SO HAPPY IT HURTS by Anneliese Mackintosh published today by Jonathan Cape

SO HAPPY IT HURTS, the debut novel from acclaimed writer Anneliese Mackintosh, is published today by Jonathan Cape, and in audiobook by Audible.

'I want to be a good person. And I want to be happy. So happy it hurts. I need you to help me with that.’

Ottila McGregor is thirty years old and has decided it’s time to sort her life out. She’s going to quit drinking, stop cheating and finally find true happiness. Easy, right?

Of course not.

For a start, there’s Grace, her best friend, who believes self-improvement is for people in their forties. Next there’s Mina, her sister, who is mentally ill, and it might be Ottila’s fault. And then there’s Thales, the Greek guy who works in the hospital cafeteria. He's probably the best, most dangerous person Ottila’s ever met.

To make sense of it all, Ottila keeps a scrapbook of everything: emails, receipts, tickets, letters, her therapy transcripts, a boyfriend's note rescued from the bin... The result is an infectious one-off of a novel that makes you wince and laugh in equal measure, and which asks the question: what does it take to be so happy it hurts?

Anneliese gave us a treat with an engrossing interview on Bristol247, followed by a beautiful live reading of SO HAPPY IT HURTS on the The Janice Forsyth Show.

Her debut short story collection, ANY OTHER MOUTH, was published by Freight Books in June 2014. It has received incredible reviews including “Mackintosh is a real talent and Any Other Mouth is a remarkable debut” from The Independent, and “beautifully crafted snapshots… one of the UK’s most exciting new voices” from The List. It won the Green Carnation Prize, was shortlisted for the Saltire Society’s First Book Award, in the Best Short Story Collection category for the 2015 Saboteur Awards and Edge Hill Short Story Prize, and longlisted for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award.

Rights have sold in France, Germany and Holland.

Praise for SO HAPPY IT HURTS:

‘Impressive and challenging…this debut novel is every bit as assured, honest and innovative as its predecessor. For a start the structure is highly original. Like Mackintosh’s previous work, SO HAPPY IT HURTS is something out of a high wire act, laugh-out-loud funny at times but also so emotionally honest that it sometimes feels like a punch to the guts. Thrilling, edgy without ever seeming gimmicky, making this as sharp a novella about 21st century living as you’ll find anywhere.’ –  Doug Johnstone, The Big Issue

‘The novel balances irony and earnestness perfectly, offering both a heartbreakingly sincere quest for happiness and an acerbic intolerance of hollow quick-fixes. Told through a scrapbook of letters, emails, Snapchats, therapy transcripts and text messages, Mackintosh builds a novel out of the language we actually use day to day. More than anything though, her characters bring it to life. Maybe it’s the intimacy of revealing them through their private messages, maybe it’s just how powerfully Mackintosh draws them and what they mean to Ottila, but the effect is so strong and the threat of some new catastrophe so tangible that each page turn feels like a horrible gamble with these people’s lives. When it hurts, it really fucking hurts. But when it’s happy, Anneliese Mackintosh’s latest work is positively radiant.’ – The Skinny

‘Inventive and wise and very affecting. There’s a deep human experience in it.’ – Jason Donald, author of CHOKE CHAIN

Sue Moorcroft Signs New Three-book Deal with Avon

Avon Books are delighted to have acquired three new novels from Sue Moorcroft, buying UK rights from Juliet Pickering at Blake Friedmann Agency, meaning Avon will be publishing Sue up to and including Christmas 2018.

Sue originally signed with Avon in 2015, having been previously published by Choc Lit. Since then, she has become a No.1 Kindle bestseller, having hit the top of the charts with THE CHRISTMAS PROMISE in December 2016, as well as writing short stories for a stream of publications. JUST FOR THE HOLIDAYS was published in May and is still sitting proud in the Kindle Top 100 chart! 

Helen Huthwaite, Publishing Director at Avon said: “It has been an utter delight working with Sue so far, and such a thrill to see her take a much-deserved place at the top of the Kindle charts. We can’t wait for this next chapter in her publishing career, and feel enormously proud to be working with her as she continues to go from strength to strength.” 

Sue Moorcroft said: “After early success with THE CHRISTMAS PROMISE I'm thrilled to embark on this new contract with Avon Books UK. It's a pleasure to work with the Avon team and benefit from their energy and innovation.”

Award-winning author Sue Moorcroft writes contemporary women’s fiction with occasionally unexpected themes. She’s won a Readers’ Best Romantic Read Award and been nominated for others, including a ‘RoNA’ (Romantic Novel Award). Sue’s a Katie Fforde Bursary Award winner, a past vice chair of the Romantic Novelists’ Association and editor of its two anthologies.

 

MICHAEL O’MARA TO PUBLISH HIGHLY ANTICIPATED WINTER SURVIVAL GUIDE BY POPULAR INSTAGRAMMER, EMMA MITCHELL

On the 5th of October 2017, Lom Art, the arts and crafts imprint of Michael O’Mara will bring warmth to many homes by publishing MAKING WINTER, a fantastic guide to surviving unbearably cold months. Popular instagrammer, Emma Mitchell, assures us that ‘dishwater after a Sunday roast’ weather is a thing of the past. Juliet Pickering sold world rights, at auction, to Fiona Slater. 

From delicate silver jewellery, paper-craft decorations and crocheted mittens, to foraged infusions, delicious recipes and nature diaries, this book is sure to boost your mood! It is filled with projects, step-by-step instructions and beautiful photographs to take you through every day. MAKING WINTER: A CREATIVE GUIDE FOR SURVIVING THE WINTER MONTHS is the perfect companion to dark evenings, rainy afternoons and winter melancholy, and inspires even the bleakest of days to become creative, full of colour and joy. 

MAKING WINTER has had a lot of success on social media: Emma, who is a design-maker and craft teacher, has a following of close to 100,000 on Instagram. Fiona Slater says that ‘Emma has been bringing cosy, crafting joy to her Instagram followers for a few years now and I couldn’t be more excited to be working with her on her first book. The combination of her scrummy photographs and projects designed to lift your mood during the frosty months makes this so much more than a craft book, and I can’t wait to share it with everyone.’

You can pre-order MAKING WINTER here.

About the author: Emma’s jewellery and crochet designs have been published in Country Living, Mollie Makes, Kirstie Allsopp’s CRAFT and several other national lifestyle and craft titles. She contributed regular articles on craft and creativity to Standard Issue where her articles are amongst the most popular on the site. She has written for the Guardian and discussed the revival of letter-writing on BBC radio. She brought together well-known designers and knitted beard-wearing celebrities to make and write the Mollie Makes Big Comic Relief Crafternoon magazine in 2015 and 2017, which raised significant funds for Comic Relief.

The Making Winter project began on Emma’s blog in 2011 as a creative antidote to the seemingly incessant grey days between November and March. During the winter of 2015/16 a revival of Making Winter had so many participants that it trended on Twitter and became one of the most popular hashtags on Instagram. 

Emma's website

Emma on Instagram

Emma on Twitter

BEAUTIFULLY UNCONVENTIONAL THE TRYST BY MONIQUE ROFFEY PUBLISHED BY DODO INK TODAY

Monique Roffey has combined mythology and erotica to create a powerful and sexually liberated novella that is taking the publishing world by storm. Published today by Dodo Ink, THE TRYST is a ‘throbbing home-wrecker of a tale’ (according to DBC Pierre) and is receiving a rip-tide of media coverage whilst already being reprinted before its date of publication.

In a recent article in The Times, Monique Roffey discusses her journey to sexual discovery after the breakdown of a long-term relationship. Her experience serves as inspiration for THE TRYST which is a literary erotic novella about a married couple, Bill and Jane, whose relationship has grown stale. On the night of the summer solstice they visit a London pub, where they encounter Lila – a mysterious femme fatale. She entrances the couple with half-true, mixed up tales about her life. At closing time, Jane makes an impulsive decision to invite Lilah back to their home. But Jane has made a catastrophic error of judgment, for Lilah is a skilled and ruthless predator, the likes of which few encounter in a lifetime. Isolated and cursed, Jane and Bill are forced to fight for each other, and, in doing so, discover their covert desires.

As well as The Times, Monique has received extensive coverage in The Telegraph, The Sun and The Daily Mail, who have hailed THE TRYST for its honesty and Roffey for her ‘brave confessional’. A sex blog tour has also accompanied the publication of the book, from Eros the Trickster, The Little Death, Thom Collins, Ian D Smith to SSLY. Monique is also interviewed by The Advantages of Age, and featured by The Lonesome Reader as one of the exciting new books published in July.

Monique Roffey is an award-winning novelist. Her most recent novel HOUSE OF ASHES, (Scribner UK) received widespread praise and was shortlisted for the Costa and the BOCAS Prize. ARCHIPELAGO, winner of the OCM BOCAS prize for Caribbean Literature, was published by Scribner in the UK, Viking in the US, and five translation markets.  Her second novel, THE WHITE WOMAN ON THE GREEN BICYCLE, was shortlisted for the Orange Prize and the Encore Prize, among other accolades.

Dodo Ink is a newly established indie press dedicated to publishing daring and difficult fiction. Set up by novelist Sam Mills, book reviewer Thom Cuell and marketing expert Alex Spears, it launched its first list in summer 2016.

Visit Monique’s website.

Monique on Twitter.

Praise for THE TRYST

‘Not a shade of grey within a mile of this book. ... A throbbing homewrecker of a tale, too late to call FIFTY SHADES OF RED.’ – DBC Pierre

‘THE TRYST is a sly, feral, witty, offbeat erotic novella that unsettles the reader, even as it arouses.' - Rowan Pelling, editor, The Amorist


‘I’ve read THE TRYST and was enormously entertained and impressed. It’s wild and witching, at once contemporary and atavistic, with an anarchicsexual energy running through it and a startling frankness, not only about sex, but about love and relationships, gender and power ... a daring write and a consuming read.’ - Bidisha, writer and broadcaster


‘While THE TRYST offers magic and sensuality aplenty, it lays bare the violence that heteronormative couples will do to ‘others’ to keep the home system stoked. It can be read as a fable about intimacy and erotic power. Disturbingly, it can also be read as a fable about the socially established vs. the disposable.’ - Vahni Capildeo, poet, Forward Prize winner


‘Sexy as hell. A cross between the work of Angela Carter and Anaïs Nin, THE TRYST weaves the urban and the modern with dark myth. Roffey is a risk taking and masterful storyteller.’ - J Malloy, author of The Story of X