The Orion Publishing Group New Titles Jul 2020 – Jan 2021 c Weidenfeld & Nicolson | White Rabbit | Trapeze | Gollancz C Orion Spring | Orion Fiction | Seven Dials ORIONBOOKS.CO.UK Cover artwork from Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers, published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson (p7) Contents I Weidenfeld & Nicolson | P4 Fiction and Non-Fiction White Rabbit | P30 Fiction and Non-Fiction Trapeze | P36 Fiction and Non-Fiction Gollancz | P52 Sci-Fi and Fantasy Orion Fiction | P66 Fiction Orion Spring | P82 Non-Fiction Seven Dials | P86 Non-Fiction Contacts | P92 ORIONBOOKS.CO.UK Artwork from Betty by Tiffany McDaniel, published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson (p8) 4 Fiction & Non-Fiction f WEIDENFELD & NICOLSON is one of the most prestigious and dynamic literary imprints in British and international publishing, home of groundbreaking, award-winning, thought-provoking books since 1949. Our passion for extraordinary writing dates back to our two founders, who were responsible for introducing some of the twentieth century’s most remarkable voices – Vladimir Nabokov, Isaiah Berlin, Sybille Bedford, Eric Hobsbawm, Edna O’Brien, Jorge Luis Borges and many others – to a wide readership. They launched their publishing house with the idea of building bridges and opening minds through exceptional works of literature: we have been carrying on their legacy ever since. We publish history, memoir, ideas, popular science, biography, narrative non-fiction, crime and thrillers, translated fiction and literary fiction of all kinds. 5 A masterly conductor’s guide to classical music for anyone seeking to love and understand it With a lifetime of experience, profound knowledge and understanding, and heartwarming appreciation, an interna- tionally celebrated conductor and teacher answers the ques- tions: Why should I listen to classical music? How can I get the most from the listening experience? John Mauceri helps us to reap the joy and pleasures classical music has to offer. Unpretentious, graceful, instructive, this is a book for anyone looking to have the love of music fired JULY within them. JOHN MAUCERI is an American conductor, producer, educator and writer. A protégé of Leonard Bernstein – his colleague for eighteen years, he has toured and recorded all For the Love of Music over the world. A Conductor’s Guide to the Art of Listening John Mauceri Music, Arts New York City, USA HB: 9781474618298 Royal 224 pp £16.99 www.johnmauceri.com eBook: 9781474618311 £16.99 The intimate journals (1957-1982) of iconic actor, singer, songwriter and model Jane Birkin Jane Birkin attained international fame with her decade-long musical and personal relationship with Serge Gainsbourg, which featured their internationally controversial hit song ‘Je t’aime...moi non plus’. She has enjoyed a notable career as an actress in British and French cinema, including Blow-Up and Death on the Nile. And then there is the Birkin bag... Jane’s diaries not only re-create the flamboyant era of Swinging London and Saint-Germain-des-Prés in the 1970s, it also JULY lets us in to the everyday life of an exceptional woman. JANE BIRKIN was born in London in 1946. Aged 21 and the definition of Sixties ‘cool’, she took up with singer- songwriter Serge Gainsbourg. She lives in Paris. Munkey Diaries Jane Birkin Autobiography HB: 9781474617703 Royal 336 pp £20 Paris, France eBook: 9781474617727 £20 /JaneBirkinOff Audio: 9781474618342 10hrs £19.99 6 Revenge is worth waiting for. The new thriller by the master of the killer twist Jamal loves to run. But one morning – as he is training on a path winding up a steep cliff – he stumbles across a woman in distress. It’s a matter of seconds: suddenly she is falling through the air, crashing on the beach below. Jamal is only an unlucky bystander – or is he? Perhaps this was no accident after all. Or perhaps there is something more sinister afoot – a devilish plan decades in the making, master- JULY minded by someone hell-bent on revenge. MICHEL BUSSI is the author of many bestselling novels, including After the Crash and Black Water Lilies. He is one of the most successful French authors of all time, with Never Forget millions of copies sold internationally. Michel Bussi Thriller HB: 9781474601825 Royal 400 pp £14.99 Rouen, France TPB: 9781474601832 Royal 400 pp £13.99 www.michel-bussi.fr eBook: 9781474601856 £14.99 @michelbussi Audio: 9781409170945 8hrs £19.99 Maggie O’Farrell meets the witty observational skills of Kate Atkinson in a novel of unexpected second chances set in 1950s England 1957, south-east suburbs of London. Jean Swinney is a journalist on the brink of forty living a small life from which there is no likelihood of escape. When a young woman, Gretchen Tilbury, contacts the paper to claim that her daughter is the result of a virgin birth, it is down to Jean to discover whether she is a miracle or a fraud. But the more Jean investigates, the more her life becomes intertwined with JULY that of the Tilburys, Gretchen’s husband Howard in particular. Jean cannot bring herself to discard the chance of finally having a taste of happiness – but there will be a price to pay, and it will be unbearable. CLARE CHAMBERS’ first novel Uncertain Terms was published by Diana Athill in 1992 and she is the author of five other novels. Small Pleasures is her first work of fiction Small Pleasures in ten years. Clare Chambers Literary Fiction HB: 9781474613880 Royal 352 pp £14.99 TPB: 9781474613897 Royal 352 pp £13.99 Greater London, UK eBook: 9781474613910 £14.99 @ClareDChambers Audio: 9781474613927 10hrs £19.99 7 A gut-punch of a novel set in the rolling foothills of the Appalachians Born in a bathtub in 1954 to a Cherokee father and white mother, Betty inhabits a world of poverty and violence - both from outside the family, and also, devastatingly, from within. But despite the hardship she faces, Betty is resilient. Her curiosity about the natural world, her fierce love for her sisters, and her father’s brilliant stories are kindling for the fire of her own imagination, and in the face of all she bears witness to, Betty discovers an escape in the redemptive power of words. JULY TIFFANY MCDANIEL is an Ohio native whose writing is inspired by the rolling hills and buckeye woods she knows. Her debut novel, The Summer That Melted Everything, won the Guardian’s Not the Booker award. Betty is inspired by her own family history Betty Tiffany McDaniel Literary Fiction HB: 9781474617529 Royal 464 pp £14.99 TPB: 9781474617536 Royal 464 pp £13.99 Ohio, USA eBook: 9781474617550 £14.99 www.tiffanymcdaniel.com Audio: 9781474617741 10hrs £19.99 Taken meets Narcos in this adrenaline-fuelled, genre- busting new novel by Tim MacGabhann, author of Call Him Mine Life is finally on the right track for reporter Andrew: he is slowly coming to terms with the murder of his photographer boyfriend Carlos, pursuing sobriety and building a new home with a new partner. He has even almost forgotten about the story that ruined his life – but that story hasn’t forgotten about him. A series of deadly threats forces Andrew into helping the very man responsible for so much of his pain and plunges him into a blistering thrill-ride deep into the fog of Central JULY America’s murky present and tragic future. TIM MACGABHANN’s critically acclaimed debut novel Call Him Mine was called ‘a wild ride’ (Ian Rankin) and ‘intoxicating and chilling’ (Observer) and was selected as a Telegraph Thriller of the Year. How to be Nowhere Tim MacGabhann Crime/Thriller HB: 9781474610483 Royal 320 pp £16.99 TPB: 9781474610490 Royal 320 pp £13.99 Mexico City, Mexico eBook: 9781474610513 £16.99 @timmacgabhann Audio: 9781409183518 9hrs £19.99 8 A gripping account of the countdown to the Abdication Crisis of 1936 In late 1936, the British monarchy faced a constitutional crisis that was its gravest since the execution of Charles I nearly three centuries earlier. The ruling monarch, Edward VIII, wished to marry the American divorcée Wallis Simpson who was regarded as scandalous. The Establishment was desperate to frustrate Edward’s wishes, thus avoiding an international embarrassment at a time when war seemed imminent. The Crown in Crisis is the definitive book about JULY these events; painstakingly researched and incisively written, it brings the events of that time to life. ALEXANDER LARMAN is a historian and journalist. He writes for the Observer, the Telegraph and the Guardian, among The Crown in Crisis others, and lives in Oxford. Countdown to the Abdication Alexander Larman History Oxford, UK HB: 9781474612579 Royal 352 pp £20 www.alexanderlarman.com eBook: 9781474612593 £20 @alexlarman Audio: 9781474612609 10hrs £19.99 From the author of cult hit The New Me, comes a subversive, hilarious portrait of two colleagues, each more like the other than they would care to admit ‘Outrageous and amusing … reads like a junk-food binge, compelling a horrified fascination and bleak laughter’ Kirkus Twenty-four-year-old Megan may have her whole life ahead of her, but it already feels like a dead end – thanks to her dreadful job for a gastroenterologist. But no one stokes Megan’s bitterness quite like her co-worker, Jillian, a grotesquely optimistic thirty-five year old single mother JULY whose chirpy positivity obscures her mounting struggles. ‘The feel-bad book of the year … sublimely awkward and hilarious’ Chicago Tribune HALLE BUTLER is the author of The New Me, ‘a definitive work of millennial literature’ (Jia Tolentino) loved by many Jillian including Dolly Alderton (‘great’), Zadie Smith (‘terrific’) and Halle Butler Emma Jane Unsworth (‘the best thing I’ve read in years’). Fiction New York City, USA MMP: 9781474617574 B Format 208 pp £8.99 www.hallebutler.com eBook: 9781474617581 £8.99 9 A ground-breaking account of the sensational Portland Spy Ring and its famous trial in 1961 The Portland Spy Ring was one of the most notorious spy cases from the Cold War.