News
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Rapid growth for Thistle Publishing
17 Jun 2013
The agency’s new in-house publishing imprint has been quickly expanding, with more than 50 books published in the last two months.
A number of these have reached the Amazon bestseller lists, including David Stafford’s Spies Beneath Berlin, David Haviland’s Why Was Queen Victoria Such A Prude?, and Mary Hollingsworth’s Conclave, which was published days after the Pope stepped down, and which Simon Sebag Montefiore described as follows: “If you want to understand what’s happening in the Vatican now, read this book. grippping, lurid and fascinating, both scholarly and utterly readable, oozing with original academic research, it’s a minute-by-minute, day-by-day account of all the intrigues, manoeuvres, deals, politics and scandals of a papal conclave.” Another of David Stafford’s history titles, Churchill & Secret Service, sold more than 5,000 copies in May alone.
The imprint’s latest releases include Paul Merrill’s hilarious Muddle Your Way Through Fatherhood, which has been generating lots of media coverage, as has Peter Daughtrey’s sensational new theory for the location of Atlantis: Atlantis and the Silver City – just published by Pegasus in the US.
Fiction releases have included collections of Guy Bellamy’s well-loved comic novels, originally published by Penguin, Mei Trow’s cult Lestrade detective mysteries, and RSC actor David Weston’s Dickens-inspired novel Dodger - Down Under, which was launched at a glamorous party last weekend. “I have always thought the Artful Dodger’s story needed telling and now David Weston has told it, in a wonderfully engaging way” - Julian Fellowes.
Forthcoming books include Roger Howard’s Operation Damocles, which tells the story of Israel’s secret war against former Nazi scientists, and has just been published in the US; model Rachel Woods’ guide to the beauty industry The Model’s Guide; and reissues of Andrew Lownie’s acclaimed biography of John Buchan, a three-volume collection of John Buchan short stories, and The Edinburgh Literary Companion, which will be launched during the Edinburgh Festival.
Publication through Thistle has also been the catalyst for a number of more conventional deals. Desmond Seward’s Richard III was reissued by Thistle, and immediately snapped up by Pegasus Books in the US. Chloe Govan’s Amy Winehouse - The Untold Story was serialised in The Sun. And a forthcoming Thistle book, on a secret army unit in Northern Ireland will be serialised in a national newspaper, alongside a major TV investigation.
For more details, visit Thistle Publishing.
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Stewart Lansley on C-SPAN
17 Jun 2013
Stewart Lansley’s fascinating and timely C-SPAN interview on The Cost Of Inequality can now be viewed online:
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Operation Lipstick generating huge interest
15 Jun 2013
Pia Heikkila’s sexy chick-lit novel Operation Lipstick has just been released in Finland, after reaching the bestseller lists in India. The book is generating huge media interest, including the following:
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Frank Ledwidge In Conversation
15 Jun 2013
Frank Ledwidge has given a fascinating interview to The Voice Of Russia.
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Recent Foreign Rights Sales
15 Jun 2013
Rights in Jonathan Conlin’s Tales of Two Cities: Paris and London, 1750-1914 were sold in Taiwan and Brazil.
Pegasus bought Turkish rights in Daniel Tammet’s Thinking in Numbers.
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More coverage for Frank Ledwidge
14 Jun 2013
Frank Ledwidge’s damning account of the war in Afghanistan is continuing to generate huge interest:
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Book on Bismarck to Haynes
14 Jun 2013
Angus Konstam has been contracted to write the latest Haynes manual – a detailed study of the German battleship KMS Bismarck – the warship that sank the battlecruiser HMS Hood in 1941, and which then became the quarry in one of the most famous naval pursuits of the Second World War. The book is due to be published in the summer of 2014.
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Recent Foreign Rights Sales for The Girl With No Name
13 Jun 2013
There have been a succession of foreign rights deals for Marina Chapman’s memoir of being brought up by monkeys in the Columbian jungle, The Girl With No Name, including Spain, Iceland, Russia and Poland.
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Desmond Seward's Richard III to Pegasus
13 Jun 2013
Pegasus have bought US rights in Desmond Seward’s revised classic life of Richard III.
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Antarctica is History Book Of The Month
13 Jun 2013
David Day’s Antarctica is one of ten books selected as Amazon’s history books of the month.
