Launching season
The window at Daunt Marylebone
Last month we celebrated the launch of Felicity Spector’s BREAD & WAR: A Ukrainian Story of Food, Bravery and Hope at Tatar Bunar restaurant in Shoreditch. Published by Duckworth, the book charts Felicity’s journeys through Ukraine, meeting the people who have kept the nation fed throughout the full-scale invasion. It’s a ‘very special’ (Nigel Slater) book that let’s us see the war through the lens of the most basic human need – sustenance – and it reminds us of the ‘power of bread and connection’ (Olia Hercules) in the darkest of times.
Following on from April’s fascinating episode of Who Do You Think You Are? when Mishal Husain’s lineage was traced all the way back to the American war of Independence, the paperback edition of her memoir BROKEN THREADS: A Family from Empire to Independence was published by 4th Estate last month. Mishal spoke about it at the Stratford Literary Festival and at Kellog College, Oxford, where she has recently been elected a Fellow. It’s a hugely prestigious award; previous Fellows include His Majesty King Charles III, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and Ban Ki-moon. More recently she has done events at Charleston and Hay literary festivals and Mishal will be talking about the book at the Nevill Holt festival next week.
Last month the paperback of Jennifer Cox’s WOMEN ARE ANGRY: Why Your Rage is Hiding and How to Let it Out also hit the shelves. Jameela Jamil described it as ‘a call to arms’ and it won the Times’s ‘Self-help Book of the Year’ so we have high hopes for this new edition.
The Boldwood summer party at Fulham Palace was a lovely evening, with everyone feeling especially perky given the raft of awards they have recently picked up and it was great to have our authors Emma Burstall and Helen McGinn both there.
We also celebrated the publication of Ben Chu’s extremely timely EXILE ECONOMICS: What Happens if Globalisation Fails with a packed room and excellent speeches at Daunt Books Marylebone. It was great to be back in the same space where we launched his debut CHINESE WHISPERS in 2013. Ben was at Hay Festival on Sunday and will be speaking at Backstory in Balham this evening.
Busy times at HHB HQ as this week we have the release of the paperback of Sophie Grigson’s EXPLODING TOMATOES, on Thursday night Elly will be attending the inaugural Tom Grass Spirit of Adventure Literary Prize and we will be partying at the RAF club on Friday for the publication of Adam Hart’s debut OPERATION PIMENTO: My Great-Grandfather’s Great Escape.