Stay With Me

London
Book Fair
2016
The Canongate Rights Team
Andrea Joyce, Rights Director: [email protected]
Jessica Neale, Senior Rights Manager: [email protected]
Caroline Clarke, Rights Executive: [email protected]
Lina Langlee, Rights Assistant: [email protected]
Canongate Books
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UK
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CONTENTS
Fiction
Page 3
Stay With Me Ayobami Adebayo
Page 4
Dirt Road James Kelman
Page 5
Dragon’s Green Scarlett Thomas
Page 6
A Boy Called Christmas Matt Haig & Chris Mould (illustrator)
Page 7
The Girl Who Saved Christmas Matt Haig & Chris Mould (illustrator)
Page 8
Ten Days Gillian Slovo
Page 9
The Dark Flood Rises Margaret Drabble
Page 10
Orphans of the Carnival Carol Birch
Page 11
Darke Rick Gekoski
Page 12
The Seed Collectors Scarlett Thomas
Page 13
Taduno’s Song Odafe Atogun
Page 14
Endgame Ahmet Altan
Page 15
Recent Publications Fiction
Non-Fiction
Page 17
If I Could Tell You Just One Thing Richard Reed
Page 18
Creating Freedom Raoul Martinez
Page 19
Timekeepers Simon Garfield
Page 20
Insanely Gifted Jamie Catto
Page 21
The Story Cure Ella Berthoud & Susan Elderkin
Page 22
Mind Over Money Claudia Hammond
Page 23
The Lonely City Olivia Laing
Page 24
The Outrun Amy Liptrot
Page 25
Undying Michel Faber
Page 26
Reasons to Stay Alive Matt Haig
Page 27
Hamlet: Globe to Globe Dominic Dromgoole
Page 28
The Brain David Eagleman
Page 29
Cure Jo Marchant
Page 30
Simon’s Cat: Off to the Vet . . . And Other Cat-astrophes Simon Tofield
Page 31
More Letters of Note Compiled by Shaun Usher
Page 32
The Sick Bag Song Nick Cave
Page 33
Gold from the Stone Lemn Sissay
Page 34
More Moaning Karl Pilkington
Page 35
The Movie Doctors Mark Kermode & Simon Mayo
Page 36
Recent Publications Non-Fiction
Page 38
The Canons
FICTION
Stay With Me
Ayobami Adebayo
A stunning debut from a fresh and
exciting new voice
Rotimi.
It’s a name.
It means Stay With Me.
It is Yejide’s last wish, her only hope and her
greatest fear all bundled into three little syllables.
Ro-ti-mi. Stay. With. Me.
Stay With Me is the heart-breaking and ultimately
uplifting tale of what wanting a child can do to a
person, a marriage and a family, and why sometimes
doing anything you can to make someone happy
might be crueller than you ever imagined.
For fans of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Purple
Hibiscus, and with the strength and originality of
voice of Emma Donoghue’s Room, Stay With Me
explores both the fragility and resilience of love in the
face of overwhelming odds.
UK Publication: March 2017
Rights Held: World excl. North
America (Knopf), Nigeria & Kenya
Other Rights: Clare Alexander,
Aitken Alexander Associates
Ayobami Adebayo was born in 1988 in Lagos, Nigeria. Her stories
have appeared in a number of magazines and anthologies, and
one was highly commended in the 2009 Commonwealth Short
Story competition. She holds BA and MA degrees in Literature in
English from Obafemi Awolowo University. Ayobami also has an
MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia where she
received an International Bursary for Creative Writing. She was a
2012 OMI fellow at Ledig House, New York and a 2015
Hedgebrook writer in residence. She works as a fiction editor for
Saraba Magazine.
3
Dirt Road
James Kelman
From the Booker Prize-winning
James Kelman, comes a road trip
through the American South
‘The truth is he didn’t care how long he was going
away. Forever would have suited him. It didn’t matter
it was America.’
Murdo, a teenager obsessed with music, wishes for a life
beyond the constraints of his Scottish island home and
dreams of becoming his own man. Tom, battered by
loss, stumbles backwards towards the future, terrified of
losing his dignity, his control, his son and the last of his
family life. Both are in search of something new as they
set out on an expedition into the American South. On
the road we discover whether the hopes of youth can
conquer the fears of age. Dirt Road is a major novel
exploring the brevity of life, the agonising demands of
love and the lure of the open road.
It is also a beautiful book about the power of music and
all that it can offer. From the understated serenity of
Kelman’s prose emerges a devastating emotional power.
A film adaptation directed by Kenneth Glenaan has
completed production and is slated for release in 2016.
Praise for James Kelman:
‘Probably the most influential novelist of the post-war period’ The Times
‘The greatest British novelist of our time’ Sunday Herald
‘Kelman is as precise a user of language as you’ll read anywhere . . . His impeccable
command of language continues to make him an easy writer to admire’ Independent on
Sunday
‘A true original . . . A real artist . . . it’s now very difficult to see which of his peers can
seriously be ranked alongside him without ironic eyebrows being raised’ Irvine Welsh,
Guardian
‘A writer of world stature, a 21st-century Modern’ Scotsman
UK Publication: August 2016
Rights Held: World
Rights Sold: France (Metailié)
Other Rights: Gill Coleridge,
Rogers, Coleridge & White
4
James Kelman was shortlisted for the Man Booker
Prize in 1989 with A Disaffection, which also won the
James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction. He went
on to win the Man Booker Prize five years later
with How Late it Was, How Late, before being
shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize in
2009 and 2011.
Dragon’s Green
Scarlett Thomas
Introducing the first in a new series for children by adult
bestseller Scarlett Thomas
‘Some people think opening a book is a simple
thing. It’s not. Most people don’t realise that
you can get truly lost in a book. You can.
Especially you. Do not open any of these
books without my permission, Euphemia.’
Effie is a pupil at the Tusitala School for the
Gifted and Strange. When her grandfather
becomes ill she discovers she is set to inherit
the family library. The more she learns about it
the more unusual it is. Before she knows it, her
life is at risk from dark forces from this world
and beyond, intent on using the books and the
power they contain.
With her grandfather gone and the adult world
ignoring her, can her unreliable classmates
help save her life?
Packed with puzzles, curses, evil nemeses and a troupe of beguiling heroes, Dragon’s
Green is an adventure novel for children about the nature of magic. It is the first in a
chapter-book series for fans of Pullman’s Northern Lights, Diana Wynne Jones’
Chrestomanci series, T.H. White’s The Once and Future King, Neil Gaiman’s The
Graveyard Book, Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events series and the
Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling.
Praise for Scarlett Thomas:
‘Ingenious and original’ Philip Pullman
‘Entrancing’ Neil Gaiman
‘Scarlett Thomas is a splendid novelist’ William Gibson
UK Publication: April 2017
Rights Held: World
Rights Sold: Italy (Newton Compton)
Option Publishers: Russia (Corpus),
Spain (Atico de los Libros)
Other Rights: David Miller, Rogers,
Coleridge & White
Scarlett Thomas was born in London in 1972. Her previous
novels include Bright Young Things, Going Out, PopCo,
Our Tragic Universe, The Seed Collectors and The End of
Mr. Y, which was longlisted for the Orange Prize in 2007.
She teaches at the University of Kent.
Backlist: The End of Mr. Y, PopCo, Our Tragic Universe,
Bright Young Things, Going Out and Monkeys with
Typewriters
5
A Boy Called Christmas
Matt Haig
Illustrated by Chris
Mould
A new Christmas classic from
the No. 1 bestselling author
BELIEVE IN THE IMPOSSIBLE
You are about to read
THE TRUE STORY OF FATHER
CHRISTMAS
If you are one of those people who believe that some
things are impossible, you should put this book
down right away.
(Because this book is FULL of impossible things.)
Are you still reading?
Good. Let us begin . . .
A Boy Called Christmas is for children aged 7+ and anyone who still believes in
Father Christmas. A major film adaptation is in development with Studio Canal in
association with Blueprint Pictures.
‘Read it!’ Sunday Times
‘Terrific . . . an instant classic’ Guardian
‘Perfect for Christmas in every way’ Independent
‘A glorious and laugh-out-loud triumph of good over evil’ Daily Mail
‘Brilliantly told and imagined … about the importance of hope and kindness’
New Statesman
‘A delight’ Independent on Sunday
‘The Christmas book of the year’ Sun
‘Delivers an utter blast of joy’ Herald
6
UK Publication: November 2015
Rights Held: World
Rights Sold: Canada (HarperCollins), China (Beijing Xiron
Books), Finland (Aula & Co), France (Hélium), Germany
(DTV), Greece (Patakis), Hungary (Libri), Italy (Salani),
Lithuania (Tyto Alba), Korea (Mirae-N), Netherlands (Moon),
Norway (Cappelen Damm), Poland (Zysk), Portugal
(Booksmile), Romania (Nemira), Russia (AST), Serbia
(Vulkan), Spain (Destino Juvenil Planeta), Sweden
(Alfabeta), Taiwan (Eastern Publishing), US (Knopf BFYR)
Other Rights: Clare Conville, Conville & Walsh
The Girl Who Saved Christmas
Matt Haig
Illustrated by Chris
Mould
The next magical book in the festive series, begun with A Boy Called
Christmas, from Number 1 Sunday Times bestselling author Matt Haig
JOURNEY TO THE EDGE OF MAGIC
If magic has a beginning, can it also have an end?
When Amelia wants a wish to come true she
knows just the man to ask – Father Christmas.
But the magic she wants to believe in is
starting to fade, and Father Christmas has
more than impossible wishes to worry about.
Upset elves, reindeers dropping out of the sky,
angry trolls and the chance that Christmas
might be cancelled.
But Amelia isn’t just any ordinary girl. And –
as Father Christmas is going to find out – if
Christmas is going to be saved, he might not
be able to do it alone . . .
‘A glorious mix of fairytale, folklore and fun’ Francesca Simon
‘Every bit as funny and poignant as a mouse that has never seen cheese but still
believes in it!’ Frank Cottrell Boyce
‘A new festive classic. Funny, sad and brilliant. It turns out we only knew half the
story’ Simon Mayo
‘Matt Haig is a supreme talent and a writer to cherish’ Guardian
As well as being a bestselling writer for adults, Matt Haig has won
the Blue Peter Book Award, the Smarties Book Prize and been
shortlisted three times for the Carnegie Medal for his stories for
children and young adults.
Chris Mould went to art school at the age of 16. He has won the
Nottingham Children’s Book Award and been commended by
the Sheffield Children's Book Award. He loves his work and likes
to write and draw the kind of books that he would have liked to
have had on his shelf as a boy. He is married with two children
and lives in Yorkshire.
Backlist Matt Haig: The Radleys, The Humans and
Humans: An A-Z
UK Publication: November 2016
Rights Held: World
Rights Sold: Canada (HarperCollins), Hungary (Libri), Italy
(Salani), Poland (Zysk), Portugal (Booksmile), Romania
(Nemira), Russia (AST), Sweden (Alfabeta), US (Knopf BFYR)
Option Publishers: China (Beijing Xiron Books), Finland (Aula &
Co), France (Hélium), Germany (DTV), Greece (Patakis),
Lithuania (Tyto Alba), Korea (Mirae-N), Netherlands (Moon),
Norway (Cappelen Damm), Serbia (Vulkan), Spain (Destino
Juvenil Planeta), Taiwan (Eastern Publishing)
Other Rights: Clare Conville, Conville & Walsh
7
Ten Days
Gillian Slovo
‘Ten days of tension, trouble and tough truths –
Gillian Slovo tells it like it almost certainly is – she’s
written a cracker’ Val McDermid
‘An extraordinary novel – a page-turner thick
with greed, ambition, love and secrets, and
simultaneously an incisive portrayal of power and
powerlessness’ Kamila Shamsie
‘Ten Days tackles the dangers we all face when
politics and policing collide. The result: an
unputdownable Slovo read’ Shami Chakrabarti
House of Cards meets Homeland in this powerful
and unputdownable thriller tracing a riot from its
inception through to its fallout
It’s 4 a.m. and Cathy Mason is watching dawn break over the Lovelace estate.
By the end of the day, her community will be a crime scene. By the end of the
week, her city will be on fire.
In this gripping thriller, a death at police hands has repercussions far beyond one family
plunged into grief . . . As violence erupts in the middle of a stifling heatwave, the dead
man becomes a useful tactic (or an urgent threat) in political games at the highest level.
So while lives are at risk in Cathy Mason’s estate, across London in Westminster, careers
are being made, or ruined.
From a Home Secretary’s attempts to unseat a Prime Minister, to a new Metropolitan
Police Commissioner fighting for his job, to families torn apart: in Ten Days, Orange
Prize-shortlisted author Gillian Slovo shows what happens when politics, policing and
the hard realities of living in London explosively collide.
‘Powerful . . . Gillian Slovo has demonstrated a knack for doing what few other writers
are doing right now: tackling the world we live in head-on’ Louise Doughty, Guardian
‘A page-turner intent on keeping you avidly on edge until the small hours’ Metro
‘A tension-laden, eye-opening thriller that was hard to put down’ Woman & Home
UK Publication: March 2016
Rights Held: World
Other Rights: Clare Alexander,
Aitken Alexander Associates
8
Gillian Slovo is a playwright and the author of 13 books,
including five crime novels, the courtroom drama Red Dust,
made into a feature film starring Hilary Swank and Chiwetel
Ejiofor, and the Orange Prize-shortlisted Ice Road. She coauthored the play Guantanamo – Honor Bound to Defend
Freedom, which was staged internationally. Her research for
her play The Riots inspired Ten Days. Gillian Slovo was President
of English PEN from 2010 to 2013 and is a fellow of the Royal
Society of Literature. She won the Golden PEN Award 2013 for a
Lifetime’s Distinguished Service to Literature. She was born in
South Africa and lives in London.
The Dark Flood Rises
Margaret Drabble
The new novel from literary great
Margaret Drabble, already picked by
the Guardian and the Independent as a
major cultural highlight of 2016
Francesca Stubbs, mother, ex-wife, inspector of
nursing homes, takes a long hard look at
mortality. Fran takes us to drinks with her dear
friends, dropping off mouth-watering suppers
for Claude, her ex-husband, warm and cosy in
his infirmity, and visits her daughter, Poppet,
holed up as the waters rise in a sodden West
Country, as well as texting her son Christopher
in Tenerife, dealing with the estate of his
shockingly deceased girlfriend.
With characteristic wit and caustic prose via some festive red merlot, The Dark Flood
Rises dazzles and enthrals, entertains and asks existential questions in equal measure.
Praise for The Pure Gold Baby:
‘Drabble’s brilliance . . . builds up a sense of wide horizons that one has never seen in quite
the same way before’ The Times
‘Superb . . . a richly complex narrative voice achieves a choric magnificence hardly
equalled in her earlier work’ Independent
‘The cadences of the prose, the kind of language used, the words that are chosen, echo
the passing of the years . . . absorbing’ Financial Times
‘Drabble’s intelligence and compassion make it a hugely rewarding read’ Mail on Sunday
‘Drabble’s writing has the beautiful deep polish of the lid of a Steinway’ Times Literary
Supplement
‘Achingly wise’ Wall Street Journal
‘Moving and meditative’ Meg Wolitzer, NPR
UK Publication: November 2016
Rights Held: World excl. US
Rights Sold: Australia (Text), France
(Christian Bourgois Editeur), Spain
(Sexto Piso)
Option Publishers: Denmark
(Forlaget Valdemar), Greece (Polis)
Other Rights: James Gill, United
Agents
Dame Margaret Drabble was born in Sheffield in 1939 and was
educated at Newnham College, Cambridge. She is the author of
18 novels including A Summer Bird-Cage, The Millstone, The
Peppered Moth, The Red Queen, The Sea Lady and most recently,
the highly acclaimed The Pure Gold Baby. She has also written
biographies, screenplays and was the editor of the Oxford
Companion to English Literature. She was appointed CBE in 1980,
and made DBE in the 2008 Honours list. She was also awarded the
Golden PEN Award 2011 for a Lifetime’s Distinguished Service to
Literature. She is married to the biographer Michael Holroyd.
Backlist: The Pure Gold Baby
9
Orphans of the Carnival
Carol Birch
The dazzling new novel, evoking the strange and
thrilling world of the Victorian carnival, from the Man
Booker-shortlisted author of Jamrach’s Menagerie
A life in the spotlight will keep anyone hidden
Julia Pastrana is the singing and dancing marvel
from Mexico, heralded on tours across 19th-century
Europe as much for her talent as for her rather
unusual appearance. Yet few can see past the thick
hair that covers her: she is both the fascinating
toast of a Governor’s ball and the shunned,
revolting, unnatural beast, to be hidden from
children and pregnant women.
But what is her wonderful and terrible link to Rose,
collector of lost treasures in an attic room in
present-day London? In this haunting tale of
identity, love and independence, these two lives will
connect in unforgettable ways.
Praise for Jamrach’s Menagerie:
‘Riveting . . . Birch is masterful at evoking period and place’ Sunday Times
‘Her words sing on the page’ Financial Times
‘An imaginative tour-de-force’ The Times
‘Birch is a naturally literary writer who can, with a simple image, evoke the deepest
emotion’ Guardian
‘Birch’s Booker-shortlisted novel is lush, poignant and beguilingly strange’
Sunday Telegraph
UK Publication: September 2016
Rights Held: World
Rights Sold: US (Doubleday)
Option Publishers: Croatia (Skolska Knijiga),
Czech Republic (Host), France (City Editions),
Greece (Klidarithmos), Hungary (Gondolat
Kiado), Israel (Kinneret-Zmora), Norway
(Forlaget Press), Taiwan (Ten Point), Turkey
(Ithaki Yayinlari)
Other Rights: Mic Cheetham, Mic Cheetham
Literary Agency
10
Carol Birch is the author of ten previous
novels, including Scapegallows (2008)
and Turn Again Home (2003) which was
longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. She has
also won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize
and the David Higham Award for Best First
Novel. Jamrach’s Menagerie was
shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and
longlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction
and the London Book Award.
Backlist: Jamrach’s Menagerie
A daringly entertaining and controversial
debut novel by a 71-year-old about the
nature of a good life and a good death
Darke
Rick Gekoski
Dr James Darke, a retired schoolmaster, has
cut off all contact from the world, pulled the
curtains, closed his house and his heart.
Drinking and smoking a lot and eating a
little, he writes compulsively in his ‘coming
of old age’ journal, where memories of his
wife and daughter, of his career as a public
schoolmaster, and ruminations about life
abound. He is in an agitated state, mordant
and desperate, uncongenial both to himself
and (initially) to the reader. But there are
surprises in store. The revelation, when it
comes, is shocking, and the set of social and
moral issues that it raises are central to the
dilemmas of human life and to the nature
and obligations of love.
Darke refuses to offer easy answers to complex questions, and as he slowly
re-emerges from hiding, he reveals himself as a complex and flawed man of
integrity. The novel also forces us to ask what a good death – and by turns a
good life – might look like. Rich in ideas and human feeling, Darke is powerfully
memorable, provocative and timely.
Praise for Rick Gekoski:
‘A very good storyteller’ Sunday Telegraph
‘Essential reading for any booklover, but it is also a supreme example of a natural and
skilled storyteller at work’ Colm Tóibín on Tolkien’s Gown
‘Page after page of delight’ Sunday Times on Tolkien’s Gown
‘Gekoski’s love of books is infectious’ Seattle Times on Outside of a Dog
‘Gekoski is endearing to read for his childlike enthusiasm for . . . well, for everything.
There is nothing cynical or clever here, just real intelligence and true feeling – and the
sense of humour’ Jeanette Winterson on Outside of a Dog
UK Publication: March 2017
Rights Held: World
Other Rights: Peter Straus,
Rogers, Coleridge & White
Dr Rick Gekoski has been described as ‘one of the world’s
leading bookmen’. A writer, rare-book dealer, academic
and broadcaster, his books column in the Guardian,
‘Finger on the Page’, has an enthusiastic following. He has
written several widely praised non-fiction books including
Staying Up, Tolkien’s Gown, Outside of a Dog and Lost,
Stolen or Shredded. This is his first novel.
www.gekoski.com
11
The Seed Collectors
Scarlett Thomas
The seductive new novel from the bestselling
author of The End of Mr. Y, full of life, death,
desire and family trees
What secrets are hiding in your family tree?
Great Aunt Oleander is dead. To each of her
nearest and dearest she has left a seed pod.
The seed pods might be deadly, but then
again they might also contain the secret of
enlightenment . . .
A complex and fiercely contemporary tale of
inheritance, enlightenment, life, death, desire
and family trees, The Seed Collectors is the
most important novel yet from one of the
world’s most daring and brilliant writers. As
Henry James said of George Eliot’s
Middlemarch, The Seed Collectors is a
‘treasurehouse of detail’ revealing all that it
means to be connected, to be part of a society,
to be part of the universe and to be human.
Backlist Reissues:
‘Scarlett Thomas has a skilful way of blending fantasy
and realism . . . The Seed Collectors is consistently
enjoyable’ Financial Times
‘Blooming marvellous . . . [Scarlett Thomas is] one of
our most exciting novelists’ Independent on Sunday
‘You won’t read a livelier tale about sex, death and
out-of-body experiences all year’ Sunday Times
‘Her prose is positively luminous – funny, daring, fizzing
with ideas and altogether captivating’ Daily Mail
UK Publication: July 2015
Rights Held: World
Rights Sold: Estonia (Pegasus),
Italy (Newton Compton), Russia
(Corpus), Spain (Atico de los
Libros), Turkey (April), US
(Counterpoint)
Other Rights: David Miller,
Rogers, Coleridge & White
12
Scarlett Thomas was born in London in 1972. Her previous
novels include Bright Young Things, Going Out, PopCo,
Our Tragic Universe and The End of Mr. Y, which was
longlisted for the Orange Prize in 2007. She teaches at
the University of Kent.
Backlist: The End of Mr. Y, PopCo, Our Tragic Universe,
Bright Young Things, Going Out, Monkeys with Typewriters
Taduno’s Song
Odafe Atogun
A powerful debut from a new voice
in contemporary African writing
The day a stained brown envelope arrives
from Taduno’s homeland, he knows that
the time has come to return from exile.
Arriving full of trepidation, the musician
discovers that his community no longer
recognises him, believing that Taduno is
dead. His girlfriend Lela has disappeared,
taken away by government agents. As he
wanders through his house in search of
clues, he realises that any traces of his old
life have been erased. All that was left of
his life and himself are memories. But
Taduno finds a new purpose: to unravel
the mystery of his lost life and to find his
lost love. Through this search, he comes
to face a difficult decision: to sing for love
or to sing for his people.
Taduno’s Song is a moving tale of sacrifice,
love and courage.
‘A heartfelt and imaginative story told with sincerity and compassion’
Petina Gappah, author of An Elegy for Easterly and The Book of Memory
UK Publication: July 2016
Rights Held: World
Rights Sold: Germany (Arche), Italy
(Frassinelli), Turkey (Yurt Kitap), US
(Knopf/Pantheon)
Other Rights: Toby Mundy, Toby
Mundy Associates
Odafe Atogun was born in
Nigeria, in the town of Lokoja,
where the Rivers Niger and
Benue meet, but hails from Edo
State. Now a full-time writer, he
is married and lives in Abuja.
Taduno’s Song is his first novel.
13
Endgame
Ahmet Altan
Translated by Alexander Dawe
A dark, seductive and existential page-turner
from one of Turkey’s greatest novelists
‘I don’t remember pulling the trigger; I only heard the gunshot.
And then I saw a mouth opening, as if to speak, a face
contorted, one hand in the air . . . And then a body falling . . .’
A man retires to a sun-baked Turkish town for a quiet life.
But he finds a world of suspicion, paranoia and violence.
The town has made a murderer of him. The question is,
who did he kill?
Led by a deeply untrustworthy narrator, Ahmet Altan’s international bestseller pulls us into a
world of desire, ambition and death. A detective story turned on its head, Endgame is sensual,
compelling and laced with a dreamlike logic reminiscent of Paul Auster. Endgame heralds
Ahmet Altan as one of the most exciting international literary voices to have emerged in years.
‘Altan bangs on doors that say “do not disturb” . . . Endgame is deeply political. It is
populated by characters who try to grab that hypothetical treasure on the hill and in so
doing tear their local paradise apart. Altan has a deep understanding of what drives them
on. It is all very serious but also great fun’ Guardian
‘Endgame is intriguing, disturbing and revealing all at once’ Skinny
‘A deeply compelling and immersive narrative about love, desire, loneliness and landscape.
Ahmet Altan is one of the foremost voices in Turkish literature and has much to say to the
world’ Elif Shafak
‘If Steinbeck had written The Godfather it might have read like this. Endgame is a rare beast:
a mystery adventure in the age of internet, of such intimately written humanity that it
transcends genre, time and place’ DBC Pierre
‘An impassioned, captivating dance, a waltz between death and desire that does not
release you for even a single moment’ Philippe Sands
‘Endgame is a complex and immensely readable book – insightful, disturbing, irritating and
riveting’ Andrea Wulf
‘Extraordinary, delicious, wise, I admire Ahmet Altan’s novels’ Linn Ullman
UK Publication: August 2015
Rights held: World excl.
Turkey (Everest) and
Greece (Psichogios)
Rights Sold: Bulgaria (Ciela
Norma), Canada
(HarperCollins), Italy
(Edizioni EO), Norway
(Gyldendal), US (Europa
Editions)
Other Rights: Levent Yilmaz
14
Ahmet Altan is one of Turkey's most significant authors and journalists. His
first novel, Four Seasons of Autumn, published when he was 27, won the
Grand Award of the Akademi Publishing House. His second, Trace on the
Water, was banned for obscenity. Dangerous Tales, 1996, became a
bestseller and sold more than 200,000 copies. His novels have been
translated into many languages.
Alexander Dawe was born in New York and now lives and works in Istanbul.
He received a PEN translation fund to translate the collected short stories
of Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar. He worked with Maureen Freely on a new
translation of Tanpınar’s novel The Time Regulation Institute (published by
Penguin in the US).
Recent Publications
The Honours Tim Clare
‘Gorgeously gripping . . . the comparisons that
most readily spring to mind are the wildly eccentric
and benevolent imaginations of Neil Gaiman and
Terry Pratchett’ Guardian
‘A darkly compelling read’ Financial Times
TRUE HONOUR IS ENDLESS. JOIN US.
‘A tour de force of breathless thrills’ Herald
War is looming and the sprawling country estate of Alderberen Hall is
shadowed by suspicion and paranoia. 13-year-old Delphine is determined to
uncover the secrets of the Hall’s elite society, which has taken in her gullible
mother and unstable father. As she explores the house and discovers the
secret network of hidden passages that thread through the estate, Delphine
uncovers a world more dark and threatening than she ever imagined. She
must learn the bloody lessons of war and find the soldier within herself in
time to battle the deadly forces amassing in the woods . . .
The Honours is a dark, glittering and dangerously unputdownable novel which
invites you to enter a thrilling and fantastical world unlike any other.
UK Publication: April 2015
Rights Held: World
Rights Sold: Korea (RH Korea)
Other Rights: Sophie Lambert,
Conville & Walsh
Tim Clare is a performance poet. As a stand-up poet, Tim has
performed nationwide including at the Edinburgh Fringe and
countless festivals. He has appeared on TV, Radio and has
written for the Guardian, The Times, the Independent, the Big
Issue and Writing magazine, amongst others. This is his debut
novel.
The Book of Strange New Things
Michel Faber
Saltire Book of the Year Winner
‘His magnificently bold and addictive new novel is at
once a return to the imaginative territory of his first,
and a book quite unlike any other I’ve read’
Sunday Times
‘A work of originality and insight into the religion
meme, the most humane satire I have ever read’
The Times
From the author of Under the Skin and The Crimson Petal and The White, the first novel from Michel
Faber in 12 years is a wildly original tale of adventure, faith and the ties that might hold two people
together when they are worlds apart.
From the moment Peter says goodbye to his wife, Bea, and boards his flight, he begins a quest that will
challenge his religious beliefs, his love and his understanding of the limits of the human body.
This momentous novel is Faber at his expectation-defying best. It is a brilliantly compelling book about
love in the face of death, and the search for meaning in an unfathomable universe.
UK Publication: October 2014
Rights Held: World
Rights Sold: Brazil (Rocco), Canada (HarperCollins), Croatia
(Vukovic and Runjic), Czech Republic (Kniha Zlin), Estonia
(Varrak), France (Editions de l’Olivier), Greece (Livanis), Italy
(Bompiani), Korea (Invictus), Netherlands (Podium), Poland
(Foksal), Portugal (Relogio D’Agua), Russia (Azbooka-Atticus),
Spain (Anagrama), Sweden (Brombergs), Turkey (DoganKitap), Ukraine (Vivat), US (Crown)
Other Rights: Canongate Books
Michel Faber has written eight books, including the Whitbreadshortlisted Under the Skin and the highly acclaimed The Crimson
Petal and The White. He has won several short-story awards,
including the Neil Gunn, Ian St James and Macallan. Born in
Holland, brought up in Australia, he now lives in the Scottish
Highlands. TV rights for The Book of Strange New Things have been
optioned by Left Bank Pictures.
Backlist: The Apple, The Courage Consort, The Crimson Petal and
The White, The Fahrenheit Twins, The Fire Gospel, The Hundred and
Ninety-Nine Steps, Some Rain Must Fall and Under the Skin
15
NON-FICTION
If I Could Tell You Just
One Thing...
Encounters with Remarkable People and their
Advice for Life
Richard Reed
A highly original and inspiring book in
which life lessons from a wonderfully
diverse mixture of remarkable people
are gathered together by entrepreneur
Richard Reed
Richard Reed, with his two partners, built Innocent Drinks from a
smoothie stall on a street corner to a multi-million pound company and
international brand that produces over a million smoothies a day.
He credits his success to four brilliant pieces of advice, each given to him
at critical points in his life. Subsequently, whenever he meets someone he
admires, he asks them for their best piece of advice. If they could tell him
just one thing, what would it be?
The resulting book is a delightful series of adventures in advice, as
Richard travels the world to collect the wisdom that an eclectic range of
successful people from all walks of life are willing to share. Whether it be
with Bill Clinton or Annie Lennox, Harry Belafonte or Marina Abramovic,
Richard Branson or Caitlin Moran, Al Gore or Esther Perel, Dr Maki
Mandela or Jude Law, Jeanette Winterson or Ari Emmanuel, Indra Nooyi
or Andy Murray, Mick Jagger or Diana Athill, Richard’s varied encounters
will inspire and entertain readers of all ages. Part business book, part selfhelp, part travel, and always a total joy, If I Could Tell You Just One
Thing. . . is unlike anything you have ever read before and will change the
way you see your life.
UK Publication: November 2016
Rights Held: World
Other Rights: Antony Topping,
Greene & Heaton
Richard Reed studied geography at St. John’s College, Cambridge before
starting a career in advertising. A few years later he and two friends left their
jobs to found Innocent Drinks. Starting from a market stall, today Innocent
produces more than a million smoothies a day and sells them in 17 countries
across Europe. Richard is the founder of Art Everywhere and co-founder of the
Innocent Foundation and JamJar Investments. He also presented the BBC
Three series Be Your Own Boss. This is his first book.
17
Creating Freedom
Power, Control and the Fight for Our Future
Raoul Martinez
A radical, revolutionary and highly provocative
rethink of freedom from a writer, artist and awardwinning film-maker
The ideal of freedom is at the heart of our political
and economic system. It is foundational to our sense
of justice, our way of life, our conception of what it is
to be human. But are we free in the way that we think
we are?
In Creating Freedom, Raoul Martinez brings together a
torrent of mind-expanding ideas, facts and arguments
to dismantle sacred myths central to our society –
myths about free will, free markets, free media and free
elections. From the lottery of our birth to the consentmanufacturing influence of concentrated wealth and
power, this far-reaching manifesto lifts the veil on the
mechanisms of control that pervade our lives. It shows
that the more we understand how the world shapes us,
the more effectively we can shape the world.
A highly original exploration of the most urgent questions of our time, it reveals that we are
far less free than we like to think, yet it also shows that freedom is something we can create
together, and that our very survival may depend on us doing so.
‘A profound and interesting project’ Nick Davies
‘A “manifesto for real and radical change”. This is a brilliant and timely analysis of our
political landscape and the ideals which should inform how we reshape the world’
Helena Kennedy QC
‘This discussion of the impossibility of ultimate moral responsibility is extremely well written,
aphoristic in places, and philosophically right on target’ Galen Strawson
‘Everyone trying to puzzle through how to deal with the madness of the world – and the
forces destroying it – should read this book’ Johann Hari
UK Publication: September 2016
Rights Held: World
Rights Sold: Canada (PRH
Canada), Germany (Hoffmann &
Campe), Korea (Bookie),
Netherlands (Atlas-Contact), Spain
(Paidos), US (Pantheon)
Other Rights: Canongate Books
18
Raoul Martinez is a writer, artist and award-winning
filmmaker. Creating Freedom is his first book and is informed by
over a decade of research. Raoul is also making a series of
documentaries entitled Creating Freedom. The first in the series,
The Lottery of Birth – produced, written and co-directed by
Raoul – premiered in 2012. It was nominated for Best
Documentary at London’s Raindance Film Festival and went on
to win the Artivist Spirit 2012 Award at Hollywood’s Artivist
Festival. It has been translated into several languages and the
second film is currently in production. Raoul lives and works in
London, where his paintings have been selected for exhibition
in the National Portrait Gallery.
Timekeepers
How the World Became Obsessed With Time
Simon Garfield
An entertaining and authoritative exploration of
how and why time has come to rule our lives
from the bestselling author of Just My Type
Not so long ago we timed our lives by the movement of the
sun. These days our time arrives atomically and insistently,
and our lives are propelled by the notion that we will never
have enough of the one thing we crave the most. How have
we come to be dominated by something so arbitrary?
The compelling stories in this book explore our obsessions
with time. An Englishman arrives back from Calcutta but
refuses to adjust his watch. Beethoven has his symphonic
wishes ignored. A moment of war is frozen forever. The
timetable arrives by steam train. A woman designs a tenhour clock and reinvents the calendar. Roger Bannister
becomes stuck in the same four minutes forever. A British
watchmaker competes with mighty Switzerland. And a
prince attempts to stop time in its tracks.
Timekeepers is a vivid exploration of the ways we have perceived,
contained and saved time over the last 250 years, narrated in the
highly inventive and entertaining style that bestselling author
Simon Garfield is fast making his own. As managing time
becomes the greatest challenge we face in our lives, this multilayered history helps us tackle it in a sparkling new light.
Praise for Simon Garfield:
‘His great strength is his storytelling’ Independent on Sunday
‘Garfield has a genius for being sparked to life by esoteric enthusiasm and
charming readers with his delight’ The Times
Praise for To The Letter:
‘Excellent’ Financial Times
‘His book is a shining success’ Sunday Times
‘A wonderfully elegant history’ Observer
‘Garfield’s knowledge is wide and his enthusiasm endless’ The Times
‘Superb’ Independent on Sunday
UK Publication: September 2016
Rights Held: World
Option Publishers: China (Sichuan People’s
Publishing), Germany (WBG), Italy (Ponte Alle
Grazie), Japan (Kashiwashobo), Netherlands
(Podium), Spain (Taurus), Turkey (Domingo)
Other Rights: Rosemary Scoular, United Agents
Simon Garfield is the author of 17 acclaimed books of non-fiction
including A Notable Woman (as editor), To the Letter, On the Map,
Just My Type and Mauve. His study of AIDS in Britain, The End of
Innocence, won the Somerset Maugham prize.
www.simongarfield.com
Backlist: To the Letter, My Dear Bessie and A Notable Woman
19
Insanely Gifted
Turn Your Demons into
Creative Rocket Fuel
Jamie Catto
From the creative dynamo, workshop
leader and founding member of
Faithless comes a manifesto for
embracing our dark side, and a
blueprint for boosting our creativity
From infancy we are taught to edit ourselves,
trimming out the darker, weirder, less
acceptable parts in order to please others. But
this addiction to approval is holding us back.
What if we begin to be ourselves, honestly and fully?
Insanely Gifted shows how to transform our thinking and turn our inner
demons into allies. How to reframe disappointment (because not getting
what we want can be as interesting and useful as getting what we want).
Through techniques to become aware of our Inner Critic, and exercises such
as Full Body Listening, Catto invites us to better know our deepest instincts
– and unlock our true power.
Praise for Jamie Catto:
‘Crucially, tangibly, useful’ Sunday Times
‘A polite warning; prolonged exposure to Jamie Catto could blow your
mind…’ Daily Telegraph
‘Jamie Catto is a positive force in the world’ Noam Chomsky
‘Jamie Catto is kind, wise, open, boundlessly energetic, optimistic and
passionate. I adore him’ Stephen Fry
‘Jamie Catto is a human icebreaker with a prow of determination and a
motor of love, slicing through the frozen seas around us’ Tom Robbins
UK Publication: July 2016
Rights Held: World
Other Rights: Jamie Catto
Workshops
20
Jamie Catto runs personal development workshops worldwide.
His teaching builds on his own experience of overcoming
creative hurdles, and provides techniques that invite everyone
to fulfil their potential. He was also a founding member of
dance mega-group Faithless and acclaimed global music and
philosophy project 1 Giant Leap. The first 1 Giant Leap project
was nominated for two Grammys, sold over 300,000 albums
and won numerous awards globally. The greatest hits album
from Faithless was the fastest selling dance album of all time.
The Story Cure
An A-Z of Books to Keep Kids Happy, Healthy and Wise
Ella Berthoud & Susan Elderkin
A literary first aid kit of book recommendations
for children of all ages from the authors of
The Novel Cure
The Story Cure is a manual to help parents –
and godparents, and teachers, and carers, oh,
and librarians, of course, and just about
anyone else – with picking books for children.
Bibliotherapists Ella Berthoud and Susan
Elderkin are back in session, and this time
they want to make sure that their younger
patients are getting the right dose of the right
reading.
Join Ella and Susan as they prescribe histories
and mysteries, fantasy and folktales, Greek
myths and gripping adventure: reading
remedies to soothe all manner of growing
aches and pains, to capture imaginations and
to initiate young readers into one of life’s
most joyful pastimes.
Praise for The Novel Cure:
‘Brilliant . . . A perfect gift’ Vogue
‘The Novel Cure is a charming addition to any library. Time spent leafing through its
pages is inspiring – even therapeutic’ Economist
‘An exuberant pageant of literary fiction and a celebration of the possibilities of
the novel’ Guardian
‘A wonderful fusion of the practical and the entertainingly whimsical . . . witty and
extremely informative’ Observer
‘Ingenious and unapologetically literary’ Daily Mail
UK Publication: October 2016
Rights Held: World
Rights Sold: Germany (Suhrkamp), Italy (Sellerio)
Option Publishers: Brazil (Verus), China (Horizon
Books), France (Editions J. C. Lattès), India (Roli
Books), Korea (RH Korea), Netherlands (Podium),
Russia (Sindbad), Spain (Siruela), Taiwan (Rye
Field), Turkey (Ideal Kultur)
Other Rights: Clare Alexander, Aitken Alexander
Associates
Ella Berthoud and Susan Elderkin met as English
Literature students at Cambridge University, where
they began giving novels to each other whenever
one of them seemed in need of a boost. Ella went on
to study fine art and become a painter and art
teacher. Susan became a novelist (Sunset Over
Chocolate Mountains and The Voices, both Fourth
Estate) and in 2003 was listed by Granta as one of the
Twenty Best of Young British Novelists. She also
teaches creative writing and writes travel pieces and
book reviews for various newspapers. They published
their first book together, The Novel Cure, in 2013.
21
Mind Over Money
The Psychology of Money and How To Use It Better
Claudia Hammond
A fascinating and practical guide to the
psychology of money
A day doesn’t go by without money coming in to our
interactions. But how much do we really understand
it? We know we need money. We tend to want more of
it. But why do we behave the way we do with it? And
why does it have such a hold on us?
Award-winning writer and psychologist Claudia
Hammond delves into the surprising psychology of
money to show us that our relationship with the stuff
is more complex than we might think.
Exploring the latest research in psychology, neuroscience, biology and behavioural
economics, she also reveals some simple and effective tricks that will help you think,
use and save money better – from how being grumpy helps if you don’t want to be
ripped off to why you should opt for the more expensive pain relief, from how to shop
for a new laptop to why you should never offer to pay your friends for favours.
An eye-opening and entertaining investigation into the power money holds over
us, Mind Over Money will change the way you view the cash in your wallet and the
figures in your bank account forever.
‘Claudia Hammond is the ideal tour guide for this hugely enjoyable journey through
the strange psychology of spending and saving. Mind Over Money is both a
fascinating exploration of the ways money messes with our heads, and a practical
guidebook for how to avoid getting fleeced – whether by others or our own irrational
minds’ Oliver Burkeman
UK Publication: May 2016
Rights Held: World
Rights Sold: Canada (House of
Anansi), China (Citic Press Corporation),
Germany (Tropen Klett-Cotta),
Netherlands (Atlas-Contact), Korea
(Winnder’s Books), Spain (Taurus), Taiwan
(Faces), US (HarperCollins)
Option Publishers: China (Hunan), Estonia
(Aripaev), Poland (PWN), Turkey (April)
Other Rights: Will Francis, Janklow & Nesbit
22
Claudia Hammond is an award-winning writer,
broadcaster and psychology lecturer. She is BBC
Radio 4’s voice of psychology, presenting All in the
Mind and Mind Changers. She has been awarded
the British Psychological Society’s Public
Engagement and Media Award, Mind’s Making a
Difference Award, the Society of Personality and
Social Psychology’s Media Achievement Award
and the British Neuroscience Association’s Public
Understanding of Neuroscience Award. She is the
author of Emotional Rollercoaster and Time
Warped, winner of the British Psychological Society
Best Popular Science Book Award 2013.
Backlist: Time Warped
The Lonely City
Adventures in the Art of Being Alone
Olivia Laing
A dazzling investigation into loneliness, art and the modern city
from the critically acclaimed author of The Trip to Echo Spring
What does it mean to be lonely? How do we live, if we’re not
intimately engaged with another human being? How do we
connect with other people? When Olivia Laing moved to New
York City in her mid-thirties, she found herself inhabiting
loneliness on a daily basis. Fascinated by the experience, she
began to explore the lonely city by way of art. Moving fluidly
between works and lives – from Edward Hopper’s
Nighthawks to Andy Warhol’s Time Capsules, from Henry
Darger’s hoarding to the depredations of the AIDS crisis –
Laing conducts an electric, dazzling investigation into what it
means to be alone, illuminating not only the causes of
loneliness but also how it might be resisted and redeemed.
Humane, provocative and deeply moving, The Lonely City is about the spaces between people
and the things that draw them together, about sexuality, mortality and the magical possibilities
of art. It’s a celebration of a strange and lovely state, adrift from the larger continent of human
experience, but intrinsic to the very act of being alive.
‘Triumphant’ Telegraph, 5 stars
‘Sublime. Few people write about loneliness with this verve or cultural range’ The Times
‘Endlessly, compulsively fascinating, Laing’s book has a character of its own. Like the city, it has a dark
sheen, sidling out of the shadows, by turns alluring and curious, angry and exciting. The Lonely City
changes the way we think about art, the people who make it, and the price they pay’ New Statesman
‘Exhilarating . . . Laing goes beyond reparation to offer something beautifully integrated, original,
compassionate. She does not pose as a professional expert; her very subjectivity, her own suffering,
confer her authority because they are so enmeshed with her powerful intelligence’ Independent
‘Inspired’ Guardian, Book of the Week
‘A fascinating, eerie piece of writing’ Sunday Times
‘Lyrical, wise . . . Laing is a great critic, not least because she understands that art can and often
does manifest multiple conflicting meanings and desires at once’ Slate
‘Smart and oddly consoling’ New York Times
‘Compelling and original’ Harpers Bazaar
‘Magical’ Boston Globe
UK Publication: March 2016
Rights Held: World excl. North America
(Picador)
Rights Sold: Brazil (Rocco), China (United
Sky), Korea (Across Publishing), Netherlands
(De Bezige Bij), Taiwan (Business Weekly
Publications), Turkey (Ithaki Yayinlari)
Option Publishers: Spain (Atico de los Libros)
Other Rights: Rebecca Carter, Janklow &
Nesbit
Olivia Laing is a widely acclaimed writer and critic. Her
work appears in numerous publications, including the
Guardian, Observer, New Statesman and New York
Times. She’s a Yaddo and MacDowell Fellow and was
2014 Eccles Writer in Residence at the British Library.
Her first book, To the River, was shortlisted for the Royal
Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize and the Dolman
Travel Book of the Year. The Trip to Echo Spring was
shortlisted for the 2013 Costa Biography Award and the
2014 Gordon Burn Prize. www.olivialaing.co.uk
Backlist: To the River and The Trip to Echo Spring
23
The Outrun
Amy Liptrot
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WELLCOME BOOK PRIZE
A remarkable memoir about recovery
from addiction that marks the arrival of
a significant new voice in nature
writing
At the age of 30, Amy Liptrot finds
herself washed up back home on
Orkney. Standing unstable on the
island, she tries to come to terms with
the addiction that has swallowed the
last decade of her life. As she spends
her mornings swimming in the
bracingly cold sea, her days tracking
Orkney’s wildlife, and her nights
searching the sky for the Merry
Dancers, Amy discovers how the wild
can restore life and renew hope, anchor
us and set us free.
‘[Sits] alongside Richard Mabey’s Nature Cure and Helen Macdonald’s H is for Hawk – the sheer
sensuality of Liptrot’s prose and her steely resolve immediately put her right up there with
the best of the best’ New Statesman
‘Uncompromising and lyrical . . . Liptrot’s writing is strong and sure. Here is a writer finding her
voice and The Outrun is a bright addition to the exploding genre of writing about place and our
place in the natural world’ Observer
‘The Outrun is a brave book, which goes to the heart of addiction and its woes. From start to
finish, The Outrun is a glory to read. Matchless descriptions of landscape are combined with
thoughtful reflections on Orcadian culture and local Norse legend’ Telegraph
‘A lyrical, brave memoir . . . It is Liptrot’s aptitude for marrying her inner-space with wild outer-spaces
that makes her such a compelling writer’ Guardian
‘Luminous . . . Fresh, clear-eyed and unflinching’ Sunday Times
‘There is a great deal of frank, flinch-making writing in this book, but it is always balanced by a sublimity
and graciousness that is rare . . . This is a bold-hearted and brave-minded book’ Scotland on Sunday
‘Remarkable’ Independent
24
UK Publication: January 2016
Rights Held: World
Rights Sold: China (Beijing Land of
Wisdom Books), Finland (Viisas Elämä
Oy), Germany (btb), Italy (Ugo
Guanda), Netherlands (Ambo/Anthos),
Sweden (Bonniers), US (W.W. Norton)
Other Rights: James Macdonald
Lockhart, Anthony Harwood Limited
Amy Liptrot has published her work with various
magazines, journals and blogs and has written a
regular column for Caught by the River from
which The Outrun has emerged. As well as writing
for her local newspaper, Orkney Today, and
editing the Edinburgh The Student newspaper,
she has worked as an artist’s model, a trampolinist
and in a shellfish factory. This is her first book.
Undying
A Love Story
Michel Faber
A heart-breaking chronicle of losing
the love of your life by Michel Faber,
the award-winning author of
The Book of Strange New Things
In Undying Michel Faber honours the memory of
his wife, who died after a six-year battle with cancer.
Bright, tragic, candid and true, these poems are an
exceptional chronicle of what it means to find the love
of your life. And what it is like to have to say goodbye.
All I can do, in what remains of my brief time,
is mention, to whoever cares to listen,
that a woman once existed, who was kind
and beautiful and brave, and I will not forget
how the world was altered, beyond recognition,
when we met.
‘Michel Faber addressed these love poems to his wife after her death. They are
lucid, tender and wise, and they pulse with this fine writer’s intelligence’
Ian McEwan
‘Heart-breaking, tender, intimate, harrowing . . . this is a stunning testimony to
love. In the aftermath, when even the sight of snowflakes hurts the bereaved
heart, one truth remains: love outlives the body, love outlives death’
Mary Costello
‘I was touched by the spirit of these poems, their vulnerably sober and steady
way of addressing grief’ Christopher Reid
‘A painful little treasure’ Christopher Brookmyre
‘Searing yet beautiful’ Rev Richard Holloway
UK Publication: July 2016
Rights Held: World excl. North America
Rights Sold: Italy (La nave di Teseo),
Netherlands (Podium)
Option Publishers: Croatia (Vukovic and
Runjic), Czech Republic (Kniha Zlin), Estonia
(Varrak), France (Editions de l’Olivier), Greece
(Livanis), Korea (Invictus), Poland (Foksal),
Portugal (Relogio D’Agua), Spain (Anagrama)
Other Rights: Claire Conrad, Janklow & Nesbit
Michel Faber has written nine other books. In addition
to the Whitbread-shortlisted Under the Skin, he is the
author of the highly acclaimed and bestselling The
Crimson Petal and The White, and most recently The
Book of Strange New Things, which was shortlisted for
the Arthur C. Clarke Award and won the Saltire Book
of the Year Award 2015. Born in Holland, brought up in
Australia, he now lives in the Scottish Highlands. This is
his first poetry collection.
Backlist: The Apple, The Courage Consort, The Crimson
Petal and The White, The Fahrenheit Twins, The Fire
Gospel, The Hundred and Ninety-Nine Steps, Some
Rain Must Fall and Under the Skin
25
Reasons to Stay Alive
Matt Haig
THE NO.1 BESTSELLER
29 WEEKS ON THE SUNDAY TIMES
BESTSELLER LIST SO FAR . . .
Warm, witty, honest and human, this book is
a manifesto for staying alive, whatever your
demons.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO FEEL TRULY
ALIVE?
Aged 24, Matt Haig’s world caved in. He
could see no way to go on living. This is the
true story of how he came through crisis,
triumphed over an illness that almost
destroyed him and learned to live again.
A moving, funny and joyous exploration of
how to live better, love better and feel more
alive, Reasons to Stay Alive is more than a
memoir. It is a book about making the most
of your time on earth.
‘I wrote this book because the oldest clichés remain the truest. Time heals. The
bottom of the valley never provides the clearest view. The tunnel does have light
at the end of it, even if we haven’t been able to see it . . . Words, just sometimes,
really can set you free’
‘Warm and engaging, and shot through with humour’ Sunday Times
‘Matt Haig’s book is both timely and absolutely necessary’ Daily Express
‘A tender, candid, inspiring book about depression’ Sunday Express
‘A scintillating read’ Daily Mail
‘Magnificent’ Huffington Post
‘A memoir of depression so painful and powerful that it’s destined to become a
modern classic’ Entertainment Weekly
26
UK Publication: March 2015
Rights Held: World
Rights Sold: Argentina (Planeta), Brazil (Intrinseca),
Canada (HarperCollins), China (Ginkgo), Croatia
(Mozaik), Czech Republic (Dobrovsky), Finland (Viisas
Elämä Oy), France (Editions Philippe Rey), Germany
(DTV), Greece (Patakis), Hungary (Libri), Italy (Ponte alle
Grazie), Korea (KPI), Netherlands (Lebowski), Norway
(Libretto), Poland (Sonia Draga), Portugal (Porto), Russia
(Eksmo), Slovakia (Premedia), Spain Catalan (Empúries),
Sweden (Massolit), Taiwan (CommonWealth Magazine),
Turkey (Kolektif), US (Penguin)
Other Rights: Clare Conville, Conville & Walsh
Matt Haig is the bestselling author of five
novels, including The Humans, The
Radleys and The Last Family in England. He
has also written award-winning children’s
books. His work has been translated into 30
languages. He grew up in Nottinghamshire
and now lives in Brighton.
Backlist: The Radleys, The Humans and
Humans: An A-Z
Hamlet: Globe to Globe
Around the World in a Play
Dominic Dromgoole
Hamlet: Globe to Globe takes readers across all
seven continents on a fascinating journey into
the world of Shakespeare, Hamlet and the stage.
From Dominic Dromgoole, Artistic Director of The
Globe Theatre
After a boozy night in London’s theatre
district, Dominic Dromgoole, the Artistic
Director of The Globe, came up with an idea.
He would take Hamlet to every country on the
planet. He would mark the 400th anniversary
of Shakespeare’s death by sharing him with
the entire world. It was brilliant, it was aweinspiring, it was insane.
Over the two years that followed, Dromgoole and The Globe players toured all seven
continents performing the bard’s most famous tragedy in sweltering deserts, ice-cold
cathedrals and heaving marketplaces – despite food poisoning in Mexico, the threat of
ambush in Somaliland and political upheaval in Ukraine.
In Hamlet: Globe to Globe Dromgoole shows us the world through the prism of
Shakespeare. We see what the Danish prince means to the people of Sudan, the effect
of Ophelia on the citizens of Costa Rica and how a 16th-century play can touch the
lives of Syrian refugees. We will witness Shakespeare’s power to transcend borders, to
touch the human heart, and to truly bring the world closer together.
globetoglobe.shakespearesglobe.com
Praise for Will and Me by Dominic Dromgoole:
‘An absolute delight . . . utterly original and relishable’ Sunday Times
‘Friendly, inclusive, I warmed to it immediately . . . A terrific book’ Evening Standard
‘Superb . . . thrillingly entertaining . . . throbs with vigour, honesty and passion’
Daily Telegraph
‘A record of a lifelong obsession – articulate, intelligent and passionately set down . . .
Dromgoole’s enthusiasm has a sincerity and warmth that are infectious’ Observer
‘Irresistibly seductive’ Independent on Sunday
UK Publication: April 2017
Rights Held: World
Rights Sold: US (Grove Atlantic)
Other Rights: Patrick Walsh, Conville
& Walsh
Dominic Dromgoole is the Artistic Director of the Globe
Theatre in London from 2005 to 2016. He is the author of The
Full Room: An A-Z of Contemporary Playwriting and of Will and
Me: How Shakespeare Took Over My Life, which won the
inaugural Sheridan Morley award. He regularly contributes to
the New Statesman, the Sunday Times and other publications.
27
The Brain
The Story of You
David Eagleman
Bestselling author and ‘the hottest thing
in neuroscience’ (The Times) David
Eagleman takes readers on a
fascinating and eye-opening journey
into the world of the brain
‘This is the story of how your life shapes your brain,
and how your brain shapes your life.’
Join renowned neuroscientist David
Eagleman on a whistle-stop tour of the
inner cosmos. It’s a journey that will take
you into the world of extreme sports,
criminal justice, genocide, brain surgery,
robotics, and the search for immortality.
On the way, amidst the infinitely dense
tangle of brain cells and their trillions of
connections, something emerges that you
might not have expected to see: you.
‘An ideal introduction to how biology generates the mind. . . structured around
crucial and wide-ranging questions, saturated with personal and social
relevance. And Eagleman’s answers are consistently clear, engaging
and thought-provoking’ Nature
‘Fascinating’ Financial Times
‘An accessible and fascinating primer on the latest brain science’ Sunday Times
‘Manages to be both entertaining and profound: page-turning neuroscience
from a bit of a genius’ Guardian
28
UK Publication: November 2015
Rights Held: World
Rights Sold: Brazil (Rocco), China
(Cheers Publishing), Estonia (Argo
Kirjasyus), Germany (Pantheon), Italy
(Corbaccio), Japan (Hayakawa),
Korea (Bookhouse), North America
(Pantheon), Portugal (Lua de Papel),
Russia (Azbooka-Atticus), Spain
(Anagrama), Taiwan (Commonwealth
Publishing), Turkey (Domingo)
Other Rights: Blink, David Eagleman
David Eagleman is an assistant professor of neuroscience at Baylor
College of Medicine, Houston, where he directs the Laboratory for
Perception and Action as well as the Initiative on Neuroscience
and Law. His scientific research is published in journals from
Science to Nature, and he is also the author of the international
fiction bestseller, Sum, and Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain.
He is the writer and presenter of the companion BBC television
series The Brain. His most recent TED Talk has been viewed over 1.3
million times.
www.ted.com/talks/david_eagleman_can_we_create_new_senses_for_humans
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
Cure
A Journey Into the Science of Mind Over Body
Jo Marchant
A ground-breaking look at the new science behind
the mind’s surprising ability to heal the body, with
advice and tips on how we can all use the latest
research to improve our health and our lives
The field of mind–body medicine is plagued by wild claims
that mislead patients and instil false hope. But as scientists
in a range of fields uncover solid evidence that our minds
influence our bodies far more profoundly than previously
thought, there is now great promise too.
In her eye-opening new book, Jo Marchant delves deep into
the latest scientific research and asks:
- Are those who turn to alternative medicine deluded, or
are they on to something?
- Can our thoughts, beliefs and emotions influence our
physical health?
- Can we train our brains to heal our bodies?
Cure takes us on a remarkable journey and offers a new and
thought-provoking view of what it means to be human.
‘The author has a gift for writing that is both clear and vivid, and communicates complex ideas in a
way that is comprehensible and uncondescending’ Independent
‘Writing with simplicity, clarity and style, and covering an enormous range of material, she surveys with
grace what we think we know, and what we would like to know, about the mysterious and troubling
relationship between our minds and our bodies’ Guardian
‘Ms. Marchant writes well, which is never a guarantee in this genre . . . [she] has chosen very moving
characters to show us the importance of the research . . . and she has an equal flair for finding Inspirational
figures . . . the studies are irresistible, and they come in an almost infinite variety’ New York Times
‘A well-researched page-turner . . . raises questions about the role of culture, environment and
neurochemistry in our responses to treatment – and may very well lead to widespread changes in the
ways we practice medicine’ New York Post
‘Wide-ranging and compelling’ Science News
UK Publication: February 2016
Rights Held: World excl. North America (Crown)
Rights Sold: Australia (Text), Brazil (Record), Bulgaria
(Bard), Czech Republic (Euromedia), Denmark
(Gyldendal), Finland (Atena), France (Flammarion),
Germany (Rowohlt), Hungary (Libri), Israel
(Kinneret-Zmora), Italy (Mondadori), Japan
(Kodansha), Korea (RH Korea), Lithuania (Vaga),
Netherlands (Atlas-Contact), Poland (Galaktyka),
Portugal (Lua de Papel), Russia (Azbooka-Atticus),
Slovakia (Ikar), Spain (Aguilar), Taiwan (Emily
Publishing), Turkey (Domingo)
Other Rights: Karolina Sutton, Curtis Brown
Dr Jo Marchant is an award-winning science journalist. She
has a PhD in genetics and medical microbiology from St
Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical College in London, and
an MSc in Science Communication (with a dissertation in
evidence-based medicine) from Imperial College London.
She has worked as an editor at New Scientist and at
Nature and has written for the Guardian, Wired and the
Observer. Her radio and TV appearances include BBC
Radio 4’s Start the Week and Today programmes, CNN
and National Geographic. She has lectured around the
world. Her first book, Decoding the Heavens (William
Heinemann, 2008) was shortlisted for the Royal Society’s
Prize for Science Books.
29
Simon’s Cat: Off to the Vet . . .
And Other Cat-astrophes
‘Several outings down the line, Simon’s Cat
is still an immense charmer’ Bookseller
Simon Tofield
In the last seven years, Simon’s Cat has become a global phenomenon.
Star of 39 films, which have been watched over 600 million times, and
winner of a dozen major industry awards, Simon’s Cat has captured the
hearts of a worldwide audience.
In this brand new book we see Simon’s Cat face any feline’s most dreaded
scenario – he’s off to the vet. And he’s not at all happy about it. Sharing its
theme with the first ever full colour Simon’s Cat feature animation, funded by a
record-breaking IndieGoGo campaign, Simon’s Cat: Off to the Vet is packed with
240 pages of hilarious new gags featuring our favourite furry friend and his
companions – both old and new.
Simon Tofield is an award-winning illustrator,
animator and director. He has had a lifelong
interest in animals, beginning as a child, when his
uncle gave him a plastic pond which quickly filled
with wildlife. Simon was given his first cat when he
was nine and now has four rescue cats, who are
the mischievous inspiration for his work.
UK Publication: October 2015
Rights Held: World
Rights Sold: France (Univers Poche), Germany (Goldmann), Italy
(TEA), Russia (Gayatri LiveBook), Spain (Duomo), US (Akashic Books)
Option Publishers: Brazil (L&PM Editores), China (Dook Publishing),
Finland (Gummerus), Poland (Foksal)
Other Rights: Robert Kirby, United Agents
Backlist: Simon’s Cat,
Simon’s Cat: Beyond the Fence,
Simon’s Cat: in Kitten Chaos,
Simon’s Cat vs. the World and
The Bumper Book of Simon’s Cat
UK Publication: March 2012 (Feed Me!), March
2013 (Wake Up!) and July 2013 (Play Time!)
Rights Held: World
Rights Sold: Brazil (L&PM Editores), China (Dook
Publishing), France (Univers Poche), Germany
(Goldmann), Italy (TEA), Latvia (Zvaigzne ABC),
Russia (Gayatri LiveBook), Spain (Duomo)
Option Publishers: Finland (Gummerus), Korea
(Gobooky), Poland (Foksal), US (Akashic Books)
Other Rights: Robert Kirby, United Agents
30
More Letters of Note
Correspondence Deserving of a Wider Audience
Compiled by Shaun Usher
The follow-up to the international bestseller
and publishing phenomenon Letters of Note
More Letters of Note is another rich and inspiring
collection, which reminds us that much of what
matters in our lives finds its way into our letters.
These letters deliver the same mix of the heartfelt,
the historically significant, the tragic, the comic and
the unexpected. Discover Richard Burton’s farewell
note to Elizabeth Taylor, Helen Keller’s letter to The
New York Symphony Orchestra about ‘hearing’ their
concert through her fingers, the final missives from a
doomed Japan Airlines flight in 1985, David Bowie’s
response to his first piece of fan mail from America
and even Albus Dumbledore writing to a reader
applying for the position of Defence Against the
Dark Arts Professor at Hogwarts.
Including letters from: Jane Austen, Charles Bukowski, Alan Turing, Eleanor Roosevelt,
Henry James, Sylvia Plath, John Lennon, Victor Hugo, Janis Joplin, Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart, Hunter S. Thompson, C. G. Jung, Katherine Mansfield, Marge Simpson, Dorothy
Parker, Buckminster Fuller, Milada Horáková, Che Guevara, Evelyn Waugh, Charlotte
Brontë and many more.
‘Funny, shocking and poignant, More Letters of Note must be one of the most entertaining
books of the year’ Financial Times
‘Engaging, eclectic, geekily and gleefully enthusiastic – and both laugh-out-loud funny
and heart-breaking’ Sunday Times
‘Wondrous’ Independent
‘Funny, sad, startling letters’ Daily Telegraph
‘An amazing collection’ Monocle Art Review
‘Beautifully produced’ The Times
‘Another treasure trove of old-fashioned correspondence’ Sunday Business Post
UK Publication: October 2015
Rights Held: World
Rights Sold: France (Seuil), Germany
(Heyne), Norway (Forlaget Press),
Poland (Sine Qua Non), US (Chronicle
Books)
Option Publishers: Brazil (Companhia
das Letras), Korea (Munhaksasang),
Spain (Salamandra)
Other Rights: Unbound
Shaun Usher is a writer and sole custodian of the
popular blogs www.listsofnote.com and
www.lettersofnote.com. As a result, he spends
much of his life hunting down letters and making
lists of things he’d like to share. His first book,
Letters of Note, was jointly published by Unbound
and Canongate to widespread acclaim and
became a top 10 bestseller in the UK.
Backlist: Letters of Note and Lists of Note
31
The Sick Bag Song
Nick Cave
Romantic, poetic and heartfelt, Nick Cave’s new
book is a contemporary epic, somewhere
between Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and
The Wasteland
The Sick Bag Song is an exploration of love, inspiration
and memory. It began life scribbled on airline sick bags
during Cave’s 22-city tour of North America in 2014. It
soon grew into a restless full-length contemporary epic.
Spurred by encounters with modern day North America,
and racked by romantic longing and exhaustion, Cave
teases out the significant moments, the people, the books
and the music that have influenced and inspired him, and
drops them into his sick bag.
The Sick Bag Song blends poetry, lyrics, memories,
musings, flights of fancy and journal entries. It is also a
companion piece to his feature documentary 20,000 Days
on Earth, and explores and develops the imaginative
universe of Nick Cave.
There are two stunning Canongate editions – one
illustrated with facsimiles of Cave’s sickbags and the
other featuring the unbroken text.
‘About as rock'n'roll as you can get . . . shot through with fantasy, fiction,
apocalyptic musings and tall stories’ The Sunday Times
‘An epic narrative poem about his travels across North America . . . Cave is
experimenting with a new literary form - a mash-up of prose, poetry, song
lyrics and autobiography’ New York Times
‘A window on Cave’s honesty. . . Part tour diary and part free-ranging
rumination on the business of performance. Capture[s] the mind-frazzling
disorientation of “the road”’ Guardian
Hardback UK Publication: April 2015
Paperback UK Publication: March 2016
Rights Held: World
Rights Sold: Australia (Text), China
(United Sky), Denmark (Gyldendal),
Finland (Like), Germany (Kiepenheuer
& Witsch), Italy (Bompiani), Spain
(Sexto Piso), US (Houghton Mifflin
Harcourt)
Other Rights: Richard Day, Simons
Muirhead & Burton
32
Nick Cave, the lead singer of The Birthday Party,
The Bad Seeds and Grinderman, has been
performing music for more than 30 years. He has
collaborated with Kylie Minogue, PJ Harvey and
many others. As well as working with Warren Ellis on
the soundtrack for the film of The Road by Cormac
McCarthy and The Assassination of Jesse James by
the Coward Robert Ford, he also wrote the
screenplay for the film The Proposition. His debut
novel, And the Ass Saw the Angel, was published in
1989 and was followed by the internationally
bestselling The Death of Bunny Munro in 2009. Born
in Australia, Cave now lives in Brighton.
Backlist: The Death of Bunny Munro
Gold from the Stone
Lemn Sissay
His first book in almost a decade brings
together new work and old favourites
from national treasure and one of
Britain’s most exciting poets, Lemn Sissay
Lemn Sissay’s first poetry collection was written
aged 18 and hand-sold to miners on the picket
lines of Warrington. Since then his poems have
been sculpted in iron and built from concrete,
declaimed in over 20 countries. He has
performed to thousands of football fans at the
FA Cup Final, to hundreds of thousands as the
poet of the 2012 Olympics, and to millions
across the airwaves on BBC Radio 4 and across
the nation’s TV screens. He has become one of
the nation’s best-loved voices.
Bringing together new writing and a selection of Lemn Sissay’s best-loved poems,
Gold from the Stone is a career-spanning collection from the award-winning poet and
national treasure.
Praise for Lemn Sissay:
‘His name is magic, his poems are songs on the street’ Independent
‘Inventive, funny and touching’ Guardian
‘A literary institution’ Big Issue
UK Publication: August 2016
Rights Held: World
Other Rights: Clare Conville,
Conville & Walsh
Lemn Sissay is an award-winning playwright and
popular broadcaster in the UK, as well as the author
of five poetry books. He was made an Honorary
Doctor of Letters by University of Huddersfield in 2009
and awarded an MBE in 2010. He was the official poet
of the 2012 London Olympics, has worked with the
British Council and is a patron of the Letterbox Club,
supporting children in care. His work has featured at
the Royal Academy and the British Film Institute. In
2015 he was appointed as Chancellor of The University
of Manchester.
Backlist: Listener, Morning Breaks In The Elevator and
Rebel Without Applause
33
More Moaning
The Enlightened One Returns
Karl Pilkington
Join the million-copy bestselling television
star on his journey to enlightenment
After going on a journey of discovery in The
Moaning of Life, the enlightened one –
otherwise known as Karl Pilkington – finds
himself back on the road. In his search for
the answers to life’s big questions, Karl
turns his attention (reluctantly) to the juicy
subjects of art, identity, the body, waste,
time and how to live your life. In Tokyo,
Karl has therapy to try and reduce the size
of his head, he spends time in Chicago with
a man pretending to be a dog, in New York
he tries his hand at painting with his own
vomit and travels to Mexico to perform an
underwater inspection in raw sewage. Will
his travels around the world bring him any
closer to the meaning of life? Find out in his
hilarious new book.
Praise for Karl Pilkington:
‘Not many idiots could make something this funny’ Guardian
‘Genius or mental case? Prepare to be amazed’ Esquire
‘The funniest man on the planet’ Spectator
‘Stupidly funny’ Sunday Mirror
‘A hero for our times’ Mail on Sunday
‘Very funny’ Empire
‘He’s a moron. A completely round, empty-headed, part-chimp Manc’ Ricky Gervais
UK Publication: June 2016
Rights Held: World
Option Publishers: Finland
(Pen & Paper), Germany
(Blanvalet)
Other Rights: Tiffany
Agbeko, John Noel
Management
34
Karl Pilkington is the bestselling author of seven books: The
World of Karl Pilkington, Happyslapped by a Jellyfish,
Karlology, An Idiot Abroad, The Further Adventures of An Idiot
Abroad, The Moaning of Life and More Moaning. He was part
of the Guinness World Record-breaking podcast The Ricky
Gervais Show, which was downloaded over 300 million times
and became an animation for HBO in the US. He also starred in
three series of Sky 1’s global hit An Idiot Abroad and most
recently, The Moaning of Life.
Backlist: An Idiot Abroad, The Further Adventures of An Idiot
Abroad and The Moaning of Life
The Movie Doctors
Simon Mayo & Mark Kermode
The surgery is now open . . .
Simon Mayo and Mark Kermode, experts on
all things film, present The Movie Doctors.
Bringing their unique blend of deep movie
knowledge and medical ignorance they are
ready to offer improbable cinematic cures for
the dilemmas of modern life. Need an
alternative to counting sheep? Try The Piano.
Tinnitus driving you up the wall? Interstellar can
help. Stressed and anxious? The Big Lebowski is
what you need. Mayo and Kermode also take
their scalpel to ‘sick’ movies, dissecting the
perils of excessive length, the ill effects of
glowing praise and warning how cosmetic
surgery can change the face of a film.
Celluloid or humanoid, the Movie Doctors
are here to help . . .
‘The best double act in the movies’ Observer
‘Lavish illustrations and bountiful in-jokes’ Irish Examiner
‘The book delights in the kind of movie trivia and outlandish anecdotes that every
film buff can enjoy’ Reader’s Digest
‘Excellent’ Cinema Technology
‘Movie buffs will love this collaboration between these two experts’ Woman’s Way
‘Enlightening, droll and very funny’ AND Guide
UK Publication: October 2015
Rights Held: World
Rights Sold: China (China
Renmin University Press),
Taiwan (Art & Collection)
Other Rights for Simon Mayo:
Sam Copeland, Rogers,
Coleridge & White
Other Rights for Mark Kermode:
Hedda Archbold, HLA Agency
Simon Mayo is one of Britain’s best-loved radio presenters. He has
worked on BBC radio since 1981 and is the presenter of Drivetime
on BBC Radio 2, which features the regular Book Club show. He is
also the co-presenter of Kermode and Mayo’s Film Review on BBC
Radio 5 Live. He is the author of two successful children’s books, Itch
and Itch Rocks with many more to come, as well as a number of
books based on his radio series.
Mark Kermode is the UK’s most trusted film critic. He is the film critic
for the Observer and the resident film reviewer of BBC Radio 5 Live’s
Sony award-winning Kermode and Mayo’s Film Review, the BBC
News Channel’s Review Show and BBC2’s Culture Show. He has
also written and presented many documentaries for both Channel
4 and the BBC. He is the author of three bestselling books: It’s Only
A Movie, The Good, The Bad and the Multiplex and Hatchet Job:
Love Movies, Hate Critics.
35
Recent Publications
THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
Instrumental James Rhodes
James Rhodes’ passion for music has been his absolute lifeline. It has been
the thread that has held him together through a life that has encompassed
pain, conflict and turmoil. Listening to Rachmaninov on a loop as a
traumatised teenager or discovering an Adagio by Bach while in a hospital
ward – such exquisite miracles of musical genius have helped him survive
his demons, and, along with a chance encounter with a stranger, inspired
him to become the renowned concert pianist he is today.
This is a memoir like no other: unapologetically candid, boldly outspoken
and surprisingly funny – James’ prose is shot through with an
unexpectedly mordant wit, even at the darkest of moments. An
impassioned tribute to the therapeutic powers of music, Instrumental also
weaves in fascinating facts about how classical music actually works and
about the extraordinary lives of some of the great composers. It explains
why and how music has the potential to transform all of our lives.
‘Both thrilling and harrowing’ Sunday Times
‘A tough, riveting read’ The Times
James Rhodes was born in London in 1975. A keen piano player, he was
offered a scholarship when he was 18 at the Guildhall School of Music and
Drama, but went to Edinburgh University instead. James stopped playing the
piano entirely and dropped out after a year. After 12 months working at
Burger King in Paris, he went to University College, London to read psychology.
He then worked in the City for five years. After a period of personal crisis, he
took up the piano again. He is now a professional and acclaimed concert
pianist, writer and TV presenter.
UK Publication: May 2015
Rights Held: World
Rights Sold: Brazil (Rádio Londres), China (Horizon
Books), Germany (Nagel & Kimche), Italy (Stile
Libero), Netherlands (Nieuw Amsterdam), North
American (Bloomsbury), Spain (Blackie Books),
Taiwan (ThinKingDom Media), Turkey (Destek
Media)
Other Rights: Denis Blais, Denis Blais Management
The Novel Cure
An A to Z of Literary Remedies
This is a medical handbook, with a difference. Whether you have a
stubbed toe or a severe case of the blues, within these pages you’ll find
a cure in the form of a novel – or a combination of novels – to help
ease your pain. When read at the right moment in your life, a novel can
– quite literally – change it, and The Novel Cure is a reminder of that
power. Written with authority, passion and wit, here is a fresh
approach to finding new books to read, and an enchanting way to
revisit the books on your shelves.
‘Witty, warm and wise . . . It’s a wonderful reminder of the
restorative power of fiction’ SJ Watson
Ella Berthoud and Susan Elderkin met as English Literature
students at Cambridge University, where they began giving
novels to each other whenever one of them seemed in need of
a boost. Ella went on to study fine art and become a painter
and art teacher. Susan became a novelist (Sunset Over
Chocolate Mountains and The Voices, both Fourth Estate) and
in 2003 was listed by Granta as one of the Twenty Best of Young
British Novelists. She also teaches creative writing and writes
travel pieces and book reviews for various newspapers.
36
UK Publication: September 2013
Rights Held: World
Rights Sold: Australia (Text), Brazil (Verus), Canada
(Penguin Random House), China (Horizon), France (Editions
J. C. Lattès), Germany (Suhrkamp), India (Roli Books), Italy
(Sellerio), Korea (RH Korea), Netherlands (Podium),
Portugal (Quetzal), Russia (Sindbad), Spain (Siruela),
Taiwan (Rye Field), Turkey (Ideal Kultur), US (Penguin)
Other Rights: Clare Alexander, Aitken Alexander Associates
Recent Publications
Gilliamesque Terry Gilliam
‘Stunning’ Observer
‘Brave and unique’ Sunday Times
‘A true original: messy yet realistic,
and always unexpected’ Daily Telegraph
‘Now is probably as good a time as any to make a full confession . . .’
Telling his story for the first time, the director of Time Bandits, Brazil, The
Adventures of Baron Munchausen, The Fisher King, 12 Monkeys and Fear and
Loathing in Las Vegas – not to mention co-founder of Monty Python’s Flying
Circus – recalls his extraordinary life so far.
Featuring a cast of amazing supporting characters, including George
Harrison, Robin Williams, Jeff Bridges, Robert De Niro, Brad Pitt, Uma
Thurman, Johnny Depp, Heath Ledger and all of the fellow Pythons,
Gilliamesque is a rollercoaster ride through late 20th-century popular culture.
Terry Gilliam is a director, screenwriter, animator, actor, and member
of Monty Python. He is well known for directing films that have
achieved cult status, including Brazil (1985), The Adventures of Baron
Munchausen (1988), The Fisher King (1991), 12 Monkeys (1995)
and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998), and is ranked among the
top film directors of the 20th-century. He has won many awards and
prizes and has lost even more.
UK Publication: October 2015
Rights Held: World
Rights Sold: Czech Republic (Jota), France (Sonatine),
Germany (Heyne), Hungary (Helikon), Italy (Big Sur),
Poland (Papierowy Ksiezyc), Russia (Corpus), Spain
(Malpaso), Turkey (Alfa), US (HarperCollins)
Other Rights: Jon Elek, A.P. Watt at United Agents
A Notable Woman Jean Lucey Pratt
Edited by Simon Garfield
In April 1925 at the age of 15, Jean Lucey Pratt started a journal that she kept until just a
few days before her death in 1986, producing over a million words in 45 exercise books.
What emerges is a portrait of a truly unique, spirited woman and writer. Never before has
an account so fully, so honestly and so vividly captured a single woman’s journey through
the 20th-century.
‘Deliciously frank and funny’ Daily Mail
‘A Notable Woman shows us, in close up, how extraordinary
the business of an ‘ordinary’ life can be – how much complexity and
feeling and humour it can contain’ Guardian
Jean Lucey Pratt was born in 1909 in Wembley, Middlesex, and lived much
of her life in a small cottage on the edge of Burnham Beeches in Berkshire.
Simon Garfield is the author of 17 acclaimed books of non-fiction
including To the Letter, On the Map, Just My Type and Mauve. His study of
AIDS in Britain, The End of Innocence, won the Somerset Maugham Award.
Gun Baby Gun
UK Publication:
November 2015
Rights Held: World
Other Rights: Rosemary
Scoular, United Agents
Iain Overton
SHORTLISTED FOR THE CWA NON-FICTION DAGGER AWARD
There are almost one billion guns across the globe today – more than ever before.
Every minute of every day, someone somewhere is shot. Gun Baby Gun is a hardhitting and urgent investigation into the gun’s lifespan, into our hugely complex
relationship with firearms and their undeniable, long-reaching and often hidden
impact. Along the way, award-winning journalist Iain Overton unearths some stark
truths about the everyday human cost of gun crime.
‘A shocking investigation into our fatal love affair with the firearm’ Newsweek
‘Relentlessly engrossing’ Spectator
UK Publication: April 2015
Rights Held: World
Rights Sold: Canada (McClelland &
Stewart), France (Belfond),
Netherlands (Uitgeverij Q), Norway
(Font Forlag), Taiwan (China Times
Publishing), US (HarperCollins)
Other Rights: Antony Topping, Greene
& Heaton
Iain Overton is Director of Investigations at the London-based charity Action on Armed
Violence and an award-winning investigative journalist who has worked in over eighty
countries around the world. Reporting from the killing zones of Columbia, Iraq and Somalia,
as a filmmaker he directed documentaries for the BBC, ITN and Al Jazeera, as well as
working with the Guardian, the Independent and the Sunday Times. His journalism has won
a Peabody Award, two Amnesty Awards and a BAFTA Scotland, among others. He was also
founding editor of the Bureau of Investigative Journalism. Gun Baby Gun is his first book.
37
THE CANONS
Our canons batter at the boundaries to create conversations about
what makes a classic. We’re breathing fresh life into the books we love and
in the process asking what makes a masterpiece
UK Publication: November 2016
Rights Held: World
Rights Sold: China (Yilin Press),
France (Metailié), Italy (Safarà
Group), Netherlands
(Koppernik), Poland (Jacek
Rodek), Spain (Marbot), Spain
Catalan (Marbot)
Other Rights: Zoe Waldie,
Rogers, Coleridge & White
Since 1981, when Alasdair
Gray’s Lanark: A Life in Four
Books was published by
Canongate, he has published
20 books. In his own words,
‘Alasdair Gray is a
fat, spectacled, balding,
increasingly old Glaswegian
pedestrian who has mainly
lived by writing and designing
books, most of them fiction’.
UK Publication: September 2016
Rights Held: World excl. North America,
Germany, Korea, Japan & Turkey
Rights Sold: France (Actes Sud),
Greece (Okto), Italy (Fandango),
Netherlands (Cossee), Sweden
(Karneval)
Other Rights: Bonnie Nadell, Hill
Nadell Literary
Rebecca Solnit has written seven
acclaimed works of non-fiction,
including Wanderlust: A History of
Walking and Men Explain Things To
Me. An activist, columnist and
cultural historian, she has been
awarded a Guggenheim
Fellowship, the National Book
Critics Circle Award, the Lannan
Literary Award, and the Los
Angeles Times Book Prize. She lives
in San Francisco.
Set in the disintegrating cities of Unthank and
Glasgow, this modern vision of hell tells the
interwoven stories of two men: Lanark and Duncan
Thaw. As the Life in Four Books unfolds, the
strange, buried relationship between Lanark and
Thaw slowly starts to emerge.
This exquisite work traces a history of activism and social
change over the past five decades. Hope in the Dark is a
paean to optimism in the uncertainty of the 21st-century.
Tracing the footsteps of the last century’s thinkers –
including Woolf, Gandhi, Borges, Benjamin and Havel –
Solnit conjures a timeless vision of cause and effect that will
light our way through the dark.
‘Probably the greatest novel of the century’ Observer
‘A book to be cherished’ Independent on Sunday
UK Publication: July 2016
Rights Held: World
Rights Sold: Australia (Text), Brazil
(Companhia das Letras), Canada
(Knopf), China (Beijing Alpha Books),
Finland (Tammi), France
(Flammarion), French Canadian
(Éditions du Boreal), Germany
(Berlin), India (PRH India), Italy
(Einaudi), Japan (Kadokawa
Shoten), Korea (Munhakdonge),
Turkey (Ithaki Yayinlari) US (Grove)
Other Rights: Zoe Waldie, Rogers,
Coleridge & White
A.S. Byatt is the author of 15 works
of fiction including the Booker
Prize-winning Possession, and the
Man Booker-shortlisted The
Children’s Book. A distinguished
critic as well as a writer of fiction,
she was appointed CBE in 1990
and DBE in 1999.
As the bombs rain down in the Second World War,
one young girl is evacuated to the English countryside.
Struggling to make sense of her new wartime life, she is
given a book of ancient Norse myths and her inner and
outer worlds are transformed. Linguistically stunning
and imaginatively abundant, this mesmerising tale is a
landmark piece of storytelling from one of the world’s
truly great writers.
‘Lyrical and urgent’ The Times
38
UK Publication: July 2016
Rights Held: World
Rights Sold: Italy (Bompiani),
Russia (Machiniyi Tvoreniya
Publishing), US (Houghton
Mifflin Harcourt)
Other Rights: Canongate
Books
Michel Faber has written nine
books. In addition to the
Whitbread-shortlisted Under
the Skin, he is the author of
the highly acclaimed The
Crimson Petal and The White
and The Book of Strange
New Things. He has also won
several short-story awards,
including the Neil Gunn, Ian
St James and Macallan.
Michel Faber’s short stories reveal an extraordinarily vivid
imagination, a deep love of language and an adventurous
versatility. Playful, yet profoundly moving, wickedly
satirical yet sincerely humane, these tales never fail to
strike unexpected chords. Faber’s debut collection is rich
and assured, with a dazzling reach.
‘A rare and vivid imagination and a radical use of
language’ The Times
FictionOther
recent acquisitions
& forthcoming publications
Anna by Niccolò Ammaniti (World English)
Other Rights: Rosaria Carpinelli, Rosaria Carpinelli Consulenze Editoriali / March 2017
The Bones of Grace by Tahmima Anam (UK & Commonwealth excl. Canada)
Other Rights: Charles Buchan, Wylie Agency / May 2016
The Satanic Mechanic by Sally Andrew (UK & Commonwealth excl. Canada & South Africa)
Other Rights: Isobel Dixon, Blake Friedmann / July 2016
Wake Me When I’m Dead by Odafe Atogun (World)
Other Rights: Toby Mundy, Toby Mundy Agency / June 2017
City of Bohane II by Kevin Barry (UK & Commonwealth excl. Canada)
Other Rights: Lucy Luck, Aitken Alexander Associates / November 2017
Stories by Kevin Barry (UK & Commonwealth excl. Canada)
Other Rights: Lucy Luck, Aitken Alexander Associates / February 2018
Untitled by Mary Costello (UK & Commonwealth excl. Canada & ANZ)
Other rights: Simon Trewin, WME / February 2018
Charlotte by David Foenkinos (UK & Commonwealth excl. Canada)
Other Rights: Anne-Solange Noble, Editions Gallimard / February 2017
How to Stop Time by Matt Haig (World)
Other Rights: Clare Conville, Conville & Walsh / June 2017
The End of Endings by Steven Hall (World)
Other Rights: Simon Trewin, WME / September 2017
Himself by Jess Kidd (UK & Commonwealth excl. Canada)
Other Rights: Sue Armstrong, Conville & Walsh / October 2016
Hoarder by Jess Kidd (UK & Commonwealth excl. Canada)
Other Rights: Sue Armstrong, Conville & Walsh / July 2017
South China Sea by Nam Le (UK & Commonwealth excl. Canada & ANZ)
Other Rights: Janklow & Nesbit US / March 2018
Above the Waterfall by Ron Rash (UK & Commonwealth excl. Canada)
Other Rights: Lizzie Kremer, David Higham / August 2016
The World Made Straight by Ron Rash (UK & Commonwealth excl. Canada)
Other Rights: Devon Mazzone, Farrar, Straus and Giroux / March 2017
The Lost Time Accidents by John Wray (UK & Commonwealth excl. Canada)
Other Rights: Tracy Bohan, Wylie Agency / June 2016
Godsend by John Wray (UK & Commonwealth excl. Canada)
Other Rights: Tracy Bohan, Wylie Agency / November 2017
Non-Fiction
Untitled by Alaa Al Aswany (UK & Commonwealth excl. Canada, ANZ & India)
Other Rights: Charles Buchan, Wylie Agency / March 2018
The Story of Looking by Mark Cousins (World)
Other Rights: Caroline Chignell, PBJ Management / October 2017
White Sands: Experiences from the Outside World by Geoff Dyer (UK & Commonwealth)
Other Rights: Luke Ingram, Wylie Agency / June 2016
Livewired: Uncovering the Living, Ever-Shifting Tapestry of the Brain by David Eagleman (UK & Commonwealth
excl. Canada).
Other Rights: James Pullen, Wylie Agency / September 2018
The Art of Losing Control: A Guide to Ecstatic Experience by Jules Evans (World)
Other Rights: Will Francis, Janklow & Nesbit / May 2017
Jann Wenner Biography by Joe Hagan (UK & Commonwealth excl. Canada)
Other Rights: Knopf / November 2017
Supernormal by Dr Meg Jay (UK & Commonwealth excl. Canada)
Other Rights: Tina Bennett, WME / October 2017
Island People: The Caribbean and the World by Joshua Jelly-Schapiro (UK & Commonwealth excl. Canada)
Other Rights: Zoe Pagnamenta, Zoe Pagnamenta Agency / January 2017
True Believers by Joshua Jelly-Schapiro (UK & Commonwealth excl. Canada)
Other Rights: Zoe Pagnamenta, Zoe Pagnamenta Agency / November 2018
The Supernotes Affair by Agent Kasper & Luigi Carletti (UK & Commonwealth excl. Canada & ANZ)
Other Rights: Vicki Satlow, Vicki Satlow Literary Agency / July 2016
My Old Man: Tales of Our Fathers edited by Ted Kessler (UK & Commonwealth)
Other Rights: Kerry Glencorse, Susanna Lea Associates / May 2016
Everybody by Olivia Laing (World excl. North America)
Other Rights: Rebecca Carter, Janklow & Nesbit / November 2018
Life & Work by David Lynch & Kristine McKenna (UK & Commonwealth excl. Canada)
Other Rights: Caspian Dennis, Abner Stein / April 2017
Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: The Four Elements of Good Cooking by Samin Nosrat (UK & Commonwealth excl. Canada)
Other Rights: Felicity Blunt, Curtis Brown / May 2017
When by Dan Pink (UK & Commonwealth excl. Canada)
Other Rights: Penguin Random House US / January 2018
The Age of Democracy 1989-2011: 22 Years that Changed the World by Simon Reid-Henry (World)
Other Rights: Georgina Capel, Capel Land / January 2018
Inside Out: A Life Deconstructed by Richard Rogers (World)
Other Rights: Ed Victor, Ed Victor Ltd / March 2017
The Dark Unfathomed by Larry Siems (UK & Commonwealth excl. Canada)
Other Rights: Caspian Dennis, Abner Stein / May 2018
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Author Photo Credits: Ahmet Altan: RR, Odafe Atogun: Adebayo Adekunle, Ella Berthoud &
Susan Elderkin: Johnny Ring, Carol Birch: Eamonn McCabe, Jamie Catto: Sam Pelly, Nick
Cave: Cat Stevens, Margaret Drabble: Ruth Corney, Dominic Dromgoole: Helena Miscioscia,
David Eagleman: Brandon Thibodeaux, Michel Faber: Eva Youren, Simon Garfield: Chris
Close, Dr Rick Gekoski: Mark Marnie, Matt Haig: Clive Doyle, Matt Haig & Chris Mould, Francis
Bickmore, Claudia Hammond: Ian Skelton, James Kelman: Angus Bremner, Olivia Laing:
Johnny Ring, Amy Liptrot: Lisa Swarna Khanna, Jo Marchant: Gary Simpson, Simon Mayo and
Mark Kermode: Jay Brooks, Karl Pilkington: Rory Lewis, Lemn Sissay: Benji Reid, Gillian Slovo:
Charlie Hopkinson, Scarlett Thomas: Ed Thompson, Simon Tofield: Simon’s Cat Ltd, James
Rhodes: Dave Brown, Shaun Usher: Craig and Eva Sanders Photography
Another Season
On your bedside cabinet:
a wristwatch with a very quiet tick.
You are too sick to wear it anymore.
It’s the old-fashioned kind.
It does not know it is forgotten.
It takes up hardly any space.
Its face points at the window.
It sees the trees in miniature.
You do not see the trees at all.
Spring it was, when you last wore this watch.
Now it is summer, and you do not know.
Your watch is keeping time for you.
When you are ready, its tiny hands
will show they never stopped
being utterly
loyal.
Michel Faber
www.canongate.tv