TENDERNESS OF WOLVES IN THEAKSTON'S TRIUMPH

The judges of the Theakston's Crime Novel of the Year have awarded the 2008 prize to Stef Penney's The Tenderness of Wolves. Val MaDermid, a former winner of the award and this year's Chairperson, said 'the consensus was that this was the outstanding book'. McDermid's colleagues on the judging panel included Waterstone's crime buyer Simon Robertson, the Executive Director of Theakston's brewery Simon Theakston and Times crime reviewer Laura Wilson.

Along with the award, Stef was also given a cheque for £3,000 and a Theakston's cask.

LULLABIES FOR LITTLE CRIMINALS ORANGE PRIZE FEATURE

Heather O'Neill reads from her Orange Broadband Prize-nominated Lullabies for Little Criminals in a new audio extract feature hosted on the Orange website. You can hear this, along with readings from the other short-listed titles here.

QUERCUS NAMED INDEPENDENT PUBLISHER OF THE YEAR

We're proud to announce that Quercus has been awarded the Lightning Source Independent Publisher of the Year Award at the highly respected British Book Industry Awards 2008 which was announced at the Hilton Metropole Brighton. The British Book Industry Awards 2008 is the most prestigious awards in the book industry calendar. The event is organised by Publishing News in association with the Booksellers Association.

Mark Smith, Chief Executive of Quercus, said:

"We are delighted to have been honoured with this award. The award highlights how Quercus, even in its short life is going from strength to strength, verifying that independent publishers still have a large part to play in the world of books."

LARSSON GOES TO 5,867,497

If you haven’t heard of Stieg Larsson yet, you have about a month to get used to the idea that he will take over your life.

Four years ago, an unknown Swedish journalist delivered three manuscripts to his publishers in Stockholm. These supremely exciting, page-turning thrillers featuring crusading liberal journalist Mikael Blomkvist and disturbing punk heroine Lisbeth Salander came to be known as the Millennium Trilogy. The unknown journalist was Stieg Larsson, and his books went on to sell more than three million copies in Sweden alone. Tragically, a few months before the publication of volume 1, Larsson died suddenly, aged fifty. He never saw the worldwide phenomenon his work would become.

After his death, the Millennium Trilogy swept through Europe, collecting awards, gathering rave reviews and clocking up more than 5 million sales in 34 countries. Irrespective of the nation, people were affected by Larsson’s stories: violent and bloody, but also haunting and gentle, they were lauded everywhere as a complex and genuinely unique contribution to crime fiction.

By the time this whirlwind arrived on our shores in January with Quercus publication of the first instalment, France had sold 1,113,039 copies, Norway 746,958 copies, and Germany 400,000, while in Denmark the books were being outsold only by the Bible. We had a lot to live up to – particularly considering the natural British bias against translated works. But, unsurprisingly, the sheer force of Larsson’s books won through:

‘A publishing sensation… Crime fiction has seldom needed to salute and mourn such a stellar talent as Larsson’s in the same breath’
Sunday Times

‘A multi-layered, multi-charactered tale by a writer of some considerable power.  Full of social conscience and compassion, with considerable insight into the nature of corruption, it just knocked me out … This could be the crime-fiction novel of 2008’
Ali Karim, Shotsmag

`The ballyhoo is fully justified… The novel scores on every front – character, story, atmosphere and the translation’
The Times

Quercus agrees wholeheartedly with the reviewers, and we’re certain everyone in Britain will agree wholeheartedly too. But we don’t think five million, eight hundred and sixty-seven thousand, four hundred and ninety-seven copies sold to date is nearly enough for a series that is this exhilarating, this electrifying, this explosive. So that’s why, on July 24th, we will be printing 200,000 copies in paperback of volume 1 of the Millennium Trilogy, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

Bring on six million!

Laura Palmer
May 2008

BRUNO, CHIEF OF POLICE
Publisher Jane Wood on Martin Walker's new novel

Bruno, Chief of Police struck a special chord with me the moment I began to read it. I knew that I wanted to publish it and that I must persuade my colleagues at Quercus to back that decision.  Luckily they didn’t need much persuading. 

This novel is a murder mystery set in the Dordogne, a large department in the Périgord region of south west France. For me there are three essential ingredients for a good crime story: an evocative setting; a sympathetic central character you want to spend time with, and a gripping plot. Bruno, Chief of Police contains all these – and so much more.

The setting:
The Périgord is an area of great natural beauty where the rivers Dordogne and Vézère wind through limestone gorges and rolling wooded hills. There is sufficient rain to feed the rivers, nourish the vineyards and keep the landscape brilliantly green.  But in summer the sun shines and the temperature rises to a point the locals call le grand chaleur. Perhaps it’s the verdant nature of the place as much as its warm summers that make it so beloved of the English?  That and its cuisine: many call this area the gastronomic heart of France, with its foie gras and confit de canard, its truffles and mushrooms, its creamy goats’ cheeses and local wines – Cahors and Bergerac, and the honey sweet Monbazillac. All this is lovingly described in Bruno, Chief of Police and you’ll get hungry reading it.

The story is set in a small French town called St Denis where everyone knows everyone else and the rhythm of life is slow. The author Martin Walker is English, but he bought a house in the area ten years ago and he has fallen deeply in love with the place.  I once lived for five years in rural France in a town very like St Denis and I can assure you that he has perfectly captured his town and its people.  Now you know why I had to publish Bruno; reading it took me straight back down memory lane and it was a powerfully nostalgic experience.

The character:
Bruno himself, chief of police of St Denis, is a most engaging character.  Aged just forty, he is single, and rather dishy with warm brown eyes, dark hair and a ready smile. Women like him and vice versa, but he has a rule about not playing at home. He’s the only policeman in St Denis and he knows everyone. Like Precious Ramotswe of Alexander McCall Smith’s books, he is a wise protector and friend to the local community. The crimes he deals with are usually petty, and when a serious crime such as murder occurs, the Police Nationale are drafted in.  But they can’t get far without Bruno’s local knowledge.  Sometimes they try to patronise him but they soon back off.  He’s a natural detective and is usually several steps ahead of them.

The plot:
Though the picture Martin Walker paints of St Denis and its surroundings is, on the surface, an idyllic one, to be dreamt of as you wait for a bus in the rain or sweat on a crowded Tube, there are darker forces at work here.  The plot of Bruno, Chief of Police reveals the sharpening contrast between a rural France with its timeless traditions, and the growing clamour of social and cultural change fuelled by immigration and economic hardship. Intruding into this scene of contemporary unrest is France’s darkest secret, the enduring impact of the years of German occupation in World War 2 and the lasting divisions it forged between those who resisted and those who collaborated.  Finally, in the story’s denouement, our hero Bruno finds himself having to make serious moral choices that entail profound consequences.

So it’s not all charm, but charm there is – in abundance.  I hope you will take to heart Bruno and his world, as I have. The author writes with a profound love of rural France and its people. It is a true and honest portrait, neither rose-coloured nor patronising nor cynical.  Bruno, Chief of Police is the opening novel of a series. I think of it as a long meal including many delicious courses washed down with copious amounts of wine.   The author has already planned the first ten books. I can’t wait!

Jane Wood
28 April 2008

LULLABIES FOR LITTLE CRIMINALS SHORTLISTED FOR ORANGE PRIZE
Press Release

The Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction has announced its 2008 shortlist. Now in its thirteenth year, the Prize celebrates excellence, originality and accessibility in international women’s writing.

'We spent a great deal of time in the judging meeting asking the question, "Is this a book you feel passionately about? Is it a book that you might pass onto a friend and urge them to read?"' commented Kirsty Lang, Chair of judges. 'We all felt these six books passed that test.'

She continued, 'I'm extremely pleased we have three first novels as well as some very established authors on a list that reflects the scope, variety and international breadth of the Orange Prize.'

This year’s shortlist honours both new and well-established writers. Only one author, Rose Tremain, has previously been shortlisted (2004).

The shortlist is:

Nancy Huston Fault Lines Atlantic Books
Sadie Jones The Outcast Chatto & Windus
Charlotte Mendelson When We Were Bad Picador
Heather O’Neill Lullabies for Little Criminals Quercus
Rose Tremain The Road Home Chatto & Windus
Patricia Wood Lottery William Heinemann American

The Prize was set up in 1996 to celebrate and promote fiction by women throughout theworld to the widest range of readers possible and is awarded for the best novel of the year written by a woman.

The winner will be presented with a cheque for £30,000 and a limited edition bronze statue known as ‘the Bessie’, created by artist Grizel Niven. Both are anonymously endowed. The award ceremony will take place in The Ballroom, Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London, on 4 June 2008.

Previous winners are Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie for Half of a Yellow Sun (2007), Zadie Smith for On Beauty (2006), Lionel Shriver for We Need to Talk About Kevin (2005) and Andrea Levy for Small Island (2004).

ROMANNO BRIDGE TOPS CHART

Romanno Bridge by Andrew Greig is currently top of the Waterstone's Scottish Fiction chart, beating a certain Iain Banks into second, who in turn is just above Ian Rankin. Romanno Bridge is no. 2 in the overall Hardback chart just behind Delia Smith.

KEHLMANN NOMINATED FOR INDEPENDENT FOREIGN FICTION PRIZE 2008

The shortlist for The Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2008 has been announced. There are six contenders from over 90 entries have been shortlisted for the prize, worth £10,000, including Quercus's Measuring the World. The full list is as follows:

Castorp by Pawel Huelle, translated by Antonia Lloyd Jones from the Polish, published by Serpent’s Tail
Measuring the World by Daniel Kehlmann, translated by Carol Brown Janeway from the German, published by Quercus
Gregorius by Bengt Ohlsson, translated by Silvester Mazzarella from the Swedish, published by Portobello Books
The Model by Lars Saabye Christensen, translated by Don Barlett from the Norwegian, published by Arcadia Books
The Way of the Women by Marlene van Niekerk, translated by Michiel Heyns from the Afrikaans, published by Little, Brown Omega Minor by Paul Verhaeghen, translated by Paul Verhaeghen from the Dutch, published by Dalkey Archive Press

Boyd Tonkin, writing on the shortlist for the Independent, describes Measuring the World thus:

'Like a Viennese Tom Stoppard, Kehlmann pursues the parallel careers of two intellectual giants with sparkling wit and mischief. Of his two titans of the Enlightenment, the naive Humboldt travels the world, from South America to Russia, to name its places and species. The worldly Gauss stays at home in muddy Germany to revolutionise maths and physics. As he blends these twin streams of thought, Kehlmann dances on a tightrope between tribute and travesty.'

The winner will be announced at the Serpentine Gallery, London on May 8th 2008.

SWEET LULLABIES
By Quercus Assistant Editor Charlotte Clerk

When it was announced that Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O’Neill is on the shortlist for the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction, I was overwhelmed and delighted. I’m still not sure when I’ll stop smiling.
 
Working as an editorial assistant at Quercus eighteen months ago, I was given Lullabies for Little Criminals to read, and instantly fell in love with Heather O’Neill’s style. It’s the story of Baby, a twelve-year-old girl growing up around the mean streets of Montreal, living a life few would dream of, but finding beauty and adventure in everything.
 
Fortunately, my experiences of childhood were very far from Baby’s, but her voice was so convincing that it reminded me of being that age myself, treading the fine line between being a child and being an adult. Heather’s writing is beautiful, lyrical and honest, and with it she is able to craft images that blow me away. I felt sure that Heather was going places, I knew that we had to publish her book, and that I was determined to be her editor and champion in the UK.
 
Having worked at Quercus since the early days, when I made my case to management they were happy for me to bring Heather in as Quercus’ next bright star. And so began our adventure with Lullabies for Little Criminals. Once everyone else at Quercus had read the book, we began working together to build the book in the eyes of booksellers and the press. We put the book on the front cover of the Bookseller and sent it to the press for early reviews, which were, unsurprisingly, full of praise. Months and months later, it is incredibly rewarding to see Lullabies for Little Criminals on the shortlist for one of Britain’s major literary awards.

CHINA IN YOUR HANDS

Quercus has bought world rights (excluding France) in David Wingrove's monumental Chung Kuo future history from Diana Tyler at MBA.

Nicolas Cheetham, Editorial Director of Quercus, said ‘Chung Kuo is a two-million-word, nineteen-book epic that brilliantly fuses Shogun and Blade Runner to rival the scope of Frank Herbert's Dune or Isaac Asimov's Foundation. In a genre of big ideas and even bigger books, this is the biggest and most ambitious of them all.’ 

Set 200 years in the future, the Chung Kuo sequence introduces a world dominated by China. History has been rewritten and the West forgotten. There is no official record of Shakespeare, Mozart or Einstein and any reminders of the past are literally buried under mile-high, continent-spanning cities. An ornate, hierarchical society of 34 billion souls is maintained only by unremitting repression. Revolution seems inevitable but in such an overpopulated world any change could spell the end of humanity. 

Chung Kuo has been over twenty years in the making. Eight books were published between 1988 and 1998, with rights sold in fourteen different territories. In 1988, the idea of a world dominated by China seemed outlandish, but two decades later, Chung Kuo's vision of the future seems all too plausible. The series has been recast in nineteen volumes, including a new prequel and a new final volume. After a series launch in May 2009, Quercus will embark on an ambitious publishing programme that will see all nineteen volumes available by the end of 2012.  

David Wingrove is the Hugo-Award winning co-author (with Brian Aldiss) of Billion Year Spree: The History of Science Fiction. He lives in North London.

QUERCUS PUBLISHER RICHARD GREEN
Life as a dinosaur obsessed dad: aged 40 ¾

Having recently ruined a family viewing of Jurassic Park by continuously pointing out all the various anatomical inaccuracies of the dinosaurs featured, my wife confronted me on my obsession with all things ‘dinosaur’.

How come I know so much about dinosaurs and why do I insist on telling everyone about them? Do really I think she cares that there’s no evidence that Dilophosaurs had a neck frill or spat venom? Is it responsible parenting to give my two girls (aged 4 and 6) nightmares by graphically explaining the pigeons are the direct descendents of Velociraptor and would once have slashed that open your stomach and devoured your intestines?

At the time (and quite typically) I didn’t have a convincing answer, but having thought about it this is why I love dinosaurs (and why I think everyone else should be interested in them too).

Can you remember the first time you learned about dinosaurs? Think about how incredibly exciting the whole concept is: you are six years old, about 3 foot tall and you suddenly comprehend that there were once enormous, flesh eating monsters that roamed the Earth on the look out for a bite size kid to gobble up. Awesome, terrifying, and most amazing of all, it was real and happened a long, long time ago – probably just before Mum and Dad were born.

For the next few years you are hooked. A dizzying array of books, comics, magazines, toys, museum visits, films, TV programmes, imaginary games and mock battles with T. Rex and Brontosaurus (now correctly named Apatosaurus) all fuel your fascination with dinosaurs and build your encyclopaedic knowledge. Then, almost as suddenly as the dinosaurs went extinct, you move on to other things: music, sport, drinking cider in bus stops, GCSEs (actually ‘O’ levels for me), university, jobs, careers, mortgages, DIY, hair loss, back pain, etc. All terribly grown up and depressing - until you rediscover your long-lost fascination with dinosaurs and appreciate what they can teach us.

I ‘rediscovered’ dinosaurs in September 2007. My first book project on joining Quercus was a highly illustrated book called Dinosaurs. Having published several dinosaur books in previous jobs I felt quite confident that I would be able to handle this and make a nice looking, informative book. But the brief for Dinosaurs was radically different: it was giant-sized coffee table format, written for adults (not children) and would have over 170 computer generated recreations of dinosaurs based on the latest research and discoveries.

I admit that I was initially quite sceptical about the appeal of the book until I attended a lecture by the author, Steve Brusatte, at University of Bristol Life Science Department. He gave a talk about his research findings and theories on the evolution of the archosaurs (the dominant reptilian cousins of the dinosaurs in the early Triassic). Instead of doodling and flicking elastic bands at the students (my default setting for lectures), I was transfixed. What an amazing story and brilliantly told by Steve – evolution, extinction, pre-historic ecosystems, predator-prey relationships, moving continents – all this and we hadn’t even got started on the dinosaurs. I remember saying to Steve after the lecture that if he wrote like he talked, the book would ‘win awards and change lives’!

Several months on and so far no awards (hopefully they will come once the book is published in October this year), but Dinosaurs has certainly changed my outlook on life. I have learned some truly amazing stuff - not just about how the dinosaurs evolved, diversified and eventually became extinct, but also about the history of our planet and how it has sustained and eradicated life at various times in its history.

Even though the story of the dinosaurs took place millions of years ago, it is very relevant to the world in which we live and dominate. Scientists calculate that today’s industrial greenhouse gas emissions are probably equivalent (or possibly exceed) the volcanic emissions from the Siberian traps about 250 million years ago. These natural greenhouse emissions probably acted as one of the key triggers to the devastating Permian-Triassic extinction that extinguished up to 95% of life on Earth. It was in this barren Triassic world that the dinosaurs first evolved that went on to rule the planet for the next 160 million years, until they were wiped off the face of the Earth by a catastrophic meteor impact in the Yucatan peninsula 65 million years ago.

On a lighter, and much less depressing, note my re-kindled fascination with dinosaurs has led to some great days out with the kids at the Natural History Museum and Crystal Palace, back-to-back viewings of Jurassic Park 1, 2 and 3 and several failed attempts to build a model of T. Rex out of loo rolls and cereal boxes.

Best of all, I have found an audience that truly appreciates my new-found knowledge and passion. Even if my wife, friends and colleagues consider me a ‘dino bore’, my recent ‘Adopt and Draw a Dinosaur’ session during Arts Week at my children’s school was an unprecedented success and I am now the undisputed ‘dino-king’ of Class 2.

Dinosaurs by Steve Brusatte publishes in October 2008.

QUERCUS PUBLISHER NICOLAS CHEETHAM ON HIS NEW BOOK 'GENESIS'

I was shocked. 

And when you read GENESIS, you will be too.

The final page turns the entire book on its head.

Twice. 

With my head still swimming from the final revelations, I turned to page one and read the whole book again, but I already knew that nothing – nothing – would stop us from publishing it. 

Following a nerve-wracking six-figure bid for world rights, I am delighted to say that that is exactly what we will be doing in February 2009, in simultaneous YA and Adult editions. Just over one week on from winning world rights, we have had offers in from Germany, Spain, Greece and Finland and have already confirmed deals in Italy with Rizzoli, in France with Gallimard and in Norway with Cappelen Damm – all of whom will also be publishing simultaneous YA and Adult titles.

Set on an island walled off from a plague-ridden, post-apocalyptic world, GENESIS is a bold and ingenious thriller, a vision of the future where ancient – eternal – philosophical questions have collided with the march of technology. In this Brave New World evolution is moving in new directions and just what it means to be human is up for debate.

GENESIS follows the course of a single Examination. Anax is young and confident, sure of herself and sure of her subject, history. Which is just as well, because she’s sat facing three Examiners and her gruelling five-hour exam has just begun. If she passes, she’ll be admitted into The Academy – the elite institution that runs her utopian society.

But Anax is about to discover that for all her learning, the history she’s been taught isn’t the whole story. And that The Academy isn’t what she believes it to be...

GENESIS is a book for any enquiring mind – young or old – fusing ancient philosophy and artificial intelligence, ethics and evolution with unstoppable storytelling. It is one of those rare books that has an energy that stays with you long after you put it down. It's provocative – everyone will have different take on it, a different character they side with – and it’s unique – but it also resonates with over two millennia of literary precedents from Socratic dialogues to FRANKENSTEIN, from BRAVE NEW WORLD to SOPHIE’S WORLD.

Bernard Beckett’s GENESIS is 35,000 words of genius, but you shouldn't take just my word for it. Gallimard – French publisher of Philip Pullman and J. K. Rowling – felt GENESIS was worth four exclamation marks: 

‘It's dazzlingly clever and it’s very rare to find such a combination of deep, intelligent philosophical and ethical thought with such a thrilling page-turner!!!! 

‘It is Socrates for the 21st century and for me, even beyond the stunning dexterity of the plot and the shocking end, the reason that makes it something I desperately want to publish is that it is such a brilliant introduction to philosophical thinking and debating.

‘It’s totally gripping and constantly compelling, one does not want to miss one single word of it; it is both superbly written and constructed with virtuosity. But above it all, it demands to be re-read, and re-read again, it is outstandingly topical and will set adolescents, young adults and adults thinking.’

A QUIET FLAME - A NO. 2 BESTSELLER IN LONDON

According to this week's Evening Standard, A Quiet Flame by Philip Kerr is the second best-selling hardback fiction title available in the capital at the moment. The paper surveys a number of leading retailers including Daunt Books, Hatchard's, Waterstone's and Foyles.

THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO LAUNCHED TO MUCH CRITICAL ACCLAIM

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo was released only last week under our MacLehose Press imprint, but is already garnering much press coverage, and the buzz among readers is growing quickly. Last week it was reviewed in the Guardian and the Independent, among others and this weekend it will feature in The Times, the Sunday Times and the Independent on Sunday.

Blogs and Crime Fiction websites have been very quick to pick up on the work, with the critic at Reviewing the Evidence, Sharon Wheeler, typifying an incredibly positive response:

If you're a reviewer, you sometimes find the hype surrounding certain books a little OTT. In the case of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, every word of praise that's been pinned to it is richly deserved ... The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is one of the finest crime fiction novels it's been my privilege to read. The expression 'transcends the genre' gets bandied about too much. But it's true in this case. And even if the remaining two books in the trilogy are only half as good, Larsson will have left a formidable legacy."

The complete review can be found here.

FESTIVAL LINE-UPS 2008

Quercus are delighted to announce provisional details of authors appearing at the Edinburgh Festival and at the Harrogate Crime Festival.

We will have five authors at the Harrogate Crime Festival:

Thomas H. Cook (author of our forthcoming Master of the Delta)
Colin Cotterill (author of the recently released Thirty-Three Teeth and the forthcoming Disco for the Departed)
Philip Kerr (The One From the Other and A Quiet Flame)
Nigel McCrery (Still Waters)
Shona MacLean (The Redemption of Alexander Seaton)

And the Edinburgh Festival will be graced by appearances from the following:

Stuart Clark (Deep Space)
Philip Kerr (The One From the Other and A Quiet Flame)
Mary Dobson (Disease)
Shona MacLean (The Redemption of Alexander Seaton)
Xavier-Marie Bonnot (The First Fingerprint)
Andrea Canobbio (The Natural Disorder of Things)
Andrew Greig (Romanno Bridge)
James Buchan (The Gate of Air)
Donna Milner (After River)
Katie Grant (aka K.M. Grant, the author of Blue Flame)
Leander Deeny (Hazel's Phantasmagoria)
John Fardell (Manfred the Baddie)
David Roberts, illustrator for Peter the Penguin Pioneer

We hope to have further details on these appearances confirmed shortly.

SWEET LULLABIES

Lullabies for Little Criminals, to be published by Quercus in January 2008, has been nominated for yet more awards. It is long-listed for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, the QWF award for best novel in Quebec, and the Grand Prix de Livre de Montreal for best book in the city (if Lullabies for Little Criminals succeeds, it will be the first time a novel in English wins the award).

CEO UPDATE, NUMBER 5

Apologies for the lack of updates for the last two weeks – between the Frankfurt Book Fair our recent Board Meeting, we’ve been really very busy!

Last week we sold 26,000 books into the UK trade and had 12 titles in the Top 5,000.

News from the Sales Department:

Great Irish Speeches continues to sell well in Ireland and has been the number 4 best selling Non-Fiction title every week since publication.

The Bumper Book of Football continues to sell well through the two outlets that have really gotten behind this title; Tesco and Woolworths. Another large reorder was received at the end of last week, taking the total sold into the UK book trade to date to 16,000.

Looking forward to January, the sales department is putting a huge amount of effort behind The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and a special presentation to the Faber sales force has been arranged for mid-November to reinforce our message about Stieg’s trilogy. With over 3,000,000 copies sold in Europe – we have something very special here – and every effort will be made to ensure that we are as successful as his other publishers.

Books Just In:

Birds – the next of the giant books is in and it is gorgeous. Well done everyone.

Everyone’s Talking About:

The Frankfurt Book Fair.

A complete report is being compiled on everything that happened at the Book Fair and we hope to distribute a full report soon. Some very good interest and opportunities here!

Congratulations:

To Jon Riley, appointed Editor-in-Chief of our Trade list last week, and Wayne Davies, promoted to Managing Director – Contract Publishing.

Important Stuff this week:

The Sun Kings is launched this evening, Ron Beard is in on Wednesday to discuss future paperback strategy, Christopher MacLehose is in on Friday to talk everything Stieg Larsson and one of Jane Woods new authors, Shona MacLean, will be with us on Thursday lunchtime.

Have a great week.

Mark

Mark Smith
Chief Executive

CEO UPDATE, NUMBER 4

Newsflash!

Fantastic news on the Ellis Peters Award! (see news item below). There are only 6 books short-listed so for Quercus to have 2 of them is really something special.

News from the Sales Department:

Great Irish Speeches is off to a great start and it debuted on the Irish Best Seller Chart at number 21 – (number 4 in the Non-Fiction Chart) outselling household names such as Jamie Oliver and Nigella Lawson. After the launch last Tuesday there was plenty of newspaper and radio coverage, so we have our fingers crossed for an improvement this week when the chart comes out tomorrow.

The Bumper Book of Football seems to be gaining traction and Measuring the World continues strongly. The Secret History of the World has started moving in the general trade as well.

The second instalment of the serialisation of 101 World Heroes ran in the Daily Mail on Saturday and looked the part. We’re seeing the first signs of reorders on this title, so the further boost expected from the launch party next week could get it going in the right direction.

Books Just In:

Huggable Hounds and Feline Friends – developed for Borders by Judith Shipman – are both in and they look excellent! Very cute and huggable and the perfect gift for animal lovers.

Maps of War – the next in our line up of giant books is in and it looks amazing. Nick Clark's work on the design of this title and the others in the Contract programme has really taken our list to the next level. Well done and thanks Nick – these books are truly ‘best in class’!

I’m Reading:

Another stunner from Christopher MacLehose! An Atlas of Impossible Longing by Anuradha Roy is a beautiful story set in India covering three generations of an Indian family. I’m only a little way into this book, but am mesmerised by both the setting and the characters and cannot wait to finish it this week. Not my usual cup of tea (where’s the murder, detective, villain…), so I am thrilled that I have been drawn so deeply to this book.

I’m listening to Speeches that Changed the World and I must say this is an excellent audio CD. I listen to a few speeches on the way to and from work everyday and it really makes the book come alive. The Speeches... + CD pack that we’re doing at Christmas should do brilliantly. Well done Laura Palmer for putting this together!

Everyone’s Talking About:

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

Important Stuff this week:

Donald Westlake (aka Richard Stark) is in town and we’ll be introducing him to booksellers and reviewers on Tuesday evening. Looking forward to that.

Have a great week.

Mark

Mark Smith
Chief Executive

DOUBLE SUCCESS FOR QUERCUS

Two Quercus titles, The One from the Other by Philip Kerr and The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney have been short-listed for the Crime Writers’ Association Ellis Peters Award.

The prize is awarded on the 7th of November.

CEO UPDATE, NUMBER 3

Last week we sold 42,000 books into the UK book trade.

News from the Sales Department:

Measuring the World has started off strongly and is doing particularly well in Germany, where a large part of the population wants to read the English edition of this home grown bestseller. Our Distributors in India have also got off to a flying start and have so far ordered 3,500 copies.

101 World Heroes was serialised in the Daily Mail on Saturday. The piece looked excellent and with the initial stock going out to stores this week, it will be one to watch.

There are quite a few meetings with major customers this week, so further updates will be made next Monday.

Books Just In:

Deep Space, the first of our major titles for Barnes & Noble is in… and it looks absolutely amazing. With B & N using Deep Space as a major Christmas title in their stores this year, it surely won’t be long before we see reprints heading our way.

I’m Reading:

With the Grand Master of American Crime gracing our shores next week, I thought that it would be wise to brush up on a little of Donald Westlake’s Parker novels, which he writes under the name of Richard Stark. Having read his new release, Ask the Parrot a few months ago, this weekend I had a go at two backlist titles, Flashfire and Comeback. These were both great reads and the more you get to know the hero Parker, the more intriguing he becomes. An honest thief with strong values, he goes about his business with extreme professionalism and expertise. While Parker upholds his values as he embarks on crime spree after crime spree, his companions and fellow ‘mechanics’ don’t always believe in honour amongst thieves and it is Parker’s reactions to being wronged that make these books shine. Great plots, great pace and a great hero!

Events:

Great Irish Speeches is being launched in Dublin tomorrow evening and Caroline Proud, Sales Director, and Wayne Davies, Publishing Director, will be there flying the flag for Quercus. The event has attracted some very high profile guests so with a fair wind, it should help to raise the awareness and profile of this title.

Have a great week.

Mark

Mark Smith
Chief Executive

BUMPER SERIALISATION DEAL

The Bumper Book of Football, by Hunter Davies, will be serialised in the Daily Telegraph this week.

NEW FEATURE: CEO UPDATE, NUMBER 2

Last week we sold 35,000 books and had 10 titles in Neilsen's Top 5,000 Chart.

News from the Sales Department:

Woolworths have now decided to promote the Bumper Book of Football at Christmas – both in a Christmas Chart position and in a front of store display unit from the last week of November to the 9th of December.

Great Irish Speeches was released last week and over 20,000 copies went in to our customers in Ireland. Eason’s has given this title a very prominent position in the Christmas catalogue and will be also be advertising our book on TV during the run-up to Christmas. Ireland sold 40,000 copies of Speeches that Changed the World last year and it reached the top 5 non-fiction chart. Given this track record and the retailer’s support for Great Irish Speeches, we have great hopes of another success this year.

We had a very productive meeting with Borders US last week and as well as collecting reprint orders for delivery before Christmas; we also received orders for titles in our 2008 and 2009 contract programme. Titles that were reordered include Universe, The Planets, Earth, Kings & Queens of England and Great American Documents.

Books Just In:

I have just spent the weekend with Simon Sebag Montefiore’s 101 World Heroes.

What an astonishing achievement! This is definitely one of the best books that we have ever published. Visually it is stunning, intellectually it is challenging, it lifts the spirit and makes you consider yourself as a person and as a part of society as a whole. It makes you think about heroes, how you define them, who your heroes are and whether or not you agree with Simon’s choices.

JFK, Nelson Mandela, Disraeli, Jefferson, Joan of Arc, Catherine the Great, Napoleon, Ataturk, Lincoln, Darwin, Beethoven, Schindler, Roosevelt, Elizabeth I, Alexander, Aristotle, Cicero, Voltaire, Washington, Beethoven, Shackleton, Churchill… the list goes on!

This is a truly divine book that deserves to be under everyone’s tree this Christmas.

Have a great week,

Mark

Mark Smith
Chief Executive

MACLEHOSE PRESS CONTACT DETAILS

Christopher MacLehose, who fronts our exciting MacLehose Press imprint, has asked us to point out his contact details. Christopher is busy scouting the world for yet more books of the calibre of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and Death in Breslau, so is most easily contacted by email. His address is christopher@maclehose.net.

NEW FEATURE: CEO UPDATE, NUMBER 1!

Editor's note: We are very pleased to introduce a new weekly feature to the Quercus website. Every Monday Mark Smith, CEO of Quercus, will provide an update on the company's development, on any sales and recruitment news, on new books that have reached Quercus Towers, and on his current reading material. Here is the very first edition:

Dear All,

Last week we sold 22,000 books and had 14 titles in the Top 5,000. Not a bad week for Quercus!

Here’s some more news…

New Faces:

Richard Green started work as a Publishing Director in the Contract Publishing editorial team last week. Richard joins us from Marshall Editions, part of the Quarto Group.  

Coming soon… Ron Beard in the newly created position of Head of Paperbacks. Ron is currently at Hodder, prior to which he served as Sales Director of the CHA Division of Random House. He will join us in early December.

News from the Sales Department:

BCA (Book Club Associates) have chosen The Secret History of the World as a main selection and have ordered 3,000 copies. Simon Sebag Montefiore’s 101 World Heroes is also a main selection and 3,700 copies have been ordered. In addition to these two, BCA have taken 1,500 copies of Forgotten Soldiers.

Tesco have done well with our titles in their Price Blitz and all titles had significant boosts to their weekly sales. (Titles in the promotion were: Women Who Changed the World, The Gambling Handbook, The Planets, Days that Changed the World, The Tyrants and Earth.)

Additionally and probably the more exciting news, upon receiving their first order of 400 copies of The Bumper Book of Football, Tesco immediately reordered 1,500 copies!

Lasgo Chrysalis, who supply music shops in the UK, have also ordered 1,000 copies of The Bumper Book of Football, as have The Works – the UK bargain book retailers.

Our friends from South Africa have ordered 2,000 copies of The Secret History of the World and 1,500 copies of 101 World Heroes.

Books Just In:

The magnificently produced Fighting Ships 1750-1850 has arrived and Wayne Davies has done it again – producing an amazing looking book that every Dad would love to have for Christmas for a super amazing price. It is truly stunning!

I’m reading:

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

I blame the bags under my eyes on Stieg!

After starting this at about 8:30PM on Saturday night, planning to read for an hour or so… I found myself at my kitchen table devouring this novel at 3:00AM Sunday morning. The main characters draw you so deeply into their world that it is hard to think about or do anything else. A must read and a super-hot prospect for next year.

Hope you all have a great week,

Mark

Mark Smith
Chief Executive

CHRISTMAS PROMOTION ROUNDUP

A quick update on which Quercus books are being promoted where this Christmas.

WHSmith will be promoting: Hollywood Station, The Tenderness of Wolves, In the Evil Day, Measuring the World, Soul Catcher, 101 World Heroes, Speeches That Changed the World Book and CD Pack and Isms & Ologies.

WHS Travel will be promoting: The Tenderness of Wolves

Waterstones will be promoting: The Tenderness of Wolves, Measuring the World, The Broken Shore, An Iron Rose, 101 World Heroes, Speeches That Changed the World Book and CD Pack and History Without the Boring Bits.

The Telegraph Christmas Catalogue will feature: Great British Speeches and Forgotten Soldiers.

The Leading Edge catalogue (Independent Bookseller’s Buying Group) will feature: Bumper Book of Football, The Tenderness of Wolves and 101 World Heroes.

Easons will promote: Great Irish Speeches (including TV advertising), Speeches That Changed the World Book and CD Pack Cosmos and Complete Earth.

Hughes & Hughes will promote: Great Irish Speeches, Soul Catcher and Tenderness of Wolves.

The BA Catalogue will feature: Bumper Book of Football, 101 World Heroes, History Without the Boring Bits, Great Composers, The Enthusiast Field Guide to Poetry and Orgy Planner Wanted.

Borders & Books Etc are promoting: Cosmos, Remains of an Altar, Tenderness of Wolves, Measuring the World, Into the Deep, Birds, Complete Earth, Frampton Flora, The Digital Photography Handbook, Speeches that Changed the World, 101 World
Heroes, Fighting Ships 1750-1850, His Finest Hours, New Worlds, The Bumper Book of Football, Maps of War, The Spa Decameron, Soul Catcher and The Teenager’s Guide to Money.

We are confident that this provides us with a strong platform from which to sell our titles in the build-up to Christmas, and hope to provide updates on new extra promotional deals shortly. For further details do contact us on sales@quercusbooks.co.uk.

LAURIE GRAHAM JOINS QUERCUS AS WOOD'S FIRST ACQUISITION

Jane Wood, Publisher at Quercus, has issued the following good news:

"I’ve been at Quercus a fortnight and am very excited to have made my first acquisition!  I’ve bought Laurie Graham. I’ve wanted to publish Laurie for over a decade now, since I first read The Ten O’Clock Horses, so I couldn’t be more thrilled that my first buy for Quercus should be this wonderful writer I’ve admired for so long.  She’s moving from HarperCollins.  We’ve signed up two new novels and five backlist titles, including The Ten O’Clock Horses.  Laurie really deserves a bigger readership.  She’s an acute observer of human foibles; a rare talent who writes brilliant satire shot through with real poignancy.  She’s also laugh out loud funny.  Her new book, Life After Lubka, shows how female friendship can bridge a vast cultural divide. It’s in the vein of her bestseller The Future Homemakers of America and we plan to relaunch her in a big way."

Mic Cheetham is the agent and Quercus will publish Life After Lubka in Spring 2009. 

ADRIAN HYLAND'S DIAMOND DOVE WINS NED KELLY FIRST NOVEL AWARD

Adrian Hyland's Diamond Dove (published in the UK by Quercus) has won the top Australian prize for debut crime fiction, The Ned Kelly First Novel Award. The Ned Kelly Award is awarded annually by the Crime Writers' Association of Australia for outstanding crime novels by Australian authors. Peter Temple, another Quercus author and himself a five-time winner of the overall Ned Kelly Award was also at the ceremony and presented Adrian with his award.

QUERCUS TITLES TOP GERMAN BESTSELLER LISTS, OUSTING HARRY POTTER

J. K. Rowling has had to take an unexpected backseat in the German bestseller lists, with Quercus author Andrea Maria Schenkel taking the top 2 spots with her novels Tannöd and Kalteis. The new Harry Potter books moved down to positions 3 and 4 respectively. Quercus will be publishing Tannöd in English as The Murder Village. It is due for release in the UK in June 2008.

Peter Temple’s The Broken Shore has won the world's richest and most prestigious prize for crime writing, the £20,000 UK Crime Writers' Association Duncan Lawrie Dagger Award. Formerly known as the Gold Dagger, previous winners include Patricia Cornwell, Ian Rankin, Ruth Rendell, John Le Carre and Minette Walters.

Temple’s winning book was judged to be ‘a well-written crime novel with excellent characterisation mingled, with a subtle exploration of contemporary Australian landscape and mores … a first class read’.

Peter said that gaining the award was ‘a huge thrill ... you're up against some of the world's best crime writers in English ... I was proud enough just to be the first Aussie to make the shortlist, let alone win.'

The Broken Shore has been published in twelve countries and has won numerous other prizes, including the Colin Roderick Award, the Australian Book Industry Association's Fiction Book of the Year, and the Ned Kelly Award for Best Crime Novel.

DONALD WESTLAKE FEATURED IN NEWSWEEK

We were pleased to receive details of a great article from Newsweek, who invited John Banville, the winner of the 2005 Man Booker Prize, to the Manhattan home of Quercus author Donald Westlake (aka Richard Stark). There the two discussed crime fiction, their works and their various pseudonyms. The article can be found here.

Mark Smith, CEO of Quercus commented:

“Quercus are entering a new domain.  Our audiobooks have already sold well in the shops and this is an excellent opportunity to introduce a broader range of listeners to the joys of the spoken word, particularly the iPod generation. Audible have led the way in this market and we are very pleased to announce this association.”

Quercus audiobooks already available for download exclusively to Audible include Measuring the World, a novel that has outsold Harry Potter in Germany, read by award-winning David Timson, and the Costa Prize-winning novel The Tenderness of Wolves, read by actress Siobhan Redmond – according to the Express, is “an audiobook to lose yourself in”,

Media Relations Contact: Clare Ridley, Cow PR, clarer@cowpr.com, tel 7684 6947

Quercus contact: Lucy Ramsey, Publicity Director, lucy.ramsey@quercusbooks.co.uk, tel: 0207 291 7213

The Edinburgh Festival line-up has been announced and we are pleased that several of our authors are appearing. Those expected at the event, which lasts from 10th August to 2nd September, include Daniel Kehlmann, Fay Weldon, Tony Juniper, Joyce Carol Oates and Simon Sebag Montefiore. The full programme can be found here.

Simon Heffer was a special guest on 18 Doughty Street, where he discussed his new book The Great British Speeches with political personality Iain Dale. The complete interview, lasting some 30 minutes, can be viewed here.

The Broken Shore by Peter Temple has been shortlisted for this year’s Crime Writers Association Duncan Lawrie Dagger Award, the UK’s premier prize for crime fiction. The winner of the Dagger will be announced at the award ceremony on 5th July.

Quercus have also announced a consumer advertising campaign for the paperback edition of Temple's In the Evil Day, published on 5th July. This will include a high street poster campaign and advertising in the Guardian, the Independent and The Sunday Times.

Anthony Cheetham, Chairman of Quercus Publishing Plc, announced today that the company has concluded a two book agreement with Stella Rimington. Dame Stella, a former head of MI5, has written three espionage thrillers, featuring fictional MI5 officer Liz Carlisle, for Hutchinson, where she was edited by Sue Freestone. She has now followed her editor to Quercus, who have acquired World English language rights.

The third Liz Carlisle novel, ILLEGAL ACTION, is due to be published by Hutchinson in the summer of 2007. The first of the Quercus novels, again featuring Liz Carlisle, will follow in the autumn of 2008.

‘I’ve been very happy at Hutchinson,’ Stella Rimington commented, ‘but Quercus is a young, energetic company, and I feel it will be exciting to be part of their adventure’.

Sue Freestone said ‘I’m proud to be publishing Stella again. No one can match her knowledge of the real world of espionage. And her heroine, Liz Carlisle, is not a million miles from Stella herself: highly intelligent, highly intuitive, and a delight to work with’.

Quercus have acquired rights to novels by two extremely promising debut novelists.

Sue Freestone has signed up Donna Milner’s After River (working title), a novel set in small-town Canada in the 1960s. The powerful storytelling captivated Quercus staff of all ages, and the themes of romance, conflict and family breakdown are sure to have commercial appeal.

Secondly, in a coup for our new children’s list, Suzy Jenvey has beaten off competition from several major publishing houses to purchase Hazel’s Nightmares by Leander Deeny. An extraordinary book, it is said to combine the rich imagination of Lewis Carroll and Maurice Sendak with the child/adult crossover appeal of Mark Haddon.

Both titles will be published in 2008.

QUERCUS WINS NEW BUSINESS OF THE YEAR AWARD

Quercus has won the PLUS New Business of the Year award at this year's Fast Growth Business Awards. The awards honour the UK’s fastest growing businesses and is organised by Crimson Business in conjunction with Growing Business magazine. Quercus joined the PLUS market in October 2006 with a market cap of just over £5million, and raised £2.8 million – the largest fundraising on the market in 2006.

Mark Smith, co-founder of Quercus, said: “We are delighted to be the PLUS New Company of the Year. The market is usually wary of publishing companies, but a public company like ours winning such a prestigious award, opens up huge possibilities for publishing companies, recognising them as a legitimate investment opportunity.”

Ian Wallis, editor of Growing Business magazine and Growingbusiness.co.uk commented: “The Quercus founders have assembled an impressive team and we believe that this company will grow rapidly into another successful household name publisher.”

JANE WOOD JOINS THE TEAM

Jane Wood, Orion's editor-in-chief, is to move to Quercus this summer to work on our general and women's fiction lists.

Wood, whose authors at Orion include Michael Connelly, Henry Porter, Adele Geras and Diane Setterfield, previously worked with Quercus chairman Anthony Cheetham at Orion and Century.

She said: "I'm thrilled to be joining Quercus at this exciting time. I'm hugely looking forward to helping them build the trade fiction list. It's a wonderful opportunity for me."

Quercus CEO Mark Smith added: "I am absolutely delighted that Jane will be joining our publishing team here at Quercus. I have always admired Jane's publishing acumen and her first-class publishing at Orion speaks for itself."

TENDERNESS OF WOLVES ON ORANGE LONGLIST

Stef Penney’s The Tenderness of Wolves, winner of the Costa Book of the Year Award for 2006, has now been longlisted for the Orange Broadband Fiction Award.

Other contenders for the prize include Half of a Yellow Sun, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, The Girls, by Lori Lansens, Ten Days in the Hills, by Jane Smiley and The Inheritance of Loss, by Kiran Desai.

Rodney Troubridge, Waterstone's fiction buyer, described the Orange selection as “possibly the strongest longlist for any award I've seen in some years - the best of the Booker and Costas, even the Richard and Judy list. It's also particularly pleasing to see so many books from smaller, independent publishers on there - it shows how healthy the sector is at the moment.”

JON RILEY JOINS QUERCUS

Mark Smith, CEO of Quercus Publishing plc, and Anthony Cheetham, Chairman, announced today that Jon Riley is to join the company at the beginning of April as Publisher of a new fiction list.

Jon Riley was formerly Editor in Chief at Faber and Faber, where he worked with such authors as Andrew O'Hagan, John Lanchester, David Peace, Jane Smiley, Sebastian Barry and Michael Frayn. The appointment marks his return to publishing after a period of illness.

Jon will act as an autonomous publisher responsible directly to Anthony Cheetham, who said: “Jon is an editor and publisher of exceptional talent. His many friends will welcome, as we do, his return to the world of books, and I'm confident that he can make an important contribution to the quality and growth of the Quercus fiction list”.

QUERCUS NOMINATED FOR FAST GROWTH BUSINESS AWARD

Quercus Publishing Plc has been unveiled as one of three finalists at the Fast Growth Business Awards 2007 in the PLUS New Company of the Year category.

Organised by Crimson Business in conjunction with Growing Business magazine, the awards are headline sponsored by T-Mobile. The short-listing judges were overwhelmed by the quality and quantity of entries. Ian Wallis, editor of Growing Business magazine and Growingbusiness.co.uk comments:

“With almost 350 entries across 14 categories, the competition was fierce. The three finalists for the PLUS New Company of the Year category successfully joined the market and have demonstrated great development plans, as well as substantial turnover, profit and share price growth. There seems no doubt the companies are set for very bright futures.”

Winners of the awards will be announced at a prestigious awards ceremony at the London Marriott Hotel on 29 March 2007. For further information about the Fast Growth Business Awards visit www.fgba.co.uk or call 020 8334 1648.

CONRAD BLACK ON RICHARD NIXON

On the 22nd May Quercus will publish Conrad Black’s Richard Milhous Nixon: The Invincible Quest. It promises to be the authoritative biography of one of the most controversial political leaders of the 20th century. Beginning with Nixon’s birth to Quaker parents in 1913 and ending with his death in 1994, we take in a modest childhood, a spectacular rise to the Vice-Presidency at the age of 38, election losses, his Presidency, the shame of post-Watergate resignation and the long road to redemption.

Drawing on recently opened tapes and documents, and on Black’s personal interviews with many of the major players in the Nixon administration, Nixon reveals every side of a complex character: a man of immense talent, drive and ambition, dogged by scandal.

Until November 2003 Conrad Black was Chief Executive of Hollinger International and owner of the Telegraph Group of newspapers. In 2001 he was created a life peer. Conrad Black is currently involved in a high-profile trial related to corporate governance issues.

SEVEN NEW TITLES FOR APRIL 2007

April sees the launch of seven exciting new Quercus books.

Daniel Kehlmann’s Measuring the World is a literary sensation, an international bestseller that has sold a million copies in Germany alone, knocking J K Rowling and Dan Brown from the top of the bestseller lists.

Nightlife is the scintillating new thriller from New York Times Top 10 Bestselling author Thomas Perry. It pits two glamorous women against each other: one a serial killer, the other a detective doing everything to stop her.

Tony Juniper’s How Many Lightbulbs Does it Take to Change a Planet? issues a call for urgent action on the environment. In it, the Executive Director of Friends of the Earth UK presents a cogently argued, passionately written programme for staving off ecological, economic and social catastrophe.

For further details, and for information on our four other April titles, please click here.

QUERCUS RECRUITS NEW CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER

Quercus are pleased to announce that Mike McGrath will be joining the company on the 19th of April, to take up the position of Chief Operating Officer. Mike is currently the COO and CFO of Candlewick Press, the Boston based US subsidiary of Walker Books.

DANIEL KEHLMANN TO VISIT UK

Daniel Kehlmann, author of Measuring the World, will be visiting the UK to promote his book. He arrives on April 10th.

SUZY JENVEY TO LAUNCH NEW CHILDREN’S IMPRINT

Mark Smith, CEO of Quercus Publishing Plc, today announced the appointment of Suzy Jenvey as Publisher of a new Children’s imprint which Quercus will launch in the spring of 2008.

Since 1996, Suzy has been Editorial Director of Children’s books at Faber. During this time she has built a highly successful list ranging from G.P.Taylor’s bestselling Shadowmancer series to Ricky Gervais’ Flanimals. In her new role she will be starting from scratch a list which will contribute equally to Quercus’ Contract Publishing Division and to a new trade list of fiction and non-fiction ranging from pre-school to early teens.

THE TENDERNESS OF WOLVES WINS COSTA AWARD

Quercus author Stef Penney has won the Costa Book of the Year award for her debut novel, The Tenderness of Wolves.

The book is set in Canada - a country the author has never visited because she had agoraphobia. Penney, a screenwriter, won the Best First Novel Award before going on to scoop the £25,000 top prize.

Penney triumphed over an illustrious shortlist, which included William Boyd’s Restless, Linda Newbery’s Set in Stone and Brian Thompson's Keeping Mum.

Armando Iannucci, the chairman of the judges, said Penney's work was an “extraordinary first novel”. He described it as testament to the power of good writing” and said: “Within about 50 pages I was completely in love with it.”

A total of 580 books were submitted for the prize, which was won last year by Hilary Spurling for her biography Matisse the Master. It is only the fourth time that a debut novel has won Book of the Year, since its inception in 1985.

The book is available in hardback, priced £12.99, and in paperback, priced £7.99.