Cull and Co. Ltd Latest Deals

Deal News: CJ Schüler’s THE WOOD THAT BUILT LONDON to Sandstone Press

Sandstone Press has acquired World Rights for CJ Schüler’s next book, THE WOOD THAT BUILT LONDON: A Social and Environmental History of the Great North Wood.

Drawing on a wealth of documents, historic maps and environmental evidence, this compelling narrative history charts the fortunes of the North Wood from the earliest times: its ecology, its ownership, its management, and its gradual encroachment by the expanding metropolis.

CJ Schüler

It takes in the great events of history that had a major impact on the woods: the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the Civil War, the Industrial Revolution, the enclosure of common lands, the construction of the railways, and two world wars.

Its rich cast of characters includes archbishops and aristocrats, smugglers and highwaymen – and the writers and artists, including Samuel Pepys, Lord Byron, Robert Browning, Samuel Palmer and John Ruskin, drawn to the woods over the centuries.

Extensively illustrated with maps, prints and modern colour photographs, it also records the threats to the woods from development in recent decades, the popular campaigns to defend them, the dramatic planning battles that ensued, and the formation of the London Wildlife Trust.

Schüler’s previous book is ALONG THE AMBER ROUTE, described by The Financial Times as a ‘timely and powerful book is more than an enticing travelogue or a paean to amber.’

Cull and Co. Ltd Latest Deals

Deal News: Xue Yiwei’s HILARY, MIWA & I to Dundurn Press

Dundurn Press in Toronto Canada snapped up World English rights to Xue Yiwei’s HILARY, MIWA & I.

Beside the frozen lake on the top of the Royal Mountain in a deep Montreal winter, Hilary, a Canadian woman, Miwa, a Japanese woman, and “I”, a Chinese man come across each other. A triangle, rooted in Chinese history and international conflict is formed and it elaborates on the globalization of the past decades that has not only changed the way of human life, but also humanity itself.

Xue Yiwei

Yiwei has been hailed as “a maverick in contemporary Chinese literature” by Ha Jin, winner of the National Book Award and the author of four novels, five collections of short stories, where two collections have been translated into English as well as his novel DR. BETHUNE’S CHILDREN – banned in China. His short story collection SHENZHENERS was dubbed The Dubliners of modern China. He has lived in Montreal since 2002.

Founded in 1974, Dundurn Press is one of the largest Canadian-owned book publishing companies of adult and children’s fiction and non-fiction.

Cull and Co. Ltd Latest Deals

Deal News: HONEY TRAPPED by Henry R. Schlesinger to The History Press & Rare Bird Books

Coauthor of THE SPY SITES OF NEW YORK CITY and SPYCRAFT: THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE CIA’S SPYTECHS FROM COMMUNISM TO AL-QAEDA Henry R. Schlesinger’s HONEY TRAPPED: SEX, BETRAYAL AND WEAPONIZED LOVE, examining some of the most famous honey traps, from Mata Hari to Anna Chapman and Maria Butina, but also “Romeo Spies” such as Roald Dahl and Dmitri Bystrolyotov.

If the so-called “honey trap” is a Hollywood cliche, it is also a tried and very true piece of tradecraft in the real-life world of spy versus spy and has been used by virtually every intelligence service from ancient times to the present day.

Cull and Co. Ltd Latest Deals

Deal News: BETWEEN FIVE EYES by Anthony R. Wells to Casemate Publishers

World English Rights have been sold to Casemate Publishers for BETWEEN FIVE EYES: FIFTY YEARS INSIDE THE FIVE EYES INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY by Anthony R. Wells.

From 1968 through to 2018, fifty years of change, turmoil, intense challenges, successes and failures, focusing on the relationship between the UK and the US and the wider Five Eyes community of Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. The work is based not only on official documents but the author’s own extensive unclassified collection of papers, personal notes, diaries, as well as his family library for source material.

It is also a personal insight into key relationships and how the abiding strength of the United States and the United Kingdom and its Five Eyes allies relationships.

Anthony is the only living person to have worked for British Intelligence as a British citizen and US Intelligence as a US citizen and was trained in the 1960s by the most distinguished exponents of deception and other clandestine operations from the World War Two period. His mentors included Professor Sir Harry Hinsley, the Bletchley Park code breaker and operations specialist. He was a specialist in the use of weapons of mass destruction by state and non-state players, information architectures and the use of innovative tools for countering terrorism and other forms of irregular warfare.

Due for publication August 31, 2020.

Cull and Co. Ltd Latest Deals

Deal News: North American Rights for IAN FLEMING’S WAR sold to Rare Bird Books

North American rights have been snapped up by Rare Bird Books in Los Angeles for an edition to coincide with the UK release in August.

Both editions include a foreword by Anthony Horowitz OBE, a James Bond continuation novelist, creator of Foyle’s War, and the Alex Rider young adult series, who said:

“By shining new light on Fleming’s role in intelligence, the people he met and the adventures he had with them, Mark Simmons brilliantly illuminates the hero who was his greatest creation.”

Translation rights are available.

The UK edition publishes on August 3rd, 2020. Pre-order here.

Cull and Co. Ltd Latest Deals

Deal News: ANATOMY OF A SPY to TANAPAEV in Estonia

We are delighted to announce that Estonian rights have been sold to publisher TANAPAEV, brokered by Andrew Nurnberg Baltic.

‘There are very few ex-intelligence officers who know their stuff better than Michael Smith. If you’re want to know why spies put their lives in danger, this is the book for you.’ (Andy McNab)

‘Definitely an essential handbook for the layman as well as the molehunter and counter-intelligence professional.’ (Nigel West)

“A wide-ranging survey of the reasons why people spy which mixes the familiar with the less well-known , corrects numerous myths and provides many new insights by a master intelligence expert.” (Andrew Lownie, author of Stalin’s Englishman)

TANAPAEV is one of the biggest publishers in Estonia and publish around 140 titles per year. They have also published PERMANENT RECORD by Edward Snowden.

Cull and Co. Ltd In the Media

Book Launch: ANATOMY OF A SPY by Michael Smith

The History Press, 2019

In this compelling investigation, author Michael Smith explores the critical moment in a spy’s life: that split-second decision to embrace a double life; to cheat and hide and hurt; to risk disgrace – even death – without any guarantee of being rewarded or even recognised. Each chapter centres on a number of different spies, following the path they took that led, finally, to the point of no return.

Were they propelled by personal convictions? Blackmailed and left without a choice? Too desperate for money to think about the consequences?

Through in-depth insider knowledge, Michael Smith also uncovers new and unknown cases, including a spy inside ISIS, President Trump’s links with Russia and Edward Snowden’s role as a whistle-blower, to offer compelling psychological portraits of these men and women, homing unerringly on the fault-lines and shady corners of their characters, their weaknesses and their strengths, the lies they tell other people, and the lies they always end up telling themselves.

Learn about: Trump and Russia; The President’s ‘Sixteen Words’ and the Intelligence on Iraq; the Fifth Man in the Cambridge Spy Ring John Cairncross; FBI Special Agent Richard W. Miller; Indian spy Coomar Narain; Paul Fidrmuc; Mandel Goldfinger; Boris Bazhanov; Halina Szymanska and more.

Nigel West: “A fascinating study of betrayal, the foibles and compulsions that motivated so many traitors to betray their countries and compromise classified information. Definitely an essential handbook for the layman as well as the molehunter and counter-intelligence professional.”

Andy McNab: “There are very few ex-intelligence officers who know their stuff better than Michael Smith. If you’re want to know why spies put their lives in danger, this is the book for you.”

Buy now on Amazon.

Michael Smith
Michael Smith

MICHAEL SMITH is a best-selling author, who spent a decade in military intelligence before becoming an award-winning journalist for the BBC, the Daily Telegraph and the Sunday Times. Smith is the author of a number of books, including The Secrets of Station X, Killer Elite and Foley: The Spy Who Saved 10,000 Jews.

Cull and Co. Ltd Latest Deals

Deal News: INSIDE ALLENWOOD – MONEY, MOBSTERS & ENRON – THE STORY OF A BRITISH BANKER BEHIND BARS by Giles Darby

Giles Darby (with George Harrison) will tell his story in INSIDE ALLENWOOD: MONEY, MOBSTERS & ENRON – THE STORY OF A BRITISH BANKER BEHIND BARS, the memoir of a British banker jailed in 2008 for his involvement in a $7M fraud against his employer, NatWest, caught up in the Enron scandal.

The author and his codefendants became the subject of extensive media coverage when the U.S. government demanded their extradition.

Darby served the first part of his sentence in Allenwood, Pennsylvania, where he was jailed alongside mobsters, drug lords, and gangsters, before finishing his sentence in the U.K.

For publication in the summer of 2020 by Quiller Books.

Cull and Co. Ltd In the Media

A Personal Tribute to Dan Proops

It is with deep sadness to hear the news that our writer and friend Dan Proops tragically passed away this week.

Dan lived to write. His dedication to his craft was immense and his debut novel A LETTER FROM SARAH was published this past March to much critical and reader acclaim. Dan had so much more to publish and looked set to enjoy a long writing career, which makes this loss even harder to accept.

Dan was sweet, sensitive and loved collaborating as well, never too precious and eager to move on to the next challenge. In his trademark leather motorcycle jacket, he was a fixture at the Groucho Club and was an immensely popular figure in the writing community.

Taken too soon, we have lost one of the good guys and I am proud to have had the opportunity to work with and know Dan. Our thoughts are with his family and loved ones at this most difficult time.

Rest in Peace.

Tom J. Cull