Peter James becomes new Chair of Crime Writer’s Association

Peter James became the new Chair of the Crime Writer's Assocation on Saturday. He was inaugurated into his new position at their annual general meeting and received the John Creasey Bell, donated by John Creasey, Founder of the Crime Writers Assocation. Past Chairs in recent years have included Val McDermid, Ian Rankin, and the most recent, Tom Harper. The CWA aims to promote the crime genre and provides support to professional writers. The CWA also runs the prestigious Dagger Awards every year.
 
DEAD LIKE YOU is the sixth book in the Roy Grace series, and was published by Macmillan in October 2010. The Roy Grace series is sold around the world to 33 languages. His new title in the series, DEAD MAN'S GRIP will be published by Macmillan in May this year.

Praise for Peter James:
 
'A terrific thriller...DEAD LIKE YOU is a haunting page-turner that seamlessly blends psychological suspense with police procedure, echoing the heart and voices of such authors as P. D. James and Ian Rankin at their best.' -- Jeffery Deaver, author of ROADSIDE CROSSES
 
'Sinister and riveting...Peter James is one of the best British crime writers, and therefore one of the best in the world.' -- Lee Child

'Roy Grace ... is fast becoming one of the more memorable coppers in modern crime fiction ... A first class police procedural.' -- The Times

Andy Briggs to write adaptation of DYATLOV PASS for Future Film Group and 28 Pictures

Simon Fellows will direct the film, based on the book by Alan K. Barker.

The story is inspired by true events from 1959 when nine students died while ski-hiking in the Ural mountains. The unsolved mystery saw the group tear open their tent from the inside and leave barefoot in a heavy snowstorm. Though there was no sign of a struggle, two victims had fractured skulls, one was missing her tongue and clothing belonging to the victims contained high levels of radiation.

Soviet investigators concluded that "a compelling unknown force" had caused their deaths.

The production is anticipated to shoot next summer in Eastern Europe.

Andy Briggs has recently written THE PHILADELPHIA EXPERIMENT for the SyFy Channel and is also writing two feature films for Amber Entertainment.

Tony Park's THE DELTA launched in South Africa and the UK

Tony Park's latest action adventure thriller THE DELTA has been published in the UK, by Quercus who have already bought 9 Tony Park thrillers from Isobel Dixon as part of their UK launch campaign.

Tony went on a busy launch tour in South Africa, where Business Day praised THE DELTA as  'more than an adventure story with a little danger, romance and an exotic setting thrown in for good measure. It's a contemporary chronicle of the conflict between modernisation and the status quo; between corporate interests and the desire to preserve what nature has provided.'

In the UK the Daily Mail has called it 'an all-action, old-fashioned full-on Boy's Own romp from an author who is starting to challenge Wilbur Smith for the title of master of the African thriller…Break-neck in pace, with narrow escapes from death on every page, its charm is infectious.'    

After recently acquiring Tony's whole backlist, Quercus have already published SILENT PREDATOR, ZAMBEZI and now THE DELTA and will release the rest over the next two years. In his home country, Australia, Tony is published by Macmillan.

Click here to read a recent interview Tony Park gave Crime Time.

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

'He just gets better and better. His descriptions of the southern African bush and mountain jungles are so vivid you can just about feel the sun on your skin and smell the dust and animals.' -- Frank Walker, Sun Herald

'If you like action adventures, with a spy theme, some education - either travel or technological - and a little romance, then this guy's for real…Rip-snorting romps that keep you guessing at all levels. What puts this into the top echelon of the genre is that the people, even the heroes, are fallible human beings.' -- June Joyce, Waikato Times

Praise for THE DELTA

'An all-action, old-fashioned full-on Boy's Own romp from an author who is starting to challenge Wilbur Smith for the title of master of the African thriller …. Break-neck in pace, with narrow escapes from death on every page, its charm is infectious' -- Daily Mail

'An environmentally conscious, heart-thumping thriller.' -- Australian Bookseller and Publisher

'Colourful and strikingly written.' -- Barry Forshaw, Crime Time

'He gives a realistic account of the continent's wildlife and its people and his characters are inherently human - that is, flawed - and believable.' -- Lauren de Beer, Business Day

'THE DELTA is a riveting thriller and certainly one of the author's best as it seamlessly blends real concerns - climate change, water and other environmental and political issues - with a cracking adventure led by a bold woman.' -- Gold Coast Bulletin

Beautiful Books buys rights to new Evelyn Waugh biography

Simon Petherick of Beautiful Books has bought World English rights from Isobel Dixon to new agency client Duncan McLaren's 'inquisitive, inventive' portrait of Evelyn Waugh, EVELYN! RHAPSODY FOR AN OBSESSIVE LOVE. Beautiful Books will publish in September 2011.

In EVELYN! RHAPSODY OF AN OBSESSIVE LOVE, Duncan McLaren, the acclaimed biographer of Enid Blyton, turns his attention to Evelyn Waugh, charting a very personal course through Waugh's life, up until the writing and publication of his final novel, Unconditional Surrender.

Adopting the same disruptive and inquisitive approach as his previous works, McLaren manages to produce an entirely new portrait of Evelyn Waugh to those painted by more traditional recent biographies. Beginning with his own personal obsession with Decline and Fall, McLaren embarks on a real journey with his partner Kate to many of the key places in Waugh's life, discovering along the way new insights into the triangular relationship between Waugh, his wife Evelyn Gardner and the man she left him for, John Heygate.

Both sympathetic and inimitably curious, McLaren manages to bring one of our greatest writers to life in a completely unorthodox, but very literary, manner.

Duncan McLaren's Saga blog, Visiting Mabel is also shortlisted for the The 2011 Orwell Blog Prize.

"I instantly loved the inquisitive nature of this biography. Evelyn Waugh has always been one of my favourite authors, and with this book Duncan illuminates aspects of Waugh's life hitherto ignored by other biographers. By placing his own experiences next to those of Waugh, this is a very inventive, and absolutely compelling, look at the life of one of Britain's greatest writers." -- Simon Petherick, MD of Beautiful Books

"[McLaren] shows how funny Waugh's writing is by adopting and using many of his phrases, often in surprising ways. He is funny, and that's a large part of the book's pleasure: not just rehashing all those old novels (which we do in academia), but discovering new things about them and trying to explain them to others." -- John Howard Wilson, Secretary of the Evelyn Waugh Society

Duncan McLaren is the author of LOOKING FOR ENID, a biography of Enid Blyton, and has written extensively on art mainly for the Independent on Sunday and for art magazines. He lives in Tayside.

Praise for LOOKING FOR ENID:

"Illuminating and entertaining." -- The Independent

"Cheerful and inventive - packed with pastiche, imaginary encounters and literary criticism. Imagine Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas with lashings of ginger beer instead of hallucinogenics." -- The Times

"Hurrah for Little Noddy! Hurrah for Enid Blyton! And Hurrah for Duncan McLaren's horribly hilarious, hideously brilliant quest to discover what made Enid tick. I laughed so hard that I spat out the vodka - I mean ginger beer - I was sipping, drenching my dog." - Val Hennessy, Daily Mail

GHOST LIGHT shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize as it re-enters the Irish charts at no 2!

This week Joseph O'Connor's acclaimed novel GHOST LIGHT is back in the Irish sales charts at no 2 and has been shortlisted for the second Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. 

The winner of the Walter Scott Prize, sponsored by the Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch, will receive £25,000 and the awards ceremony will take place on the 18th of June as part of the Borders Book Festival at Melrose. GHOST LIGHT is shortlisted alongside Andrea Levy's THE LONG SONG and C by Tom McCarthy.

Today starts the month long GHOST LIGHT 'One City, One Book' project in Dublin. This promotes reading by encouraging everyone in the city to read the same book. 2011 is the sixth year of Dublin's 'One City, One Book' project, and as part of this year's celebration, the City Council and Library services have arranged numerous activities including readings by the author and performances of Synge's plays in the Abbey Theatre.

GHOST LIGHT is published by Harvill Secker and Vintage in the UK and Farrar, Straus and Giroux in the US. It has also been sold to Record (Brazil), VL Publishers (Bulgaria), Fraktura (Croatia), Phebus (France), Fischer (Germany), Ambo|Anthos (Holland), Guanda (Italy), Zvaigzne (Latvia), Dom Quixote (Portugal), Salamandra (Spain) and Norstedts (Sweden).

Praise for GHOST LIGHT:

'GHOST LIGHT is O'Connor's vivid and sometimes visionary reimagining of the love affair between Molly Allgood and the Irish dramatist John Millington Synge ... In GHOST LIGHT, O'Connor allows himself to ride the wave of Irish eloquence.' -- New York Times Book Review

'Joseph O'Connor's GHOST LIGHT is absolutely brilliant - a beautifully written love story.' -- Roddy Doyle, The Guardian, Books of the Year 2010

'GHOST LIGHT displays an astonishing command of voice, using tones that are both tender and powerfully emotional, with brilliant command of the period.' -- Colm Tóibín, Daily Telegraph, Books of the Year 2010