Archives: Book

THE WITCHES OF VARDØ is the spellbinding new novel by Anya Bergman. Combining meticulously researched historical fiction with magical realism, this is a rousing, cinematic fictionalization of the real women put on trial in one of the largest witch trials in Scandinavia, 1662 – full of hope and empowerment.

“Powerful, deeply moving” Sunday Times and featured as a Sunday Times International Bestseller

 “A passionate indictment of the patriarchy…a vibrant exaltation of the resilience of women … Anya Bergman summons a historic witch trial with breath-taking detail and immediacy” Hannah Kent

Norway, 1662. A dangerous time to be a woman, when even dancing can lead to accusations of witchcraft. After recently widowed Zigri’s affair with the local merchant is discovered, she is sent to the fortress at Vardø to be tried as a witch.

Zigri’s daughter Ingeborg sets off into the wilderness to try to bring her mother back home. Accompanying her on this quest is Maren – herself the daughter of a witch – whose wild nature and unconquerable spirit gives Ingeborg the courage to venture into the unknown, and to risk all she has to save her family.

Also captive in the fortress is Anna Rhodius, once the King of Denmark’s mistress, who has been sent in disgrace to the island of Vardø. What will she do – and who will she betray – to return to her privileged life at court?

These Witches of Vardø are stronger than even the King. In an age weighted against them, they refuse to be victims. They will have their justice. All they need do is show their power.

 

Anya Bergman became interested in the witch trials of Vardø and the vivid folk tales of the north while living in Norway. Travelling to the Steilneset memorial, in which Louise Bourgeois and Peter Zumthor commemorated those persecuted as witches, she became fascinated by their stories.

Now resident in Ireland, she is currently undertaking a PhD by Published Works at Edinburgh Napier University in Scotland where she also lectures as well as tutoring for Jericho Writers. She recently wrote an article for the Guardian earlier this year called How We Fell Under the Spell of Witcherature.

Anya is represented by Marianne Gunn O’Connor

It’s time to get festive! Published by Usborne in October, this madcap comedy finds Oscar and Molly in a race to save Christmas…

When Oscar and Molly rush outside to investigate a crash in the night, they’re not expecting to find a dazed Angel Gabriel wandering around their grandparents’ back garden. And they’re certainly not expecting to find themselves in a race to save Christmas.

But if they don’t track down a missing shepherd, wise man, donkey and the actual Mary and Joseph, who’ve all crash-landed in Chipping Bottom, not only will Christmas cease to exist, but they will too.

Operation Nativity is on.

Jenny Pearson’s debut children’s novel The Super Miraculous Journey of Freddie Yates (Usborne) was published in 2020. It was subject to a major 8-way auction and has already been sold in 20 languages. It has been shortlisted for the Costa Children’s Book of the Year 2020, Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, the Bradford Boase, the UKLA Book awards and the Lollies. It was also Waterstones Book of the Month, The Times Book of the Year and Sunday Times Book of the Week.  It’s a super funny, heart-warming adventure of three boys, one summer holiday, and a few miracles along the way. Her second book – The Incredible Record Smashers – was released in 2021. Jenny is represented by Sam Copeland at RCW Literary Agency.

*Longlisted for The Booker Prize 2023*

From the prize-winning author of AS YOU WERE, HOW TO BUILD A BOAT is the story of how one boy and his mission transforms the lives of his teachers and brings together a community. It was published by Vintage in April 2023.

Jamie O’Neill loves the colour red. He also loves tall trees, patterns, rain that comes with wind, the curvature of many objects, books with dust jackets, cats, rivers and Edgar Allan Poe. At age 13 there are two things he especially wants in life: to build a Perpetual Motion Machine, and to connect with his mother Noelle, who died when he was born. In his mind these things are intimately linked. And at his new school, where all else is disorientating and overwhelming, he finds two people who might just be able to help him.

Elaine Feeney is a writer from the west of Ireland. Her 2020 debut novel, As You Were, was shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize and the Irish Novel of the Year Award, andwon the Kate O’Brien Award, the McKitterick Prize, and the Dalkey Festival Emerging Writer Award. Feeney has published three collections of poetry including The Radio Was Gospel and Rise,and her short story Sojourn was included in The Art of The Glimpse: 100 Irish Short Stories, edited by Sinéad Gleeson. Feeney lectures at the National University of Ireland, Galway, and is represented for books by Peter Straus at RCW Literary Agency.

 

THE BEAUTY CASE is a dark, elegant, genre-defying adult debut by Karen Ball, set in the glamorously debauched 1950s Hollywood. The rights were acquired by Viking in a 6-figure pre-empt and will be published in Summer 2024. You can read the Bookseller announcement here.

THE BEAUTY CASE follows Loretta, a quick-witted and plucky young woman who harbours a dubious past and is trying to succeed as a make-up artist in the misogyny-steeped world of 1950s Hollywood. It merges the escapism in the luxe debauchery of the Hollywood setting with a darker undercurrent of righteous justice.

A former Bookseller Rising Star with her publishing consultancy Speckled Pen, THE BEAUTY CASE is Ball’s debut adult novel having written more than 25 children’s books. She is represented by Katie Greenstreet at Paper Literary Agency.

THE AGENCY FOR SCANDAL is the first in a series following a secret detective agency for young women that specialises in digging up scandal on powerful men. Reminiscent of BRIDGERTON and CHARLIE’S ANGELS, it is a brilliantly plotted and swooningly romantic story with a host of beguiling characters. It will be published in the UK by Scholastic in January 2023.

An all-female detective agency righting wrongs at the end of the nineteenth century; infiltrating a scandalous upper class world straight out of Bridgerton and using their wit and bravery to unmask a villain. Eighteen-year-old Isobel Stanhope is keeping a lot of secrets. There’s the fact that she’s head over heels in love with a Duke who doesn’t know she exists; there’s the fact that her family is penniless but nobody in society knows about it; and then there’s her job at the Aviary, an investigative agency run by women that specializes in digging up scandal on powerful men.

 

When Izzy finds herself pulled into a case that involves gaslighting, blackmail, and missing jewels, as well as the Duke who holds her heart, can she and her friends untangle the web of secrets and lies to uncover the truth and protect the innocent? And when the stakes are so high, what happens when the crush she’s been hiding begins to turn into so much more? A smart, charming, brilliantly plotted and swooningly romantic story about a collective of bold women changing their world.

Laura Wood is a bestselling author whose first novel won the Montegrappa Scholastic Prize for Children’s Writing. She mostly writes for children and young adults, and she also holds a PhD in nineteenth-century literature from the University of Warwick. She loves Georgette Heyer novels, Fred Astaire films, travelling to far flung places, recipe books, poetry, cosy woollen jumpers, crisp autumn leaves, new stationery, sensation fiction, salted caramel, feminism, Rufus Sewell’s cheek-bones, dogs, and lashings of ginger beer. Laura Wood is represented by Louise Lamont at LBA books.

NOTES ON A DROWNING is a captivating legal thriller by bestselling author, Anna Sharpe. Using her fast-paced storytelling ability, coupled with her real-life knowledge of the law, Anna has created a narrative that is a gripping insight into a closed world. Orion acquired the UK and Commonwealth rights have a swift pre-empt to two books, the first to be published in August 2024 under the name Anna Sharpe. You can check out the bookseller announcement here.

After a Moldovan girl is found drowned in the Thames, two determined women – a lawyer and a political adviser – must work together to uncover a scandal that stretches to the heart of the British government. We think the key her is the two women, Alex, the lawyer and Kat, the political advisor. Both fascinating and complex women who could have the potential to becoming returning.

Anna is a writer of dark historical fiction, or historical crime. Her third novel, The Clockwork Girl, set in Paris in 1750, will be published by Orion in 2022. Her debut novel, The Unseeing, won an Edgar Allan Poe Award in the US. Her second novel, The Story Keeper, was nominated for the Highland Book Prize and follows a folklorist’s assistant as she searches out dark fairytales and stolen girls on the Isle of Skye in 1857. Anna is also a criminal justice and human rights solicitor working on behalf of victims of crime. Anna is represented by Juliet Mushens at Mushens Entertainment.

A claustrophobic psychological thriller about privilege, family trauma – and what happens when you’re robbed of a fair start in life

 

You are inside. With your husband and baby.
Your life warm and calm and untroubled.
I am outside. Alone. Looking in. Watching you.
You have all I ever wanted.
Now it’s time for you to share.

EMILY has a picture-perfect life; gorgeous house, handsome husband and beautiful baby, Bonnie. But she is plagued with the sense that someone is watching her home. As she becomes more and more convinced, we wonder (as does her duplicitous husband, Simon) whether she’s being paranoid. After all, she’s still recovering from the birth of her daughter, Bonnie, she’s sleep deprived, she’s trying to hold down a job as a teacher, and she’s drinking too much.

When spirited and capable Anna appears, returning Emily’s lost cat, she quickly becomes a much-needed friend for an increasingly self-obsessed Emily.

But why is Anna so intent on mimicking Emily and Simon, and why is she so invested in their life?

When Anna takes Bonnie for the day without telling Emily, we begin to wonder if Emily’s paranoia may not be a construct of her imagination as she realises that those closest to you are far more dangerous than any stranger…

Susan Elliot Wright grew up in Lewisham in south-east London. Before becoming a full-time writer, she did a number of different jobs, including civil servant, cleaner, dishwasher, journalist, and chef.  She has an MA in writing from Sheffield Hallam University, where she is now an associate lecturer, and she lives in Sheffield with her husband. She is the author of The Things We Never Said and the Secrets We Left Behind.

Susan is represented by Kate Shaw at The Shaw Agency