Autumn catch up
Biographer Rachel Trethewey with Jessica Mitford’s son, Ben Treuhaft, at the launch of MUV
The past month has seen a flurry of HHB authors’ books being published and highly praised. Stephen Fry described James Hanning’s THE BOOKSELLER OF HAY as ‘a breathtakingly hilarious and absorbing portrait of one of the most brilliant, dotty, dippy delirious yet ultimately inspiring eccentrics in British history . . . A remarkable story of cultural life, friendship, obsession and passion' and Horatio Clare wrote ‘ it is the very model of a biography which amazes, occasionally horrifies and entirely engrosses . . . James Hanning is a writer of sublime insight, style and skill'. James launched the book with a party at Hay Castle where he is also giving a talk about it for the Hay Winter Festival next month.
Mary S Lovell has said of Rachel Trethewey’s new book MUV ‘a well-written and fair-minded account of the life of Sydney, Lady Redesdale, which may help to explain the divergent opinions of her six daughters, the remarkable Mitford sisters. I enjoyed reading it.’ It was chosen as the Daily Mail’s Book of the Week and Nicky Haslam described it in The Oldie as ‘intriguing and informative’. The official launch for the book took place last weekend at the Osborne Hotel in Torquay where Jessica Mitford’s son, Ben Treuhaft, was a guest of honour. He shared a few entertaining family anecdotes about his grandmother and Rachel spoke about the challenges of writing about a character whose political views are so opposed to your own.
Charlotte Pike’s new book THE SOUP SOLUTION was released with an online book launch which left attendees slavering for soup. She’s been talking about it at foodie events around the country and will be demo-ing at the Isle of Wight Festival this coming weekend where novelist and wine expert, Helen McGinn, is also running an event.
In fiction news, Charlotte Betts’s latest novel THE STARS OVER ROME published last month and Suzanne Goldring’s new title HER HUSBAND’S RETURN will be published next week.
Our authors have been appearing at book events around the country: Wigtown, Burford, Gloucester, Barnes, Burford, Cuckfield and the Chelsea History Festival. Rachel Trethewey and Ben Chu will both be talking at Cheltenham Literature Festival next week. Aside from book appearances, Rory Cellan-Jones and Dr Saliha Mahmood-Ahmed have been guests on Brian Cox’s new BBC series A QUESTION OF SCIENCE and next week Mishal Husain will deliver the prestigious Romanes Lecture at the Sheldonian in Oxford. Her new Bloomberg interview series will also launch at the end of next week.
There is a particular kind of energy in the run up to book fairs and, with Frankfurt just ten days away, it permeates pretty much every exchange and email. Agents are flaunting their hotlists, Rights departments are finessing catalogues, there’s the seasonal soundtrack of Berocca tablets fizzing in water. ILA handle our foreign rights so the team will be at the Fair on our behalf, championing HHB Agency authors and piquing interest in their ideas and voices in the Translation market. So, although we do not grace the hallowed Messe Frankfurt halls ourselves, we get to enjoy watching everyone around us getting prepped.