Translation Rights Guide
SPRING HIGHLIGHTS 2021
CORNERSTONE EBURY PENGUIN GENERAL PENGUIN PRESS PENGUIN RIGHTS DEPARTMENT Cornerstone | Ebury | Penguin General | Penguin Press
Chantal Noel, Group Rights Director Email: [email protected]
Sarah Scarlett, Adult Rights Director USA & Canada (Ebury & Transworld) Email: [email protected]
Amelia Evans, Rights Director USA & Canada (Cornerstone, Penguin Press & Penguin General) Email: [email protected]
Monique Corless, Head of Translation Germany & France Email: mcorless @penguinrandomhouse.co.uk
Ann Katrin Ziser, Senior Rights Manager Netherlands, Spain, Italy Email: [email protected]
Elizabeth Brandon, Rights Manager China, Brazil, Scandinavia, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Poland Email: [email protected]
Catherine Turner, Senior Rights Executive Portugal, Greece, Turkey, Russia, Romania, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary, Croatia Email: [email protected]
Annamika Singh, Rights Executive Ukraine, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Macedonia, Albania, Israel Email: [email protected]
Laura Milford, Rights Executive Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Arab World Email: [email protected]
Alix Shaw, Rights Assistant Email: [email protected]
Devi Joshi, Rights Assistant Email: [email protected]
CORNERSTONE Cornerstone publishes books that connect with people. We love discovering new voices, unearthing stories and taking them to new audiences.
ARROW Arrow is one of the most successful commercial paperback imprints in the UK. With bestselling crime authors, an outstanding saga publishing programme and a catalogue of literary greats
CENTURY
Century publishes a list of bestselling fiction across a diverse range of genres from true crime to fantasy as well as one of the most well regarded list of commercial non-fiction.
HUTCHINSON
One of the UK’s oldest imprints, Hutchinson has always championed books that engage with the way we are living and thinking, as well as celebrating the brilliant storytelling of their established bestsellers.
#MERKY BOOKS
#Merky Books was launched in 2018 and is dedicated to publishing the best in non-fiction, fiction and poetry from a new generation of voices. The imprint, which is curated by Stormzy, also runs an open submission competing to find new works across a range of genres.
CORNERSTONE
RANDOM HOUSE BUSINESS BOOKS
Home to the world’s most influential thinkers on business, economics and behavioural sciences. The list ranges from timeless classics to pioneering explorations of future trends. Practical and inspirational by turns, these books represent the very best of the past, present and future of business.
WILLIAM HEINEMANN Founded in 1890, the imprint boasts a rich literary heritage as well as a forward-thinking, cutting-edge list of contemporary fiction and non-fiction.
WINDMILL
Windmill’s mission is to publish exceptional literary fiction and non-fiction. Established in 2009, Windmill’s list is bursting with prize-winners, exceptional new voices and expert non-fiction writers publishing across a broad range of genres.
YOUNG ARROW
Young Arrow is the home of the children’s and young adult books written by some of Cornerstone’s biggest authors . The non-fiction specialists of Penguin Random House, from memoir to self-help; from cookery to sport; from business to humour – Ebury covers almost every area of non-fiction.
EBURY PRESS
Ebury Press is one of the country’s most successful imprints dedicated to creating bestsellers in narrative and illustrated lists covering every genre from cookery, sport and gift to memoir, history and politics.
BBC BOOKS
BBC Books is the publisher of choice for titles relating to BBC programmes and personalities, combining the editorial quality and integrity of the BBC with the award winning sales of Penguin Random House.
EBURY ENTERPRISES
Ebury Enterprises is the brand publishing arm of Ebury Press. Experts at working in partnership with both established and emerging brands, including food and drink, museums, institutions and world famous shops. VERMILION
An imprint dedicated to publishing highly-respected experts whose books make a genuine difference to people’s lives from personal development, popular psychology, business and social issues to pregnancy.
RIDER
From Edith Eger to Shirin Ebadi, the Dalai Lama to Deepak Chopra, Rider authors offer an unparalleled range of new ideas. Its list is renowned for providing an enlightening, thought-provoking take on modern life.
VIRGIN BOOKS
Launched in 1979 as a rock music publisher linked to Virgin Records. It’s now a home for books with energy and attitude. With a varied list ranging from humour and biography to business and sport.
WH ALLEN
WH Allen publishes engaging, provocative books that start conversations. Home to some of the biggest thinkers of the past three centuries, this bespoke yet ambitious list ranges across technology, politics, history and current affairs.
POP PRESS
Pop Press is the home of Ebury’s gift publishing, offering fun, beautiful and affordable books for everyone and all occasions. Our list includes humour, lifestyle, food and drink and wellbeing books to inspire, entertain, and capture the zeitgeist and the imagination of the young or young at heart. PENGUIN GENERAL
A broad church for anyone who is culturally inquisitive, Penguin General’s publishing unites an intelligent curiosity about the world around us, as well as a great love of storytelling. FIG TREE
Fig Tree was founded in 2005 to publish well-written, narrative-driven, entertaining and occasionally provocative books that tap into the zeitgeist. Most of its readers and authors are women. As well as fiction, it also publishes history, art history, memoir, and beautifully designed and produced illustrated cookery titles.
HAMISH HAMILTON
Founded in 1931, Hamish Hamilton is one of Britain’s most distinguished literary lists. Publishing no more than 20 new titles a year, both fiction and non- fiction, and all points in between, Hamish Hamilton’s authors include Arundhati Roy, Noam Chomsky, Zadie Smith, W.G. Sebald, Ali Smith and Mohsin Hamid.
VIKING
Viking publishes fiction and non-fiction: books that combine brilliant writing with popular appeal, books that make headlines and books that will win prizes. It publishes current affairs, history, biography, memoir, economics, science, narrative non-fiction, music, art and sport with authors including John le Carré, Nick Hornby, Colm Tóibín, Michelle Obama, William Trevor and Nina Stibbe.
PENGUIN BUSINESS
Penguin Business is Penguin’s leading business imprint, publishing cutting-edge ideas in leadership, management, entrepreneurship, finance, innovation, professional skills, and narrative business. It publishes books that are packed full of practical advice to help you change the way you work and do business. Our bestselling, internationally renowned authors include Simon Sinek, Eric Ries, Seth Godin, John Doer, Oliver Shah and Don Tapscott.
PENGUIN LIFE
Launched in 2016, Penguin Life publishes health and lifestyle books by experts who share a passion for living well. From psychology and inspirational thinking, to fitness and parenting, they publish books to help you be the best you can be. Its authors include Ruby Wax, Dr Rangan Chatterjee and Meik Wiking.
SANDYCOVE
Covering the full spectrum of genres and markets, Sandycove is the leading Irish-based publishing imprint. Publishing no more than 20 new titles a year, we select, edit and promote each book with the love and care of a small press. Our list of bestsellers, prize-winners and new discoveries is unmatched, backed up by the immense resources of Penguin Random House Penguin Press comprises the flagship non-fiction imprint Allen Lane, the innovative Particular Books, the newly revitalised Pelican imprint and the world of Penguin Classics.
ALLEN LANE
In 1967 Penguin’s founder started a hardback imprint under his own name, Allen Lane. Allen Lane is now the leading publisher in the UK of bestselling serious non-fiction, setting the agenda in subjects including history, science, politics, economics, philosophy, psychology, language and current affairs. Its books are renowned for their quality and their originality of thought.
PARTICULAR BOOKS
By and for the particularly passionate, Particular Books began publishing in 2009. Some of its authors are award-winners, some are bestsellers; all – artists, illustrators, map-makers, photographers, poets, scientists – express their consuming interests in distinctive ways that delight readers across the globe.
PELICAN
The Pelican imprint, originally founded in 1936 by Allen Lane, was relaunched in May 2014. It publishes accessible and intelligent books of lasting value about essential topics, from economics to evolution. As authoritative, democratic and approachable guides to intellectual subjects, written by leading experts and expert communicators, its introductions are the first books to turn to on any given topic.
PENGUIN CLASSICS
Penguin Classics represents the greatest repository of our shared cultural imagination and a treasure trove for readers. The series includes nearly 3,000 of the greatest and most significant works written, spanning two-and-a-half millennia and representing every corner of the globe. The Modern Classics list - continually expanded with contemporary authors – is considered timeless.
CONTENTS
CORNERSTONE
EBURY
PENGUIN GENERAL
PENGUIN PRESS
Cover illustration: credit to Alicia Fernandes
CORNERSTONE
Cornerstone Commercial Fiction
Just Haven't Met You Yet Sophie Cousens
The stunning new love story from the New York Times- bestselling author of This Time Next Year
Laura has built a career out of finding epic true-life stories for her column on love and relationships, and she has always idealised her parents’ hugely romantic love story. But she has never had that love-at-first-sight moment herself, not even close…
When she picks up the wrong suitcase at the airport, Laura wonders if this could be her very own meet-cute moment. From piano sheet-music to a battered copy of her favourite book, Laura finds in the bag evidence of everything she could hope for in a partner.
If Laura's job has taught her anything it's that when it comes to love, you can't let opportunity pass you by. Now Laura is determined to track down the owner of the suitcase, and her own happy ending.
But what if fate has other ideas?
Sophie Cousens worked as a TV producer in London for over twelve years and now lives on the island of Jersey with her husband and young children. Her first novel, This Time Next Year, was a New York Times bestseller and has sold in 14 territories.
'A funny, pull-at-your-heartstrings read, this is the perfect companion for curling up with hot chocolate and a blanket. Unashamedly romantic and packed full of holiday sparkle, it's a hug in book form.' – Josie Silver on This Time Next Year
26 May 2022 | Sonny Marr for Arrow | 400 pp Rights Sold: US (Putnam), German (Penguin Verlag)
Cornerstone Commercial Fiction
Brothers Maggie Brookes
A moving and compelling story about a young English woman during the Spanish Civil War and a love that transcends the horror of war.
England, 1936. Lucy has known and loved the Murray brothers almost all her life - two brothers who are as different as night and day. When civil war descends on Spain their passionate differences threaten to tear their family, and Lucy, apart.
Idealistic Tom joins the International Brigade on the Republican side, while Jamie's faith places him on the other side of the war, reporting for the Catholic Herald from behind General Franco’s battlelines. Against her father's wishes, Lucy travels to Spain to help the relief work with refugees from the fighting, while also trying to track down Jamie and Tom, and convince them to return home.
Inspired by real-life diaries from the Spanish Civil War, Brothers is a testament to the power of love and friendship.
Watch the author pitch her book here.
Maggie Brookes is an ex-journalist and BBC TV documentary producer, turned poet and novelist. She's also an associate professor at Middlesex University, and an advisory fellow of the Royal Literary Fund. Maggie’s first novel The Prisoner’s Wife sold in ten international territories.
17 March 2022 | Selina Walker for Century | 400 pp
Cornerstone Commercial Fiction
Operation Moonlight Louise Morrish
A multigenerational story about family, war and espionage.
Betty Shepherd is about to celebrate her 100th birthday. After her carer Tali uncovers letters and objects from the war in her spare room, Betty begins to recall her secret past life as a Special Operations Executive in World War Two.
As Betty sifts through these mementos she kept from the war, memories come flooding back. She recalls her arduous training in Scotland in 1940 to become an agent, her terrifying flight and parachute drop into Nazi-occupied France, the perilous undercover mission she was asked to undertake on behalf of the Free French, and her relationship with her fellow agent, Gilbert, with whom she is fast falling in love, and who may have secrets of his own…
Louise Morrish is a librarian who won the 2019 Penguin Random House First Novel Competition in partnership with the Daily Mail for Operation Moonlight. She finds inspiration for her stories in the real-life adventures of women in the past, whom history has forgotten. She lives in Hampshire with her family.
26 May 2022 | Selina Walker for Century | 400 pp
Cornerstone Commercial Fiction
Duckling Eve Ainsworth
What if your neighbour asked you to watch her seven-year-old daughter for an afternoon, and then she never returned?
Lucy's life is small, but safe. Every day she goes to work, checks in on her father, then spends her evenings watching old crime shows, isolating herself away from the rest of the community on her South London estate. Her limited routine is all that she can handle, given what happened in her past.
So, when her new neighbour Cassie asks Lucy if she could look after her seven-year-old daughter Rubi, she is reluctant to agree.
Then when the hours pass, and then days, and Rubi's Mum doesn't come back, Lucy's worst-case-scenario is now her reality. Lucy is not only responsible for herself anymore. She is responsible for a scared little girl who needs her help. Something has happened to Cassie, and Lucy must find her before it is too late.
A moving and heart-warming story about loneliness, friendship and finding love in unexpected places, Duckling is Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine meets About a Boy.
Watch the author pitch her book here.
Eve Ainsworth is an award-winning and Carnegie nominated children’s author, for both middle grade and teen readers. Duckling is her first novel for adults.
26 May 2022 | Sonny Marr for Arrow | 400 pp
Cornerstone Commercial Fiction
The Holiday Bookshop Lucy Dickens
The perfect holiday read inspired by a true story of a bookseller at a resort in the Maldives
Best friends Marianne and Jenny have always been a double act; the free spirit and the sensible one. Opening a bookshop and café together was Marianne’s idea, but ensuring the business survived? That was all down to Jenny. The bookshop and café are thriving, and Jenny hasn’t taken a break since they started.
When Marianne announces she’s eloping to Vegas, and might not be back for a month (or two), Jenny, fed up with always being the reliable one, decides to take a risk too – a temporary bookselling job – at a luxury resort in the Maldives!
This is escapist fiction at its best, with love, fun and summer sunshine aplenty.
Watch the author pitch her book here.
Lucy Dickens is the pseudonym for Lisa Dickenson. She spends her days writing the kind of hilarious women’s fiction that sets the world to rights. Her most recent book was The Broken Hearts Honeymoon.
07 July 2022 | Sonny Marr for Arrow | 400 pp
Cornerstone Crime & Thriller
A Fatal Crossing Tom Hindle
A Golden Age-style crime novel in the vein of Eight Detectives and The Thursday Murder Club
November 1924.
When an elderly passenger is found dead at the foot of a flight of stairs of the transaltantic cruise ship Endeavour, officer Timothy Birch is ready to declare it a tragic accident. However, he is tasked with escorting James Temple, an obnoxious young Scotland Yard inspector, in a precautionary examination of the body. Their investigation soon takes a sinister turn when they uncover the theft of a priceless painting, the very existence of which is a closely guarded secret, only known by two people: its owner - and the dead man.
With just days remaining until the Endeavour docks in New York and the culprit walks free, Birch joins Temple in a desperate search for the stolen painting and the truth behind the old man's death. There are lies and secrets at every turn though, and it seems that even Temple has just as many secrets to hide as he does to uncover.
Watch the author pitch his book here.
Tom Hindle lives in Oxfordshire, where he works for a digital PR agency. A Fatal Crossing is Tom’s debut novel and was inspired by masters of the crime genre from Agatha Christie to Anthony Horowitz.
17 February 2022 | Emily Griffin for Century | 400 pp
Cornerstone History
Lights of Man Barnabas Calder
A radical retelling of the story of humanity, focusing on the one thing that has ensured our survival and dominance over the ages: energy.
For more than a century, scientists have understood that energy underpins all the physical sciences. In Lights of Man, Barnabas Calder extends this idea, and explores how energy has shaped all aspects of human life and culture.
Why and how did we spread around the world? How were different technologies invented? Why did we settle in cities and develop social hierarchies? Why do different societies worship different types of supernatural beings? Where do our ideas of love and family life come from? Calder shows how the history of mankind has been driven by our need for heat and calories.
With the looming threat of climate change, caused by our insatiable use of fossil fuel energy, now is the time to consider the lessons that history has to teach us about energy change and its complex effects. Because the standard eco-pieties of our day – keep cups, bags for life, electric cars and so on – scarcely scratch the surface of humanity’s inextricable link with our sources of energy.
Energy is the great central fact of our moment, but also, this book shows, the great central fact of all of history and prehistory.
Barnabas Calder is a historian of architecture specialising in British architecture since 1945. He is Senior Lecturer in Architecture at the University of Liverpool.
13 January 2022 | Rachel Patel for William Heinemann | 640 pp
Cornerstone Politics & Society
Poles Apart Why divisions deepen and societies splinter Alison Goldsworthy, Laura Osborne, Alexandra Chesterfield
A roadmap to understanding why our societies have become so polarised and how we can become open to changing our own minds and those of others.
Alison Goldsworthy was in a tense panel discussion with Trump supporters at Stanford University when a student asked: “when did you last change your mind and why?” The panel took a deep breath as they reached for an answer. Their candid responses unlocked a new willingness to engage with an opposite viewpoint.
This question - “when did you last change your mind and why?” - became central to the authors’ research on polarisation, and how to overcome it. Based on interviews and the latest academic research, Poles Apart explains why we are so tribal, the advantages and disadvantages of being so, the often-unknown effects on our politics, businesses and social groups, and what we can do to halt excessive polarisation.
This is a brilliantly insightful – and very practical – book on a timeless subject. It acts as the ideal primer for those who have ever had to negotiate or resolve a conflict – in other words, all of us.
Alison Goldsworthy is the founder and CEO of 'The Depolarisation Project’ at Stanford University. She previously worked in politics and campaigning and has written for the Telegraph, Independent, New Statesman, and the Financial Times.
Laura Osborne is is a professional communicator and change maker, with a background in public affairs and government communications.
Alexandra Chesterfield is a behavioural scientist working in financial services, leading a team of psychologists to encourage consumers to make better decisions and drive ethical business cultures.
02 September 2021 | Nigel Wilcockson for Random House Business | 320 pp
Cornerstone Memoir
Untitled Michael Palin
Michael Palin recreates the life and tragic death of a First World War soldier - his great-uncle Harry
Many years ago, when Michael Palin first heard that his grandfather had a brother, Harry, who died in tragic circumstances, he became determined to find out more about him. He dug out every bit of family gossip and correspondence, studied every available official document, and tracked down what remained of his great-uncle Harry's diaries and letters. He even travelled in his footsteps, from Harry's childhood home in Herefordshire to India and New Zealand and from there to the slaughtering grounds of Gallipoli and the Western Front.
Now, after years of painstaking research, he has written an utterly compelling account of Harry: an ordinary man who led an extraordinary life. A blend of biography, history, travelogue and personal memoir, this is Michael Palin at his very finest.
Watch the author pitch his new book here.
Michael Palin has written and starred in numerous TV programmes and films, from Monty Python to The Death of Stalin. He has also made several much-acclaimed travel documentaries, and has been president of the Royal Geographical Society. His previous books for Hutchinson: Erebus and North Korea Journal have sold in 13 territories.
22 September 2022 | Nigel Wilcockson for Hutchinson | 320 pp Rights Sold: Canada (Penguin Random House Canada)
Cornerstone Personal Development
Not Without a Fight Ten Steps to Becoming Your Own Champion Ramla Ali
An inspirational book of life lessons from boxer and model Ramla Ali
In her first book Not Without a Fight, Ramla shares ten key 'fights' - bouts she has endured both inside of the boxing ring and out. From escaping conflict in Somalia with her family to being bullied at school to winning her first professional fight – these ten fights have all shaped the remarkable trajectory of her life and career.
Each chapter explores the valuable lessons she gained from them and the key moment which empowered her to fight on. Every fight will encourage the reader to reflect on their own lives, instill in them their own ruthless refusal to quit, and guide them towards ultimately becoming their own champion.
Ramla Ali is a Somali-born, London raised professional boxer, model and activist. She took up the sport of boxing aged twelve, training and competing in secret from her family for over ten years. With over 65 amateur fights under her belt, Ramla made history by becoming the first boxer to win an international gold medal whilst representing the country of Somalia. Ramla is a Nike Global Athlete and brand ambassador for Pantene, Coach and Cartier. She is a proud ambassador of UNICEF, Coach's 'Dream It Real' foundation and Choose Love.
23 September 2022 | Lemara Lindsay-Prince for Merky Books | 400 pp
EBURY
Ebury Politics and Society
Rethink How We Can Make a Better World Amol Rajan
A guide to our global 'reset moment' examining life after the pandemic with contributions from Pope Francis, HRH Prince Charles, The Dalai Lama, Tara Westover, Steven Pinker, Caleb Femi, Carlo Rovelli
In a time of increasing uncertainty, Rethink offers a guide to a much-needed global 'reset moment', with leading international figures giving us glimpses of a better future after the pandemic.
Each contribution explores a different aspect of public and private life that can be re-examined - from Pope Francis on poverty and Dalai Lama on the role of ancient wisdom to Tara Westover on the education divide; Emma Dabiri on identity and Steven Pinker on Human Nature to Xine Yao on masks and Jarvis Cocker on environmental revolution. Collectively, they offer a roadmap for positive change after a year of unprecedented hardship.
With introductions by presenter and journalist Amol Rajan, Rethink gives us the opportunity to consider what a better world might look like and reaffirms that after darkness there is always light.
Watch the author pitch his book here.
Amol Rajan is a journalist and broadcaster. He has been the BBC's Media Editor since December 2016 and was formerly editor of the Independent.
27 May 2021 | Albert De Petrillo for BBC Books | 352 pp
Ebury Popular Science
30 Animals That Made Us Smarter Patrick Ayree
A fascinating exploration of how the animal world has inspired human progress via new inventions and solutions that impact our daily lives.
Did you know that mosquitoes' mouthparts are helping to develop pain-free surgical needles? Who'd have thought that the humble mussel could inspire so many useful things, from plywood production to a 'glue' that cements the crowns on teeth and saves unborn babies in the womb? How about the fact that studying the tiny kingfisher solved engineering problems with Japan's ultra-high-speed bullet train, or that the humpback whale's flipper helped design the most efficient blades for wind power turbines?
For many years, humans have been using the natural world as inspiration for everything from fashion to architecture, and medicine to transport, and it may come as a surprise to learn how many inventions have been motivated by animal design and behaviour.
Dive into the depths with us as author Patrick Aryee reveals even more astonishing stories about animals' exceptional powers and the unique contributions they've made to the quality of our everyday lives. Beautiful hand-drawn illustrations accompany his revelations and bring the natural world to life.
Watch the author pitch his book here.
As a biologist and self-confessed thrill seeker, Patrick Ayree has always had a fascination with how things work. Since 2012, Patrick has been a documentary filmmaker and wildlife TV presenter across a number of programmes for major broadcasters, including the BBC and Sky. His ambition is to inspire and surprise his audience, as he takes us on a journey around the globe from the very comfort of our homes. Through his stories and animal encounters many of us have witnessed the raw power of fearsome predators like big cats, uncovered reality-defying super senses of night-time hunters, and plunged the deep blue to swim alongside the mysterious creatures that call our oceans home. This is his first book.
02 September 2021 | Joanna Stenlake for BBC Books | 384 pp
Ebury Nature & Environment
39 Ways to Save the Planet Tom Heap
A fascinating exploration of the work being done round the world - right now - to help stop climate change.
We know the problem: the amount of biodiversity loss, the scale of waste and pollution, the amount of greenhouse gas we pump into the air... it's unsustainable. We have to do something.
And we are resourceful, adaptable and smart. We have already devised many ways to reduce climate change - some now proven, others encouraging and craving uptake. Each one is a solution to get behind.
In 39 Ways to Save the Planet, Tom Heap reveals some of the real-world solutions to climate change that are happening around the world, right now. From tiny rice seeds and fossil fuel free steel to grazing elk and carbon-capturing seagrass meadows, each chapter reveals the energy and optimism in those tackling the fundamental problem of our age.
39 Ways to Save the Planet is a fascinating exploration of our attempt to build a better future, one solution at a time. A roadmap to global action on climate change, it will encourage you to add your own solutions to the list.
Tom Heap is freelance journalist who created and presents BBC Radio’s podcast ’39 Ways to Save the Planet‘. He is a broadcaster and television journalist responsible for BBC Panorama documentaries on food, energy and the environment, and hosts BBC Radio 4’s environment series ‘Costing the Earth’. Tom is a fervent supporter and ambassador for the international conservation charity ‘Whitley Fund for Nature’ and a founder of ‘The Western Front Way’ which is creating a path for peace along the whole of what was the Western Front.
14 October 2021 | Albert De Petrillo for BBC Books | 256 pp
Ebury Nature & Environment
Flight My Journey With Swans Sacha Dench
A memoir of the award-winning conservationist’s perilous expedition with Bewick's swans, blending her adventure with the cultural history of the birds and science of their study.
Each year the enigmatic Bewick’s swan undertakes a perilous migration, flying across the biting arctic tundra to winter in the milder climes of England. For centuries this dangerous journey has remained a mystery to humans. But what really happens on their flight - and what does it tell us about these extraordinary birds, their secret lives and our changing planet? To find out, one woman undertook the journey of a lifetime.
Joining the swans in their migration, Sacha Dench takes flight in a groundbreaking expedition to trace the precarious story of an iconic species, battling the forces of fierce weather and climate change and learning more about the human footprint on the natural world. Can she beat the elements, and complete her extraordinary flight?
A thrilling account of one woman’s mission to better understand our world, Flight takes us into the minds and habits of an iconic species. It’s a tale told by the person who understands them best: the woman who flies with swans.
Watch the editor pitch this book here.
Sacha Dench is a pioneering conservationist, record-breaking adventurer and inspirational speaker. A scientist and passionate storyteller, her groundbreaking expedition ‘Flight of the Swans’ saw her flying by paramotor from Arctic Russia across eleven countries to the UK in pursuit of the Bewick’s swan. In 2020 Sacha was made UN Ambassador for Migratory Species. She is recipient of numerous conservation awards and holds the record for the First Channel Crossing by Paramotor by a woman.
21 April 2022 | Robyn Drury for Ebury Press | 320 pp
Ebury Personal Development
Decision Time How to make the choices your life depends on Laurence Alison and Neil Shortland
Two world-renowned experts bring a new approach to decision-making so you'll never question your choices again.
Seize life's opportunities: think less, do more!
When faced with a life-changing decision do you find that all too often your choice is hasty and you come to regret it? Or perhaps you avoid making choices at all costs from fear that you'll make the wrong one?
Laurence Alison and Neil Shortland have spent their careers studying some of the hardest choices that people have to make in some of the most high-pressured environments. Decision Time takes the decision-making techniques used in war rooms and war zones to create a step-by-step guide for decision- making in everyday life.
This is a book for anyone who wants to improve the way they handle life's big choices and how to better deal with the fear and uncertainty that goes along with them. Whether that's deciding to take a new job, start a new career later in life, end a relationship, move across the world or declaring your undying love for your best friend.
Laurence Alison is the author of Rapport, Professor of Psychology at the University of Liverpool and Head of the Centre for Critical Incident Decision Making. He has an international reputation and is widely published in relation to his work on decision-making in high-stake environments, interviewing and interrogation, as well as prioritisation and detection of sex offenders.
Dr Neil Shortland is a world expert on military decision making. He's worked with The Ministry of Defence, the United States Department for Defence and National Institute for Justice. He has also served as an international expert on security and expert witness on Supreme Court cases involving decision making.
07 October 2021 | Marta Catalano for Vermilion | 272 pp
Ebury Personal Development
The Art of Strategic Thinking The Seven Secrets To Smarter Decisions In An Ambiguous World Michael Watkins
The ultimate guide to strategic thinking by the internationally bestselling author and leading expert on strategy.
How did John F. Kennedy put a man on the moon in just under ten years?
What can chess teach us about actionable insights?
And why should you shake up a business at a time of great success?
All of these questions have their answer in strategic thinking. But what is strategic thinking exactly? Are we born with it, or can we nurture it?
As a distinct and important capability in leaders, strategic thinking is a poorly defined, little understood concept, confined to management courses and board meetings. But in The Art of Strategic Thinking, leading expert Michael Watkins shows how anyone can benefit from it, as long as they have the tools to nurture it.
Exploring the seven specific mental disciplines that together constitute strategic thinking, each chapter shows how they can create value, and offers prescriptions on how to develop the strategic thinking mindset ourselves. Academically grounded but jargon-free, with real- world examples from all sectors and ages, The Art of Strategic Thinking assesses our innate ability to think strategically, and helps us to cultivate it, leading to better decisions that get proven results.
Watch the editor pitch this book here.
Michael D. Watkins is Professor of Leadership and Organizational Change at the Institute for Management Development (IMD), and co-founder of Genesis Advisers. He has spent the last two decades working with leaders as they transition to new roles, build their teams and transform their organizations.He is author of the international bestseller The First 90 Days, which The Economist recognized as "the on-boarding bible." With more than 1 million copies sold in English, and translations in twenty four languages, it has become the classic reference for leaders in transition and a standard resource of leading change.
24 February 2022 | Lucy Oates for Virgin Books | 272 pp
Ebury Personal Development
The Instant Mood Fix 50 Coping Solutions For Anxiety, Panic And Stress Dr Olivia Remes
A quick guide to unscrewing your mind from Cambridge University’s mental health researcher.
How do you cope with stress, anxiety, procrastination, or moments of crisis? Do you wait for the 'perfect' solution, avoid the situation, or blame yourself? If so, it's time to break the cycle: when panic strikes, grab this book instead.
Cambridge University mental health researcher, Dr Olivia, has spent the last decade learning how to maintain good mental health. In this short, no-nonsense book, she shares practical tips based on her cutting-edge research to help you fight the patterns and moods that hold you back. Whether you're feeling stressed, out of control, stuck, unmotivated, indecisive, overwhelmed, helpless, lonely, rejected, or disappointed, Dr Olivia has a solution to help you relieve the pressure.
Pocket-sized and distilling only the essential information, The Instant Mood Fix teaches you long-term coping strategies for every area of your life. This empowering book will show you how to find inner peace and build resilience.
Watch the author pitch her book here.
Dr Olivia Remes is a mental health researcher at the University of Cambridge and a public speaker. She has researched mental health issues such as anxiety, loneliness and coping. She is a regular speaker on the BBC and NPR. Her work has been featured in publications across the world. Her TedTalks have garnered nearly 3 million views. This is her first book.
13 May 2021 | Marianne Tatepo & Lizzy Gray for Ebury Press | 144 pp
Ebury Wellbeing
The Body Be relentless. Get powerful. Change your mindset. Change your life Simeon Panda
This is the ultimate motivational and practical guide to transforming yourself from weak to peak physique from social media star and one of the most influential fitness professionals in the world.
Once a skinny teenager, Simeon Panda has completely transformed his body and outlook and is now one of the world's most influential fitness professionals.
No fads, no extreme diets, no gimics. Simeon's body method is 100% doable for everyone - and you'll get all the tools you need to up your game when it comes to fitness, physique, food and focus.
It's a one-stop shop for changing your body, mindset and lifestyle, whether you want six- pack abs, a bodybuilder physique, a disciplined fitness regime or simply to burn off a little fat. Including goal-setting tools, motivational mantras, personal stories, twelve exclusive workout programmes, a healthy and simple nutritional plan with recipes and a frouteen-day quick reset challenge, The Body uncovers all of Simeon's most-wished-for advice.
Simeon Panda is a fitness influencer from the UK with 7.5 million folllowers on Instagram (@simeonpanda). Simeon has competed in various bodybuilding contests, has years of experience as a personal trainer, his own clothing line SP Aesthetics, and sells training programs online. He has his own YouTube channel which he uses to share his workouts and chronicle his life as an influential member of the bodybuilding community. He is known not only for his exceptional fitness but also his positivity, inclusiveness and motivational methods.
06 January 2021 | Sara Cywinski for Ebury Spotlight | 304 pp
Ebury Memoir
The Last Days Leaving God’s Kingdom Ali Millar
A lyrical and powerful memoir of leaving the Jehovah's Witnesses, from an exciting new literary talent.
It is 1982 and in the Kingdom Hall we are Jehovah's Witnesses. The state of the world shows us the end is close, and Satan is like a roaring lion, seeking to devour us.
Ali Millar is waiting for Armageddon. Born into the Jehovah's Witnesses in a town in the Scottish Borders, her childhood revolves around regular meetings in the Kingdom Hall, where she is haunted by vivid images of the Second Coming, her mind populated by the bodies that will litter the earth upon Jehovah's return.
In this frightening, cloistered world Ali grows older. As she does, she starts to question the ways of the Witnesses, and their control over the most intimate aspects of her life. As she marries and has children within the religion, she finds herself pulled deeper and deeper into its dark undertow, her mind tormented by one question: is it possible to escape the life you are born into?
A tale of love and darkness, of faith and absolution, The Last Days is an unforgettable memoir of one woman's courageous journey to freedom.
Watch the author pitch her book here.
Ali Millar was born and raised in the Scottish Borders, and now lives in England with her husband and four children. She has an MA with Distinction in Creative Writing from Edinburgh Napier University and has chaired events at the Edinburgh International Book Festival.
14 July 2022 | Robyn Drury for Ebury Press | 320 pp
Ebury Memoir
A Line Above the Sky On Mountains and Motherhood Helen Mort
A future classic of climbing, memoir and nature writing, for readers of H is for Hawk and The Outrun.
Climbing gives you the illusion of being in control, just for a while - the tantalising sense of being able to stay one move ahead of death.
As a child, Helen Mort was drawn to the thrill and risk of climbing, the tension between human and rockface, and the climber’s need to be hyperaware of the sensory world – to feel the texture of rock under their fingers, how their crampons bite into the ice, the subtle shifts in weather. But when she becomes a mother for the first time, she finds herself re-examining this most elemental of disciplines, and the way that we view women who put themselves in danger.
Written by one of Britain’s most talented young writers, A Line Above the Sky melds memoir and nature writing to create what will surely become a classic of the genre; it asks why humans are compelled to climb and poses other, deeper questions about self, motherhood and freedom. It is a love letter to losing oneself in physicality, whether that is in the risk of climbing a granite wall solo without ropes, or the intensity of bringing a child into the world.
Watch the author pitch her book here.
Helen Mort is an award winning poet and novelist. She was picked as a ‘Next Generation Poet’, a prestigious accolade announced only once every ten years, recognising the 20 most exciting new poets from the UK and Ireland and was named one of the RSL’s 40 under 40 Fellows in 2018. She is a Lecturer in Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University.
24 March 2022 | Robyn Drury for Ebury Press | 256 pp
PENGUIN GENERAL
Penguin General Commercial Fiction
One Night on the Island Josie Silver
The highly anticipated new love story from the million- copy bestselling author of One Day in December
Imagine the film The Holiday but, rather than swapping homes, the heroine and hero are trapped in the holiday cottage together…
Cleo, a dating columnist from London, goes to stay in a cosy log cabin on a small island to ‘self-couple’ for a couple of months… the only problem is, the cabin is double- booked, and the annoying American guy who’s double- booked it refuses to leave.
Then the weather turns, and they find themselves unable to get off the island, with nowhere else to stay. Talking and laughing and sleeping within the same four walls, a deep connection starts to grow. But will it be enough to get them through the next few weeks…and could it last a lifetime?
From the million-copy bestselling author this new novel is right back to Josie’s filmic, sweeping, love story heartland.
Josie Silver is the author of the Sunday Times and Reese Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine Book Club bestseller One Day in December, published in 31 languages, and The Two Lives of Lydia Bird. Josie is an unashamed romantic, and lives with her husband, their two teenage sons, two cats and a dog. One Night on the Island is her third novel.
10 March 2022 | Katy Loftus for Penguin | 432 pp Rights Sold: US (Ballantine)
Penguin General Crime & Thriller
The Things We Do To Our Friends Heather Darwent
What would you do for your friends... and what would they do to you?
Clare arrives at the University of Edinburgh with a secret. This is her chance for a blank slate - finally she can become the person she was meant to be. And then she meets Tabitha.
Tabitha is charismatic, very beautiful and intimidatingly rich. Clare is immediately sucked into her enigmatic circle of friends and their dizzying world of sophisticated dinner parties and summers in France. The new life she hoped for has begun.
Then Tabitha reveals the little project they're working on. A project they need Clare to help them with.
And Clare has no way to refuse. Because they know what she did...
The Things We Do to Our Friends is an intoxicating and sinister thriller that examines toxic friendships and the dark side of privilege.
Heather Darwent is based just outside of Edinburgh, close to the sea. Originally from Yorkshire, she came to Scotland to study for a History of Art MA at the University of Edinburgh, like her character Clare, and ended up never quite leaving. This is her debut novel.
12 January 2023 | Victoria Moynes for Viking | 384 pp
Penguin General Literary Fiction
The Odyssey Lara Williams
Wickedly funny and slyly poignant, a very modern satire on cruise ships, crappy jobs and capitalism from the prize-winning author of Supper Club
Ingrid is a gift shop girl. Before this she was an IT technician, before that she worked in a casino, and before that as a childminder. She has worked on an enormous, luxury cruise liner for the past five years and in that time she has done more jobs than she can remember – which is just the way she likes it. She isn't good at any of the jobs but she's good at pretending. And she doesn't want to remember anything. Ingrid abandoned her normal life on land for a reason – and the endless plastic corridors of the cruise ship are the perfect place to forget it.
Until the day that she is selected for the ship's prestigious 'personal mentorship scheme' – a mysterious initiative run by its captain and self-anointed lifestyle guru, Keith – and slowly but surely things start to go wrong...
The Odyssey is a merciless takedown of modern capitalism and our anxious, ill-fated quests for something to believe in, with hints of Dave Eggers’ The Circle and My Year of Rest and Relaxation.
Watch the editor pitch this book here.
Lara Williams is the author of Supper Club which sold in seven international markets, won the Guardian 'Not the Booker' Prize and was listed as a Book of the Year 2019 by TIME, Vogue and other publications. She also writes for The Guardian, Independent, Times Literary Supplement, Vice and Dazed.
07 April 2022 | Hermione Thompson for Hamish Hamilton | 272 pp
Penguin General History
A Travel Guide to the Middle Ages Anthony Bale
A vivid and captivating tour of the global medieval world, from Europe to the Antipodes
The tourist guidebook, guided tours and the world map were all developments of the later Middle Ages. This is the period when travel - usually for pilgrimage, diplomacy, trade, or war - became widespread. Using authentic sources of medieval travel writing and new translations of contemporary accounts from as far and wide as Turkey, Iceland, Armenia, north Africa and Russia, A Travel Guide to the Middle Ages invites the reader to journey across a medieval world punctuated with marvels and prodigies, miraculous wonders and long-lost landmarks.
Structured as a journey from Western Europe to the Far East and the Antipodes, taking in everything from Silk Routes to walking tours of Istanbul and Jerusalem, the court of the Khan in present-day Beijing to the marvels of medieval Ethiopia, A Travel Guide to the Middle Ages offers the reader an encyclopaedia of wondrous stories and peoples, as well as a vivid and unforgettable insight into how medieval people understood their world.
And just like the best travel guides, it will offer tips on useful phrases, where to stay and eat, and how to avoid bandits, disease and other dangers of the road.
Anthony Bale is Professor of Medieval Studies at Birkbeck, University of London. He has edited and translated several medieval texts, including The Book of Marvels & Travels by John Mandeville and The Book of Margery Kempe for Oxford University Press. His new study of Margery Kempe will appear from Reaktion Books this year.
04 May 2023 | Tom Killingbeck for Viking | 336 pp
Penguin General Popular Science
How the World Really Works How Science Can Set Us Straight on Our Past, Present and Future Vaclav Smil
Delightfully contrarian, this is the one book you need to read to understand our modern world
We have never had so much information at our fingertips and yet most of us simply don't understand how our world really works. Professor Vaclav Smil is not a pessimist or an optimist, he is a scientist, and this book is a much-needed reality check on topics ranging from food production and nutrition, through energy and the environment, to globalization and the future.
Drawing on the latest science, tackling sources of misinformation head on and championing a rational, fact- based approach, in How the World Really Works Smil makes us think again about the assumptions we make every day. For example, the carbon footprint of meat is now well known, but we probably don’t know that the equivalent of five tablespoons of diesel fuel goes into the production of each greenhouse-grown, medium-size, supermarket-bought tomato.
Ultimately, Smil answers the most profound question of our age: is humanity doomed or is a brighter utopia ahead? Compelling, data-rich and revisionist, this authoritative and accessible masterpiece finds faults with both extremes. This book reveals hidden truths that change the way we see our past, present and uncertain future.
Watch the editor pitch this book here.
Vaclav Smil is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Manitoba. He is the author of over forty books on topics including energy, environmental and population change, food production and nutrition, technical innovation, risk assessment, and public policy. His latest book, Numbers Don’t Lie, has sold in 17 international territories.
07 October 2021 | Connor Brown for Viking | 448 pp Rights sold: Dutch (Nieuw Amsterdam), Portuguese (Planeta de Livros), Russian (Azbooka-Atticus), Spanish (Debate), US (Viking US)
Penguin General Popular Science
The Microbiome How Human Ecology Shapes Our Health, Changes Our Minds, and Determines Our Future James Kinross
A groundbreaking tour through the past, present and future of human ecology, from a world expert on the gut microbiome
The microbiome comprises the vast genetic universe of bacteria, yeasts, viruses and parasites that live within us. It influences every aspect of our health, even the way we think and feel, and it is the missing link in modern medicine.
The Microbiome is a definitive account of the re-discovery of human ecology. It begins at the birth of man and it explains how the gut microbiome has evolved with us, shaped our biology and defined the success of our species. It explains what we know and importantly, what we don't. Just as we have discovered this delicate and complex new organ within us it is being irrevocably destroyed through the globalisation of our diets, lifestyles and the destruction of our environment.
In this urgent, timely investigation into a new frontier of science and healthcare, James Kinross tells the story of the race to map the microbiome, understand it and protect it before it is too late.
Watch the author pitch his book here.
James Kinross is a Senior Lecturer in Colorectal Surgery and a Consultant Surgeon at Imperial College London. He was awarded a Royal College of Surgeons of England training fellowship during his PhD on the gut microbiome. He is a visiting Professor at the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland.
26 May 2022 | Tom Killingbeck for Penguin Life | 336 pp
Penguin General Popular Science
Wisdom The New Science of Better Decisions and a Fulfilled Life Howard Nusbaum
What is wisdom? How can individuals and institutions become wiser? And why should we want that?
Being smart means being good at solving difficult problems. Being clever means being creative in coming up with solutions. But neither intelligence nor cleverness need involve morality. There can be smart and clever psychopaths, criminals and politicians. In our divided and tempestuous times, we need something better than that. We need wisdom.
Wisdom has moral grounding, takes the long view and seeks different perspectives – it has profound benefits for societies and individuals. While many think it is necessary to be grey and bearded or to have lived a difficult life to make wise decisions, in this sage and thought-provoking book, world-leading wisdom expert Professor Howard Nusbaum draws on the latest research in psychology, philosophy, neuroscience and economics to show that, counter to what many believe, wisdom is a skill that we can all learn.
With fascinating examples and useful tips – if you thinking about a problem in the third person, that leads to wiser decisions – Wisdom will change the way we think about decision making and showing why we could all do with being a little wiser. Our future may depend on it.
Watch the author pitch his book here.
Howard Nusbaum is the Director of the Chicago Center for Practical Wisdom, which supports scientific research on wisdom and works closely with those working in medicine, business, engineering and the law. Nusbaum has published over 100 peer-reviewed journal articles, has edited five academic books and his research has featured in The New York Times, Telegraph and New Yorker, among others. This is his first trade book.
16 February 2023 | Connor Brown for Viking | 352 pp
Penguin General Politics & Society
Why Politics Fails Ben Ansell
An award-winning Oxford professor explains the five traps of politics, and how understanding them can fix our broken world.
Everybody wants breathable air, a healthy population, civil and consensual politics. We want a peaceful world, a stable economy. We've always wanted these things. The fundamental point of politics is to deliver them. And yet clearly our political systems are failing. Why is it so hard to get - and keep - the world that we want? The answer is that politics produces a number of traps: democracy, equality, solidarity, security and prosperity.
We want democracy but if everybody's voice was given equal weight, we would never make a decision. We want equality but we are reluctant to give away our own wealth. We want solidarity but we are much better at receiving than offering it. We want security but not if it constrains our freedom. And we want to end the climate crisis but we also want a prosperous economy.
In every case we want a collective goal but are undermined by our individual actions. Our aims are altruistic, our actions governed by self-interest. But there is hope.
Drawing on examples from Ancient Greece through to Trump, and his own award-winning research, Oxford Professor Ben Ansell explains how understanding these traps helps us escape or avoid them altogether, ultimately showing how we can all thrive in an imperfect world.
Watch the author pitch his book here.
Ben Ansell is Professor of Comparative Democratic Institutions at Nuffield College, University of Oxford. Following a PhD at Harvard, he became a full Professor at Oxford at just 35, and was made a Fellow of the British Academy in 2018. His work has been widely covered across The New York Times, The Economist, The Times and on the BBC. He has written three award-winning academic books, and this is his first trade book.
02 March 2023 | Connor Brown for Viking | 320 pp
Penguin General Economics
The Great Crashes Linda Yueh
A fascinating one-stop account of why financial crashes occur, what lessons we can learn from them and where the next one could come from.
From the Wall Street Crash in 1929 to the global financial crisis of 2007-08, the great crashes have altered the course of history forever. In this accessible and authoritative book, renowned broadcaster and economist Linda Yueh analyses these cataclysmic events in turn, drawing comparisons with previous crises and showing how each one affected the next.
Exploring everything from the currency crisis in Latin America in the 1980s to the Asian financial crisis and stagnation in Japan and, finally, the global crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, Yueh’s global approach shows what lessons there are to be learned: on handling “euphoria” in the markets where people think they’ll keep on rising, maintaining confidence in markets given that money can increasingly move in and out of countries more quickly, and building credible and more robust institutions.
In her role as an expert on the six-member Independent Review Panel on ring-fencing and proprietary trading, Yueh is uniquely positioned to provide critical insights about where the next crash might come from and how we can mitigate its effects. Combining Yueh's in-depth knowledge with her compelling storytelling, The Great Crashes is essential reading that offers clear-eyed analysis and urgent lessons for the modern world.
Linda Yueh is a Fellow in Economics at St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford and Adjunct Professor of Economics at London Business School. She is also Visiting Professor at LSE IDEAS and was Visiting Professor of Economics at Peking University. She writes for The Times, The New York Times and the Financial Times and has advised the World Economic Forum in Davos, the World Bank, the European Commission and the Asian Development Bank. She is the author of The Great Economists, which sold to eight international markets and was a Times Best Business Book of 2018.
11 August 2022 | Daniel Crewe for Penguin Business | 368 pp Rights sold: Korean (Chungrim)
Penguin General Art & Culture
See What You're Missing 50 Ways of Noticing the World Will Gompertz
In his new book, Will Gompertz explores what art and artists can teach us about appreciating the world around us
Artists are expert lookers: they have learnt to pay attention. The rest of us spend most of our time on auto-pilot, rushing from place to place, our overfamiliarity blinding us to the marvellous, life-affirming phenomena of our world. But that doesn't have to be the case.
In his inimitable engaging style, Will Gompertz takes us into the minds of artists - from contemporary stars to old masters, the well-known to the lesser-so, and from around the world - to show us how to look at and experience life with their heightened awareness.
In See What You're Missing we learn, for example, how Hasegawa Tohaku can help us to see beauty, how David Hockney helps us to see colour, and how Frida Kahlo can help us see pain. In doing so we come to know the exhilarating feeling of being truly alive.
Watch the author pitch his book here.
As the BBC's Arts Editor, Will Gompertz has interviewed and observed many of the world's leading artists, actors, writers, musicians, directors and designers. Creativity magazine in New York ranked him as one of the 50 most original thinkers in the world. He is the author of the internationally bestselling What Are You Looking At? and Think Like an Artist, which have been translated into more than 20 languages.
03 March 2022 | Connor Brown for Viking | 352 pp Rights sold: Chinese Simplified (Beijing Imaginist Time Culture), Korean (RH Korea), Portuguese in Brazil (Jorge Zahar Editor), Romanian (Polirom)
Penguin General Wellbeing
Sitting in the Middle of Chaos The Power of Yoga to Change Your Life Colin Dunsmuir
A therapeutic programme to help readers accept their flaws and find a more fulfilling way of living, featuring a foreword by supermodel and actress Cara Delevingne
Colin Dunsmuir dispels the myth that yoga is just about movements, poses and wearing expensive leggings. Instead, he explores how ancient yoga philosophy and teachings can easily be applied to and benefit all areas of our modern lives.
Whether you'd like to boost your mental and physical wellbeing, general health, or gain a supportive framework to help you to overcome difficult situations that you're facing in life, this book can help.
The book will take deep, spiritual yogic learnings and adapt them for a modern life and audience. Colin will provide you with accessible, easy-to-follow tips on everything from breathing, meditation, movement, diet and improving connections with others.
Each chapter will be inspired by a yoga sutra, contain a case study, a brief exploration of the yogic philosophy behind the story, and provide practical exercises to try at home.
Watch the author pitch his book here.
Colin Dunsmuir is a leading voice in the global yoga community, with 25 years of study. He is an experienced course tutor who was certified as a Yoga Teacher Trainer and Yoga Therapist directly by T.K.V. Desikachar. He works with high profile clients and is the director of the London Yoga Festival.
10 March 2022 | Emily Robertson for Penguin Life | 256 pp
Penguin General Memoir
Open-Hearted Eighty Years of Love, Loss, Laughter and Letting Go Ann Ingle
A refreshingly frank, engaging and uplifting memoir of resilience, hope and love
'Something they don't tell you about getting older is that you fall. Oh, you hear about it in passing, of course, "She had a fall, poor thing". Falling is not something you ever think about as a younger woman. You think about falling in love...'
At 20 Londoner Ann Ingle fell madly in love with an Irish fellow she met on holiday in Cornwall. At the church to arrange their shotgun wedding she discovered that he hadn't even told her his real name.
Sixty-odd years later Ann looks back on that first glorious fall and considers what she has learned from the life that followed - bringing eight children into the world, her husband's years of mental illness and tragic death at 40, being a cash-strapped single mother, coming into her own in her middle years, and continuing to evolve and learn into her ninth decade, even as she accepts the realities of being 'old'.
Charmingly written and candid about everything that matters - love, sex, heartbreak, religion, mental health, rearing children (and letting them go), ageing - Open-Hearted is a compelling story about living life with a spirit of curiosity and delight.
Originally from London, Ann Ingle has lived in Dublin since the 1960s and is a mother of eight. In 2018, she co-wrote Driven, the memoir of motorsport legend Rosemary Smith, which was shortlisted for an Irish Book Award.
23 September 2021 | Patricia Deevy for Sandycove | 288 pp
PENGUIN PRESS
Penguin Press History
Black Spartacus The Epic Life of Toussaint Louverture Sudhir Hazareesingh
The definitive modern biography of the great slave leader, military genius and revolutionary hero – soon to be a television series produced by Mammoth Screen, the British producer behind series including The Serpent and Poldark
The Haitian Revolution began in the French Caribbean colony of Saint-Domingue with a slave revolt in August 1791, and culminated a dozen years later in the proclamation of the world's first independent black state. After the abolition of slavery in 1793, Toussaint Louverture, himself a former slave, became the leader of the colony's black population, the commander of its republican army and eventually its governor. During the course of his extraordinary life he confronted some of the dominant forces of his age - slavery, settler colonialism, imperialism and racial hierarchy.
Black Spartacus draws on a wealth of archival material, much of it overlooked by previous biographers, to follow every step of Louverture's singular journey, from his triumphs against French, Spanish and British troops to his skilful regional diplomacy, his Machiavellian dealings with successive French colonial administrators and his bold promulgation of an autonomous Constitution. Sudhir Hazareesingh shows that Louverture developed his unique vision and leadership not solely in response to imported Enlightenment ideals and revolutionary events in Europe and the Americas, but through a hybrid heritage of fraternal slave organisations, Caribbean mysticism and African political traditions. Above all, Hazareesingh retrieves Louverture's rousing voice and force of personality, making this the most engaging, as well as the most complete, biography to date.
After his death in a French fortress, Louverture became a figure of legend, a beacon for slaves across the Atlantic and for generations of European republicans and progressive figures in the Americas. He inspired the anti-slavery campaigner Frederick Douglass, the most eminent nineteenth-century African-American; his emancipatory struggle was hailed by those who defied imperial and colonial rule well into the twentieth. In the modern era, his life informed the French poet Aimé Césaire's seminal idea of négritude and has been celebrated in a remarkable range of plays, songs, novels and statues. Here, in all its drama, is the epic story of the world's first black superhero.
Sudhir Hazareesingh was born in Mauritius. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and has been a Fellow and Tutor in Politics at Balliol College, Oxford, since 1990. He has written extensively about French intellectual and cultural history; among his books are The Legend of Napoleon, In the Shadow of the General and How the French Think. He won the Prix du Mémorial d'Ajaccio and the Prix de la Fondation Napoléon for the first of these, a Prix d'Histoire du Sénat for the second, and the Grand Prix du Livre d'Idées for the third. In 2020, he became a Grand Commander of the Order of the Star and Key of the Indian Ocean (G.C.S.K.), the highest honour of the Republic of Mauritius.
“A tour de force…extraordinarily gripping” - Guardian 04 November 2021 | Stuart Proffitt for Penguin | 464 pp Rights sold: US (FSG), German (C H Beck), French (Flammarion), Italian (Rizzoli), Chinese Simplified (Social Sciences Academic Press), Portuguese in Brazil (Companhia das Letras)
Penguin Press History
The End of Enlightenment Richard Whatmore
A landmark study of the Enlightenment from a world- renowned historian
The Enlightenment is typically seen as a time of progress and rationality, as a great leap forward in our capacity to control nature, generate wealth and direct our own destinies. The underlying assumption is that unparalleled optimism was the dominant register of Enlightenment thought; that for the writers and philosophers of the eighteenth century – for Jean-Jacques Rousseau, for David Hume, for Immanuel Kant – there was confidence in a radiant future.
In The End of Enlightenment, historian Richard Whatmore debunks this triumphant story. In order to truly understand the Enlightenment, he shows, we must go beyond the assumptions of Marxist and Liberal thought and return to the perspective of those who lived through its rise and fall. In doing so, he argues, we will see an age that believed itself to be in a near-perpetual crisis, on the cusp of political ruin, at the edge of bankruptcy or civil war, or moments away from being eaten up by a rival state. The fanatic violence that enlightenment thinkers had sought to contain exploded into war, terror and revolution, show trials and guillotines. Profit-oriented global trading companies and dedicated advocates of order and liberty battled to take control of radically altered circumstances, demonising one another as fanatic and extremist exponents of chaos.
Lucid and illuminating, The End of Enlightenment is a defining new exploration of one of the most important moments in human history.
Watch the author pitch his book here.
Richard Whatmore is Professor of Modern History at the University of St Andrews and Director of the Institute of Intellectual History.
24 February 2022 | Casiana Ionita for Allen Lane | 320 pp
Penguin Press History
Fall of the House of Osman Ryan Gingeras
A new, groundbreaking history of the fall of the Ottoman empire, published to coincide with its centenary
In the autumn of 1918, revolution spread across Europe. One by one, grand imperial houses collapsed, allowing new republics to take their place. The fall of the Ottoman Empire is usually understood in this light. Turkey's eventual establishment in 1922 often appears as another example of this inevitable movement towards modern nation-states in the wake of the First World War.
In this groundbreaking new study, Ryan Gingeras rewrites the story of the Ottoman Empire's last years. The armistice, he demonstrates, did not mean the end the Ottoman sultanate. Rather it marked the beginning of a four-year period of conflict and negotiation over the empire's uncertain future. Through its death throes, the Ottoman collapse left millions dead and displaced and cast doubt upon the future of European empires in the colonial world.
Gingeras sheds new light on this dark era and places it within the broader history of the post- Versailles world. Drawing on original research, Fall of the House of Osman tells the story of how the Ottoman Empire's final years shaped the postwar politics of Turks, Greeks, Armenians, Arabs and Kurds. As a struggle that challenged the imperial aspirations of Britain, France and the United States, the conflict over the Ottoman lands helped to inspire wider anti-colonial movements from Ireland to India.
Fall of the House of Osman is an illuminating account of four violent, divisive and unpredictable years which laid the foundations of the modern world order.
Ryan Gingeras is a professor in the Department of National Security Affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School, California. His previous books include Eternal Dawn: Turkey in the Age of Atatürk and Sorrowful Shores: Violence, Ethnicity, and the End of the Ottoman Empire, which was shortlisted for the Rothschild Book Prize in Nationalism and Ethnic Studies and the British-Kuwait Friendship Society Book Prize.
27 October 2022 | Simon Winder for Allen Lane | 304 pp
Penguin Press History
Resistance The Underground War in Europe, 1939-1945 Halik Kochanski
A sweeping, original history of occupation and resistance in war-torn Europe
Across the whole of Nazi-ruled Europe the experience of occupation varied sharpley. Some countries - such as Denmark - were within tight limits allowed to run themselves. Others - such as France - were constrained not only by military occupation but by open collaboration. In a historical moment when Nazi victory seemed permanent and irreversible, the question 'why resist?' was therefore augmented by 'who was the enemy?'.
Resistance is an extraordinarily powerful, humane and haunting account of how and why all across Nazi-occupied Europe some people decided to resist the Third Reich. This could range from open partisan warfare in the occupied Soviet Union to dangerous acts of defiance in the Netherlands or Norway. Some of these resistance movements were entirely home-grown, others supported by the Allies.
Like no other book, Resistance shows the reader just how difficult such actions were. How could small bands of individuals undertake tasks which could lead not just to their own deaths but those of their families and their entire communities?
Filled with powerful and often little-known stories, Halik Kochanski's major new book is a fascinating examination of the convoluted challenges faced by those prepared to resist the Germans, ordinary people who carried out exceptional acts of defiance and resistance.
Halik Kochanski is the author of a widely-praised history of Poland in the Second World War, The Eagle Unbowed. She has taught at both King's College London and University College London and is also the author of Sir Garnet Wolseley: Victorian Hero.
03 March 2022 | Simon Winder for Allen Lane | 976 pp
Penguin Press Politics and Society
For a Better World A History of Protests and Countercultures in Postwar Europe Joachim C. Häberlen
An alternative history of protest movements in post-war Europe
In the ruins of the Second World War, Europeans across the continent set out to build a better world. They challenged authorities, questioned political, social and cultural regimes, and fought for greater democratic participation. Their efforts came to a head most dramatically in two era-defining years, 1968 and 1989, when mass protest movements swept Europe and rewrote its history.
Here, Joachim Häberlen explores the decades of protest and upheaval, hope and change, which linked these two seminal years. For A Better World is a history of collective struggle which takes us on a journey across both sides of the Iron Curtain, from Warsaw and Berlin to Milan and Barcelona via small villages in Lithuania. Everywhere protesters gathered in the streets to rail against nuclear weapons; to protect the environment; to criticise neo- imperialism and racism; to seek liveable cities; and to challenge gender and sexual norms. These demands continue to be heard today.
At the same time, protests moved beyond traditional demonstrations: activists reshaped their world in youth clubs, in communes, squats, consciousness-raising groups and in their own bedrooms. They protested in the way they dressed, the music they listened to, and the night clubs they went to, reshaping ideas of the self. Some of their efforts failed, yet protest, Häberlen shows, is a never-ending process of experimentation, a constant course of trial and error. It is, above all, an invitation to imagine something different, to have the courage to try to build a better world and live a better life.
Watch the author pitch his book here.
Joachim C. Häberlen is Assistant Professor of Modern Continental European History at the University of Warwick. His research focuses on protest movements and the history of emotions. His books include The Emotional Politics of the Alternative Left: West Germany, 1968-1984 and, as editor, The Politics of Authenticity: Countercultures and Radical Movements across the Iron Curtain 1968-1989.
06 October 2022 | Thomas Penn for Allen Lane | 400 pp
Penguin Press Politics and Society
Wages For Housework Emily Callaci
The untold story of a radical chapter in recent feminist history
Women are working for free. They do more than three- quarters of all the world's unpaid care work, contributing over 8 trillion pounds to the global economy each year. Dishes don't clean themselves, dinner is not magically made, children must be cared for. But why is this work not worth compensation?
Wages for Housework is the fascinating international story of Selma James, Silvia Federici, Mariarosa Dalla Costa and Wilmette Brown and their movement's battle to transform the relationship between capitalism and the labour of women. Drawing on the programme's roots in 1970s America, Italy, and the UK, and with unparalleled access to its key figures, historian Emily Callaci explores the revolutionary potential of paying women for their work in the home, and how such an idea continues to influence today's struggle for class, race and gender equality.
Emily Callaci is a historian of modern Africa and of gender, sexuality and reproductive politics. She is currently an Associate Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin.
02 February 2023 | Casiana Ionita for Allen Lane | 304 pp
Penguin Press Ideas
The Structure of Intellectual Revolutions Dmitri Levitin
A dazzling study of intellectual life during one of the defining periods in European history and a new model of intellectual change
How does intellectual change happen? How do societies come to make profound leaps of the mind, acquiring new types of knowledge and devising new paradigms that are seemingly incompatible with the ones they already possess? In this ambitious and wide- ranging book, Dmitri Levitin presents an alternative to conventional accounts of intellectual transformation by returning to the period that first inspired them: Europe in the fertile centuries between the Black Death and French Revolution, the epoch that saw the remarkable achievements of the Renaissance and Scientific Revolution, as well as the beginnings of the Enlightenment.
In a series of vivid and engrossing sketches of a number of fields – mathematics, medicine and the study of nature as well as history, philology, ethnography, orientalism and the study of man – Levitin reveals a constellation of remarkable intellectual leaps, and offers fresh perspectives on and unexpected insights from some of the most consequential advances in the history of science, philosophy and theology. These combine to illustrate different facets of a larger revolution and illuminate the way it came about: how new kinds of thinking emerged from existing ones, how ideas were diffused, debated, adopted and embedded, and the circumstances which facilitated all this. A sweeping but distinctly human study of all intellectual life in Europe during what Levitin describes as its ‘golden age’, The Structure of Intellectual Revolutions is a dazzling tour de force by one of the world’s leading historians of ideas.
Dmitri Levitin is a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. He has published extensively on various aspects of pre-modern intellectual history, including the history of philosophy, science, medicine, theology, scholarship, orientalism, and political thought. His Ancient Wisdom in the Age of the New Science was named one of the Times Literary Supplement’s Books of the Year and he writes regularly for the Literary Review, the Times Literary Supplement, and the London Review of Books. In 2016 he was awarded the prestigious Leszek Kołakowski Prize for the world’s leading early career historian of ideas.
01 September 2022 | Ben Sinyor for Allen Lane | 400 pp
Penguin Press Ideas
Traditionalism An Introduction Mark Sedgwick
A history and analysis of Traditionalism, a little- known philosophy that is having a profound impact on politics today
Western politics has changed. The Brexit referendum and the election of Donald Trump in 2016 were not random events, nor was the one-third share of the vote won by Marine Le Pen in the 2017 French presidential election. The classic contest between the centre-left and centre- right no longer shapes Western politics.
Some of the leading architects of the swing to populism are affiliated with Traditionalism, such as Steve Bannon in the United States, Aleksandr Dugin in Russia, Olavo de Carvalho in Brazil. All of them have risen to positions of power in the past decade.
This book explores and explains Traditionalism, one of the most influential and least understood philosophies. Traditionalism combines a radical critique of modernity with a vision of a better alternative that is rooted in timeless spiritual precepts. Traditionalists hold that modernity is not, as many people think, the triumph of human progress, but rather the result of inexorable decline. Modern humanity, they contend, has lost touch with the ancient spiritual and philosophical truths that were once the basis of a healthy society composed of people living as they are meant to live.
It is essential to understand this philosophy that is shaping our world, and Mark Sedgwick is the perfect guide.
Watch the author pitch his book here.
Mark Sedgwick trained as a historian at Oxford University, taught for many years at the American University in Cairo, and finally moved to Denmark, where he is Professor of Arab and Islamic Studies at Aarhus University. He is also chair of the Nordic Society for Middle Eastern Studies. His work has focused mostly on Islam, Sufism, Traditionalism, and terrorism. He's known especially for his book Against the Modern World: Traditionalism and the Secret Intellectual History of the Twentieth Century (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004) and his work on radicalisation.
2 March 2023 | Maria Bedford for Pelican | 400 pp
Penguin Press Nature & Environment
The Blue Commons Guy Standing and Andre Standing
An exposé of the plunder of the world's oceans, and the devastating environmental and economic impact that is having across the globe
The blue commons are our oceans: they feed us all, link our continents, provide a natural economy on coasts around the world and are a crucial part of our ecosystem.
But in recent years the oceans have been plundered, and this has led to an existential crisis that demands a global response.
The Blue Commons exposes the corrosion of the blue commons through six trends - encroachment or destruction, enclosure, social forgetting, commodification, privatisation and colonisation. The commoners - mainly small-scale fisheries and coastal communities - have fought back, with some inspiring and positive results. This book provides a road-map for reviving the concept of the blue commons, as belonging to us all, protected from businesses and nations seeking profit at the expense of everyone else.
Watch one of the authors pitch this book here.
Guy Standing co-founded the Basic Income Earth Network and now serves as its honorary co-President. He has held professorships at the University of Bath and at SOAS, was programme director at the International Labour Organisation and has advised the UN, World Bank and governments around the world on labour and social policy. He is also a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. He is the author of the bestselling The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class (2011), and Basic Income: And How We Can Make it Happen (2017) which sold in nine territories.
Andre Standing holds a PhD in Criminology from Middlesex University and lives and works in Kenya, where he is a Research Associate for the Coalition of Fair Fisheries, and a technical adviser to the International Board of the Fisheries Transparancy Initiative.
03 February 2022 | Maria Bedford for Pelican | 432 pp