Lots of green shoots for our authors as spring arrives.
Elliott Gotkine’s The Wrong Guy has had a terrific launch and anniversary burst, with national press, international syndication, television, radio, podcasts and viral coverage all revisiting the extraordinary Guy Goma BBC mix-up twenty years on.
The book has been covered in The Telegraph, The Times, the Daily Mail, The Sun, LADbible, Boing Boing, and internationally via a New York Times / Irish Times-syndicated piece. It has also had broadcast and audio attention from This Morning, Times Radio, LBC / James O’Brien and The Addition podcast.
The coverage has rightly treated the story as more than just “TV’s greatest cock-up”: an early-internet legend, a workplace nightmare, a strangely uplifting human story, and now a book co-authored by the two men at the centre of it.
Twenty years on, Guy Goma is still recognised, still asked for selfies, and still remembered as the man who survived every job applicant’s worst nightmare live on national television. Elliott, meanwhile, has turned the whole astonishing episode into a sharp, humane and very funny account of what really happened behind the scenes.
Christiana Spens’ The Colony is beginning to gather exactly the sort of literary and cultural attention it deserves ahead of publication by Salt. It is a dark, stylish and unsettling novel about wellness culture, escape fantasies, toxic intimacy and the dangerous appeal of surrendering yourself to someone else’s vision of freedom.
The Herald has already reviewed the book, with Alastair Mabbott calling it “a dark, satirical takedown of wellness culture” and “a thought-provoking examination of power and submission in relationships”. That feels exactly right: beneath the satire is something much more troubling about longing, control, performance and the modern hunger to disappear into a better life.
Christiana has also appeared in 3:AM Magazine, in a wide-ranging piece that touches on Paula Rego, psychoanalysis, ballet and The Colony, placing the novel in a broader artistic and psychological conversation. It is a book with cult energy in every sense: elegant, dangerous, claustrophobic and hard to shake off.
Susan L. Schwartz’s A Guide to Drinking in Venice is off to a lovely start, with national press, launch activity and festival attention around the book. The Independent ran Susan’s piece, “From the Bellini to the Spritz – how these Venice classics became the drinks of summer”, drawing directly on the stories behind A Guide to Drinking in Venice and the city’s extraordinary drinking culture.
Published by Quadrille / PRH, the book has also had launch activity in the UK and US, and Susan is appearing at Hay Festival on 26 May 2026 for a sold-out talk and tasting on Venice’s bars, cafés, wines and cocktails.
The launch of the book took place at Bar Oriole in Covent Garden and was attended by Julian and Emma Fellowes. Some beautiful photos were captured by India Jane here.
James Owen’s debut true-crime book The Wicked Among Us continues to attract strong regional, broadcast and podcast attention in the US.
The Springfield News-Leader published an in-depth feature revisiting the unresolved 2007 murder of attorney Rolland Comstock, exploring Owen’s personal connection to the case and the long road to publication.
James has since appeared across multiple broadcast outlets, including a television feature on KY3 (Ozarks Life) and an interview with KSMU, the local NPR affiliate, both examining the case’s enduring grip on the region and the book’s distinctive approach to the true-crime genre.
He was also interviewed as Author of the Week on KSGF, discussing murder, blackmail, rare book collecting, and the cultural afterlife of the Comstock case, alongside a run of long-form podcast appearances including The Mark Reardon Show, The Morning Meeting, and The Elijah Haahr Show.
The book is now anchoring a series of in-person events and talks across Missouri, with appearances at independent bookshops and professional organisations, including Left Bank Books in St Louis and the Springfield Metropolitan Bar Association.
Joe Luc Barnes’ Farewell to Russia has had a terrific launch, with interviews, regional press, bookshop events and an upcoming Royal Society for Asian Affairs discussion helping the book find exactly the right audience: readers interested not just in Russia, but in the countries, people and futures that emerged from its imperial shadow.
Elliott & Thompson carries terrific early praise, with Tim Marshall calling it “brilliant” and Nick Hunt describing it as “a sparklingly erudite and entertaining odyssey”.
Joe has had a busy launch period, including a Guildford Dragon interview on 7 March 2026, a Times of Central Asia feature on 6 March 2026, and a programme of live events taking in Pushkin House, Richmond, Guildford, Cambridge, Canterbury, Teesside and Scotland. The book will also be discussed at the Royal Society for Asian Affairs Reading Room on 2 June 2026.
Tim Bird’s Happy Land continues to travel well: part memoir, part cultural portrait, part affectionate interrogation of Finland’s “world’s happiest country” label, written by someone who has spent four decades watching the country from the inside and outside at once.
Happy Land has enjoyed a strong run of media and bookseller support, including a major Daily Mail feature on Tim’s move from England to Finland, a Times Radio appearance on 2 January, and a review in The Irish Times on 17 January. Stanfords also selected the book as its January Book of the Month, marking the occasion with an in-store event at Covent Garden on 27 January.
In March, ThisisFINLAND, Finland’s official country site, ran a feature on Tim and Happy Land, describing the book as a reflection on “a life of observing, photographing and finding contentment in Finland” after more than four decades in the country. Tim also appeared on FOBtv on 26 March 2026, discussing why Finland continues to rank among the happiest countries in the world, and on Talk Radio Europe, speaking about his forty years in “the world’s happiest country”.
Andy Boot’s Canine Crimebusters continues to find a warm readership. The book was highlighted by LoveReading, with Liz Robinson writing that she had “fallen in love with this book and the individual dogs highlighted within”, praising its fascinating insight into the history and work of police dogs.
The book has also enjoyed strong dog-world visibility, including appearances and signings around Crufts, helping to build momentum beyond traditional media channels.
Shafik Meghji contributed to BBC Travel’s Best Places to Visit in 2026 feature, writing on Uruguay and Montenegro – two destinations often overshadowed by their larger neighbours but rich in culture, history and landscape.
He also won Travel Narrative Book of the Year at the British Guild of Travel Writers Awards for Small Earthquakes.
Robert Sellers’ The Cambridge Footlights: A Very British Comedy Institution has landed with strong coverage across comedy, culture and literary review pages.
Unseen Histories included it in its “New History Books for January 2026” round-up ahead of publication on 22 January 2026 by Methuen Drama / Bloomsbury.
Chortle reviewed the book on 23 January 2026, calling the Footlights’ cultural legacy “unrivalled” and highlighting its extraordinary alumni network across British comedy.
Tatler ran an edited extract by Robert on 30 January 2026, spotlighting Cecil Beaton and Norman Hartnell’s early Footlights stardom.
The coverage has continued beyond publication, with LouReviews reviewing the book on 18 March 2026, calling it “eminently readable”, and Literary Review running Joe Moran’s review, “Where Fry Met Laurie”, in its February 2026 issue.
The Cambridge News has also covered the Footlights story with an interview about its cultural legacy.
The late Carole Latimer’s memoir Anything But A Still Life had a lovely moment in The Times, with Bianca Schofield remembering her extraordinary life behind the lens: from film publicity and a formative encounter with Eve Arnold to a career photographing some of the biggest names in film, music and theatre.
Published on 19 March, the book stands as a final portrait of a woman who quietly built a remarkable career in a world still overwhelmingly dominated by men.
Brian Jackman’s Lion Song: A Portrait of Wild Africa has picked up strong travel and wildlife coverage around publication. The Times ran a major Chris Haslam interview, “I’ve been a safari expert for 50 years. Here’s how Africa has changed”, reflecting on Brian’s half-century of African travel, safari writing and conservation witness.
Travel Africa also ran a substantial interview, “Master Story Teller”, ahead of the book’s March publication, with Sue Watt describing Brian’s five decades of writing about Africa and wildlife conservation.
Deskbound Traveller featured Lion Song on 6 March 2026 under the headline “How eco-tourism saved wild Africa”, positioning the book as both a love letter to Africa and a call to protect its remaining wild places.
Finally, Daniel Stables continues to build his reputation as one of the sharpest travel writers working today. His National Geographic Traveller feature, “From kasbahs to couscous – how Sicily has celebrated its diversity through the centuries”, won at the Inspire Global Media Awards 2026.
He has also had a busy spring in National Geographic Traveller, with recent pieces on fire-walking monks in Tokyo, Norway’s Vesterålen archipelago, outdoor life in Norway, Japanese sports, Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula and Shakespeare’s Stratford.
Cull & Co. Literary Agency Ltd 