THE LAST DAYS OF LEDA GREY published today!

‘Fox's vivid, sensual prose … is as seductive as a siren's song’ – Heat Magazine

Essie Fox’s latest novel, THE LAST DAYS OF LEDA GREY - A bewitching novel about an enigmatic silent film actress, and the volatile love affair that left her a recluse for over half a century - is published in the UK by Orion today.

During the oppressive heat wave of 1976 a young journalist, Ed Peters, finds an Edwardian photograph in a junk shop in the seaside town of Brightland. It shows an alluring, dark-haired girl, an actress whose name was Leda Grey. Enchanted by the image, Ed learns Leda Grey is still living - now a recluse in a decaying cliff-top house she once shared with a man named Charles Beauvois, a director of early silent film. As Beauvois's muse and lover, Leda often starred in scenes where stage magic and trick photography were used to astonishing effect.

But, while playing a cursed Egyptian queen, the fantasies captured on celluloid were echoed in reality, leaving Leda abandoned and alone for more than half a century - until the secrets of her past result in a shocking climax, more haunting than any to be in found in the silent films of Charles Beauvois.

THE LAST DAYS OF LEDA GREY was chosen as The Times Newspaper’s October Book of the Month. The Times describes the novel as  “luminous … with a sensuousness to the prose … Leda Grey’s world is utterly beguiling.”

Follow this link for a look at the stunning trailer for the book.

Essie’s debut novel, THE SOMNAMBULIST, was shortlisted at the National Book Awards for New Writer of the Year, and was also picked up by TV Book Club and optioned by Hat Trick Productions. It is also published by Castelvecchi in Italy and Damm in Sweden and sold to Bertrand in Brazil. Her other novels, ELIJAH'S MERMAID and THE GODDESS AND THE THIEF have received a swathe of glowing reviews.

See Essie Fox's website here

See Essie Fox's blog The Virtual Victorian here

Praise for THE LAST DAYS OF LEDA GREY

'...luminous...there is a sensuousness to the prose...Leda Grey's world is utterly beguiling.' -- Antonia Senior, The Times Book of the Month

‘an ethereal fantasy which is both seductive and tragic…the intensely sensual and untamed echoes of the past come alive in The Last Days of Leda Grey…an exquisitely written, tantalising mystery heaving with imagination, atmosphere and drama…Bravo!’ -- Little Bookness Lane

‘Essie Fox writes with passion and authority…bring[ing] to life some of the film stories of yesteryear, giving the reader a tantalising glimpse into the intriguing world of cinema history. Evocative and haunting, this story is beautifully told, it is multi-layered and hugely engaging. The characters are rich, mysterious and surprising and the setting is fabulous…The author has created a stifling atmosphere…so inventive, so surprising and quite enchanting.’ -- Random Things Through My Letter Box

‘This enchanting story transports you into the past to discover the haunting truth behind Leda’s past- which is far more dramatic than any of the silent films she starred in’ -- Jenny Freeman, Essentials 

“Dark, haunting, compelling…equal to Daphne du Maurier’s novels. This book held me in its grip. Loved it.” -- Liz Fenwick

“Spent a sunny day hunched tensely over THE LAST DAYS OF LEDA GREY...Macabre, transporting, thick with atmosphere and allusion.” -- Morgan McCarthy

'Have just read THE LAST DAYS OF LEDA GREY and have woken up in a haze of incense with a beaded shawl over my head … the flickering images, the shadowy figures, and the ghostly backdrop of Brighton … will tingle and chill you in equal measure.” -- The Booktrail

“Noir meets gothic in this fantastic book … a dark and brooding narrative that is bristling with suspense and atmosphere.” -- Book and Brew

“Descriptions were amazing …really felt as if I was there in that house, both in the past and the present of the 1970’s. Very very clever!” -- Jenn Ashworth

“It’s hypnotic!” -- Kellie Jackson, Words Away

“Darkly sparkling. Very much enjoyed my days in Leda’s twilight world. Doubt I’ll sleep all that well tonight…” -- Anna Mazzola

“Wonderfully creepy tale. Leda is a triumph.” -- Vanessa Lafaye

Praise for ELIJAH'S MERMAID:

'[ELIJAH'S MERMAID] delights in the underworld and the exotica of Victorian Britain... Memorable and unusual.' -- Nick Rennison, Sunday Times

'Dark secrets, hidden pasts and childhood mysteries are the focus in this sensual melodrama...an entertaining slice of Victoriana, rich in historical detail...a tale of obsessive love and betrayal.' -- Marie Claire Magazine

Praise for THE SOMNAMBULIST:

'Gothic Victorian tale of complicated thespian lives, old secrets and many a twist and turn. It's an absorbing easy read, well worth recommending.' -- The Bookseller

'Essie Fox's debut novel paints a vivid picture of Victorian Times.' -- The Star

Tatamkhulu Afrika’s BITTER EDEN published in the UK today

'Bitter Eden is earthy and lyrical, caustic and moving.' – Christos Tsiolkas, author of The Slap

BITTER EDEN, Tatamkhulu Afrika’s semi-autobiographical World War II novel is published today by Toby Fountaine of Blue Mark Books.

Based on the author’s own experience as a prisoner-of-war in World War II, this frank and poetic novel deals with three men who must negotiate the emotions that are brought to the surface by the physical closeness of survival in the male-only camps.

First published in the UK by Arcadia in 2002, shortly before the 82-year-old author's death, the modern classic was published by Picador USA last year and was selected in the 2015 Stonewall Book Awards as an Honor Book of Literature.

Named in NPR’s Best Books of 2014, Saeen Jones writes that ‘Afrika's autobiographical novel based on his experiences as a prisoner of war during World War II is as beautiful as it is heartbreaking.’

Presses de la Cite pre-empted for French rights for the novel, which they published for the Rentrée Litteraire in Autumn 2015.

The book reveals the complex rituals of camp life and the diversion of the POW theatre (in which, in real life, the author played Lady Macbeth and frequently shared a stage with fellow prisoner Denholm Elliot). It lays bare the terrible cruelties, but also the loyalties and deep bonds the men know will never be replicated when the return to reality. BITTER EDEN is a tender, powerful book, of lives inexorably changed, of a war whose ending does not bring peace. More than simply ‘war’ literature, or ‘gay’ literature, it is a deeply moving, human work about the meaning of love, and what it is to be a man.

Tatamkhulu Afrika was born in Egypt of Arab/Turkish parents who moved to South Africa while he was still a baby, but died in the influenza epidemic of 1920. He was adopted, but later, after learning the full details of his history, he converted to Islam, became active in his opposition to apartheid, and changed his name to Tatamkhulu Afrika ('Grandfather Africa' in Xhosa). Starting to write in earnest late in life, he published seven prize-winning volumes of poetry and several novellas. He was included in the Carcanet anthology Ten South African Poets. Bitter Eden was his last novel. A new edition has recently been published in Italy by Playground.

Publisher Toby Fountaine says: ‘The unequalled bonds formed between fighting men has been explored in great literature before; but this story, about how that bond becomes a deeper love, has not. It is hauntingly written and unforgettable.’

Isobel Dixon of Blake Friedmann remembers how the near-blind writer’s handwritten letter arrived by post, along with the photocopy of a manuscript typed by a friend: ‘I knew Tatamkhulu Afrika’s name then as a poet and anti-apartheid activist, but nothing could prepare me for the enduring impact of this slow-simmering story. It is one of the great pleasures of championing an author to see others fall in love with a book too and BITTER EDEN is a novel so many people become absolutely passionate about. I am glad that Toby is one of that discerning number.’

Praise for BITTER EDEN:

‘Afrika ‘shows with an insider’s empathy how, in the myriad battles of our recent past, an even greater number of private wars were lost or won.’ – Argus.

‘BITTER EDEN’s love is neither kind nor tame nor ever adorned.  The word love is never mentioned, because love—if this is really the name for it—is so spare and brutal and bare-knuckled that the characters themselves aren’t even aware of it.  But this book will haunt you, and stay with you, and won’t ever let go, just like the memory of a love that never happened but should have happened continues to exact its toll of misfired hopes and regrets.  But the language is not spare and the poetry here, like shards of a broken bottle, is simply everywhere.’ – André Aciman, Call Me By Your Name

'Harsh, exquisite and concise, an astonishing story about men in close quarters forging relationships that border on trust and betrayal - and how love, in war, is an ambivalent bond.' -- The Independent

'An extraordinarily powerful novel… it reads like an epic prose poem - or a kind of deathbed confession.' - Mark Simpson, Independent on Sunday  (Books of the Year, 2002)

‘Gorgeously written…a small masterpiece’ - The San Francisco Chronicle Review

‘A gripping study of the dehumanising effects of war and an empathetic portrait of illicit love’ -- The New York Times 

A STREET CAT NAMED BOB released in cinemas natiowide Friday 4th November

Blake Friedmann Media Department is delighted to herald the nationwide cinema release of A STREET CAT NAMED BOB on Friday 4th November.

Two agency clients were involved in the film adaptation of James Bowen’s best-selling book: director Roger Spottiswoode and screenwriter Tim John.

A STREET CAT NAMED BOB is a heartening tale of survival, redemption and an overly inquisitive cat. James Bowen was a heroin addict, struggling to stick to his rehabilitation on a methadone programme in London. That is until Bob, a ginger stray, jumped into his flat and refused to leave.

James and Bob’s new friendship piques the interest of animal loving neighbour Belle, a volunteer at a local charity for vets. Gradually, Bob gives James something to feed other than his own addiction, and when he takes the cat out busking, Bob is an instant hit with the Covent Garden crowds. 

The movie, starring Luke Treadaway and Ruta Gedmintas and featuring the real life ‘Bob’, will be launched by a Royal Premiere screening on Thursday 3rd November attended by HRH the Duchess of Cambridge.

LOVE YOU DEAD AT NO. 2 IN THE PAPERBACK BESTSELLER CHARTS

Peter James’ LOVE YOU DEAD will be No. 2 in the paperback bestseller charts this weekend in its first week of publication. Earlier this year, LOVE YOU DEAD, was No. 1 in the hardback bestseller charts and remained in the Top 10 for 7 weeks. 

This is the 12th book in Peter’s enormously successful Roy Grace series, following YOU ARE DEAD which last year spent a total of 5 weeks at No. 1 and many more in the Top 5. Peter’s standalone THE HOUSE ON COLD HILL was published in paperback in June and spent 3 weeks in the Top 10 bestseller chart. His 30-year-old novel, BILLIONAIRE, was republished in January 2016 and went straight into the chart at No. 8.

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 is published in more than 3 dozen languages. Last year he was voted by WH Smith readers as The Best Crime Author Of All Time. His DS Roy Grace crime novels have sold 18 million copies worldwide. He is currently writing three more Roy Grace novels and two standalones for Macmillan.

LOVE YOU DEAD is also sold in Russia, France, Finland, Israel, Norway and Holland, with many other options publishers for the Roy Grace series.

 

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.