JELLYFISH BY JANICE GALLOWAY SHORTLISTED FOR THE SALTIRE FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR

JELLYFISH, by Janice Galloway, has been shortlisted for the Saltire Fiction Book of the Year Award. Widely regarded as Scotland’s most prestigious book awards, the Saltire Society Literary Awards champion and support literary achievement. With awards for Fiction, Non- Fiction, First Book, History, Poetry, Research and an overall Book of the Year Award they aim to celebrate as broad a range of Scottish writing as possible. The final award ceremony will be in Edinburgh on the 26th of November, during Scottish Book Week.

JELLYFISH is a collection of short stories, published in the UK by Freight Books. Three stories from the collection were recently broadcast by BBC Radio 4, and the book has already been longlisted for the Frank O’Connor Short Story Prize 2015.

In this sparkling and powerful new collection, Janice Galloway takes on David Lodge's assertion – ‘Literature is mostly about having sex and not much about having children; life's the other way round’ and scent-marks her multi-layered fiction with what she believes to be the greater truth. These are razor sharp tales of two of the most powerful human experiences, by a master of short fiction.

Janice Galloway was born in Ayrshire in 1955. She is the author of three novels, two collections of short stories and, most recently, two memoirs. She has won and been shortlisted for numerous literary prizes, including the Whitbread First Novel and Scottish Book of the Year. She has been writer in residence to four Scottish prisons, Research Fellow to the British Library, resident at Jura Distillery, and was recently the first Fellow in Residence at the University of Otago in New Zealand.

Praise for JELLYFISH:

 ‘Foreboding floats through the fourteen tales … Reminiscent of Sylvia Plath in its black humour and visceral imagery … These deft short stories show why publishers should have more faith in the form … Exquisite similes and witty metaphors rise up and sting the senses like the eponymous jellyfish. With this electrifying volume Galloway proves herself a truly powerful writer who deserves to be much better known.’ – The Independent

 ‘An exquisite short-story collection … Previously very much a city writer, here the natural world encroaches on Galloway’s work from the title onwards, both indifferent and essential.’ – The Guardian

 'This is a short story collection to savour, by one of the foremost Scottish writers of her generation.' – Irish Times

South African Launch of RECIPES FOR LOVE AND MURDER

Sally Andrew’s debut RECIPES FOR LOVE AND MURDER: A TANNIE MARIA MYSTERY was launched last Wednesday at Kalk Bay Books in Cape Town, after being published in Australia by Text last month. It will be published in November in the US by Ecco Press, in Canada by HarperCollins and in the UK by Canongate – a wonderful handful of English language publishers around the world!

Alexander McCall Smith hailed the novel as ‘a triumph’ and this ‘culinary and linguistic treat’ (The Bookseller, Editor’s Choice) with ‘fascinating setting, engaging characters and a full complement of drool-worthy recipes’ (Library Journal, Starred Review) has also been described as ‘a delightful debut, tender and funny’ (Kirkus, Starred Review).

Kalk Bay Books is in a beautiful stone building between the mountain and the sea in Cape Town, South Africa. The bookshop was packed (‘no room for a flea’ as @LieslJobson said) and the evening was chock-full of laughter, love, and amazing cakes. Umuzi gave Sally a beautiful birthday cheesecake with the face of Tannie Maria on it and delicious cakes as featured in the book were baked for the event.

To make it extra-special, the launch took place on Sally’s birthday. She wore a debutante (or as she calls it, a ‘debut tannie’) red dress of silk and cotton velvet, and red veldskoene with a Karoo veld ‘polish’ of dust and scratches. Acclaimed South African actress Sandra Prinsloo, who narrates the audio edition of the novel, presented Sally with a birthday gift of oven gloves –  “because you are too hot to handle” and Sally put this to good use when signing copies afterwards.

The conversation was peppered with Sally’s thanks to all the people present who had contributed to the book, with particular praise for her parents, and added: "Thank you so much to BFLA, and to my publishers in South Africa and internationally for giving me the best birthday present of my life."

Some moments that had the audience laughing:

Sandra Prinsloo: “I see that, so far, Recipes for Love and Murder will be translated into thirteen languages: Polish, Estonian, Italian, Spanish, Catalan, Chinese, Italian, Swedish, Hebrew, Dutch, German, Turkish and French. That’s amazing. I assume that you will be doing all these translations yourself?
Sally Andrew: “Yes, of course. The magic of a book is in the poetry of its words. It does mean that it will be some time before they are published, because it is a slow process to learn thirteen new languages simultaneously.”

Sandra asked Sally if it was difficult to achieve the right balance between serious and funny in the novel. Sally said that ‘serious’ was in her bones because of her history as an activist, but “the humour also came quite naturally. In fact I was christened ‘Silly’ at birth, and it was only after some bad experiences in Kindergarten that I changed my name to ‘Sally’.”

When asked for writerly advice, Sally said it was probably a little early in her career: “My life might go to pot,” she said, “and following my advice may lead you down some dangerous path.” She recommended that people rather listen to Sandra instead, but did advise, wisely: “Try and find that space in the Venn diagram where your greatest joy overlaps with the needs of the world.”

 You can see photographs of Sally reading and signing (with oven glove!) above.

Sally Andrew divides her time between the Cape Town coast and a nature reserve near Ladismith in the Klein Karoo, which she shares with her artist partner, a giant eland and a secretive leopard.  You can see her beautiful home landscape and share her pleasure in nature and food by looking at the photos and videos on her website: www.sallyandrew.co

Sue Moorcroft's Next Two Novels Sold at Auction, to Avon

Avon has acquired two new novels from successful author Sue Moorcroft, at auction. UK & Comm rights were bought from Juliet Pickering at Blake Friedmann Agency. Avon will publish the first novel for Christmas 2016 with the second novel planned as a summer read in 2017.

Publishing Director Eleanor Dryden says ‘I am thrilled to welcome Sue Moorcroft to Avon. She is a wonderfully warm and witty writer with a great track record and masses of fans and she creates very special characters who stay with you. I fell for Ava in the first novel wholeheartedly on my first read. Christmas 2016 can’t come round fast enough!’

Sue Moorcroft says: I’m excited to be joining Avon, with their reputation for successfully publishing fiction to extensive audiences. Eleanor and her team impressed me with their enthusiasm and drive, their ideas and the welcome they offered to me in my new home.

Juliet Pickering says: Sue’s novels, with their smart, funny characters and very fresh, modern dilemmas, are perfectly matched with the energetic, ambitious team at Avon. We’re very excited to embark on this new relationship, and see Sue published at the level she thoroughly deserves. Roll on Christmas 2016!

Ava Bliss is making hats in Camden, focusing on her business and freshly broken-up from a brief, troubled relationship. She is not looking for a new romance. But then she meets Sam, her best friend’s boss, who definitely seems smitten with her, and who she keeps bumping into despite her efforts to remain detached. When Sam commissions her to make a very special hat for his seriously ill mother, and her ex begins sending Ava threatening messages, Sam and Ava must band together to get
through the best and the worst of times… ending with the best and worst of them all: Christmas. A contemporary tale, THE TRUTH ABOUT AVA is a stylish and warmly funny take on friendship, family and romance.

Sue Moorcroft is the award-winning author of nine commercial women’s novels, and several novellas. Her most recent novel is THE WEDDING PROPOSAL (Choc Lit, 2014), which was shortlisted for the Festival of Romantic Fiction Romantic Novel of the Year Award. She also teaches creative writing.

YOU ARE DEAD out in paperback today!

Peter James’ 11th novel in the best-selling Roy Grace series, YOU ARE DEAD, is published in paperback in the UK today by Macmillan. YOU ARE DEAD was recently awarded the Dr. Lector Award for Scariest Villain at Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Festival in Harrogate. It was published in the US in hardback earlier this month.  Peter has now achieved 9 Number One chart positions with his novels with Macmillan.

Peter’s standalone THE HOUSE ON COLD HILL was published in hardback on 8th October (the date on which more books were published in the UK than any other date in the calendar) and went straight to number 9 on the bestseller chart.

The last words Nick hears from his fiancée Logan, are in a terrified mobile phone call from her. She has driven into the underground car park beneath their apartment and seen a man acting strangely.  She screams, the phone goes dead.  The police are on the scene within minutes, but Logan has vanished, leaving behind her neatly parked car and telephone.  This is the beginning of what becomes a tortuous case for Roy Grace and his team, leading to the discovery of bodies of young women, and a terrifying chase to find the murderer, and Logan, dead or alive.  Surprising twists and chilling discoveries deliver a breath-taking read.

Peter James has been twice Chair of the Crime Writers’ Association and has won many literary awards: as popular internationally as in the UK, he won the US Barry Award for Best British Crime Novel in 2012.  This year, 2015, he was voted by WH Smith readers as The Best Crime Author Of All Time. He is published in more than 3 dozen languages.

Praise for Peter James:

'Peter James is one of the best crime writers in the business.' – Karin Slaughter

'Exceptional, knock-your-socks-off.' – Washington Post

‘Sinister and riveting… Peter James is one of the best British crime writers, and therefore one of the best in the world.’ – Lee Child

Find out more about Peter James at Blake Friedmann's, Pan Macmillan's and Peter’s websites and follow him on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

ICON BOOKS ACQUIRES THE TALE OF A REAL-LIFE ROBINSON CRUSOE

Tom Webber, commissioning editor at Icon Books, has bought UK & Commonwealth rights (ex. Canada) rights to THE OTHER EXILE, THE REMARKABLE STORY OF FERNÃO LOPES, THE ISLAND OF ST HELENA AND A PARADISE LOST by Abdul Rahman Azzam from Isobel Dixon at Blake Friedmann. Appealing to readers of Jon Krakauer’s INTO THE WILD or even Cheryl Strayed’s WILD, THE OTHER EXILE is a historical adventure story, a tale of a real-life Robinson Crusoe and his total retreat from human society.

 Abdul Rahman Azzam, who gained his Dphil in History at Oxford and now lives between Cambridge and Qatar, presents through an expertly-paced narrative the largely untold story of 16th Century Portuguese nobleman Fernao Lopes. A Muslim convert who jumped ship en route from Goa to his native Portugal, Lopes made the newly-discovered island of St Helena his home in almost total isolation for 30 years. 

Based on entirely new research, the book is at once a historical narrative, a meditation on solitude, remoteness and the soul’s inward journey, and a short history-cum-travelogue of the fascinating island of St Helena. 

Webber says ‘The extraordinary story of Fernao Lopes immediately captures the imagination, and Abdul Rahman Azzams’s careful and lyrical narrative voice is perfectly suited to telling it. Lopes lived a life of amazing contrasts, and his remarkable journey from adventurer to desert-island dwelling hermit is a fascinatingly resonant one of a longing for peace and self-knowledge that has instant appeal.’

Azzam says ‘This book is a labour of love and I’m delighted that it will be brought to market by Icon Books, who I know will publish it with verve and enthusiasm. I’m already enjoying working with Tom and I’m very much looking forward to doing the same with the rest of the team there.’

 Icon will publish as a £20 Royal hardback, and as an ebook, in June 2017.