Authors in the Media – March

This month sees the publication of Sarah-Louise Miller’s The Women Behind the Few and she’s been busy, appearing on the Dan Snow’s History Hit podcast and her publisher Biteback’s own podcast.

Dan goes down into the earth with Dr Sarah-Louise Miller, who brings their stories to life in the room where the Battle of Britain was organised, overlooking the very maps that show what happened there during that decisive summer of 1940. Dr Sarah-Louise’s new book ‘The Women Behind the Few’ puts the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force back at the heart of Britain’s war, exploring what they did- collecting and disseminating vital intelligence- that led to the Allied victory.

Mary Novakovich was featured in Time Out magazine and her book was listed in National Geographic ahead of the Stanford Travel Awards, one of eight finalists nominated for the prestigious Edward Stanford Travel Book of the Year due to be announced in London on March 16.

Adam BatterbeeŠtrbački Buk

Finally, Robert Sellers’ book The Secret Life of Ealing Films, was featured in the Daily Mirror. The book reveals the secrets from behind the scenes of classic movies, including a crevasse fall by John Mills and the stunt that nearly drowned Alec Guinness.

The Secret Life of Ealing Films by Robert Sellers is out now published by Dean Street Press.

 

THE CAMBRIDGE FOOTLIGHTS: A VERY BRITISH INSTITUTION to Bloomsbury Methuen

Bloomsbury Methuen has acquired world all language rights (excluding dramatic rights) to THE CAMBRIDGE FOOTLIGHTS: A VERY BRITISH INSTITUTION by Robert Sellers.

This book will tell the story of Britain’s oldest student sketch comedy troupe, whose notable alumni include Emma Thompson, Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Julian Fellowes, John Cleese, Peter Cook and Richard Osman. As well as being a detailed history of the Footlights, the book will include first-hand interviews with former Footlights alumni, extracts from past Footlights productions, and illustrations, including a reproduction of posters, flyers and programmes.

“Like a night sky in the countryside, the more you look, the more stars you see,” wrote comedian and Footlights alumnus David Mitchell in his 2013 memoir. “Footlights seem to be behind about half of the stuff worth paying attention to.”

The Cambridge Footlights

Robert Sellers is the author of over 25 books on subjects such as cinema, theatre, television, music and popular culture. These include Raising Laughter: How the Sitcom Kept Britain Smiling in the ’70s (2021), as well as authorized biographies of Oliver Reed, Kenny Everett and Ernie Wise, along with histories of Ealing Studios, Radio 1 and the Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals.

RUSSIAN NIGHTS: TESTIMONIES FROM THE SOVIET TERROR to Vernon Press

Vernon Press has acquired World English Rights rights to a book that follows the work of Solzhenitsyn and Shalamov, and expands on the spectrum of GULAG stories.

The testimonies, gathered between 2001 and 2005 of actors implicated in different aspects of Soviet life roughly through the period 1917-1956, are from ex-prisoners of the GULAG, survivors of the Siege of Leningrad, veterans of the Russian front in World War II, military men and common people, in cities and the countryside. This book presents autocracy not merely as a past historical curiosity, but as a present call of alarm before the advances of autocracy seen throughout the world today.

Echavarren notes, “The details of the Jewish Holocaust have become part of our history through the testimony of those who survived the death camps. The details of Lenin’s and Stalin’s reign of terror are far less known because they took place behind a wall of secrecy, and because survivors have been loath to speak about them for fear of retribution.”

Roberto Echavarren is a Uruguayan poet, novelist, essayist and translator with a Ph.D. from the University of Paris VIII and taught at New York University from 1975 to 1995 in the Spanish and Portuguese, and Comparative Literature Departments. He is the director of La Flauta Mágica publishing company, specializing in critical bilingual editions of poetry and the rescue of major poetical works written in Spanish.

Prizes include the National Prize of the Ministry of Culture of Uruguay, essay; National Prize of the Ministry of Culture of Uruguay, poetry; Nancy Bacelo Foundation Poetry Prize; Cultural Center of Spain Theatre Prize.

Authors in the Media – January

We welcome the new year with several agency authors in the media.

Lucy Hooft was interviewed on the Curtis Brown Creative Writing Course blog. Lucy Hooft studied their six-week online Write to the End of Your Novel and Edit & Pitch Your Novel courses in 2018. Her debut The King’s Pawn (book one in The Sarah Black Series) is out now with independent publisher Burning Chair. She spoke about the lifelong friends she met on our courses, her love of thrillers and her journey to publication.

Mary Novakovich had a Croatia feature in print in ⁦Times Travel. Her new Croatia travelogue, is shortlisted for the ⁦Stanfords Travel⁩ Travel Book of the Year award.

She even shared her diet tips with the Daily Telegraph!

Wish you were here?

There was also a review of BEHIND CLOSED DOORS for The Past Magazine and a review for Graydon Carter’s Airmail digital magazine.

The Marquess of Worcester and Lady Liza Campbell at Annabel’s, one of London’s best-known members’ clubs.
© Copyright Photograph by Dafydd Jones