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  • Starred Kirkus review for Renoir's Dancer

    31 Oct 2017

    A starred Kirkus review for Catherine Hewitt’s Renoir’s Dancer published this week in UK and in US in February.

    Suzanne Valadon (1865-1938) may not be a name most people mention when they discuss great artists. This biography should change that.One might wonder how Valadon, whom Hewitt (The Mistress of Paris: The 19th-Century Courtesan Who Built an Empire on a Secret, 2015) describes in this excellent biography as having “revolutionized the art world and irreversibly altered the place of women within that world,” hasn’t received more widespread recognition. One reason is that Valadon adhered to no school of painting; another is that she was “a victim of the company she kept.” Some may think of her only as the mother of cityscape painter Maurice Utrillo or the model who inspired Renoir’s Dance at Bougival and The Large Bathers or the muse of Toulouse-Lautrec. Born in rural France to a linen maid and a father she never knew, Valadon moved to Montmartre with her mother and sister after her father died. When she was older, she frequented clubs like Le Chat Noir, where young artists discussed their desire to depict “contemporary life, the sweat and odour of real men and women.” A self-taught artist, she started as a nude model. But when Edgar Degas saw her secret drawings, he said, “you are one of us,” and helped her become the first woman painter to have works accepted into the Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. Hewitt chronicles Valadon’s romances and her difficulties in raising Maurice, whose childhood fits led to his lifelong battle with alcoholism. More importantly, the author demonstrates that Valadon’s works were revolutionary not just because of her style—”sharp, almost crude contours,” with the use of single lines for profiles—but because of the subject matter, such as children who, far from looking like the cosseted offspring of impressionist works, were naked, awkward, and “lonely, so incredibly lonely.” Hewitt sums up Valadon’s achievement perfectly: “Other artists showed what viewers wanted to see. Suzanne showed them what was true.” A well-researched tribute to and resurrection of a master of fin de siècle art.

  • Recent Foreign Rights sales

    26 Oct 2017

    Turkish rights in Sir Steven Runciman’s The Fall of Constantinople 1453

    Macedonian rights in Sir Steven Runciman’s The Great Church in Captivity.

    Chinese rights in Desmond Seward’s The Wars of the Roses and The Bourbon Kings of France.

  • Two cricket titles to Pitch Publishing

    26 Oct 2017

    Pitch Publishing have bought World English rights in Mark Peel’s Playing the Game? : The Ethics of Cricket from Bodyline to the Present and Ambassadors of Goodwill: On tour with the MCC 1946-71.

  • Sixth week in the Sunday Times Top 10 for Cruel to be Kind.

    26 Oct 2017

    Cathy Glass’s Cruel to be Kind is at Number 8 in the paperback bestsellers this week, its sixth week in the Sunday Times Top 10 .

  • The Medici is London bestseller for second week running

    26 Oct 2017

    Mary Hollingsworth’s The Medici is a top five bestseller for the second week running in the Evening Standard.

  • US deal for Winston Churchill letter collection

    23 Oct 2017

    North American rights in David Lough’s Darling Winston, Dearest Mamma, a selection of letters between Winston Churchill and his mother, have been bought by Pegasus.

  • New Catherine Hewitt book to Icon

    23 Oct 2017

    Icon have bought UK & Commonwealth rights in Catherine Hewitt’s new biography No Ordinary Woman: Rosa Bonheur, France’s Greatest Painter of Animals

  • Author wins BFI documentary film award

    23 Oct 2017

    Congratulates to Vikie Shanks, author of Unravelled, the basis of a recent documentary ‘Kingdom of Us’ which has won this year’s Grierson Award for the Best Documentary. The award recognises outstanding feature-length documentaries of integrity, originality, technical excellence or cultural significance. Lucy Cohen’s documentary feature debut is a luminous exploration of grief, identity, family bonds and emotional recovery. The award was presented by the jury President, the BAFTA and Academy Award-winning documentary producer, John Battsek who said:

    “In a strong and diverse documentary selection, Lucy Cohen’s impressive debut Kingdom of Us equally fascinated and moved us all. It captures an extraordinary level of family intimacy in its delicate exploration of grief and memory.

  • Cruel To Be Kind remains bestseller

    18 Oct 2017

    Cathy Glass’s latest fostering Cruel To Be Kind is no 6 this week, having been no 4 last week.

  • Two book deal for Angus Konstam with Bloomsbury

    12 Oct 2017

    Bloomsbury have bought World English rights in two books from naval historian Angus Konstam. Hunting the Bismarck: The pursuit of Germany’s most famous battleship will be published in 2018 and Mutiny on the Spanish Main , the dramatic story of HMS Hermione, a British frigate whose crew mutinied in 1797, in what was regarded as the most bloody revolt in British naval history, published in 2019.