Jamie Murray launches YouTube channel

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Six-time Grand Slam doubles champion and Davis Cup winner Jamie Murray OBE also has 21 ATP Doubles titles and represented Great Britain in the Davis Cup 2007-2018 and in the Olympic Games 2008, 2012and 2016.

Jamie has launched his YouTube channel to give a unique and inspiring insight into the life and business of a doubles pro and to share his training drills and coaching tips with players, fans and coaches of all ages and stages.

“Doubles has been my career since 2006 but it is also the bedrock of our school, club and county competitions. I want to inspire many more players to improve their doubles game and by creating my own YouTube channel I can share as much as I can of what I do on and off court. YouTube is a great way to learn all sorts of things – I learned how to make scrambled eggs by watching Gordon Ramsay and I want to make my tennis tips as easy to follow as that! It’s going to be a simple, effective platform for people all over the world to come and learn about tennis.”
— Jamie Murray

Video clips will be uploaded regularly and will include tactics and positioning for different doubles situations; easy to follow coaching tips and skill-building exercises; warm up and cool down routines; fitness training for speed, strength and flexibility; nutritional advice – how to fuel and refuel before, during and post-match or training; mental preparation and video analysis; the role of the coach; how to choose a doubles partner; the art of on court communication and much, much more.

There will also be lots of fun updates on what Jamie likes doing when he’s not on the tennis court; what music he listens to, his favourite TV shows, restaurants and his fantasy football team.

ABOUT JAMIE MURRAY

Jamie Murray, 33, is a professional tennis player. He grew up in Glasgow and attended Dunblane Primary School and Dunblane High School. 

As a young player he was coached by his mother, Judy, and by the age of 12 was one of the top 3 players in Europe alongside Rafael Nadal and Richard Gasquet.  He was a GB Junior Internationalist from the age of 10-17 and National 18 + under Boys Doubles Champion in 2002.  He made the decision to concentrate on doubles as a career in 2006. The following year at the age of 21, he won his first Grand Slam title in the mixed doubles at Wimbledon with Jelena Jankovic. Since then Jamie has gone on to claim 21 ATP doubles titles and captured two men’s Grand Slam doubles titles, at the Australian Open and the US Open in 2016. He picked up another two mixed doubles Grand Slam titles in 2017 with Martina Hingis at Wimbledon and the US Open and most recently he partnered Bethanie Mattek-Sands at the 2018 US Open, his 6th Grand Slam victory. He was also a key member of the GB team which won the Davis Cup in 2015.

Jamie lives in Wimbledon, London, with his wife Alejandra, who he married in 2010 at Cromlix House near Dunblane. Away from tennis, Jamie enjoys golf (right-handed), playing off a handicap of 4. He is a member of Wentworth Club. When not competing, Jamie is a regular commentator on the BBC, Eurosport and Sky Sports. Murray was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2016 Birthday Honours for services to tennis and charity.

  • Jamie is currently working with the LTA and Glasgow Life to help organise and promote the ATP Challenger Tournament, called the Murray Trophy, to be held in Glasgow from 16-22 September 2019.

  • Jamie is a Patron of the children’s charity, Whizz-Kidz, helping youngsters with disabilities to become active and independent. Jamie is involved in a sports mentoring capacity and is committed to raising awareness of wheelchair sport.

  • Other charities that Jamie supports include: Judy Murray Foundation; Children Change Colombia

ADDITIONAL TALKING POINTS

  • doubles vs singles in tennis, and why singles get all the attention

  • the psychology of playing doubles and the art of communication

  • the importance of giving back to tennis and his role on the ATP player council

  • how to build a partnership with your team mate (Jamie had nearly 50 different partners between 2009 and 2012, before teaming up with John Peers and then Bruno Soares)

  • the different between men’s doubles and mixed doubles

  • his hopes for tennis in Scotland

  • making tennis fun and stimulating for kids

  • making tennis accessible and affordable to everyone

  • the support team that makes life as a pro athlete work

  • fitness, rehab and nutrition / hydration dos and don’ts

  • how to plan your tournament schedule

  • life on the road – Jamie is typically on tour for 25-30 weeks a year

  • travel tips for jet lag, and hotels and restaurants in tournament cities

  • his ambassadorial role with Whizz Kidz

  • his love for Manchester United, Hibs and Game of Thrones

One Word Kill by Mark Lawrence

Ready Player One meets Stranger Things in this new novel by the bestselling author whom George RR Martin describes as “an excellent writer.”

One Word Kill
By Mark Lawrence

1 May 2019 | £19.99 HB | £4.99 PB | e-book £3.98 | Audiobook £20.12 | 47North (an imprint of Amazon Publishing)

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In January 1986, fifteen-year-old boy-genius Nick Hayes discovers he’s dying. And it isn’t even the strangest thing to happen to him that week.

Nick and his Dungeons & Dragons-playing friends are used to living in their imaginations. But when a new girl, Mia, joins the group and reality becomes weirder than the fantasy world they visit in their weekly games, none of them are prepared for what comes next. A strange—yet curiously familiar—man is following Nick, with abilities that just shouldn’t exist. And this man bears a cryptic message: Mia’s in grave danger, though she doesn’t know it yet. She needs Nick’s help—now.

He finds himself in a race against time to unravel an impossible mystery and save the girl. And all that stands in his way is a probably terminal disease, a knife-wielding maniac and the laws of physics.

Challenge accepted.

‘The ending is absolutely spectacular and wraps everything up perfectly. I loved the setting, the protagonist, the characters including the supporting and very minor players, the thrills and spills and emotions.’ - Fantasy Book Review

‘an enthralling tale about people challenged by dire adversity, and isn’t that at the heart of every great story?’ - The Fantasy Hive

Mark Lawrence is married with four children and lives in Bristol with his family. Before becoming a writer his day job was as a research scientist focused on various rather intractable problems in the field of artificial intelligence. He has held secret level clearance with both US and UK governments. At one point he was qualified to say 'this isn't rocket science … oh wait, it actually is'.

He is the author of the Broken Empire trilogy (Prince of Thorns, King of Thorns and Emperor of Thorns), the Red Queen’s War trilogy (Prince of Fools, The Liar’s Key and The Wheel of Osheim) and the Book of the Ancestor series (Red Sister, Grey Sister and Holy Sister).

MORE INFORMATION

For more information about this book, please don't hesitate to get in touch.

The American Agent by Jacqueline Winspear

Number 15 in bestselling Maisie Dobbs series…

The American Agent
By Jacqueline Winspear
26 March 2019 | Hardback £19.99 | Allison & Busby

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When an American war correspondent’s murder is concealed by British authorities, Maisie Dobbs agrees to work with an agent of the US Department of Justice to help an old friend discover the truth.

With German bombs raining down on London, Maisie is torn between the demands of solving this dangerous case and the need to protect a young evacuee. And what will happen when she faces losing her dearest friend and the possibility that she might be falling in love again?

Jacqueline Winspear was born and raised in Kent and emigrated to the USA in 1990. She has written extensively for journals, newspapers and magazines, and has worked in book publishing on both sides of the Atlantic. The Maisie Dobbs series of crime novels is beloved by readers worldwide – always going into the New York Times top 10 on publication. Jacqueline will be available for interviews, events and written features.

More info at: jacquelinewinspear.com

‘An outstanding historical series’ - New York Times

‘Maisie Dobbs is a revelation.’ - Alexander McCall Smith

'I'm a huge Maisie Dobbs fan' - Lee Child

‘Wry and immensely readable’ - Daily Mail

‘A series that seems to get better with every entry’ - Wall Street Journal

MORE INFORMATION

For more information about this book, please don't hesitate to get in touch.

Dublin Public Transport — New Map Project

A new rail map and public transport website for Dublin unveiled this week

  • New rail map includes ALL Dublin train and tram lines, with interchanges clearly labelled

  • Wheelchair accessibility and bike parking information is featured for the first time

  • The map uses high quality design – similar to those found in other major European cities

  • New Dublin public transport site, dublinpublictransport.ie provides travel information for bus, rail and trams all in ONE place

Although there has been a rail revival in Dublin in recent years, with a significant expansion of Dublin’s tram and train networks, graphic design has failed to keep up! Go to any railway station or tram stop in Dublin and you’ll be struck by the lack of a map highlighting how all the rail services integrate with each other. This contrasts starkly with the abundance of lovingly-designed maps at stations and on trains in other European cities.

With this in mind, Chris Singleton of Style Factory Communications worked with graphic designer Richard Hart to fill this gap. The result: a new Dublin train map showing all rail lines in an easy-to-understand format that wouldn’t be out of place in other European capitals like London, Paris or Berlin.

Map features

  • The map features all DART, Commuter and Luas lines along with at-a-glance frequency guidance.

  • Wheelchair accessibility information for each station is included on the new map – something that is missing from existing maps.

  • The map provides clear information regarding which stations provide bike and car parking.

  • The map includes the two Airlink airport bus routes to help visitors to Dublin switch easily from airport buses onto other modes of transport in the capital. 

This new map will serve as a valuable travel resource for both Dubliners and visitors to the city. It’s currently a BETA version, and feedback from rail users in Dublin is very welcome. The train map can be viewed here.

A new website for Dublin public transport, too 

Despite the expansion of Dublin’s public transport network in recent years, the capital currently lacks a Dublin-specific travel website to help people make the most of it. So Style Factory has also launched an easy-to-use website that provides, in one place, all the information needed for anyone wishing to travel around Dublin.

The new Dublin Public Transport site aims to give users:

This website has been produced independently of Dublin’s public transport operators, but using information they make publicly available. As with the map, the site is currently a BETA version, and feedback from Dublin public transport users on it is very welcome.

About the designer, Chris Singleton

Chris Singleton is originally from Dublin, but has been living in London since 2004. He runs the popular tech / design blog Style Factory and fronts the London-Irish art-rock band Five Grand Stereo.

More information

If you have any press enquiries or interview requests please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Another Planet by Tracey Thorn

A memoir about suburban childhood from Tracey Thorn, singer-songwriter and Sunday Times bestselling author of Bedsit Disco Queen

‘Another Planet is about being a teenager in suburbia in the 1970s, and revisiting one’s own youth from middle age. It touches on class, culture, music, plum jam and parenting teens. It’s wonderful. You’ll read it in one go’ - Nina Stibbe

‘I loved it. Thorn is the rarest of things: a singer whose phrasing is as good on the page as it is through a microphone’ - John Niven

Another Planet - A Teenager in Suburbia
By Tracey Thorn
7 February 2019 | Hardback £14.99 | eBook | Audio Download

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‘I’m not the only person to have grown up stifled and bored in suburbia, it’s almost the law. The diary entries, this monotonous litany of having nothing to do, are a relentless howl of frustrated energy. Brookmans Park was stultifying, frozen-in-time. In the world at large, things changed a lot during the 1960s and 70s, but in the heart of the Green Belt nothing seemed to move. Stranded in the past, it wrestled with the present, and hated the future. And there I was, stuck with it.’

In a 1970s commuter town, Tracey Thorn’s teenage life was forged from what failed to happen. Her diaries were packed with entries about not buying things, not going to the disco, the school coach not arriving. 

Before she was a bestselling musician and writer, Tracey Thorn was a typical teenager: bored and cynical, despairing of her aspirational parents. Her only comfort came from house parties, Meaningful Conversations, and the female pop icons who hinted at a new kind of living. 

Returning more than three decades later to Brookmans Park, scene of her childhood, Thorn takes us beyond the bus shelters and pub car parks, the utopian cul-de-sacs, the train to Potters Bar and the weekly discos, to the parents who wanted so much for their children, the children who wanted none of it. With her trademark wit and insight, Thorn reconsiders the greenbelt post-war dream so many artists have mocked, and so many artists have come from. 

‘I adored this. Wise, tender, beautifully observed, deadly funny. A green belt memoir classic’ - Max Porter 

‘Tracey Thorn turns the tables on her teenage boredom and chips a jewel out of doing stuff – and not doing stuff – in suburbia. A meditation on mooching and moping, escaping and finding, mums and dads, love and ageing, which is reflective, warm and deeply touching’ - Keggie Carew

'Another Planet is a poignant, rueful, tender portrait of a world so little written about, but which so many of us will recognise. I devoured it. Thorn is a brilliant writer, and a brilliantly insightful chronicler of a certain type of English experience' - Melissa Harrison

‘I devoured Another Planet. Thorn’s intimate reflections on teenage angst, motherhood, panic attacks, family and music are so moving and insightful, and written with wit and sensitivity’ - Cosey Fannie Tutti

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Tracey Thorn is a singer-songwriter and writer. After forming her first band, Marine Girls, while still at school, she delivered her breakthrough debut mini solo album, A Distant Shore, in 1982. She then spent seventeen years in bestselling duo Everything But The Girl. Since 2007 she has released three further solo albums, one movie soundtrack, a clutch of singles and two books, including the Sunday Times bestselling memoir, Bedsit Disco Queen. She currently writes a column for the New Statesman and launched her new album Record in March 2018. She lives in London with her husband Ben Watt and their three children. 

@tracey_thorn | traceythorn.com

PRAISE FOR TRACEY THORN

‘The Alan Bennett of pop memoirists. I loved her book so much I wanted to form a band, too. Preferably with Thorn’ - Caitlin Moran

‘Beautifully written, dryly funny and searingly honest’ - Sunday Times

‘The Everything But The Girl frontwoman and former Marine Girl seizes our attention because she never asks for it, and in that her authorial voice is like her singing voice, soft and low, magnetic’ - Guardian

‘Warm, assertive, sweetly funny, but most of all honest’ - Daily Telegraph

‘I loved it’ - Nina Stibbe

MORE INFORMATION

For more information about this book, please don't hesitate to get in touch.

The Stress Solution by Dr Rangan Chatterjee

From BBC 1’s Doctor in the House and author of the Sunday Times bestselling The 4 Pillar Plan.

“The way we’re living our modern lifestyles is causing us a lot of problems and stress is the biggest health issue I see in my clinic and I want to combat this. Many people don’t realise that by implementing small changes to their routine can reduce or completely eradicate stress.”

The Stress Solution: The 4 Steps to Reset Your Body, Mind, Relationships and Purpose
By Dr Rangan Chatterjee
3rd January 2019 | Penguin Life | Trade Paperback £16.99 | Fully illustrated, full colour

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"Small changes make a big difference - we can all benefit from reading this" - Jamie Oliver

“Life’s consistent pressures can get too much. This book will help you stay calm and sane in this chaotic, busy world” – Amelia Freer

“It’s thought that between 70 and 90% of GP consultations are related to stress”

Dr Rangan Chatterjee knows this better than anyone. As a practising GP he’s seen first-hand how stress affects his patients and has found simple but effective methods to help them. Now he’s on a mission to show that combatting stress is easier than you think. For Dr Chatterjee, the key to solving the problem of stress is about addressing the underlying causes of our anxieties in four main areas: Body, Mind, Relationships, and Purpose.

Pairing the science of what happens in our brains and our bodies when we become stressed, with personal accounts and patient cases in The Stress Solution Dr Chatterjee offers simple and achievable interventions to help you re-set your life, offering simple tools for how to cope with modern-life.

Introducing a new way of thinking about health, The Stress Solution will help you to live a happier, more fulfilling and stress-free life.

Dr Rangan Chatterjee is one of the most influential doctors in the UK and is changing the way that we look at illness. He is known for taking a 360 degree approach to health, which was highlighted in his ground-breaking BBC TV show, Doctor in the House, and in his first book The 4 Pillar Plan. He is the resident doctor on BBC One's Breakfast, a regular commentator on BBC Radio and hosts his own chart-topping podcast, Feel Better Live More.

More about the book

Purpose – People with a strong sense of purpose enjoy significantly better health compared to those who don’t including less likelihood of developing heart disease, strokes and depression.

  • How to design your morning routine effectively

  • How to live with Love, Intention, Vision, Engagement

Relationships - Major sources of twenty-first-century stress are a lack of human touch, the insidious erosion of intimacy and the deprioritization of friendship.

  • How to keep a touch diary and nurture intimacy

  • How to nurture your friendships and combat loneliness

Body – We feel stress in the body – experiencing it as physical sensations. But the body can also be a cause of stress.

  • How to eat the alphabet and create more diversity in your diet

  • How to prioritise your sleep and adjust your circadian rhythm?

Mind - Just as bodies need fuel, minds need stillness. We need relaxation just as we need vitamins, fat and fibre.

  • Avoid technology overload – take a digital holiday

  • Spend time surrounded by nature

  • Use breathing methods or meditation to reduce stress

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Further endorsements for The Stress Solution

“Comprehensive, empowering and grounded in scientific research, Dr Chatterjee tackles the disabling affliction that so many of us suffer yet few of us defeat: stress” – Matthew Walker, author of Why We Sleep

“Rangan’s new book is full of useful advice on how to stay calm and live a happier, more fulfilled life” - Michael Acton Smith, founder of Calm

Further links

https://drchatterjee.com/

Feel Better, Live More podcast: https://drchatterjee.com/blog/category/podcast/

Instagram: @drchatterjee / Twitter: @drchatterjeeuk / Facebook.com/drchatterjee

Further information on The 4 Pillar Plan

  • 100,000 copies sold across all editions

  • Amazon #1 bestseller, Nielson Number Two Bestseller, Number 2 in the Irish Charts

  • No 1 iTunes podcast – Feel Better, Live More – has had over 1 million downloads so far and recent guests include Michael Acton Smith, Dr Megan Rossi and Professor Matthew Walker

MORE INFORMATION

For more information about this book, please don't hesitate to get in touch.

Her Last Move by John Marrs

“One of the most exciting, original thriller writers out there. I never miss one of his books.” - Simon Kernick

‘Whatever you do, don’t read this in the dark, or on your own…’  - Cara Hunter, author of Close to Home, on Her Last Move

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Her Last Move by John Marrs
Thomas & Mercer | Paperback | 8 November 2018 | £8.99 |e-Book - £3.98

She’s chasing a killer. He’s watching her every move.

He hides in the shadows, waiting for the perfect moment. Each kill is calculated, planned and executed like clockwork.

Struggling to balance her personal and professional life, young DS Becca Vincent has landed the biggest case of her career—and she knows that it will make or break her. But she can’t catch the culprit alone. Together with facial recognition expert Joe Russell, she strives to get a lead on the elusive murderer, who is always one step ahead of them.

Time is not on their side. The body count is rising, and the attacks are striking closer and closer to home. Can Becca and Joe uncover the connection between the murders before the killer strikes the last name from his list?

Talking points

  • Her Last Move is the first book to use a Super Recogniser (a small branch of the Met manned by coppers who never forget a face) as a main character.

  • Joe Russell is a gay male detective, deliberately written in as non-cliched a way as possible –

  • not hiding his sexuality, married to another guy.

  • This is John’s fifth book and the first that hasn’t been written on a commuter train – he has now given up journalism to write full time.

  • John’s publishing journey - from self-publishing to deals with Thomas & Mercer (Amazon Publishing).

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John Marrs is the author of #1 bestsellers The One (soon to be made into a film with Urban Myth Films), The Good Samaritan (shortlisted for the Dead Good Reader Awards 2018), When You Disappeared, and Welcome to Wherever You Are. After working as a journalist for 25-years interviewing celebrities from the world of television, film and music for national newspapers and magazines, he is now a full-time writer. 

Her Last Move is dedicated to John’s late father, Charlie, who was a police officer for 25 years.

Follow him on Twitter @johnmarrs1 Facebook: @johnmarrsauthor Instagram: @johnmarrs.author
website: johnmarrsauthor.co.uk

Selected Praise for The One

‘A dark thriller for the Valentine's Day skeptic.’ – New York Post

‘Intriguing premise from the always-excellent Marrs…this is gripping from the start and full of surprises, this kept us up long after lights out’ 4**** – Heat Magazine

‘Brilliantly inventive thriller, The One is a must-read for anyone who’s ever braved the dating pool’ – Good Housekeeping

‘A page-turning psychological thriller with a difference, this is guaranteed to keep you on the edge of your seat.’ - Irish Examiner

‘I couldn’t put it down.’ - Woman’s Weekly

‘This will have you gripped’ – Woman’s Own

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For more information about this book, please don't hesitate to get in touch.

The Light in the Dark by Horatio Clare 

A moving winter diary and an evocative exploration of the seasons that reveals the healing power of the natural world 

The Light in the Dark - A Winter Journal by Horatio Clare
Elliott & Thompson | 1 November 2018 | HB £12.99

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As November stubs out the glow of autumn and the days tighten into shorter hours, winter’s occupation begins. Preparing for winter has its own rhythms, as old as our exchanges with the land. Of all the seasons, it draws us together. But winter can be tough. 

It is a time of introspection, of looking inwards. Seasonal sadness; winter blues; depression – such feelings are widespread in the darker months. But by looking outwards, by being in and observing nature, we can appreciate its rhythms. Mountains make sense in any weather. The voices of a wood always speak consolation. A brush of frost; subtle colours; days as bright as a magpie’s cackle. We can learn to see and celebrate winter in all its shadows and lights. 

In this moving and lyrical evocation of a British winter and the feelings it inspires, Horatio Clare raises a torch against the darkness, illuminating the blackest corners of the season, and delving into memory and myth to explore the powerful hold that winter has on us. By learning to see, we can find the magic, the light that burns bright at the heart of winter: spring will come again.

Talking points

  • Seasonal Affective Disorder
  • Redemptive power of walking / watching
  • Family and depression
  • Power of the seasons
  • Winter - the consolations / celebrations / beauty / colour of winter
  • Winter as the best season - revivifying, stripped back, the energising effect of winter
  • Nature in winter
  • Winter food
  • Rural farming

Horatio Clare lives in West Yorkshire.  He is a critically acclaimed author and journalist. His first book, Running for the Hills: A Family Story, won the Somerset Maugham Award. His second book, Truant, is ‘a stunningly-written memoir’, according to the Irish Times. A Single Swallow: Following an Epic Journey from South Africa to South Wales, was shortlisted for the Dolman Travel Book of the Year; Down to the Sea in Ships: Of Ageless Oceans and Modern Men won the Stanford-Dolman Travel Book of the Year 2015. Horatio’s first book for children, Aubrey and the Terrible Yoot, won the Branford Boase Award 2016 for best debut children's book.

Horatio Clare is available for interview, features and events. 

Follow Horatio Clare @HoratioClare 

MORE INFORMATION

For more information about this book, please don't hesitate to get in touch.

The Lost Words by Robert MacFarlane and Jackie Morris

October 5th marks one year since the publication of The Lost Words by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris. Since publication last year the book has become ‘a cultural phenomenon’ (The Guardian) and started ‘a revolution’ (Chris Packham) across the country.

The Lost Words
By Robert MacFarlane and Jackie Morris
5 October 2018 | Hamish Hamilton | hardback £20

#TheLostWords

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  • The bestselling poetry book of the last year

  • Crowdfunder campaigns to place copies in every school in (so far) over a dozen English counties and all of Scotland and Wales

  • Inspiring grassroots change in education – thousands of schools across the country are now using the book both indoors and outdoors to encourage children to interact with nature

  • Crowdfunders to get copies into every care home and hospice in Britain

  • Art work to be adapted to decorate hospitals and hospices

  • Art exhibition touring the country with record-breaking visitor numbers

  • Outdoor children’s theatre adaption

  • Day long music festival and album to tour in 2019

  • New audio adaptation

  • The inspiration for writing competitions, nature trails and much more

  • Winner of the Children’s Book of the Year at the British Book Awards, and nominated for eight national awards

The Lost Words by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris is a work full of wildness, beauty and power. This bestselling and award-winning book has become, as the Guardian puts it, ‘a cultural phenomenon’, finding its way into the lives and dreams of hundreds of thousands of people around the world - inspiring hope, wonder and change.

The Lost Words has moved people across the UK to work with charities, book-shops and local communities to raise money to get the book into schools, hospices and care homes. People feel passionately that The Lost Words offers an invaluable opportunity children and young people to connect with the natural world, especially those who might otherwise least have access to nature. The book also provides families and older generations who aren’t engaged with the natural world a new route into this previously unexplored terrain. As it has taken root in Britain’s schools and beyond, so it has re-ignited a passion in children, teachers and parents to explore the natural world, with classes and entire schools venturing out into woods, parks and gardens to discover more about their surroundings, and to re-discover the lost words from the book, and their meaning. Within three months of publication The Lost Words was voted one of Britain’s ten favourite nature books. It is a book that has inspired the nation:

‘What is being given with each copy of the book is, really, hope and change. Jackie and I could never have foreseen it during the years we spent writing it, but The Lost Words has been an acorn from which a wildwood has grown. We feel very lucky to be part of a much broader movement underway in Britain, bringing everyday nature back into our everyday lives, especially those of our children.’ - Robert Macfarlane

Crowdfunding for schools

20 communities have successfully set up crowdfunding campaigns to get copies of the book into schools with many more organised and planned.

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Areas include: all of Scotland (where Jane Beaton raised £25,000 to get a copy of the book to all 2,681 schools in Scotland); all of Wales (#acornistowood), and English counties including Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Cornwall, with campaigns soon to launch for Devon, Cheshire and Kent.

Copies of the book are being delivered to schools by bicycle (one man cycling 400 miles back and forth across Dorset), by sea kayak to outlying island schools, or in the company of barn and tawny owls (brought into schools by the Suffolk Wildlife Trust)

London is the latest to launch, coordinated by charity Trees for Cities in collaboration with the Mayor of London to raise money to get 2,000 copies into London primary schools

Thousands of schools in the country are now using the book in their classrooms and playgrounds, sparking classes to do more outdoor learning, to improve the environments of their schools, and to undertake creative projects around nearby nature and its names. Examples of some of the extraordinary work are available here

Crowdfunding for care homes and hospices

Carers are using The Lost Words to combat loneliness and isolation in diverse vulnerable groups – carers share the book with older people, people with Dementia and people at the end of life.

Earth Science Partnership in Wales successfully raised money to put a copy of The Lost Words into each of the 101 publicly managed care homes in Wales #rockistomountain

A crowdfunder is about to launch to get copies into every hospice in the UK for carers to use with patients at the end of life.

Inspiring theatre, music, art, nature trails, writing…

Interactive outdoor children’s theatre show Seek Find Speak, based on The Lost Words, premiered at Timber Festival and is touring the country, part-funded by Arts Council England

Musical project Spell Songs commissioned by Folk by the Oak brings together eight musicians including Gaelic singer Julie Fowlis, Karine Polwart and Kerry Andrew to create a new body of work inspired by The Lost Words. The performance will tour in 2019 in venues including Snape Maltings and The Royal Festival Hall, and an album will be released.

The National Trust property Bodnant Garden in Wales created a ‘Lost Words trail’ which attracted over 7000 visitors, (c. 3500 of them children)

The Lost Words Exhibition launched at Compton Verney Art Gallery and is touring galleries around the country (including Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh where visitor numbers exceeded 32,000 – 3 times as many as any previous exhibition there; and the Foundling Museum London, where it had nearly 13,000 visitors). The exhibition will move to Nymans, West Sussex in January.

National Poetry Day (October 4th) are about to launch a competition through schools for children to write their own poetry inspired by the book. Numerous other writing competitions have taken place across the country, including the University of East Anglia’s Festival of Literature for Young People

Around the World

The Lost Words has been published in North America and Canada, and will be published in European countries including Sweden, Germany and Holland.

New audio edition to be released on October 18th 2018

The audiobook is narrated by Benjamin Zephaniah, Edith Bowman, Guy Garvey and Cerys Matthews, with a new introduction written and read by Robert Macfarlane. All are iconic voices of modern Britain and bring the magic of both nature and language to listeners.

Alongside these voices, Penguin Audio has commissioned a soundscape created by renowned natural-history field recordist Chris Watson, which evokes Jackie Morris’ stunning artwork and draws listeners deep into the living world. Wren’s songs, raven’s calls, rain falling onto ferns and willow trees blowing in the wind: together, the soundscape and the spoken spells conjure the wonder and variety of nature and place.

Awards

  • Winner of Children’s Book of the Year at the British Book Awards, alongside The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (Walker Books)

  • Winner of the Beautiful Book Award at the Books Are My Bag Readers Awards 

  • Winner of the Hay Festival Book of the Year 2017

  • The first children’s book to be shortlisted for the Wainwright Golden Beer Book Prize for nature writing.

  • Shortlisted for the BBC Countryfile Magazine Awards 2018: Country Book of the Year

  • Shortlisted for Waterstones Book of the Year 2017

  • Shortlisted for the UK’s Favourite Nature Book

The research on why The Lost Words movement is crucial

  • The RSPB’s 2013 Connecting with Nature report, based on a three-year research project, found only one in five British children to be “positively connected to nature”.

  • A 2017 report found that British children spend less time outside each day than British prisoners (under an hour).

  • In a National Trust survey, only a third of children aged 8-11 could identify a magpie, though 9 out of 10 could name a Dalek.

  • The 2016 State of Nature report found Britain to be “among the most nature-depleted countries in the world”, with 53% of British species in decline.

Further information

An extract from a short film that Robert and Jackie made for BBC’s Newsnight, introducing the issues around nature-deficit and nature disconnection, and the book’s work in this area, can be viewed here.

It was Newsnight’s most popular film on social media from November to January, viewed more than 2.5 million times.

The inspiration behind the book

When the most recent edition of the Oxford Junior Dictionary – widely used in primary schools across Britain – was published, a sharp-eyed reader noticed that a number of common ‘nature words’ had been dropped from the new edition. The deletions formed a crooked almost A-to-Z, and they included acorn, adder, bluebell, buttercup, dandelion, fern, heron, kingfisher – kingfisher! – lark, newt, otter, wren and willow. The words taking their places in the new edition included attachment, block-graph, blog, broadband, bullet-point, celebrity, chatroom, committee, cut-and-paste, MP3 player and voice-mail.

These nature words had been dropped from the dictionary because they were no longer being used enough by children; were no longer judged to be alive enough in their voices, stories and in the books they read to merit inclusion in the dictionary. This was not the dictionary’s fault – it was the country’s. For many people, it seemed a powerful signal of the gap that has opened between childhood and the natural world in Britain and beyond; indeed, between everyday life and everyday nature up and down the ages.

In 2015 the writer Robert Macfarlane and the artist Jackie Morris began work on a book that might summon back these ‘lost words’, and the creatures and plants they named, into the mouths and the minds of children in Britain. “Protest can be beautiful”, Jackie Morris has written, and the hope of The Lost Words was to make a ‘spell book’ of power and beauty that could protest the gap between nature and childhood, and perhaps even work to close it.

Taking the form of twenty ‘lost’ words, collected alphabetically from ‘Acorn’ to ‘Wren’ each word becomes a spell - written by Macfarlane - which is intended to be read aloud. The images Morris painted capture first the absence of the plant or creature within its habitat and then its return. The spell summons the image and the word back into being, making this a book of enchantment in more than one sense.

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Under the Wig by William Clegg QC

Leading murder lawyer, William Clegg QC, reveals tricks of the trade and provides an inside account of top criminal trials.

‘This is a gripping memoir from one of our country's greatest jury advocates, offering a fascinating, no-holds-barred tour behind the scenes of some of the most famous criminal cases of modern times.’ - The Secret Barrister

‘Clegg deftly weaves memorable criminal prosecutions into an unforgettable legal memoir.’ - Joshua Rosenberg

Under the Wig - A Lawyer’s Stories of Murder, Guilt and Innocence
By William Clegg QC

Canbury Press | 4 October 2018 | £16.99 | hardback

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How can you speak up for someone accused of a savage murder? How do you sway a jury? Or get a judge to drop a case?

Meet London’s top murder case lawyer as he meets clients in prisons, confronts witnesses in packed courts and frees innocent people jailed for decades.

In a vivid memoir, William Clegg QC revisits his most notorious and intriguing trials, from the acquittal of Colin Stagg to the murder of Jill Dando, and from Britain’s first Nazi war criminal to the man given life because of an earprint.

All the while he lays bare the secrets of his profession, from the rivalry among barristers to the nervous moments before a verdict — and how our right to a fair trial is now in great peril. Switch off the TV dramas and plunge into the criminal law in action.

Well-known cases featured:

  • Colin Stagg’s trial for The Wimbledon Common Murder
  • The Chillenden Murders (Dr Lin and Megan Russell)
  • The Earprint Murder
  • The Murder of Jill Dando
  • Rebekah Brooks’s Phone Hacking Trial
  • Representing the deranged serial killer Robert Napper (who murdered Rachel Nickel and Samantha Bisset)
  • Fighting for Private Lee Clegg in Northern Ireland 
  • The trial of the man accused of Joanna Yeates’s murder 
  • Defending Britain’s first ‘Nazi war criminal’
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William Clegg, QC, is one of the most celebrated advocates at the English bar. A barrister for 47 years, he has been the go-to lawyer for complex murder and fraud cases for decades and has fought over 100 murder cases. He is head of chambers at 2 Bedford Row, one of the four leading criminal sets in London.

Clegg also argues:

  • Innocent people will be jailed for murder because of Legal Aid cuts
  • Wearing of wigs in court should be stopped
  • There are many cases of police incompetence – as seen in the Rachel Nickel case

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Carrington by Christopher Lee

A vivid and expert biography of Lord Carrington, one of the outstanding politicians of the 20th century, who died on 9 July 2018.

"One of the country's greatest post-war statesmen" - Sir John Major

Carrington - An Honourable Man
by Christopher Lee
Viking | £25.00 | Hardback | 6 September 2018

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Lord Carrington served as a minister in every Conservative government from Churchill to Thatcher – who said there was something innately reassuring walking into a room where Carrington stood. Most notably, he was Margaret Thatcher’s Foreign Secretary when the Argentinians invaded the Falklands in 1982. Absent in Israel on the eve of the invasion, he promptly resigned since it was, he said, a point of honour. He is seen by many today as the last of his breed in politics, an honourable man committed to public service.

He could be viewed as a typical Tory grandee, yet he disliked the Party, claiming late in his life that he was no longer a member, and could be fiercely independent. And there were recurring oddities in his career. He was forced to offer his resignation to Churchill for bad judgement over the Crichel Down Affair. As Navy Minister he was caught in the glare of a spy ring, and, though Defence
Secretary, kept out of the loop of the military operation which culminated in Bloody Sunday.

In this full biography, authorised but not read by the subject, Christopher Lee offers a fascinating portrait of a Tory icon whose career is a window into post-war British politics and life as a politician and diplomat.

Suggested talking points:

  • The relationship between Foreign Secretaries and Prime Ministers
  • The relationship between Carrington and Thatcher
  • MPs’ resignations - are there still ‘honourable’ resignations
  • Falklands War, and Carrington’s subsequent resignation
  • The agreement over Rhodesia / Zimbabwe, and its impact on Carrington’s career
  • Carrington’s wartime experiences – including his Military Cross at Arnhem

Christopher Lee began this book while Quatercentenary Research Fellow at Emmanuel College Cambridge where he also edited Winston Churchill's A History of the English-speaking Peoples and where he wrote his award-winning BBC Radio 4 history of Britain, This Sceptred Isle. He was previously Defence & Foreign Affairs Correspondent at the BBC, where he controlled Radio 4’s output on the Falklands War. Lee lives in Kent and aboard a restored sloop which he sails from the Beaulieu River.

Christopher Lee started the book twenty years ago and interviewed Carrington regularly. It was Carrington who requested that the book wasn’t published until after his death.

Others interviewed by Lee over the course of writing the book include Sir Edward Heath; Dr Henry Kissinger; Baroness Thatcher and Sir John Nott.

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I Found My Tribe by Ruth Fitzmaurice

In the midst of a family crisis, Ruth Fitzmaurice found her tribe – and the unexpected solace of the wild Irish Sea.

  • Winner of the Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards - Newcomer of the Year
  • Film rights optioned by Element Pictures
  • Updated with a new foreword

I Found My Tribe by Ruth Fitzmaurice
Vintage | 21 June 2018 | Paperback

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Ruth Fitzmaurice has two extraordinary families. 

She has her husband Simon, a filmmaker with advanced Motor Neurone Disease who can only communicate with his eyes via a computer. Together they have five children under the age of 10, as well as Pappy, a cantankerous Basset Hound. They are kept afloat by relentless army of nurses and carers that flows through their house in Greystones, on the East Coast of Ireland.

And then there is Ruth’s other family - her Tribe of amazing women. Amidst the chaos and the pain that rules their lives, The Tragic Wives Swimming Club congregate together - in summer and winter, on golden afternoons and by the light of the moon - on the sea steps at Women’s Cove. Day after day, they throw themselves into the freezing Irish sea. In that moment, they are free. Later, they will share a thermos of tea, teeth chattering, hands shaking, ready to take on the world once more.

An invocation to all of us to love as hard as we can, and live even harder, I Found My Tribe is an urgent and uplifting letter to a husband, family, friends, the natural world and the brightness of life.

About Ruth Fitzmaurice

Ruth Fitzmaurice was born in 1976 and grew up in Co. Louth, Ireland. She was a radio researcher and producer when she married film director and writer, Simon, in 2004 and had three children. In 2008, Simon was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease and given three years to live. Simon went into respiratory failure in 2010 and was accidentally placed on a ventilator during an emergency procedure. He decided, against medical advice, to keep the ventilator; Ruth and Simon went on to have twins in 2012. In January 2016, Ruth wrote her first piece for the Irish Times about family life and a new passion, sea swimming. She lives in Greystones, Co. Wicklow, with her five children Jack, Raife, Arden, Sadie, Hunter, a dog and a cat.  Simon passed away in October 2017.

  • 'one of the year’s most arresting, humbling and acute memoirs. It is a catch-in-the-throat, life-affirming work that you want to gulp down in one and recommend to all your friends. Fitzmaurice tells her story in sparkling prose that is as sinewy as her new sea-strengthened body, and as admirable and boundless as her spirit... This debut is set to become a global bestseller - The Diving-Bell and the Butterfly meets Calendar Girls, with a splash of Roger Deakin. It is also one of a number of recent books by women riding the crest of a wild-swimming wave. Fitzmaurice’s memoir, though, is likely to be the one that exerts the greatest tidal pull.' Sunday Times
  • ‘I Found My Tribe is inspiring, humbling and a picture of what love really looks like. An astonishingly beautiful book by an astonishingly beautiful person.’ Marian Keyes
  • ‘a lyrical and moving memoir’ The Economist
  • ‘Uplifting and life-affirming, this is a manifesto to live as hard and as well as you can’ Stylist
  • ‘[this] beautiful book is an enraptured cry at life’s gifts and griefs…Life-affirming and full of love, this book is a clarion call to live life to the full: to dive in for a swim and be brave.’ Psychologies
  • ‘A moving memoir of family life, coping with her husband’s motor neurone disease and the icy joys of wild sea swimming.’ Good Housekeeping
  • ‘Uplifting and inspiring’ Woman & Home
  • ‘Bright with beauty, rawness and rage…Life affirming and full of love.’ Simple Things
  • ‘this extraordinary, beautifully written book ebbs and flows with love amid the crises of daily life…a powerful, memorable and life-affirming read.’ Choice
  • ‘Fitzmaurice's brilliantly lyrical ear and gentle humour makes this a none-too-distant relative to the likes of Joan Didion and Cheryl Strayed’ Irish Independent

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To Die In Vienna by Kevin Wignall

“The master of the thoughtful crime thriller.”
— Paul Finch, bestselling author of Strangers

Published in paperback by Thomas & Mercer on 14 June 2018 at £4.99

Freddie Makin is a surveillance expert. He spies on his targets; he follows their every move; he never asks questions about who’s paying him and why. To Freddie it’s just a job – until someone is sent to kill him.

To Die in Vienna by Kevin Wignall

To Die in Vienna by Kevin Wignall

For a year he’s been watching a Chinese academic whose life seems almost suspiciously normal. But now that he’s on the run from whoever wants him dead, he knows he must have seen something incriminating. The only trouble is, he has no idea what. Is the CIA behind all this – or does it go higher than that? Do they know Freddie’s no stranger to undercover intelligence himself? And what about Marina Mikhailova, the academic’s mysterious chess partner – is she in danger too, or is she not to be trusted?

As he’s forced into a lethal game of cat-and-mouse across Vienna, Freddie knows one thing for sure: his only hope for survival is to find out what he’s seen and use it to his own advantage – before his pursuers find out the whole truth about him.

Kevin Wignall is a British writer, born in Brussels in 1967. He spent many years as an army child in different parts of Europe and went on to study politics and international relations at Lancaster University. He became a full-time writer after the publication of his first book, People Die (2001). His other novels are Among the Dead (2002); Who is Conrad Hirst? (2007), shortlisted for the Edgar Award and the Barry Award; Dark Flag (2010); Hunter’s Prayer (2015), which was made into a film directed by Jonathan Mostow and starring Sam Worthington and Odeya Rush; A Death in Sweden (2016); The Traitor’s Story (2016); and A Fragile Thing (2017).

Of the recent film deal Kevin said: "I was in the enviable but difficult position of having two great film offers for this project, but everyone at Focus Features and Nine Stories was so passionate about the book it was an easy decision in the end, not least because Jake Gyllenhaal is such a terrific actor."

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Rogue by J. B. Turner

A deep-state US organisation has a top-secret kill list - and a popular senator is on it.

Rogue - An American Ghost Thriller: Book 1 - By J. B. Turner
Thomas & Mercer | 7 June 2018 | Paperback £8.99 | Ebook £3.98 | Audiobook £12.89

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Nathan Stone was killed in action while serving as a covert CIA operative. Or so everyone thought. In reality he’s become a ghost, a black-ops asset with a new identity and controlled by a secret government organisation. The Commission has one aim: to hunt down and assassinate anti-establishment enemies of the state.

Its number-one target is Senator Brad Crichton, an ambitious politician with growing support. Stone is ready to take him out, but his plan is soon compromised when the Commission’s kill list is leaked to a journalist—whose own name is on the list too. And when the journalist tries to alert the senator, he is found dead in suspicious circumstances. Stone is closing in on Crichton, but must act swiftly to reach him before the truth does.

He knows that one wrong foot will put him in the firing line. But where national security is at stake, the hunter can quickly become the hunted.

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About J. B. Turner

J. B. Turner is the author of the Jon Reznick series of conspiracy action thrillers (Hard Road, Hard Kill, Hard Wired, Hard Way, and Hard Fall), as well as the Deborah Jones political thrillers (Miami Requiem and Dark Waters). He loves music, from Beethoven to the Beatles, and watching good films, from Manhattan to The Deer Hunter. He has a keen interest in geopolitics. He lives in Fife, Scotland with his wife and two children.

@jbturnerauthor / jbturnerauthor.com / www.facebook.com/jbturner.thrillerwriter

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Knowing The Score by Judy Murray

An inspiring story of family, ambition and sport against all odds from the woman who single-handedly revolutionised British tennis.

  • Sunday Times bestseller in hardback
  • Longlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award

Knowing The Score by Judy Murray
Vintage | 10 May 2018 | Paperback £8.99

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As mother to tennis World #1 champions Jamie and Andy Murray, Scottish National Coach, coach of the women’s Fed Cup, and general all-round can-do woman of wonder, Judy Murray is the ultimate role model for believing in yourself and reaching out to ambition. As a parent, coach, leader, she is an inspiration who has revolutionised British tennis. 

From the soggy community courts of Dunblane to the white heat of Centre Court at Wimbledon, Judy Murray’s extraordinary memoir charts the challenges she has faced, from desperate finances and growing pains to entrenched sexism. Judy has recently pioneered initiatives Miss-Hits and She Rallies to grow the profile and numbers in women’s tennis. As if that wasn’t enough, in 2014 Judy proved her mettle off the tennis court when she strutted her stuff on Strictly Come Dancing with her dancing partner Anton du Beke.

'This truly is the inside story of Andy and Jamie's remarkable rise. Compelling...This is a positive, life-affirming view.' - Alan Patullo, Scotland on Sunday

'A cracking book' - Chris Evans breakfast show, BBC Radio 2

'A fascinating and incriminating document. As well as mapping out the travails of tennis parenthood, it offers a window into generations of patronising, belittling attitudes to women in sport... She should be considered a national treasure' - Simon Briggs, Daily Telegraph

'Quite simply, she is inspirational, passionate and great fun' - Kirsty Wark, Observer 

'A life both defined and enriched by tennis, which reveals a woman whose own achievements are no less impressive than those of her superstar sons' - Radio Times  

About Judy Murray

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Judy Murray is a former Scottish international tennis player with 64 national titles to her name. She became Scottish National Coach in 1995, the same year that she became the first woman to pass the Lawn Tennis Association’s Performance Coach Award. She initiated the Scottish Development School programme which ultimately produced four Davis Cup players and one Fed Cup player, including her Grand-Slam-winning sons, Jamie and Andy. 

In 2011 Judy was appointed Captain of the British Fed Cup Team and used this role to grow the profile and numbers in women’s tennis across players and coaches. Judy has developed several tennis initiatives including Miss-Hits, a starter programme for girls age 5 to 8, Tennis on the Road, which takes tennis into remote and deprived parts of Scotland, and, most recently, She Rallies, a programme with the LTA, to encourage more women and girls into tennis across the UK. 

Judy Murray is available for interview.

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Kill the Angel by Sandrone Dazieri 

The second novel from the acclaimed author of Kill the Father, a Richard and Judy 2017 Bookclub pick and Sunday Times bestseller

Kill the Angel by Sandrone Dazieri
Simon & Schuster | 3 May 2018  | Hardback £14.99

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The trail leads to Berlin and Venice, where the waters of the Venetian Lagoon will turn blood red...

A high-speed train from Milan draws into the station in Rome, and an horrific discovery in one carriage rocks the city. Preliminary investigations are put in the hands of Deputy Police Commissioner Colomba Caselli.

The police receive a message claiming responsibility for the act and announcing more murders to come, and they duly turn their attention to a small terrorist group of Islamic extremists. But investigator Dante Torre does not believe this angle. For him, this feels like a smokescreen concealing the actions of a killer who has a far more terrible motivation to continue. 

Kill the Angel is multi-layered, complex, full of twists and turns and satisfyingly dark – one of those novels you just have to read late into the night.

About Sandrone Dazieri

Sandrone Dazieri is the bestselling author of eight novels and more than fifty screenplays. Kill the Angel is the second novel in a thrilling series featuring Colomba Caselli and Dante Torre, following the highly acclaimed Kill the Father.

Selected praise for Kill the Father

  • 'Absolutely electrifying' Jeffery Deaver
  • 'A thriller of the highest order. Highly recommended' Christopher Reich
  • 'A mind-bending, stunningly original page-turner' Jonathan Kellerman
  • ‘Kill The Father is absorbing, disturbing, clever, bizarre, original and brutal.’ Marcel Berlins, Times
  • ‘two of the most intriguing detectives to have emerged in recent years…Brutal and frighteningly realistic, it never loses its grip.’ Geoffrey Wansell, Daily Mail
  • ‘an intelligent thriller… very entertaining’ Jake Kerridge, Sunday Express
  • ‘[a] fascinatingly complex thriller’ iPaper
  • ‘a gripping read.’ Crime Scene

#KilltheAngel / @sandronedazieri 

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Sympathy by Olivia Sudjic

The timely debut that everyone is talking about (selected as one of the debuts of the year by Observer and Elle UK) from one of the most exciting young British novelists - an achingly contemporary tale of Instagram obsession.

'The best fictional account I've read of the way the internet has shaped our inner lives. A literary thriller that confirms the arrival of a major new talent.' ­ Alex Preston, Observer

Sympathy by Olivia Sudjic
One – Pushkin Press| 26 April 2018 | Paperback £8.99

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Called the first great Instagram novel, Sympathy is an electrifying story of blood ties, online identities, and our tormented efforts to connect in the digital age.

At twenty-three, Alice Hare arrives in New York looking for a place to call home.  Instead she finds Mizuko Himura, an intriguing Japanese writer, who she begins to follow online, fixated from afar and increasingly convinced this stranger’s life holds a mirror to her own.  But as Alice closes in on her “internet twin”, fictional and real lives begin to blur, leaving a tangle of lies, blood ties and sexual encounters that cannot be erased.

Discussion points / feature ideas:

  • The role of stories in an online world
  • Writing reality when so much of the world is virtual reality
  • Unique pressures faced by the millennial generation
  • Addiction to social media 
  • Self-obsession / narcissism 
  • Real intimacy in a world of curated lifestyles
  • Dangers of lifestyle curation / taking the curator away from reality
  • Breaking up in a digital world
  • Digital power dynamics
  • Power of Instagram at the expense of experiences
  • Travel – travelling and living alone in foreign cities (including New York / Japan / Brussels)
  • Is design and style becoming more important in a social media age, and does this have an impact on the written word?

About Olivia Sudjic

Olivia Sudjic was born in London in 1988. She studied English Literature at Cambridge University where she was awarded the E.G. Harwood English Prize and made a Bateman Scholar.  She is available for interview, features and events.

Join the conversation: #Sympathy / @babynovelist

Selected praise for Sympathy

  • ‘Imagine Alice Through the Looking Glass for the Instagram generation and you’ll get a sense of Sympathy’ Observer, ‘New Faces of Fiction’
  • 'A stalker's story shows how the web has shaped a generation... This impressive novel is alive with clever ideas' ­ The Times
  • 'Engrossing... an intelligent and absorbing literary thriller that promises much for the future' ­
  • Financial Times
  • 'Inventive and highly charged... a compelling mystery tale' ­ Daily Telegraph
  • 'A shrewd examination of how love stories are transformed by the distorting filter of the internet... super-smart... intriguing' ­ Daily Mail
  • ‘Reads like The Talented Mr Ripley for the 21st Century’ Vice UK
  • ‘a seductive, deeply compelling novel about intimacy and obsession in the age of Instagram... One of the most accomplished debuts I’ve read this year!’ Emerald Street
  • 'A smart story of obsession and technology... exquisite... an astute, quirky, slow­burning satire on emerging codes of behaviour, intergenerational differences, globalisation, the tech industry and the vortex of the dark web' ­ Guardian
  • ‘A gripping odyssey into one woman’s online-addled inner life.’ Independent
  • ‘[an] exceptional debut.’ Literary Review
  • ‘Sympathy captures the exquisite agony of life online’ AnOther Magazine
  • 'Filled with explosive intelligence and dark humour, Sympathy is both beautiful and raw' Elle
  • ‘Smart, funny and provoking…every bit as addictive as your ex’s Instagram account.’ Refinery29

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In For The Kill by Ed James

A university student is found strangled to death in her bedroom, but when the embattled DI Simon Fenchurch is called in to investigate, the case strikes dangerously close to home.

In For the Kill - A DI Fenchurch novel - by Ed James
Thomas & Mercer | 19 April 2018 | Paperback £4.99 | Ebook £3.98

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On the surface, the victim was a popular, high-performing student. But as secret grudges against her emerge, so too does evidence that she was living a double life, working on explicit webcam sites for a seedy London ganglord. Everyone Fenchurch talks to knows a lot more than they’re willing to tell, and before long he’s making new enemies of his own—threatening to push him and his family past breaking point.

With too many suspects and not enough facts, Fenchurch knows his new superiors are just waiting for him to fail—they want him off the case, and off the force for good. His family is in more danger than ever before. So how deep is he willing to dig in order to unearth the truth?

About Ed James

Formerly an IT manager for a bank, Ed began writing on planes, trains and automobiles to fill his weekly commute to London. He now writes full-time and lives in the Scottish Borders, with his girlfriend and a menagerie of rescued animals.

In For The Kill is the fourth novel in his latest series, set on the gritty streets of East London and featuring DI Simon Fenchurch, a detective with little to lose.  Kill with Kindness, the fifth in the series, is out in August 2018.

Ed’s self-published Scott Cullen series features a young Edinburgh detective constable investigating crimes from the bottom rung of the career ladder he’s desperate to climb. The first book, Ghost in the Machine, has been downloaded over 400,000 times, hitting both the Amazon UK & US top five.

Ed is currently writing a series of FBI thrillers set in Seattle, USA.

edjamesauthor.com / @edjamesauthor / facebook.com/EdJamesAuthor

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The Black Earth By Philip Kazan

A heart-breaking love story set during the turbulent years leading to WWII and the Nazi occupation of Greece.

The Black Earth By Philip Kazan
Hardback | Allison & Busby | 19 April 2018 | £14.99

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1922. When the Turkish Army occupies Smyrna, Zoë Haggitiris escapes with her family, only to lose everything. Alone in a sea of desperate strangers, her life is touched, for a moment, by a young English boy, Tom Collyer, also lost, before the compassion of a stranger leads her into a new life.

Years later when war breaks out, Tom finds himself in Greece and in the chaos of the British retreat, fate will lead him back to Zoë. But he will discover that the war will not end so easily for either of them.

Talking points:

  • Kazan draws upon fascinating family history, including his grandfather, a British army officer who served in Greece in 1941, as well as his Greek grandmother and cousins who were migrants and refugees in the period. Zoë is based on Philip’s grandfather’s cousin.
  • Greek Civil War – not widely written about, even in Greece. Kazan writers about Dekemvriana, the December Events, where the British triggered the Civil War by taking sides with ex-Nazi collaborators and royalists against the Soviet-leaning resistance.
  • Inherited trauma – Philip’s grandfather served in WW1 and in Greece in WW2 and the impact of his experiences were felt by his son and grandson

About Philip Kazan

Philip Kazan was born in London and grew up on Dartmoor in south west England. He has written two novels set in Fifteenth Century Florence: Appetite, about the adventures of an early celebrity chef and The Painter Of Souls, an imagining of the early career of the artist Fra Filippo Lippi, which the Daily Mail called 'an irresistible feast of painting and quattrocento Italy, beautifully written and magnificently researched... a sheer pleasure from start to finish'.

As Pip Vaughan-Hughes, he also wrote the Petroc series - Relics, Vault Of Bones, Painted In Blood and The Fools' Crusade - about a relic smuggler in Thirteenth Century Europe. After living in New York and Vermont, Philip is back on the edge of Dartmoor with his wife and three children.

philipkazan.wordpress.com / @pipkazan / #TheBlackEarth

The Long Forgotten by David Whitehouse

“Outlandishly clever, ingenious . . . There’s no question that David Whitehouse is a writer to watch.”
— Janet Maslin, New York Times

Picador / hardback - £14.99 / fiction / 22 March ‘18 / Ebook - £12.99

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‘Dove is walking to work along the canal when he remembers the bog violet. It just appears, however memories do, a glimmer of the past shining through the now…Dove knows nothing of flowers. And there are few of his age (if his age is thirty, which he thinks it is) who know what he now knows of the bog violet; that’s how vivid his memory is…The memory is as lucid as his reflection, stilling on the black glass of the canal. But where has he seen it before, and why is he recalling it now?’

When the black box flight recorder of a plane that went missing 30 years ago is found at the bottom of the sea, a young man named Dove begins to remember a past that isn't his. The memories belong to a rare flower hunter in 1980s New York, whose search led him around the world and ended in tragedy.

Restless and lonely in present-day London, Dove is quickly consumed by the memories, which might just hold the key to the mystery of his own identity and what happened to the passengers on that doomed flight, The Long Forgotten…

‘A great read and a touching and funny exploration of the true meaning of family’ - S J Watson, author of Before I Go To Sleep, on Mobile Library

‘A great, tender-hearted story about stories. It’s a book about what books can give us, and how they can add to our adventure – or even take us on one. A lovely read’ - Matt Haig, author of The Humans, on Mobile Library

About David Whitehouse

David Whitehouse is an award-winning novelist, journalist and screenwriter. His first novel, Bed, won the 2012 Betty Trask Award and his second novel, Mobile Library, won the 2015 Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize. Originally from Warwickshire, he now lives in Margate with his family.

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