Titan Books acquire THE BOOK OF MALACHI by T. C. Farren

Sophie Robinson at Titan Books has acquired WEL rights (excluding South Africa) in T. C. Farren’s THE BOOK OF MALACHI from Isobel Dixon at Blake Friedmann. In this page-turning yet moving high-concept thriller, a mute survivor of civil war must confront the horrors of organ farming on a deep-sea oilrig. THE BOOK OF MALACHI has been published by Kwela in South Africa, where the Cape Times described it as ‘utterly brilliant’ and the Sunday Times said the novel ‘will have you ripping through the pages. A film deal is also under negotiation. Part thriller, part horror, part speculative fiction, this gripping read goes to the heart of ethical quandaries, forcing the reader to ask: "What if it were me?"’

Malachi Dakwaa has survived civil war but is mute, his tongue cut out. Disengaged from the world, he's performing mind-numbing work as a factory slave when he gets an extraordinary job offer he can't refuse. In exchange for six months as warden on a top-secret organ-farming project, Frasier Pharmaceuticals will graft a new tongue for him. Far out to sea, Malachi finds himself among warlords and mass murderers of the kind who have ruined him. But are the prisoners as evil as Frasier says? Do they deserve their fate?

As doubt starts to grow, Malachi’s own memories rise until he must make a terrible choice. To remain silent and let them suffer, or risk his life to set them free. 

Malachi may have no tongue, but his is a voice you will never forget – sharply ironic, vividly descriptive and leavened with humour, every sense sharpened by his loss of speech. He is a compelling guide through the twists and turns of a terrible dilemma, in this darkly gripping but ultimately redemptive novel.

Sophie Robinson said: ‘T.C. Farren is a true wordsmith. Each carefully chosen line sings off the page to create one of the most compelling and profoundly moving characters I've ever encountered. THE BOOK OF MALACHI is frightening, full of the darkest elements of humanity, but still manages to shine a light on empathy and real human connection. I'm so thrilled to welcome T.C. Farren and THE BOOK OF MALACHI to Titan Books. I can't wait to share this extraordinary book with readers around the world.’

T. C. Farren said: ‘This is a beautiful match between an unusual character and a publisher unafraid of a mysterious future. Malachi is physically unable to speak, but Titan is to fly his words across the Atlantic this year. Thank you, Titan. I'm delighted.’

Isobel Dixon said: ‘T.C. Farren has a gift for the voices of her characters – often troubled, at the fringes of society, but courageous and unforgettable. From the first page on which I encountered Malachi, I knew his story would grip many readers with its searing questions and its ultimate sense of redemption and humanity. I’m delighted that Titan will be publishing in the UK and US later this year.’

Praise for THE BOOK OF MALACHI

‘Farren is an exceptional writer, one of the best I’ve encountered, and not just in this country. By the time the novel ended, I was bereft, missing the characters and the setting as if I’d spent real time in an actual place. I can’t recommend this powerful novel highly enough.’ — Janet van Eeden Harrison, LitNet

‘Her descriptive powers are faultless, but more than that her understanding and exposition of what it is to be human, even in a broken form is magical… Sheer genius … Utterly brilliant.’ — Jennifer Crocker, Cape Times

‘Will have you ripping through the pages. Part thriller, part horror, part speculative fiction: this gripping read goes to the heart of ethical quandaries, forcing the reader to ask: "What if it were me?"’ — Sunday Times (SA)

‘An extraordinary, moving story that I read sometimes through the gaps in my fingers, like peeking at a horror movie — but one with hope and some exquisite visuals.’ — Country Life

T.C. Farren is a prize-winning novelist and scriptwriter, based in Cape Town. Her first novel, WHIPLASH won both humanitarian and literary awards. Her screenplay adaptation gave rise to the feature film, TESS, which won numerous awards, including a prestigious screenwriting nomination. She also adapted her highly acclaimed second novel, SNAKE to a screenplay which has won production funding and is due to be produced soon. HOTEL NOWHERE, T.C. Farren’s drug trafficking thriller script has recently been selected for development. 

LYNDALL GORDON’S OUTSIDERS SHORTLISTED FOR THE PROSE AWARD IN LITERATURE

We are delighted to announce that Lyndall Gordon’s OUTSIDERS: Five Women Writers Who Changed the World has been shortlisted for the 2020 Professional and Scholarly Excellence Award in Literature. The award, organised by The Association of American Publishers (AAP), honours scholarly works published in 2019. Winners of each subject category will then go on to compete for an Excellence Award. One of the five Excellence Award winners will receive the prestigious R. R. Hawkins Award. 

OUTSIDERS is published in the US by Johns Hopkins University Press Books and in the UK by Virago. It has just been published in Spain by Alba and will be published in China by Shanghai Literature & Art Publishing House. In OUTSIDERS, Lyndall Gordon tells the stories of five novelists – Mary Shelley, Emily Brontë, George Eliot, Olive Schreiner, Virginia Woolf – and their famous novels. We have long known their individual greatness but in linking their creativity to their lives as outsiders, this group biography throws new light on the genius they share. 'Outsider', 'outlaw', 'outcast': a woman's reputation was her security and each of these five lost it. As writers, they made these identities their own, taking advantage of their separation from the dominant order to write their novels.

All five were motherless. With no female model at hand, they learnt from books; and if lucky, from an enlightened man; and crucially each had to imagine what a woman could be in order to invent a voice of their own. They understood female desire: the passion and sexual bravery in their own lives infused their fictions. What they have in common also is the way they inform one another, and us, across the generations.

Lyndall Gordon’s biographies have always shown the indelible connection between life and art: an intuitive, exciting and revealing approach that has been highly praised and much read and enjoyed.

A much-celebrated biographer, Lyndall Gordon lives in Oxford. She has won the Cheltenham Prize and the James Tait Black prize, been longlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize, and shortlisted for the Comisso Prize in Italy for Fazi’s edition of LIVES LIKE LOADED GUNS.

Lyndall Gordon is a world-leading expert on T.S. Eliot and in addition to THE IMPERFECT LIFE OF T.S. ELIOT is now writing ELIOT AMONG THE WOMEN for publication by Virago (UK) and Norton (US) in 2022. See more here.

Praise for Lyndall Gordon

'Lyndall Gordon's biographies are characterised by an almost preternatural sensitivity to the inner lives of her subjects...' – Frances Wilson, Mail on Sunday

‘Gordon is a sympathetic but also a sharp-eyed biographer.’ – Telegraph

‘A biographer with soul, she reaches into the hearts of those she brings alive for us. She makes the meaning of their lives sing and sweat as she invites us into their experiences, their longings, their struggles and their disappointments.’ – Susie Orbach, The Observer

‘Gordon, a... superb literary biographer who has previously turned her level yet lyrical gaze to Virginia Woolf, Charlotte Brontë, Mary Wollstonecraft and others.’ – Seattle Times

‘Gordon is one of the best biographers writing today.’ – Catherine Hollis, Sacramento Book Review

‘A gifted storyteller.’ – Carmela Ciuraru, Miami Herald

‘Gordon’s approach to biography is imaginative and risky…The result is a magnificent, important book, which points the way forward for the whole biographical genre’ – Kathryn Hughes, Literary Review

‘We are in the presence of a committed biographer in whom the amalgamation of passion and sympathy finds memorable expression.’ – Adrian Wright, London Magazine

‘The tedious question thrown at biographers – “Do we need another book about…?” – is demolished by Lyndall Gordon’s adventurous scholarship.’ – Brenda Maddox, Washington Post Book World

Visit Lyndall Gordon’s website.

More Accolades for Harry McCoy Series by Alan Parks

BOBBY MARCH WILL LIVE FOREVER, the third title in the 1970s Glasgow-set Detective Harry McCoy series by Alan Parks, has been picked as a Times Crime Book of the Month. FEBRUARY’S SON meanwhile, just out in paperback, has been nominated for an Edgar Award in the category of Best Paperback Original.

The Edgar Awards honour the best in mystery fiction, non-fiction and television, and will be presented on 30 April 2020 in New York. FEBRUARY’S SON, the second in the Harry McCoy series, was published in the US by Europa Editions and in the UK by Canongate in 2019. Translation rights have been sold in six languages so far: German (Heyne), French (Editions Rivages), Italian (Bompiani), Spanish (Tusquets), Catalan (La Galera), and Swedish (Modernista). 

BOBBY MARCH WILL LIVE FOREVER, will be published in hardback by Canongate on 5 March and was picked as a NetGalley UK Book of the Month, as well as garnering a second Times Crime Book of the Month accolade.

‘BOBBY MARCH WILL LIVE FOREVER is even better than its predecessors,’ writes Mark Sanderson in The Times: ‘As its plot twists and turns, provoking laughter and tears, it highlights the sexism and corruption of the period. Glasgow, reeking of “hot asphalt and drains and bins gone over in the heat”, is as fascinating and dangerous as Harry’s best pal, the gangster Stevie Cooper. Alan Parks has clearly studied the masters of tartan noir (William McIlvanney, Denise Mina, Ian Rankin), but has his own voice. He shows how, among the welter of violence, a spontaneous act of kindness can have just as great an impact.’

Alan Parks is now writing the fourth Harry McCoy title. See more on the series here.


Praise for the Harry McCoy series

‘McCoy is so noir he makes most other Scottish cops seem light grey.’ — The Times

‘A riveting book, begging to be read in as few sittings as possible… The macabre and morally ambivalent FEBRUARY’S SON is not one that will be quickly or easily forgotten.’ — The National

‘A riveting journey through the grim and gritty dark side of 1970s Glasgow… A powerful slab of tartan noir.’ — Herald

‘Pitch-black tartan noir, set in Seventies Glasgow… Compelling… With an emotional heart that's hard to ignore.’ — Daily Mail

‘Excellent… Full of surprises, streaked with compassion… McCoy and Cooper… make one hell of a damaged duo. Their fascinating relationship provides the real intrigue.’ — Evening Standard

‘The no-holds-barred action and dialogue smack you in the face like a Glasgow kiss. Cracking.’ — The Sun


Alan Parks has worked in the music industry for over twenty years. His debut novel BLOODY JANUARY was shortlisted for the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière. He lives and works in Glasgow.

Follow Alan on Twitter

ISOBEL DIXON ELECTED PRESIDENT OF THE ASSOCIATION OF AUTHORS’ AGENTS

Credit: Jack Ladenburg

At the recent AGM of the Association of Authors’ Agents, then Vice President Isobel Dixon of the Blake Friedmann Literary Agency stepped up to President, praising outgoing President Lizzy Kremer of David Higham Associates for her ‘amazing two years’, as a ‘vigorous, rigorous and generous’ President to the Association.

'It's been a great pleasure to work with Lizzy Kremer over these last four years,’ Isobel said, ‘and to see the growing and dynamic engagement from our Association's member agencies. Catherine Clarke was also on the AAA committee when I first joined and it's brilliant to have such an insightful and experienced colleague back as Vice President, along with our energetic committee. We have a great deal to do on industry best practice and all areas of authors' rights, as well as key issues around copyright, literacy and inclusivity, and I look forward to the engagement and campaigning ahead. It’s an honour to serve in this way, and particularly meaningful to me personally that Blake Friedmann’s co-founder, Carole Blake, was also once President of the AAA.’

Catherine Clarke of Felicity Bryan Associates, who served on the committee previously, returns as Vice President. Other current members of the committee are Lucy Luck of C+W (Treasurer), Charlotte Seymour of Andrew Nurnberg Associates (Secretary), Meg Davis of Ki Agency, Camilla Ferrier of The Marsh Agency and Molly Ker Hawn of The Bent Agency.

Camilla Ferrier has also chaired the Foreign Rights sub-committee and is now stepping down, with Lisa Baker of Aitken Alexander stepping into the role.

Isobel Dixon is Managing Director and Head of Books at the Blake Friedmann Literary Agency, where she represents bestselling and prizewinning writers from around the world. Her clients' work includes contemporary, historical and literary fiction, crime and thrillers, memoir, biography and narrative history. She is a Trustee of the National Centre for Writing in Norwich and on the Board of BTBS The Book Trade Charity. As poet, her most recent collection, Bearings, is published by Nine Arches, who will also bring out The Landing in 2021.

Catherine Clarke was Publishing Director of the Trade Books Department at Oxford University Press for several years before she joined Felicity Bryan as an agent in 2001. She represents a broad range of writers of serious non-fiction, including history, nature writing, biography, and philosophy. She also represents a number of bestselling and prizewinning writers for children and young adults. She became Managing Director of Felicity Bryan Associates in 2010. In 2017 she was named Literary Agent of the Year at the British Book Awards.

See more about Isobel here.

See more about the Association of Authors’ Agents here.

Kirsty Bashforth’s CULTURE SHIFT shortlisted for a Business Book Award

Kirsty Bashforth’s CULTURE SHIFT has been shortlisted for a Business Book Award, in the category of Sustainable Change. The Business Book Awards aim to highlight leadership, change and sustainability in business, promoting authors who share their industry knowledge, experience and expertise. CULTURE SHIFT, which was described by Iain Conn (CEO of Centrica) as “straight talking, realistic and refreshingly honest”, was published by Bloomsbury in 2019. An audio edition narrated by the author has also been published by WF Howes.

In CULTURE SHIFT, Bashforth uses her extensive experience to outline exactly what it takes to oversee sustainable culture change in an organization, drawing on case studies such as IBM, Uber, VW and John Lewis.

Her book explores how to communicate cultural expectations to a number of stakeholders; implement new, lasting habits in the workforce; effectively measure and track organizational culture; as well as deal with push-back from senior leadership when, as time passes, the planned culture shift risks falling lower on their agenda.

Founded on behavioural economics, CULTURE SHIFT recognises that people do not always make average assumptions or follow rational logic. Changing a culture, therefore, is not about telling people what to do and expecting them to fall neatly in line - it's about identifying where they are now and how they make decisions, in order to help them form new habits to create a sustainable culture shift, from the very top of the organization's workforce to the bottom.


Praise for CULTURE SHIFT:

‘The mix of personal experience and straight-talking advice creates a vital handbook for anyone taking on the task of managing culture.’ — Sunny Varkey, Founder of GEMS Education and Varkey Foundation

‘I taught culture at a business school for years, and always felt that I was about to get found out, because all the models I came across sounded plausible but simply didn't work. I wish I'd had this book, and I wish I'd written it. Bravo - it should be issued to all new leaders along with their security pass on day one.’ — Eve Poole, author of LEADERSMITHING

‘One person's logic is not another's - a key premise of this accessible book that unpicks why you can't simply announce the culture you want, and expect to create it. It takes time, effort, balance and a healthy dose of pig-headedness. Wonderful, original stuff.’ — Charlie Hodgson, Team and Leadership Coach


Kirsty Bashforth is CEO of QuayFive Ltd, advising CEOs on change, organizational culture and leadership, with clients across energy, utilities, health and financial services sectors both in the FTSE 100 and globally. Previously, she was Group Head of Organizational Effectiveness with BP, designing and delivering the shift in the company's organizational culture for five years from 2010, as part of the company's response and recovery following the Deepwater Horizon incident.

Follow Kirsty on Twitter

Visit Kirsty’s website