News


Pan Mac seals Watership deal P


WORDS Katherine Cowdrey


AN MACMILLAN WILL be the global publishing part- ner for a new CGI mini- series based on Richard Adams’ Watership Down, co-produced by the BBC and Netflix. The deal, brokered between Pan Mac and ITV Studios Global Entertainment, covers all territories and languages and will see new tie-in titles issued in the second half of 2018 to coin- cide with the broadcast premier on the BBC (in the UK) and on Netflix (globally, excluding the UK). The book publishing incorpo-


rates imagery and stills from the series to ensure “a cohesive and contemporary feel” alongside the broadcasts, according to Pan Mac. It includes a full-colour illus- trated hardback (£12.99) that takes artwork from the animation to bring the Watership Down story to life, and a “high-end, intricately


illustrated” colouring book (£10 paperback).


The books are aimed at a family audience, as is the TV series, which hopes to bring Adams’ tale to a new generation, as well as to fans of the original novel, which sold more than 50 million copies worldwide. Behind the CGI mini-series is BAFTA-nominated script- writer Tom Bidwell, who called on an all-star cast which included James McAvoy as Hazel, John Boyega as Bigwig, Sir Ben Kings- ley as General Wound- wort and Nicholas Hoult as Fiver, as well as Olivia Colman, Miles Jupp, Freddie Fox, Anne-Marie Duff and Gemma Arterton. Stephanie Barton, who acquired the propert for Pan


Mac, said: “This classic story has touched the hearts of adults and children for over 40 years, and this new interpretation has given us the most wonderful opportunit to bring it to a whole new family audi- ence. It’s a privilege to work on this extraordinary brand and our crea- tively exciting publishing captures all the emotional power and stun- ning visual world of the series.”


Headline news as Parks inks six-figure HQ deal


Adele Parks has signed a three- book deal with HQ for a “signifi- cant” six-figure sum, with the first, I Invited Her, to be pub- lished in September 2018. World rights were signed by publishing director Kate Mills from Curtis Brown’s Jonny Geller. Parks, the author of 17 books, many of which have been published by Headline, said: “The worldwide deal offers incredible opportuni- ties at this stage in my career.”


Faber snaps up brutal Girl from O’Brien


BLP’s Tolkien tome lures overseas interest


Bodleian Library Publishing (BLP) will release the largest collection of material by J R R Tolkien in a single volume as a companion to an upcoming exhibition. Tolkien: Maker of Middle Earth launches on 1st June 2018, to coincide with an exhibition of the same name at the Oxford University library. The exhibition will be the largest exhibition of Tolkien materials, manuscripts, and paintings and maps. It will source pieces from the Bodleian’s archive, Marquette University in Milwaukee (Wisconsin) and private collections. BLP will publish an illus-


Unlikely book fair trend hits the Messe: sobriety


Trapeze has acquired Mindful Drinking by journalist Rosamund Dean, the latest in a number of deals for books helping readers to rethink their relationship with alcohol. Editorial director Sam Eades bought world rights (all languages) for Mindful Drinking: How Cutting Down Will Change Your Life from Dean in a deal struck by Chris Wellbelove at Aitken Alexander, and will publish the title on 28th December 2017. Mindful Drinking combines scientific mote a


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trated hardback and a limited-run col- lector’s edition, signed by the book’s contributors, with facsimiles of Tolkien’s paintings, manuscripts and maps. A small-format paperback, Tolkien: Trea- sures, will be released on the same date. Coeditions will be sold through the


Edwards Fuglewicz Literary Agency. BLP head of publishing Samuel Fanous said: “Interest has been strong and we expect to see good coedition sales.” To see exclusive images from the


exhibition, see Straight Tolkien (pp31–32).


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want to drink less, and takes them through a step-by- step process that will change their life dramatically, argues Dean. She said: “Sobriet is a huge trend. It’s partly a generational thing. Women in their thirties and forties—raised on Bridget Jones and ‘Sex and the Cit’—have never questioned the starring role of wine in their lives. But all around us, twentsomethings are working hard, being sociable and generally living full lives, while drinking very litle alcohol—if any. It has made us question whether we actually need, or want, that crutch any more—and start to wonder how we can do without it.” The acquisition follows previously reported deals for a self-help book published by Aster, The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober; Coronet’s The Sober Diaries and Bluebird’s The 28-Day Alcohol-Free Challenge.


Faber has signed a “brutal” story of incarceration, horror and hunger by Edna O’Brien. Editor Lee Brackstone, who acquired UK and Commonwealth rights to Girl from Caroline Michel at PFD, said: “In Girl, Edna once again proves herself to be one of our most compassionate, stylish and fearless novelists. In her ninth decade, she’s producing the greatest work of her staggering career. There is no more urgent writer working today.”


The man who sold the book... to Penguin


Penguin Press publishing direc- tor Helen Conford has acquired the “fans’ version” of a photog- raphy book on David Bowie by his long-time collaborator, photographer Denis O’Regan. A large-format collector’s edition of Ricochet: David Bowie 1983 will be issued in May by Moon- light Books, with Conford sealing world rights from Moonlight and O’Regan to publish a smaller- format, “accessibly priced” version in autumn 2018.


Quercus is crackers for Brownlee’s cheese tale


Quercus has signed two commer- cial women’s fiction titles from Australian-born, France-based Victoria Brownlee. The first fea- tures Aussie Ella, who moves to Paris, becomes embroiled in a love triangle and accepts a wager to eat a different cheese every day for a year: it is entitled From- age a Trois. Linwood Messina’s Gregory Messina, who conducted the deal, sold German rights to the pair (Goldmann) and had an Italian pre-empt for Fromage...


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