News


Epigram launches translated list S


WORDS Tom Tivnan


INGAPOREAN INDIE EPIGRAM Books has launched a UK arm, which will release eight translated novels in its inaugural year. The UK office will initially have a staff of three, with book trade veteran Kate Manning, who has held sales and marketing roles at Hot Key, Random House and Pan Macmillan, acting as a consultant. Its launch titles include Balli Kaur Jaswal’s Inheritance, set in 1970s Singapore during “a time of cultural and sexual change”; poet Cyril Wong’s début novel, The Last Lesson of Mrs De Souza; and Kappa Quarter by Daryl Qilin Yam, a fantastical tale of river demons set in Singapore and Japan. Epigram was founded by Edmund Wee pictured in 1991 as a design agency. Aſter producing several books for various design clients, in 2009 the firm had a bestseller, Adeline Foo’s middle grade novel The Diary of Amos Lee, which has sold almost 250,000 copies worldwide. Wee decided to move fully into publishing in 2011, and Epigram has since established itself as one of the country’s biggest indies, producing 50–60 titles a year across children’s, illustrated non-fiction and fiction. Wee said he believed that recent successes such as Madeleine Thein’s Booker and Baileys-short- listed Do Not Say We Have Nothing prove there is a market in the UK for stories “with characters from parts of the world which have not always been well


Bloomsbury seals ‘first of its kind’ dementia memoir


represented in fiction [in the UK]”. He added: “We believe in the qualit and integrit of the books we publish, and know that they stand shoulder to shoulder with the best books being published in the UK and the US. Opening a London office enables us to publish the great authors on our list in the UK, and in so doing, bring Southeast Asian literature to a wider communit.”


HC grabs GP’s cookbook


Harper Non-Fiction has acquired the world rights to a début cookbook by NHS GP Dr Rupy Aujla. The deal for The Doctor’s Kitchen was struck by Carolyn Thorne, editorial director for Harper Thor- sons, with Becca Barr at Becca Barr Management and Carly Cook, agent and consultant. Aujla trained at Imperial College London, and in The Doctor’s Kitchen his “delicious, healthy recipes” are informed by his medical knowledge. The doc- tor overhauled his own eating habits after being urged to dramatically change his lifestyle in order to avoid undergoing a heart procedure—and has not looked back. The book will be published in January 2018.


Legend looks to double up after quintet of deals


Legend Press hopes to double its list by 2018, and commissioning editor Lauren Parsons has been on an buying spree, signing Ryan Ruby’s début, The Zero and the One, from Sylvie Rosokoff at Tri- dent Media Group; Bonnie Pip- kin’s Aftercare Instructions from Kerry C Nordling at Flatiron Books; and All That was Lost by Alison May from Julia Silk at MBA. Legend Press authors Sophie Duffy and Dan Mooney also inked deals for new books at the fair.


06


Sixties rock ‘n’ roll title snapped up by Icon


Icon Books’ Dun- can Heath has acquired UK and Commonwealth rights (excluding


Canada) to In Search of the Lost Chord by “rock music veteran” Danny Goldberg inset. The book is a “unique eye-witness history” of 1967, and includes interviews with poet Allen Ginsberg, psy- chologist Timothy Leary and musician Gil Scott-Heron. Icon will publish in July.


Quercus makes Wise move for joint memoir


Quercus has signed Not That Kind of Love by actor Greg Wise left and his late


sister Clare, a “moving and surprisingly funny” tale of Clare’s “journey to death” based on the blog she started when she was diagnosed with cancer. Non-fiction publisher Katy Fol- lain bought world rights to the title from Caroline Wood at Felic- ity Bryan Associates.


Bloomsbury has won a “hard- fought” auction for Somebody That I Used to Know by Wendy Mitchell pictured, an NHS worker who was diagnosed with Young- Onset Dementia aged 58. Mitchell worked in the NHS for 20 years before retiring in 2014, aſter her diagnosis. Shocked at the lack of awareness about dementia, she devoted her time to educating people in an atempt to reduce the stigma around the condition. Anna Wharton will co-write the title, which Bloomsbury will publish, supported by a large promotional campaign, in Janu- ary 2018. Publishing director Alexis Kirschbaum, who signed UK and Commonwealth rights from Jon Elek at United Agents, said: “Wendy’s book will give us insight into a lifechanging expe- rience we have scarcely begun to understand. I feel the weight of responsibilit in helping publish a book that can only be described as the first of its kind. It will make a huge impact at publication.”


Blink bags real-life tale of mother’s hunt for kids


Bonnier imprint Blink Reality has acquired a “shocking true story” of a woman whose three babies were stolen from her. The Baby Snatchers by Mary Creighton details her fight to find her chil- dren, who were taken from her during her time at a home for unmarried mothers in County Meath. Blink editorial director Kelly Ellis acquired exclusive world rights from Eve White of the Eve White Literary Agency, and will publish in December.


Picador picks up second book from Stevens


Picador has acquired a new book by Nell Ste- vens left, author of forthcoming


Bleaker House, which is part memoir, part travelogue, part short-story collection. The Human Subject tells of two love affairs, separated by 150 years. Senior editor Sophie Jonathan closed a deal with Rebecca Carter at Jank- low & Nesbit for UK and Common- wealth rights, including audio.


16th March 2017


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36