News
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Pan Macmillan buy Spencer Matthews memoirs
06 Mar 2013
Pan Macmillan have bought the autobiography of Spencer Matthews, star of E4’s hit show Made in Chelsea provisionally called Confessions of a Lady Thriller. The book is scheduled for publication in autumn 2013.
One of the original MIC cast members, Spencer has always been at the heart of the show and behind the most controversial story lines. Now for the first time he’s telling all, describing what it was like to grow up the privileged heir to glamorous Eden Rock and the impact his brother’s tragic death had on him, as well as writing with astonishing frankness about his love life, and revealing the truth behind some of the most sensational headlines on MIC. Offering a rare glimpse into the real Chelsea lifestyle, he also gives witty advice on love – from how to deal with cads to what men are really thinking.
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Kris Hollington and Officer A play on Radio 4
04 Mar 2013
Kris Hollington and his co-author ‘Officer A’ (The Crime Factory) acted as story consultants for Noble Cause Corruption, a controversial new play for BBC Radio 4, due to be broadcast on Tuesday 5 March at 14:15. It will also be available on iPlayer for the following week. They’ve promised us a tough, true to life listen…
A trailer can be heard here:
“Noble Cause Corruption is authentic and an original police drama. Serving and ex police officers were consulted during its making. DI Maxine Boyd is a newly promoted police detective but she is unprepared for life in CID. Following the apparent suicide of a fellow officer in her first week she begins to uncover the true nature of this overstressed and overstretched department. Could it be that officers routinely take the law into their own hands in order to get the job done? Soon she is tested to the limit as she realises how far she has to go to remain loyal to her CID team.”
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Good review for The Cost of Inequality
03 Mar 2013
Stewart Lansley’s The Cost of Inequality receives a good review here:
“Anybody who is concerned about the gap between top and bottom incomes in our society will enjoy reading Stewart Lansley’s The Cost of Inequality: Why Economic Equality is Essential for Recovery. The book does a good job of joining the dots between different pre-crisis trends – the divergence of incomes and the ‘disappearing middle’ in the jobs market, the growing debt burden as people borrowed to consume as well as buy houses, the housing bubble itself, banking deregulation, the worship of shareholder value, mega-bonuses… an excellent birds-eye view of the malign consequences of the financial sector-driven, unsustainable increase in inequality, and of the damage that has caused the US and UK economies.”
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Andrew Lownie judges biography prize
03 Mar 2013
Andrew Lownie will be judging the Earlyworks Press Biography Challenge.
“I’m a great believer that all history is really biography as it’s people who generally shape events rather than inexorable historical movements. All of us, I think, are fascinated by what makes people ‘tick’ and hence our traditional love of biography.
“What I look for in a biography, though it has to be totally accurate and well-researched, is what I also want in a novel – a strong narrative arc, a compelling story, the ability to set a scene, to create a sense of place and to delineate character.
“What I love about biography is it can be used to humanise almost any story and it can take many forms from “the cradle to the grave” approach to the “slice of life”. In the hands of a pro, it can be the most satisfying of any genre.”
Earlyworks Press Biography Challenge
The closing date for entries is the 31st March 2014.
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Thistle book selected for Amazon promotion
01 Mar 2013
David Haviland’s Why Was Queen Victoria Such A Prude?, a collection of surprising historical trivia, has been selected for Amazon’s March promotion, which means that the book will be available for one month for just 99p. Thanks to this promotion, Queen Victoria is currently the number one book in all its categories on Amazon. Queen Victoria was the first book to be published under the agency’s new imprint Thistle Publishing.
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Stella Rimington reviews Smiley book in Spectator
01 Mar 2013
A good review in the Spectator for Michael Jago’s life of the MI5 officer John Bingham who inspired George Smiley
http://www.spectator.co.uk/books/8852241/journalist-novelist-patriot-spy/
Michael Jago draws on family memories and Bingham’s own papers to create an affectionate, and in places poignant account of a serious, conventional and ethical man, facing a world where certainties were constantly challenged… very readable for its main character: novelist, patriot and moderate man in a world of extremes.
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Thistle Publishing launches 'Conclave'
01 Mar 2013
Thistle Publishing, the Andrew Lownie Literary Agency’s exciting new imprint, has launched Mary Hollingsworth’s excellent, timely new book about the papal conclave.
“If you want to understand what’s happening in the Vatican now, read this book. Gripping, lurid and fascinating, both scholarly and utterly readable, oozing with original academic research, its a minute-by-minute, day-by-day account of all the intrigues, maneouvres, deals, politics and scandals of a papal conclave.” SIMON SEBAG MONTEFIORE, author of JERUSALEM: THE BIOGRAPHY
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Fanny & Stella praised by Channel 4 editor
28 Feb 2013
Some great tweets from Matthew Cain Culture Editor at Channel 4
Am reading such a BRILLIANT book! Neil McKenna’s Fanny + Stella, about two drag queens whose arrest shocked Victorian society. Magnificent!
and then
Finished reading Fanny + Stella, story of two Victorian drag queens told so brilliantly by Neil McKenna I felt
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Darren Moore's The Soldier reviewed
28 Feb 2013
Some new and good reviews for Darren Moore’s The Soldier which is shortly to be published in the US can be found at:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7181310-the-soldier#other_reviews
“The book is very well organized, each chapter dealing with a particular aspect of a soldier’s life. The author does a fantastic job of bringing the brutalities of war through the words of the soldiers participating in them.” Venkateswaran
“This new book by Darren Moore covers ground previously explored by such writers as Richard Holmes (Firing Line), Hugh McManners (Scars of War) and Gwynne Dyer (War) to name but a few. However this book is still well worth the time to read. The book covers numerous aspects of the role of a soldier in society, mainly in times of conflict. The author utilises many first hand accounts to highlight points within the narrative. These accounts range from private soldiers to generals, from the Napoleonic period to the current war on terror. This is a very easy book to read and I managed to get through the 400 odd pages in a few days. Overall this is a good book that should be read by all that want to understand what a soldier goes through in his career and this is a book that should be read by all that have the power to send a soldier into harms way.” Aussie Rick’
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Two agency titles in New York Times e book best seller list
28 Feb 2013
Cathy Glass’s Cut is no 9 in the New York Times non-fiction e book best seller list.
The Favored Daughter: One Woman’s Fight to Lead Afghanistan into the Future by Fawzia Koofi and agency author Nadene Ghouri is no 33
