Happy 2016... with client news

Samantha Verant's internationally successful debut memoir SEVEN LETTERS FROM PARIS has been optioned by a film studio. Her next book, HOW TO MAKE A FRENCH FAMILY, about her first few years of life as an instant stepmother and wife in the south of France - filled with food and faux pas - has been sold to US publisher Sourcebooks for spring 2017 publication. UK rights to both books are available.

Sarah Outen is busy writing her new book, DARE TO DO. Nicholas Brealey acquired world rights and the book is due for publication in June.

Brad Smith's new novel, ROUGH JUSTICE, has been published by Severn House and received this review from Booklist:

The quintessential Brad Smith hero is an ex-con attempting to live a quiet life who finds himself drawn back into the world of violence, usually to help out someone he loves. Following in the tradition of Ray Dokes (All Hat, 2003) and series hero Virgil Cain (Red Means Run, 2012), Carl Burns lands in prison after taking a quixotic stand against corruption and absorbing the unintended consequences. Now out of prison, he has returned to his small Ontario hometown to support his estranged daughter, Kate, who is one of three witnesses in the rape trial of the town’s mayor. The trial goes bad, and Kate slips slowly into addiction and depression. Burns watches helplessly, biding his time and helping the sister of his ex-wife attempt to battle a ruthless land-grabber. Typically, Smith combines elements of the comic caper novel with hard-edged thriller fare, but this time the comedy and the banter take a backseat to real-world realism. Even in a hard world, however, there’s always room for fighting back, and nobody does stand-up guys better than Smith.

Diane Esguerra's memoir JUNKIE BUDDHA has continued to gather fine reviews also - Therapy Today called it uplifting, commenting on 'eloquent writing and self-deprecating humour' (http://www.therapytoday.net/article/show/5136/shelf-life-junkie-buddha/). Diane also appeared on Salford City Radio (https://soundcloud.com/david-southam/smiley-queen-salford-city-radio-interview). Links to all the reviews and interviews can now be found here: http://junkiebuddha.com/endorsements/.

'The Inca witch told me that Machu Picchu was the right resting place for Sacha... Yes, my son was a junkie. But he was also a Buddha.'  

Translation rights are available in Brad Smith's novel and Diane Esguerra's memoir.

An interview just came out with Ian Moore about being a father, comedian and author: http://www.dadofdivas.com/dads-in-the-limelight/ian-moore

As editor of John Searancke's book PRUNES FOR BREAKFAST: ONE MAN'S WAR, I'm pleased to see the book selling well on Kindle and getting great reviews on Amazon.

More updates are to be found on the AGENCY CLIENTS page. Thanks to all authors, publishers and co-agents for your support in 2015. Very best wishes for 2016 from me and the 'office assistant' in Megalo Horio, Tilos!

Prunes for Breakfast - One Man's War

My last post here was about a mother's journey to come to terms with her son's death. This week I'm writing about a son's journey (of sorts) to connect with his father.

‘Many years after the deaths of my parents, my aunt handed me a box filled with letters that my father had written to my mother over the period from 1940 to 1945. This was the starting point of a journey for me to rediscover the father I had never really known...’

I was delighted to have the opportunity to work as editor with author John Searancke on this fascinating story in which we see World War Two through the eyes of an ordinary man from his calling up in 1940 to his release from a prisoner of war camp in Germany in 1945.

The book's curious title shows how we see the war through the minutiae of daily events - the details the man chose to write to his wife, often downplaying the harrowing experiences he actually lived through - such as the series of bloody skirmishes from the beaches of Normandy until he led his troops to face the formidable might of the SS Panzers, his battle coming to an abrupt end in an orchard surrounded by the enemy. 

John, who was born during these years - the early years of the war when his father was sent on one training course after another - and who makes an appearance through the letters, never really knew his father, so it was a feat of imagination to weave the letters into a fictional 'memoir' based on a vast amount of research. The book is a very good read, especially for anyone interested in that era.

John Searancke grew up in Ashby-de-la-Zouch and has been a hotel and restaurant owner, director and chairman of a marketing consortium, and a partner of a commercial legal services company. He now lives with his wife Sally in northern Tenerife, and is a restaurant reviewer for the Canary Islands newspaper Island Connections. His first book was Dog Days in the Fortunate Islands (Matador, 2014).

PRUNES FOR BREAKFAST: ONE MAN'S WAR will be published on 27 October 2015 by Matador (£9.99 paperback, £4.99 ebook) and is now available for pre-order.

John's website, which has a gallery page with images related to both his books, is: www.johnsearancke.com.

You can also meet the author at:

http://www.rukiapublishing.com/meet-the-author-john-searancke.html