TONY PARK’S THRILLER THE CULL OUT IN SOUTH AFRICA AND AUSTRALIA — & PUBLISHED IN THE UK TOMORROW.

Tony Park’s THE CULL is already thrilling readers in Australia and South Africa, where Pan Macmillan publish, and Pan Macmillan UK will publish the ebook for British readers tomorrow, 19 October 2017, with a print edition following on 22 March 2018. As Publisher’s Weekly says ‘Park excels at capturing the wilds of the continent, as well as its political and commercial pressures’ and THE CULL encapsulates all this in another pacy thriller that taps into urgent contemporary issues – this time the deadly battle against the poaching of endangered wildlife.

Crime Review has described Tony Park’s writing as ‘riveting’, saying that ‘Park is now required reading’ and the Australian Daily Telegraph (Australia) recently gave THE CULL a Starred Review, describing it as ‘a fascinating insight into a life-and-death struggle — for humans as well as animals.’ Tony also appeared on South African news channel SABC2 this week to talk about the book, its issues, and the inspirational people tackling real-life poaching in Africa.

In THE CULL by Tony Park, former mercenary Sonja Kurtz returns, hired by business tycoon Julianne Clyde-Smith to head an elite squad whose aim is to take down Africa's top poaching kingpins.But as the body count rises, it becomes harder for Sonja to stay under the radar as she is targeted by an underworld syndicate known as The Scorpions. When her love interest, safari guide and private investigator Hudson Brand, is employed to look into the death of an alleged poacher at the hands of Sonja's team, she is forced to ask herself if Julianne's crusade has gone too far.

From South Africa's Kruger National Park to the Serengeti of Tanzania, Sonja realises she is fighting a war on numerous fronts, against enemies known and unknown.

Tony Park grew up in Australia and fell in love with South Africa on a short trip in 1995: he and his wife now divide their time between two homes, one in Sydney and another in South Africa on the border of the Kruger National Park. Author of 14 bestselling thrillers and several non-fiction titles, he has worked as a newspaper reporter in Australia and England, a government press secretary, a public relations consultant, and a freelance writer. He is also a major in the Australian Army Reserve and served six months in Afghanistan in 2002. His work has been sold in translation in seven countries. His fifteenth novel CAPTIVE will be published in 2018.

You can find out more about Tony Park on his website and his Facebook page and you can follow him on Twitter (especially if you want to see some marvellous images of African wildlife) on @tonyparkauthor.

PRAISE FOR THE CULL:

‘A stunning and realistic testament to the locale in which it is set… a nail-biting, on-the edge-of-your-seat thrill ride which fans new and established will no doubt be pleased with. An awe-inspiring read.’ – Mrs. B’s Book Reviews

‘THE CULL provides a fascinating insight into a life-and-death struggle — for humans as well as animals.’ — Bruce McDougall, Daily Telegraph (Australia)

 

MORE PRAISE FOR THE AUTHOR:

'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… 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

SISONKE MSIMANG’S MUCH-ANTICIPATED MEMOIR PUBLISHED IN SOUTH AFRICA

Today sees the launch at Cape Town’s Book Lounge of Sisonke Msimang’s frank, fierce and insightful ALWAYS ANOTHER COUNTRY: A Memoir of Exile and Home, a book born from the author’s extraordinary global upbringing. Insightful, angry, hopeful, ALWAYS ANOTHER COUNTRY introduces a bold new voice on feminism, race, politics and Africa. Jonathan Ball Publishers won a fierce bidding war for Southern African rights and Sisonke’s debut has already won high-level pre-publication praise:

‘Brutally and uncompromisingly honest, Sisonke’s beautifully crafted storytelling enriches the already extraordinary pool of young African women writers of our time. Sisonke, a child of the Struggle, revisits the metamorphosis of the value system embraced by the liberation movements and emerges as a powerful free spirit, nurtured by its resilient core values.’ – Graça Machel

‘Sisonke Msimang kindles a new fire in our store of memoir, a fire that will warm and singe and sear for a long, long while.’ – Njabulo S. Ndebele, author The Cry of Winnie Mandela

 ‘A brave and intimate journey. Msimang delivers a deep call for fierce courage in the face of hypocrisy and compassion when faced with our shared humanity.’ – Yewande Omotoso, author of The Woman Next Door

As Jonathan Ball Publisher Ester Levinrad said on winning the hotly contested multi-publisher auction for Southern African rights to Sisonke’s story:  ‘Once in a while you are fortunate enough to work with a writer who crystallises what makes publishing in South Africa so exciting, telling a personal story that could only have a local genesis, yet with a potential which defies borders. That is Sisonke’s story, to me – her writing helps me to make sense not only of the country but the world in which we live.’

From her peripatetic childhood in a family of political exiles – from Zambia to Kenya to Canada and beyond – Sisonke tracks formative moments in her personal and political life, including the euphoria at return to the new South Africa, the disillusionment at new political elites, and the ugly face of racism and xenophobia. But while well-known political figures appear in these pages, ALWAYS ANOTHER COUNTRY is also an intimate story, a testament to family bonds and sisterhood.

Sisonke Msimang’s international childhood prepared her to be a global citizen and an eloquent warrior for social justice, while her experience as a journalist and incisive political analyst makes her vision wider than the personal – but she also has a fiction writer’s gift for vivid characterisation and dialogue, and a voice that is warm, honest and wise. ALWAYS ANOTHER COUNTRY is moving and relevant, sometimes as much generous manifesto as memoir, following the journey of a girl becoming a woman, a feminist, a campaigner, a mother and a writer.

Sisonke Msimang lives in Perth, Australia, where she is Programme Director for the Centre for Stories, a social enterprise organisation, but she travels regularly to the US, South Africa and internationally. The child of prominent political exiles during South Africa’s apartheid era, she was born in Swaziland and raised in Zambia, Kenya and Canada, before going to the US as an undergraduate. Her family returned to South Africa after the release of Nelson Mandela and the unbanning of liberation movements in the early 1990s.

She has a BA from Macalester College, Minnesota, a Master’s Degree in Political Science from the University of Cape Town, is a Yale World Fellow, an Aspen New Voices Fellow, and was Ruth First Fellow at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. She regularly contributes to publications like The Guardian, The Daily Maverick, The Conversation, the Huffington Post and The New York Times. Sisonke contributed a chapter to THE TIES THAT BIND:  FRIENDSHIP AND RACE IN SOUTH AFRICA (University of Toronto Press). She recently gave an extremely popular TED Talk and narrated a story at The Moth event in New York.

 

Read and see more by Sisonke Msimang:

In Association with the Aspen New Voices Fellowship

Follow Sisonke on Twitter

CHARLES LAMBERT’S GROUND-BREAKING TWO DARK TALES: JACK SQUAT AND THE NICHE IS PUBLISHED BY AARDVARK TODAY

Published in the UK today by Aardvark Bureau, ahead of Halloween, are two terrifying new novellas from the master of the literary uncanny, Charles Lambert.

As Owen King, author of DOUBLE FEATURE,  writes: ‘In these expertly-crafted stories the consequences of moral corrosion are truly frightening. There are terrible things in the shadows – and we made them. Charles Lambert is a terrific, devious storyteller.’

In JACK SQUAT, unemployed Gordon and his partner Omar see a money-making opportunity helping expats buy homes in southern Italy. But their scheme catches up with them after the first home they sell, curiously built with four entrances but no connecting doors inside, is revealed to have a dark history.

In THE NICHE, mercilessly bullied schoolboy Billy Lender finds a hiding place in a nook in the school corridor and begins to hear whispers: the voice of a mysterious friend who will help him to plot a devastating revenge.

Charles Lambert’s THE CHILDREN’S HOME was published by Aardvark Bureau in the UK and Scribner in the US in 2016, and in France by Anne Carrière.

 

More Praise for Charles Lambert:

‘Charles Lambert writes as if his life depends on it. He takes risks at every turn.’ -- Hannah Tinti

‘Charles Lambert is a seriously good writer.' – Beryl Bainbridge

‘Compelling reading.’ – Patricia Duncker

 ‘Charles Lambert is a terrific, devious storyteller.’ – Owen King

 

About Charles Lambert  
Born in England, Charles lives in Fondi, near Rome, working as a university teacher and freelance editor. He is the author of several novels including LITTLE MONSTERS and ANY HUMAN FACE (Picador) and the short story collection THE SCENT OF CINNAMON (Salt). His work is included in THE BEST OF BRITISH SHORT STORIES 2013 (Salt) and he has won an O. Henry Award and other short story prizes.

Find out more about Charles Lambert on his  Blog.

Follow him on  Twitter.

Carole Blake Open Doors Project: "Bring a Blake Friedmann-shaped door-stop"

by Connor Faulkner

In the deepest, darkest reaches of the North, where an industrial smog still layers the landscape, a young boy sat looking out of his window, his gaze searching for a faintly-glowing beacon in the distance. That young boy was me. The glowing beacon was a nearby dustbin fire. The apparently up-and-coming city of Sheffield always seemed impossibly far from London, and this manifested in a self-perpetuated stubbornness to go below the North/South divide, but thanks to a bit of luck, I found myself in The Retreat at Kings Langley, ready to hastily commute myself into the lovely offices of Blake Friedmann, right in the middle of Camden. A big, big cheers to David Hicks of The Book Trade Charity for sheltering me in this alien sprawl, where everyone pronounces ‘the’ properly.

Upon applying to the Carole Blake Open Doors Project just before the dawn of the New Year, I never thought that I’d find myself swanning around the capital a few months later. Even then, I expected to have been glued to the printer, and practicing my best receptionist phone voice. So, you’ll understand my delight when I was thrown in at the deep end, once I arrived at the Agency and a plethora of submissions and meetings awaited me. But there was much more, too: I was told the ins and outs of foreign rights, I mercilessly shadowed agents (and pestered them relentlessly; apologies to Hattie, Tom and Juliet), and even tried my hand at reading the odd contract, (apologies to Resham and Sam if I land Blake Friedmann in a legal palaver sometime in the near future).

I delved into the heart of the industry for a jam-packed fortnight: I had things to do, I had responsibilities, and my opinion mattered. I even got to embarrass myself at the book launch of the wonderful Sonya Lalli’s equally wonderful feel-good novel, The Arrangement.

I took in as much as humanly possible at meetings with lovely people from publishers such as Allen & Unwin and Jacaranda, to the giants of Hachette and Amazon. This array of experience really kicked me into gear. Previously, I’d assumed that publishing simply wasn’t for me purely due to my location, but the Open Doors Project taught me that this isn’t the case. My time at Blake Friedmann was certainly no guarantee that I’ll one day sneak my way into the industry, but it gave me all the tools and invaluable information I need to stand a much, much better chance of grabbing that dream job.

Another thing that the Open Doors Project taught me, is that you need a very realistic world-view when gazing upon your dream job and the industry which encapsulates it. Aside from also making me aware of my tendency to ramble and make slightly inappropriate comments under a guise of northern ‘charm’, my rapid two-week stint at Blake Friedmann was incredibly enlightening: I learnt that there are vast complexities and intricacies within the industry, which can only be discovered through experience. It turns out that there’s much more to publishing than whacking out books left, right and centre…

In terms of advice for any lucky individual who gets chosen for the project: I can tell you that David Hicks doesn’t like rhubarb, to go steady on book-launch wine, and you had better be prepared to carry three tote-bags of books back home with you. Thankfully, bags filled with literature make for a great self-defence weapon when someone takes your seat on the journey home, so make sure you get as many books as your shoulders can handle.

So no, you don’t need to be born in the right place to one day make your mark in publishing. You just need to have enough drive and determination to make it happen. And you need to read. A lot. Get looking for jobs at every publishing house you know of. Expand your list of people you follow on Twitter, you unsociable sod. Join the Society of Young Publishers, get on The Bookseller website, pester anyone and everyone in the industry until you’re blocked from contacting them. Well, maybe not to that degree. The Carole Blake Open Doors Project is the best chance you’ve got at getting a foot in the very heavy, possibly mahogany door into publishing. Just make sure you’ve got sturdy shoes on. Or, even better, bring a Blake Friedmann-shaped door-stop.

 

 

Gingle bells, gingle bells, gingle all the way… CHRISTMAS AT THE GIN SHACK is published today!

The second book in Catherine Miller’s GIN SHACK club series, CHRISTMAS AT THE GIN SHACK, is published today by HQ Digital. Welcome in the festive season with love, laughter and the perfect G&T in the most uplifting holiday read of 2017!

 Olive Turner might have lived through eighty-four Christmases, but she’ll never get bored of her favourite time of year. And this one’s set to be extra-special. It’s the Gin Shack’s first Christmas – and there’s a gin-themed weekend and a cocktail competition on the cards!

But, beneath the dazzle of fairy lights and the delicious scent of mince-pies, Olive smells a rat. From trespassers in her beloved beach hut to a very unfunny joke played on her friends, it seems that someone is missing a dose of good cheer.

Olive knows she’s getting on a bit – but is she really imagining that someone in the little seaside town is out to steal Christmas? More importantly, can she create the perfect gin cocktail before Christmas Eve – in time to save the day?

THE GIN SHACK ON THE BEACH was published in June by HQ and received rave reviews, with Katie Fforde calling it ‘Charming, original and thoroughly enjoyable.’ German rights to both books sold at auction to Insel, who will publish in 2018.

Catherine and Olive will also be going on a blog tour to promote the book, with further details here.

Praise for THE GIN SHACK ON THE BEACH:

“Immensely entertaining, utterly enjoyable from the first page to the last and downright brilliant! Hugely inspiring and absolutely charming” – Kim Nash

About the author:

When Catherine Miller became a mum to twins, she decided her hands weren't full enough so wrote a novel with every spare moment she managed to find. By the time the twins were two, Catherine had a two-book deal with Carina UK. There is a possibility she has aged remarkably in that time. Her debut novel, Waiting For You, came out in March 2016.

Catherine was a NHS physiotherapist, but for health reasons (Uveitis and Sarcoidosis) she retired early from this career. As she loved her physiotherapy job, she decided if she couldn't do that she would pursue her writing dream. It took a few years and a couple of babies, but in 2015 she won the Katie Fforde bursary, was a finalist in the London Book Fair Write Stuff Competition and highly commended in Woman magazine's writing competition. Soon afterwards she signed with Carina. Soon after that, she collapsed in a heap and was eventually revived by chocolate.

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