BOOKS


Previews New Titles: Non-fiction


New Titles: Non-fiction October


Te appetite for quiz titles continues, especially those with a cartographic slant, and though there looks to be no runaway bestseller, there are a range of strong titles


Caroline Sanderson @carosanderson


Y rson


es, we have no Obama— unless you count The Unofficial Michelle Obama


Activit Book—but we do have a quizzical, musical, stellar line-up instead. Welcome to the biggest non-fiction month of the year, from which I am waving, and just about not drowning. (It’s National Poetry Day on 4th October, too.) For the first time in years, I’ve


had to create a new category: Quiz and Puzzle Books. We love a bandwagon, and this one is stacked high. My favourite is David Hepworth’s The Rock & Roll A-level, which is in keeping with the plethora of music memoirs this month. I remain a sucker for a map quiz, though, and this year am spoilt for choice between the Ordnance Survey, the AA, the Royal Geographical Societ and the British Library. People keep telling me that non-fiction is “having a moment”,


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 28


while Publishers Association c.e.o. Stephen Lotinga said recently it was “by far and away the strongest part of the consumer market”. I like what TLS editor Stig Abell writes in the introduc- tion to Lee Child’s The Hero, the first release by HarperCollins’ new TLS Books imprint: “In an ever-quickening culture of flip-


Welcome to the biggest non-fiction month of the year... [and] it’s National Poetry Day on 4th October, too


Book of the Month Chang’s fascinating tale of the Soong sisters enthrals


Biography & memoirs


ness and facilit, fake news and Facebook, the TLS is determined to be part of the counter-culture of qualit. We believe in expertise, breadth and depth. We believe in the importance of ideas, and the transformative power of art.” So go forth, and be part of the counter-culture of qualit. The pride we take in that is surely one reason why we’re all doing what we’re doing—and not just for Christmas.


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.


50,000+  25,000+ 10,000+  5,000+ 3,000+ 


The next edition of The Bookseller (19th July) will feature Children's Previews covering titles released in October.


12th July 2019


Jung Chang Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister: Three Women at the Heart of Twentieth


Century China Cape, 17th, HB, £25, 9781910702789


Chang’s Wild Swans, published in 1991, remains among my favourite biographies. Her new book also stars a trio of extraordinary women, whose lives form the subject of the best-known modern Chinese fairytale—but they are little known to Western readers. Based on exten- sive first-hand research and inter-


views, as well as Chang’s experience of growing up in Maoist China, it’s the engrossing story of the three Soong sisters from Shanghai, each of whom played a crucial role in shaping modern China, witnessing war, revolution and seismic transformations along the way. Ching-ling (Red Sister) married the founding father of the


Chinese republic and later became Mao’s vice-chair. May-ling (Little Sister) married Chiang Kai-shek, and became first lady of pre-Communist Nationalist China, and a political figure in her own right; while Ei-ling (Big Sister) was chief advisor to Chiang. All three enjoyed tremendous privilege and fame, but also endured constant attacks and mortal danger as well as heartbreak and despair. And the relationship between the three sisters was highly charged, particularly once they embraced opposing political camps. As well as being gripped by story of the sisters, I learned so much about 20th-century China.


Photography: Jon Halliday


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