THIS WEEK


Alexis Kirschbaum Bloomsbury Publishing director


Is there any major non-fiction auction that Kirschbaum lost this year? She nabbed “Griefcast” podcaster Cariad Lloyd’s début following a 15-way bidding war; picked up journalist Manjit Kumar’s group biography of Royal Society scien- tists in a seven-publisher auction; and won another seven-way-er for “the best teacher in the world”, Andria Zafirakou. Since moving to Bloomsbury from Penguin Press, she has shown a nose for trend-setting non-fiction, characterised by the 2019 publication of Lisa Taddeo’s Three Women.


The Lead Story The Bookseller 150


Jacques Testard Fitzcarraldo Editions Publisher


If one were to characterise Testard’s commissioning sense, you might say “a young Christopher MacLehose”. He set up his largely fiction in transla- tion indie just a few years ago and has brought oodles of taste-making and prize-winning foreign writers to our shores, not least the Polish author Olga Tokarczuk, whom Fitzcarraldo published long before she was a gleam in the Nobel committee’s eye. It is not all translations, though, with recent English-language highlights including Jeremy Cooper’s Ash Before Oak.


Influencers


Stig Abell Dolly Alderton Damian Barr Jonty Claypole Andrew Holgate Stormzy


Damian Barr Damian Barr’s Literary Salon Founder/author


Writer and columnist Barr started his literary salon 11 years ago, and since then it has showcased a host of established names and emerging talents, from Taiye Selasi to John Waters, Caitlin Moran and David Nicholls—who launched his latest, Sweet Sorrow, there. Last month the salon was translated to the small screen, with Barr hosting new BBC Scotland literature series “The Big Scottish Book Club”. In the past year, Barr has contrib- uted to Unbound’s Common People anthology, as well as publishing his novel, You Will Be Safe Here.


Carole Tonkinson Bluebird Publisher


Tonkinson set up her imprint at Pan Mac after joining from HarperCollins in 2014, and it was this year when her ability to capture the zeitgeist helped Bluebird really soar, mainly down to Pinch of Nom’s arrival at the top of the charts. Kate Allinson and Kay Featherstone’s slimming recipes were a publishing phenomenon, with the original book selling 1.04 million books for £10.3m since its March release, becoming the fastest- selling non-fiction book of all time in the process. A sister imprint for titles on sustainable living launches in 2020.


Anna Valentine Trapeze, Seven Dials, Orion Spring Executive publisher


In taking the reins from Amanda Harris for Seven Dials and Orion Spring, this year Valentine—a Rising Star in 2011, who set up Trapeze in 2016—oversees the bulk of Orion’s commercial non- fiction publishing. Her move up the ranks followed Trapeze’s shortlisting for Imprint of the Year at the British Book Awards in May, and her own nomination for Editor of the Year. Among her bestsellers are starry titles from Alan Partridge and Fearne Cotton, plus the Christmas smash hit The Ordnance Survey Puzzle Book.


28 13th December 2019


Stormzy #MerkyBooks Founder


After launching #MerkyBooks with PRH last year, grime artist Stormzy is already following through on his aim to create a “home for a new generation of voices”. In March, the #MerkyBooks New Writers’ Prize launched in collaboration with The Good Literary Agency and First Story. The imprint also held a free writer’s camp, teamed up with Beats by Dre to open a pop-up shop in London’s Shoreditch, and made its first hire— commissioning editor Lemara Lindsay- Prince. Signing Malorie Blackman to write her memoir was a massive coup.


Dolly Alderton Te High Low Podcaster/author


Already a bestselling author in her own right—Everything I Know About Love has TCM’d 215,000 copies, with the February-released paperback spending 24 weeks in the Paperback Non-fiction top 20—Alderton is also a powerful “bookfluencer”. A Women’s Prize judge in 2019, Alderton also recommends books through her podcast “The High- Low”, with co-host Pandora Sykes, and on Instagram. Sales soared for Lisa Taddeo’s Three Women and Lemn Sissay’s My Name is Why when they received Alderton’s seal of approval.


Jonty Claypole BBC Director of arts


In addition to its usual books-based radio and TV programming—includ- ing autumn programmes “His Dark Materials”, “War of the Worlds” and “Elizabeth is Missing”—the Beeb launched a year-long celebration of literature with the Novels That Shaped Our World project. This included a list of 100 novels chosen by an expert panel, a BBC2 series, and a year-long outreach festival. A series of documentaries about the African literary renaissance is one of the many books-based projects in the pipeline.


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  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64