LADY OF HAY celebrates 25 years constantly in print!

Barbara Erskine's LADY OF HAY celebrates its 25th anniversary this year with a special reissue published by HarperCollins this month. The new edition includes a new final chapter, bringing the story up to date. LADY OF HAY has sold over three million copies and has been translated into 24 languages.

Originally published in 1986, LADY OF HAY was Barbara Erskine's debut novel.  It was a groundbreaking novel, the first to popularise the genre that has since become known as 'time slip'.  When paperback rights were auctioned by the original hardback publisher, the deal set a record for the highest amount paid for paperback rights to a British first novel.   It has now been continuously in print in Britain for a quarter of a century. Set now and in the 12th century, LADY OF HAY explores the life of Joanna, a cynical journalist  investigating hypnotic regression.  Is she really reliving the life of Matilda, Lady of Hay, or is it her fertile imagination leading her to ignore today's problems by escaping into the past?

This month will see Barbara's 'Talk on Ghosts in The Tower Of London' with Alison Weir. Tickets to the event, which will take place on 24 February, sold out within an hour of being released. This follows on from the incredibly popular talk Barbara gave last year about history and ghosts at Hampton Court Palace, a brilliant setting for the subject.

For more information on Barbara's events, please see her website.

For more information on HarperCollins' anniversary edition, please click here.

Joseph O’Connor on tour in America ahead of US publication of GHOST LIGHT

Joseph O'Connor is currently on tour in America ahead of the US publication of GHOST LIGHT next month. The first leg of the tour in Washington has been a great success with many more events still to come. A reading and reception at the Irish Embassy in Washington was full to capacity, during which copies of GHOST LIGHT were sold out. Events in the capital have included two dinners at the Winter Institute.

The American tour will coincide with GHOST LIGHT's US publication by Farrar, Straus & Giroux on 1st of February. The tour will continue with events in Iowa City, Seattle, Portland, Corte Madera, Philadelphia, Boston and New York City next month. For more information, please see click here.

Praise for GHOST LIGHT:
'O'Connor's prose in his portrait of Molly's diminishing life is lyrical. Like the theatrical superstition that gives the novel its title, Synge's spectral presence haunts the story ... O'Connor has created a credible, moving story that derives much of its appeal from the way it transcends the particulars of their biographies to tell a universal tale of love and loss.' -- Bookpage

'It's a haunting story, and O'Connor has a writerly touch ... he knows how to tell a rousing story.' -- The Review of Arts, Literature, Philosophy and the Humanities (online)

'When I think of GHOST LIGHT, the words climb over each other to be first in the queue: brilliant, beautiful, exhilarating, heartbreaking, masterly. It's that good.' -- Roddy Doyle

David Hewson's crime novels optioned by Bavaria Media Italia

Blake Friedmann is pleased to announce that a deal has been signed between David Hewson and Bavaria Media Italia for all eleven of Hewson's contemporary crime novels set in Italy.

Bavaria Media Italia have optioned screen rights in order to develop and produce a major international series of six television movies. The series is planned to be shot in English by Bavaria which will work in conjunction with co-production partners from several European territories. Bavaria's Philipp Kreuzer will Executive Produce the series; Bavaria Media TV will handle international sales. The concept for the series is currently being written in Rome.

The deal was negotiated for Hewson by Conrad Williams of Blake Friedmann's Film/TV department and for Bavaria by Philipp Kreuzer and legal counsel Georg Hoess.

Said David Hewson: "It is enormously flattering to have eleven of your books snapped up for option in one swoop and with such high ambitions for English language, feature length TV dramas.  There is a lot of work to be done on a project of this magnitude. I am happy that is has already started."

Bavaria plans to develop and partner this series in 2011 with production slated for 2012. It will be shot on location in and around central Rome.

David Hewson's novels are published in 23 languages around the world. The ninth book in the Nic Costa series, THE FALLEN ANGEL, will be published by Macmillan on 4 February 2011.

Praise for THE FALLEN ANGEL:
'Intricately plotted and gorgeously written, THE FALLEN ANGEL weaves a spell that will entrap you until the final page. David Hewson's Rome is dark and tantalizing, seductive and dangerous, a place where present-day crimes ring with the echoes of history.' -- Tess Gerritsen, author of THE KILLING PLACE

David Hewson has been hailed by other writers:
'One of the finest thriller writers working today. No question. His tight narrative chords carry an air of…intimacy. His plots build layer by layer through carefully selected prose. He has rakish, roguish, and scandalous villains who do battle with a gutsy and vulnerable hero.  David is blessed with a superb imagination and if you have not, as yet, read one of his tales, start here. You will not be disappointed.' -- Steve Berry

'David Hewson is one of the finest thriller writers of our time and Nic Costa is a detective for the ages. From the first paragraph, CITY OF FEAR will seize you and not let go until the last page has been turned. If you haven't read a Hewson novel yet, what the cazzo are you waiting for?' -- Douglas Preston, author of 'Monster of Florence'

Lyndall Gordon is shortlisted for the Duff Cooper Prize

Lyndall Gordon's Emily Dickinson biography LIVES LIKE LOADED GUNS, which has been widely praised both sides of the Atlantic, and sold in Italy and Spain, has been shortlisted for the 55th Duff Cooper Prize.

The prize has previously been won by writers like William Dalrymple, Anne Applebaum and Adam Hochschild, and the seven strong shortlist for 2010 includes Edmund De Waal's THE HARE WITH AMBER EYES, Sarah Bakewell's HOW TO LIVE and Keith Richards's LIFE. The prize will be awarded at a private ceremony at the French Embassy on 22 February.

LIVES LIKE LOADED GUNS is published in the UK by Virago, and in the US by Viking. Italian rights are sold to Fazi and Spanish rights to Edhasa, who will also publish Gordon's CHARLOTTE BRONTE: A PASSIONATE LIFE and VIRGINIA WOOLF: A WRITER'S LIFE.  Lyndall's VIRGINIA WOOLF biography will also be published in Bulgaria by Riva.

Lyndall's ground-breaking biography of Emily Dickinson, following the vehement feud between the Dickinson family and Emily's brother's mistress after the enigmatic American poet's death, and exploding the myth of the reclusive genius, was a Telegraph Book of the Year 2010, listed in the Independent's Pick of 2010 and picked as one of 4 Biography and Memoir Best Books of 2010 by The Economist. Virago will publish the paperback edition in April.

Lyndall Gordon lives in Oxford. An acclaimed biographer, she has been winner of the Cheltenham Prize and the James Tait Black prize, and long-listed for the Samuel Johnson Prize. In addition to her Emily Dickinson, Virginia Woolf and Charlotte Bronte biographies, she is also author of A PRIVATE LIFE OF HENRY JAMES; T.S. ELIOT: AN IMPERFECT LIFE, and VINDICATION: A Life of Mary Wollstonecraft (long-listed for the Samuel Johnson Prize, 2005) as well as a personal memoir of a fifties childhood in South Africa, SHARED LIVES.

Praise for Lyndall Gordon:

'Gordon is one of the best biographers writing today.' --  Catherine Hollis, Sacramento Book Review

'A gifted storyteller.' -- Carmela Ciuraru, Miami Herald

'Lyndall Gordon is known for the thoroughness of her research and meticulous attention to detail … a fine researcher's eye … an exceptional and unusual mind.' --  Janet van Eeden, The Witness

Praise for LIVES LIKE LOADED GUNS:

'Explodes all previous theories in an electrifying family portrait…a Shakespearean tale of a house divided. A jolting and utterly intriguing watershed achievement.' -- Starred review, Booklist

'Lyndall Gordon proposes a theory to account for the enigma of Emily Dickinson's life as a notorious recluse which is so brilliant that, if this were a novel, a reviewer would be duty-bound not to reveal a thrilling twist…Unforcedly and powerfully original.' -- Caroline Moore, 'Book of the Week', Sunday Telegraph

'As rich as a novel by Henry James.' -- Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, The Telegraph

'Few portraits of Emily Dickinson are as vivid, few explorations of a family feud more riveting.' -- Carol Herman, Washington Times

'Gordon takes the lid off the violent emotional life of the Dickinson family and its far-reaching effects on the poet's work. What she exposes is a seething Peyton Place of adultery, betrayal and lifelong feuding.' -- Claire Harman, Literary Review

Lyndall's website: www.lyndallgordon.net

WITNESS THE NIGHT and THE MASTER OF BRUGES longlisted for Waverton Good Read 2011

Kishwar Desai's award winning WITNESS THE NIGHT and Terence Morgan's THE MASTER OF BRUGES have both been longlisted as Waverton Good Reads.

The award, which has run since 2003, chooses 50 debut novels written by British authors, from which the citizens of Waverton and nearby Styal Prison and Bickerton select their favourite.

Previous winners include Mark Haddon's 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time' and Marina Lewycka's 'A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian'.

Praise for WITNESS THE NIGHT:

'The novel that gets to the heart of tradition-bound India' -- The Pioneer

'It is with no surprise that we heard about Kishwar Desai winning the Costa First Novel Award 2010 earlier this week. Her novel, WITNESS THE NIGHT is a poignant and harrowing story set in a small town in India…' -- DSC South Asian Literary Festival

'Powerful' -- Hazel Larkin, Women's View on News

'Terrific' -- Toby Clements, The Telegraph

 'A powerfully-felt, shocking and moving indictment of cruelty and oppression' -- Maggie Gee, author of THE WHITE FAMILY

'Social justice campaigner Desai's debut novel is very much an issue-based book, the issue being "gendercide" and, for those girls who survive birth, oppression in Indian society. Set in Punjab, Witness the Night begins when 14-year-old Durga is found beaten and tied to a bed inside a house which contains 13 butchered corpses. Social worker Simran Singh, independent and scandalously untraditional in her behaviour, is tasked with getting the mute and traumatised girl, who is suspected of murdering her relatives, to talk. Singh finds a web of deceit and corruption as she uncovers the way in which a family has sacrificed its female members in order to preserve status. There's a bit too much theorising, but this sad and thought-provoking tale is certainly worth the read.' -- Laura Wilson, The Guardian

'Very important themes [and a] very appealing central character.' -- Jane Garvey, BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour

'Essential reading.' -- Nihal, BBC Asian Network

Praise for THE MASTER OF BRUGES:

'Full of exquisite descriptions of Memling's art and times, THE MASTER OF BRUGES is a gripping debut from a bracing new voice in historical fiction.' -- History Times (online)

'A terrific historical page-turner. An engaging, absorbing read.' -- Elizabeth Chadwick

For more information on the award,including the full longlist, click here.