Andy Briggs' THE BASTARD KING hits the cover of Variety

We are delighted to see Andy Briggs’ THE BASTARD KING on the cover of the Berlin Film Festival’s edition of Variety Magazine. Andy wrote the narration to this stunning drama-documentary, with Owen Prumm directing and Shibumi Films, Bonne Pioche and Tierra Mater producing.  

THE BASTARD KING chronicles the life of a lion from cub to King - battling against an unimaginable enemy that is ravaging a world where blood is becoming easier to find than water. This unique story challenges traditional storytelling - serving as an allegory for endangered species - and our very own fate. 

It was released in September 2020 in France to huge critical acclaim, and will be released in Britain later this year with David Oyelowo starring.  

Praise for THE BASTARD KING: 

‘Far from the usual rules of animal documentaries, this production is a visual and narrative gem that flirts with fiction, against a background of environmental reality. An extraordinary film.’ – Télé 7 Jours 

‘It upsets the aesthetic codes of the genre… the film unites the violence of the images with the astonishing poetry of the text.’ – Le Figaro TV Magazine 

‘It offers a poetic vision of social relations and environmental problems and tries to raise awareness of the fragility of the wild world.’ – Le Parisien  

‘An original documentary not to be missed… borrowing from the codes of fiction… it tells the story of the wild world differently to raise awareness and reach a wide audience, well beyond fans of animal documentaries.’ – Le Blog TV News 

About Andy Briggs: 

Andy is a screenwriter, graphic novelist, author and conservationist – writing on movie projects such as “JUDGE DREDD” and “FREDDY VS JASON” and “FOREVERMAN” for Paramount Pictures, Spiderman creator Stan Lee and legendary producer Robert Evans. He has worked on TV projects for Syfy, Netflix, ITV and Amazon and is working extensively between the UK, US and China. 

Visit Andy’s website 

Follow Andy on Twitter 

FIRST ITV EPISODE OF BESTSELLING ROY GRACE SERIES TO AIR ON SUNDAY 14th MARCH

The first instalment of brand-new ITV crime drama, GRACE, based on international bestselling author Peter James’ Detective Superintendent Roy Grace series, will air on Sunday 14th March at 8pm. The series is written by acclaimed screenwriter and Endeavour creator, Russell Lewis, and co-produced by Second Act Productions, Tall Story Pictures and Vaudeville Productions.

Starring acclaimed actor John Simm as tenacious detective Roy Grace, Richie Campbell as Glenn Branson and Rakie Ayola as Alison Vosper, the two-hour film based on the first book in the series, DEAD SIMPLE, will introduce the audience to Brighton-based Detective Superintendent Roy Grace, a hard-working police officer who has dedicated his life to the job, but finds his career under threat. 

Watch the trailer and see the full cast list for GRACE here.

There’s widespread excitement among fans about Roy Grace’s imminent television appearance and GRACE has been included in many ‘2021 One to Watch’ lists, including The Mirror, The Telegraph, The Sunday Express, Radio Times, BBC and The Sunday Times.

Sunday’s programme based on Peter James’s first Roy Grace bestseller DEAD SIMPLE, opens with Grace running enquiries into long forgotten cold cases with little or no prospect of success. He’s obsessed with the disappearance of his beloved wife, Sandy, which haunts his thoughts and his unorthodox police methods have come under scrutiny once again. Grace is walking a career tightrope and risks being moved from the job he loves most.

With so much at stake, his colleague Detective Sergeant Glenn Branson knows he has more to give and asks him for help with a case. When a stag night prank appears to go wrong and the groom goes missing, Branson calls upon Grace to unravel events that led to the mysterious disappearance three days before his wedding to his beautiful fiancé. 

There is no trace of the missing groom, a successful property developer with everything to live for. Is this a case of stag night shenanigans gone badly awry? Or is this something more sinister? With nothing but instinct, a lingering suspicion and his obsessive nature, Grace doggedly pursues the groom’s disappearance and becomes uneasily close to the bride to be…

GRACE was filmed on location in Brighton in 2020 with executive producers Andrew O’Connor and Paul Sandler for Second Act Productions, Patrick Schweitzer for Tall Story Pictures, Michael Vine for Vaudeville Productions, and Russell Lewis and Peter James.  The first film, Dead Simple, is directed by John Alexander with the second film, Looking Good Dead (based on the second book in the series of the same name), directed by Julia Ford, airing on ITV later this year.

The seventeenth instalment in the Roy Grace book series, LEFT YOU DEAD, is published in the UK by Pan Macmillan on 13th May 2021. Peter James has also written a Roy Grace novella, WISH YOU WERE DEAD, for The Reading Agency’s QuickReads scheme, published on 27th May 2021. The paperback of the standalone thriller I FOLLOW YOU will be out on 24 June 2021.

About Peter James

Peter James is the international bestselling author of many award-winning novels. His Detective Superintendent Roy Grace series, set in Brighton – translated into thirty-seven languages with worldwide sales of over twenty million copies – has given him seventeen consecutive Sunday Times Number Ones. 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.

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.

Successful nationwide tours of the stage plays of THE PERFECT MURDER (2014) and DEAD SIMPLE (2015) have packed theatres in dozens of British cities, and garnered magnificent reviews and NOT DEAD ENOUGH opened to full houses and acclaim in 2017. January 2019 saw the opening of the stage tour of THE HOUSE ON COLD HILL, with the sequel THE SECRET OF COLD HILL published in October 2019. The stage play of LOOKING GOOD DEAD will tour the UK later in 2021, starring award-winning actor and EastEnders icon, Adam Woodyatt.

Praise for Peter James

‘Superior plotting and edge-of-the-seat suspense.’ – The Guardian

‘Peter James is one of the best crime writers in the business’ – Karin Slaughter

‘A master plotter who cunningly tunes into contemporary concerns. Peter James cannot fail to thrill.’ ­– Daily Mail

‘Peter James creates a world we can smell, touch and feel for his Brighton detective Inspector Roy Grace.’ – The Times

‘Probably the closest we’ll get to a British Stephen King’ – The Financial Times

‘With echoes of Thomas Harris, the closer analogue is to Jeffrey Deaver’s clock-racing thrillers. … James delivers the goods.’ — Kirkus Reviews

‘James just gets better and better and deserves the success he has achieved with this first-class series.’ — Independent on Sunday

Diane Abbott’s Memoir Acquired at Auction by Viking

We are delighted to announce the acquisition of A WOMAN LIKE ME: A Memoir by Diane Abbott, by Viking, which will be published in summer 2022. UK & Commonwealth (excluding Canada) rights were acquired by Alpana Sajip and Mary Mount from Juliet Pickering, in a six-publisher auction.

A WOMAN LIKE ME will be a powerful memoir that tells the story of modern Britain, from one of the UK’s most original and inspiring politicians.

June 1987: Diane Abbott makes history as the first elected Black female MP in the UK. Since then, she has survived more than three decades in parliament, campaigning tirelessly for a better future for Britain, from increasing access to education through the Black Child Initiative, to consistently voting in favour of higher disability benefits. With her trademark frankness and humour, her memoir will celebrate an extraordinary life and encourage a new generation to surpass expectations, just as she has done.

In her honest and moving book, Diane takes the reader through her incredible journey, from growing up in North London with her Jamaican parents to entering the Houses of Parliament as a bright and ambitious young politician. In doing so, she paints a candid portrait of what it’s like to face a barrage of hostility every day, shows us how she was able to battle impostor syndrome and succeed against the odds, and empowers us with the strength to change the fabric of this country for the better.

 Alpana Sajip said, ‘Diane is a titan of British public and political life, and we couldn’t be prouder to be publishing her memoir. She has inspired generations of Britons through her unwavering efforts, and we know that by sharing her story with the world, she will continue to do so.’

 Mary Mount said, ‘We are so thrilled to be publishing Diane Abbott’s memoir at Viking. In many ways her life story is a story of modern Britain. It is a unique life and Diane has a unique voice which we can’t wait to bring to readers across the country.’

 Diane Abbott said: “I am very excited to be working on this memoir with Viking. It is a long-awaited chance to tell my own story, in my own words. My parents were part of the Windrush generation. Nobody could have guessed that their bespectacled little girl would grow up to be a British member of Parliament, and this will be the story of that journey.”

A WOMAN LIKE ME can be pre-ordered at Sevenoaks Bookshop.

THE MERMAID OF BLACK CONCH by Monique Roffey shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize 2021

We are thrilled that THE MERMAID OF BLACK CONCH by Monique Roffey has been shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize 2021. The shortlist was chosen by judges Roger Robinson, Sinéad Gleeson and Jon McGregor. Also shortlisted are Indelicacy by Amina Cain, handiwork by Sara Baume, Poor by Caleb Femi, My Darling from the Lions by Rachel Long, In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado, A Ghost in the Throat by Doireann Ní Ghríofa, and As You Were by Elaine Feeney. Watch the shortlist announcement including discussion with shortlisted authors here.

The Rathbones Folio Prize, known as the “writers’ prize”, is worth £30,000 and rewards the best work of literature of the year, regardless of form. The winner will be announced on 24th March. Past winners include Valeria Luiselli (2020), Raymond Antrobus (2019), Richard Lloyd Parry (2018), Hisham Matar (2017), Akhil Sharma (2015) and George Saunders (2014).

THE MERMAID OF BLACK CONCH was published to wide acclaim by Peepal Tree Press in the UK and by W F Howes in audio. It was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize earlier this year and was recently announced as the winner of the Costa Novel Award 2020 and also of the overall Costa Book of the Year Award 2020 . Peepal Tree Press and THE MERMAID OF BLACK CONCH were also recently longlisted for the Republic of Consciousness Prize for Small Presses 2021. Translation rights have been sold in Germany, Holland and Russia, with offering in other markets under way.

A vivid, moving story of love and trust, family and friendship in a Caribbean island community, THE MERMAID OF BLACK CONCH is a world brought to unforgettable life by a master storyteller. A fisherman sings to himself in his boat, but attracts an unexpected sea-dweller — Aycayia, a beautiful young woman cursed to live as a mermaid, swimming the ocean for centuries. Theirs becomes a calm, unspoken bond. But when she hears David’s engine again one day and follows the vessel, she finds herself in a fierce battle for her life. Caught by American sports fishermen, she is strung up on the dock as a trophy, but David rescues her, and gently wins her trust as she starts to transform, painfully, back into a woman. But jealous eyes are watching them…

Interwoven with David and Aycayia’s love story is that of Miss Arcadia Rain, a white landowner bringing up her deaf son on a dwindling estate. As her young son connects with fellow outsider Aycayia, an old lover of Arcadia’s returns to the island and she too begins to feel her way into love and trust again.

See more about THE MERMAID OF BLACK CONCH on the Peepal Tree Press site  and read an interview with Monique Roffey here.

Praise for THE MERMAID OF BLACK CONCH

‘Monique Roffey is a unique talent and most daring and versatile of writers.’ — Bernardine Evaristo

‘THE MERMAID OF BLACK CONCH arrives bearing tragedy and beauty. Monique Roffey has created a new myth for an age of ruined oceans. She continues to be one of our most exciting new Caribbean voices.’ — A.L. Kennedy

‘Monique Roffey is a writer of verve, vibrancy and compassion, and her work is always a joy to read.’ — Sarah Hall

THE MERMAID OF BLACK CONCH is wonderfully written, with both soul and intense drama – it glistens almost, like the mermaid! I love its all-round charisma and also its great compassion for both humanity and the natural world.’ — Diana Evans

‘THE MERMAID OF BLACK CONCH is like a lost myth, found, and made fresh again for our times.’ —  Tessa McWatt, author of Shame on Me: An Anatomy of Race and Belonging

Photo: Marcus Bastel

About Monique Roffey

Monique Roffey is an award-winning novelist. House of Ashes (Scribner UK) 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 translated into 5 languages. Her second novel The White Woman on the Green Bicycle was shortlisted for the Orange Prize and the Encore Prize, among other accolades, and film/TV rights have been optioned.

Visit Monique’s website

Follow Monique on Twitter

Dima Alzayat's ALLIGATOR AND OTHER STORIES announced as a finalist for PEN America Award

We are thrilled that, ALLIGATOR & OTHER STORIES by Dima Alzayat, has been announced by PEN America as a finalist for the Robert W Bingham Prize for Debut Short Story Collection category.

ALLIGATOR & OTHER STORIES (published by Picador in the UK and Two Dollar Radio in the US), is an intricate, thoughtful exploration of what it is to be ‘other’: as a Syrian, as an Arab, as an immigrant, as a woman. Each story of the stories is a snapshot of those moments when unusual circumstances suddenly distinguish us from our neighbours, when our difference is thrown into relief.

Here are ‘dangerous’ women transgressing, missing children in 1970s New York, a family who were once Syrian but have now lost their name, and a young woman about to discover the hollowness of the American dream. At its centre lies ‘Alligator’: a remarkable compilation of real and invented sources, which rescues from history the story of a Syrian American couple who were murdered at the hands of the state.

PEN America is an organisation committed to amplifying free expression globally, and their prizes are some of the most prestigious in the world. PEN America’s 2021 Literary Awards judges join a long tradition of esteemed writers and PEN America members committed to recognising their contemporaries, from promising debut writers to those who have had a continuous, lasting impact on literary excellence. Judging the short story category are Ben Marcus, Elizabeth McCracken, and Ingrid Rojas Contreras.

The winners of the Awards will be announced in Spring 2021.

About Dima Alzayat:

Dima Alzayat was born in Damascus, Syria, grew up in San Jose, California, and now lives in Manchester. She was the winner of the ALCS Tom-Gallon Trust Award 2019, a 2018 Northern Writers’ Award, the 2017 Bristol Short Story Prize, the 2015 Bernice Slote Award, runner-up in the 2018 Deborah Rogers Award and the 2018 Zoetrope: All-Story Competition, and was Highly Commended in the 2013 Bridport Prize.

 Her stories have appeared in Prairie Schooner, Bristol Short Story Award Anthology, Bridport Prize Anthology, and Enizagam. Her short story ‘In the Land of Kan’an’ was included in artist Jenny Holzer’s projection For Aarhus and was part of Holzer’s 2017 exhibition at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. She is a PhD student and associate lecturer at Lancaster University.

Praise for ALLIGATOR AND OTHER STORIES:

‘I love the range of the stories here. The title story is outstanding as is the opening story.’ — Roxane Gay (Goodreads)

‘Dima Alzayat proves herself an incredible literary chameleon, writing across history, nationality, gender and age with deep nuance and empathy.’ — Dana Czapnik, author of THE FALCONER

‘Tremendously assured, wise-cracking and elegiac, with a firm pulse on the magical and mundane. I loved it’s hard-edged lyricism and the tremendous empathetic range and distinctiveness of vision that Dima Alzayat demonstrates in this wonderful collection that will resonate with anyone who has ever felt caught between cultures, places and the interstices of memory and the loaded everyday.' — Sharlene Teo, author of PONTI 

‘Alligator and Other Stories is heartfelt, heartbreaking and heart-mending. It's also razor sharp on the shifting layers of history, family, faith, gender, culture and language that make up that strange thing we call “identity”. An important, necessary book.’ — Jenn Ashworth

‘Dima Alzayat's stories are nuanced, unusual and emotionally lacerating. Hers is a voice that is both vital and haunting.’ — Stuart Evers

‘This is a wonderful collection, exceptional in fact. Its consideration of displacement and identity is so nuanced, intelligent and tender, and its modes of telling so dextrous, apt and beautiful. In Alligator and Other Stories, lives are captured with care and formidable compassion.’ — Wendy Erskine, author of SWEET HOME

‘I've just read the first story in this collection and it is superb. I don't think I've ever noticed myself breathing so fast while reading.’ — Lara Pawson

‘Gloriously hypnotic. These charged, visceral stories get under the skin and stay there. This collection heralds the arrival of an electrifying new voice.’ — Irenosen Okojie

‘Dima Alzayat combines superb writing with razor-sharp imagination and focuses on social injustice, racial violence, and global immigration.’ – LitHub

‘Dima Alzayat’s startling, often shocking stories have at their heart a profound sense of dislocation.’ – Eithne Farry, The Daily Mail

‘This rich short story collection exploring gender, identity, family and inheritance packs an emotional punch.’ — Layla Haidrani, Cosmopolitan, ‘49 new books by black and POC authors you’ll be reading in 2020’

‘This debut short story collection has left us stunned’ — Daunt Books

‘Alzayat’s slim, powerful debut collection showcases the author’s deep empathy and imagination in stories about grief, assimilation, and trauma…This intelligent collection is a force to be reckoned with’ — Publisher’s Weekly

‘Sardonic, monstrous, tender, these well-crafted tales show us circumstances that might be our own, and let us see them through the eyes of others.’ —Matthew Adams, Sunday Times

‘Alzayat manages to execute a short but thoughtful meditation on the spectrum of race in America from Jackson’s presidency to present. Here and everywhere, Alligator is a collection about the power and limitations of empathy.’ — Colin Groundwater, GQ