Changing the Story: The Booktrade Charity and Hachette.

As part of its Changing the Story initiative (launched in 2016), Hachette UK has partnered with the Book Trade Charity (BTBS), to offer subsidised accommodation in London to people starting their careers in publishing for whom London is otherwise prohibitively expensive. This offer will also be open to successful applicants for the Hachette BAME trainee programme, the first of whom will begin their 12-month paid internship in September.

In January, Hachette made a donation to BTBS in memory of Carole Blake - a past President and a huge supporter of the charity. This donation will help fund the complete refurbishment of one of the four blocks of The Bookbinders’ Cottages in Barnet about to be undertaken by the charity. Work is due to be completed on the cottages by September, when the first five trainees will begin their year with Hachette. In addition to being paid entry-level salaries, the trainees will be offered subsidised accommodation in the London flats for up to a 6-month fixed period. Hachette will consider other applications for the subsidised accommodation from people starting out on their careers, on a needs basis.

Changing the Story is an ongoing project focusing on diversity and inclusion, chaired by David Shelley, devised and run by staff at Hachette.  In addition to the 12-month trainee scheme, other initiatives include Hachette’s outreach programme into schools, its diverse mentoring programme and 8-week paid internship programme. Further initiatives arising from the project will be announced in due course.

David Shelley commented: ‘I am so thrilled that Hachette and BTBS are working in partnership on this project. The cost of accommodation in London can be such a barrier to entry to our industry, and I hope this will help some talented people get a start in publishing who would otherwise not have been able to do so.’

David Hicks, of BTBS, said: ‘This is a very exciting time for The Book Trade Charity. We have long been conscious that we need to do more to support younger people entering the trade. Over the last two years we have launched two initiatives, helping to fund interns on work placement, and a wide-ranging scheme to cover a variety of costs young people have in finding employment.  Our partnership with Hachette builds on this to address the fundamental issue of affordable housing, and with the resources of Bookbinders Charitable Society, following the merger last October, this support can now become a reality.’

The Carole Blake Open Doors Project is also supported by BTBS, and will offer at least six days of work shadowing to a selected applicant over a two-week period, including funding for travel and up to eight nights’ accommodation in London. The programme, which will run twice a year, will include close mentorship with Blake Friedmann’s book agents, the opportunity to attend selected meetings with editors and clients, and the chance to be involved in every aspect of day-to-day life as an agent. It is intended that candidates will come away from the project with varied knowledge of working for a leading literary agency, the beginnings of new and essential relationships in the publishing industry, and some excellent experience to include on their CVs.

To find out more about the CBODP, and apply for future placements, click here:
http://blakefriedmann.co.uk/carole-blake-open-doors-project

To find out more about Hachette’s Fresh Chapters internship initiative, click here: http://freshchapters.co.uk/index.php

JESSE LONCRAINE'S IN THE FIELD published by blue mark books today

IN THE FIELD, the remarkable debut novel by Jesse Loncraine, is published today by Blue Mark Books. The launch was celebrated recently at Daunt Books in Marylebone, where the audience enjoyed hearing Jesse read, and a speech by Jesse’s editor, Toby Fountaine.

IN THE FIELD follows Orin Perth, who disappears in East Africa after delivering a devastating article on Christine Lokeka, whose 12 year-old son, Paul, has been snatched by the militia that left her husband dead. Orin’s mother Liz, a hardened war reporter, embarks on a search to find her estranged son, enlisting the help of Christine. As Liz and Christine deal with their sons’ disappearances, Orin and Paul struggle to stay alive without losing their humanity in the process. IN THE FIELD grapples with the dilemmas of conflict journalism, and how far familial bonds will stretch when lives are at stake.

W F Howes publish the audiobook, and we have just received a first offer for Dutch rights.

Praise for IN THE FIELD

‘In The Field packs a real punch. Jesse Loncraine leads you confidently through a dark and often desperate world. His writing is unsparing and unsentimental yet, at times, moves you close to tears’ -  Michael Palin

‘The world of In the Field is dangerous, very dangerous.  It is Jesse Loncraine’s gift to take you there, scary as it is, but reassure you that love and humanity can survive. His characters, however bizarre their experiences, are all perfectly believable. The reader wants them all to survive and thrive. Hence the excitement to the very last page of this fully-achieved début: a page-turner par excellence.’ – Ian McKellen

‘Terrifying, heartbreaking and essential — IN THE FIELD is a stunning achievement. Loncraine’s prose is precise and beautiful; his scope and ambition extraordinary. A timely novel about a forgotten war, IN THE FIELD does what good fiction is supposed to: reveal the truth without flinching. It will squeeze your heart until it bursts. A remarkable new talent.’ – Benjamin Johncock

About the Author

Jesse Loncraine studied English at Bristol, and Violence and Conflict at SOAS. He moved to New York at 24 where he worked variously in documentary film, international criminal law, and as a gardener. His work for Skylight Pictures (in conjunction with the International Criminal Court) disseminating information about the prosecution of war crimes took him to Kenya, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Lebanon. Jesse was born in London in 1985. He currently lives with his wife and daughter in Oakland, California. The White Review has previously published his short stories. IN THE FIELD is his first novel.

THE GHOST WHO BLED published today by Comma Press

THE GHOST WHO BLED, Gregory Norminton's collection of ‘sublime’ short stories, is published out now in the UK, published by Comma Press. 'Witty, intelligent, crunchily written, Norminton’s collection is pure reading pleasure.”  says Neel Mukherjee, the Booker-shortlisted author of The Lives of Others.

Spanning centuries and continents, the stories in this collection amount to a tour de force of literary worldbuilding. From deeply insecure time travellers to medieval mystics and futuristic body modification cults, Norminton’s characters find themselves torn between conflicting impulses – temptation and fortitude, hubris and shame, longing and regret. By turns sad, strange and darkly comic, THE GHOST WHO BLED reveals a master storyteller of incredible range.

Listen to Gregory chatting about the book on BBC Radio Sheffield here.

Gregory’s new novel THE DEVIL'S HIGHWAY will be published by 4th Estate in Spring 2018.

Visit Gregory’s website here.

Follow Gregory on Twitter here.

Praise for THE GHOST WHO BLED:

'This is a sublime collection of short stories by a writer whose breath-taking flexibility of style gives life to an array of different voices... Unfailingly beautiful, deceptively simple and lyrically powerful' — Claire Looby, The Irish Times

'There is a yesteryear quality to much of Gregory Norminton’s writing, at least in these stories, several of which look backward in style to classics of the genre.' — Peter Gordon, Asian Review of Books

'Witty, intelligent, crunchily written, Norminton’s collection is pure reading pleasure.” - Neel Mukherjee (Booker-shortlisted author of The Lives of Others)

'All the doors of the imagination are open to Gregory Norminton, the author of micro-fictions and exuberantly long novels; this collection roves magnificently from one side of the world to the other, bringing together people and their predicaments as only its author can. Read it and be transported, too.' — Michael Caines (The TLS)

‘Gregory Norminton’s tautly written, mordant short stories make the reader sit up and think. Startlingly original imagery and that rare thing, moral and political bite.’ – Maggie Gee

‘Norminton's beautifully written stories capture the range and complexity of life with wit and compassion, insight and pathos: hugely enjoyable, very much recommended.’ — James Miller (The Lost Boys, Sunshine State)

‘These wonderfully accomplished stories range over time and place, but what holds them together, other than the mastery of the language and the sheer gift of storytelling displayed, is their constant, complex humanity, and the sense that being human is only part of being something larger, what the narrator of the title story calls "the sufficient planet of home."' — Charles Lambert (The Children's Home)

‘Anything by Gregory Norminton is a pleasure to read.’ — Time Out

IREMONGER TRILOGY OPTIONED TO BRANDISH PRODUCTIONS

Edward Carey’s acclaimed IREMONGER TRILOGY has been optioned for film by Brandish Productions.

‘Delightful, eccentric, heartfelt, surprising, philosophical’ – Eleanor Catton, author of THE LUMINARIES, and included in her Best Books of 2013 in The Guardian

Brandish Productions is a new company set up by established producers Charles Brand and Jago Lee. Charles executive produces a wide range of film, drama, comedy and factual programming. Previous projects include the BAFTA award winning 'Billy Elliot', BAFTA nominated drama series ‘Births Marriages and Deaths' (BBC2), acclaimed BBC documentary series ’The Monastery’, and comedies 'Stella Street' and 'Bill Hicks: Revelations' (Channel 4/HBO). Jago is the creative director of Antenna Pictures, having held posts including managing director and co-founder of NERD TV, head of documentaries at Tiger Aspect, and head of development at Optomen Television. Past credits include ‘The Lion Cub From Harrods’ (Channel 5/ Animal Planet), ‘Inside The Gangsters Code’ (Discovery), ‘The 12 Year Old Lifer’ (A&E/Channel 4), and ‘Find My First Love’ (FYI/ MTV UK).

The novels follow young Clod Iremonger, and servant girl, Lucy Pennant as they unravel the mysteries and misdoings of the family’s patriarch, Umbitt Iremonger. When Lucy is cast out into ‘the Heaps’ – the undulating mass of collected rubbish that makes the Iremongers their wealth – Clod must follow, and together they must work to stop a diabolical plan to take Westminster by force and allow the dastardly Iremongers to reign supreme. Complete with Carey’s vivid pencil drawings of the family and their Gothic, fantastical, alternate Victorian London (exhibited in Italy in 2016 in collaboration with his Italian publisher, Bompiani), the novels lend themselves beautifully to screen adaptation. The series has won much acclaim, and is published in 11 languages across 14 territories.

Praise for the trilogy:

A New York Times Notable Children’s Book of 2014; Selected in Publisher’s Weekly Best Books of 2014; Selected by Kirkus as one of the Best Teen Books of 2014; On tor.com’s Best Books of 2014 – Reviewer’s Choice; Selected as one of Newsday’s Top Ten Children’s books 2014; Recommended on the Booktrust Christmas Gifts for Children List 2013; Listed by The Sunday Times as one of the Top Children’s Books of 2013; New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice

‘If this were music, Carey would be Eric Satie. If it were film, he would be Tim Burton.’ - Newsday

‘An exceptional, astonishing book… gorgeously written… HEAP HOUSE is, its heart of trash notwithstanding, an absolute treasure’ –NPR Books

‘IREMONGER torques and tempers our memories of Dickensian London into a singularly jaunty and creepy tale of agreeable misfits. Read it by gas lamp, with a glass of absinthe at your wrist and a fireplace poker by your knee. ’ – Gregory Maguire, author of WICKED

‘Fabulously strange and in the tradition of Mervyn Peake... Astonishing and inventive, it calls out to be read.' – Sunday Times Best Children’s Books of 2013

‘Spectacularly weird’ – New York Times Book Review, Editor’s Choice

‘Splendidly deranged imagination and deliciously peculiar prose…Beyond the gripping adventure and creepy illustrations, the premise demands consideration of the tendency of raw capitalism to make people and things both interchangeable and disposable. A story wondrous fine, full of terrors and marvels.’ Kirkus Starred Review

LATEST TONY PARK THRILLER - Red Earth - published IN PAPERBACK IN THE UK TODAY

Fans of bestselling thriller writer Tony Park can now enjoy his thirteenth novel - a breakneck chase adventure, featuring an assassination, a stolen baby and a race to the death. RED EARTH, published by Pan Macmillan in paperback today, is an adventure novel set against the backdrop of KwaZulu-Natal, the home of South Africa’s Zulus. 

Durban, South Africa, a car is hijacked. Suzanne Fessey fights back and kills one thief but the other, wounded, escapes with her baby on board. In pursuit of the missing vehicle and baby are helicopter tracker pilot Nia Carras from the air, and Mike Dunn, a nearby wildlife researcher, from the ground.

But South Africa's police have bigger problems: a bomb has gone off in Durban, killing the visiting American Ambassador, and chaos has descended on Kwa-Zulu Natal.As the missing baby is tracked through the wild game reserves from Zululand to Zimbabwe, Mike and Nia come to realise that the war on terror has invaded their part of the world.

The author has pledged to donate a portion of the royalties from the first 200 copies sold of his novel Red Earth to the charity Veterans For Wildlife. Purchasers of Red Earth will be invited to send photographs of their receipts to redearth@veterans4wildlife.org.

Veterans For Wildlife is an international charity that aims to prevent wildlife crime using the skills, knowledge and experience of military veterans. 
 

Praise for RED EARTH and Tony Park

‘A gripping page-turner.’ – Thando Ndabezitha, Sawubona Magazine

‘Their frantic chase through the wild animal reserves of Southern Africa makes for a gripping yarn told by a master of the craft, Australian author, Tony Park’ – Herald Sun

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

‘In his novels you can smell Africa… Tony Park's insightful descriptions make you feel you are there… Another page turner from Tony Park whose love affair with Africa seduces us all.' – Susan DeLong, Mudgee Guardian & Gulgong Advertiser

About Tony Park

Tony Park grew up in Australia and fell in love with South Africa on a short trip in 1995. A Major in the Australian Army Reserve, Park served in Afghanistan in 2002. He and his wife spend half of every year in Sydney and the remainder in southern Africa, where they own a home on the border of the Kruger National Park. Author of 13 African thrillers, he has worked as a newspaper reporter in Australia and England, a government press secretary, a public relations consultant, and a freelance writer..

Read more about Tony on the Blake Friedmann website or Tony’s own website.

Follow Tony on Twitter and Facebook.