FAIRLIGHT BOOKS S PRING 2021 WELCOME ...to our spring 2021 catalogue. After the upheaval of last year, we’re excited to be getting back to what we love – championing and celebrating talented new and emerging writers and, wherever we can, supporting physical bookshops. For 2021, we have a host of new authors to introduce to you, four more Fairlight Moderns for the summer, and a further addition to our new How To... series. We hope that you will love these titles as much as we do. Fairlight Books was established in 2017 to publish new and emerging writers of quality and literary fiction. Since then, our authors have been listed for several prizes, including longlisted for ‘ I si T DOWN , S TART TO READ . T HE WORD S the Women’s Prize for Fiction, shortlisted for the Paul Torday Prize ARE L I KE NECTAR , L I KE HONEY . T HEY and BBC Short Story Award, and featured on the The Walter Scott TEMPT , CAPTURE , BEGU I LE , EXC I TE . L I KE Prize Academy Recommends List. F I RE , L I KE WATER , L I KE FRE S H A I R . T HEY ARE OUR ELEMENT .’ —Alice Jolly, A S A INT IN S WINDON SPRING 2021 NEW NON-FICTION Spring and Summer Reading: Beautiful Books HOW TO MEND A Quality fiction writing and a selection of non-fiction titles on subjects that inspire and intrigue us, or that we care about. BROKEN HEART Ziella Bryars Lessons from the world of neuroscience When Ziella Bryars was in the midst of heartbreak, a conversation with her neuroscientist best friend changed everything. Frustrated by unhelpful advice from magazines and rom-coms, Ziella began diving deep into the latest scientific research to help her understand the pain of heartbreak and find a route to recovery. This warm and witty self-help book outlines the impact a relationship break- Flap design: up has on our brains and bodies, and explores how a science-based approach can help us heal. HOW TO MEND A BROKEN HEART ZIELLA BRYARS About the Author Ziella Bryars is a writer and producer. She founded the new writing theatre show Love Bites in 2008. Her plays include Blind Date, True Love, A Room on Greek Street and Down in One. Her work has been performed at Southwark Playhouse, the Live Theatre Newcastle and the Red Room New York, as well as the various London venues to host Love Bites over the years. Her love of romantic comedies and the chaos of modern dating have led Ziella to write extensively about love and relationships. She is currently working on her first novel and a limited television series. She lives in London. ISBN: 9781912054329 PAPERBACK with flaps £7.99 | 96pp 6 May ‘21 4 #MendaBrokenHeart 5 NEW FICTION JUNE 21 ERRINGBY About the Author Gill Darling Gill Darling grew up in Hinckley, Leicestershire, A captivating coming-of-age novel and currently lives in Manchester where she works with echoes of Great Expectations as a chartered accountant in the charity sector. In 2015 she was selected for the Jerwood-Arvon mentoring scheme and was published in their Kit is waiting expectantly for life to anthology, Whisper the Wrong Name. Erringby is begin. Orphaned as a young child, her debut novel. he recoils from his adoptive parents’ mundane existence, drawn instead to the bohemian world of his Uncle Col and Col’s charismatic wife Marianne. At Erringby, Marianne’s We Asked Gill... rambling family mansion, he becomes increasingly obsessed Erringby is partly set in a run-down old country house – is it inspired with his aunt until one debauched by anywhere in particular? summer, the eighteen-year-old Kit A real place, yes, but situated in the Lakes and not in Herefordshire. I spent ages trawling through country house listings on very upmarket websites until I found wakes to find himself in bed with the model for Erringby. Because it was for sale there were lots of pictures of it Marianne. But what happened? online, which I referred to while I was writing. I’ve driven a couple of times to And who is his sudden mysterious look at it but haven’t dared knock on the door! benefactor? As a writer based in Manchester, what do you like best about your ‘A complex human drama, a beautifully As Kit grapples with the local literary scene? I love that England’s first free public library was here, and that you can trace a line written novel of exquisite poignancy.’ ramifications of that night, he, Marianne and Col find their lives of radical writers from Engels onwards. There are some really supportive groups, —Anna South, consultant editor such as the Manchester Women Writers, and world-class university writing schools. spiralling out of control. The International Anthony Burgess Centre is a mile or two from where I live – I ‘Gill Darling is a writer with a tender touch love the specificity of it. And that’s before getting on to the John Rylands Library and a wicked turn of phrase.’ and the Manchester Literature Festival… — Ross Raisin, author of A Natural What is your favourite bookshop? Chorlton Bookshop. It’s a family-owned business that’s been going for nearly forty years. As well as a good range of fiction, non-fiction and children’s books, it stocks cards and gifts. They do mail order and they’re really supportive of local authors too. ISBN: 9781912054350 B Format PAPERBACK £8.99 | 384pp 17 June ‘21 6 #Erringby 7 FICTION MARCH 21 VALHALLA About the Author Alan Robert Clark Alan Robert Clark was born and educated in A gripping fictional account of the Scotland, and briefly attended King’s College in early life of Queen Mary London, before opting for a career as a copywriter and creative director in London. He has worked as a May of Teck, only daughter of a freelance journalist and, most recently, has ghost- noble family fallen from grace, written and co-authored a number of biographies. has been selected to marry the His novel The Prince of Mirrors was included in The troublesome Prince Eddy, heir to Walter Scott Prize Academy Recommends List. the British throne. Submitting to the wishes of Queen Victoria and under pressure from her family, young May agrees. But just as a spark of love and We Asked Alan... devotion arises between the young couple, Prince Eddy dies of influenza. What challenges have you faced in researching the true lives of historical royals? To her horror, May discovers she is to Obviously, the main challenge in writing a historical novel, and an enjoyable one, is to be married to the brother, Georgie, interweave the known facts with one’s own fictional threads. Both my novels contain instead, a cold and domineering actual historical figures so it’s vital to make the imagined elements as plausible as possible, man. But what can she do? based on the recorded facts of their lives and what is known of their characters. In your writing you bring to life the Victorian and early twentieth-century royals Prince Albert Victor (known as Eddy) and May of Teck (later Queen Sequel to Clark’s Walter Scott Prize Mary). Why did you choose them? ‘Atmospheric and vividly imagined.’ 2019 Academy Recommended The I chose to write about naughty Prince Eddy because, despite the vast gulf between — Margaret Drabble Prince of Mirrors our situations in life, I strongly related to certain aspects of his personality and to the challenges he faced. The young Princess May of Teck, to whom Eddy was briefly engaged, ‘Clark takes an iconic and forbidding interested me in regard to how this young girl was ruthlessly manipulated by a highly figure and transforms her into a More titles: patriarchal Victorian society, eventually transforming into the chilly Queen Mary, icon of passionate, loving and damaged monarchical duty. So I ended up writing what I suppose could be called a feminist novel. woman.’ — Simon Russell Beale What is your favourite bookshop? My favourite local bookshop used to be the beautiful branch of Daunts in Fulham Road, ‘A beautiful and lyrical tale told with Chelsea, where I had my first book launch. Last year it closed due to soaring rents and is deft brilliance.’ now an ugly and unloved branch of Easy Money. Such a loss to the community. Now I go — John Sessions instead to The Open Book in Richmond, a gem of a bookshop with limitless charm run by its equally charming owner. 9781912054107 9781912054121 9781912054169 ISBN: 9781912054183 B Format PAPERBACK £8.99 | 352pp 4 Mar ‘21 8 #ValhallaNovel 9 NEW FICTION FEB 21 DAVID AND AMEENA About the Author Ami Rao Ami Rao is a British-American writer, born in An ‘accomplished’ New York Calcutta, India. In 2017 she co-authored the love story sports memoir Centaur with Declan Murphy, which was awarded the General Outstanding Modern-day New York, a subway Sports Book of the Year Award and shortlisted train. David, an American-Jewish jazz for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year 2017. musician, torn between his dreams Ami has mentored girls of colour for the past and his parents’ expectations, sees a twelve years, with a keen emphasis on the merits woman across the carriage. Ameena, of reading and education. David and Ameena is a British-Pakistani artist, who left her debut novel. Manchester to escape the pressure from her conservative family, sees David. We Asked Ami... When a moment of sublime beauty occurs unexpectedly, the two You weave the music of Aaron Goldberg into your novel.