Latest news
Summer’s here and the programme for the Edinburgh International Book Festival is out, with lots of JBA authors taking part. Watch out for events with Lin Anderson, Mark Beaumont, Rodge Glass, Alasdair Gray, Alex Gray, Keith Gray, Doug Johnstone, Laura Marney, Sara Sheridan, Alice Thompson, Paul Torday, Alistair Urquhart and John Ward. Visit http://www.edbookfest.co.uk for full details. Festival dates are 14-30 August.
Posted on Jun 26, 2010 - 11:28 PM
Celtic fans may have had little to cheer about this season, but they’ll look forward to Martin Hannan’s Hail Hail – a celebration of the Hoops’ greatest victories over their city rivals. Mainstream will publish in October …
… Along with Iain Duff’s Follow Follow. A celebration of Rangers greatest victories over their city rivals.
A three-book deal with Patrick Janson-Smith’s Blue Door imprint at HarperCollins for Ewart Hutton’s Welsh detective Glyn Capaldi. The first novel – Good People – will be published next spring.
Orion have bought a sixth novel from Paul Torday. The novel, entitled Alice, is a black comedy about inheritance, which re-introduces readers to Ed Hartlepool and Annabel Gazebee (last seen in The Irresistible Inheritance of Wilberforce).
Ned Boulting, well-known to cycling fans’ for his work as a roving reporter on ITV’s Tour de France coverage – is to write a book for Random House to be published in time for the 2011 tour. RH’s sports imprint – Yellow Jersey Press – will become Yellow Jumper Press for Ned’s debut How I Won the Yellow Jumper.
There’s a two-book deal with Puffin for the divine Gareth Russell. The first novel - Popular - will be published in Summer 2011 on Puffin’s brand new teen focussed imprint, Razorbill, and will be its first UK-originated acquisition.
Sophie Hardach’s wonderful debut novel – The Registrar’s Manual for Detecting Forced Marriages – has gone to Simon & Schuster in a six-figure, two-book deal. Viking (Penguin) were the under-bidder.
Posted on Apr 01, 2010 - 08:23 PM
Kate Bradley at Avon has bought world rights in two crime novels set in the North East by Debut Dagger shortlisted author Danielle Ramsay. In BROKEN SILENCE, the body of a teenage girl is found close to her home, her face mutilated beyond recognition. The three men who should have protected her during her short life are the chief suspects in her murder: a teacher, a policeman and her step-father. As Detective Inspector Jack Brady investigates, he puts his own career at risk as he discovers not only that his closest friend is implicated in the girl’s death, but in a number of complex ways so is the whole community. Avon publish this October. The deal was agented by Jenny.
More rights deals have been concluded by Kevin for Susan Sellers’ debut novel VANESSA AND VIRGINIA, bringing to the number of territories sold to ten. The novel has been sold to Editoria Presnca in Portugal and Editions Autrement in France.
Posted on Apr 01, 2010 - 08:18 PM
Tom Pow will be showing work from his Dying Villages project 16 April – 4 May at Edinburgh’s Scottish Poetry Library, and he will be taking part in an unique residency there 22-24 April. By 2030 it is estimated that Europe will have lost one third of its population. The effect of this demographic change – the greatest since the Black Death – will be felt most acutely in rural areas. In 2007, Tom received a Creative Scotland Award from the Scottish Arts Council for a project aimed at responding in poetry and prose to the social, ecological and cultural effects of demographic changes on villages in Europe. He has made trips to affected areas from Spain to Russia, and the Dying Village website reflects these trips in sound, image, interviews and artworks. http://www.dyingvillages.com
Posted on Apr 01, 2010 - 08:14 PM
JBA client Mark Beaumont (The Man Who Cycled the World – published by Transworld and out soon in paperback) has just returned from an epic nine-month journey which took him from Anchorage in Alaska down the western seaboard of the Americas to finish at the southernmost tip of Argentina. Filmed by the BBC, the first episode of ‘The Man Who Cycled the Americas’ will be broadcast at 10.35pm on BBC1 on March 23rd.
Meanwhile, Mark is setting off again … but this time closer to home. He begins a 38-date UK speaking tour in mid-March.
Here are the dates and venues. For ticket information please contact the venues.
March
Tues 16th - Gala Theatre, Durham
Wed 17th - The Winding Wheel, Chesterfield
Thurs 18th - Albert Halls, Bolton
Fri 19th - Victoria Theatre, Halifax
Sat 20th - The Platform, Morecambe
Sun 21st - Beck Theatre, Hayes
Tues 23rd - Assembly Halls, Tunbridge Wells
Wed 24th - The King’s Theatre, Southsea
Thurs 25th - Assembly Rooms, Tamworth
Sat 27th - The Corn Exchange, Kings Lynn
Sun 28th - Marina Theatre, Lowestoft
Tues 30th - Queen’s Theatre, Barnstaple
Wed 31st - Congress Hall, Eastbourne
April
Tues 20th - Opera House, Buxton
Wed 21st - Forum 28, Barrow
Thu 22nd - Malvern Theatres, Malvern
Fri 23rd - Theatr Brycheiniog, Brecon
Sat 24th - Theatr Mwldan, Cardigan
Sun 25th - Town Hall, Loughborough
Tues 27th - Middlesbrough Theatre, Middlesbrough
Wed 28th - Theatre Royal, Wakefield
Fri 30th - Albert Halls, Stirling
May
Sat 1st - The Lemon Tree, Aberdeen
Sun 2nd - Eden Court, Inverness
Tues 4th - The Customs House, South Shields
Wed 5th - Royal Spa Centre, Leamington Spa
Thurs 6th - Playhouse, Epsom
Fri 7th - The Place, Telford
Sat 8th - Spa Pavilion, Felixstowe
Sun 9th - Camberley Theatre, Camberley
Tues 11th - Embassy Theatre, Skegness
Wed 12th - Mechanics Theatre, Burnley
Thurs 13th - Pavilion Theatre, Rhyl
Fri 14th - Assembly Rooms, Derby
Sat 15th - The Gatehouse Theatre, Stafford
Sun 16th - The Radlett Centre, Radlett
Tues 18th - Wycombe Swan, High Wycombe
Wed 19th - The Playhouse, Weston Super Mare
Posted on Feb 24, 2010 - 04:53 PM
Angus Cargill at Faber has signed Scottish author Doug Johnstone’s SMOKEHEADS as part of a two-book deal. SMOKEHEADS will be published in late spring 2011, with the second book published the following year. SMOKEHEADS is a classic ‘what if?’ thriller, in which four friends go on an island whisky tour that goes seriously awry.
And Tindal Street Press has acquired PREVIOUS CONVICTIONS by David Belbin, the first in a new crime series featuring a pair of unlikely heroes: one of ‘Blair’s Babes’ and a former dope dealer. PREVIOUS CONVICTIONS begins on the eve of New Labour’s landslide victory in 1997, when a female MP and her ex-boyfriend uncover a miscarriage of justice.
Both deals were agented by Allan.
Posted on Feb 15, 2010 - 02:53 PM