BOOKS
Previews New Titles: Non-fiction
New Titles: Non-fiction October
The titles publishers hope will build momentum as the key Christmas market nears are a mix of sure-fire bestsellers and brands with big online followings
Caroline Sanderson @carosanderson
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here are two contradictory threads to report this month. On the one hand, the banking on the tried-and- tested continues; whether that is in the form of stars of primetime TV (step forward the already best- selling Michael McIntre, whose new memoir is… wait for it… very funny), or those who bring a ready-made following on Twiter, Instagram or (increasingly) TikTok with them. Two cases in point: The Modern House by Mat Gibberd and Hill House Living by Paula Suton—both have almost half a million followers on Insta- gram. An online following doesn’t always convert to an offline readership, but this is stlish but comfy content just begging to be lavished on a giſt book.
On the other hand, this is also a month where the familiar—when it comes to skewed Western narratives at any rate—is set to be
Submissions should be sent to Caroline at St Ives, Frome Park Road, Stroud, Gloucestershire GL5 3LF. Hard copies preferred (covering letter & AI essential), email submissions welcome. See
thebookseller.com/publishing calendar for submission deadlines.
Next week 34 9th July 2021
BookScan ratings accompanying titles are based on TCM sales (excludes e-book, export, direct, library and other sales) of the author’s most recent original work in a similar format with at least six months’ sales through Nielsen BookScan, using the notation left.
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The next edition of The Bookseller (16th July) will feature Children's Previews covering titles released in October.
disrupted as never before. Take a look at Horizons: A Global History of Science by James Posket; A Bigger Picture by Vanessa Nakate; and The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanit by David Graeber and David Wengrow. In my more than two decades compiling this preview, rarely have I chosen a Humour title for my Book of the Month. This might be because I’m a misery guts, but also because the art of finding the funny has become an increasingly daunting challenge. So it’s a joy to select Jack Dee’s What Is Your Problem? because, frankly, amid all our problems, we could all do with some levit. PS A quick shout-out for the glorious-looking Greek Myths: A New Retelling by Charlote Higgins and Chris Ofili (9781787331655), which was missing from my September preview.
Book of the Month Dee’s straight-talking advice hits the mark
Humour
Jack Dee What Is Your Problem? Quercus, 28th, HB, £20, 9781529413366
In these deadly serious times, when belly laughs are hard to conjure, the sheer deadpan-ness of this joyous spoof really nails the mood. While the rest of us were baking bread and downing Zoom cocktails
during lockdown, Dee re-trained online as a psychotherapist, undertaking four hours of study at the “Ruislip College of Advansed (sic) Learning”. Armed with this qualification, he now reinvents himself as a tell-it-like-it-is Agony Uncle, and confronts a host of varied everyday dilemmas about relation- ships, finances, coping with Christmas, coping with teenagers and more, presenting his “professional” opinion on the matter. Throughout, his therapeutic style is best categorised as less of a “metaphorical hug” and more of the “deft kick up the backside” all of us occasionally need. While clearly parodying, the bonus is that Dee’s advice, to my mind anyway, is often right on the money. Responding to “Lynn”, who wants to have children but whose boyfriend thinks “it will spoil everything that we have worked so hard for”, he writes: “Well, Lynn, it is hard to reply without saying up front that I totally agree with your boyfriend. He is absolutely right, having children will wreck everything. That is what they do and it’s OK to say it because you can love your kids while hating what they do to your life. This is the great dichotomy that defines parenthood”.
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