The Orion Publishing Group New Titles January – July 2020 Weidenfeld & cNicolson | White Rabbit | Trapeze | Gollancz | Orion Spring | OrionC Fiction | Seven Dials ORIONBOOKS.CO.UK Cover artwork from Red At The Bone by Jacqueline Woodson, published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson (p7) Contents I Weidenfeld & Nicolson | P4 Fiction and Non-Fiction White Rabbit | P26 Fiction and Non-Fiction Trapeze | P32 Fiction and Non-Fiction Gollancz | P48 Sci-Fi and Fantasy Orion Fiction | P60 Fiction Orion Spring | P86 Non-Fiction Seven Dials | P92 Non-Fiction Contacts | P98 ORIONBOOKS.CO.UK Artwork from This Happy by Niamh Campbell, published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson (p19) 4 Fiction & Non-Fiction f WEIDENFELD & NICOLSON is one of the most prestigious and dynamic literary imprints in British and international publishing, home of groundbreaking, award-winning, thought-provoking books since 1949. Our passion for extraordinary writing dates back to our two founders, who were responsible for introducing some of the twentieth century’s most remarkable voices – Vladimir Nabokov, Isaiah Berlin, Sybille Bedford, Eric Hobsbawm, Edna O’Brien, Jorge Luis Borges and many others – to a wide readership. They launched their publishing house with the idea of building bridges and opening minds through exceptional works of literature: we have been carrying on their legacy ever since. We publish history, memoir, ideas, popular science, biography, narrative non-fiction, crime and thrillers, translated fiction and literary fiction of all kinds. 5 Who were the great diplomats of history – and what can their achievements tell us about the most important issues of our time? History does not run in straight lines. It is made by men and women and by accident. Instead of inevitable progress, what we get is more often false starts, random events and good intentions that go wrong. This book is a vivid history of diplomacy: it focuses on the concrete, looking where problems, personalities and ideas meet. And, through examinations of key diplomatic events, including JANUARY discussions on the slave trade and the Cuban Missile Crisis, looks at how diplomacy has shaped our modern world. SIR ROBERT COOPER is a British diplomat, currently serving as a Special Advisor at the European Commission with regard to Myanmar. He is also an acclaimed writer on The Ambassadors international relations. Thinking about Diplomacy from Richelieu to Modern Times Robert Cooper Biography / History HB: 9780297608530 352 £25 London, UK eBook: 9780297608547 £25 A stunning literary memoir about Deborah Orr’s relationship with her complicated mother and her childhood When Deborah Orr left Motherwell - the town she both loved and hated - for university, her mother, Win, railed against the decision. Win had little agency in the world, every choice determined by the men in her life. And strangely, she wanted the same for her daughter. But while she managed to escape, Deborah’s severing from her family was superficial. She continued to travel back to JANUARY Motherwell, fantasizing about the day that Win might come to accept her as good enough. Though of course it was never meant to be. DEBORAH ORR is an award-winning journalist, whose work has regularly appeared in the Guardian, the Independent, Motherwell the Sunday Times and in many magazines including Vogue, A Girlhood Grazia and Marie Claire. Deborah Orr Memoir HB: 978 1 474 61145 9 288 £16.99 London, UK eBook: 978 1 474 61147 3 £16.99 @DeborahJaneOrr Audio: 978 1 409 18720 2 10 hrs £19.99 6 In the wake of an affair, the lives of an astronaut and a radical are forever altered by the political fault lines of the 1960s A casual affair between Vincent, an astronaut, and Fay, a radical activist, has lingering consequences, as both become heroes to different sides of the political spectrum of the 1960s and 70s: Vincent an icon with no plan beyond the mission, Fay a leader of a violent leftist group. Through a vivid reimagining of this sprawling era, from anti-Vietnam activism to the Apollo programme to the AIDS crisis, this JANUARY multigenerational novel explores the meaning of individual lives in times of upheaval. KATHLEEN ALCOTT is the author of the novels Infinite Home America Was and The Dangers of Proximal Alphabets. Her work has Hard to Find appeared in The New York Times, the Guardian and The Kathleen Alcott New Yorker online. Literary Fiction Brooklyn, USA MMP: 978 1 474 61454 2 432 £8.99 www.kathleenalcott.com eBook: 978 1 474 61455 9 £8.99 @KathleenAlcott Audio: 978 1 474 61456 6 10 hrs £19.99 A teenage pregnancy pulls together two families from different social classes in National Book Award winner Jacqueline Woodson’s powerful new novel Brooklyn, 2001. It is the evening of sixteen-year-old Melody’s coming-of-age ceremony in her grandparents’ brownstone. She wears a custom-made dress - the same dress that was sewn for Melody’s mother, for a celebration that never took place. Unfurling the history of Melody’s parents and grandparents - from the 1921 Tulsa massacre to post-9/11 New York JANUARY - Red at the Bone explores sexual desire, identity, class and the life-altering facts of parenthood, as it looks at the decisions young people must so often make – even before they have figured out who they are. JACQUELINE WOODSON is the author of more than two dozen award-winning books, including her National Book Award-winning memoir Brown Girl Dreaming. She lives with her family in Brooklyn, New York. Red At The Bone Literary Fiction Jacqueline Woodson HB: 978 1 474616 430 224 £14.99 TPB: 978 1 474616 447 224 £12.99 eBook: 978 1 474616 461 £14.99 New York, USA MMP: 9781474616454 7 An explosive popular science book exploring the overwhelming evidence contradicting the perception we have of ourselves as independent beings We like to believe that we exist as independent selves at the centre of a subjective universe. This is an illusion, and on a physical, psychological and cultural level, we are all much more intertwined than we know. Tom Oliver makes the compelling argument that we have a better chance of facing some of the biggest global challenges ahead if we can start to understand and accept the complex JANUARY connections between us and see beyond our individualistic mindsets to view our place in the world as it really is. TOM OLIVER is a Professor in Ecology at the University of The Self Delusion Reading. He frequently contributes to broadcast media and The Surprising Science of the mainstream press, and has published more than sixty How We Are Connected scientific papers. and Why that Matters Tom Oliver Popular Science HB: 978 1 474 61174 9 304 £20.00 TPB: 978 1 474 61175 6 304 £14.99 Wallingford, UK eBook: 978 1 474 61177 0 £20.00 @Tom_H_Oliver Audio: 978 1 409 18863 6 10 hrs £19.99 A journey on foot due north from Stonehenge to Lindisfarne to discover the mysteries of our ancient past Lay out a map of Britain and something odd becomes apparent: at 1 degree 50 minutes west there is a dead straight line going true north from Stonehenge to Lindisfarne, two of Britain’s most ancient sites. But the significance of the Great North Line has been forgotten. Robert Twigger has travelled this ancient line on foot. Sticking as closely as possible to the meridian, he FEBRUARY answers the questions raised by this most mysterious and ancient of British lines. Walking the Great North Line ROBERT TWIGGER is a true adventurer whose travels and From Stonehenge to writing offer something surprising, entertaining and unique. Lindisfarne to Discover the He is the author of eight previous books, including the Mysteries of Our Ancient Past prize-winning Angry White Pyjamas. Robert Twigger Dorset, UK Travel Writing www.roberttwigger.com HB: 978 1 474 60905 0 352 £20.00 @roberttwigger eBook: 978 1 474 60907 4 £20.00 8 A vital manifesto by the author of A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived The appeal to science to strengthen racist ideologies is on the rise – and increasingly a part of the public discourse. Yet, if understood correctly, science and history can be powerful allies against racism, granting the clearest view of how people actually are, rather than how we judge them to be. How to Argue With a Racist is an illuminating manifesto for a twenty-first century understanding of human evolution FEBRUARY and variation, and a timely weapon against the misuse of science to justify bigotry. How to Argue With DR ADAM RUTHERFORD is a science writer and broadcaster. a Racist He has written and presented many award-winning History, Science, programmes for the BBC, including Inside Science. He Race and Reality is the author of three books, including A Brief History of Adam Rutherford Everyone Who Ever Lived and Creation. Popular Science London, UK HB: 978 1 474 61124 4 224 £12.99 www.adamrutherford.com eBook: 978 1 474 61126 8 £12.99 @AdamRutherford Audio: 978 1 409 18595 6 3hrs £10.99 The long-awaited second novel from the author of Smoke Imagine a world in which every bad thought you had was made visible, pouring from your body as a thick smoke, leaving soot on your skin. Many seek to discover the true nature of Smoke: Balthazar Black, mysterious impresario of a theatre troupe; Erasmus Renfrew, Lord Protector of England and avowed enemy of Smoke; his niece Elizabeth, subject of Erasmus’s experiments and holder of a strange power over Smoke. As their destinies entwine, FEBRUARY a cataclysmic confrontation looms. Will the Smoke unite them or rend the world? DAN VYLETA is the author of four novels, including Pavel & I, which was translated into eighteen languages, and The Quiet Twin, which was shortlisted for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize.