KERRY HUDSON’S THIRST IS FRESH TALENT PICK AT WH SMITH

THIRST by Kerry Hudson was chosen by WH Smith as one of the titles for Fresh Talent promotion, launched in February with the aims to promote new and emerging writers.

The retailer said it had been working closely with publishers to curate the list, which he expects will capture the attention of commuters and travellers. W H Smith Travel fiction buyer Matt Bates said: “Our Fresh Talent promotion is going from strength to strength, showcasing the very best in new and emerging writing talent. We have worked closely with major publishing houses as well as independents to curate what is undoubtedly a very strong selection.”

THIRST is a contemporary love story from Scottish First Book Award winner Kerry Hudson. It has been published in 2014 by Chatto, and translated in French and Italian.

Alena and Dave are both on the run from disaster, and meet during a London heatwave to begin a love affair as dark, joyful and frenetic as the city itself. Dave, who has built a carefully controlled world of self-denial and isolation, is drawn to Alena's passion for life, while Alena discovers that sex can be more than a transaction and that love and safety are priceless commodities. But a relationship founded on secrets is easily shattered, and when Alena's ex-lover arrives, threatening to expose her, Alena flees. By the time Dave overcomes his mistrust about Alena and her past, and follows her into the bitter Russian winter, he can only hope he's not too late to convince her that just as spring will come, second and even third chances can always be found. THIRST is a heart-breaking romance of almost unbearable fragility based in contemporary East London and rural Russia.

Born in Aberdeen, Kerry Hudson grew up in a succession of council estates, B&Bs and caravan parks which provided her with a keen eye for idiosyncratic behaviour, material for life, and a love of travel. She was chosen as a Bookseller Rising Star 2014 for her work on the WoMentoring project. She currently divides her writing time and affections between Hackney and Hanoi, and is working on her third novel.

Praise for THIRST:

‘Explores the lives of people not generally considered fit for literature and does so with wit and a shrewdness that makes Hudson's subjects zing from the page.’ – Guardian

'Tremendously affecting… impressively unostentatious' – Claire Allfree, The Metro

‘Heart-wrenching without being maudlin, THIRST is a novel about the scraps of hope that people find when they’re completely out of options… Hudson has an eye for detail and her meticulous research shows without bogging down the narrative. There are villains, but no obvious heroes. It’s a bleak outlook, but Hudson makes it beautiful.’ – Kaite Welsh, The Independent  

Four Weeks: Frankfurt Book Fair Preparation from a Foreign Rights perspective

In four weeks the first wave of Agents will be flying out to Frankfurt for the Frankfurt Book Fair. Gulp.

In actual fact, we started the preparation for FBF way before today – I received the first request for a meeting on 16 June! We spend the large part of the summer filling up our schedules – one meeting every half an hour from 9:00 – 18:00 Wednesday to Friday at the Fair, then the pre-Fair meetings at the Hessischer Hof on Monday and Tuesday.

As we have so many agents attending the Fair, it is important to be strategic and plan who should meet with whom. For example, the Book Agents will want to meet with editors who publish their authors. The Foreign Rights team will meet with publishers from their territories, and we’ll always try to meet with new publishers as often as possible. After months of scheduling for 6 agents, by 14 September we are left with a beautifully busy schedule. Some could almost say a work of art. Or maybe that’s just me.

This year our summer was filled with a particularly exciting project – our shiny new Rights Guide which is now unveiled on our website. ‘H-Amazing Hattie’ (there’s no synonym for amazing beginning with H, who knew?) took charge, but collectively we all worked together to create something that will incite awe, and envy, but most importantly help us sell our books to publishers.

Sometimes we have to make cut-throat decisions: we want to make sure each and every author gets the best possible attention, but timing is crucial and sometimes that means holding off from including their book for this Fair.  Every book has its Fair, and sometimes discussing a book before it’s been delivered, or sold in the UK can scupper its chances selling internationally.

So much work and thought goes into each and every meeting and having the right tools at hand is vital! 

by the Blake Friedmann foreign rights team

Anneliese Mackintosh Debut Novel To Cape

Penguin Random House imprint Jonathan Cape has acquired a debut novel by award-winning, critically acclaimed short-story writer Anneliese Mackintosh.

Editorial Director Alex Bowler signed UK and Commonwealth rights to SO HAPPY IT HURTS by Mackintosh from Juliet Pickering at Blake Friedmann Agency, following an auction.

Bowler said: 'SO HAPPY IT HURTS is the story of a year in the life of Ottila McGregor. A particularly significant year, given that thirty-year-old Ottila has led what you might call a 'colourful life' to date. But now she's going to give up the drink and plough a monogamous furrow and become so happy it hurts. But life, of course, doesn't work like that. In this book Anneliese has conjured a remarkable, hilarious and starkly honest voice; a beautifully confused and ever-hopeful heroine, who you can't help but root for; and a book – a grangerised scrapbook of a diary, composed of receipts, emails, a boyfriend's note rescued from the bin, and various other found objects – that looks like nothing else. An infectious, one-off of a novel, from an uncategorisable young writer with the brightest of futures.'

Anneliese Mackintosh is the author of short story collection ANY OTHER MOUTH, published by Freight Books in June 2014. It won the Green Carnation Prize, and was shortlisted for the Saltire Society's First Book Award and Edge Hill Short Story Prize. The Guardian praised ANY OTHER MOUTH for being 'a fantastic, cleanly focused book that's hilarious and heartbreaking", The Independent said of Anneliese, 'Mackintosh is a real talent and ANY OTHER MOUTH is remarkable', and The List called her "one of the UK's most exciting new voices"

SO HAPPY IT HURTS is due for publication in Spring 2017. Audio rights were sold at auction to Audible.

THREE SHORT STORIES FROM JELLYFISH BY JANICE GALLOWAY TO BE BROADCAST ON BBC RADIO 4

Next Sunday at 19:45 the first of three short stories from JELLYFISH by Janice Galloway will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4. Following the success of her 'anti-memoirs' THIS IS NOT ABOUT ME and ALL MADE UP, the novelist, poet and frequent collaborator with artists and musicians, returns to short fiction with JELLYFISH, published in June by Freight Books. The title story is an exquisite tale set between childhood and independence, and is going to be read on Sunday by the author herself.

Listen to the stories on iPlayer here.

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. JELLYFISH contains razor-sharp tales of two of the most powerful human experiences from one of our most acclaimed authors. The collection has been longlisted for the Frank O’Connor Short Story Prize 2015.

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. Her radio work includes two series for BBC (LIFE AS A MAN and IMAGINED LIVES) and programmes on music and musicians. 

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

DAVID GILMAN’S DEFIANT UNTO DEATH PUBLISHED IN PAPERBACK TODAY BY HEAD OF ZEUS

DEFIANT UNTO DEATH, by the award-winning screenwriter and author David Gilman, is out today in paperback from Head of Zeus. This action-packed sequel to Amazon #1 bestseller MASTER OF WAR follows the adventures of Thomas Blackstone, a stonemason-turned-archer during the Hundred Years' War.

It is six years since Thomas Blackstone fought at Calais and his reputation is now established, with two children and a fortified manor house in Normandy from which he offers protection to his villagers. King John II sees conspiracy at every corner, the French–English truce has broken down and the war continues, with the Prince of Wales devastating the South. When Blackstone helps take control of a vital castle for the English allies and enrages the King, he finds himself in conflict with an old enemy, a vicious mercenary, known as le prêtre sanguinaire – the Savage Priest. This is a man who once pursued his wife, Christiana, and a terrible secret Blackstone has kept from her is revealed. From a last ditch defence on the blood-soaked field of Poitiers, to single combat high in the Alps, Blackstone might yet defy death but he cannot defy his destiny.

The MASTER OF WAR series has been sold  in Brazil, Hungary, Spain and the Czech Republic.

Praise for the MASTER OF WAR series:

‘Move over Bernard Cornwell!  Historical fiction at its best’ – Historical Novel Society

‘A violent, tempestuous, glorious novel. I was gripped from the very beginning and the book never once let go of me until its end, by which point I was exhausted by its intensity, thrills and trauma. Among my top historical fiction reads of 2015.' – For Winter Nights

 ‘See-saw drama at its best… so many reasons why, when life tried to encourage me to put the book down, I resisted stridently. This is writing that twists around seldom seen hist-fict depth.’ – Ani Johnson, The Bookbag

 ‘If you only read one historical debut this year, make it this one. The prose is sharper than a bodkin arrow, the pace faster than thought and to be honest it was a book that I just couldn’t put down. Great stuff.’ – Gareth Wilson, Falcata Times

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