Two Blake Friedmann authors nominated for Green Carnation Prize

Two Blake Friedmann authors have been longlisted for the Green Carnation Prize. Kerry Hudson’s THIRST and Laurie Penny’s UNSPEAKABLE THINGS were both among the 13 books selected for the prize which celebrates the best of LGBT literature. Other longlisted nominees include Neel Mukherjee, Anna Freeman and Emily Mackie. The shortlist will be announced on 6 November.

THIRST is a heart-breaking romance of almost unbearable fragility in contemporary East London & Russia. Kerry Hudson is also author of TONY HOGAN BOUGHT ME AN ICE CREAM FLOAT BEFORE HE STOLE MY MA, which was shortlisted for 8 awards, including the Green Carnation, and won the Scottish First Book Award. Both books were published by Chatto.

Laurie Penny’s UNSPEAKABLE THINGS is a fresh look at gender and power in the twenty-first century which asks difficult questions about dissent and desire, money and masculinity, sexual violence, menial work, mental health, queer politics and the Internet. It was published by Bloomsbury earlier this year.

Praise for THIRST:

'Hudson excels at depicting twilight lives... tremendously affecting… impressively unostentatious in its instinct for a common story within a city of millions that rarely gets heard.' - Claire Allfree, The Metro

'Hudson builds up narrative tension slowly. It’s not so much the will-they-won’t-they tension that is more pervasive to general romance, but rather a sense, even before we know Alena’s back-story fully, of external threat lingering in the air, knocking on the door of Dave’s flat, now a refuge... THIRST is hardly an easy summer read but it is probably an essential one.' - The Scotsman

Praise for UNSPEAKABLE THINGS:

‘We need her. … We need fresh, extreme voices to make us re-examine ourselves for complacency and closed-mindedness. Penny forces us to test the ground we stand on and say, yes.’ – Melanie Reid, The Times

‘[Laurie Penny] knits rendingly painful personal anecdotes into the essays in "Unspeakable Things: Sex, Lies and Revolution," … [she] is resolutely urgent (and sometimes very earnest) as she reaches for context, reminding us of the excluded and the undervalued.’ – Joy Press, The LA Times

Carole Blake's 50 Years in Publishing Gallery

Carole Blake celebrated 50 years in publishing with a fantastic event at The Stationers’ Hall last year. Among the attendees were colleagues past and present, Blake Friedmann authors, UK and foreign publishers and friends Carole had made over the course of her career. With the anniversary of this memorable occasion today (to those few who can remember the whole night…), we’re delighted  to have a gallery of Jack Ladenburg’s photography from the night up here.

PASHA by Julian Stockwin out in the UK today

The 15th KYDD adventure, PASHA, is published in the UK today by Hodder. In this latest instalment of Julian Stockwin’s acclaimed maritime adventure series, an Admiralty summons to England cuts short Thomas Kydd's service in the turquoise waters of the Caribbean. While the crew of L'Aurore can look forward to liberty and prize money, a shadow hangs over their captain: the impending court martial of his one-time commander, Commodore Popham, who led a doomed attack on South America.

Fans should also look out for Stockwin’s new novel, THE SILK TREE, which will be published in November by Allison & Busby. It tells the tale of a quest to bring the secret of silk production out of China to the west.

At 14 Stockwin joined a tough sea-training school, followed by the Royal Navy, transferring to the Royal Australian Navy when his family emigrated.  He saw active service in the Far East, the Antarctic, the South Seas and Vietnam, and was on board the Melbourne at the time of its disastrous peace time collision with the Voyager.  Later worked for NATO on the strategic deployment of merchant shipping.

Praise for the KYDD series:

‘The story takes you on an explosive journey, which is full of unexpected turns … rich in action and full of interesting characters, this thrilling novel leaves you in awe of the 18th century seaman.’ -- Evening Telegraph

‘A wonderfully fresh and incredibly vivid debut novel … I reckon [the series] will be as popular as the novels of Patrick O’Brian so exciting is this new author.’ -- Publishing News

Tony Park’s THE DELTA out in the US today

Tony Park’s “heart-thumping thriller” THE DELTA is published in the US today. This is the first of two African adventure novels acquired by St Martin’s Press, with IVORY to be published in 2015.

Sonja has led a troubled life: her father is an abusive alcoholic, her lover Danny - an IRA leader - is dead, and her daughter hasn't spoken to her since she became a hired assassin. When Sonja's latest mission goes horribly wrong, she realises it was a set-up, and ends up alone in the African wilderness at risk from the men who seek to destroy her and her family.

It’s a busy month worldwide for Tony Park. His latest thriller THE HUNTER is published by Macmillan in Australia and South Africa on 14 October and in the UK by Quercus on 16 October. 

Hudson Brand hunts people, not animals. Today he’s hunting for Linley Brown. Detective Sannie van Rensburg is also looking for Linley, and a serial killer as well. Hudson is her top suspect. Sannie and Hudson cross paths and swords as they track the elusive Linley from South Africa and Zimbabwe to the wilds of Kenya's Masai Mara game reserve. The hunt is on.

Quercus also published DARK HEART, the story of three people brought together twenty years after witnessing the Rwandan genocide, in paperback in the UK on 2 October.

Praise for TONY PARK:

'An author who is starting to challenge the veteran Wilbur Smith for the title of 'master of the African thriller'' -- Geoffrey Wansell, Daily Mail

'Tony Park is one of Australia's best thriller writers and his African-based novels are consistently entertaining and thought-provoking.' -- Canberra Times

'Park's heroes are tough, blokey types - soldiers and coppers - and his heroines sassy and smart, but Africa always steals the show…a great way to spend a winter evening, transported to somewhere warm and exotic.' -- Georgia Gowing, The Independent Weekly

Deon Meyer’s COBRA out in the US tomorrow

Benny Griessel is back! Deon Meyer’s latest novel COBRA is published in the US tomorrow by Grove Atlantic.

Why would a mathematics professor from Cambridge University, renting a holiday home outside Cape Town, require a false identity and three bodyguards? And where is he, now that they are dead? The only clue to the bodyguards' murder is the snake engraved on the shell casings of the bullets that killed them. Investigating the massacre, Benny Griessel and his team find themselves being drawn into an international conspiracy with shocking implications…

COBRA was chosen by Publisher’s Weekly as one of the Top Ten Mystery and Thriller for Fall and ‘Thriller of the Week’ on the very popular Dutch thriller & crime fiction communityCrimezone.nl. In his home territory South Africa, COBRA (published in Afrikaans by Human & Rousseau as KOBRA) shot to Number 1 on Afrikaans publication last year, beating off all international competition in English as well. 

The Wall Street Journal recently ran a profile of Deon, with an extract from the novel and handy glossary of Afrikaans terms included.

Deon is currently touring in France and will then proceed to Germany. You can find out where he’ll be visiting on his website, and follow him on Twitter for pictures from the tour.

10 international publishers have signed up to COBRA with new deals regularly signed for ‘The best crime writer on the planet’ across the globe. COBRA was published in the UK by Hodder earlier this year, and in South Africa by Jonathan Ball.

Praise for COBRA:

‘A masterful new thriller.  This is terrific stuff:  fine plotting, superb characterisation, a constant thread of suspense, a multi-ethnic cast and an intriguing setting. It also comes with a glossary of South African terms and if COBRA doesn’t win at least one major prize this year, then someone needs a good snotskoot blikseming.’ – Mike Ripley, Shotsmag

‘The plot clicks along like a machine… The set pieces, such as a complex train-hopping action sequence, are slickly executed. This is an author in full charge of his technique, but he burnishes the mechanics of the story with delicious Kaapse characters and richly idiomatic dialogue. The feral pickpocket Tyrone Kleinbooi is one of Meyer’s best characters ever, sly and quick with a strong sense of thieves’ honour. Meyer has a habit of beckoning side characters to the front of stage in subsequent books… Here’s hoping Meyer will put Mbali Kaleni centre stage in future.  More of Mbali, please, and more, much more of Deon Meyer.’ – Michele Magwood, SA Sunday Times

Praise for Deon Meyer:

‘A master on vintage form… He is a defining novelist of modern South Africa.’ – Barry Forshaw, Books of the Year 2012, Independent

‘Deon Meyer is one of the best crime writers on the planet.’ – Mail on Sunday

 'With Deon Meyer you can't go wrong. He's a writer whose work I admire, wait for and then devour.' -- Michael Connelly