The best of luck to Kaite O’Reilly for her spotlights at Singapore’s writers festival, coming up in early November. Details of her involvement are to the left, and in addition there will be a run of Kaite’s play LIE WITH ME presented by the Intercultural Theatre Institute from the 7th-9th November.
Get your tickets to Kaite’s lecture-performance THE ‘D’ MONOLOGUES here
Get tickets to Kaite’s workshop YOU SAY INCLUSIVE I SAY SUBVERSIVE here
Get tickets to LIE WITH ME here
Peter James’ fifteenth Detective Superintendent Roy Grace novel, DEAD AT FIRST SIGHT has shot straight to the Number 1 spot in the Sunday Times paperback bestseller chart with record sales after only three days on sale, replicating the novel’s chart-topping success in hardback earlier this year. DEAD AT FIRST SIGHT’s paperback success gives James his fifteenth Number 1 on the British charts.
DEAD AT FIRST SIGHT is an eye-opening page-turner about the growing crime of romance fraud. Detective Superintendent Roy Grace exposes the dark side of the internet when he is called to investigate the suspected suicide of a woman that is clearly not what it seems. A handsome Brighton motivational speaker soon comes forward: he’s discovered his identity is being used to scam women online. The first he knew of it was a phone call from one of them, out of the blue, saying, ‘You don’t know me, but I thought I knew you’. That woman is now dead…. Roy Grace realises he is looking at the tip of an iceberg of a global empire built on clever, cruel internet scams and the murder of anyone who threatens to expose them.
Peter James’ Roy Grace series has been translated into thirty-seven languages with worldwide sales of over twenty million copies. In Germany, NEED YOU DEAD (DU STIRBST FÜR MICH), just published by Fischer, is going into the Der Spiegel paperback bestseller lists at Number 19.
Earlier this month THE SECRET OF COLD HILL, the ghostly follow-up to THE HOUSE ON COLD HILL, was at Number 6 in the UK hardback charts and the paperback of ABSOLUTE PROOF was a Summer blockbuster on the Richard and Judy list. Next year readers can look forward to the sixteenth Roy Grace in the Summer and an exciting Autumn standalone, both from Pan Macmillan. In the US Canelo have also recently released ABSOLUTE PROOF, PERFECT PEOPLE, THE HOUSE ON COLD HILL and THE SECRET OF COLD HILL in ebook.
Praise for Peter James:
‘Sinister and riveting… Peter James is one of the best British crime writers, and therefore one of the best in the world.’ — Lee Child
‘Peter James, Britain’s closest equivalent to Stephen King’ — Sunday Times
'Peter James is one of the best crime writers in the business.' — Karin Slaughter
‘In my thirty-four years of policing, never have I come across a writer who so accurately depicts “The Job “’ —Detective Investigator Pat Lanigan, Office of the District Attorney, NYPD
About the Author:
Peter James is an international bestselling crime and thriller writer. In 2015 WHSmith customers voted him the Greatest Crime Author of All Time and in 2016 he was awarded the coveted CWA Diamond Dagger, a lifetime achievement award for sustained excellence. In 2018 he received a Specsavers Honorary Platinum Bestseller Award.
Successful nationwide tours of the stage plays of THE PERFECT MURDER (2014), DEAD SIMPLE (2015), NOT DEAD ENOUGH (2017) and THE HOUSE ON COLD HILL (2019) have played to packed theatres in dozens of British cities, and garnered magnificent reviews.
Visit Peter’s website
Kerry Hudson’s LOWBORN (Chatto & Windus, May 2019) has been shortlisted for the Saltire Non-Fiction Book of the Year Award. One of Scotland’s most prestigious book awards, the Saltire Literary Award is dedicated to promoting literature from and about Scotland. The winner of each of six categories will be considered for the Saltire Society Scottish Book of the Year Award, which is accompanied by a £6,000 cash prize, supported by Creative Scotland.
LOWBORN is a powerful exploration of poverty in today’s Britain. As a child, Kerry was always on the move with her single mother, attending nine primary schools and five secondaries, living in B&Bs and council flats. The poverty she grew up in was all-encompassing, grinding and often dehumanising. In LOWBORN, she revisits the towns she grew up in to discover what being poor really means in Britain today and whether anything has changed.
LOWBORN has also been shortlisted for the Books are My Bag Breakthrough Author Award 2019, and was longlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize 2019 and the Portico Prize 2019. It was chosen as a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week and Book of the Month in the Bookseller.
Her publisher Becky Hardie says: ‘Publishing LOWBORN has been such a proud experience for the whole of Vintage. Kerry has a powerful, important and often difficult story to tell, and she’s done so with superlative compassion and insight, both personal and political. We couldn’t be happier to see this hugely well-deserved shortlisting.’
LOWBORN will be published in paperback by Chatto & Windus in May 2020.
Praise for LOWBORN:
‘One of the most important books of the year’ —The Guardian
'Powerful and moving... An emotional and important read'— iNews
'Personal and captivating memoir from the prize-winning novelist’— The List
About the Author:
Kerry Hudson was born in Aberdeen. Growing up in a succession of council estates, B&Bs and caravan parks provided her with a keen eye for idiosyncratic behaviour, material for life, and a love of travel.
Her first novel, TONY HOGAN BOUGHT ME AN ICE-CREAM FLOAT BEFORE HE STOLE MY MA, was published by Chatto & Windus in July 2012. It was shortlisted for eight literary prizes, including the Guardian First Book Award and Green Carnation Prize, and won the Scottish First Book of the Year. Kerry's second novel, THIRST, was developed with support from the National Lottery through an Arts Council England grant, and published by Chatto & Windus in July 2014 before being shortlisted for the Green Carnation Prize and the European Strega Prize. It was also the winner of the prestigious French literary prize, Prix Femina Etranger 2015, going on to become a bestseller in France. It was also shortlisted for the European Strega prize in Italy.
Vote for Kerry in the Books are my Bag Breakthrough Author Award
UK and Commonwealth rights to two standalone novels by bestselling author crime author Peter James have been acquired by Wayne Brookes, Associate Publisher (Fiction) at Pan Macmillan. The deal was negotiated by James’ agent Isobel Dixon at Blake Friedmann, and will be published in hardback in October 2021 and October 2022 respectively.
Pan Macmillan have published Peter James’ Detective Superintendent Roy Grace novels since 2005. To date James’ books have sold more than 20 million copies worldwide. His most recent standalone novel, ABSOLUTE PROOF, about what would happen if we had incontrovertible proof that God exists, was selected for the Richard and Judy Book Club 2019. It was released in paperback in July and has sold more than 50,000 copies in its first five weeks.
Wayne Brookes says:
‘It’s been almost a decade since I started working with the extremely talented Peter James on his bestselling Roy Grace series. However, I was a fan of Peter’s earlier non-Grace novels long before I became his publisher. With Absolute Proof riding high in the charts right now we know Peter’s fans are hungry for new thrillers as well as Roy Grace novels, and I am more than happy to give the reading public exactly what they want.’
Peter James says:
‘I love writing my Roy Grace novels and I’m constantly asked by my fans if I could write more than one a year! But there are some themes that deeply interest me which I can’t explore as fully as I’d like within a long-running series. I love the refreshing challenge of tackling different subjects while entertaining my readers and I’m delighted that Pan Macmillan are signing up two more standalones now – I can’t wait to share them!’
Isobel Dixon says:
‘Every Peter James standalone opens up fascinating new avenues, as we saw with his bestselling PERFECT PEOPLE, THE HOUSE ON COLD HILL and ABSOLUTE PROOF. He’s already hard at work on the next eye-opening page-turner, taking us to more intriguing – and chilling – places. I’m so pleased that Wayne Brookes and the Pan Macmillan team are keeping up the pace for Peter James fans each year, with a summer Roy Grace, and an autumn thriller. Double delight!’
Praise for Peter James:
‘Peter James is one of the best crime writers in the business’ — Lee Child
‘Peter James, Britain’s closest equivalent to Stephen King’ — Sunday Times
‘What sets James apart is his extraordinary attention to detail and sheer authenticity of his police procedurals’ — Daily Mirror
‘James has been compared with Stephen King, but in many ways he's better’ — Daily Express
About the Author:
Peter James is an international bestselling crime and thriller writer. He has a total of 14 Sunday Times No. 1s and has been translated into 37 languages. In addition to his career as a novelist, he has produced several films, including THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, starring Al Pacino, Jeremy Irons and Joseph Fiennes. He also co-created the hit Channel 4 series BEDSITCOM, which was nominated for a Rose d'Or.
In 2015 WH Smith customers voted him the Greatest Crime Author of All Time and in 2016 he was awarded the coveted CWA Diamond Dagger, a lifetime achievement award for sustained excellence. In 2018 he received a Specsavers Honorary Platinum Bestseller Award.
His next book, THE SECRET OF COLD HILL, is a follow-up to THE HOUSE OF COLD HILL, and will be published by Pan Macmillan on 3 October 2019. It gives readers another dose of 21st century ghosts, with spirits taking over contemporary tech – from sophisticated, voice-operated home command systems to self-parking cars – to make their malevolent presence felt.
Visit Peter James’s website
US rights to SHADOWPLAY by Joseph O’Connor have been acquired by Michael Reynolds at Europa Editions. The deal was concluded by O’Connor’s agent Isobel Dixon of Blake Friedmann. Europa will publish in April 2020.
Harvill Secker published SHADOWPLAY in the UK and Canada in June 2019: I t was described as a ‘literary highlight of 2019’ by The Sunday Times and has received rapturous reviews. W.F. Howes published audio in the UK and Dreamscape will publish the US audio edition. Rights have been sold in seven translation markets so far: China (Shanghai Elegant People), Croatia (Fraktura), France (Editions Rivages), Hungary (Helikon), Italy (Guanda), Serbia (Carobna Knjiga) and Sweden (Natur Och Kultur). A film deal is under negotiation with a major producer.
1878: The Lyceum Theatre, London. Three extraordinary people begin their life together, a life that will be full of drama, transformation, passionate and painful devotion to art and to one another. Henry Irving, the Chief, is the volcanic leading man and impresario; Ellen Terry is the most lauded and desired actress of her generation, outspoken and generous of heart; and ever following along behind them in the shadows is the unremarkable theatre manager, Bram Stoker.
Fresh from life in Dublin as a clerk, Bram may seem the least colourful of the trio but he is wrestling with dark demons in a new city, in a new marriage, and with his own literary aspirations. As he walks the London streets at night, streets haunted by the Ripper and the gossip which swirls around his friend Oscar Wilde, he finds new inspiration. But the Chief is determined that nothing will get in the way of his manager’s devotion to the Lyceum and to himself. And both men are enchanted by the beauty and boldness of the elusive Ellen.
SHADOWPLAY explores the complexities of love that stands dangerously outside social convention, the restlessness of creativity, and the experiences that led to Dracula, the most iconic supernatural tale of all time.
Michael Reynolds says: ‘Joseph O’Connor is one of the canniest and most accomplished novelists working in English. He can seemingly turn his hand to any subject with extraordinary results. But it is evident that with SHADOWPLAY he has found a subject that ignites a deep affinity and a group of characters whose ambitions, preoccupations and talents somehow echo his own. The effect is impressive – his prose sings and his sure-handed storytelling is a delight. SHADOWPLAY will be a super-lead for the Spring and we at Europa look forward to bringing this thrilling novel to a broad and admiring readership in the U.S.’
Joseph O’Connor says: ‘I am grateful and excited for SHADOWPLAY to have found its American home at Europa Editions, where the publishing ethic is so strong and impressive. Europa's books, gorgeous objects in themselves, contain some of the most beautiful writing around. I am truly honored for a book of my own to encounter such company.’
Isobel Dixon says: ‘I cannot wait for Bram Stoker, Henry Irving and Ellen Terry, as so unforgettably depicted by Joseph O’Connor in SHADOWPLAY, to cross the Atlantic. and win over fresh audiences there. This is a book I’ve seen so many readers fall in love with, and then press into other hands. I’m delighted that Michael Reynolds and Europa also feel so passionately about this tour de force and look forward to their US launch in 2020.’
Praise for Joseph O’Connor and SHADOWPLAY:
‘There are few living writers who can take us back in time so assuredly, with such sensual density, through such gorgeous sentences. Joseph O’Connor is a wonder, and SHADOWPLAY is a triumph.’ – Peter Carey
‘As much as this is a hugely entertaining book about the grand scope of friendship and love, it is also, movingly – at times, agonisingly – a story of transience, loss and true loyalty.’ – Sadie Jones, The Guardian
‘Joseph O’Connor is a very great artist and storyteller. The quotient of enjoyment in his extraordinary new novel is stupendous.’ – Sebastian Barry
‘Wonderful. The writing is beautiful.’ – Derek Jacobi
‘A hugely entertaining and atmospheric novel, one can almost smell the greasepaint.’ – Deborah Moggach
‘Seriously fascinating’ – Colm Tóibín, The Observer
‘A virtuoso act of literary ventriloquism. SHADOWPLAY is funny, smart, tender, wise and written with inch-perfect precision.’ – Colum McCann
‘A great writer performing Olympian literary storytelling.’ — Bob Geldof
About the Author
Joseph O’Connor was born in Dublin. His books include nine novels: COWBOYS AND INDIANS (Whitbread Prize shortlist), DESPERADOES, THE SALESMAN, INISHOWEN, STAR OF THE SEA (American Library Association Award, Irish Post Award for Fiction, France’s Prix Millepages, Italy’s Premio Acerbi, Prix Madeleine Zepter for European novel of the year), REDEMPTION FALLS, GHOST LIGHT (Dublin One City One Book Novel 2011), THE THRILL OF IT ALL and SHADOWPLAY. His work has been published in forty languages. He received the 2012 Irish PEN Award for outstanding achievement in literature and in 2014 he was appointed Frank McCourt Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Limerick.
Visit Joseph O’Connor’s website
Directors: Julian Friedmann, Isobel Dixon
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