fever and starts to rave about covens and pacts, the questions take on a bladed edge. The Manningtree Witches plunges its readers into the fever and menace of the English witch trials, where suspicion, mistrust and betrayal ran amok as the power of men went unchecked and the integrity of women went undefended. It is a visceral, thrilling book that announces a bold new talent.

UK: Granta/ Bella Lacey; US: Catapult/ Jonathan Lee Published: March 2021 Word count: 92,000

Praise for The Manningtree Witches:

“A powerful debut… [Blakemore’s] prose has a richness that adds extra depth.” The Sunday Times

“Poet A K Blakemore’s visceral debut glimmers with darkness and glints with fear… Blakemore brilliantly describes the uneasiness of this world… [The] story is told by Rebecca West, a resourceful, sharp oddity, whose observations are vivid and original.” Daily Mail

“Exploring male oppression and misogyny trussed up as religious fervour, Blakemore’s brilliantly written story is both fascinating and compelling.” Stylist

“The Manningtree Witches is not just the best debut novel I’ve read in years, it’s the best historical novel I ve read since Wolf Hall.” Sandra Newman, author of The Heavens

A.K. Blakemore is the author of two full-length collections of poetry: Humber Summer and Fondue, which was awarded the 2019 Ledbury Forte Prize for Best Second Collection. Her poetry and prose writing has been widely published and anthologised, appearing in the London Review of Books, Poetry, Poetry Review and the White Review.

24

Susie Boyt (CD/SJD) LOVED AND MISSED

Often hailed as a modern day Muriel Spark, Susie Boyt writes with a mordant wit and vivid style which are at their brilliant best in her new novel.

When your beloved daughter is lost in the fog of addiction, and you make off with her baby in order to save the day, can will power and a daring creative zeal carry you through? Examining the limits, disappointments and excesses of love in all its forms, this marvellously absorbing book is a moving tragicomedy by the author of My Judy Garland Life.

UK: Virago/ Lennie Goodings Publication: August 2021 Word count: 62,000

Praise for Susie Boyt:

“Risky, clever, moving and innovative . . . Just glorious.” Guardian Books of the Year

“Wonderful . . . defies definition . . . beautiful heart-stopping writing.” Observer

“Delivered with wit and brilliance leavened with a sense of tragedy just off stage.” Alain De Botton

Susie Boyt was born in London as the youngest daughter of the painter Lucien Freud and the great grand-daughter of Sigmund Freud. She was educated at Oxford University. She is the author of four novels including The Last Hope of Girls which was short-listed for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and Only Human which was short-listed for the Mind Award. Since 2003 Susie has written a much-loved weekly fashion column for the Financial Times, which specialises in the morality of glamour and the ethics of aesthetics.

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Catherine Chidgey (CD) REMOTE SYMPATHY

**SHORTLISTED FOR THE JANN MEDLICOTT ACORN PRIZE FOR FICTION**

Moving away from Munich isn’t nearly as wrenching an experience for Frau Greta Hahn as she had feared. Their new home is even lovelier than the one they left behind, and best of all – right on their doorstep – are some of the finest craftsmen from all over Europe, prepared to make for her and the other officers’ wives living in this small community anything they could possibly desire.

The looming presence of the nearby prison camp – lying just beyond a patch of forest – is the only blot to mar what is otherwise an idyllic life in Buchenwald.

Frau Hahn’s husband, SS Sturmbannführer Dietrich Hahn, has taken up a powerful new position as camp administrator. The job is all consuming as he wrestles with corruption at every level, inadequate supplies, and a sewerage system under ever-growing strain as the prison population continues to rise.

Frau Hahn’s obliviousness is challenged when she is forced into an unlikely alliance with one of Buchenwald’s prisoners. A decade earlier he invented a machine – the Sympathetic Vitaliser – that at the time he believed could cure cancer. Does the machine work? Whether it does or not, it might yet save a life.

WEL: Europa/ Christopher Potter Publication: April 2021 Word count: 148,000

Rights sold: Italian: Edizioni E/O

Praise for Remote Sympathy:

*Picked by Oprah Mag as one of 2021's Most Anticipated Historical Fiction Titles*

“Remote Sympathy is an admirable and almost majestic book. Themes are grand, characters full-blooded and genuine, humour sly and intelligent humanity unquestionable.” Stephanie Johnson, Newsroom

“This astonishing book, with its inextricable braid of sadness and determination, is exactly what I needed. Chidgey . . . forces us to face and review our relations with humanity, head and heart on. This is exactly the book we need now.” Paula Green, Kete

Catherine Chidgey is an award-winning and bestselling New Zealand novelist and short-story writer. Her first novel, In a Fishbone Church, won the Betty Trask Award, and was longlisted for the Orange Prize. Golden Deed was Time Out’s book of the year, a Best Book in the LA Times Book Review and a Notable Book in the New York Times Book Review. Her fourth novel, The Wish Child, was published in 2016 and won the 2017 Acorn Foundation Fiction Prize. 26

Lucie Elven (SA) THE WEAK SPOT

A fable-like novel about power, surveillance, prescriptions, and cures, by a captivating debut voice.

On a remote mountaintop somewhere in Europe, accessible only by an ancient funicular, a small pharmacy sits on a square. As if attending confession, townspeople carry their ailments and worries through its doors, in search of healing, reassurance, and a witness to their bodies and their lives.

One day, a young woman arrives in the town to apprentice under its charismatic pharmacist, August Malone. She slowly begins to lose herself in her work, lulled by stories and secrets shared by customers and colleagues. But despite her best efforts to avoid thinking and feeling altogether, as her new boss rises to the position of mayor, she begins to realize that something sinister is going on around her.

The Weak Spot is a fable about our longing for cures, answers, and an audience, and the ways it will be exploited by those who silently hold power in our world.

UK: Prototype/ Jess Chandler; US: Soft Skull/ Yuka Igarashi Publication: UK: Febraury 2021, US: September 2021 Word count: 28,000

Praise for The Weak Spot:

“Elven's crisp and creepy debut looks at the transactional nature of relationships and the subtle signals of power at play in small-town dynamics . . . Skillfully polished prose keeps things intriguing. Elven successfully channels the magic and mood of Kafka's fables.” Publishers Weekly

“There is a kind of magic all-knowingness to Lucie Elven's writing . . . This fable-like tale just might be the anecdote you need these days.” Literary Hub, One of the Most Anticipated Books of the Year

“Lyrical and wholly unsettling, The Weak Spot is a beguiling tale of alienation and oppression, offering a new perspective on what it takes to get and maintain control over an unsuspecting public.” Kristin Iversen, Refinery29, One of the Best New Books of the Year

Lucie Elven has written for publications including the London Review of Books, Granta, Five Dials and NOON. The Weak Spot is her first book. She lives in London.

27

Blair James (SA) BERNARD AND PAT

Catherine is five years old when her father dies. With her mother out at work, she and her brother James must spend more and more time with their childminders, Bernard and Pat. Bernard and Pat's house has a lot of rules. Catherine only knows the rules when she is shouted at for breaking them. Or when everyone laugh-laughs at her. Catherine is confused. She is humiliated. Sometimes Catherine is left alone with Bernard. And she is scared of the dark and she is small and she cries. Bernard and Pat are Christians. Catherine doesn't think they behave like good people. She wonders why nobody else can see this too.

Now Catherine is grown up but she is stuck, living with the voice of herself as a child. Furious that nobody protected her; that nobody told her people could do such things.

Fierce, playful and searing - Catherine's voice is unforgettable, created by a writer deeply aware of the peculiarities of memory and committed to the often painful task of putting lived experience into words.

UK: Corsair/ Sarah Castleton Published: February 2021 Word count: 78,000

Praise for Bernard and Pat:

“[A] powerful debut.” The Sunday Times

“Bernard and Pat is an exquisitely crafted, beautiful little book, which asks startlingly brave questions about how the past invades our present and makes us who we are.” Elanor Dymott, author of Slack-Tide

“Bernard and Pat is terrifyingly immersive and brilliant, it reminded me of Nabokov, A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing and Barbara Comyns.” Camilla Grudova, author of The Doll's Factory

Blair James is a writer from Manchester and PhD researcher in Experimental Literature and Cognitive Science at University of Salford, with works published in LUNE, Translating Pain, BSJ: B. S. Johnson Journal, and Manchester Review of Books. Bernard and Pat is James’s debut novel.

28

Ciarán McMenamin (JG/RY) THE SUNKEN ROAD

Most men came back from the Great War expecting to find a land fit for heroes. Francie Leonard came back to a land fit for another war. He brought with him an affinity for guns, an aptitude for violence and a ruthlessness born out of the futility of the Somme. For three bloody years Francie’s been back in Ireland, fighting in the bogs and hedgerows to free Ireland from the same Crown he shed blood for in Flanders.

Annie Johnson watched her brother and her lover both leave for the war together. Archie Johnson and Francie were joined at the hip, two Fermanagh farm-boys who did everything together – and if Archie was going, then Francie just had to, even if he was the only Catholic in the entire Battalion. Except Archie never came back from France with the Ulster Division, and despite his promise to bring her brother home safe, Annie’s been waiting for six long years without seeing a trace of Francie Leonard.

What horror happened in France? Why didn’t Archie come back, and why is Francie on the run from her? And even if he were to keep half his promise, what future could Annie have with Francie now anyway? He’s not just a Catholic, but an infamous IRA gunman, a ruthless killer feared throughout the counties. He’s a byname for evil in his own home-town, and is whispered to have a kill-list as long as his heart is black. Now the whispers have got closer, circling up from Kerry to Clare to Galway to Mayo and into Ulster – could Francie Leonard really have come back home?

UK: Harvill Secker/ Liz Foley Published: February 2021 Word count: 74,000

Praise for The Sunken Road:

“In a stirring novel broad in location and historical sweep, McMenamin marshals his materials skilfully… The characterisations are superbly drawn in all of their complexity… McMenamin’s ambitious novel scores big.” The Times

“A violent and tender story where memorable characters battle love, loyalty and the terrible truths of war.” Daily Mail

“There is a smooth grace to his prose, and, though it’s an historical novel, it’s written in a modern style, jumping between past and present timelines in a way that feels immediate and filmic.” Irish Independent

Ciarán McMenamin was born in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, in 1975. A graduate of the RSAMD, he has worked for the past twenty years as an actor in film, television and theatre. His acclaimed first novel Skintown (Doubleday, 2017), was a WHSmith Fresh Talent pick ("A supercharged riot of a debut novel, zinging with confidence and intelligence", Joseph O'Connor) and is shortly going into production as a feature-film with Ciarán’s own adapted screenplay. He lives between London and County Sligo with his wife and daughter. 29

Gemma Reeves (SA) VICTORIA PARK

A playful, lyrical novel about otherness, change, and the gap between generations in a London community.

Mona and Wolfie have lived on Victoria Park for over fifty years. Now, on the eve of their sixty-fifth wedding anniversary, they must decide how to navigate Mona's declining health. Bookended by the touching exploration of their love, Victoria Park follows the disparate lives of twelve people over the course of a single year.

Told from their multiple perspectives in episodes which capture feelings of alienation and connection, the lingering memory of an acid attack in the park sends ripples of unease through the community. By the end of the novel, their carefully interwoven tales create a rich tapestry of resilience, love and loss.

With sharply observed insight into contemporary urban life, and characters we take to our hearts, Gemma Reeves has written a moving, uplifting debut which reflects those universal experiences that connect us all.

UK: Allen & Unwin/ Kate Ballard Published: January 2021 Word count: 61,000

Rights sold: Italian: Edizioni di Atlantide

Praise for Victoria Park:

“A delightful read… beautifully observed.” Daily Mail

“A writer who exudes a generous playful intelligence, such bright, wise wit. Everything on the page is alive, each paragraph a fresh adventure - her writing gives a pure and rare pleasure.” Samantha Harvey, bestselling author of The Western Wind

“Victoria Park is a beautifully-written novel, which interrogates alienation, change, and the unlikely and sometimes unknown ties that exist within a London community. It is original, thought-provoking, and I loved its reflection on moments of quiet revelation.” Elizabeth Macneal, author of The Doll Factory

Gemma Reeves is a writer and teacher who lives and works in London. She graduated with distinction from the MA in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University, and holds an MA in Twentieth Century Literature from Goldsmiths. She divides her time between teaching English and storytelling, and has co-written award-winning non-fiction books and children's storybooks. In 2017, she was shortlisted for the V.S. Pritchett Short Story Prize. Her short story Fermented was Highly Commended by the judges of the Bridport Prize 2019.

30

Sam Riviere (AW) DEAD SOULS

For readers of Roberto Bolaño's Savage Detectives and Muriel Spark's Loitering with Intent.

A scandal has shaken the literary world. As the unnamed narrator of Dead Souls discovers at a cultural festival in central London, the offender is Solomon Wiese, a poet accused of plagiarism. Later that same evening, at a bar near Waterloo Bridge, our narrator encounters the poet in person, and listens to the story of Wiese's rise and fall, a story that takes the entire night - and the remainder of the novel - to tell.

Wiese reveals his unconventional views on poetry, childhood encounters with "nothingness," a conspiracy involving the manipulation of documents in the public domain, an identity crisis, a retreat to the country, a meeting with an ex-serviceman with an unexpected offer, the death of an old poet, a love affair with a woman carrying a signpost, an entanglement with a secretive poetry cult, and plans for a triumphant return to the capital, through the theft of poems, illegal war profits, and faked social media accounts - plans in which our narrator discovers he is obscurely implicated.

UK: W&N/ Lettice Franklin, US: Catapult/ Kendall Storey Publication: May 2021 Word count: 84,000

Praise for Dead Souls:

**Picked as one of Observer’s Ten Best Debut Novelists of 2021**

“In poet Riviere’s provocative debut novel, poetry enjoys a booming market and the London literary world is run amok with scandal... this esoteric crisis-of-craft story will appeal to fans of Kate Zambreno’s Drifts.” Publishers Weekly

“I absolutely adored Dead Souls. Reading it felt like overhearing the most exhilarating, funny, mean conversation imaginable - which is to say it made me extremely happy and I dreaded it ending.” Megan Nolan, author of Acts Of Desperation

“Dead Souls is elegant, ambitious, very serious and very funny - an enlivening burst of anti- anti-intellectualism.” Katherine Kilalea, author of Ok, Mr. Field

Sam Riviere is the author of a trilogy of poetry books, 81 Austerities (2012) Kim Kardashian's Marriage (2015), and After Fame (2020), all published by Faber, and a book of experimental prose, Safe Mode (Test Centre, 2017). He teaches at Durham University and lives in Edinburgh where he runs the micropublisher If a Leaf Falls Press.

31

Michèle Roberts (CW) CUT OUT

Denis is searching for his mother’s past, knowing she had secrets. In Nice, he finds her friends, Monique and Clemence. In the 1950s, they were Matisse’s assistants when he was aging and unwell, pinning up his coloured paper shapes, putting the great cut out works together.

Monique inspired his designs in the chapel at Vence; Clemence, in pursuit of love, was caught in an affair that led to violence and disaster. They have their own intense and colourful pasts – but they also hold the key to Denis’s history, and he’s about to face the greatest challenge of his life.

UK: Sandstone/ Moira Forsyth Publication: August 2021 Word count: 74,000

Praise for Cut Out:

“It is a wonderful novel, brimming with delights, as full of life and colour as Matisse's cut outs. Beautifully written with sentence after sentence you want to memorise it contains so many sharp and original ideas about life and loss and creativity. The descriptions of clothes and food are sublime. It is a novel of deep pleasures.” Susie Boyt

Praise for Michèle Roberts:

“A wonderful writer: one in possession of immense feeling.” Observer

“Raw and glittering... Superb.” The Sunday Times

“Roberts writes with wit and honesty.” Independent

“A magnificent writer.” Guardian

Michèle Roberts is the author of twelve highly acclaimed novels, including The Looking Glass and Daughters of the House which won the WHSmith Literary Award and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Her memoir Paper Houses was BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week in 2007. She has also published poetry and short stories, most recently collected in Mud: Stories of Sex and Love. Half-English and half-French, Michèle Roberts lives in London and in the Mayenne, France. She is Emeritus Professor of Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia.

32

Stephen Walsh (SS) SHINE/VARIANCE

Shortlisted for the 2019 White Review Short Story Prize, Shine/Variance is the title story of this debut collection from a fresh and original new talent. A sharp and insightful debut short story collection about the pitfalls of ordinary life.

A wife yearns to escape the tight-fisted confines of a package holiday. A boy dreams of footballing greatness as his mother mourns a loss. A man tries to assemble an absent child's playhouse, with impossible instructions and too much beer. A woman seeks clarity from automated voices. A father is distracted from Christmas tree shopping with his son by the looming pressure of quarterly sales targets.

Shine/Variance captures the tiny crises and wonders of daily life with warmth, wit and decisive clarity. Ordinary people - commuters, call centre workers, children and parents - struggle for stability while craving more, and the schism between expectation and reality is only rarely bridged. Yet, amidst the faltering, recognition and bright moments of hope still illuminate their days.

Fresh, tender and darkly funny, these stories are a window into the longings, frustrations and painfully human connections of ordinary life from a remarkable new voice in fiction.

WEL: Chatto & Windus/ Charlotte Humphrey Publication: July 2021 Word count: 55,000

Praise for Shine/Variance:

“Stephen Walsh writes of the complexities of family life with insight and humour. The most powerful new collection I've read in some years.” John Boyne

“An exciting, original, and very welcome new voice. Stephen Walsh draws unexpected beauty from the familiar, the tragic, the darkly comic situations any of us could find ourselves in, composing perfect little symphonies from the haphazard chords of existence. He is a witty, insightful and very skilled writer, and the voices in this collection sing from the page.” Donal Ryan

“Stephen Walsh’s writing is at once original, sharp and funny. The richness of his insight and storytelling fits wonderfully into the breadth and depth of Irish writing today.” Anne Griffin

Stephen Walsh lives in Dublin. His stories have been shortlisted for the RSL V.S. Pritchett Short Story Award, the RTE Francis MacManus Story Competition and the An Post Irish Book Awards, and published in the Stinging Fly and the White Review. Shine/Variance is his first book.

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FICTION COMMERCIAL / CRIME & THRILLER

NEW TITLES

34

Celia Anderson (LM) THE SECRET GIFT OF LUCIA LEMON

Years of mystery lie inside the case, just waiting to be unravelled…

After fifty-eight years of playing it safe, Lucia Lemon wants something more from life. If only she knew what…

Until she receives a package in the post from an old friend that will change her life forever. Inside, she finds a bundle of cash, a collection of old maps, and a beautiful compass that no longer points north.

Holding the compass in her hand, Lucia suddenly feels hopeful – for the first time ever, life feels full of possibility and the open road is calling. If only she’s brave enough to answer it…

WEL: HarperCollins/ Sophie Burks Publication: September 2021 Word count: 87,000

Praise for previous novel The Cottage of Curiosities:

“A brilliantly original and enchanting tale.” Sun

“Wonderful characters make this a great read.” Good Housekeeping

“One of the most charming books I’ve ever read.” Cathy Mansell

“Clever storytelling with a dusting of magic.” Jenni Keer

Celia J Anderson was a teacher and assistant head in her previous life. Her first book, 59 Memory Lane, sold over 58,000 copies in the UK. Celia lives in land-locked Derbyshire with her husband and one arrogant cat but has two daughters in Brighton so spends as much time by the sea as possible. An enthusiastic member of the Romantic Novelists Association, Celia organises the judging for the Romantic Novel of the Year awards (RoNAs).

35

Nicholas Bowling (JW) THE FOLLOWER

Whit by Iain Banks meets The Magus by John Fowles in this surreal, supernatural thriller by a Costa-shortlisted author.

When her twin brother goes missing in Northern California, Vivian Owens follows his trail to the town of Mount Wookey, home to the followers of Telos: a mountain-worshipping cult that offers spiritual fulfilment to those who seek it.

While trying to navigate the town's bizarre inhabitants and the seductive preaching of the initiates of Telos, Vivian will have to confront questions about herself, her family, and everything she thinks she knows about the world. She quickly realises that her search is about far more than her missing brother - it is a quest for the secret of happiness itself.

To that end, there is only one question she needs to answer: what is really at the top of Mount Wookey?

WEL: Titan/ Sophie Robinson Publication: July 2021 Word count: 80,000

Praise for previous novel Alpha Omega:

“By the final chapter each thread has been skillfully unravelled... Nicholas Bowling is a thrilling writer who keeps the reader permanently on edge.” Telegraph

“Wonderfully twisty and atmospheric... One not to miss.” Bookseller

Nicholas Bowling is an author, musician, stand-up comic and Latin teacher from Oxford. His critically-acclaimed debut Witchborn was published in 2017 by Chicken House, and was followed in 2019 by In the Shadow of Heroes, which was shortlisted for the Costa Children's Award. His next children's novel, Song of the Far Isles, will be published in July 2021.

36

Robert Bryndza (AF) DARKNESS FALLS (Kate Marshall book 3)

The unmissable new thriller from the internationally bestselling author of The Girl In The Ice, Nine Elms and Shadow Sands.

UK: Sphere/ Catherine Burke; US: Thomas & Mercer/ Liz Pearsons Publication: December 2021 Word count: 84,000

Rights sold: Czech: Grada; Dutch: Boekerij; Estonian: Pegasus; Portuguese (Brazil): Gutenberg; Portuguese (Portugal): Alma Dos Livros; Slovak: Albatross; Slovene: UCILA

Praise for the Kate Marshall series:

“Never less than throat-grabbing . . . Bryndza knows how to keep the pages - and your stomach – turning.” Times

“It is impossible not to root for the feisty, flawed Kate.” Daily Mail

“A cracking thriller from a rising star in British crime fiction.” Irish Independent

Robert Bryndza began his career training at the Guildford School of Acting. He spent six years as an actor, doing all kinds of strange jobs in between, which was the perfect training for being an author. Robert Bryndza is the author of the international #1 bestselling Detective Erika Foster series. Robert’s books have sold over 4 million copies and have been translated into 29 languages. He is British and lives in Slovakia.

37

Jane Casey (AF) THE KILLING KIND

He tells you you’re special…

As a barrister, Ingrid Lewis is used to dealing with tricky clients, but no one has ever come close to John Webster. After Ingrid defended Webster against a stalking charge, he then turned on her – following her, ruining her relationship, even destroying her home.

He tells you he wants to protect you…

Now, Ingrid believes she has finally escaped his clutches. But when one of her colleagues is run down on a busy London road, Ingrid is sure she was the intended victim. And then Webster shows up at her door…

But can you believe him?

Webster claims Ingrid is in danger – and that only he can protect her. Stalker or saviour? Murderer or protector? The clock is ticking for Ingrid to decide. Because the killer is ready to strike again.

WEL: HarperCollins/ Julia Wisdom Publication: May 2021 Word count: 110,000

Praise for The Killing Kind:

“A brilliant, breathless game of cat-and-mouse as Jane Casey brings her trademark authenticity to the London legal world.” Erin Kelly, author of He Said/She Said

“A truly masterly thriller. Fasten your seatbelts, this is going to be a bumpy read.” Liz Nugent, author of Lying in Wait

“A tense and well-plotted novel.” Harriet Tyce, author of Blood Orange

Married to a criminal barrister, Jane Casey has the inside track on some of the country’s most dangerous offenders, giving her writing an unsettlingly realistic feel. This authenticity has made her novels international bestsellers and critical successes. They have been nominated for several awards and in 2015 Jane won both the Mary Higgins Clark Award and Irish Crime Novel of the Year for The Stranger You Know and After The Fire, respectively. Her most recent novel, Cruel Acts, is a Sunday Times Bestseller and was Irish Book Award’s Crime Novel of the Year in 2019. Jane Casey is currently on the 2020 shortlist for The CWA Dagger in the Library and The Cutting Place has been shortlisted for the first ever Best International Crime Fiction Award at the Ned Kelly Awards.

38

Clementine Collett (MH) THE APPLE TREE

Aisling and Maya’s connection is unexpected. Maya has returned to Edinburgh for her second year, confident in her place amongst friends there and in her first proper relationship with her childhood best friend, Ethan. Finally she’s one of them, those happy couples, swanning around smugly knowing they are one half of something solid.

Aisling comes over from Ireland for freshers, leaving her family far behind. Despite the distance, she still feels claustrophobic, still feels watched. Her ex-girlfriend drunk messages her, wanting her back. Aisling doesn’t drink and struggles to make friends, joining the Writers Society in an attempt to find some likeminded people. That’s where she meets Maya, and everything changes.

UK: on submission Word count: 85,000

Clementine Collett grew up in Oxford. After school, she completed her undergraduate degree in Theology and Religion at Oxford University, where she spent a lot of time acting, and travelled on tour to Edinburgh, London and Japan. She’s also spent a lot of time in Ireland. Clementine then did a Master’s degree in Gender Studies at Cambridge University, during which her love of writing fiction blossomed. She’s been writing for the last couple of years alongside work. In October 2020, she started studying for a doctorate at Oxford University.

39

Siobhan Curham (JW) BEYOND THIS BROKEN SKY

1940, London: An unforgettable novel about the strength of the human spirit in the face of war and the remarkable women who put themselves in danger on the front lines during the Battle of Britain.

As a volunteer for the ambulance service, Ruby has the dangerous task of driving along pitch-dark roads during the Blitz. With each survivor she pulls from the rubble, she is helping to fight back against the enemy bombers, who leave nothing but destruction in their wake.

Assigned to her crew is Joseph, who is unable to fight but will stop at nothing to save innocent lives. Because he is not in uniform, people treat him with suspicion and Ruby becomes determined to protect this brave, compassionate man who has rescued so many, and captured her heart. Even if it means making an unthinkable choice between saving her own life and risking everything for his…

2019: Edi feels lost and alone when she moves to London to start a new life following the break-up of her marriage. Until she makes a discovery, hidden beneath a loose floorboard in her attic, revealing a troubling / sinister secret about the people who lived there in the 1940s. As she gradually uncovers a wartime love story full of danger and betrayal, Edi becomes inspired by the heroism of one incredible woman and the legacy that can be left behind by a single act of courage…

A sweeping tale of bravery and self-sacrifice that shows that even in the midst of war, hope and love can bloom. Perfect for fans of The Alice Network, The Secret Messenger and The Lost Girls of Paris.

WEL: Bookouture/ Cara Chimirri Publication: April 2021 Word count: 87,000

Siobhan Curham is an award-winning author, ghost writer and motivational speaker. Her books for adults are: Antenatal & Postnatal Depression (Random House), Sweet FA, Frankie Says Relapse and The Scene Stealers (Hodder & Stoughton). Her books for young adults are: Dear Dylan (winner of the Young Minds Book Award), Finding Cherokee Brown, Shipwrecked and Dark of the Moon (Egmont), True Face (Faber & Faber) and The Moonlight Dreamers (Walker Books).

Siobhan has written for many newspapers, magazines and websites, including the Guardian, Cosmopolitan, Writers’ Forum, DatingAdvice.com, Mother and Baby, Practical Parenting and Take a Break. She has also been a guest on various radio and TV shows, including Woman’s Hour, BBC News, GMTV and BBC Breakfast. Siobhan has spoken at schools, universities and literary festivals around the world, including Hay, Cheltenham, Bath, Ilkley, YALC, YA Shot, London Book Fair and Sharjah.

40

Nell Frizzel (ZR) DADDY ISSUES

What happens when a 30-year-old daughter and her 50-year-old father are both single, forced into living together, and scared of hearing each other go bump in the night?

Hanna is single, her dad is single. They are stuck in a small flat together. They are in equal parts desperate to get laid, and desperate for the other to not. We meet Hanna on the day she’s moving out of the house she shared with her ex-partner in London, and into her dad’s two-bedroom flat in Oxford. Iain, her father, had been using the spare room to store his record collection. He has Febreezed the bedding rather than washed it. Hanna wonders if her self-esteem always doubled up as a compost bin and if she'll ever again feel happy.

The book takes place over a year in which Hanna breaks up, leaves London, moves in with her dad, starts a new job, has a summer of love, collides with her dad's new girlfriend, decides to be single, finds a way to move out and realises that learning to be independent is the first step to meeting the right person.

UK: Transworld/ Sally Williamson Publication: Spring 2022 Word count: 90,000

Nell Frizzell has written for the Guardian, VICE, the Telegraph, Elle, Grazia, the Pool, the Observer, Buzzfeed, Refinery29, Red, Time Out and is a Vogue columnist. She is best known for features and columns on gender, culture, art and politics, including a recent Guardian piece on childbirth that was shared over 10,000 times, a dispatch from The Jungle refugee camp in Calais for VICE, advice on breastfeeding in public and many, many pieces on wild swimming. Nell has also featured several times on BBC Radio4’s Woman’s Hour, Shortcuts and as a guest on Radio 5 Live, BBC London and (surprisingly often) on BBC Radio Ulster. As well as journalism, Nell has written and performed comedy (at Green Man and Machynlleth Comedy Festival as well as various comedy nights in London), works as a lifeguard at the Ladies Pond on Hampstead Heath, is a seamstress and occasionally recreates famous portraits in her front room for her blog.

41

Kevin Hope (JG) I, CLEMENS

In the first months of the reign of Tiberius, a young man steps ashore on the Etruscan coast. He possesses only the clothes he stands in, a purse of coins, and some stolen rings.

He turns south and heads to where all roads lead, armed only with his wits and a desire for revenge.

Blending immersive, compelling fiction with real people and events, I, Clemens is a reminder of the everyday horror of slavery, and that even a lifetime of total human bondage cannot crush an unquenchable spirit and a great, true, soul.

This is the magnificent account of one of the greatest untold stories in all history – how the slave-boy Clemens came to be called Caesar.

UK: on submission Word count: 160,000

Kevin Hope is a sculptor and a lecturer in Art and Art History. I, Clemens is his first novel.

42

Erin Kelly (SB) WATCH HER FALL

Swan Lake is divided into the black acts and the white acts. The Prince is on stage for most of the ballet, but it's the swans audiences flock to see. In early productions, Odette and Odile were performed by two different dancers. These days, it is usual for the same dancer to play both roles. Because of the faultless ballet technique required to master the steps, and the emotional range needed to perform both the virginal Odette and the dark, seductive Odile, this challenging dual role is one of the most coveted in all ballet. Dancers would kill for the part.

Ava Kirilova has reached the very top of her profession. After years and years of hard graft, pain and sacrifice as part of the London Russian Ballet Company, allowing nothing else to distract her, she is finally the poster girl for Swan Lake. Even Mr K - her father, and the intense, terrifying director of the company - can find no fault. Ava has pushed herself ahead of countless other talented, hardworking girls, and they are all watching her now.

But there is someone who really wants to see Ava fall…

UK: Hodder/ Jo Dickinson Publication: April 2021 Word count: 110,000

Rights sold: Italian: Newton Compton

Praise for Watch Her Fall:

“The new addictive thriller of 2021... Thrilling suspense... Gripping with a devilish twist.” Bookseller

“Erin Kelly plunges readers into the highly competitive world of ballet in Watch Her Fall.” Sunday Express

Rights sold in previous novel Stone Mothers : Croatian: Stilus; Finnish: Gummerus; German: Fischer; Italian: Newton Compton; Russian: AST

Erin Kelly is the author of six novels, most recently We Know You Know, published by Hodder & Stoughton. Sunday Times bestseller He Said/She Said, was shorlisted for the Specsavers National Book Awards and for Crime and Thriller Book of the Year, and was a Simon Mayo Radio 2 Book Club pick and a Richard and Judy Book Club pick. Her debut novel, The Poison Tree, which was a major ITV drama, a Richard and Judy Bestseller and longlisted for the John Creasy Dagger Award, and in 2013 Erin was chosen to write the official novel of the Bafta-winning Broadchurch.

Her work has been translated into seventeen languages. Erin has been a freelance journalist since 1998, and also teaches creative writing. She lives in London with her family.

43

Bobby Palmer (MH) ISAAC AND THE EGG

Isaac Addy is at rock bottom, standing on the edge of a bridge above a raging river about to jump and end it all. But then he hears a scream from the woods, a piercing shriek unlike anything he has heard before, a wail from someone - or something - that is in dire straits even worse than his own. So he follows it, and what he finds changes his life forever.

Isaac and the Egg is a tender and charming story about loss and the utterly blinding and chaotic journey that grief throws us into, upside down, head first and without a map to navigate. In a world in which male suicide accounts for 75% of all suicides, it tackles the hugely important topic of male mental health through the story of one man’s mourning and the unlikely friend he finds to pull him through. This is a cross between Stranger Things and After Life, a funny and warm novel providing pure escapism and reminding us of the importance of human - or otherwise - connection. An uplifting commercial tale with an extra-terrestrial twist, Isaac and the Egg is exactly the sort of heart-warming fiction we all need to be reading amidst the chaos of today’s society.

UK: Headline/ Frankie Edwards Pulication: August 2022 Word count: 65,000

Rights sold: Dutch: Xander; German: Blessing; Russian: Eksmo

Bobby Palmer is a freelance journalist and has written extensively for household titles such as Time Out, GQ, Men’s Health and Cosmopolitan, gaining a following for his work on the weirder end of the lifestyle spectrum: interviews with London’s most pampered dogs, an exposé on the East London luchadors and training as a bona fide male stripper to name a few. Isaac and the Egg is his first book.

44

Jane Riley (AF) GERALDINE VERNE'S RED SUITCASE

His dying wish was to set her free. So why does she feel so trapped?

Jack had two dying wishes: that his wife scatter his ashes somewhere ‘exotic’, and that she not give up on life once he was gone. He intended to spur her on to new adventures, but despite clinging to her red suitcase, Geraldine Verne hasn’t left the house for three months.

It takes an accident for Geraldine to accept help from her friends, but when Meals on Wheels arrive she is mortified. Yet heartbroken volunteer Lottie brings with her more than cottage pie and custard. Like Geri, she too is struggling to cut loose.

As a gloriously unlikely friendship blossoms, Geraldine begins to feel a long-lost spark of life and a newfound confidence. Perhaps what both women needed most, after all, was each other.

WEL: Lake Union (Amazon)/ Sammia Hamer Publication: June 2021 Word count: 80-90,000

Rights sold in previous novel The Likely Resolutions of Oliver Clock: German: Piper; Italian: Garzanti

Praise for previous novel The Likely Resolutions of Oliver Clock:

“A charming tale of love, loss and grief.” Daily Express

“Although the book tackles death and grief, it is also a heart-warming, charming tale of love.” Daily Mirror

Jane Riley grew up in New Zealand, married an Englishman and lives in Sydney, Australia. She has a degree in French and English Literature and has worked in public relations, television publicity and publishing. For more than twenty years she freelanced as a writer and editor before launching an online e-commerce business and blog interviewing makers and creators. She volunteers as an English language tutor for the Adult Migrant English Program in Sydney, and has completed the Faber academy course in Australia.

45

LJ Ross (MH) THE COVE

The perfect escape...

Gabrielle Adams has it all – brains, beauty, a handsome fiancé, and a dream job in publishing. Until, one day, everything changes.

The ‘Underground Killer’ takes his victims when they least expect it: standing on the edge of a busy Tube platform, as they wait for a train to arrive through the murky underground tunnels of London.

Gabrielle soon learns that being a survivor is harder than being a victim, and she struggles to return to her old life. Desperate to break free from the endless nightmares, she snatches up an opportunity to run a tiny bookshop in a picturesque cove in rural Cornwall.

She thinks she’s found the perfect escape, but has she swapped one nightmare for another? Suspense and mystery are peppered with romance and humour in this fast-paced thriller, set amidst the spectacular Cornish landscape.

UK: Dark Skies Publishing Delivery: June 2021

Praise for LJ Ross:

“LJ Ross keeps company with the best mystery writers.” The Times

“A literary phenomenon.” Evening Chronicle

“LJ Ross is the Queen of Kindle.” Sunday Telegraph

LJ Ross studied undergraduate and postgraduate Law at King’s College London and was called to the bar (Inner Temple), following which she worked as a regulatory lawyer in London for a number of years before deciding to change career. Now, she writes full time and lives in Northumberland with her husband and young son.

46

Alice Slater (ZR) DEATH OF A BOOKSELLER

“I’ve always had a thing for death. It started with history books, full of rot and squalor, bloody executions and archaic medical practices that delighted and revolted me in equal measure. I dreamed of the gallows, of leeches and lobotomies. All children were morbid, but I wore it better.”

Roach, a self-proclaimed true crime junkie, has worked in the same branch of Spines for her entire adult life. Disaffected and uninspired, she is primarily concerned with building her collection of true crime proofs in the staffroom and resenting the predictable tastes of customers. When a crack team of expert booksellers descend upon her struggling branch, Roach recognises an unwilling kindred spirit in Laura, a pretty and charismatic children’s bookseller. When Roach uncovers Laura’s traumatic past, interest blooms into obsession.

Living in a liminal space between night and day, Roach spends her nights shelving, and her days breaking into Laura’s flat, sleeping in her bed, reading her books, touching her things and plagiarising her poetry. As the clock ticks down to Christmas, nerves become frayed, the fate of the shop hangs on a thread, and a mounting sense of dread threatens to break.

The novel brilliantly captures the internal worlds of its characters, their compulsions and obsessions, their fears and desires. Alice Slater revels in the deliciously well observed detail of the day-to-day of the shop, the politics of shelving, the desperation to be noticed, the passive-aggressive reorganising of window displays, and the claustrophobia of unwanted admiration.

UK: on submission Word count: 75,000

Alice Slater is a writer, editor and podcaster based in London. She co-hosts the What Page Are You On? podcast with Bethany Rutter. Death of a Bookseller is her first novel.

47

Julie Walker (AF) THE BALLAD OF BONNY & READ

A debut novel set in 1720 in the Caribbean, The Ballad of Bonny and Read is based on the true story of two female pirates - Anne Bonny and Mary Read - as they try to stay one step ahead of the British Navy and execution.

Mary had served as a soldier in Holland disguised as a man before joining a merchant ship. When that ship is captured by pirates, she joins Captain Jack Rackham’s crew to find herself serving alongside Anne - a woman with an equally unconventional story.

What results is an incredible story of friendship, honour and survival.

UK: under offer Word count: 70,000

Julie Walker has been writing for the last 12 years. She has been longlisted for both the Mslexia First Novel Prize and the Bath Novel Award. Born in the North East, she now lives in London with her husband and cat. Fascinated by pirates for as long as she can remember, The Ballad of Bonny & Read is her first novel.

48

Eleanor Wyld (MH) CRAY

Cray starts with a break up but isn’t your standard break up novel; it’s more about getting under someone, than over them. Struggling actress, Janis, is ditched by her actor boyfriend and, needless to say, is not happy about it. She’s learning lines whilst waitressing, juggling copies of Shakespeare in one hand and plates of gluten- free, vegan-free, carb-free, taste-free canapés in the other.

Balancing living with the Holocaust-obsessed grandmother who raised her and being newly single and very much on the pull in London in your twenties is quite a challenge, but one that Janis takes on with gusto. Between starting work with a charmingly abrasive girl with special needs in the days and her deep-rooted desire to be taken from behind by men she enjoys knowing she will never see again at night, Janis refuses to let this dumping win, no matter how many micropenises she may come across.

TV rights have now been optioned and Eleanor and screenwriter Sarah Gordon will be involved on the writing side to develop it as a series of 30 minute episodes. Lily James is firmly committed to playing Janis.

UK: on submission Word count: 79,000

Eleanor Wyld is a queer Jewish writer and actor from Hackney. She studied at Guildhall School of Music and Drama and has worked extensively as an actor in theatre, film and television. Credits include Misfits, Lovesick, Thirteen and Trigonometry for the screen, Hamlet and Doctor Faustus for the Royal Shakespeare Company and most recently Tom Stoppard’s Leopoldstadt in the West End. She has worked part time at the Riverside Bookshop in Bermondsey for the last ten years. She is currently working on her second novel Puck.

49

FICTION COMMERCIAL

50

CJ Carey (CK) WIDOWLAND

London 1953, Coronation year.

It has been thirteen years since Great Britain reached agreement with Germany and a Grand Alliance between the two countries was formalized. Edward VIII rules as king, alongside his Queen Wallis. Under the Alliance, Britain has her own culture as a Protectorate, administered by Nazi Germany (the mainland).

Rose Ransom belongs to the elite cast of female citizens, known as Gelis. And her job is appropriately elite. She is a writer. Or more specifically, a Rewriter. She rewrites English Literature to correct the views of the past. The Nazis’ control of literature was key to their social policy. To control the Past, they edited History. To control the future, they edited Literature.

At the bottom of the female hierarchy are the Friedas – childless single women over fifty. They have no reproductive purpose, nor do they serve a man. They are grouped together in desolate, rundown residential areas. People call these areas Widowland.

With the coronation fast approaching and the Leader preparing to make his long-awaited first visit to Britain, the country is in a frenzy of preparation. But the authorities are faced with an embarrassing problem: Graffiti has been daubed on public buildings. Disturbingly, the graffiti is made up of subversive lines from famous works that have since been excised. Rose is ordered to travel to an area of Widowland in the rundown slums outside Oxford, where the perpetrators are suspected to have come from. But as she begins to investigate, she discovers something that could change the Protectorate forever, and in the process change herself.

UK: Quercus/ Jane Wood; US: Sourcebooks/ Erin McClary Publication: June 2021 Word count: 91,000

Rights sold: French: JC Lattès; Polish: Poradnia K; Russian: Arcadia

Praise for Widowland:

“A triumph.” Amanda Craig

“Convincing and gripping.” Elizabeth Buchan

“Brilliantly imagined.” Clare Chambers

CJ Carey is a pseudonym for a writer who already has strong track record as an internationally selling author of detective novels. Widowland is their first work of alternative history.

51

Dawn French (RK/MV/KD) BECAUSE OF YOU

** Longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction **

** Over 95,000 copies sold in hardback **

The eve of the new millennium and Julius and Anna, a rising politician and his loyal wife, are about to have a baby. A tiny bundle of joy into which both can pour their hopes – and fears.

Julius is dreaming of the photo opportunities. Anna just wants someone to love…

On the same night in the same maternity ward, Hope and Isaac – too young, too much in love – are about to discover what happens when fate intervenes. They’ve got the rest of their lives before them, but nothing can prepare them for what is coming next…

Two couples who couldn’t be more different. Two couples imagining a future at the beginning of a new century

But if a child is the answer – what was the question?

UK: Michael Joseph/ Jillian Taylor Published: October 2020 Word count: 83,073

Rights sold for According To Yes: Czech: Argo Spol; Dutch: THB; Norwegian: Kagge Forlag; Polish: Sonia Draga; Swedish: Printz Publishing

“The final scenes are so perfectly executed they almost broke my heart. Because of You is a story to cherish.” Sunday Express

“Dawn French is a wonderful writer.” Daily Mail

“Moving… French's best yet.” Good Housekeeping

“Dawn tackles the big ones – love, death, grief, childhood, motherhood, parenthood - head on.” Guardian

“Beautifully observed.” The Times

Dawn French has been making people laugh for 30 years. As a writer, comedian and actor, she has appeared in some of the UK’s most long-running and celebrated shows, including French and Saunders, The Vicar of Dibley, Jam and Jerusalem, and more recently, Roger and Val Have Just Got In. Her first three novels, A Tiny Bit Marvellous, Oh Dear Silvia and According To Yes, are all Sunday Times bestsellers.

52

Ruth Hogan (LM) MADAME BUROVA

Madame Burova is a talented palmist, clairvoyant and tarot reader who has worked for many years from a booth on the pier, at a bustling holiday camp where she befriends the entertainment staff, and at house parties for the great and good.

While she reveals the past and future to her clients, they confess to her their deepest secrets and she pledges to take those secrets to the grave. But as she prepares to retire, she must fulfil a promise made years ago to break her silence and in doing so change one woman’s life beyond recognition. Her revelations uncover some beautiful, heart-breaking and very dark secrets, including a murder concealed by a young boy, her own secret love and the truth about a foundling’s identity.

UK: Two Roads/ Lisa Highton; US: William Morrow/ Rachel Kahan Publication: April 2021 Word count: 77,000

Rights sold in Madame Burova: Finnish: Bazar Kustannus Oy

Praise for previous novel Queenie Malone’s Paradise Hotel:

“Full of Hogan's trademark technicolor characters; it's also reminiscent of The Trouble With Goats and Sheep.” Daily Mail “Hogan has a reputation for eccentric characters, hints of the supernatural and the power of unexpected friendships. Here, she combines all these with a moving exploration of the complex relationship between mothers and daughters.” Observer “Beautifully written… an intricate and moving study in complex family relationships.” Daily Express “A poignant tale of love and family.” Good Housekeeping “This book really shines… laugh-out-loud funny.” Stylist

Rights sold in previous novel Queenie Malone’s Paradise Hotel: Finnish: Bazar Kustannus Oy; Romanian: RAO

Ruth Hogan was brought up in a house full of books and grew up with an unsurprising passion for reading and writing. She also loves seaside piers, snow globes and cemeteries.

53

FICTION CRIME & THRILLER

54

Christopher Brookmyre (CD/SS/CW) THE CUT

Millie Spark can kill anyone.

A special effects make-up artist, her talent is to create realistic scenes of bloody violence.

Then, one day, she wakes to find her lover dead in her bed.

Twenty-five years later, her sentence for murder served, Millicent is ready to give up on her broken life - until she meets troubled film student and reluctant petty thief Jerry.

Together, they begin to discover that all was not what it seemed on that fateful night… and someone doesn't want them to find out why.

UK: Sphere/ Ed Wood Publication: March 2021 Word count: 125,000

Praise for The Cut:

“A twisty spiralling rabbit hole of a book that draws you deeper with every chapter. Brilliantly original, compulsively readable, right to the final page.” Ruth Ware

“The Cut is both strikingly original and definitively Brookmyre - proving, yet again, that there's nothing he can't do in the genre.” Mick Herron

“Dark, heartfelt, stylish and thrilling, The Cut is the kind of wonderfully original tale I just adore. Chris Brookmyre is a storytelling mastermind.” Chris Whitaker

Christopher Brookmyre lives in Glasgow with his wife and son Jack. He is the winner of the 2007 Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland Award for writing, and his novel All Fun and Games Until Somebody Loses an Eye won the 2006 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Award for Comic Fiction. He is the author of 18 published novels to-date. His novels have sold more than two million copies in the UK alone, and Black Widow won both the McIlvanney Prize and the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year award.

55

Claire Seeber (EK) THE STREET PARTY

At a supper to plan a charity street party in West London’s Northgate Square, beautiful and wealthy Nella Jackson asks her neighbours for help. Husband Marcus is running for MP and planning a street party to rally the local community; their daughter Willow is moving to the local comprehensive and will need a friend. They seem like such benign requests, but single parent Clem, still reeling from her partner’s death, can’t shake the feeling that gorgeous Willow Jackson might be trouble. Clem just wants everything good for her 15-year-old son Spike, whilst struggling with her own feelings of social inadequacy around these glossy people and the burgeoning feeling that the charming Marcus Jackson is really rather nice. Jolly Melissa, personal trainer and doting stepmother, is dealing with her own demons of infertility and her bullying husband Rex, who doesn’t know she sneaks out at night. Australian Lena looks like she has it all, but a feral son and increasingly disinterested husband are pushing her towards the edge. And glossy Nella Jackson clearly wants something from her new ‘friends’, but none are quite sure what. The night of the charity Northgate Square Street party, Willow invites the other teenagers back for a sleepover. After Spike returns home the next day, the police are hot on his heels – there was an incident, they’d like to speak with him. A timebomb is set off in the middle of the square, and it’s about to blow each of these families wide open. WEL: Bookouture/ Cara Chimirri Publication: June 2021 Word count: 90,000

Claire Seeber is a bestselling author of psychological suspense and was Avon’s original domestic noir author with her first novel, Lullaby, back in 2007. Her most recent novel The Stepmother (Bookouture, 2016) has sold over 113,000 copies to date and hit #2 in the main Kindle chart on release. Her six novels have been translated in 13 languages and her short story He Did Not Always See Her was short-listed for a CWA Dagger. The Streetparty will be her first novel since 2016, when she took a break from writing to train as a psychotherapist.

56

NON-FICTION GENERAL

57

Nels Abbey (ZR) THE HIP HOP MBA: What Hip-Hop’s Moguls Can Teach the Business World… About Business

The Hip-Hop MBA is a thrilling non-fiction book that uses the stories, philosophies and data emerging from the successes, failures and highly unorthodox business methods of Hip-Hop’s foremost moguls to teach the world about how business works in practice. Humorous, highly entertaining and informative, The Hip-Hop MBA leverages the genius, insanity and occasional criminality of Hip- Hop’s executives to explore and explain the universal challenges business people and professionals face.

From Kanye West’s world beating approach to innovation to Sylvia Robinson’s cutthroat business development tactics, Diddy’s marketing prowess, Suge Knight’s uniquely unorthodox approach to market research right through to how Jay Z & Beyoncé's individual experiences of early rejection and failure propelled them to global success: the Hip-Hop world is flooded with breath-taking business stories.

Merging these fascinating fables with business theory & practice - The Hip-Hop MBA brings it all into one place in a highly accessible and unique book. Readers will be entertained and educated on the art of succeeding against all the odds, making something out of nothing or at least crashing & burning in sensational style.

UK: under offer Word count: 60,000

Nels Abbey is a British-Nigerian satirist, writer and media executive. He started his career as a writer working for Hip-Hop magazines and websites in the early 2000s.

His first book Think Like a White Man (Canongate, 2018) is an eviscerating satire of modern racial discourse and politics in the corporate world. The Guardian hailed it as ‘one of the thirty books to help us understand the world in 2020’. Endorsements have come from Reni Eddo-Lodge, the Independent, Cosmopolitan, Benjamin Zephaniah, and many more. Abbey co-founded The Black Writers’ Guild in 2020 with the mission to introduce sweeping reforms across the publishing industry for inclusivity at all levels. He is one the Bookseller’s 150 most influential people in UK publishing of the same year. He is a former BBC executive and banker.

58

Clare Chambers (SS) INTACT: The Unmodified Body

Why do we modify our bodies? Are the changes we make to them - everything from the apparently innocuous waxing of a lip to more substantial, surgical alterations - rational, ethical, even actually personal? When we seek to change our bodies, to represent ourselves physically in a different way, are we truly cognisant of the social and cultural pressures playing into our decisions, and have we also considered the influence we are exerting over others in doing so? Intact: The Unmodified Body will argue that the way we shape our bodies is a political act. It will interrogate the extremely muddled and often inconsistent logic we apply to body modification, and the huge contradictions entrenched in our attitude to physicality.

Intact seeks to demonstrate how the attitude we have to the shape of our bodies is never objective and unbiased, but fraught with cultural baggage, and can have deeply harmful consequences. It urges us to talk about body modification, in all its forms, rigorously and openly.

UK: Allen Lane/ Casiana Ionita Publication: 2022 Word count: 80,000

Clare Chambers is Reader in Political Philosophy at the University of Cambridge. She is the prize-winning author of three books: Sex, Culture, and Justice: The Limits of Choice (Penn State University Press, 2008); Teach Yourself Political Philosophy: A Complete Introduction (with Phil Parvin, Hodder, 2013); and Against Marriage: An Egalitarian Defence of the Marriage-Free State (Oxford University Press, 2017). Against Marriage was awarded the 2018 David Easton Award from the American Political Science Association. Clare’s work has been featured by various media outlets and think tanks, and she has given public lectures in venues such as the Festival of Ideas and Women of the World Festival. This is her first trade book.

59

Dexter Dias (MH) LETTERS TO MY WHITE DAUGHTERS: The Seven Secret Rules of Race

Inspired by his 2020 TEDX talk on race and racism– which racked up over 1 million views in the first month from release on the main TED page – Letters to my White Daughters will expose the myth of race and teach us how to see differently. Combining both his research at Harvard and Cambridge, and his upcoming Cambridge lecture course on the same topics, with his 30 years’ experience fighting for social and racial justice in court, Dexter is fully versed on the themes of race and racism.

On a personal level, he is an immigrant and grew up in a family that experienced racism, and then a profession that added to it. His daughters, however, are perceived by most people to be white and as a result, their experience of race is completely different. The BLM movement last year threw up a lot of questions and uncomfortable conversations between them, some too difficult to discuss in person, which led them to communicating via letters instead. These letters are woven into the book, throwing up just the sort of questions that so many of us will have when faced with the truths that Dexter exposes. In combining the factual with the emotional, Dexter humanises the information he is sharing and succeeds in making this exploration of race relatable and personal.

UK: under offer

Praise for The Ten Types of Human:

“I emerged from this book feeling better about almost everything... a mosaic of faces building into this extraordinary portrait of our species.” Guardian

“The Ten Types of Human is a fantastic piece of non-fiction, mixing astonishing real-life cases with the latest scientific research to provide a guide to who we really are. It's inspiring and essential.” Charles Duhigg

“Uplifting and indispensable.” Howard Cunnell

Dexter Dias QC is a human rights barrister who as Queen’s Counsel has been instructed in some of the biggest cases of recent years involving murder, terrorism, civil liberties, war crimes, human rights and genocide. He has been instrumental in changing the law to better protect young women and girls at risk of FGM and works pro bono internationally with survivors of modern day slavery, human trafficking and Violence Against Women and Girls.

60

Nick Lane (CD) TRANSFORMER

The cycle that brings life alive.

How is inanimate matter transformed into living cells? The answer lies in the continuous conversion of carbon from one form into another, powered by the energy of respiration, all routed through the revolving heart of the cell - the Krebs cycle. This book will show how the Krebs cycle brings life alive, from the origins of life to the transformation of our planet by photosynthesis and the rise of animals, to the biochemical contradiction in our cells that produces a deep physiological tension - the roots of sex, cancer and death.

In his fascinating new book, author of the critically acclaimed The Vital Question, biochemist Nick Lane will show how the Krebs cycle brings life alive as he aims to do for biochemistry what Carlo Rovelli has done for physics.

UK: Profile/ Ed Lake; US: WW Norton/ Brendan Curry Publication: April 2022 Word count: 50,000-60,000

Praise for The Vital Question:

“An amazing inquiry into the origins of life. I loved it so much that I immediately bought all of Lane’s other books.” “Nick is one of those original thinkers who makes you say: More people should know about this guy's work.” Bill Gates

“One of the most astonishing science books I have read.” Wall Street Journal

“[Lane] is an original researcher and thinker and a passionate and stylish populariser. His theories are ingenious, breathtaking in scope, and challenging in every sense.” Guardian

Rights sold in The Vital Question: Arabic: Dar Stoor; Czech: Dokoran; Complex Chinese: Owl; Simplified Chinese: Ginkgo; Dutch: Prometheus; German: WBG; Greek: Patakis; Japanese: Misuzu Shobo; Korean: Cheongmirae; Polish: Proszynkski; Portuguese (Brazil): Rocco; Russian: Corpus; Spanish: Ariel; Turkish: KOC University Press

Nick Lane has published five critically acclaimed books, translated into 20 languages, most recently The Vital Question. He was awarded the 2015 Biochemical Society Award for his outstanding contribution to the molecular life sciences. Life Ascending won the 2010 Royal Society Prize for Science Books. Nick is a biochemist in the Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment at University College London.

61

Rob Percival (ZR) THE MEAT PARADOX

How will we eat a decade from now, or a century? Will we be eating meat?

Our future diet will be shaped by diverse forces. It will be shaped by novel technologies and the logic of globalisation, by geopolitical tensions and the evolution of cultural preferences, by shocks to the status quo - pandemics and economic strife, the escalation of the climate and ecological crises - and by how we choose to respond. It will also be shaped by our emotions. It will be shaped by the meat paradox.

In almost every society, meat is both the most prized and the most tabooed food. The consumption of animals is enfolded in layers of social rite and cultural ritual. A minority of animals are eaten. Some are deemed good to eat. Others are prohibited. These rites and rituals - embedded within cultural narratives - offer reassurance and assuage emotional tensions. But these tensions are ever-present, because although we eat animals, we also empathise with them. The conflict created by our eating and our empathy is what psychologists have termed the ‘meat paradox’.

UK: Little, Brown/ Richard Beswick; US: Pegasus/ Claiborne Hancock Publication: February 2022 Word count: 85,000

Rob Pericval is the Head of Policy at the Soil Association. As their lead spokesperson and an advocate for sustainable farming, he lives and breathes the meat debate. He has written for the Guardian, and is regularly found speaking about food and farming on prime-time television, including Good Morning Britain, ITV, Sky and BBC News.

62

Jess Philips (LM) EVERYTHING YOU REALLY NEED TO KNOW ABOUT POLITICS: My Life as an MP

From the sublime to the ridiculous, the inner workings of Westminster are often a mystery to an outsider. Here, Jess Phillips lifts the lid on the systems and rules that govern us all, and in her own inimitable style shows us what's really going on in British politics. Drawing on her tenure as an MP, she will explain the process of running for government; changing a law; serving her constituents; wrangling with her fellow MPs and so much more. This is the perfect book for anyone who's a bit confused about how it all works...

UK: Simon and Schuster/ Holly Harris Publication: July 2021

Jess Phillips was first elected as the Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley in 2015 and was elected chair of the Women's Parliamentary Labour Party in September 2016. Before becoming an MP, she worked with victims of domestic violence, sexual violence and human trafficking, and she continues to speak up on behalf of those who struggle to have their voice heard. Jess lives with her husband and two sons in Birmingham, where she was born and raised.

63

Anna Ploszajski (LM) HANDMADE: A Scientist's Search for Meaning through Making

Handmade is Anna Ploszajski’s exploration into what materials are really like. As a scientist, she can talk about molecular structures, atoms and scientific theories for hours, but this is all theory, not putting what she knows into practice. For the past 18 months Anna has been interviewing craftspeople for her podcast, ‘rial Talk, which has thrown into relief the huge benefits of communication between scientist and artist, how this illuminates our understanding of materials and our own scientific and cultural history.

In Handmade, Anna gets her hands dirty, studying with blacksmiths, seamstresses, potters and ceramicists, learning what it’s actually like to cope with the heat of a furnace, makes stainless steel in Sheffield or knit a (simple?) pullover. Combining this with her expert scientific knowledge of these materials, Handmade sheds new light on these materials and our relationship with them.

UK: Bloomsbury/ Jim Martin Publication: May 2021 Word count: 85,000

Dr Anna Ploszajski is an award-winning materials scientist, engineer and communicator. By day, Anna is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Making, researching 4D printing and metamaterials. By night she communicates materials science on stage, on radio, on TV and on the page. In 2017 she was named Young Engineer of the Year by the Royal Academy of Engineering, and in 2018 won the Silver Medal from the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining. In her spare time, Anna plays the trumpet in a funk and soul covers band and she swam the English Channel in July 2018. Oh, and it’s pronounced “Por-shy-ski”.

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Saumya Roy (SS) MOUNTAIN TALES: Love and Loss in the Municipality of Castaway Belongings

A city struggling with the cost of its appetites. A rubbish mountain eighteen storeys high. And the people who call it home.

All of Mumbai’s memories and castaway possessions come to die at the Deonar garbage mountains. And among these vast, teetering piles of discarded things - medical waste, rotten food, old clothes, broken glass and twisted metal - a small, forgotten community lives and works. Scouring the dump for whatever can be resold or recycled, waste pickers also mark the familiar milestones of babies born, love found and illnesses suffered and recovered from. Like a mirror image, their stories are shaped by the influx of unwanted things from the world outside. But now, as Deonar’s toxic halo becomes undeniable, a change is coming. And as officials try to close it, the lives that the pickers have built on the mountain seem more fragile than ever.

UK: Profile/ Cecily Gayford; US: Astra/ Alessandra Bastagli Publication: July 2021 Word count: 72,550

Rights sold: Complex Chinese: Ecus

Saumya Roy is a journalist and activist based in Mumbai. She has written for Forbes India magazine, Mint newspaper, Outlook magazine, wsj.com, thewire.in and Bloombery News among others. In 2010 she co-founded Vandana Foundation to support the livelihoods of Mumbai’s poorest micro entrepreneurs by giving small, low interest loans. Roy was a fellow of the National Foundation of India in 2012, and has Masters Degree in journalism from Northwestern University and Mumbai’s Sophia College, where she teaches magazine writing.

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Patrick Tidmarsh (SB) THE WHOLE STORY: Investigating Sexual Crime: Truth, Lies, And The Path To Justice

A leading criminologist draws on over 30 years’ experience working with sex offenders to propose a new way of understanding sexual crime.

The prevalence of sex crimes has become one of the most urgent, and most widely misunderstood, subjects of our times. We are living through a sea change in our attitudes to sex crimes, yet we continue to get things badly wrong in the way we respond to them. Drawing on over 30 years’ experience, Patrick Tidmarsh argues that we need to find a new way to understand, investigate and talk about these crimes. He forces us all to question our own prejudices and assumptions – about both victims and perpetrators – and to question the social, criminal and judicial systems that mean that so few of these crimes ever end in convictions.

Patrick Tidmarsh trains and lectures all over the world, helping police and other professionals to understand sexual offending, and to improve their responses to both victims and offenders. With calm authority and sensitivity, he sets out what has gone wrong, and proposes a ground- breaking new solution.

UK: Jonathon Cape/ Bea Hemming Publication: July 2021

Patrick Tidmarsh is a leading authority on sexual offending, and the investigation of sexual crime. He trains and lectures all over the world, helping police and other professionals to understand sexual offending, and improve their response to both victims and offenders. He is married to a sexual assault counsellor and has daughters.

The Whole Story will be his first book.

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The School of Life (CD) THE GOOD ENOUGH PARENT

A parenting guide providing compassionate instruction and insight into raising a resilient well-balanced child.

Raising a child to be an authentic and mentally robust adult is one of life’s great challenges. It is also, fortunately, not a matter of luck. There are many things to understand about how children’s minds operate and what they need from those who look after them so they can develop into the best version of themselves.

The Good Enough Parent is a compendium of lessons, including ideas on how to say ‘no’ to a child one adores, how to look beneath the surface of ‘bad’ behaviour to work out what might really be going on, how to encourage a child to be genuinely kind, how to encourage open self expression, and how to handle the moods and gloom of adolescence.

Importantly, this is a book that knows that perfection is not required – and could indeed be unhelpful, because a key job of any parent is to induct a child gently into the imperfect nature of everything. Written in a tone that is encouraging, wry and soaked in years of experience, The Good Enough Parent is an intelligent guide to raising a child who will one day look back on their childhood with just the right mixture of gratitude, humour and love.

UK: The School of Life Press Publication: September 2021 Page count: 224

Active publishers of The School of Life series: Arabic: Dar Altanweer; German: mvg; Greek: Patakis; Italian: Guanda; Portuguese (Portugal): Edicoes 70; Thai: B2S; Turkish: Alfa Kitap; Korean: under offer

The School of Life is a ground-breaking enterprise helping people lead more fulfilled lives. A resource for exploring self-knowledge, relationships, work, socializing, finding calm and enjoying culture through content, community and conversation, the School of Life is a rapidly growing global brand, with over 4.4 million YouTube subscribers, 314,000 Facebook followers, 101,000 Instagram followers and 146,000 Twitter followers. The School of Life Press brings together the thinking and ideas of the School of Life creative team under the direction of series editor, Alain de Botton. Their books share a coherent, curated message that speaks with one voice: calm, reassuring and sane.

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The School of Life (CD) WHAT THEY FORGOT TO TEACH YOU AT SCHOOL

A collection of the essential emotional lessons we need in order to thrive.

We probably went to school for what felt like a very long time. We probably took care with our homework. Along the way we surely learnt intriguing things about equations, the erosion of glaciers, the history of the Middle Ages, and the tenses of foreign languages.

But why, despite all the lessons we sat through, were we never taught the really important things that dominate and trouble our lives: who to start a relationship with, how to trust people, how to understand one’s psyche, how to move on from sorrow or betrayal, and how to cope with anxiety and shame?

The School of Life is an organisation dedicated to teaching a range of emotional lessons that we need in order to lead fulfilled and happy lives – and that schools routinely forget to teach us. This book is a collection of our most essential lessons, delivered with directness and humanity, covering topics from love to career, childhood trauma to loneliness. To read this book is to be invited to lead kinder, richer and more authentic lives – and to complete an education we began but still badly need to finish. This is homework to help us make the most of the rest of our lives.

UK: The School of Life Press Publication: March 2021 Page count: 160

Active publishers of The School of Life series: Arabic: Dar Altanweer; German: mvg; Greek: Patakis; Italian: Guanda; Portuguese (Portugal): Edicoes 70; Thai: B2S; Turkish: Alfa Kitap; Korean: under offer

The School of Life is a ground-breaking enterprise helping people lead more fulfilled lives. A resource for exploring self-knowledge, relationships, work, socializing, finding calm and enjoying culture through content, community and conversation, the School of Life is a rapidly growing global brand, with over 4.4 million YouTube subscribers, 314,000 Facebook followers, 101,000 Instagram followers and 146,000 Twitter followers. The School of Life Press brings together the thinking and ideas of the School of Life creative team under the direction of series editor, Alain de Botton. Their books share a coherent, curated message that speaks with one voice: calm, reassuring and sane.

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Peter Scott Morgan (RS) PETER 2.0: The Human Cyborg

Peter 2.0 is an extraordinary memoir combining science and technology with an examination of what makes us human. The author, Dr Peter Scott-Morgan, is a robotics scientist who was diagnosed 3 years ago with motor neurone disease in its most aggressive form. But instead of allowing the disease to rob him of his future, he's decided to use his knowledge and contacts to turn himself into a human guinea pig, using the latest technology to create a world-first exoskeleton and in his words 'thrive' towards the end of his life using VR and AI technology.

His documentary for Channel 4 following this process screened in August and he is working with a range of cutting edge tech firms such as Intel, Rolls Royce, Microsoft and Dell to develop a version of himself that can and will survive – and thrive – beyond the challenges of this cruel disease. These organisations are collaborating with each other, with Peter and with his medical team to develop extraordinary innovations which will give Peter a real future, beyond the mechanical restrictions of the disease.

The book will lead us through Peter’s life, his rebellions and achievements, relationships and research, leading up to his MND diagnosis in 2017. From there, his story becomes less autobiography, more science fiction, as he works with his partner Francis, his medical team and a growing group of multi-million dollar turnover companies to find a future beyond the usual constraints of this horrible disease.

UK: Michael Joseph/ Daniel Bunyard Publication: April 2021 Word count: 82,000

Rights sold: Complex Chinese: Faces; Italian: Mondadori; Japanese: Toyo Kezai; Korean: Gimm-Young; Romanian: Lifestyle; Russian: Alpina, Simplified Chinese: South Booky Culture

Praise for Peter 2.0:

“Intriguing.” The Times

“A remarkable account of what it means to be human and what technology can really achieve.” Sunday Telegraph

Earlier in his career, Peter Scott-Morgan translated his expertise in complex-system dynamics into pioneering techniques to decode the hidden inner-workings of society so as to predict and selectively rewrite strands of the future. Having spent roughly equal periods of his career living in the USA and UK, he currently lives in Torquay, England, with his husband Francis. They have been a couple since 1979. On 21st December 2005, they were granted the first ceremony on the first day Civil Partnerships became legal. In 2009, this was retrospectively recognised as having been a full marriage.

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Mark Solms (CD) THE HIDDEN SPRING: A Journey To The Source Of Consciousness

Common sense tells us that consciousness flows in through our senses. That is why vision goes blank when you close your eyes. But common sense is wrong. Consciousness arises from within us, from the innermost core of the brain, from a primitive (525 million year old) structure that we share with all other vertebrates. If just 2mm3 of that tissue is lost, the lights go out - all of them, not only vision. We have therefore been searching for the elusive ‘neural correlate of consciousness’ in the wrong place.

This book redirects our search to the brainstem. In a highly readable review of the evidence, Mark Solms argues that consciousness itself is not perception (or anything else cortical); it is feeling. Cortical functions are intrinsically unconscious things, until you feel them. Feeling arises endogenously from the primitive brainstem and has a surprisingly simple mechanism, namely the regulation of uncertainty.

This mechanism enables us to confront the notoriously ‘hard’ problem of consciousness in a new way – with radical implications for our understanding of mental life and its place in nature, and with disturbing consequences for artificial intelligence.

WEL: Profile/ Ed Lake Published: January 2021 Word count: 112,000

Rights sold: Dutch: Athenaeum/Singel; Italian: Adelphi; Romanian: Polirom

Praise for The Hidden Spring:

“Nobody bewitched by these mysteries can afford to ignore the solution proposed by Mark Solms in The Hidden Spring ... fascinating, wide-ranging and heartfelt.” Guardian

“Intriguing ... If he is correct, the implications are substantial ... Solms is one of a small number of scientists making this important argument.” Times Higher Education

“Outstanding ... Solms has provided a valuable service with this bold, thorough, occasionally infuriating and always wildly ambitious book.” Literary Review

Mark Solms is best known for his discovery of the forebrain mechanisms of dreaming. He is acclaimed both as a neuroscientist and a psychoanalyst (a most unusual combination). The Hidden Spring expands (for a general readership) upon a landmark article he wrote with the computational neuroscientist Karl Friston: ‘How and Why Consciousness Arises: Some Considerations from Physics and Physiology’. He is Professor in Neuropsychology at the University of Cape Town, has received numerous international academic awards and is Honorary Fellow of the American College of Psychiatrists. He is editor of Complete Neuroscientific Works of Sigmund Freud (4 volumes) and Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud (24 volumes), published in 2019. 70

James Vincent (SS) BEYOND MEASURE

Beyond Measure takes a subject that few are familiar with – metrology (the science of measurement) – and illuminates it into what is truly a gripping, fascinatingly new history, one that speaks to science, politics, culture, and (it is not overstating it to say) our essential humanity.

From the prototype kilogram which has for years been losing weight, to CRM #1082, officially a standard American cigarette, and back to the now defunct collop, a unit of measurement once used in Ireland to define the area of land needed to graze a single cow, this is a far reaching, universal history, one that gives an entirely new insight into the way we live and, crucially, the way we think.

Law, politics, the forging of new civilisations – and the exploitation and destruction of old ones – all have been profoundly influenced, even made possible, by the human ability and inclination to measure. What and how we choose to measure reveal profound truths about our values, how they have changed over time, and where they might yet be leading us.

Beyond Measure tells the story of measurement, from its origins in ancient civilizations, when measures were taken from the breadth and span of our own bodies, to the latest advances in metrology, which find foundations for units in the spin of atoms and speed of light. This book shows not only how measurement has been crucial to the development of the scientific method, but how it has also reified political and economic concepts that define the modern world; ideas like equality before the law and free trade between nations, both of which require a shared and stable language of measurement to fulfil their promise. Most importantly, Beyond Measure highlights the contradictory forces at the heart of metrology: the tension between the universal and particular

UK: Faber/ Laura Hassan Delivery: March 2021 Word count: 80,000-100,000

Rights sold: Italian: Mondadori; Korean: Kachi

James Vincent is a journalist and writer from London who has worked and written for numerous publications including the Independent, the Financial Times, Wired, New Statesman, and others. He is currently a senior reporter for The Verge covering artificial intelligence and robotics. His first book, Beyond Measure, a history of metrology, will be published by Faber.

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NON-FICTION MEMOIR

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Jeremy Atherton Lin (LM) GAY BAR: Why We Went Out

Neon lights and dark rooms; pumping house and drag queens on counters; first kisses, last orders; the gay bar has long been a place of joy, solidarity and sexual expression, whatever your scene, whatever you're seeking. But in urban centres around the world, they are closing. With this cultural demolition, we must remember to ask: Who were the patrons? What did the bars mean to them? And where can we go now?

Gay Bar is a sparkling, richly individual history of the gay bars of London, San Francisco and Los Angeles, focusing on the post-AIDs crisis years of the 1990s to the present day. It is also the story of Jeremy Atherton Lin's own experiences as a gay man, and the lifelong romance that began one restless night in Soho. In prose both playful and challenging, he immerses his reader in the unique experience of a life lived in and out of these spaces.

UK: Granta/ Rowan Cope; US: Little, Brown/ Jean Garnett Published: February 2021 Word count: 85,000

Praise for Gay Bar:

“Gay Bar offers a twist on the conventional memoir; it’s a life seen in snapshots, the bars as the backdrop… The treatment of time in the book — the way the present is peeled back to reveal the past — is beautiful, and original… We float through the years, each era announced with its odors and perfume, the soundtrack of the clubs.” New York Times

“A brilliantly written and incisive account of gay life in Los Angeles, San Francisco and London.” Guardian

“A vibrant and wistful report on a bygone era in gay culture. I can’t remember the last time I’ve been so happily surprised and enchanted by a book.” Kirkus

Jeremy Atherton Lin is an American-born essayist. Jeremy grew up in California and transplanted to London, where he took a job in retail and hung out at bars. He wrote down his experiences candidly in blogs and zines, then wound up on the Writing MA at the Royal College of Art. He has since published in the White Review, ArtReview, Noon, Tinted Window and the Times Literary Supplement. He was shortlisted for the Fitzcarraldo Editions Essay Prize in 2018.

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Nell Frizzell (ZR) THE PANIC YEARS

In part based on Nell Frizzell’s very popular column for Vogue, The Panic Years examines the period of change women face when deciding if, how, why, when and with whom to have a baby. In particular, she looks at the time, starting around the late 20s, when questions of love, career, fertility, friendship and family clash together as friends, colleagues and contemporaries start the process of coupling up and breeding. Her argument is that, like adolescence, every woman goes through a flux to some extent, but that this very important process rarely gets written or talked about. Frizell picks up before the motherhood memoirs start.

The Panic Years is sharp, warm and funny and sits alongside titles like Conversations with Friends, Motherhood and Everything I Know about Love, TV shows like Catastrophe and Fleabag and the films of Greta Gerwig.

UK: Transworld/ Helena Gonda; US: Flatiron Books/ Sarah Murphy Published: February 2021 Word count: 81,000

Rights sold: Czech: LEDA; German: Hoffmann & Campe; Russian: Eksmo; Serbian: Laguna

“Searingly honest, witty and moving. Frizzell is a very welcome voice in the conversation on motherhood.” Vogue

“Frizzell's compassionate, compulsive prose fizzes with imaginative humour and metaphor. A memoir that's funny and heartfelt, personal and political.” Evening Standard

“Writing that challenges and enlightens you just as much as it entertains and stimulates you is rare, this book confidently does both on an important and complicated topic for modern women.” Dolly Alderton

“There is so much about womanhood that feels indefinable. And yet with her definitions of the flux, and the panic years, Nell manages to define the indefinable - as well as uniting childfree women and mothers, where the two are so often pitted against one another. Lyrical, moving and thorough, this is a memoir, a feminist text and a piece of social commentary. Every millennial woman should have it on her bookshelf.” Pandora Sykes

Nell Frizzell has written for the Guardian, VICE, Telegraph, Elle, Grazia, the Pool, the Observer, Buzzfeed, Refinery29, Red, Time Out and is a Vogue columnist. She is best known for features and columns on gender, culture, art and politics, including a recent Guardian piece on childbirth that was shared over 10,000 times. Nell has also featured on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, Shortcuts and as a guest on Radio 5 Live, and BBC London. As well as journalism, Nell has written and performed comedy at Green Man and Machynlleth Comedy Festival as well as various comedy nights in London. She works as a lifeguard at the Ladies Pond on Hampstead Heath and is a seamstress. 74

Kate Garraway (ZR) THE POWER OF HOPE

Kate Garraway shares the raw and emotional story of the devastating impact that Covid-19 has had on her family - and how they are finding strength in hope.

In March 2020, Kate Garraway's husband, Derek Draper, contracted Covid-19 and was placed in a medically-induced coma. Initially, Kate was told that he would not survive. Still in hospital and in a critical condition, he is thought to be the UK's longest-fighting Covid-19 patient.

In this intimate book, Kate shares her deeply personal story. As well as recounting how the illness took hold of their lives, she writes about how she is coping with the uncertainty of their future, how she's supporting her children through this traumatic time, how she has found strength in community and how she strives to hold on to hope even at the darkest of times. Covid-19 has affected everyone across the country in so many ways and Kate hopes that by revealing her own personal experience, it will give comfort to others. By sharing the lessons she has learnt along the way, it will help us all begin to try to re-build our lives.

Kate's exceptional courage, positivity and warmth shine through on every page, making The Power of Hope a truly inspiring read that will resonate with all of us whose lives continue to be touched by the virus.

UK: Transworld/ Michelle Signore Publication: April 2021

Kate Garraway is a British TV and radio presenter and journalist who came 4th in ITV's reality show I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! in 2019. She got her start on TV in 1994, joining the South edition of ITV News Central as a production journalist, reporter and news presenter. Two years later, she became co-presenter of the South East edition of ITV News Meridian, and in 1998 she joined Sunrise on Sky News. Kate joined GMTV in September 2000, co-presenting GMTV Today with fellow Smooth star Andrew Castle on Fridays. She went on to share presenting duties with Fiona Phillips and Emma Crosby. In 2009, she co- hosted GMTV with Ben Shephard, leaving in August 2010. She became entertainment editor of Daybreak on ITV a month later, and in December 2011, she took over from Christine Bleakley as the main presenter on an interim basis. In 2014, Daybreak was replaced with Good Morning Britain, with Kate joining as one of the main co-presenters. She currently presents alongside Ben Shepherd, Susanna Reid and Piers Morgan.

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Alexandra Heminsley (SB) SOME BODY TO LOVE: A Family Story

'Today I sat on a bench facing the sea, the one where I waited for L to be born, and sobbed my heart out. I don't know if I'll ever recover.'

This note was written on 9 November 2017. As the seagulls squawked overhead and the sun dipped into the sea, Alexandra Heminsley's world was turning inside out.

Alex's husband had decided to transition. The news was delivered while their baby slept quietly in the next room.

But this vertiginous moment represented only the latest in a series of events that had left Alex feeling more and more dissociated from her own body, turning her into a seemingly unreliable narrator of her own reality.

Some Body to Love is Alex's profoundly open-hearted memoir about losing her husband but keeping a friend whilst bringing a baby into the world. Its exploration of what it means to have a human body, to feel connected or severed from it, and how we might learn to accept our own, makes it a vital, level-headed contribution to the incendiary debates on body-image and gender.

UK: Chatto & Windus/ Becky Hardie Published: January 2021 Word count: 70,000

Praise for Some Body to Love:

“A gorgeous open-hearted read but also a vital, instructive one.” Bookseller

“Staggering… This is a world turned upside down… Heminsley is unflinching in her exploration of her feelings… Her Hollywood ending is her realisation that she doesn't have to blame herself for her situation; rather it is society's fault for creating a world where people like D are scared to express their gender identity.” The Sunday Times

“Heartbreak and happiness sit in tandem in Alexandra Heminsley's wise and generous book… As Alex slowly reconciles herself to the loss of a husband, she recognises that the three of them will still be a family and that, despite the trauma, she is once again happy in her own skin” Daily Mirror

“Insightful and wise, generous and kind.” David Nicholls

Alexandra Heminsley is an author, ghostwriter, journalist, broadcaster and speaker particularly known for encouraging women to enjoy sport and fitness. Her bestselling books include Running Like A Girl and Leap In. She lives in Hove with her son, and proudly co- parents her LGBT+ family.

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Georgina Lawton (ZR) RACELESS

A Guardian, Sunday Times, Evening Standard and Cosmopolitan book of the year for 2021.

In Georgina Lawton's childhood home, her Blackness was never acknowledged; the obvious fact of her brown skin, ignored by her white parents. Over time, secrets and a complex family story became accepted as truth and Georgina found herself complicit in the erasure of her racial identity.

It was only when her beloved father died that the truth began to emerge. Fleeing the shattered pieces of her family life and the comfortable, suburban home she grew up in, at age 22 Georgina went in search of answers - embarking on a journey that took her around the world, to the DNA testing industry, and to countless others, whose identities have been questioned, denied or erased.

What do you do when your heritage or parentage has been obscured in a complex web of deceit?

How can you discuss race with your family, when you each see the world differently?

When a personal identity has been wrongly constructed, how do you start again? Raceless is both the compelling personal account of a young woman seeking her own story amid devastating family secrets, and a fascinating, challenging and essential examination of modern racial identity.

UK: Sphere/ Fiona Rose; US: HarperCollins/ Sarah Ried Published: February 2021 Word count: 74,000

Praise for Raceless:

“Lawton’s discussion of racial passing, transracial adoption, mixed-race identity and the health implications of being misidentified are freshly fascinating. She is a particularly astute observer of the psychological dislocation caused by growing up mixed race in a white family who never acknowledged her racial identity, and she writes beautifully about questions of identity and belonging, so central to each of us in finding our particular place in the world.” New York Times

“A jaw-dropping story, told deftly... a gripping, thought-provoking book.” The Sunday Times

Georgina Lawton is an ex-Guardian Weekend Columnist, freelance journalist, speaker and writer. She blogs about travel, identity and lifestyle on her website Girl Unfurled. Georgina has been on a personal journey to discover her own heritage and Raceless is her quest for identity in the face of secrets and societal stereotypes, and an examination of the experiences of those who have lived a life disconnected from their heritage or birth culture. 77

Paris Lees (RS/AR/KWF) WHAT IT FEELS LIKE FOR A GIRL

‘I don't know what it is about heights. I'm scared of 'em. Dead scared. But not of fallin'. I'm scared of jumpin'. Coz whenever I'm high up, I get this overwhelmin' urge to just... leap off.’

Thirteen-year-old Byron needs to get away. And he doesn't care how. Sick of lads beating him up for "talkin' like a poof" after school. Sick of his weightlifting, womanising Gaz and his selfish mam who pissed off to Turkey like Shirley Valentine. Sick of the people who shuffle about Hucknall like the living dead, going on about kitchens they're too skint to do up and marriages they're too scared to leave.

It's a new Millennium, Madonna's Music is top of the charts and there's a whole world to explore - and Byron's happy to beg, steal and skank his way onto a rollercoaster ride of hedonism. Life explodes like a rush of ecstasy as he discovers the Fallen Divas Project and the East Midlands' premier podium-dancer-cum-hellraiser, the mesmerising Lady Die. But when the comedown finally kicks in, Byron finds himself in a shocking encounter that will change his life forever.

Unflinching, hilarious and heart-breaking, What It Feels Like For a Girl is the unique, hotly- anticipated and addictively-readable debut from one of Britain's most exciting young writers. Part memoir, part fiction, part polemic - but all true - this is a story about growing up poor in the noughties, with the raw energy of This Is England, Trainspotting and Bastard Out of Carolina.

UK: Allen Lane (Penguin)/ Maria Bedford Publication: May 2021 Word count: 65,000

Praise for What It Feels Like For a Girl:

“Fresh, original, heartbreaking.” Reni Eddo-Lodge

“Devastating, hilarious, unlike anything I have ever read. Destined to be a classic.” Pandora Sykes

“An important debut.” Édouard Louis

“A sensational, gut-wrenching read: raw, moving, and ultimately life-affirming.” Owen Jones

Paris Lees is a writer, broadcaster and passionate campaigner for better media representation of transgender people. She is a contributing editor at British Vogue.

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Kate MacDougall (LM) LONDON’S NO 1 DOG WALKING AGENCY

In 2006, Kate was working a safe but dull job at London’s leading auctioneers, Sotheby’s. Following yet another clumsy mishap, she decided to quit and set up her own dog-walking company. This was a strange decision for a number of reasons, chief among them that Kate knew little about dogs, nothing about business, and because ‘dog walking’ wasn’t yet considered to be a real job. On the cusp of adulthood, rather than settling into conventional job progression, Kate embarked upon an entirely new and very much improvised career walking some of London’s many pampered pooches. She called herself ‘London’s Most Fashionable Dog Walking Company,’ and she winged it.

Almost as soon as Kate did her first professional dog walk, she realised there were going to be some great stories to tell: not just about the dogs, but also about the people who own them, the families and communities that they build and the city they live in.

As well as telling the stories of some of the owners, dogs and dog walkers over the course of the book, Kate also tells the story of her own journey from haphazard twenty-something into settled adulthood via marriage, mother-daughter drama, home ownership and trying for a family. Kate’s quest to create her own family unit is an important theme in the narrative, as is the idea of what makes a ‘family’. After an unsettled childhood and divorced parents, Kate had a clear vision of what she believed a family should be and what she should be striving for to achieve happiness. It is through the interactions with the many dog-walking clients in their own home environments that she learns a great deal more about the different forms a family can take, what is important in life, and what is not. A lot of this is down to the dogs.

UK: Bonnier/ Susannah Otter; US: Morrow/ Rachel Kahan Publication UK: April 2021; US: July 2021 Word count: 81,776

Rights sold: Polish: Proszynski

Kate MacDougall is a writer and journalist who now lives in rural Oxfordshire with her husband. She writes features for publications including Country Life, the Telegraph, Horse & Hound, Homes & Antiques whilst also wrangling three small children and two disobedient dogs.

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Nadia Wassef (CD) SHELF LIFE: Chronicles of a Cairo Bookseller

The streets of Cairo make strange music. The echoing calls to prayer; the raging insults hurled between drivers; the steady crescendo of horns honking; the shouts of street vendors; the television sets and radios blaring from every sidewalk. Nadia Wassef knows this song by heart.

In 2002, with her sister, Hind, and their friend, Nihal, she founded Diwan, a fiercely independent bookstore. They were three young women with no business degrees, no formal training, and nothing to lose. At the time, nothing like Diwan existed in Egypt. Culture was languishing under government mismanagement, and books were considered a luxury, not a necessity. Ten years later, Diwan had become a rousing success, with ten locations, 150 employees, and a fervent fan base.

Frank, fresh, and very funny, Nadia Wassef’s memoir tells the story of this journey. Its eclectic cast of characters features Diwan’s impassioned regulars, like the demanding Dr. Medhat; Samir, the driver with CEO aspirations; meditative and mythical Nihal; silent but deadly Hind; dictatorial and exacting Nadia, a self-proclaimed bitch to work with—and the many people, mostly men, who said Diwan would never work.

Shelf Life is a portrait of a country hurtling toward revolution, a feminist rallying cry, and an unapologetic crash course in running a business under the law of entropy. Above all, it is a celebration of the power of words to bring us home.

WEL: FSG/ Mitzi Angel Word count: 65,000 Publication: October 2021

Rights sold: Complex Chinese: Yeren; Dutch: De Geus; French: Stock; German: Goldmann; Italian: Garzanti; Lithuanian: Alma; Russian: Alpina; Serbian: Laguna; Simplified Chinese: Cogito Culture Exchange; Spanish: Planeta

Diwan has grown into Egypt’s leading bookseller chain, currently with 10 branches. Nadia Wassef has been on Forbes Magazine’s “The 200 Most Powerful Women in the Middle East” for three years running. She holds two M.A. degrees—one in Social Anthropology from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London and another in English & Comparative Literature from the American University in Cairo—and is currently working on a third in Creative Writing at Birkbeck, University of London. She has also co-edited with her sister the first photographic collection of Egyptian women entitled, Daughters of the Nile: Photographs of Egyptian Women’s Movements, 1900-1960 (Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2001).

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NON-FICTION HISTORY

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Tom Jeffreys (ZR) THE WHITE BIRCH: A Russian Reflection

Wherever you go in the world, Russia is rarely out of the news. At the same time, the birch - a pioneer species and Russia's unofficial national emblem - is one of the most widespread and easily recognisable of trees: able to thrive in an array of different environmental conditions across the northern hemisphere. In The White Birch, art historian Tom Jeffreys grapples with the riddle of Russianness through numerous interlocking journeys, encounters, histories and artworks that all share one thing in common: the humble birch.

From Catherine the Great's garden follies to 19th century birch paintings; from Russian online brides to a drunken Moscow dinner with art-activists Pussy Riot; from Tolstoy's favourite chair to the Chernobyl exclusion zone; from the Trans-Siberian railway to the Mongolian borderlands, in The White Birch Tom Jeffreys explores, encounters and observes, all the time questioning the role played by Russia's vastly diverse landscapes in the formation and imposition of its national identity. And vice-versa: how has Russia's dramatically shifting self-image informed the way its people think of nature, land and belonging?

Revealing, surprising, idiosyncratic and richly entertaining, The White Birch is a unique journey into Russia and the Russian people through its nature and landscape, art and architecture.

UK: Constable & Robinson/ Sarah Castleton Publication: June 2021 Word count: 90,000

Tom Jeffreys is an Edinburgh-based art critic who is especially interested in art that engages with environmental questions. He often writes essays for museum and gallery publications and his writing has also been published in numerous magazines, newspapers and websites including Apollo, art-agenda, ArtReview, Frieze, the Independent, Monocle, New Scientist, the Telegraph, and World of Interiors among others.

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Helen O’Hara (ZR) WOMEN VS HOLLYWOOD: The Fall And Rise Of Women In Film

A call to arms from Empire magazine's 'geek queen', Helen O'Hara, that explores women's roles - both in front of and behind the camera - since the birth of Hollywood, how those roles are reflected within wider society and what we can do to level the playing field.

The dawn of cinema was a free-for-all, and there were women who forged ahead in many areas of filmmaking. Early pioneers like Dorothy Azner (who invented the boom mic, among other innovations) and Alice Guy-Blaché shaped the way films are made. But it wasn't long before these talented women were pushed aside and their contributions written out of film history. How and why did this happen?

Hollywood was born just over a century ago, at a time of huge forward motion for women's rights, yet it came to embody the same old sexist standards. Women found themselves fighting a system that feeds on their talent, creativity and beauty but refuses to pay them the same respect as their male contemporaries - until now...

The tide has finally begun to turn. A new generation of women, both in front of and behind the camera, are making waves in the industry and are now shaping some of the biggest films to hit our screens. There is plenty of work still needed before we can even come close to gender equality in film - but we're finally headed in the right direction.

Helen O'Hara takes a closer look at the pioneering and talented women of Hollywood and their work in film since Hollywood began. Equal representation in film matters because it both reflects and influences wider societal gender norms. In understanding how women were largely written out of Hollywood's own origin story, and how the films we watch are put together, we can finally see how to put an end to a picture that is so deeply unequal - and discover a multitude of stories out there just waiting to be told.

WEL: Little Brown/ Amanda Keats Published: February 2021 Word count: 105,000

Praise for Women vs Hollywood:

“A fascinating polemic.” The Sunday Times

“A game changer… as inspiring as it is informative.” Empire

Helen O’Hara is a film journalist writing for Empire magazine, amongst others. Her book on women in the film industry will be published by Little, Brown in 2021.

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Tim Parks (AW) THE HERO’S WAY: Walking With Garibaldi From Rome to Ravenna

In the summer of 1849 Giuseppe Garibaldi, legendary hero of guerrilla wars in South America, and future architect of a united Italy, was finally forced to concede defeat in his defence of a revolutionary Roman republic. After holding the city for four long months against overwhelming foreign forces, it was clear that the only surrender could prevent slaughter and destruction at the hands of a huge French army. But Garibaldi was determined to turn defeat into moral victory.

On the evening of July 2, he led 4,000 men out of the city to continue the struggle for national independence elsewhere. Hounded by both French and Austrian armies, constantly changing direction and often marching at night, he crossed the mountainous Appenines and after endless skirmishes and adventures arrived in Ravenna on August 2 with just 250 survivors. Despite a well-advanced pregnancy, his Brazilian wife Anita insisted on accompanying him and by the time the group commandeered fishing boats on the Adriatic coast in an attempt to reach the revolutionary republic of Venice, which was still holding out against the Austrians, she was seriously ill.

When the boats were intercepted by the Austrian navy and forced to beach, Anita and the baby died and had to be hurriedly buried in a shallow grave. Garibaldi’s companions split up. Most were rounded up and executed, but the hero himself escaped, travelling back across Italy in disguise until he could finally embark from Genova, first for Africa, then the USA. Ten years later, his revolutionary campaign in Sicily would be the catalyst that brought about the unification of Italy.

UK: Harvill Secker/ Kate Harvey; US: Norton/ Matt Weiland Publication: UK: June 2021; US: July 2021 Word count: 132,000

Rights sold: Dutch: Arbeiderspers; German: Kunstmann; Italian: Rizzoli

Prase for Italian Life:

“Parks is more than just an effortless raconteur: he offers detailed cultural observation, witty yet eagle-eyed, of what makes Italians so Italian.” The Times

Tim Parks, who has lived in Italy some 37 years and written four bestselling accounts of Italian life, retraced Garibaldi’s steps in the summer of 2019, walking on the same days, and where possible at the same times that the hero walked, this with the aim of producing a book that delivers Italy then and now in a lively narrative frame. He walked with his partner, Eleonora, from Taranto, the deep south of Italy, an area that has often depicted Italian unification negatively as an act of colonisation and exploitation by the north.

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Luke Pepera (RK) MOTHERLAND: Back to Africa

Historian, archaeologist and anthropologist Luke Pepera identifies what is missing from many of the books arising out of the Black Lives Matter movement: the quest for African identity.

He takes us on a personal journey beyond the last 400 years of slavery and colonialisation and explores the preceding 9000 years of African culture and history in order to reclaim and reconnect with this extraordinary heritage and answer, more deeply, questions of African identity such as Who are we? Where do we come from? What defines us?

A crucial perspective is missing from the discussions we’re having about African history, cultures, and identity. There are many books and stories about the history of Europeans in Africa, about European influence on Africans, and about what it means to be African or black in Western society. But there is, especially among Africans, a large and growing demand for stories that explore the preceding 9,000 years of African history, the diverse cultures that emerged from it, and what it means to reclaim and reconnect with these.

Who are we? Where do we come from? What defines us? We all want to know the answers to these questions. But as far as Africans, especially in the diaspora, are concerned, these profound and longstanding questions have been neither properly explored nor answered. There still exist very few non-academic books that explore pre-colonial African history and cultures. And there exist fewer still that explore how knowledge of this deeper history might affect current understandings of race and African identity. Even now, that craving is not being met. Yet, the knowledge and narratives that could satisfy it do exist. And the desire to hear, experience, and connect with them has never been greater.

UK: under offer

Luke Pepera is a writer, broadcaster, historian, and anthropologist dedicated to sharing his passion for African history & culture. He was born in Ghana, and educated at Stowe School and St Peter’s College, Oxford, where he read Archaeology & Anthropology and studied ancient and medieval African history. Since graduating, he’s written on his website lukepepera.wordpress.com about African history and culture, completed placements at the Pitt Rivers, the Times, and Tatler, consulted Ralph Appelbaum Associates, a leading museum exhibition design firm, written and presented Africa: Written Out of History, a documentary for Dan Snow’s History Hit, appeared as a panellist on Real Fake History, written for Historic Royal Palaces’s blog, and been interviewed on numerous podcasts.

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Zoe Playdon (SB) THE HIDDEN CASE OF EWAN FORBES

Ewan Forbes was born Elizabeth Forbes to a wealthy landowning family, holders of a baronetcy, in Aberdeenshire in 1912. It seems to have been clear from the very start of his life that the gender applied to him at birth was not correct, and he was as young as 6 when his mother first took him to see experts in Europe to assist. Developments in the production of synthetic hormone meant that treatment was readily available (to a wealthy, well-connected family such as this) to support Ewan to live as a boy and then a man. Ewan was educated at home, and subsequently trained as a doctor. At first the local GP, in due course he became the Laird of the family estate. When he fell in love with his housekeeper and wanted to marry her, he was able to have the registered gender on his birth certificate corrected without much fuss, and to begin what he expected to be a quiet life as a husband, a home owner and a much-loved pillar of the community.

And then, in 1965, Ewan’s older brother died unexpectedly. Ewan Forbes was set to inherit the baronetcy. When Ewan’s cousin John contested the inheritance on the grounds that a baronetcy could only be inherited by a male heir, Ewan was forced to defend his gender in an extraordinary court case in which the legal system of the time was tested to the limits of its understanding. The twists and turns of this case are fascinating and thrilling.

In The Hidden Case of Ewan Forbes, Zoë Playdon takes this case as the arc of the story, and interweaves a history of the trans experience around it – enabling us to fully understand what it meant to be assigned to the wrong gender at birth, from the early 1900s, to the present day.

UK: Bloomsbury/ Alexis Kirschbaum; US: Scribner/ Kathy Belden Publication: November 2021 Word count: 109,000

Zoë Playdon is the Emeritus Professor of Medical Humanities at the University of London. Educated at the universities of Newcastle on Tyne, Leicester, Warwick, and at Henley Management College, she holds five degrees, including two doctorates. Trained as a historian and an archaeologist, Zoë chose her third subject – English literature – as the starting point for her career as a classroom teacher at an inner-city comprehensive school. Subsequently, she became a senior civil servant at the Department of Education and Science, before moving to the University of Warwick as Chief Executive of its business consortium and head of Continuing Vocational Education. In 1993, Zoë transferred to the University of London, as Professor of Postgraduate Medical Education and Head of Education at NHS Kent, Surrey and Sussex Regional Postgraduate Medical Deanery. She is a former co-Chair of the Gay and Lesbian Association of Doctors and Dentists [GLADD] and, with Dr Lynne Jones MP, co- founded the Parliamentary Forum on Gender Identity in 1994, which continues to meet. Zoë has thirty years’ experience of front-line work in LGBTI human rights, including legal cases, where she has worked with Baroness Helena Kennedy QC, Dame Laura Cox, Ben Emmerson QC, Stephanie Harrison QC, and Lord David Pannick QC.

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Dr Janina Ramirez (RS) FEMINA

The word ‘femina’ appears surprisingly often, scribbling the in margins of archives and record of the past two centuries. It occurs where a work by, or a reference to, a medieval woman needed to be removed. The full entry is then scrubbed out, the work lost forever. If a book was written by a woman - ‘femina’ - it was instantly suspicious and the male gatekeepers of the past excised them. Books were burnt, artworks were destroyed, and new versions of myths, legends and historical documents were written in a male- centred way.

Femina will introduce readers to a host of lost women from the medieval period and encourage a new way of writing history; one that studies the excluded, crushing the idea that history is simply ‘the biographies of great men’. It will draw on evidence from all disciplines, from forensic science to medieval music, in search of true insights into these fascinating lost female voices.

The personalities covered in this book will range from popes to paupers, leaders to lesbians, patrons to polymaths. Femina reveals how the past has been hijacked and tampered with, the medieval period cast simply as ‘nasty, brutish, short’ and medieval women almost written out. The characters Nina will bring to life in this book reveal that it wasn’t just one or two exceptional women that existed in the medieval world, but a rich tapestry of many who have been deliberately excluded.

UK: W H Allen/ Lucy Oates Publication: Autumn 2021

Dr Janina Ramirez is a cultural historian, broadcaster and author based at the University of Oxford with a passion for communicating ideas about the past. Nina studied English literature at Oxford, followed by an MA and PhD at the Centre for Medieval Studies in York on the art, literature and culture of Anglo-Saxon England.

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Jane Ridley (CD) GEORGE V: King of Dull

King George V, the grandfather of Queen Elizabeth II, reigned from 1910 to 1936, but is almost forgotten today. This is a loss. His life is a terrific story, and, this book will argue, he was the architect of the reinvention of monarchy, allowing it to survive when it could more easily have floundered.

His achievements were remarkable. At a time when Britain, ravaged by the 1914-18 war, seemed about to implode, George not only kept his throne but he made the monarchy stronger.

He brought the monarchy to the people. With his consort Queen Mary he tirelessly toured the London slums, the factory towns and the mining districts. He gave the first Christmas broadcast in 1932, using the new technology of radio to make his voice heard by every family. He sent his son, the charismatic crowd-pleaser David, later Duke of Windsor, on a series of tours of the British empire, the popularity of which surpassed anything seen before. At home, he was careful to embrace the political left, enabling the new Labour party to take part in government rather than agitating for revolution.

George has often been dismissed as stupid. This book will challenge that view. The life of George V is an epic story of love, war and human tragedy. It has never been told like this before.

UK: Chatto/ Becky Hardie; US: HarperCollins/ Jonathan Jao Publication: November 2021 Word count: 157,000

Praise for Bertie: A Life of Edward VII:

“Exceptionally good.” New York Review of Books

“A top-notch royal biography…” Booklist

“A highly readable, definitive biography of Queen Victoria’s son, ‘the black sheep of Buckingham Palace’, who matured into an effective monarch…There is no shortage of biographies of Edward VII, but this thick, lucid and lively history deserves pride of place on the shelf.” Kirkus

Jane Ridley is Professor of History at Buckingham University, where she teaches a course on biography. Her books include The Young Disraeli, acclaimed by Robert Blake as definitive; and a highly praised study of the architect Edwin Lutyens and his relationship with his troubled wife, which won the Duff Cooper Prize in 2003. Her most recent biography, Bertie: A Life of Edward VII was a Sunday Times bestseller and one of the most critically acclaimed books of its year. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, Ridley writes book reviews for the Spectator and other newspapers, and has also appeared on radio and several television documentaries. She lives in London and Scotland.

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NON-FICTION ILLUSTRATED

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Lorenzo Etherington (JH) HOW TO THINK WHEN YOU DRAW Volumes 1-3

How To Think When You Draw volumes 1 and 2 smashed the record for the most funded artbooks of all time on Kickstarter, raising an impressive $1million across 2 campaigns. How To Think When You Draw is an internet phenomenon, a series of extremely accessible, heavily illustrated drawing tutorials covering every subject under the sun, designed to teach both beginners and professionals alike. Book 3 has just broken all records, raising one million dollars on this campaign alone, so all three titles have now raised well over two million dollars collectively.

The series is all-ages appropriate, with a readership age range from 8 to 80! The tutorials have been used by teachers and lecturers in schools, colleges and universities. The series is viewed online every week by hundreds of thousands of artists, and author/artist. Lorenzo Etherington, as one half of the hugely popular Etherington Brothers, has close to 200,000 followers across social media.

UK: Kickstarter Rights sold in volumes 1 & 2: French: Eyrolles; Korean: Highbrow, Japanese: Born Digital

Lorenzo Etherington is an artist working as one half of The Etherington Brothers, together with his brother, writer Robin. They are the creators of several all-age comic series, as well as Stranski and the How To Think When You Draw tutorials. Their client list includes Disney, Dreamworks, Aardman, The BBC, and many of the world's largest book and broadsheet publishers.

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Estates

United Agents also represents the following estates:

Denyse Beaulieu Reginald Hill E F Benson P M Hubbard Tom Bingham Alexander Kent Bernardine Bishop Magdalen King-Hall Algernon Blackwood Rudyard Kipling Katharine (KM) Briggs Ronald Knox John Buchan Margaret Laurence J L Carr A E W Mason Lewis Carroll W Somerset Maugham G K Chesterton James McClure John Stewart Collis Montgomery of Alamein J J Connington Arthur Morrison F C Copleston R H Mottram Richmal Crompton Baroness Orczy Bernard Darwin Iris Origo Michael Dibdin Sir Roland Penrose The Divine Office H F M Prescott Gilbert Frankau Anthony Price Pamela Frankau Douglas Reeman R Austin Freeman Ruth Rendell Constance Garnett Gillian Rose David Garnett Patrick Ryan Richard Garnett Rafael Sabatini William Gaunt ‘Sapper’ Martin Gilbert Nevil Shute Nadine Gordimer J I M Stewart The Grail H G Wells Robert Graves Kenneth Williams (diaries and Aeneas Gunn letters) Cyril Hare Dornford Yates Sir Alan (A P) Herbert W B Yeats

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International Representation

Albania, Bulgaria, Macedonia and Serbia Andrew Nurnberg Associates Sofia Jk. Yavorov Bl. 56 - B, Floor 1, Ap. 9, P.O. Box 453, Sofia 1111, Bulgaria

China Andrew Nurnberg Associates International Ltd Room 1705, Culture Square, No. 59 Jia, Zhongguancun Street, Haidian District, Beijing 100872, P R China

Croatia and Hungary Katai & Bolza Literary Agents H-1056 Budapest Szerb u. 17-19. Hungary

Czech Republic, Slovakia and Slovenia Andrew Nurnberg Associates Prague Jugoslavskych Partyzanu 17, 160 00 Praha 6, Czech Republic

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania Andrew Nurnberg Associates Baltic P.O. Box 77, Riga LV 1011, Latvia

Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam Maxima Creative Agency Beryl Timur No. 41, Gading Serpong, Tangerang 15810, Indonesia

Japan The English Agency Ltd. Sakuragi Bldg. 3F, 6-7-3 Minami Aoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo 107-0062, Japan Tuttle-Mori Agency Kanda Jimbocho Bldg., 4F, 2-17 Kanda Jimbocho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101-0051, Japan Japan Uni Agency, Inc. Tokyodo Jinbocho No.2 Bldg, 1-27 Kanda Jinbocho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101-0051, Japan

Korea Eric Yang Agency 3F e Building, 54/7 Banpo-dong, Seocho-ku, Seoul 137-040, Korea

Poland AJA Anna Jarota Agency Poland, Rynek Starego Miasta 22/24 m.6, 00-272 Warsaw, Poland

Romania Simona Kessler & Associates Agency Ltd Str Banul Antonache 37, 70 000 Bucharest 1, Romania

Russia and Ukraine The Van Lear Agency P.O. Box 88, Moscow 109012, Russia

Taiwan Andrew Nurnberg Associates International Ltd 8F, No.129, Sec. 2, Zhongshan N. Rd., Taipei 10448, Taiwan

Turkey Anatolialit Agency Güneşli Bahçe Sok. No 48 Or.Ko Apt. B Blok D:4, Kadikoy, Istanbul, Turkey

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English Language Agents

AF – Ariella Feiner AW – Anna Webber CD – Caroline Dawnay CK – Caradoc King CW – Charles Walker EK – Eli Keren JG – James Gill JH – Jodie Hodges JW – Jane Willis LM – Laura Macdougall MH – Millie Hoskins RK – Robert Kirby RS – Rosemary Scoular SA – Seren Adams SB – Sarah Ballard SS – Sophie Scard ZR – Zoe Ross

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