Cull and Co. Ltd In the Media

Authors in the Media – December 2024

‘Tis the season for agency authors in December.

George Harrison‘s debut novel Season, received high praise in the Daily Telegraph and the Mail on Sunday.

The Telegraph’s Declan Ryan said, ‘Harrison feels – and captures – this world rather well. We’re served the recognisable cocktail of frustrated tenderness, zealotry and madness that we induce when we outsource our happiness to millionaires in leisure-wear.‘

Sticking with the newspapers, Mira Harrison, author of the One in Three, was reviewed in the New Zealand Listener, the Otago Daily Times, interviewed on the podcast Write Spot with Dunedin UNESCO City of Literature, and was the Book of the Day in the New Zealand Herald.

Mary Novakovich received a mention in The Guardian for her audiobook version of My Family and Other Enemies. A blend of memoir and travelogue, this vivid portrait of Lika in central Croatia tells of a family and Croatian region steeped in culture and tumultuous history. Read by the author.

Fellow travel writer Ros Belford, saw her book Children of the Volcano picked out by Wanderlust as one of the books of the year.

‘the author – fresh from a break-up – relocates to Sicily to give her daughters a childhood to remember, and herself a new go at life. What follows falls into the ‘inspirational’ bracket of books about overcoming the odds, though it paints a portrait of island life that will have travellers intrigued.‘

Last but not least, Rikki Stein‘s memoir, Moving Music, continues to generate coverage. This month a review in AfroPop Worldwide, and an accompanying interview. An audiobook version, read by the author is coming soon.

Mark LeVine, longtime contributor to Afropop Worldwide said, ‘While this book will no doubt inspire musicians and fans who already love these genres, we can hope it also inspires a new generation of behind-the-scenes forces in the business, who can help move the music, the artists who create and perform it, and the industry people who more often than not hinder if not outright ruin it, back to a foundation of the Underground Spiritual Game that has always animated the most powerful, creative and at least for a time, successful pop music.‘

Songlines also has picked the book as one it its ‘Books of the Year‘, saying ‘Rikki was also crucial to the success of the musicians of Joujouka, that extraordinary village of Moroccan musicians. And then there are the stories about the Grateful Dead, Guinea’s Les Ballet Africaines, the ever-courageous Ugandan singer Bobi Wine, and more. A great read.‘

Here’s to 2025!

Cull and Co. Ltd In the Media

Authors in the Media – September 2024

First up, travel writer Shafik Meghji was shortlisted in two categories of the British Guild of Travel Writers Awards. His Adventure.com feature on Dungeness, Winchelsea and climate change is up for the UK travel feature award, while his Evening Standard piece on Indigenous tourism is up for sustainability feature of the year.

His next book, Small Earthquakes (Hurst Publishing), will be published next year.

Mary Novakovich went island-hopping in Croatia for The Guardian, adrift in the Šibenik archipelago. Her memoir My Family and Other Enemies (Bradt Guides) was also featured in Electric Lit’s top 10 must-read books set in Croatia. Her research into her family’s complicated history results in a book that abounds with incredible stories of adversity and resilience, and a hearty dose of delicious meals.

Staying on the travel theme, Ros Belford was featured in The Times, about her recently published memoir Children of the Volcano (September Publishing).

Former bookseller Michael Robb appeared in the Bookseller to announce his debut book Shelf Life (The History Press), out in February next year. Robb commented:

“Books and bookshops have always been an important part of my life. I feel incredibly fortunate that I have worked with books for 40 years, first as a bookseller and then on the publishing side. During that time I have witnessed first-hand the huge changes that our industry has undergone and wanted to document this from my viewpoint… I hope this book will prompt many discussions within the trade. This is a wonderful business full of hard-working and passionate people and I hope I do justice to it in Shelf Life.”

The Conversation ran a terrific feature review of Rikki Stein‘s memoir Moving Music (Wordville). “[…] an astute storyteller as he weaves together a larger narrative about a life of triumphs, tragedies and cautionary tales. From its lush descriptions to its intimate accounts and previously unpublished photos, Stein’s autobiography offers readers a rare insider glimpse into the music business. His writing is rooted in a deep understanding of the industry and the artists who drive it forward.”

Rikki Stein (front left) next to Fela Kuti on his release from jail for his politically outspoken views. Godwin Usidamen/Courtesy Rikki Stein

Finally, Henry R. Schlesinger wrote a piece for AirMail about the original Abercrombie & Fitch where Amelia Earhart, Ernest Hemingway, and Clark Gable all shopped.

His next book The Age of Amateurs was recently bought by Pegasus Books.

Cull and Co. Ltd In the Media

Authors in the Media – March 2023

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.

 

Cull and Co. Ltd Latest Deals

MY FAMILY AND OTHER ENEMIES by Mary Novakovich to Bradt Guides

World Rights have gone to Bradt Guides for journalist Mary Novakovich’s MY FAMILY AND OTHER ENEMIES, a part travelogue, part memoir that dives into the hinterland of Croatia.

The region of Lika, where her Serbian parents were born, is little known to most travellers – apart from Plitvice Lakes National Park and the birthplace of Nikola Tesla. This book weaves the author’s deep family connection to the region in Croatia with stories of people whose experiences had never been reported during the 1990s, when the devastation in Croatia was quickly superseded by the Bosnian conflict and media attention moved elsewhere.

2022 marks 30 years since the beginning of the war in neighbouring Bosnia, and the book will be published in August 2022.

Mary Novakovich is an award-winning freelance journalist and travel writer based in Hertfordshire. For more than 35 years, she has worked as a journalist, including at the BBC, before going freelance in 1997. Since 1999, she has been focusing on travel writing and contributes regularly to UK publications including the Guardian, Telegraph, Independent, Times, Evening Standard and many others. She is also the contributing travel editor of The Lady magazine.

Born to Serbian parents from Croatia, she has written extensively about the countries of the former Yugoslavia, in particular Croatia and Serbia, which she first visited in 1976. She has written several guidebooks on Croatia for Insight Guides and Berlitz over the years. She also reported on a story for From Our Own Correspondent for BBC World Service in December 2011, about her aunt who became the only survivor of a 1941 massacre of a village by the Croats, in which her great-grandmother perished. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00m5f9b.