1 CONTACT DETAILS
HARDMAN & SWAINSON
S86, New Wing, Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 1LA Tel: +44 (0)20 3701 7449 www.hardmanswainson.com
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2 Fiction Titles
3 DEBUT FICTION
LOUISE FEIN People Like Us
Set against a backdrop of suspicion and betrayal in 1930s Germany, as the Nazi regime strengthens its grip on a vulnerable nation, People Like Us is a story of impossible love.
Hetty Heinrich is the dutiful daughter of a Liepzig newspaperman turned high ranking Nazi, keen to play her part in the glory of the new Thousand Year Reich. But when she encounters Walter, a friend from the past, dangerous feelings are stirred.
Confused and confl icted, Hetty doesn’t know where to turn; someone is watching, and no one can be trusted. As the rising tide of anti-semitism threatens to engulf them, Hetty and Walter must take extreme action.
Will the steady march of dark forces destroy Hetty’s world, or can love ultimately triumph?
People Like Us is inspired by the author’s family history, and by the alarming parallels she sees between the early 30s and today. We hope it will appeal to fans of All the Light we Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, The Reader by Bernhard Schlink and The Cut Out Girl by Bart van Es.
UK Publisher: Head of Zeus US Publisher: William Morrow Publication: January 2020 UK Editor: Hannah Smith US Editor: Liz Stein Agent: Caroline Hardman Material: Unedited manuscript (pp. 305)
Rights Sold Dutch - Xander Italian - Sonzogno/Marsilio Romanian - Nemira
Louise Fein holds an MA in Creative Writing from St Mary’s University. Prior to studying for her master’s, she ran a commodity consultancy business following a career in banking and law. She lives in Surrey with her family.
4 DEBUT FICTION
JAMES GOULD Keeping Mum
A sometimes funny sometimes sad, and ultimately uplifting story of a father and son overcoming their grief in the most unlikely of circumstances.
Danny Malooley’s life is falling apart: he is a single parent with an eleven-year-old son, Will, who hasn’t spoken since the death of his mother in a car crash fourteen months ago. He is being pursued by a mafi a-like landlord who is threatening to set his henchman on him if he doesn’t pay his arrears and, to make matters worse, he gets fi red from his job on a building site.
Danny needs to fi nd money, and fast.
After seeing street performers in his local park apparently raking it in, he spends his last fi ver on a smelly costume and becomes a dancing panda. The only problem is, Danny can’t dance. And the only person who can teach him is foul-mouthed pole-dancer, Krystal.
One day, Danny spots his son being bullied in the park and rescues him. Will talks to him for the fi rst time since his mother’s death, unaware that the panda is in fact his father. Nervous of revealing his true identity in case Will stops talking to him, Danny befriends UK Publisher: Trapeze Books his son in the panda disguise. But will Danny lose his son’s newly- US Publisher: Scribner found friendship and respect once he reveals who he is? And will Publication: Spring 2020 Danny be able to dance his way out of debt, or be beaten to a UK Editor: Katie Brown pulp before he’s had the chance to reconnect with his son? US Editor: Kara Watson Agent: Joanna Swainson Material: Unedited manuscript (pp. 258) For fans of About a Boy and The Silver Linings Playbook.
Rights Sold Chinese - Ruyi Xinxin Czech - Host French - Préludes/ Livre de Poche German - Kiepenheuer & Witsch Italian - Mondadori Japan - Shogakukan Serbian - Evro Giunti James Gould is 36 years old and was born and raised in Stockport, Manchester. He graduated from the Faber academy’s six-month Write A Novel course in 2014, under the guidance of Richard Skinner. James recently quit his job as a copywriter to focus full-time on writing. Previously, he worked for various landmine-clearance NGOs in Africa and the Middle East.
5 DEBUT FICTION
CAROLINE HULSE The Adults
Brilliantly original book group fiction about a blended family’s holiday gone wrong.
TV Rights optioned by Tiger Aspect
Claire and Matt are divorced but decide what’s best for their daughter Scarlett is to have a ‘normal’ family Christmas. They can’t agree on whose idea it was, or who said they should bring their new partners. But someone did - and it’s too late to pull the plug.
Claire brings her new boyfriend Patrick, a seemingly eligible Iron- Man-in-Waiting. Matt brings the new love of his life Alex, funny, smart, and extremely patient. Scarlett, their daughter, brings her imaginary friend Posey. He’s a rabbit.
Together the five (or six?) of them grit their teeth over Organized Fun activities, drinking a little too much after bed-time, oversharing classified secrets about their pasts and, before you know it, their holiday is a powder keg that ends - where this story starts - with a tearful, frightened, call to the police...
UK Publisher: Orion Books But what happened? They said they’d all be adults about this... US Publisher: Random House Books Publication Date: August 2018 UK Editor: Emad Akhtar US Editor: Andrea Walker Agent: Caroline Hardman Material: Paperback Copies (pp.416)
Rights Sold Czech - Euromedia Dutch - AW Bruna French - Fleuve Editions German - Aufbau Hungarian - General Press Israel - Aryeh Nir Italian - Mondadori Polish - Znak Romanian - Corint Serbian - Evro Books Slovak - Ikar Sweden - Printz Publishing
6 READING GROUP FICTION
CAROLINE HULSE Like a House on Fire
The witty and poignant second novel from Caroline Hulse about a family murder mystery party gone wrong.
George and Stella’s marriage is over.
They can’t decide exactly when that happened (Was it the coke can? Or that comment about Jurassic Park?), but they both agree that it has.
A couple of months after the separation, Stella’s mother, Margaret “The Force of Nature” Foy sends out invites for her murder mystery anniversary party - with George on the invite list. Stella hasn’t told her parents about the divorce, she couldn’t bring herself to. And with her father’s business shutting down, Margaret’s recent cancer diagnosis, and some very odd behaviour from her older sister Helen, now is clearly not a good time.
All they have to do is make it through the day without their secret being discovered. And in doing so, they may fi nd each other again - or see their past and future both go up in fl ames...
UK Publisher: Orion Books US Publisher: Random House Books Publication Date: November 2019 UK Editor: Emad Akhtar US Editor: Andrea Walker Agent: Caroline Hardman Material: Early 2020
Option Publishers Czech - Euromedia Dutch - AW Bruna French - Fleuve Editions German - Aufbau Hungarian - General Press Israel - Aryeh Nir Italian - Mondadori Caroline Hulse spends most of her days writing, having fulfi lled her dream Polish - Znak of having a job she could do in pyjamas. She also works in Human Resources Romanian - Corint sometimes. She is openly competitive and loves playing board and card games. She can often be found in casino poker rooms, and wishes other people would Serbian - Evro Books want to play Cluedo for money. She lives with her husband in Manchester, Slovak - Ikar where the two are captive to the whims of a small, controlling dog. Sweden - Printz Publishing
7 DEBUT LITERARY FICTION
ELIZABETH BROOKS The Orphan of Salt Winds
For fans of Eowyn Ivey, Rose Tremaine, and Kate Atkinson, The Orphan of Salt Winds is a bewitching debut about the secrets that haunt us.
England, 1939. Ten-year-old Virginia Wrathmell arrives at Salt Winds, a secluded house on the edge of a marsh, to meet her adoptive parents―practical, dependable Clem and glamorous, mercurial Lorna. The marsh, with its deceptive tides, is a beautiful but threatening place. Virginia’s new parents’ marriage is full of secrets and tensions she doesn’t quite understand, and their wealthy neighbor, Max Deering, drops by too often, taking an unwholesome interest in the family’s aff airs. Only Clem off ers a true sense of home. War feels far away among the birds and shifting sands―until the day a German fi ghter plane crashes into the marsh, and Clem ventures out to rescue the airman.
What happens next sets into motion a crime so devastating it will haunt Virginia for the rest of her life. Seventy-fi ve years later, she fi nds herself drawn back to the marsh, and to a teenage girl who appears there, nearly frozen and burdened by her own secrets. In her, Virginia might have a chance at retribution and a way to right a grave mistake she made as a child.
UK Publisher: Transworld Elizabeth Brooks’s gripping debut mirrors its marshy landscape― US Publisher: Tin House full of twists and turns and moored in a tangle of family secrets. Publication date: June 2018 A gothic, psychological mystery and atmospheric coming-of-age UK Editor: Suzanne Bridson story, The Orphan of Salt Winds is the portrait of a woman haunted US Editor: Masie Cochran by the place she calls home. Agent: Joanna Swainson Material: Hardback Copies (pp.320)
Elizabeth Brooks grew up in Chester. She graduated from Cambridge University with a fi rst class degree in Classics. She lives on the Isle of Man with her husband and children where she writes, paints and plays the violin.
8 DEBUT LITERARY FICTION
RACHEL EDWARDS Darling
A white teenage girl clashes with her new black stepmother in this debut reading group thriller.
TV rights optioned by The Artists Studio.
Lola doesn’t particularly want a new stepmother. Especially not one who has come out of nowhere and only been with her dad for three months. And – she’s not racist or anything – but since when did her dad fancy black women anyway?
Darling didn’t particularly want a new stepdaughter. Especially not one as spiteful and spoilt as Lola. She does want Lola’s dad though. And he wants her, so that’s that: Darling and Lola will just have to get used to each other.
Unless Lola can fi nd a way to get rid of Darling.
UK Publisher: 4th Estate PB Publication: February 2019 Editor: Anna Kelly Agent: Joanna Swainson Material: Paperback Copies (pp.352)
Rachel Edwards has been a freelance writer for 14 years, including for Marie Claire and other magazines. After writing for The Erotic Review under Rowan Pelling, she was the recipient of a national fi ction award from The Royal Literary Fund and the Arts Council. Her former writing group of fi ve women included novelists Miranda Glover and Lucy Cavendish and together they created the Queenbee Press which published two collections of short stories, The Leap Year and Ten Past Eight. Born to a Jamaican mother and Nigerian father in Truro and raised in Hertfordshire, Rachel is delighted to have been ‘born on three continents at once’ and is a wholehearted black Brit.
9 LITERARY FICTION
REBECCA WAIT Our Fathers
A powerful exploration of a family murder-suicide, which interrogates the damaging legacy of toxic masculinity for a family and its surrounding community.
Tom Baird is a haunted man
When Tom was ten years old, his father took a shotgun and shot his family: his wife, his son and baby daughter, before turning the gun on himself. Only Tom survived.
Tom Baird is an exiled man
He left his tiny, shocked community on the island of Skellag and the strained silence of his Uncle Malcolm’s house while still a young boy. For twenty years he’s tried to escape his past.
Tom Baird is coming home
Without knowing how to ask, he needs answers – from his uncle, who should have known. From his neighbours, who think his father a decent man who ‘just snapped’. From the memories that haunt the wild landscape of the Outer Hebrides.
UK Publisher: Riverrun /Hachette UK And from the silent ones who know more about what happened – US Publisher: Europa Editions and why – than they have ever dared admit. Publication date: Spring 2020 Editor: Niamh Mulvey By turns gripping, beautiful, devastating and tender, Our Fathers Agent: Caroline Hardman Material: Unedited manuscript (pp.210) is a story about violence and redemption, control and love. With understated compassion and humour, Rebecca Wait gives a voice Rights Sold to the silenced and the silences between men of few words. German - Kein & Aber Italian - Edizioni E/O
Rebecca Wait is a writer and secondary school teacher who lives in London. She is the author of the critically acclaimed novels The View on the Way Down and The Followers (Picador)
10 DEBUT CRIME
HELEN COX Murder by the Minster
Quirky crime series set in York in which a sassy librarian sleuth investigates a string of crimes of passion.
Kitt Hartley is a no-nonsense librarian at York University. When she’s not reading, she spends her time drinking Lady Grey tea with her vintage-loving best friend, Evie Bowes, keeping her excitable assistant, Grace Edwards, in line and trying to convince library regular Ruby Barnett that she is not gifted with psychic abilities.
Since suff ering a desolating heartbreak ten years ago, Kitt has done all she can to build a quiet life for herself in the charming city of York and seems to have succeeded… until rather handsome Inspector Malcolm Halloran and Sergeant Charlotte Banks visit the library with questions about the death of Evie’s ex-boyfriend, who was found stabbed to death with a fountain pen. All the evidence suggests he was murdered and that Evie is the culprit.
Desperate to help Evie clear her name, the librarian is drawn into a murder investigation, teaming up with Inspector Halloran, her friend Evie and her internet-savvy assistant Grace to solve a trio of murders of jilted ex-boyfriends.
UK Publisher: Quercus Books Publication date: July 2019 Editor: Therese Keating Agent: Joanna Swainson Material: Unedited Manusript (pp. 284)
Helen Cox is a book-devouring, photo-taking, fi lm-obsessed novelist. If forced to choose one, Helen’s Mastermind specialism would be Grease 2. To this day, she still adheres to the Pink Lady pledge and when somebody asks her if she is a god she says ‘yes.’ After completing her MA in creative writing at the University of York St. John Helen found work writing for a range of magazines, websites and blogs as well as writing news and features for TV and radio. She has written three non-fi ction books and founded independent fi lm publication: New Empress Magazine. She currently lives in York and writes novels.
11 DEBUT CRIME
W.F. REYNOLD Nightshade
It was just a game, until it let in her worst nightmare.
As a child, Linn played “Knock Knock, Ginger” with her best friends in their village: They used to ring their neighbours’ doorbell, ding, ding, ding, and then they ran.
At seventeen, Linn heard the doorbell ring one night: ding, ding, ding. When she opened up, all alone at night, she let in her worst nightmare. All she remembers is waking up with her dress torn off and blood running down her legs, a dried fl ower of deadly nightshade in her hand. The culprit was never found. Linn moved away and did not come back.
At thirty-six, Linn packs her bags and leaves her husband Oliver and their fl at in London. In her bags: a dried deadly nightshade fl ower. She returns to her parents’ old house in the Yorkshire Dales, at the dead end of a dirt road, the next neighbour a mile away. Her childhood community failed to fi nd the culprit, but did anyone know more than they let on? She is going to fi nd out for herself.
UK Publisher: Avon/HarperCollins She puts down her bags, fi res up the heating, takes a bite of her Publication date: June 2019 freshly-baked shortbread, and goes to bed. Editor: Katie Loughnane Agent: Thérèse Coen That night she starts awake. Material: Spring 2019
Someone is ringing her doorbell.
Ding, ding, ding.
W. F. Reynold has lived in the United States, Canada, Australia and Paris and is a regular visitor to the UK, be it North or South. When not teaching creative writing at Bonn University, Reynold loves to cook (and bake) as well as to research obscure British laws pertaining to all the possibilities of placing deadly mantraps on one’s property. Winner of the European Academies’ Prize for Short Fiction and contributor to The New Federalist and 42 Magazine.
12 DEBUT CRIME
SR MASTERS The Killer You Know
A gripping and atmospheric debut psychological thriller - perfect for fans of Ruth Ware and Alex Marwood.
You need to kill at least three people, right? So that’s what I’ll do.
When Will jokes about becoming a serial killer, his friends just laugh it off . But Adeline can’t help but feel there’s something more sinister lurking behind his words.
Fifteen years later, Adeline returns to Blythe for a reunion of the old gang - except Will doesn’t show up. Reminiscing about old times, they look up the details of his supposed murder spree. But the mood soon changes when they discover two recent deaths that match.
As the group attempts to track Will down, they realise that he is playing a sinister game that harks back to one they used to play as kids. Only this time there are lives at stake . . .
UK Publisher: Sphere / Little, Brown US Publisher: Red Hook Press Publication date: May 2019 Editor: Lucy Dauman Agent: Joanna Swainson Material: Trade Paperback Copies (pp.432)
Rights Sold Italian - Garzanti Polish - Burda
SR Masters studied Philosophy at Girton College, Cambridge. He is a regular contributor to UK short fi ction anthology series The Fiction Desk, having won their Writer’s Award for his short story ‘Just Kids’. His story ‘Desert Walk’ was included in Penguin Random House USA’s ‘Press Start to Play’ collection, published lin 2015 and he continues to have short fi ction published in a variety of magazines. When he is not writing, Simon works in public health for the NHS in Oxford, where he lives with his wife and young son.
13 DEBUT CRIME
B.P. WALTER A Version of the Truth
An intense, zeitgeisty and page-turning thriller about a woman who fi nds horrifying material on her husband’s laptop that links to a dark and complex underworld at an elite university.
We all see what we want to see…
2019: Julianne is preparing a family dinner when her son comes to her and says he’s found something on his iPad. Something so terrible, it will turn Julianne’s world into a nightmare and make her question everything about her marriage and what type of man her husband is or is pretending to be.
1990: Sophie is a fresher student at Oxford University. Out of her depth and nervous about her surroundings, she falls into an uneasy friendship with a group of older students from the upper echelons of society and begins to develop feelings for one in particular. He’s confi dent, quiet, attractive and seems to like her too. But as the year progresses, her friends’ behaviour grows steadily more disconcerting and Sophie begins to realise she might just be a disposable pawn in a very sinister game.
A devastating secret has simmered beneath the surface for over twenty-fi ve years. Now it’s time to discover the truth. But what if UK Publisher: Avon you’re afraid of what you might fi nd? Publication date: February 2019 Editor: Phoebe Morgan Agent: Joanna Swainson Material: Paperback Copies (pp.368)
B.P. Walter was born and raised in Essex. After spending his childhood and teenage years reading compulsively, he worked in bookshops then went to the University of Southampton to study Film and English followed by an MA in Film & Cultural Management. He is an alumnus of the Faber Academy and currently works as Waterstones’ social media coordinator.
14 CRIME FICTION
CHARLOTTE DUCKWORTH Unfollow Me
When an infl uencer disappears from social media her fans are mystifi ed. Her fans are obsessed with fi nding out the truth, but their search quickly reveals a web of lies, betrayal, and shocking consequences.
You Can’t Stop Watching Her.
Violet Young is a hugely popular journalist-turned-mummy- vlogger, with three young children, a successful husband and a million subscribers on YouTube who tune in daily to watch her everyday life unfold.
Until the day she’s no longer there.
But one day she disappears from the online world - her entire social media presence deleted overnight, with no explanation. Has she simply decided that baring her life to all online is no longer a good idea, or has something more sinister happened to her?
But do you really know who Violet is?
Told from the perspectives of her most avid fans, obsessed with fi nding out the truth, their search quickly reveals a web of lies, betrayal, and shocking consequences...
UK Publisher: Quercus Publication date: October 2020 Editor: Cassie Browne Agent: Caroline Hardman Material: Edited Manuscript (pp. 297)
Option Publisher Czech - Euromedia
Charlotte Duckworth has spent the past fi fteen years working as an interiors and lifestyle journalist, writing for a wide range of consumer magazines and websites. She lives in Surrey with her partner and their young daughter. You can fi nd out more on her website: charlotteduckworth.com.
15 CRIME FICTION
HELEN FIELDS Perfect Crime
A new sensation in crime fi ction: the fi fth novel in the #1 bestselling series, featuring DI Luc Callanach and DCI Ava Turner.
Stephen Berry is about to jump off a bridge until a suicide prevention counsellor stops him. A week later, Stephen is dead. Found at the bottom of a cliff , DI Luc Callanach and DCI Ava Turner are drafted in to investigate whether he jumped or whether he was pushed…
As they dig deeper, more would-be suicides roll in: a woman found dead in a bath; a man violently electrocuted. But these are carefully curated deaths – nothing like the impulsive suicide attempts they’ve been made out to be.
Little do Callanach and Turner know how close their perpetrator is as, across Edinburgh, a violent and psychopathic killer gains more confi dence with every life he takes…
UK Publisher: Avon US Publisher: HarperCollins Publication date: April 2019 Editor: Helen Huthwaite Agent: Caroline Hardman Material: Proof Copies (pp.400)
Option Publishers Czech - Albatros Dutch - Ambo Anthos Estonian - Ersen French - Marabout German - Bastei Luebbe Hungarian - Muvelt Nep Italian - Newton Compton Norwegian - Cappelen Damm Polish - Amber Swedish - Storytel A former barrister, Helen Fields now writes a Scottish set crime novels. Her Taiwan - Marco Polo debut novel Perfect Remains and the second in the series Perfect Prey are Amazon Thai - Wara best sellers. She currently commutes between Hampshire, Scotland and California, and lives with her husband and three children.
16 CRIME FICTION
PETER LAWS Severed Third title in the horror crime series from the sinister minister, featuring disgraced ex-Vicar turned professor of sociology, Matt Hunter.
During a communion service at a village church, the teenage son of a vicar brutally attacks his father with an axe. The horrifi ed congregation watch the son escape and during a frantic police search rumours arise that the boy was involved in devil worship.
Professor Matt Hunter, an atheist ex-minister and expert on religion, is brought in to advise, yet he quickly suspects the church attack may have a far more complex cause. Meanwhile, a ten- year-old boy called Ever grows up in a small Christian cult.
The group believe they are the only true humans left and that the world is fi lled with demons called Hollows, but they’re working on a bizarre ritual that will bring peace and paradise to the world.
Soon, the worlds of Matt and Ever will collide in one awful, terrifying night where Matt is thrown into the frightening and murderous world of religious mania.
UK Publisher: Allison and Busby Publication date: January 2019 Editor: Susie Dunlop Agent: Joanna Swainson Material: Paperback (pp. 350)
Option Publisher German - Bastei Luebbe
Peter Laws is an ordained Baptist minister with a taste for the macabre. His Master’s Degree Thesis explored the religious themes found in fi lms and stories that frighten or disturb us. It was shortlisted for a theology prize. He writes a monthly column in the print magazine The Fortean Times and also hosts the popular podcast The Flicks That Church Forgot which reviews thriller and horror fi lms from a theological perspective. He regularly speaks and preaches at churches and events. He lives with his family in Bedfordshire.
17 HISTORICAL FICTION
DINAH JEFFERIES The Missing Sister
A stolen sister. A daughter determined to uncover the truth. The new novel from the Number One Sunday Times bestselling author of The Tea Planter’s Wife.
Belle Hatton has embarked upon an exciting new life far from home: a glamorous job as a nightclub singer in 1930s Burma, with a host of sophisticated new friends and admirers. But Belle is haunted by a mystery from the past - a 25 year old newspaper clipping found in her parents’ belongings after their death, saying that the Hattons were leaving Rangoon after the disappearance of their baby daughter, Elvira.
Belle is desperate to fi nd out what happened to the sister she never knew she had - but when she starts asking questions, she is confronted with unsettling rumours, malicious gossip, and outright threats. Oliver, an attractive, easy-going American journalist, promises to help her, but an anonymous note tells her not to trust those closest to her. . .
Belle survives riots, intruders, and bomb attacks - but nothing will stop her in her mission to uncover the truth. Can she trust her growing feelings for Oliver? Is her sister really dead? And could there be a chance Belle might fi nd her?
UK Publisher: Viking US Publisher: Crown Publication date: March 2019 Editor: Venetia Butterfi eld Agent: Caroline Hardman Material: Paperback Copies (pp.320)
Option publishers German - Bastei Luebbe French - Bragelonne 24 further territories (Rights with Penguin)
Dinah Jeff eries was born in Malaya and moved to England at the age of eight. She has taught Theatre Studies and English, lived in a ‘rock ’n roll’ commune and, more recently, been an exhibiting artist. She spent fi ve years in a tiny mountain village in Northern Andalucía, where she began to write. Now living in Gloucestershire with her husband and Norfolk terrier, she writes full time, with time off to make tiaras and dinosaurs with her grandchildren.
18 HISTORICAL FICTION
LIZZIE PAGE Daughters of War
A gripping wartime drama of love and loss, perfect for fans of Soraya M. Lane, Daughters of the Night Sky and Kathryn Hughes.
An emotional tale of wartime love and sacrifi ce, inspired by an incredible true story…
As a teenager in Chicago, May always dreamed of travelling the world. So when she meets handsome George Turner, she jumps at the chance to return to London as his wife. Ten years later, May is wondering if she’s made a terrible mistake.
It’s 1914 and war has been declared in Europe. All around, brave young men are being called up to serve. George, banned from conscription himself, has taken to the bottle, and May suspects he’s seeing other women too. She longs for a way to escape.
The chance comes when May meets veteran nurse Elsie, who persuades May to join the war eff ort. May knows nothing of nursing – it will be diffi cult, dangerous work, but her heart is telling her it’s the right thing to do. But then George does the unthinkable and May’s future is put at risk. Will she have to make the impossible choice between duty to her family and her Publisher: Bookouture (WEL) promise to the soldiers on the front line? And can she live with Publication date: November 2019 the consequences if her husband goes through with what he’s Editor: Kathryn Taussig threatening to do? Agent: Thérèse Coen Material: Edited Manuscript (pp.389)
Option Publisher Dutch - Mozaiek
Lizzie Page did an MA in creative and life writing at Goldsmiths University, London and has a degree in Politics and International Studies from Warwick University. She has also worked in marketing, teaching, copy-writing, editing and freelance journalism. And a long, long time ago, she wrote four erotic novels that were published by Black Lace: the translations of which were very popular in Holland and Germany, curiously enough.
19 HISTORICAL FICTION
LIZ TRENOW The Dressmaker of Draper’s Lane
The Dressmaker of Draper’s Lane revisits the opulence and extravagance of the London silk trade in the mid-eighteenth century which Liz Trenow wrote about in her previous bestselling novel, The Silk Weaver.
The richest silk hides the deepest secrets . . .
1768, London. As a foundling who rose from poverty and now runs her own successful dressmaking business in the heart of society London, Miss Charlotte is a remarkable woman, admired by many. She has no need, nor desire, to marry. The people she values most are her friend Anna, her recently-found sister Louisa and nephew Peter.
She feels herself fortunate, and should be content with what she has. But something is missing.
A small piece of rare silk discovered in a bundle of scraps at auction triggers a curious sense of familiarity, and prompts her to unpick a past fi lled with extraordinary secrets and revelations . . .
UK Publisher: Pan Macmillan US Publisher: Bookouture Publication date: February 2019 UK Editor: Caroline Hogg Agent: Caroline Hardman Material: Paperback Copies (pp.369)
Option Publishers German - Blanvalet Dutch - De Fontein Portuguese - 2020 Italian- Newton Compton Russian - Family Leisure Club Spanish - Circulo de Letores Ukrainian - Hemiro
Liz Trenow’s family have been silk weavers for nearly three hundred years, and she grew up in a house next to the mill which still operates today. Liz’s latest novel, In Love and War, was published on 25th January by Pan Macmillan. The Last Telegram was shortlisted for a UK national award and The Forgotten Seamstress was a New York Times best-seller.
20 WOMEN’S FICTION
ANNA BELL If We’re Not Married By Thirty
A brilliantly funny, romantic and eff ervescent read, If We’re Not Married by Thirty is the irresistible new novel from the bestselling author of The Bucket List to Mend a Broken Heart.
When Lydia breaks up with her long-term boyfriend, she fl ees to a villa in Spain. There she’s surprised to bump into her old childhood friend, Dan. Years before the pair had made a pact: if they were still single when they turned thirty, they would get married.
Lydia and Dan’s friendship now rekindled, it doesn’t take long before they fall into a holiday romance. Giddily in love, the couple realise there is nothing stopping them from fulfi lling their romantic pact. But how much do they really know about each other?
Could Lydia’s back up man ever really be her happy ever after?
UK Publisher: Zaff re Publication date: November 2018 Editor: Sophie Orme Agent: Hannah Ferguson Material: Edited Manuscript (pp. 448)
Option Publishers German - Droemer Knaur Portuguese - 20/20 Czech - Albatros Norwegian - Cappelen Damm Serbian - Laguna Slovakian - Albatros Romanian - RAO Turkish - Yakamoz Anna Bell says she’s a hopeless romantic and loves nothing more than a good happy ending. The Bucket List to Mend a Broken Heart was published in 2016 and has sold over 150,000 copies. Anna currently lives in France with her husband, two children and Labrador. When not chained to her laptop, she can be found hiking around the mountains and eating far too many treats from the French patisseries.
21 WOMEN’S FICTION
CATHY BRAMLEY A Vintage Summer
A sparkling summer story full of surprises!
London has not been kind to Lottie Allbright. Realising it’s time to cut and run, she packs up and moves back home – but fi nds her family in disarray. In need of a new place to stay, Lottie takes up the off er of a live-in job managing a local vineyard. There’s a lot to learn – she didn’t even know grapes could grow so far north!
Butterworth Wines in the rolling Derbyshire hills has always been run on love and passion but a tragic death has left everyone at a loss. Widowed Betsy is trying to keep the place afl oat but is harbouring a debilitating secret. Meanwhile her handsome but interfering grandson, Jensen, is trying to convince her to sell up and move into a home.
Lottie’s determined to save Butterworth Wines, but with all this and an unpredictable English summer to deal with, it’ll be a challenge.
And that’s before she discovers something that will turn her summer – and her world – upside down . . . UK Publisher: Transworld Publication date: March 2019 Editor: Francesca Best Agent: Hannah Ferguson Material: Unedited manuscript (pp. 360)
Option Publisher German - Heyne
Cathy Bramley has had two novels in the Sunday Times Top 20 in the last year and is the best-selling author of ten novels. Her writing career came as somewhat of a surprise after eighteen years running her own marketing agency. However, she has always been an avid reader and now enjoys pairing up with other authors and travelling to various book events around the country. She lives in a Nottinghamshire village with her husband, two daughters and a dog. www.CathyBramleyAuthor.com @CathyBramley.
22 WOMEN’S FICTION
ISABELLE BROOM One Thousand Stars and You
One spark will illuminate both their lives.
Alice is settling down. It might not be the adventurous life she once imagined, but more than anything she wants to make everyone happy - her steady boyfriend, her over-protective mother - even if it means a little part of her will always feel stifl ed.
Max is shaking things up. After a devastating injury, he is determined to prove himself. To fi nd the man beyond the disability, to escape his smothering family and go on an adventure.
A trip to Sri Lanka is Alice’s last hurrah - her chance to throw herself into the heat, chaos and colour of a place thousands of miles from home.
It’s also the moment she meets Max.
Alice doesn’t know it yet, but her whole life is about to change.
Max doesn’t know it yet, but he’s the one who’s going to change it. UK Publisher: Michael Joseph Publication date: August 2018 Editor: Matilda MacDonald Agent: Hannah Ferguson Material: Paperback Copies (pp.400)
Rights Sold Portuguese - Planeta Hungary- Álomgyár
Option Publishers German - Heyne Italian - Giunti Isabelle Broom was born in Cambridge and studied Media Arts at the Lithuanian - Alma Littera University of West London before starting a career fi rst in local newspapers Norwegian - Cappelen Damm and then as a junior sub editor at Heat magazine. She travelled through Europe Polish - Amber during her gap year and went to live on the Greek island of Zakynthos for an Spanish - Urano unforgettable and life-shaping six months after completing her degree. Since then, she has travelled widely, but her wanderlust was reined in when she met Max, a fl uff y little Bolognese puppy desperate for a home. When she’s not writing novels set in far-fl ung locations, Isabelle is Books Editor at Woman & Home magazine.
23 WOMEN’S FICTION
TRACY BUCHANAN The Family Secret
The new twisting, emotional new novel from Tracy Buchanan, author of no.1 Kindle bestseller, My Sister’s Secret.
How far would you go to fi nd the truth?
Since Amber lost her child ten years ago, her sole focus has been keeping her small business afl oat. Her life seems to be on hold, until the morning she fi nds a girl on the beach outside her gift shop. A girl who has no shoes, no name, and no idea where she came from.
As a wildlife documentary maker, Gwyneth’s work has taken her all over the world. But when she has a terrible accident in the remote Scottish Highlands, she is saved by the McClusky family and taken into their home. However, there is more to this family than meets the eye, and a long-held secret is threatening to tear them apart…
Amber and Gwyenth are at the beginning of a journey that will change each of their lives forever.
UK publisher: Avon US Publisher: Bookouture Publication date: September 2019 Editor: Rachel Faulkner-Wilcocks Agent: Caroline Hardman Material: Paperback Copies (pp.448)
Option Publishers German - Blanvalet Danish - Flamingo Estonian - Ersen Hungarian - Alexandra Italian - Newton Compton Portuguese - Bertrand
Tracy Buchanan is a journalist and producer, writing and commissioning web content for BBC and Open University co-productions. Before this, she worked as a travel editor, after quitting her job as an online media expert for PR guru Matthew Freud. She now lives in Milton Keynes with her husband, their daughter and their Jack Russell, fi tting in regular jaunts abroad to sate the wanderlust she developed while listening to her Sri Lankan grandparents’ childhood stories.
24 WOMEN’S FICTION
ADRIENNE CHINN The Lost Letter From Morocco
A forbidden love aff air. A long-buried secret. A journey that will change everything.
1984. In the Moroccan village of Zitoune, Hanane’s love for Irishman Gus is forbidden. Forced by her father to fl ee her home with the man she loves, Hanane is certain she is running towards her destiny. But she has made a decision that will haunt her family for years to come.
2009. When Addy discovers an unfi nished letter and a mysterious photograph in her late father’s belongings, she decides to journey to Morocco in search of answers. But she is quickly pulled into a world that she doesn’t understand.
The longer Addy stays, the more she starts to wonder just how many secrets are hiding behind the cascading waterfalls of Zitoune. And when history starts to repeat itself, it seems her journey might just change the person she is forever.
A heartbreaking story of impossible love and dark family secrets that readers of Jenny Ashcroft and Rosanna Ley will love.
UK Publisher: Avon Publication date: March 2019 Editor: Molly Walker- Sharp Agent: Joanna Swainson Material: Edited Manuscript (pp.400)
Adrienne Chin grew up in rural Quebec, and studied English Literature in Windsor, Ontario. She retraced her English father’s footsteps back to England, working as a fi lm and TV researcher. She later retrained as an interior designer and has run her own deisgn business in London for the past 20 years. She attended the Faber Academy Novel Writing Course in 2011, and this is her fi rst novel.
25 WOMEN’S FICTION
LISA DICKENSON Swiss Kiss
“You know this snow-white mark on the back of your Bernese Mountain puppy’s head? That’s called a ‘Swiss Kiss’.”
A sweet love story set in snowy-mountain wintertime in Switzerland.
Anna is suff ering from trauma after surviving a terrorist attack, so adopts a Bernese Mountain Dog puppy as a support animal. But this is no ordinary puppy – this is an ever-growing bear cub, who is fi lling up her small fl at, and her life, faster than she can say ‘good boy’.
When an opportunity arises for Anna to dig her way out from under the dog fur and release herself from the enclosing claustrophobia, she grabs it. Off they go, together, on a trip back to his home country for the winter season, both of them in need of space and air. Raising a puppy in a new country is made easier when Anna meets Christian, a ski instructor, who helps her see the joy in life again, despite some hardships along the way.
A tale of coming to terms with life, fi nding the part of you that gets lost, and remembering to love along the way. UK Publisher: Sphere Publication date: October 2019 UK Editor: Viola Hayden Agent: Hannah Ferguson Material: Spring 2019
Lisa Dickenson is a former child actress and singer who appeared on the West End in 1948, and made her Broadway debut in a 1954 production of The Boy Friend, and rose to prominence starring in musicals such as My Fair Lady and Camelot, both of which earned her Tony Award nominations… Or that might be Julie Andrews… whatever.
26 WOMEN’S FICTION
MIRANDA DICKINSON The Day We Meet Again
‘We’ll meet by the statue of Sir John Betjeman, on the upper concourse of St Pancras station, a year from today,’ he said. ‘If we’re meant to be together, we’ll both be there. If we’re not, it was never meant to happen...”
Phoebe and Sam meet by chance at St Pancras station. Heading in opposite directions, both seeking their own adventures, meeting the love of their lives wasn’t in the schedule. So they make a promise: to meet by the statue of Sir John Betjeman in twelve months’ time if they still want to be together.
But is life ever as simple as that?
This is a story of what-ifs and maybes – and how one decision can change your life forever...
UK Publisher: HQ/ HarperCollins Publication date: September 2019 UK editor: Manpreet Grewal Agent: Hannah Ferguson Material: March 2019
Miranda Dickinson is a Sunday Times Bestselling novelist. Her fi rst novel, Fairytale of New York was discovered on Authonomy.com and went on to sell over 108,000 copies, become a bestseller in Germany and Turkey and was nominated for the RNA Novel of the Year award 2010. Since then Miranda has become a Sunday Times Bestselling author of four books, she has been shortlisted again for the RNA Novel of the Year, this time with It Started With a Kiss,she has been published in seven languages and has been a bestseller in four countries. She’s sold over half a million books and still can’t believe it’s all happened to her!
27 WOMEN’S FICTION
ALI MCNAMARA Secrets and Seashells at Rainbow Bay
The sun is shining on the golden castle on Rainbow Bay - and change is in the air!
Amelia is a single mother, doing her very best to look after her young son, Charlie - but money is tight and times are tough. When she fi rst hears that she is the last descendent of the Chesterford family and that she has inherited a Real-Life Castle by the sea, Amelia can’t quite believe her ears. But it’s true!
She soon fi nds that owning a castle isn’t quite the ticket to sorting out her money problems that she’d fi rst hoped: she can’t sell, because the terms of the ancient bequest state that any Chesterford who inherits the castle, must live there and work towards the upkeep and maintenance of the family home. So ever-practical Amelia decides to uproot her little family and move to this magnifi cent castle by the sea.
Living in a castle on the beautiful Northumberland coast is fun at fi rst, but organising the day-to-day running is a lot more complicated than Amelia fi rst imagined. Luckily she has help from the small band of eccentric and unconventional staff that are already employed there - and a mysterious unseen hand that often gives her a push in the right direction just when she needs UK Publisher: Sphere it most. It’s only when she meets Tom, a furniture restorer who Publication date: June 2019 comes to the castle to help repair some antique furniture, that Editor: Maddie West Agent: Hannah Ferguson Amelia realises she might get the fairy-tale ending that she and Material: Paperback Copies (pp. 368) Charlie truly deserve...
Option Publishers German - Goldmann Italian - Newton Compton
Ali McNamara’s debut novel From Notting Hill with Love…Actually was published in 2010 to much acclaim and became an instant bestseller. She has since written eight further novels with her most recent, Daisy’s Vintage Cornish Camper Van, making it into The Bookseller’s Top 20, selling over 35,000 copies to date. www.alimcnamara.co.uk
28 WOMEN’S FICTION
LAURA ZIEPE ‘Tis The Season To Be Single
When love lets you down, you can always count on your friends to pick you back up again.
Rachel cannot wait to spend Christmas with her boyfriend of four years, Mark. And who knows, maybe this will be the perfect time for him to propose. But when he calls her at work one lunchtime in November asking to talk, Rachel instantly has a bad feeling. Mark then breaks up with her, completely out of the blue. To make matters worse, she fi nds out that Mark has been having an aff air with her best friend, Bianca.
Devastated, Rachel turns to her work friends for support, not realizing that Grace is also going through a rough time in her marriage and, unable to bear the thought of spending another Christmas with her lazy, unappreciative husband Simon. Grace takes the brave decision to separate from Simon after ten years together.
Rachel and Grace are both down in the dumps when Amber returns back at work after a two-week holiday in Thailand. Amber, who has always been single and carefree, is desperate to cheer her friends up. Being single is fun! Besides, there’s no better UK Publisher: HarperCollins HQ time to be single than at Christmas – the season of partying. The Publication: November 2018 three women make a pact that they will have fun and embrace UK editor: Charlotte Mursell being single in the lead-up to Christmas and they each promise Agent: Hannah Ferguson they’ll remain dateless so they can all attend their work Christmas Material: Edited manuscript (pp. 384) ball together.
Rights Sold French - Bragelonne ‘Tis the Season to be Single is a female friendship love story with snowfl akes, secrets and plenty of romance. Will they keep their promise and be single for Christmas? Or will the Christmas season have other ideas for them?
Laura Ziepe was born in 1983 and was writing stories from the early age of eight. Knowing she wanted to be an author, she studied Professional and Creative writing at St Mary’s University and graduated in 2006. Laura currently lives in Essex with her husband, children and dogs.
29 Non-Fiction Titles
30 MEMOIR
CATHERINE SIMPSON When I Had A Little Sister The Story of a Farming Family who Never Spoke A memoir is about a woman’s lifelong battle with depression, her suicide, and her family’s inability to discuss mental illness and off er their support, with echoes of The Last Act of Love by Cathy Rentzenbrink, The Scent of Dried Roses by Tim Lott and History of a Suicide by Jill Bialosky.
In 2013, Catherine Simpson’s younger sister, Tricia, committed suicide. Tricia was 46 and had been stalked by depression all her life. Yet mental illness was a taboo subject within the family; in their reticence, Tricia was described as ‘moody or ‘diffi cult’, not ill.
After Tricia died Catherine found she had kept a lifetime of diaries. Through these, Catherine was able to explore the history of her sister’s suicide and gain greater insight into an illness which aff ects so many.
In When I had a Little Sister, Catherine takes a hard, wry look at how death and other diffi cult subjects were handled in her family and families like hers. It also gives us a fascinating insight into the last three generations of a Lancashire farming family and a way of life which has now all but disappeared.
UK Publisher: 4th Estate Publication date: February 2019 Editor: Helen Garnons-Williams Agent: Joanna Swainson Material: Hardback Copies (pp.372)
Catherine Simpson’s debut novel, Truestory (Sandstone Press, 2015), won her a Scottish Book Trust New Writer’s Award. Her short stories and poems have been published in Gutter, Grind and New Writing Scotland and other publications and performed at festivals including Edinburgh International Book Festival, Aye Write!, Dundee Literary Festival and many others. Catherine was Writer in Residence 2016/17 for CoastWord Festival, received a Hawthornden Fellowship in 2016 and is currently Creative Writing Fellow Tyne & Esk Writers. She runs creative writing workshops and has mentored young writers for the Scottish Book Trust. Born and brought up on a Lancashire farm, Catherine now lives in Edinburgh.
31 MEMOIR
ELEANOR WOOD Staunch
What are you supposed to do when you’re getting too old to be the cool girl any more, but life hasn’t settled down the way you assumed it would? The life of an ageing rock chick/hipster/manic pixie dream girl is a tough one. This is Eat Pray Love for millenials. Living alone for the fi rst time since breaking up with her Musician Boyfriend (and Photographer Boyfriend, and Hairdresser Boyfriend), Ellie spends her evenings scrolling through Tinder while drinking heavily, catastrophising with her girlfriends on the phone for three hours at a time while drinking heavily, going to yoga classes with terrible hangovers, worrying about her overdraft, then having another cocktail ‘to cheer herself up’.
In 1947, her great-grandmother Dolly had to fl ee her home in India with four teenage children and a two-year-old, while eight months pregnant. They came to the UK by boat, a trip that took over a month, arriving in Glasgow in January. None of them owned a coat and they were, essentially, homeless. Dolly, Ellie’s grandmother and her great-aunts all told this story like it was no big deal. Ellie has complained more about a bad haircut than they ever have about their circumstances.
In 2018, Ellie travelled to India with her grandmother and two of her great-aunts, to fi nd out more about their lives and their UK Publisher: HarperCollins HQ family history – and learn some lessons on the way that she could Editor: Rachel Kenny apply to her own life. Plus, hopefully, get a tan, do yoga every Publication: Spring 2020 day and maybe snog some hot hippie guy on the beach, while Agent: Caroline Hardman documenting all of the above on Instagram stories. Material: Spring 2019 These sorts of books are always referred to as ‘funny, warm and wise’ – this is hilarious, hot and utterly unwise, but trying very hard to learn from the women who know better.
Eleanor Wood is the author of YA novels Becoming Betty and My Secret Rockstar Boyfriend (Macmillan Children’s Books). Her work has been published in various magazines and on websites, most recently Elle magazine. Her erstwhile lo-fi fanzine, Shocking Blues and Mean Reds, won praise from the Independent, Lauren Laverne, and Marmalade magazine, among others. She lives in Brighton, blogs about music (among other things), has a Leonard Cohen tattoo and would like to get a cat, but isn’t sure she can handle the commitment.
32 MEMOIR
EMMA DARWIN This Is Not A Book About Charles Darwin
Part memoir, part biography, part book about writing and what really makes a novel, and actually a brave book about failing, This Is Not A Book About Charles Darwin is a memorable piece of creative life writing.
For years, readers, journalists and Darwin enthusiasts have asked Emma, ‘When are you going to write a novel about your family?’ Even with two historical novels published, Emma had her doubts. But the idea gnawed at her and she eventually gave in, only to fi nd that writing the novel became a fi erce struggle between her heritage and her identity as a writer - and ultimately a struggle that nearly killed her.
Books about Charles Darwin and his wife and cousin Emma Wedgwood are legion, but Emma had wanted to take the road less travelled: there were the fascinating real lives of Erasmus Darwin and the Lunar Society; Tom Wedgwood, the fi rst photographer; Julia Wedgwood, who as a writer and intellectual was ranked with George Eliot; Ralph Vaughan Williams and his extraordinary love story; and poet and Communist John Cornford, fi rst Briton to be killed in the Spanish Civil War.
Emma wanted to grow a novel out of the science and the art - the creativity - that runs through 250 years of her family like a seam of Potteries clay. But even when she invented a fi ctional UK Publisher: Holland House Books character and slid her into the complex lives of Charles Darwin’s Publication: February 2019 grandchildren, she struggled with the factual and emotional truths Editor: Robert Peett Agent: Joanna Swainson that seemed to dictate what fi ction she ‘could’ and ‘couldn’t’ write. Material: Edited Manuscript How, among these riches, could she ever fi nd space to write a novel that would be truly hers?
This Is Not A Book About Charles Darwin tells the story of those riches through the lens of Emma’s struggle. It is a wry, witty and honest account of her journey through her family as she sought to write the novel.
Emma Darwin is the author of two historical novels: The Mathematics of Love (Headline Review, 2006) - which is possibly the only book ever to have been nominated simultaneously for the Commonwealth Writers’ Best First Book, and the RNA Novel of the Year - and A Secret Alchemy (Headline Review, 2009), while her non-fi ction Get Started in Writing Historical Fiction was published by Teach Yourself / John Murray in 2016. She has a PhD in Creative Writing from Goldsmiths, and is a creative writing mentor and tutor with a hugely popular blog, This Itch of Writing.
33 POP SCIENCE
MARK BROOMFIELD Every Breath You Take
You breathe in and out every few seconds, whether you like it or not. But what’s in the air that you breathe? There’s no way to be sure, but this new book from air quality specialist and full-time breather Dr Mark Broomfi eld will tell you everything you need to know.
Every Breath You Take starts with the air on a remote planet, four hundred million million kilometres away, and comes closer and closer to home. We visit the weird atmospheres in our solar system, and zoom in to fi nd out how life-changing our atmosphere is for our world, our cities, streets, homes and our own bodies.
From the price of your house to butterfl ies and bogs, from public relations nightmares to headline news, from holes in the ozone layer to disappearing gases, from the French Revolution to the future of the planet, from sniffi ng to sneezing via seven million mysterious deaths each year, The Atmosphere: A Breather’s Guide mixes personal stories, current science and Mark’s own experiences to give you the low down on what’s up high.
The future of the air that we breathe has never been more important. Air pollution is headline news around the world, as we fi nally get to grips with how bad pollution is for us. Yet the amount of pollution in the air you breathe weighs about as much as a paper clip spread through the Albert Hall. How can UK Publisher: Duckworth Press such a tiny amount of stuff have such a dramatic eff ect? Will our US Publisher: Overlook Press grandchildren still have an atmosphere worth breathing? Why Publication: July 2019 are pollution levels so much higher in the industrial cities of India Editor: Abbie Headon and China – and what are the prospects for improvement? How Agent: Joanna Swainson do we measure air pollution and what on earth is an odour panel? Material: Final PDF Should you buy, hold on to, or avoid a diesel car? And who can be trusted to give you the truth about what’s in the atmosphere? Read this book to fi nd out.
Mark Broomfi eld is a professional environmental consultant specialising in air pollution and air quality management. He has a BA in chemistry from the University of Cambridge, and a PhD in atmospheric chemistry, and has worked as an air quality specialist consultant since 1992, mainly within the consultancy sector and also as an industry specialist at ICI.
34 POP PSYCHOLOGY
ELAINE KASKET All the Ghosts in the Machine: Illusions of Immortality in the Digital Age A book about death and grief in our digital age, which contributes to the much- needed conversation around our online legacy and considers the 21st century realities that now complicate our ideas of ownership, privacy and identity.
Seen any ghosts on your smartphone lately?
As we’re compelled to capture, store and share more and more of our personal information, there’s something we often forget. All that data doesn’t just disappear when our physical bodies shuffl e off this mortal coil. If the concept of remaining socially active after you’re no longer breathing sounds crazy, you might want to get used to the idea. Digital afterlives are a natural consequence of the information age, a reality that barely anyone has prepared for - and that ‘anyone’ probably includes you.
In All the Ghosts in the Machine, psychologist Elaine Kasket sounds a clarion call to everyone who’s never thought about death in the digital age. When someone’s hyperconnected, hyperpersonal digital footprint is transformed into their lasting legacy, she asks, who is helped, who is hurt, and who’s in charge? And why is now such a critical moment to take our heads out of the sand?
Weaving together personal, moving true stories and scientifi c UK Publisher: Robinson/Little, Brown research, All the Ghosts in the Machine takes you on a fascinating tour Publication: Spring 2019 through the valley of the shadow of digital death. In the process, Editor: Andrew McAleer it will transform how you think about your life and your legacy, Agent: Caroline Hardman in a time when our technologies are tantalising us with fantasies Material: Edited Manuscript (pp. 326) of immortality. Rights Sold Romania - Corint Elaine Kasket PhD is an expert in the fi eld of cyberpsychology, particularly at Korean - ROK Media the junction where death, technology and psychology meet. She is a counselling psychologist with a private practice, and is a Principal Lecturer at Regent’s University London. She holds a BA Hons in Psychology and Journalism and a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the Illinois School of Professional Psychology in Chicago, and a Master’s in Psychotherapy and Counselling from Regent’s College, where she now serves as Head of Programmes for Counselling Psychology. She has delivered over 20 conference papers, including key notes, on the subject of bereavement and digital legacy. She has contributed to publications including Psychology Today, the Irish Times, the Evening Standard, the New Statesman, BBC News online, and the Irish Independent. She has appeared as an expert in this area on BBC Breakfast, ITN Channel 4 News, BBC East Midlands TV, DocZone, and BBC Teeside, and in the programmes i-Shrine and The Digital Human on Radio 4.
35 HISTORY
HARRY FREEDMAN Kabbalah Secrecy, Scandal and the Soul A concise, readable and thoughtful history of Kabbalah.
Kabbalah was never meant to be fashionable. Its earliest exponents; deeply mystical, other-worldly Jews, studying in closed, secretive groups, in twelfth century Provence would have been amazed, and probably horrifi ed, to hear how far and wide their doctrine has spread and how universal it has become.
This book tells the story of Kabbalah from its earliest origins until the present day. We trace Kabbalah’s development, from the 2nd century visionaries who visited the divine realms and brought back tales of their glories and splendours, through the unexpected arrival of a book in Spain that appeared to have lain unconcealed for over a thousand years, and on to the mystical city of Safed where souls could be read and the history of heaven was an open book.
Kabbalah’s Christian counterpart, Cabala, emerged during the Renaissance, becoming allied to magic, alchemy and the occult sciences. A kabbalistic heresy tore apart seventeenth century Jewish communities while closer to our time Aleister Crowley UK Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing hijacked it to proclaim ‘Do What Thou Wilt’. Kabbalah became Publication date: January 2019 fashionable in the late 1960s in the wake of the hippy counter- Editor: Robin Baird-Smith culture and with the approach of the new age, and enjoyed its Agent: Joanna Swainson share of fame, scandal and disrepute as the twenty fi rst century Material: Hardback Copies (pp. 278) dawned. Rights Sold: Italian - Bollati Boringhieri Editore This concise, readable and thoughtful history of Kabbalah tells its story as it has never been told before. It demands no knowledge of Kabbalah, just an interest in asking the questions ‘why?’ and ‘how?’
Harry Freedman is the author of The Talmud: A Biography and The Murderous History of Bible Translations, both published by Bloomsbury. He has a PhD on an Aramaic translation of the Bible. He writes articles on academic topics and social issues, and contributes to books as well as writing his own.
36 SELF-HELP
VANESSA POTTER Finding My Right Mind
Bringing science into her sitting room, a frazzled working parent sets out to discover whether training her mind really can transform her life.
When Vanessa Potter woke up one day to fi nd herself blind and paralysed, she was stunned to discover that it was rudimentary meditation techniques and not drugs that aided her arduous recovery. The fact that an imaginary place – a mental sanctuary – evoked such positive healing left her with enormous respect for the power of her mind and a deep curiosity to understand it more.
Yet, despite this startling epiphany, after her recovery Vanessa found herself thrust back into the everyday stresses of modern life, never seeming to get anything done and spending much of her life in a dizzying haze. Convinced she had much more to learn, she wondered if lifting the lid on her own consciousness would show her the key to contentment, and came up with a plan to rigorously explore diff erent schools of mediation in turn, under expert guidance from teachers and gurus.
It’s not every day a harassed mother decides to run her own science experiment from home and manages to persuade Cambridge neuroscientists to help her. This unconventional partnership allowed scientists to watch her inner exploration in UK Publisher: On Submission action. It is only after 200 hours meditating that they fi nally reveal Publication: TBC Agent: Caroline Hardman if she successfully trained her mind. Material: Proposal + Sample Chapters For fans of Gretchen Rubin’s The Happiness Project, Julia Buckley’s Heal Me, or Marianne Power’s Help Me, Finding My Right Mind delves beyond the surface of meditation to reveal the fascinating world of the mind and off ering us a glimpse of the possibilities within.
Before becoming a self-experimenting science communicator, Vanessa Potter spent 16 years as an award-winning broadcast producer working within the London advertising industry. In October 2012 she was struck down by a severe illness called Neuromyelitis Optica Spectrum Disorder. Following her recovery, she collaborated with neuroscientists at Cambridge University, to design an interactive immersive exhibition, based on her therapeutic use of meditation, and gave a TEDx talk about her experiences in Ghent in 2016. She documented her illness and recovery in her memoir, Patient H69: The Story of My Second Sight, which was published by Bloomsbury Sigma in 2017 and won The Times best memoir of 2017. She’s the recipient of an Inspiring Woman award, and has written pieces for Mosaic Science, The Telegraph and Marie-Claire.
37 SELF-HELP
BETH KEMPTON Wabi Sabi: Japanese Wisdom for a Perfectly Imperfect Life At its heart is a beautiful ancient concept from Japan. Wabi Sabi will help readers see beauty in imperfection – in their lives and in themselves - and be moved to live an authentic and inspired life.
TV rights to Citizen B Limited
At a time when huge numbers of people are turning to other countries and cultures for guidance on how to live a happy life, as demonstrated by the recent ‘hygge’ and ‘lagom’ publishing phenomena, Wabi Sabi is a timely guide to living an authentic and inspired life. At its heart are ancient concepts from Japanese culture, translated for contemporary life and immediately applicable for people looking for purpose and happiness.
It is a refreshing antidote to our fast-paced, consumption-driven world, which will inspire readers to slow down, reconnect with nature, and be more gentle on themselves. Wabi Sabi will give the reader permission to let go of perfection, and give them tools to appreciate beauty and wonder in amongst it all.
UK Publisher: Piatkus US Publisher: HarperCollins Design Publication date: August 2018 Editor: Anna Steadman Agent: Caroline Hardman Material: Hardback Copies (pp. 256)
Rights Sold Brazil - Verus Netherlands - Bruna Bulgaria - Skyprint Poland - Otwarte China - CITIC Portugal - 2020 Croatia - Planetopija Russia - Exmo Finland - Basam Books Serbia - Evro Books France - Marabout Spain - Urano Germany - Bastei Luebbe Thailand - Mono Move Hungary - Libri Turkey - Pena Israel - Steimatzky Vietnam - Thai Ha Indonesia - PT Gramedia Italy - Corbaccio Korea - Will Books
38 SELF-HELP
BETH KEMPTON Calm Christmas and a Happy New Year A little book of festive calm This is a new kind of Christmas book. It’s a non-religious hymn to the magic of the season, a calming approach to the festivities, and an inspiring invitation to head into the new year with intention, hope and an actionable plan for bringing dreams to life. With the potential to become a perennial seasonal gifting (and self-gifting) favourite, this book off ers the reader a recipe for a new kind of festive season - one of calm and delight. This atmospheric and inspiring book will lead the reader through the darkness of winter, back to the real magic of the season and into a new year fi lled with intention and hope.
Split into three sections spanning the build up, the big day, and the days following Christmas, this will be the fi rst personal development book to embrace the full span of the holiday season in a holistic, nurturing way. Not only will readers appreciate a more mindful approach to Christmas itself, and actionable advice for a magical, personal celebration, they will also benefi t from a step-by-step guide to planning their year ahead.
Instead of entering January exhausted and in further debt, they will begin the new year with precious memories, feeling rested and relieved not to have overstretched themselves, and inspired by their practical, inspiring plan for making the most of the following UK Publisher: Piatkus year. Publication date: October 2019 Editor: Jillian Young Agent: Caroline Hardman Material: Spring 2019 Option Publishers Brazil - Verus Portugal - 2020 Bulgaria - Skyprint Russia - Exmo China - CITIC Serbia - Evro Books Croatia - Planetopija Spain - Urano Finland - Basam Books Thailand - Mono Move France - Marabout Turkey - Pena Germany - Bastei Luebbe Vietnam - Thai Ha Hungary - Libri US - Harper Israel - Steimatzky Beth Kempton is a mother, writer and entrepreneur committed to Indonesia - PT Gramedia helping women achieve their full potential. She has worked with UN Italy - Corbaccio agencies, global brands, charities and individuals all across the world and Korea - Will Books has an MA in Japanese. Her company, Do What You Love, helps people Netherlands - Bruna fi nd personal, professional and fi nancial freedom. www.bethkempton. Poland - Otwarte com / www.dowhatyouloveforlife.com
39 LIFESTYLE
SIOBHAN MILLER Hypnobirthing A book to equip women with practical tools they can use in pregnancy, birth and life.
Expert hypnobirthing coach Siobhan Miller has made it her mission to show women everywhere that birth can be better. And not just better -- it can be an amazing, empowering experience. Hypnobirthing is an invaluable technique for EVERY woman with a baby inside her uterus and for EVERY type of birth -- from a natural water birth through to an unplanned caesarean.
So, what is hypnobirthing? Essentially, it’s a form of antenatal education, an approach to birth that is both evidence-based and logical. Hypnobirthing teaches you how your body works on a muscular and hormonal level when in labour, and how to work with your body to make birth more effi cient and comfortable. Being relaxed is the key, so you will learn how to quickly and easily access a state of deep relaxation using a combination of breathing techniques, visualisations, guided relaxation exercises, light touch massage, positive affi rmations and various other techniques.
Hypnobirthing will change your mindset towards birth, so that you’ll be able navigate your birth - and any twists and turns - with UK Publisher: Piatkus confi dence, armed with practical tools that ensure you feel calm Publication date: April 2019 and in control throughout. Editor: Zoe Bohm Agent: Hannah Ferguson Material: March 2019 No matter where you sit on the ‘anxious-to-excited’ spectrum at the moment, by the time you fi nish this book you’ll feel relaxed, capable and genuinely excited about giving birth, because it’s truly the most awesome thing you’ll ever get to do in your life.
Siobhan Miller is a mum to three boys and founder of The Positive Birth Company and a big believer in the importance of a positive birth experience. Siobhan graduated with a fi rst class honours degree (in English Literature and Drama) along with an 18 month old baby in 2008. She subsequently worked in digital marketing and publishing for a number of years before embarking on a Psychology Masters in 2013 and training to become a hypnobirthing teacher. Earlier this year she launched the world’s fi rst hypnobirthing digital pack, her hypnobirthing course in digital form, as well as producing a series of free YouTube videos, in a bid to make hypnobirthing accessible to more women, and men. So far she has sold over 10,000 digital packs around the world and her videos have been viewed over 50,000 times. www.thepositivebirthcompany.co.uk
40 LIFESTYLE
SARAH TURNER The Unmumsy Mum An Incomplete A-Z of Parenting Three kids later and none the wiser.
**No. 1 Sunday Times bestselling author**
The Sunday Times bestselling author returns for one last time with this fi nal book from The Unmumsy Mum.
Exploring the highs and lows of parenting life in the hilarious way only The Unmumsy Mum can she goes through the alphabet exploring topics from A&E to Zero Fucks, and everything in between.
650,000 Facebook followers 343,000 Instagram followers 250,000+ copies sold
UK Publisher: Transworld Publication date: September 2019 Editor: Michelle Signore Agent: Hannah Ferguson Material: Unedited manuscript
Option Publishers: US - Tarcher Bulgaria - Prozoretz Slovakian – Tatran China - CITIC Spanish – La Esfera de los Libros Croatia - Egmont Ukraine - Hemiro Czech – Albatros Vietnamese – Nha Nam Publishing Estonia - Pegasus German – Goldmann Hungarian – Muvelt Nep Korean – Tornado Media Sarah Turner started writing as The Unmumsy Mum after becoming Lithuania - Baltos Lankos disillusioned with the other parenting literature she had read online. Everybody Poland - Bukowylas seemed to be coping so well. Where were the tales of mums tearing their hair Romanian – A&P out after yet another sleepless night and endless re-runs of Peppa Pig? She made Russian – Sibad a vow then and there to document the reality of parenting, and her blog page Serbia - Laguna (http://theunmumsymum.blogspot.co.uk/).
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