Debut Fiction Deal for Martel Maxwell
Kate Burke at Michael Joseph has bought Scandalous by journalist and TV presenter Martel Maxwell. This hilarious and romantic debut novel tells the story of two glamorous sisters - one a showbiz journalist who is determined to land the best scoop by any means necessary; the other a shy writer at a fashion magazine whose love life is about to hit the front pages of the tabloids - on opposite sides of the fame game. Michael Joseph has UK and Commonwealth rights (excluding Canada) and will publish Spring 2010. Agent: Diana Beaumont

 

ROBYN YOUNG
Requiem
Hodder & Stoughton
Requiem is the third and concluding part of the Brethren trilogy, one of the most successful debuts in British fiction of recent years. The trilogy has been acquired in nineteen countries to date, and sales figures are already well in excess of 500,000 copies.

Praise for the Brethren trilogy:

Major profile in The Times, 17 October 2008.

"Swords clash in the first sentence of Young’s latest and go on clashing throughout...plenty of action...attention to historical detail offset by pacey dialogue" The Times

"Intricate but wonderfully written, a romp of a read and an exhilarating ride...[Crusade] evokes the atmosphere of the times brilliantly..." Birmingham Post

"Crusade is a sweeping historical adventure as well as a cracking sequel." Financial Times

"...pacy but intricate...this book will not disappoint those wanting to dive into an epic story of war." News of the World

"Irresistible...Teeming with spirited characters, treachery and betrayal, Brethren captures a story that grows more relevant by the day." Raymond Khoury, author of The Last Templar

"Brethren is one of the best historical debuts in recent memory. Exciting and enthralling, it gripped me from the first page and left me waiting anxiously for the next instalment." John Connolly, author of The Book of Lost Things

"Wonderful ...loaded with medieval atmosphere, action, and intrigue. The Crusades come alive for what they were ---- personal battles of conquest and ambition. Robyn Young is a writer who bears watching." Steve Berry, author of The Templar Legacy

"Engaging and enjoyable - Robyn Young brings the tumultuous medieval world to life with pace and flair." Tom Harper, author of Siege of Heaven

"If you love the Templars, the Crusades, and the Middle Ages, this is the book for you. Robyn Young is an exciting new voice that speaks loudly." Sharon Kay Penman, author of Prince of Darkness

"Pacy and well-written, with vivid, convincing characters, Brethren captures your interest until the last page. I eagerly anticipate the sequel, knowing I will not be disappointed." Alison Weir, author of Eleanor of Aquitaine & Innocent Traitor

"Writing medieval stories is one of the toughest jobs in historical fiction, because there are so many details we just don't know - how people talked to each other, how they loved each other. But Robyn Young has written an intricate, compelling, captivating and, above all, believable story. Brethren is a brilliant piece of sustained imagination." David Boyle, author of Blondel's Song: The Capture, Imprisonment & Ransom of Richard the Lionheart

"In a word: Gripping." Weekend Gold Coast Bulletin, Australia

"Young combines historical detail, lively characterisation and strong narrative drive." Colin Steele, The Canberra Times

"El Cid meets the Da Vinci Code! Exciting, page-turning fiction." Boyd Hilton, Heat Magazine (Simon Mayo's book panel, BBC Five Live, 21.09.06)

"Be warned... To open Brethren is to become trapped. Robyn Young's debut novel will ensnare you and will not let go until the final page is turned. As a work of historical fiction, it succeeds in being both an educational read and one that simply bears a very compelling story." Stephen Hubbard, Bookreporter.com

"Richly worked and captivating...an epic story of war, intrigue and heroism." Good Book Guide

"Tipped to be the next Da Vinci Code." Elle

 

Lorna Martin Bestseller in Germany
Lorna Martin’s memoir Woman On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown was published in January 2009 in Germany by Fischer Verlag. It immediately became a bestseller and has already sold 34,000 copies. Rights have currently been sold in 12 countries, and film rights have been optioned by Ruby Films.

Praise for Woman On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown:

“A journalist’s memoir of one year’s soul-doctoring and her social and romantic escapades outside the treatment room. A cross between HBO’s therapy drama In Treatment and Bridget Jones’s Diary. Thinking I’d loathe it, I found it hilarious and wickedly moreish. Martin portrays herself as selfish and feckless but still comes over as immensely amiable rather than a whining passive-aggressive approval-seeker. It is well known, of course, that a sufficiently intense commitment to navel-gazing can result in something universal. ‘I badly needed new friends,’ she writes. ‘Less successful ones.’ There has been more craft in the making of this book than the surface lets on. The rhythm of its changes in register, for one thing, is handled with lovely comic timing.” Steven Poole, Guardian

“Her [Martin’s] account of the psychic dismemberment she experienced on the therapist’s couch is revealed with the sort of honesty that could strip paint. Witty, successful and completely neurotic, she stumbles into Dr. J’s office for the first of a year of tri-weekly, pre-breakfast sessions. As she confesses, she’s neither a drug addict nor anorexic; apart from frequent crying fits in important meetings, she barely seems to need therapy at all. Which makes what happens all the more alarming and enthralling. Dr. J takes Lorna’s defences – her humour, her constant protestations of niceness and sanity – and systematically breaks them down, revealing deeply buried anger and terror. It sounds appalling and yet the more Lorna confronts, the happier and lighter she becomes. Martin has a gift for screwball comedy and a penchant for drunken confessions that can leave whole parties speechless and cringing. By joining the scrum for the confessional, Martin has achieved something quite different from the customary solipsistic striptease. She has succeeded in challenging the reputation of psychotherapy as an interminable and onanistic experience, catching instead some of the breathless, liberating excitement that accompanies any descent into the deeper reaches of the self.” Olivia Laing, Observer

“Lorna Martin’s account of her year in therapy succeeds on one level simply as a good, girly read…But she has also created something more substantial with the insight she provides into the usually private relationship between therapist and client. The most satisfying moments are those where she conveys the way her own true motives creep up on her. Her obsession with meeting ‘The One’ and her dissatisfaction with life as it really is provides a thought-provoking commentary on modern expectations.” Chloe Rhodes, Daily Telegraph

“Depression is at the root of one of the finest art forms of modern times, the blues. There are, Roy Orbison warbled, ‘Blue teardrops in my heart’. This archetypal blues condition is the theme of Lorna Martin’s memoir Woman on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. As the memoir opens, Martin is a rising journalist on The Observer. She comes across as smart, sexy and sassy. But she keeps bursting into tears. Initially, she ascribes this to a screwed-up personal life. It goes deeper, of course. Her sphinx-like Freudian analyst, Dr J, uncovers Martin’s long-repressed problems. There is a drift to eventual, hard-won control. Martin is a brave and engagingly entertaining survivor.” John Sutherland, Financial Times

“Lorna Martin’s life is a mess – or so she thinks. By most people’s standards the 30-something Glaswegian journalist has very little to worry about: she has a successful career with the Observer, earns a decent living and is perfectly healthy. But she can’t stop crying and, in classic chick-lit style, is struggling to form healthy relationships with men. And she’s a nervous wreck. With a bank loan, Martin embarks on a year-long course of psychotherapy in an attempt to come to terms with herself and her ongoing existential crisis. Woman on the Verge charts her journey through analysis as she unravels the source of her various neuroses and emerges a calmer and more rational person…What lifts Woman on the Verge beyond the tedium of real-life chick-lit is Martin’s lack of self-pity along with her humour and well-paced, fluent and compelling writing. Witty and able to laugh at herself, she is good company for the book’s 300 pages.” —Pauline Diamond, the.list.co.uk 

“This humorous account of Martin’s early midlife crisis will resonate with any professional thirtysomething who suddenly realises that they don’t have a partner, kids or a mortgage.” Glamour Magazine

 

New Queen biography from Rock Writer Mark Blake
Graham Coster at Aurum Press in the UK has commissioned Mojo and Q magazines’ contributing editor Mark Blake to follow his bestselling biography of Pink Floyd, Pigs Might Fly, with a new biography of rock band Queen. "Queen have never had the great book written about them that their extraordinary and colourful history deserves", said Coster, "and Mark will certainly write the definitive account". Publication is scheduled for Autumn 2010. Aurum acquired World English language rights.

 

Beatles Biography Acquired By Bodley Head And Harper Studio
You Never Give Me Your Money: Moguls, Monsters and Moptops – The Amazing 40-Year Battle For The Beatles by Peter Doggett has been acquired by Will Sulkin at Bodley Head / Random House (UK), and Bob Miller and Julia Cheiffetz at HarperStudio (US). This is a Beatles book with a unique perspective: it concentrates on the untold story of the Beatles after the Beatles broke up, which in cultural and historical terms is in many ways the most interesting period of their biography. The story focuses on their savage legal battles with each other, financial entanglements, abortive attempts at reunion, up-and-down solo careers and the battle of each to rise above his past and, finally, to become the foremost curator of the Beatles legacy (with a little help from his friends). It’s a gripping tale which has a lot to say about what it means to live with an enduring and almost mythical reputation, the aftermath of sixties idealism, and how pop music has fared at the hands of posterity. The story comes right up to date, and is ultimately about nothing less than the battle for the soul of the Beatles. Publication will be in April 2010, the 40th anniversary of the Beatles’ break-up.