Short Books. Autumn Catalogue 2012. Recently published

Short Books

3A Exmouth House, Pine Street, London EC1R 0JH

T: 020 7833 9429 E: [email protected] www.shortbooks.co.uk Twitter:@shortbooksuk A SENSE OF BELONGING An Almost English Life Miriam Gross

In this sparkling memoir, Miriam Gross takes us on a seductive journey from wartime to the heart of Fleet Street, providing a wry, witty view of English cultural life. She tells her story in a series of vivid vignettes – life as the only child of ambitious parents in Jerusalem; her bohemian school days at the progressive Dartington Hall in Devon; coming of age at Oxford University (where she had a brief romance with the young Kris Kristofferson); and then finding her place in British journalism, a pre-spellcheck world populated by a mixture of chauvinists, scholars and bon vivants who seemed rarely to miss a deadline despite spending more time at lunch than at their desks. This is a story of remarkable characters, in which the author’s friendships with many of the key figures of 20th-century intellectual life and her many infatuations, requited and unrequited, are recounted with the sort of self- deprecating candour that makes this memoir a classic of its kind.

Miriam Gross has worked on the Observer, as deputy literary editor and then as woman’s editor; on and Sunday Telegraph as arts and literary editor; and as senior editor on Standpoint magazine. She is the editor of two collections of essays, The World of George Orwell and The World of Raymond Chandler and the author of So Why Can’t they Read? a pamphlet on literacy in London’s state schools.

£12.99 / 256pp / Pub Date 6 Sept 2012 / B Format Hardback / ISBN 978-1-78072-099-9 / World Rights Short Books / Non-Fiction 5 LESSONS IN LEADERSHIP How To Succeed Against All Odds By The Founder Of Brett Wigdortz

Ten years ago, when American management consultant Brett Wigdortz told his employers at McKinsey that he was leaving to “found an organisation designed to address educational disadvantage in Britain”, they laughed. He was 28 years old, with no experience of either public policy or teaching; he’d never led anything before, never managed anyone. And he thought he could put right the class-ridden injustices of the British system. This is the story of how a tiny independent charity has succeeded against all odds. Having met nothing but resistance in its early years, Teach First is today Britain’s largest employer of graduates. It receives over 7000 applications for 1000 teaching positions annually in the most challenging schools in the country. In this searingly honest account Brett shows how, through a combination Brett Wigdortz has led Teach First as its CEO since its of his McKinsey training and personal passion, he has turned a simple idea launch in July 2002. Before coming to London, he worked for McKinsey in , Singapore, and Manila. He into a cultural revolution. He offers tips and advice based on everything he was recently named the 2007 UK Ernst & Young Social has learned along the way – How to write a business plan; How to hire the Entrepreneur of the Year and awarded the 2010 CASE right team and How to become a CEO with zero qualifications. (Council for the Advancement and Support of Education) This is a book about turning no into yes – inspiration for anyone else out European Leadership Award. Brett is married with two small children. there with a vision for change to go out and make it happen.

£8.99 / 256pp / Pub Date 6 Sept 2012 / B Format Paperback / ISBN 978-1-78072-130-9 / World Rights Short Books/ Non-Fiction STEVE: UNWANTED Can You Break The Habits Of A Lifetime? Steve Walker

Abandoned by his mother at birth. Brought up by his disabled grandparents. A violent, abusive father in the background. Unable to read or write. Bullied at school. Frequent spates in juvenile detention. Childhood wasn’t easy for Steve Walker. By the age of 23, he had become one of London’s most notorious drug- dealers - nickname “Psycho” - with a fast car, a trail of broken relationships, and a life-threatening drug habit of his own. When his business partner’s body was found headless in the boot of a car, Steve moved underground in a bid to go straight. But leaving his old life behind was more difficult than he’d imagined…

Steve Walker is now Programme Director of the Ley Community in Oxfordshire, one of Britain’s most important and successful drug rehabilitation centres, where he was treated in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

£8.99 / 256pp / Pub Date 6 Sept 2012 / B Format Paperback / ISBN 978-1-78072-041-8 / World Rights Short Books / Non-Fiction/Biography

AN INSOMNIAC’S GUIDE TO THE SMALL HOURS Ysenda Maxtone Graham

It’s 11pm. All you’ve wanted to do all day is sleep. You’re overworked, underappreciated, and the only thing that got you out of bed this morning was the thought of getting back in it again. Now, finally, here you are. In bed. On the cusp of sleep, drifting off. Such a relief. For what we are about to receive may the Lord make us truly thankful. But then your mind wanders. Into territory where it should not go. From death to broken lightbulbs. From redundancy to unwritten thank-you letters. The minutes tick by. Oh, God, it’s going to be one of those nights. Those nights which seem to go on for ever, when all the cares of the world weigh down on your shoulders.... The Insomniacs guide for anyone who has ever spent a night tossing and turning, worrying about life’s worst scenarios. It takes you on a journey that will have you laughing in your sleep (or lack of it).

Ysenda Maxtone Graham made her name as an interviewer for Harpers & Queen and Tatler. She is the author of The Real Mrs Miniver, about the life of her grandmother Jan Struther which was shortlisted for the Whitbread Biography award, and more recently Mr Tibbits’s Catholic School, a memoir, published by Slightly Foxed, which garnered a cult following.

Kath Walker is renowned for her brilliantly evocative graphic illustrations. She has worked for many prestigious clients including Cadbury, Rolls Royce, Tesco and Sainsburys.

£10.00 / 112 pp / Pub Date 4 Oct 2012 / 150x190 Col Illustrated Hardback / ISBN 978-1-78072-113-2 / World Rights Short Books / Non-Fiction /Humour HOW TO BE DANISH From Lego To Lund: A Short Introduction To The State Of Denmark Patrick Kingsley

“A brilliant introduction to the coolest country in Europe” Trine Kjaer

What links Sarah Lund and Lars von Trier? Or Carlsberg and Kierkegaard? Or even Shakespeare and Metallica? The answer lies in Denmark, the country that has gripped the British imagination more than any other in recent memory. But though we watch their tv series, wear their jumpers, and play with their toys, how much do we really know about the Danes themselves? From Lego to lava lamps via Borgen, The Killing, and the Muhammed cartoons Patrick Kingsley takes us on a journey into the mysterious heart of Denmark.

Patrick Kingsley is a feature writer for The Guardian. He lives in London and this is his first book.

£9.99 / 128 pp / Pub Date 4 Oct 2012 / A Format Hardback / ISBN 978-1-78072-133-0 / World Rights Short Books / Non Fiction BIRDS IN A CAGE Warburg PoW Camp, 1941. Four Secret Birdwatchers. The Unlikely Beginnings Of British Wildlife Conservation Derek Niemann

“In the summer of 1940, lying in the sun near a Bavarian river, I saw a family of redstarts, unconcerned in the affairs of our skeletal multitude, going about their ways in cherry and chestnut trees.”

Soon after his arrival at Warburg, British army officer John Buxton found an unexpected means of escape from the horrors of internment. Passing his days covertly watching birds, he was soon joined by three other men, also passionate ornithologists. This is the untold story of how four PoWs saved themselves from despair by founding a secret birdwatching society and embarking on an obsessive quest behind barbed wire, which would eventually bring about a remarkable collaboration between them and their captors. Derek Niemann draws on original diaries, letters and drawings, to tell of how Conder, Barrett, Waterston and Buxton were forged by their wartime experience into the giants of postwar wildlife conservation. Their legacy lives on.

Derek Niemann is the editor of the RSPB’s children’s magazine and has written several books on nature and conservation for young readers. He lives in Bedfordshire with his family.

£14.99 / 302 pp / Pub Date 1 Nov 2012 / Demy Trade Hardback / ISBN 978-1-78072-093-7 / World Rights Short Books / Non-Fiction/Biography SUPERLATIVES. The Funniest Book Ever Published. The Superlatist.

The 21st century is, undoubtedly, the century of exaggeration. Everywhere you look, people are exaggerating things. You can’t turn your head without seeing another advert for the fastest car, the smoothest shave, the tightest trousers. “You ate all the pies,” chant the football fans. “I am without doubt the person who’s been the most persecuted in the entire history of the world and the history of man,” opines Silvio Berlusconi. Everyone’s at it. We live in superlative times. The Superlatist is the greatest exaggerator of them all. Armed with nothing but an iPhone, he has travelled up and down the country photographing his own personal world of exaggeration. Let him guide you through it: the greatest journey you’ll ever make. Along the way, you’ll learn about the world’s best marketing campaign, the world’s saddest cake, and the world’s most humiliating product endorsement. You’ll meet the world’s most eligible bachelors, the world’s hardest bastard, and the world’s least appropriate children’s protagonist.

The Superlatist lives in London and has very little sense of proportion.

£9.99 / 128 pp / Pub Date 1 Nov 2012 / 150x190 colour illustrated hbk / ISBN 978-1-78072-110-1 / World Rights Short Books / Non Fiction World’s Worst Secret Millionaire.

World’s Least Appropriate Children’s Protagonist. World’s Most Suspicious Shop. FOR THE LOVE OF LETTERS The Joy of Slow Communication John O’Connell

Remember letters? They were good, weren’t they? The thrill of receiving that battered envelope with its longed-for contents – all the better for the wait... For The Love of Letters is a celebration of letter-writing in all its guises, a showcase for the masterpieces we would all write if we had the time and inclination. As John O’Connell shows, the best letters have much to teach us – Samuel Richardson’s ‘familiar letters’; Wilfred Owen’s outpourings to his mother; the schoolboy scatology of Kingsley Amis and ; Churchill and Clementine’s reflections on the ‘colour & jostle of the highway’ they trod together; the sly observational charms of Jane Austen... In this richly entertaining book, O’Connell puts forward a passionate case for the value of letter-writing in a distracted, technology-obsessed world. A properly crafted letter is something to be cherished, an act of exposure which gives shape and meaning to the chaos of life. In the words of John Donne, ‘Sir, more than kisses, letters mingle souls;/For, thus friends absent speak.’

John O’Connell worked for several years at Time Out. He now writes, mostly about books, for The Times, The Guardian, New Statesman and The National. He is the author of I Told You I Was Ill: Adventures in Hypochondria (Short Books, 2005), The Midlife Manual (2010) and Baskerville (2011). He is 37 and lives with his family in south London.

£12.99 / 224 pp / Pub Date 1 Nov 2012 / B Format Hardback / ISBN 978-1-78072-109-5 / World Rights Short Books / Non-Fiction VEG STREET Growing Dinner on Your Doorstep Naomi Schillinger

This book offers a month by month guide to growing your own - and hopefully growing your community too. A few years ago, Naomi Schillinger got together with friends to start a neighbourhood gardening scheme. Today, they live in a street in which no less than 100 residents have turned their front gardens over to growing their own fruit and veg: lettuces, leeks and beetroot in raised beds, teepees billowing with sweet peas and runner beans, rhubarb by the door... Whether you live in a rented flat with a window box, a house with a front garden – if you have access to a bit of pavement or decide to reclaim some unloved or forgotten corner – there will be ideas in this book which will encourage you to have a go at growing your own throughout the year; and, in so doing, create your own mini Eden.

Naomi Schillinger is a journalist, photographer and seasoned gardener. Her blog, Out of My Shed, has gained a huge following over the past few years, packed full of simple ‘how to’s’ and shared knowledge, gleaned from friends, colleagues and her fellow allotmenteers. She lives with her husband in Finsbury Park.

£16.99 / 224 pp / Pub Date 6 Dec 2012 / Col Illustrated Crown Quarto Paperback / ISBN 978-1-78072-112-5 / World Rights Short Books / Non-Fiction THE WHITE LIE From the Andrea Gillies winner of the Orwell Prize 2010 and the inaugural “One hot summer day, Michael Salter, 19-year-old scion of a posh Highland Wellcome Trust Book Prize family, disappears. When his childlike aunt claims she drowned him during a 2009 fight, the family close ranks. No police. No memorial service. No titbits for village gossips. A decade of deceit begins. Narrated by Michael from beyond the grave, Andrea Gillies’ debut novel unpicks the mesh of lies, some white, some not, that entangle the Salters, bringing the closed world of the big house to life with cinematic clarity. A gripping exploration of the stories families tell about themselves, myths sometimes more potent than the truth.”

“This immersive story is… a page-turner. It is also, finally, very moving.” Francine Stock, Guardian

“Gillies writes magnificently on everything she touches.”Sunday Times

“Absolutely searing... we have a major new talent in our midst.” Daily Express

Andrea Gillies has had a diverse career, encompassing writing, publicity work, travel and reference book editing, and writing a drinks column for Scotland on Sunday newspaper. Her first book,Keeper , won the Orwell Prize and the Wellcome Trust Book Prize. This is her first novel.

Paperback fiction

£7.99 / 576 pp / Pub Date 5 July 2012/ B Format Paperback / ISBN 978-1-78072-090-6 / World Rights Short Books /Fiction THE HOUSE ON PARADISE STREET Sofka Zinovieff

In 2008 Antigone Perifanis returns to her old family home in Athens after 60 years in exile. She has come to attend the funeral of her only son, Nikitas, who was born in prison, and whom she has not seen since she left him as a baby. Nikitas had been distressed in the days before his death and, curious to find out why, his English widow Maud starts to investigate his complicated past. In so doing, she finds herself reigniting a bitter family feud, discovering a heartbreaking story of a young mother caught up in the political tides of the Greek Civil War and forced to make a terrible decision that would blight not only her life but that of future generations...

Sofka Zinovieff has published two acclaimed works of non-fiction,Eurydice St, A Place in Athens and The Red Princess, a biography of her paternal grandmother. This is her first novel. She lives, with her husband and two daughters, in Greece.

“I can’t remember when I was so totally absorbed by a book... Enthralling, moving and wise.” Cressida Connolly

“An engrossing saga of a family riven by ideological conflict and fractured by war” Observer

“Zinovieff ’s portrayal of Greece is beautiful and believable, engaging all the senses” Spectator

Paperback fiction

£7.99 / 336 pp / Pub Date 2 Aug 2012 / B Format Pbk / ISBN 978-1-78072-091-3 / World Rights Short Books / Foreign Rights: United Agents Fiction PUBLICITY FOR ORDERS CONTACT SALES BY Short Books Short Books TBS, Distribution centre Faber and Faber Ltd 3A Exmouth House Colchester Rd, Frating Green Bloomsbury House Pine St, London Colchester, Essex, CO7 7DW 74-77 Great Russell Street EC1R 0JH UK trade tel: 01206 255678 London WC1B 3DA tel: 020 7833 9429 UK fax: 01206 255930 tel: 020 7927 3800 fax: 020 7833 9500 Export tel: 01206 255644 www.faber.co.uk [email protected]

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