13th June 2025
Our expert
Caroline Sanderson
Caroline worked as a Waterstones bookseller, and as a book publicist before becoming a freelance writer in 1997. The Bookseller’s non-fiction previewer since 2000, she has judged numerous book prizes, including chairing the panel for the 2022 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction. Programme Director of Stroud Book Festival, Caroline is also a Royal Literary Fund Writing For Life Fellows, supporting writing skills within the NHS.
New Titles: Non-fiction September
Previews
The biggest month of the year in non-fiction publishing is here
Celebrity autobiographies, Christmas puzzle books and a beloved, soon-to-be centenarian children’s character all feature in autumn’s non-fiction offerings
8 S
o here it is, the annual bunfight that is September’s non-fiction publishing. I have selected almost 300
titles from more than 400 submis- sions overall. I read at least some of 35 proofs, and about a dozen more PDFs so you do not have to. Well, unless you want to, which, of course, I hope that you will once you have read my recommendations. Celebrity memoirs are the
headline-grabbers of autumn so let us start there. Despite frequent headlines over the past several years declaring that such books have had their day (“‘Exhausted’ readers shun celebrity memoirs as autobiography sales fall,” declared the Guardian in December 2014), publishers are still banking on
them it seems, with sport (Björn Borg and Boris Becker), comedy (Nigel Planer and Alan Davies) and music (Yusuf Cat Stevens, Lulu, Lionel Richie, Jodie Harsh, Mrs Elvis Presley and Huey Morgan) so far the genres to the fore. Which names stand out for you?
I am intrigued by the Penny Lancaster autobiography (about being Mrs Rod Stewart and more besides…), and I reckon Yusuf Cat Stevens will have a fascinating story to tell. Given that advance reading material is rarely available for these books (embargoes… serial deals…) and that few of their authors have any kind of track record, it is hard to judge how they will land with readers at this early stage. Consequently the white heat of my autumn excitement has
Books New Titles: Non-Fiction
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