News
-
Andrew Lownie judges biography prize
03 Mar 2013
Andrew Lownie will be judging the Earlyworks Press Biography Challenge.
“I’m a great believer that all history is really biography as it’s people who generally shape events rather than inexorable historical movements. All of us, I think, are fascinated by what makes people ‘tick’ and hence our traditional love of biography.
“What I look for in a biography, though it has to be totally accurate and well-researched, is what I also want in a novel – a strong narrative arc, a compelling story, the ability to set a scene, to create a sense of place and to delineate character.
“What I love about biography is it can be used to humanise almost any story and it can take many forms from “the cradle to the grave” approach to the “slice of life”. In the hands of a pro, it can be the most satisfying of any genre.”
Earlyworks Press Biography Challenge
The closing date for entries is the 31st March 2014.
-
Thistle book selected for Amazon promotion
01 Mar 2013
David Haviland’s Why Was Queen Victoria Such A Prude?, a collection of surprising historical trivia, has been selected for Amazon’s March promotion, which means that the book will be available for one month for just 99p. Thanks to this promotion, Queen Victoria is currently the number one book in all its categories on Amazon. Queen Victoria was the first book to be published under the agency’s new imprint Thistle Publishing.
-
Stella Rimington reviews Smiley book in Spectator
01 Mar 2013
A good review in the Spectator for Michael Jago’s life of the MI5 officer John Bingham who inspired George Smiley
http://www.spectator.co.uk/books/8852241/journalist-novelist-patriot-spy/
Michael Jago draws on family memories and Bingham’s own papers to create an affectionate, and in places poignant account of a serious, conventional and ethical man, facing a world where certainties were constantly challenged… very readable for its main character: novelist, patriot and moderate man in a world of extremes.
-
Thistle Publishing launches 'Conclave'
01 Mar 2013
Thistle Publishing, the Andrew Lownie Literary Agency’s exciting new imprint, has launched Mary Hollingsworth’s excellent, timely new book about the papal conclave.
“If you want to understand what’s happening in the Vatican now, read this book. Gripping, lurid and fascinating, both scholarly and utterly readable, oozing with original academic research, its a minute-by-minute, day-by-day account of all the intrigues, maneouvres, deals, politics and scandals of a papal conclave.” SIMON SEBAG MONTEFIORE, author of JERUSALEM: THE BIOGRAPHY
-
Fanny & Stella praised by Channel 4 editor
28 Feb 2013
Some great tweets from Matthew Cain Culture Editor at Channel 4
Am reading such a BRILLIANT book! Neil McKenna’s Fanny + Stella, about two drag queens whose arrest shocked Victorian society. Magnificent!
and then
Finished reading Fanny + Stella, story of two Victorian drag queens told so brilliantly by Neil McKenna I felt
-
Darren Moore's The Soldier reviewed
28 Feb 2013
Some new and good reviews for Darren Moore’s The Soldier which is shortly to be published in the US can be found at:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7181310-the-soldier#other_reviews
“The book is very well organized, each chapter dealing with a particular aspect of a soldier’s life. The author does a fantastic job of bringing the brutalities of war through the words of the soldiers participating in them.” Venkateswaran
“This new book by Darren Moore covers ground previously explored by such writers as Richard Holmes (Firing Line), Hugh McManners (Scars of War) and Gwynne Dyer (War) to name but a few. However this book is still well worth the time to read. The book covers numerous aspects of the role of a soldier in society, mainly in times of conflict. The author utilises many first hand accounts to highlight points within the narrative. These accounts range from private soldiers to generals, from the Napoleonic period to the current war on terror. This is a very easy book to read and I managed to get through the 400 odd pages in a few days. Overall this is a good book that should be read by all that want to understand what a soldier goes through in his career and this is a book that should be read by all that have the power to send a soldier into harms way.” Aussie Rick’
-
Two agency titles in New York Times e book best seller list
28 Feb 2013
Cathy Glass’s Cut is no 9 in the New York Times non-fiction e book best seller list.
The Favored Daughter: One Woman’s Fight to Lead Afghanistan into the Future by Fawzia Koofi and agency author Nadene Ghouri is no 33
-
Mum's Way is no 9
27 Feb 2013
Congratulations to Ian Millthorpe and Lynne Barrett-Lee whose Mum’s Way has gone straight into the Sunday Times best seller list at no 9.
-
Great Booklist review for Girl With No Name
27 Feb 2013
Marina Chapman’s Girl With No Name has received a tremendous review in Booklist:
“A well-paced, cliffhanger approach to telling the story makes for a riveting narrative. Chapman’s struggles, no matter how outrageous, are made relatable through the deft descriptions of her thoughts and feelings. A constant theme throughout is her strong desire to be someone. Thrilling, upsetting, and powerful, this memoir is a coming-of-age tale like no other.”
-
Terrific Kirkus review for Operation Damocles
26 Feb 2013
Roger Howard’s book Operation Damocles on “Mossad’s attempts to thwart the Egyptian missile program.” published in the US in May has had a terrific pre-publication review by Kirkus:
A British investigative journalist offers an intriguing, somewhat circuitous look back at the Mossad’s attempts to thwart the Egyptian missile program. In response to Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser’s paranoid efforts to bolster his military program in the late 1950s, the equally paranoid Israeli foreign intelligence service kicked into high vigilance, planting operatives in Cairo and even carrying out intimidation and assassination attempts against the key German scientists recruited to the Egyptian missile work. Howard (The Oil Hunters: Exploration and Espionage in the Middle East, 2008, etc.) uses his expertise and research on Middle Eastern defense issues to piece together this complex, shadowy story.
In the first part of the book, the author backtracks into the deep-seated history of Arab-Israeli hostility, focusing on the pan-Arab liberation movement led by Nasser, his mistrust of Western leaders born out by the Suez Crisis of 1956, and his resolve to build up the Egyptian military to ward off Israeli attacks and galvanize his own power base among the Arab states. The goal was to build long-range ballistic rockets, and Nasser’s trusty deputy chief of air force intelligence, Gen. Isam Khalil, was sent to Zurich and elsewhere to try to lure some “specialist engineers” to the Egyptian cause. The scientists were disgruntled Germans, specifically ex-Nazis, who were all offered sweet deals to live and work in Cairo beginning in July 1960.
Meanwhile, Mossad, led by the legendary Isser Harel, had to find some suitable operatives to infiltrate the Egyptian-German community, such as the highly convincing Wolfgang Lotz. Ultimately, both sides erred fatally: Harel’s Operation Damocles proved clumsy and politically driven, while the Egyptian rockets lacked a guidance mechanism, which undermined their accuracy.
A well-paced narrative as chock full of mysterious revelations as a good spy thriller.
