Cecily Gayford at Profile has bought UK & Commonwealth rights to the first book by social anthropologist and Max Planck Institute research fellow Farhan Samanani’s COMMONWEALTH. The book, which will be published in 2020, is a wide-ranging and hopeful exploration of how humans live in diverse societies. Using his own anthropological research, but also looking… Read more »
Oneworld have acquired world rights in A C Grayling’s THE GOOD STATE, a lucid exploration of the fundamental principles that should underlie a democratic constitution that receives its legitimacy, its powers, their use and scope, from the active consent of the governed. Oneworld published his acclaimed DEMOCRACY IN CRISIS in 2017.
Rosamunde Pilcher has died in Dundee at the age of 94. Felicity has represented her since 1973, when she was at Curtis Brown, and they have been together for more than 40 years. During that time Ros’ early novels earned critical acclaim in New York, leading to publisher Tom Dunne at St Martin’s Press encouraging… Read more »
Weidenfeld have commissioned James Hamilton, author of the highly acclaimed Gainsborough: A Portrait (‘compulsively readable’ Sunday Times) to write a biography of John Constable, the revolutionary nineteenth-century painter of the landscapes and skies of southern England.
IN EXTREMIS: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF THE WAR CORRESPONDENT MARIE COLVIN by Lindsey Hilsum, has been shortlisted for the Plutarch Award 2019 from Biographers International Organization in the US, a literary organization devoted to biographers and biography. The award honours the best biography published in 2018 and is the only international literary award judged and presented by… Read more »
YULI, a film directed by Spanish actor and filmmaker Icíar Bollaín that tells the story of Cuban ballet superstar, Carlos Acosta, received five nominations for the Spanish “Goya” awards – Spain’s national film awards. YULI premiered at the San Sebastian International Film Festival in September and is based on Acosta’s memoir, NO WAY HOME. Watch the official… Read more »
We are proud to announce that Carlos Acosta is to be Director of the Birmingham Royal Ballet Company starting in 2020. “It is a tremendous honour and privilege to have been appointed to lead Birmingham Royal Ballet. I am a great admirer of its heritage and of what David Bintley has done to establish it… Read more »
Congratulations to Will Eaves who is on the Republic of Consciousness Prize 2019 longlist for his novel, MURMUR. An annual prize for small presses, the criteria is “hard-core literary fiction, and gorgeous prose”. “Murmur is a marvel. Will Eaves has conceived an avatar for Alan Turing and then conjured up his dream world to muse on what… Read more »
THE COMMON THREAD by John Sulston and Georgina Ferry has been optioned by See-Saw Films with backing from the BBC.
Anne McNeil at Hodder Children’s Books, publisher of the Costa-shortlisted THE COLOUR OF THE SUN, has acquired World English rights in David Almond’s as-yet-untitled next novel, and also world rights in his novella ISLAND, adapted from a World Book Day short fiction, to be illustrated by David Litchfield. Jane Winterbotham at Walker Books has acquired… Read more »