TRANSLATION RIGHTS GUIDE LONDON BOOK

TRANSLATION RIGHTS GUIDE
FRANKFURT BOOK FAIR 2016
Angela Rose, Rights Director
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Email: [email protected]
Helen James, Rights Executive and Contracts Manager
Direct Line +44 (0)20 7605 1394
Email: [email protected]
1
GRANTA BOOKS
Diana Athill
Julian Baggini
Patrick Barkham
Madeleine Bunting
Austin Duffy
Lorna Gibb
Michael Jacobs
Victoria Moore
Mark Rowlands
A FLORENCE DIARY
FREEDOM REGAINED
ISLANDER
LOVE OF COUNTRY
THIS LIVING AND IMMORTAL THING
A GHOST’S STORY
EVERYTHING IS HAPPENING
THE WINE DINE DICTIONARY
A GOOD LIFE
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4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
GRANTA MAGAZINE
international editions
12
CONTINENTAL SHIFT
13
DO IT LIKE A WOMAN
AFTERSHOCK
THE SAFFRON ROAD
14
15
16
PORTOBELLO BOOKS
Kevin Bloom and
Richard Poplak
Caroline Criado-Perez
Matthew Green
Christine Toomey
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A FLORENCE DIARY
Diana Athill
A recently discovered gem from the bestselling author of Somewhere Towards the End and
Alive, Alive Oh!: the charming and vivacious diary of Diana Athill’s holiday to Florence in the late
1940s.
In August 1947, Diana Athill travelled to Florence by the Golden Arrow train for a two-week holiday
with her good friend Pen. In this playful diary of that trip, Athill recorded her observations and
adventures – eating with (and paid for by) the hopeful men they meet on their travels, admiring
architectural sights, sampling delicious pastries, eking out their budget and getting into
scrapes. Written with an arresting immediacy and infused with an exhilarating joie de vivre, A
Florence Diary is a bright, colourful evocation of a time long lost, and a vibrant portrait of a city that
will be deliciously familiar to any contemporary traveller.
Diana Athill was born in 1917. She helped André Deutsch establish the publishing company that
bore his name and worked as an editor for Deutsch for four decades. Athill ’s distinguished career as
an editor is the subject of her acclaimed memoir Stet, which is also published by Granta Books, as
are six further volumes of memoirs: Instead of a Letter, After a Funeral, Yesterday Morning, Make
Believe, Somewhere Towards the End and Alive, Alive Oh!; a novel, Don’t Look at Me Like That, and a
collection of letters, Instead of a Book. In January 2009, she won the Costa Biography Award for
Somewhere Towards the End, and was presented with an OBE. She lives in London.
November 2016 ∙ Memoir / Travel ∙ 64pp
Rights sold: North America (Anansi), Italy (Bompiani)
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ALSO AVAILABLE:
ALIVE, ALIVE OH!
‘An extraordinary guiding intelligence – sceptical, amused, humane’ New Statesman
Published (December 2015) ∙ Memoir ∙ 144pp
Rights sold: US (WW Norton), Italy (Bompiani), Audio (Audible), Large print (WF Howes)
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FREEDOM REGAINED
The Possibility of Free Will
Julian Baggini
‘Freedom Regained is both balanced and convincing, and has many other virtues besides. While
firmly rooted in the philosophical tradition, Baggini also gets out and talks to people for whom
freedom – and lack of it – is a real and pressing matter. The result is a wide-ranging, wise and
stimulating survey...Baggini is right that there are other ways to make sense of human freedom.
[He has] written [a] stimulating book for those wishing to peel back some of the many layers of
what it means to be free’ Literary Review
Do we have free will? It’s a question that has puzzled philosophers and theologians for centuries,
remains one of the most intractable, and feeds into numerous smaller social, political and personal
concerns. Are we products of our culture, or free agents within it? Are our neural pathways fixed
early on by a mixture of nature and nurture, or is the possibility of comprehensive, intentional
psychological change always open to us? What role does our brain play in the construction of free
will, and how much medical evidence is there for the existence of it? What exactly are we talking
about when we talk about ‘freedom’ anyway?
In this cogent and compelling book, Julian Baggini explores the concept of ‘free will’ from every
angle, blending philosophy, neuroscience, sociology and cognitive science. Freedom Regained brings
the issues raised by the possibilities – and denials – of free to vivid life, drawing on scientific research
and fascinating encounters with expert witnesses, from artists to addicts. It will provide a new
understanding of our sense of personal freedom – and change the way the reader will think about
their own choices.
Julian Baggini (www.julianbaggini.com) is Founding Editor of The Philosophers’ Magazine. His books
include What’s It All About?: Philosophy and the Meaning of Life, the bestselling The Pig that Wants
to be Eaten, Do They Think You’re Stupid?, The Ego Trick and The Virtues of the Table, all published
by Granta Books.
Published (April 2015) ∙ Popular philosophy ∙ 272pp
Rights sold: Holland (Nieuw Amsterdam), US (University of Chicago Press), Germany (DTV), Korea
(SWINGBAND CO. LTD), Taiwan (Business Weekly / CITE)
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ISLANDER
Patrick Barkham
A funny, curious and surprising book about the islands of Britain and their human history, ranging
from the Neolithic to the present day, from the bestselling author of The Butterfly Isles.
The people of the British Isles are an island race. We are distributed across two large islands but also
across an archipelago of 6,289 smaller ones. Some, like the Isle of Man, are like miniature nations,
with their own language and tax laws; others, like Samson in the Isles of Scilly, are abandoned and
mysterious places haunted by myths, old curses and rats. There are islands like Easedale, once
famed for its slate mines, which house tiny, tight-knit communities; then there are islands like
Brownsman in the Farne Islands, which are strictly for the birds - literally, as a sanctuary for seabirds.
Our islands are places of refuge, places of isolation, party retreats and oases of peace. They entice,
unnerve and delight us, but what it is about islands that make their allure so irresistible?
In this evocative and fascinating book, Patrick Barkham explores the essence of islands and island
living: how do societies work differently on small islands, and do islands change the way we behave?
Are eccentrics attracted to islands, or do islands make people eccentric? Do they keep us sane or
drive us mad? Patrick's journey across the British Isles' isles sets out to answer these questions.
Along the way, he uncovers bizarre and touching stories about island life, meets a host of curious
characters, and sees some of the most beautiful landscapes in Britain.
Patrick Barkham was born in 1975 in Norfolk and was educated at Cambridge University. He is a
features writer for the Guardian, where he has reported on everything from the Iraq War to climate
change. He is the author of The Butterfly Isles: A Summer in Search of Our Emperors and Admirals,
Badgerlands: The Twilight World of Britain's Most Enigmatic Animal and Coastlines: The Story of Our
Shore. He lives in Norfolk.
October 2017 ∙ Travel writing ∙ 288pp
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LOVE OF COUNTRY
A Hebridean Journey
Madeleine Bunting
‘A heroic journey that takes us as far into the regions of the heart as into the islands of the northwest’ Richard Holloway
Few landscapes are as iconic as the islands off the north-western Scottish coast. On the outer edge of
the British Isles and facing the Atlantic Ocean, the Hebrides form part of Europe’s boundary. Because
of their unique position in the Atlantic archipelago, they have been at the centre of a network of
ancient shipping routes which has led to a remarkable history of cultures colliding and merging. Home
to a long and rich Gaelic tradition, for centuries their astonishing geography has attracted saints and
sinners, stimulated artists and writers, inspiring awe and dread as well as deep attachment.
Over six years, Madeleine Bunting travelled north-west, returning again and again to the
Hebrides, exploring their landscapes, histories and magnetic pull. With great sensitivity and
perceptiveness, she delves into the meanings of home and belonging, which in these islands have been
fraught with tragedy as well as tenacious resistance.
The Hebrides hold a remarkable place in the imaginations of Scotland and England. Bunting considers
the extent of the islands’ influence beyond their shores, finding that their history of dispossession and
migration has been central to the British imperial past. Perhaps more significant still is how their
landscapes have been repeatedly used to imagine the British nation. Love of Country shows how their
history is a backdrop for contemporary debates about the relationship between our nations, how
Britain was created, and what Britain has meant – for good and for ill.
Madeleine Bunting was for many years a columnist for the Guardian, which she joined in 1990. Born in
North Yorkshire, Bunting read History at Cambridge and Politics at Harvard. She is the author of The
Model Occupation: The Channel Islands Under German Rule, 1940-45, Willing Slaves: How the
Overwork Culture is Ruling Our Lives (both published by HarperCollins) and The Plot: A Biography of an
English Acre (published by Granta in 2009) which won the Portico Prize and was shortlisted for the
Ondaatje Prize. She left the Guardian in 2013 to concentrate on her writing. She lives in London with
her family.
October 2016 ∙ Non-fiction ∙ 368pp
Rights sold: US (University of Chicago Press)
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THIS LIVING AND
IMMORTAL THING
Austin Duffy
Shortlisted for the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year
2016
‘A tremendous, strange and beguiling novel that has a bearing on all our lives. Droll, disturbing
and surreptitiously profound’ William Boyd
‘An immortal, indeed, and yet strange thing: in his unshrinking examination of bodily death and
spirits in limbo, Austin Duffy has created a miraculously life-affirming novel’ Gavin Corbett
‘My life is in your hands, doctor, they would sometimes say, which it never was...’
This Living and Immortal Thing inhabits a world of medicine, research, cancer and death. Its
disillusioned and darkly funny narrator is an Irish oncologist, who is searching for a scientific
breakthrough in the lab of a New York hospital while struggling with his failing marriage and his
growing alienation within the city’s urban spaces. Tending to the health of his laboratory mice, he
finds comfort in work that is measurable, results that are quantifiable.
But life is every bit as persistent as the illness he studies. As he starts a new treatment on his mice,
he meets a beautiful but elusive Russian translator at the hospital, his estranged wife begins to call,
his neighbours are acting strangely and his supervisor pressures him to push ahead professionally.
And always there is the pull of family; of the place he considers home.
Shot through with Duffy’s haunting, beautiful descriptions of the science underlying cancer, which
starkly illustrate the paradox of an illness at whose heart is a persistent and deadly life force, This
Living and Immortal Thing shows how the cruelty of the disease is a price we pay for the joy and
complexity of being in the world.
Austin Duffy grew up in Ireland and studied medicine at Trinity College Dublin. He is a practising
medical oncologist at the National Cancer Institute in Washington DC, where he now lives with his
wife and son. In 2011, Duffy was awarded RTE’s Francis MacManus award for his short story ‘Orca’.
This Living and Immortal Thing is his first novel.
Published (February 2016) ∙ Fiction ∙ 304pp
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A GHOST’S STORY
Lorna Gibb
‘In this her first novel, Lorna Gibb skilfully blends research and fact with fiction to create a unique
perspective. Criss-crossing continents, moving back and forth through time, A Ghost’s Story gives
life to a voice that is at once compelling, fresh, surprisingly honest and funny, and above all,
relentlessly intriguing’ Judith Kinghorn, author of The Last Summer
‘This intriguing novel teasingly moves between truth and fiction with all the inventiveness and
unpredictability of the mediums, frauds, and spirits who crowd its pages. The dazzling succession
of extraordinary characters and bizarre happenings leaves the reader as puzzled as the dogged
Victorian investigators of the “spirit world” – but much better entertained. For as well as being
both horrifying and funny by turns, the novel becomes a touching love-story of the most unusual
kind’ Charles Palliser, author of The Quincunx
Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries séances and spiritualist meetings grew in popularity. One
‘ghost’ appeared more than any other, the Katie King spirit.
A Ghost’s Story presents the mysterious spirit writings and biographical outpourings of Katie King,
this famous and enigmatic spirit celebrity. A profound and curious consciousness guided into this
realm by the faith of true believers, or the cheap trickery of parlour cheats and exploitative
swindlers? Katie King is both, and more. This is the tale of a ghost’s quest to understand human
faith, loss and passion. It is also the tale of a contemporary scholar desperate to understand the
allure of the spirit world, journeying with Katie from the candle-lit drawing rooms of Victorian
London to the Imperial Palaces of Tsars; from the shadiest of gimmicks and tricks, to the most
poignant sincerity of the death-bed wish.
A Ghost’s Story announces a narrator like no other, moving in and out of time and space,
obstreperous, witty and profoundly honest. Above all, it is an examination of belief and a spectacular
insight into what lies on the other side.
Lorna Gibb was born in Belshill, North Lanarkshire, Scotland. She is a university lecturer and now
lives in London. She is the author of Lady Hester: Queen of the East and West’s World: The
Extraordinary Life of Dame Rebecca West. A Ghost’s Story is her first novel.
Published (November 2015) ∙ Fiction ∙ 336pp
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EVERYTHING IS HAPPENING
Journey into a Painting
With an introduction and coda by Ed Vulliamy
Michael Jacobs
‘The posthumous publication of Michael Jacobs’ unfinished voyage around Las Meninas is an
occasion to celebrate the life and work of an exceptionally gifted writer ... one of the great nonfiction writers of this and the last century ... The story twists and turns back on Jacobs: the boyish
humanity and exuberance, his deep-rooted, optimistic conviction that by engaging with others
uninhibitedly he would discover himself; the happy carousing and uncoordinated dancing; his
wide-eyed openness to wonder; his altogether un-English rush of enthusiasm – is all on show in
the book as he stands again before the frozen conundrum of the painting [Las Meninas]’ Simon
Schama, Financial Times
Michael Jacobs was haunted by Velázquez’s enigmatic masterpiece Las Meninas from first
encountering it in the Prado as a teenager. In Everything is Happening Jacobs searches for the
ultimate significance of the painting by following the trails of associations from each individual
character in the picture, as well as his own memories of and relationship to this extraordinary work.
From Jacobs’ first trip to Spain, to the complex politics of Golden Age Madrid, to his meeting with
the man who saved Las Meninas during the Spanish Civil war, via Jacobs’ experiences of the sunless
world of the art history academy, Jacobs’ dissolves the barriers between the past and the present,
the real and the illusory.
Cut short by Jacobs’ death in 2014, and completed with an introduction and coda of great sensitivity
and insight by his friend and fellow lover of art, the journalist Ed Vulliamy, this visionary, meditative
and often very funny book is a passionate, personal manifesto for the liberation of how we look at
painting.
Michael Jacobs was born in Italy and studied Art History at the Courtauld Institute of Art. He was the
author of Andes (Granta 2010) and The Robber of Memories (Granta 2012). He divided his time
between London and a remote Spanish village. He died in January 2014.
Published (August 2015) ∙ Non-fiction ∙ 240pp
FUNDING AVAILABLE FOR A SPANISH LANGUAGE EDITION – PLEASE EMAIL [email protected]
FOR MORE INFORMATION
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THE WINE DINE DICTIONARY
Good Food and Good Wine:
An A–Z of Suggestions for Happy
Eating and Drinking
Victoria Moore
International Wine Columnist of the Year and Online Communicator of the Year at the 2015 Louis
Roederer International Wine Writers’ Awards
‘[Moore] has a deceptively effortless style, and as regular readers of her column in the Guardian
will know, few food or drink writers can match her graceful way with a simile … She is also clearly
very knowledgeable and passionate … Most important, however, is the quality of the advice she
offers’ Fine Wine
Here is the book that is currently missing from our kitchen shelves: a brilliantly intuitive handbook
for matching food and wine, from the author of the bestselling How to Drink.
Want to pick the perfect wine for dinner? Wondering what to eat with a special bottle? Let The Wine
Dine Dictionary be your guide. Arranged A-Z by food at one end and A-Z by wine at the other, this
unique handbook will help you make more informed, more creative, and more delicious choices
about what to eat and drink. It includes chapters on picking by mood, picking by place, wines that go
with (almost) everything and ‘game-changer’ ingredients like goats’ cheese, chilli and lemon.
As one of the country’s most popular and influential wine journalists, as well as an expert in the
psychology of smell and taste, Victoria Moore doesn’t just explain what goes with what, but why and
how the combination works, too. Written with her trademark authority, warmth and wit, this is a
book to consult and to savour.
Victoria Moore is an award-winning wine writer and currently writes a weekly drink column for
the Telegraph. She has written on wine for the New Statesman and the Guardian and has appeared
on Radio 4’s Food Programme and You & Yours. She is the author of How To Drink, also published by
Granta Books. She lives in London.
May 2017 ∙ Food / Drink ∙ 336pp
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A GOOD LIFE
Philosophy from Cradle to Grave
Mark Rowlands
From the bestselling author of The Philosopher and the Wolf comes a gripping and provocative
story of one man’s life through a philosophical lens.
Myshkin was born on a certain day and died on a certain day – and some things happened to him in
between. These things presented him with ethical questions and this book is a record of his attempt
to answer those questions. Discovered by his son after Myshkin’s death, A Good Life is one man’s
reckoning with the life he has led and the choices he made. It is at once a philosophical handbook for
living and a page-turning narrative.
A Good Life is one man’s life (birth, death, education, religion, morality, illness and so on) told
through a philosophical lens. It is a riveting examination of the ethical questions we face, and the
decisions we must make, and a defence of the idea that at the beating heart of morality we find
love. And it is written with the conviction that, on their own, moral rules and principles are childish
things – risible and easily refuted. It is only a life in its entirety that can be morally judged.
A Good Life is sometimes profoundly funny, sometimes deeply serious. It is as readable as a novel
and as provocative as the best philosophy. It is the finest work to date by a charming and brilliant
thinker.
Mark Rowlands was born in Newport, Wales. He is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of
Miami and the author of sixteen books, including the bestselling The Philosopher and the Wolf, also
published by Granta. His books have been translated into more than twenty languages.
Published (November 2015) ∙ Philosophy ∙ 304pp
Rights sold: Korea (Chungrim), Greece (Ekdoseis), Audio (Audible)
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GRANTA MAGAZINE
Sigrid Rausing (editor)
From Nobel laureates to debut novelists, international translations to investigative journalism, each
themed issue of Granta turns the attention of the world’s best writers on to one aspect of the way
we live now. Granta does not have a political or literary manifesto, but it does have a belief in the
power and urgency of the story and its supreme ability to describe, illuminate and make real.
Granta magazine was founded in 1889 by students at Cambridge University as The Granta, a
periodical of student politics, badinage and literary enterprise, named after the river that runs
through the town. In this original incarnation it published the work writers like A.A. Milne, Michael
Frayn, Stevie Smith, Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath. As the Observer writes: ‘In its blend of memoirs
and photojournalism, and in its championing of contemporary realist fiction, Granta has its face
pressed firmly against the window, determined to witness the world.’
Now the English language edition of Granta is published quarterly – in print and ebook formats – and
we are delighted to announce a growing roster of partnerships with publishers worldwide, all of
whom publish their own editions of Granta, combining material from the English language edition
with local material of their own choosing.
Rights sold: Sweden (Bonniers), Brazil (Objetiva), Italy (Rizzoli), China (Shanghai 99), Japan (Waseda
Bungaku), Finland (Otava), Israel (Sipur Pashut), Spain (Galaxia Gutenberg), Portugal (Tinta da
China), Bulgaria (Janet 45), Turkey (Can Yayinlari)
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CONTINENTAL SHIFT
A Journey into Africa’s Changing Fortunes
Kevin Bloom and Richard Poplak
An on-the-road detective story and a report from the economic frontier, Continental Shift follows
the money defining and transforming life in 21st Century Africa.
Africa is failing. Africa is rising. Africa is betraying its citizens. Africa is a place of starvation,
corruption, stupidity. African economies are soaring faster than any other on earth. Africa is
squandering its bountiful resources. Africa is a roadmap for global development. Africa is turbulent.
Africa is stabilising. Africa is doomed. Africa is the future.
On the ground, all of these pronouncements prove equally true and false, as South African
journalists Richard Poplak and Kevin Bloom discover on their 9-year-roadtrip through the paradoxical
continent they call home. From pillaged mines in Zimbabwe to the creation of an economic
marketplace in Ethiopia; from Namibia’s entrepreneurial middle class to the technological challenges
facing 21st Century Nollywood; from China’s investment in Botswana to the rush for resources in the
Congo; and from the birth of Africa’s newest country, South Sudan, to the ongoing conflict in CAR;
here are eight adventures on the trail of a new Africa.
Kevin Bloom is an award-winning journalist, editor and author. His first book, Ways of Staying, is
also published by Portobello Books. Richard Poplak trained as a filmmaker and fine artist and is the
author of Ja, No, Man and The Sheikh’s Batmobile.
April 2016 ∙ Travel / Reportage / Memoir ∙ 432pp
***
ALSO AVAILABLE:
WAYS OF STAYING by Kevin Bloom
‘Kevin Bloom is that rare creature – a local journalist who kept his head and a measure of cool
objectivity even as South Africa teetered on the brink of madness. His book betrays familiarity
with the darkest corners of our collective psyche, but he somehow renders the mess we ’re in with
the lucid detachment of a New Yorker writer’ Rian Malan
Published (April 2010) ∙ Memoir / Current Affairs ∙ 240pp
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DO IT LIKE A WOMAN
...And Change the World
Caroline Criado-Perez
‘Like Sheryl Sandberg’s feminist handbook Lean In, but without the corporate focus, it’s an
inspiring read, celebrating game-changers across the globe’ Scotsman
‘[An] immersive piece of investigative journalism, strong on sound facts and figures, finding
interconnections and then leaving readers space to draw their own conclusions ... The pleasure of
Do It Like A Woman is that it’s about other women – their campaigns, their political interventions,
their stories. In a world overstuffed with tedious me-myself-and-I-as-hero-of-my-own-narrative
books, Criado-Perez has had the good sense to deliver an overview that grasps the essential
impetus of feminism – as collective, connective action by a diversity of women whose voices are
as brave and informed as Criado-Perez’s’ New Statesman
Every day, all over the world, women are making a positive difference to their lives and the lives of
the people in their communities. Most of these women are cut off from the rhetoric and theory of
Western feminism; many are active in deeply patriarchal and socially restrictive societies; some may
not even describe themselves as feminists. Nevertheless, these women are proving to themselves,
and to the world, that a powerful force for change can sometimes start with a single brave action.
In Do It Like A Woman, Caroline Criado-Perez, an outspoken activist and campaigner, uncovers these
stories and investigates what they mean for the feminist movement as a whole. She gathers
together stories from beatboxers in Malta and prostitutes in Merseyside to fighter pilots in
Afghanistan and doctors in Portugal, and shows how women are taking positive, practical steps to
challenge injustice or inequality, and change their world. While some of these stories (the Everyday
Sexism campaign and the trial of Pussy Riot) are already known, the majority of the stories here have
not yet been told, and demand to be heard.
Caroline Criado-Perez is a British journalist and feminist activist whose work has appeared in The
Times, the Telegraph, the Guardian and the Independent. She is one of the co-founders of The
Women’s Room, a website whose goal is to raise awareness of the marginalisation and
underrepresentation of women in the media. In 2013 she successfully campaigned for the inclusion
of a woman on the £10 note (after the Bank of England planned to replace Elizabeth Fry with
Winston Churchill). She tweets @CCriadoPerez. This is her first book.
Published (May 2015) ∙ Non-fiction ∙ 336pp
Rights sold: Audio (W F Howes)
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AFTERSHOCK
Fighting War, Surviving Trauma
and Finding Peace
Matthew Green
‘Compelling, humbling and hugely inspiring accounts from the real heroes of our era. We have a
duty to understand what these men have given on our behalf’ Bear Grylls
‘This is a most compelling book which tells the story of those who have suffered so much in the
conduct of operation to protect our security. Mental health pressures need to move centre stage
in our priorities – now!’ Sir Richard Dannatt, former General Chief of Staff
‘If we expect our lives and freedoms to be protected we have a duty to those who do this. As a
society, as people, surely we must take responsibility for the bodies, minds, and indeed souls of
those who fight for us? Aftershock makes this point again and again, powerfully and
compellingly’ Justine Hardy, trauma therapist, author
Over the last decade, we have sent thousands of people to fight on our behalf. But what happens
when these soldiers come back home, having lost their friends and killed their enemies, having seen
and done things that have no place in civilian life? In Aftershock, Matthew Green tells the story of
our veterans’ journey from the frontline of combat to the reality of return.
Through wide-ranging interviews with former combatants – including a Royal Marine sniper and a
veteran operator in the SAS – as well as serving personnel and their families, physicians, therapists
and psychiatrists, Aftershock looks beyond the labels of shell shock and PTSD to get to the heart of
today’s post-conflict experience. It pursues the question that the military are so reluctant to ask:
why do people who are trained to thrive within the theatre of war so often find themselves illprepared for peace?
As a new generation of battle-scarred troops begins to lay their weapons down, Aftershock offers an
empathetic yet hard-hitting account of the hidden cost of conflict. And its message is one that has
profound implications, not just for the military, but for anyone with an interest in how we
experience trauma and survive.
For the past fourteen years, Matthew Green has worked as a correspondent for Reuters and
the Financial Times, reporting from over thirty countries, including Iraq and Afghanistan. His first
book, The Wizard of the Nile: The Hunt for Joseph Kony, won a Jerwood Award and was longlisted for
the Orwell Prize. His writing has also appeared in the Economist, The Times and Esquire.
Published (October 2015) ∙ Non-fiction ∙ 336pp
www.matthewgreenjournalism.com
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THE SAFFRON ROAD
A Journey with Buddha’s
Daughters
Christine Toomey
‘What a MARVELOUS JOURNEY shared with such sensitivity, eloquence, and heart! We meet
extraordinary women through Christine’s kindness and courage – it is a privilege to read and travel
with her. Everyone should try it – you will not be disappointed’ Professor Robert Tenzin Thurman,
author of Why the Dalai Lama Matters and Love Your Enemies
‘There are lessons for life on every step of The Saffron Road. Christine Toomey, long-time foreign
correspondent and truth-teller to the powerful, travels in search of women from the Buddhist
ways of dispassion, mindfulness and calm. She shows that philosophies are sometimes best
understood from a suitcase, writing as she learns and learning as she writes. Fortunate is the
reader who follows’ Peter Stothard
Every year, thousands of women choose to become Buddhist nuns. As they enter holy orders, they
become part of a long tradition of female spirituality that stretches back through the centuries and
now embraces the radical possibility that the next Dalai Lama could be a woman. In The Saffron
Road, award-winning reporter Christine Toomey follows in the footsteps of earlier generations of
nuns to trace the historical spread of the religion, from a solitary order in a remote area of India in
the 6th century BC to 1950s San Francisco, where the Beat Generation first popularised Zen
philosophy, to the globally-renowned practitioners of mindfulness of today. Beginning in the highest
reaches of the Himalayas, close to the birthplace of the Buddha, Toomey travels thro ugh Burma,
Tibet and Japan in the East, and then on to Europe and North America in the West, along the way
visiting contemporary nunneries to meet the women who practise there. As she talks to ‘kung fu’
nuns in Kathmandu and Zen priests in New Mexico, Toomey reveals the daily reality of the Buddhist
existence and learns more about the diverse spiritual paths leading these women towards nirvana.
Combining travelogue, history and first person interviews, The Saffron Road will open the door on
the rarely glimpsed world of ritual and discipline, reflection and enlightenment.
Christine Toomey has been a foreign correspondent and feature writer for the Sunday Times for
more than 20 years, reporting extensively from Latin America, the Middle East and throughout
Europe. She has received several prizes for her journalism, including two Amnesty International
Magazine Story of the Year awards.
Published (June 2015) ∙ Non-fiction ∙ 384pp
Rights sold: US (The Experiment)
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