FELICITY BRYAN ASSOCIATES
Literary Agency
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AUTHORS REPRESENTED BY FELICITY BRYAN CARLOS ACOSTA The greatest male ballet dancer of his generation, his story No Way Home is extraordinary. A delinquent street kid in the slums of Havana who dreamed of being Pele, his father put him into ballet school to get him off the streets. It was published by HarperCollins to brilliant press coverage and reviews. Scribner publish in the US. A film based on the memoirs is in development. Carlos has just delivered Pata de Puerco, a novel set in Cuba. www.carlosacosta.com KAREN ARMSTRONG Karen's books on Islam, The Battle for God, Muhammad and A History of God (sold in 32 languages) have become required reading for those wishing to understand militant piety and her book on Buddha is a US bestseller. Atlantic UK and Knopf US publish The Great Transformation, about the period from 700-300 BC during which all the great major world religions - Taoism, Confusionism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Monotheism in the Middle East and Greek mystical rationalism - came into being. The Case for God - What Religion Means, is a bestseller with The Bodley Head UK and Knopf US. Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life published in January 2011 grew from her TED Charter for Compassion; it is on The New York Times Bestseller list. Her next book will be Religion and Violence. FRANCES ASHCROFT The Professor of Physiology at Oxford published the very successful Life at the Extremes, a study of what the human body can endure, from extremes of heat and height to depth and darkness. Penguin Press and Norton US have commissioned a book on electricity in the body called The Spark of Life. HALIMA BASHIR Trained as a medical doctor in Sudan, Halima returned to her native Darfur region to work. After experiencing the most appalling hardships which involved being multiply raped herself and witnessing the rape of many children, she has gained asylum in Britain. In Tears of the Desert she tells her story with a clarity that is quite breathtaking. Written with Damien Lewis, writer of bestselling Slave, it is a heartrending story. Halima has been awarded the 2009 Community of Christ Peace Award in the US. JOHN BATCHELOR Professor Batchelor has the Chair in English Literature at Newcastle. He is the author of critical works on Conrad and Virginia Woolf. His much reviewed biography John Ruskin: An Intellectual Biography was published to coincide with a major exhibition for the 100th anniversary of Ruskin's death. Lady Trevelyan and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood is his latest book, published by Chatto. He is writing a biography of Tennyson. MARY BERRY A legend in her time, Mary has written over 40 cookbooks, including the classic Aga Cookbook. The Ultimate Cake Book sold over 100,000 copies with BBC Books, who publish Mary's Baking Bible in 2009. Mary has since been a judge on the hugely succesful Great British Bakeout. Dorling Kindersley's Mary Berry's Complete Cookbook and The New Cook are classics. Headline published Mary Berry's New Aga Cookbook, Cook Now, Eat Later (shortlisted for the WHSmith Award) and Real Food Fast. Mary Berry's Christmas Collection, also Headline, is indispensable every winter. Her new book, written with Lucy Young, is Cook Up a Feast. Mary has been given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Guild of Food Writers. www.maryberry.co.uk TIM BIRKHEAD A leading expert on bird reproduction and evolutionary biology, Birkhead is Professor of Behavioural Ecology at Sheffield University. The Red Canary - How Two Amateur Scientists Created the First Genetically Engineered Animal was published by Basic and Weidenfeld. Promiscuity - An Evolutionary History of Sperm Competition and Sexual Conflict was called 'A marvellous and lucid survey, from bedbugs to humans' by Nick Davies. His brilliant and beautifully illustrated book The Wisdom of Birds - Their Extraordinary Lives Revealed is published by Bloomsbury. wisdomofbirds.co.uk. IAN BLAIR Until November 2008, when he was fired by Mayor Boris Johnson, Ian was head of the Metropolitan Police Force. In Policing Controversy (Profile) he describes his journey from middle class background and Oxford, through the ranks of the police force to become Britain's top cop. His years at the MET coincide with Britain becoming a target for terror. This is a fascinating book destined to be required reading for anyone interested in how our nation polices itself. JOHN BOWKER This eminent theologian edited the Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. His book The Meaning of Death received the HarperCollins Religious Book Award and What Muslims Believe sells well. He edited the Companion to the Bible for Dorling Kindersley, who published God - A Brief History in 2002. I.B.Tauris published The Sacred Neuron in 2005 and he has written Beliefs that Changed the World for Quercus. Atlantic published The Message and the Book: Sacred Texts of the World’s Religions in October 2011. MICHAEL BRADDICK Professor and head of the excellent History department at Sheffield University, Michael's brilliant and magisterial social history God's Fury, England's Fire: A New History of the English Civil Wars 1638-1651 was published by Penguin Press. As Claire Tomalin wrote in the Guardian, it 'tells you what is was like for common people... to live through the debates and battles that tore their world apart… and is altogether an original and remarkable piece of historical wiring, and should become a classic' (World Rights). www.shef.ac.uk/history/staff/michael_braddick.html CHRISTOPHER BRICKELL This brilliant plantsman and botanist was Director General of the Royal Horticultural Society, where he worked for 35 years. He edited the RHS Gardeners' Encyclopedia of Plants & Flowers (which has sold over a million copies in the U.K. alone), The RHS Encyclopedia of Gardening and The RHS A to Z Dictionary of Plants for Dorling Kindersley, who also published Pruning and Training. ROBIN BRIGGS A historian and fellow at All Souls' College, Oxford, Robin has published Early Modern France (OUP l977) and Communities of Belief (OUP 1989). HarperCollins (UK) and Viking (US) published Witches and Neighbours, his study of European witchcraft between l550 and 1660. He is writing a History of Western Europe 400 -1914 for Blackwells. ARCHIE BROWN Professor of Politics at Oxford, Archie is a leading expert on Communism and, in particlar, the Soviet system. His book The Gorbachev Factor (OUP) won prizes. His major book on The Rise and Fall of Communism is published by Bodley Head UK and Harper US twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall. He is now writing The Myth of the Strong Leader on political leadership in the 20th century for Bodley Head and Basic Books. URSULA BUCHAN A distinguished writer on gardening, Ursula read History at Cambridge and was then trained in Horticulture at Kew. She has since written a regular column on gardening in the Telegraph and The Spectator. She has written many books, the last of which, The English Garden, (Frances Lincoln) was a great critical success. Her highly entertaining Spectator columns are published as collections as Good in a Bed and Better Against a Wall (Murray). Her book on Valerie Finnis won the Garden Writers Guild Award. Francis Lincoln publish Back to the Garden, a new collection of Ursula's writing.She is writing The Land of the Free: How Britain’s Gardeners Fought the Second World War for Hutchinson. MICHAEL BUERK This enormously well-respected former BBC reporter and presenter is also a superb writer. Hutchinson published his moving and sparkling memoir The Road Taken, which covers an extraordinarily varied life: a tough childhood as the son of a bigamist father; starting life on a local newspaper; becoming an international reporter covering the Ethiopian famine, which led to Live Aid; the height of apartheid in South Africa; The Moral Maze and the 9 O'Clock News. JUAN PABLO CARDENAL and HERIBERTO ARAUJO These two China-based journalists are writing China's Silent Conquest, an extraordinary book on China's world expansion. They have travelled to 25 countries in Africa, Latin America, Central and Southeast Asia to see how China is silently conquering the rest of the world and how its investments, influence and large-scale migration are impacting at local and regional level. To do so, they travelled 192,000 kilometres by air, 11.000 by land and did around 300 interviews in countries including Venezuela, Cuba, Russia, Angola, DR Congo, Iran, Burma or Sudan seeing Chinese projects and interviewing Chinese, local and Western businessmen, diplomats, NGO activists, politicians, economists, academics, think tank experts and journalists. HUMPHREY CARPENTER (Estate of) A brilliant and multi-talented writer and musician, Humphrey was well-known for his biographies of Tolkein and Auden. His Benjamin Britten won the Royal Philharmonic Prize and his Ezra Pound: A Serious Character won the Duff Cooper Award. His biographies of Dennis Potter and Spike Milligan were both bestsellers. He also wrote group biographies, including That Was Satire, That Was, a study of the Sixties satirists. He had just delivered The Seven Lives of John Murray, a history of the publishers, when he died on January 4th 2005 aged 58. SARAH CHALLIS A delightful fresh voice in fiction, Headline paid £160,000 for her best-selling novel Footprints in the Sand and its successor. Of her first novel Rosamunde Pilcher writes: 'I really enjoyed Turning for Home…I thought it so perceptive….Lady Pamela a star and the horse racing bit brilliant'. Headline did a major promotion for On Dancing Hill, an enchanting novel about a Dorset farmer's wife who reviews her marriage on a painting holiday in France. Blackthorn Winter, Jumping to Conclusions and That Summer Affair have substantial sales in paperback. Her next book, Love and Other Secrets, was out in 2010; her latest, The Garden Party, was published in January 2011. JOHN CHARMLEY This historian's critical Churchill, the End of Glory caused a furore. He has also written biographies of Duff Cooper and Lord Lloyd. Viking UK publish The Princess and the Politicians, the life of Princess Lieven, the notorious Russian ambassadress to London 1812-32, whose lovers included Metternich and the Duke of Wellington and whose extraordinary correspondence throws fascinating light on the diplomatic intrigues of the day. MARCUS CHOWN is an award-winning writer and broadcaster. Formerly a radio astronomer at the California Institute of Technology, he is cosmology consultant of New Scientist. His books include Afterglow of Creation, The Universe Next Door, (which The Independent called 'a parallel universe where science is actually fun') and Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You - all published hugely successfully by Faber. In 2008 Faber published his first children's book, Felicity Frobisher and the Three-Headed Aldebaran Dust Devil. Faber also published his book, We Need to Talk about Kelvin (The Matchbox Which Ate a Forty-Tonne Truck in the US) on looking for cosmic signs in the everyday world; it was short-listed for the Royal Society Science Prize. Touch Press and Faber have produced a brilliant APP on The Solar System. His newest book, Tweeting the Universe, written with Govert Schilling, has just been published. ARTEMIS COOPER A superb writer, her Paris After the Liberation, co-written with Antony Beevor, still sells. Cairo during the War was described as 'a fascinating and entertaining evocation of a vanished world' by Penelope Lively. Her biography of Elizabeth David had wonderful reviews and sold splendidly in the US and UK. She is writing the biography of Patrick Leigh Fermor and recently edited Words of Mercury, a selection of his writings, which was a bestseller. FRANCIS CRICK (Estate of) One of the greatest scientists of the 20th century, Francis won the Nobel Prize for the discovery of the double helix structure in DNA. Scribner and Simon & Schuster (UK) published The Astonishing Hypothesis: The Scientific Search for the Soul. He died in July 2004. ROBERTSON DAVIES (Estate of) Canadian novelist, playwright and critic, Robertson Davies was one of the great writers of his time. His Deptford Trilogy is world-famous and What's Bred in the Bone was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. The Cunning Man (the third in his final trilogy) was on both the British and US bestseller lists and has sold throughout the world. ISLA DEWAR Described by the Times as 'Observant, needle sharp and very funny' Isla's eight novels all set in her native Scotland have captivated her large following. Keeping up With Magda, Women Talking Dirty, Giving up On Ordinary, It Could Happen to You, Two Kinds of Wonderful, The Woman Who Painted her Dreams, Dancing in a Distant Place (shortlisted for the RNA Award) and Secrets of a Family Album have sold in many translations. Ebury publish Izzy's War, set among female pilots in World War II. They have also just published The Winter Bride. CHRISTOPHER DUGGAN Professor of Modern Italian History at Reading University, Christopher is author of the biography of Francesco Crispi (OUP 2002), A Concise History of Italy (CUP) and Fascism and the Mafia (Yale 1989). Penguin Press published The Making of Italy, a major history of Italy from 1860 to the present day, to widespread critical acclaim. He is now writing Fascist Voices: A History of Fascism in Italy 1919-1945 for The Bodley Head UK and OUP US. JONATHAN GLOVER This distinguished philosopher's Humanity: The Twentieth Century Moral History, which studies what lessons can be learned from the psychology of 20th Century atrocities, was published by Cape/Pimlico and Yale in the US and continues to sell brilliantly in many languages. Jonathan is Professor of Medical Ethics at King's College, London University. ROBIN GRIFFITHS-JONES A theologian and Master of the Temple Church, Robin wrote The Four Witnesses, a study of the gospels as seen through the very different eyes of Mark, Matthew, Luke and John. Who were these people? What is their perspective on the story? He published a book on St. Paul, The Fifth Witness with Harper San Francisco, for whom he is writing a biography of Mary Magdalene. Eerdmans and Canterbury Press publish The Da Vinci Code and the Secrets of the Temple. Harper San Francisco and Canterbury also publish his book on Mary Magdalene. JAMES HAMILTON An art historian, biographer and gloriously lively writer, James' biographies of Turner and Faraday were very well received in UK and US. John Murray publish London Lights, the story of the flowering of London in the first half of the 19th century, told through the lives of the scientists, artists, engineers and inventors who helped transform it to the London of the Great Exhibition of 1851. He is writing The Business of Culture for Atlantic. He curated the hugely successful exhibition, Volcano: Turner to Warhol, for Compton Verney in summer 2010. www.jhhamilton.co.uk NICOLAS HARBERD A leading plant biologist and Sibthorpian Professor of Plant Sciences at Oxford, Nick's beautiful book Seed to Seed is published by Bloomsbury in the UK and US. Part field/laboratory notebook, part sketchbook, part diary, this book is a dazzling evocation of the beauty of the natural world and an exhilarating explanation of the secret workings of plants. It has been published to high praise from reviewers. PETER HEATHER An historian at King's College London and author of Goths and Romans (OUP), Peter has delivered The Great Migration for Macmillan. Of his groundbreaking The Fall of the Roman Empire Tom Holland wrote 'Heather provides the reader with drama and lurid colour as well as analysis….. he succeeds triumphantly'. His next, Empires and Barbarians, is also published by Macmillan, who have commissioned Barbarians and the Restoration of Rome. www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/humanities/depts/history/about/staff/heather.html PENELOPE HOBHOUSE An internationally acclaimed gardener, her Penelope Hobhouse On Gardening described her famous garden at Tintinhull. Penelope's Colour in Your Garden was a best-seller. Plants in Garden History is a classic. She wrote The Story of Gardening for Dorling Kindersley who published with great success in October 2002. Cassell and Kales US published Persian Gardens to wonderful reviews. She now plans a book on Moghul Gardens.www.penelopehobhouse.com BELINDA JACK A young Oxford academic and expert in French 19th and 20th century literature, Belinda wrote a major biography of George Sand for Chatto and Knopf which received tremendous reviews. Chatto published Beatrice's Spell, the extraordinary story of the 17th Century Roman girl who was executed for the murder of her princely father, to excellent reviews (US The Other Press). She has just delivered The Woman Reader for Yale. COLIN JONES Professor of History at the University of Warwick, Colin published several books on 18th century France and wrote The Great Nation, Volume I in the Penguin History of Modern France and the illustrated History of France for CUP. He wrote the book to accompany the National Gallery exhibition on Madame de Pompadour. Penguin Press have published his sweeping and vivid Paris - A History: awarded the Enid McLeod Literary Prize for the book which, in the judge's opinion, contributes most to Franco-British understanding, written in the English language. He now plans Thermidor – The Day the Terror Ended. TERENCE KEALEY This brilliant and controversial clinical biochemist wrote The Economic Laws of Scientific Research to great acclaim - 'outstanding' Matt Ridley wrote in The Telegraph. He is a superb writer and has published a multi-disciplinary trade book involving history, science and economics called Sex, Science and Profit (Heinemann). JAMES KYNGE For many years the Beijing Correspondent of the Financial Times, James is the author of China Shakes the World, a pacy and incisive book about China's burgeoning growth and its effect on the economies of the rest of the world, published to great acclaim by Weidenfeld in the UK. It won the FT/Goldmann Sachs Business Book of the Year Award. STEPHEN LAW Stephen is a bright young Oxford-based lecturer at London University. Headline published The Philosophy Gym in 2003. He wrote The Philosophy Files, a children's book on philosophy, which Orion published and which has already sold in ten languages, and The Xmas Files. Routledge publish The War for Children's Minds, a book on bringing up children in a Liberal Enlightenment tradition, of which Philip Pullman writes 'Should be read by every parent, every teacher and every politician'. He recently wrote The Great Philosophers for Quercus and plans a book on atheism. www.thinking-big.co.uk MICHAEL LEAPMAN Former Times journalist, Michael's books include the prize-winning Companion Guide to New York and Barefaced Cheek, his biography of Rupert Murdoch. He also writes on gardening and Headline published The Ingenious Mr. Fairchild, the intriguing story of the first gardener to discover hybridization, which sold well. Headline also published his biography of Inigo Jones, to excellent reviews. His latest book is The Biggest Beetroot in the World, about the secretive world of giant vegetable-growing, for Aurum. DAMIEN LEWIS An award winning journalist and film maker, Damien's first book Slave, written with Mende Nazer, an escaped Sudanese Slave, sold over 500,000 copies in Germany alone and sold in over 20 languages. He has since gone on to co-author the brilliant Tears of the Desert, the tale of Halima Ashir's horrifying experiences as a doctor in Darfur, Little Daughter, the story of the human rights activist Zoya Phan from the Burmese Karen tribe and Forbidden Lessons in a Kabul Guesthouse by Suraya Sadeed. Damien also writes books about military exploits. See www.damienlewis.com DIARMAID MACCULLOCH Professor of Church History at Oxford, this brilliant historian's Thomas Cranmer won the Duff Cooper Prize, Whitbread Biography and the James Tait Black Awards. Penguin UK and US publish Reformation, which The Telegraph described as ' a historical tour de force' and 'this remarkable book... MacCulloch combines this sovereign scholarship with the light touch'. It has won The Wolfson History Prize and the British Academy Prize, and the very prestigious National Book Critics Circle Prize in New York. Penguin UK and US publish the bestselling Christianity - The First 3,000 Years, which won the Cundill Prize in History and which he also presented as a six-part series for the BBC.Penguin Press UK and Viking US have just commissioned Silence – on the role of Silence in The Christian Church - and a major biography of Thomas Cromwell. www.stx.ox.ac.uk/general/fellows/macculloch_diarmaid AIDAN MACFARLANE Author of The Psychology of Childbirth, this eminent paediatrician wrote with Ann McPherson Diary of a Teenage Health Freak, which has sold over 400,000 copies and I'm a Health Freak, Too! They have also written a student health book Fresher Pressure. OUP have published The User, a book on teenagers and drugs, RU a Health Freak? and have recently published Drugs, Sex and Bullying. FIONA MADDOCKS Chief Music Critic of The Observer, Fiona's Hildegard of Bingen was a great critical success when published by Headline and Doubleday (US). She was part of the team that set up Channel 4, was first music editor at The Independent and founding editor of BBC Music Magazine. She was educated at the Royal College of Music and at Cambridge. She is writing a book on Salome for Chatto UK and Doubleday US. JOHN MAN Travel writer and popular historian, John wrote The Survival of Jan Little (Viking). His new book is Xanadu: In Search of Marco Polo, published by Bantam. Genghis Khan has been a best-seller and sold around the world. Bantam have also published The Great Wall, a history of the Great Wall of China, his biography of Attila and his book on The Terracotta Warriors and are reissuing Alpha Beta and The Gutenberg Revolution. The Leadership Secrets of Genghis Khan: 21 Lessons From History's Most Successful Conquerer is also recently published. His latest book is Samurai - The Last Warrior. ANN MCPHERSON A general practitioner, Ann has written many books on Women's Health, including the very successful Woman's Hour Book of Health, but is best known for her books for teenagers. With Aidan Macfarlane she wrote the best-selling Diary of a Teenage Health Freak, I'm a Health Freak, Too! and Teenagers (Little Brown). OUP publish R U a Teenage Health Freak? and a series Sex, Bullying and Drugs. She died in May 2011 MARTIN MEREDITH A former Journalist in Africa, Martin wrote the first major biography of Nelson Mandela, which he has now up-dated for Simon and Schuster in the UK and Public Affairs in the US. His books include The First Dance of Freedom, The Past is Another Country, In the Name of Apartheid, Coming to Terms - South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Africa's Elephant - a History and Mugabe. The State of Africa, a huge and major book tracking the continent since the independence movements began in the 1960's, is published by Simon and Schuster UK and Public Affairs. His major work Diamonds, Gold and War on the making of South Africa, has been published very successfully with Simon and Schuster UK/Public Affairs US, who also published Born in Africa - the story of our quest for the origins of man - in 2011. JAMES NAUGHTIE For many years a political correspondent, first on The Scotsman and then The Guardian, Jim is now a household name as presenter of Radio 4's Today Programme. He has known Gordon Brown and Tony Blair for twenty years and The Rivals, his book about them was a great success with Fourth Estate. He has written The Accidental American, a book on Tony Blair, which is selling superbly in the US and UK. Murray published The Making of Music: a Journey with Notes, a book on the history of Western Music to accompany the BBC radio series. He is writing a novel. JOHN JULIUS NORWICH A brilliant and internationally popular historian, John Julius's history of Venice is a classic, as are his three-volume History of Byzantium and book on The Normans in The South which have all sold in many languages. The Paradise of Cities - Nineteenth Century Venice Through Foreign Eyes completes his historical studies of Venice and his major new book The Middle Sea: A History of The Mediterranean is published by Chatto. Weidenfeld publish the fascinating diaries of his father Duff Cooper which he has edited. He has written a history of the Popes for Chatto and Random House US which has received brilliant reviews. MIRABEL OSLER An enchanting voice in gardening, her A Gentle Plea for Chaos, In the Eye of the Garden and A Breath from Elsewhere are classics. She also writes on travel and The Elusive Truffle - In Search for the Legendary Food of France has a considerable following. Bloomsbury published her book, The Rain Tree, a memoir of her extraordinary family, in May, along with a re-issue of A Gentle Plea for Chaos. ELIZABETH PALMER Witty and racy, The Stainless Angel launched W.H Smith's Fresh Talent promotion and was followed by a series of highly successful novels, Plucking the Apple, Old Money, Flowering Judas and The Golden Rule. The historical novel The Dark Side of the Sun, set in war-torn London, charts the lives of two very different girls, both in their way involved in espionage. St. Martin's publish The Distaff Side, her latest historical set in Edwardian London. IAIN PEARS Author of the international bestseller An Instance of the Fingerpost, Iain has also written seven contemporary crime novels set in the art world. TV rights in the first, The Raphael Affair, have sold to Svensk Films. Cape published his The Dream of Scipio to brilliant reviews and again strong international sales. The Portrait, breaks new ground. It is written as a monologue by an artist to his sitter and mysteriously and brilliantly unravels their complicated past, leaving the reader in horrified suspense over their future. Cape publish his new novel Stone's Fall, a huge tripartite novel set in the sophisticated world of finance in Venice, Paris and London during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Film rights have been sold. ZOYA PHAN Born into the Burmese Karen tribe who for decades have fought Burma's military dictatorship, those behind the bloody October crackdown called the 'Saffron Revolution', Zoya was forced into exile and persecuted. Now she tells her extraordinary story to Damien Lewis, author of Slave and Tears of the Desert, in her book Little Daughter. ROSAMUNDE PILCHER With publication of Winter Solstice, her first novel for five years, Rosamunde hit No. 1 on the US and UK Bestseller Lists, with UK hardback sales of 200,000 and U.S. of 600,000 and paperback half a million in UK. It was a natural successor to Coming Home, which, like The Shellseekers, sold many millions. As ever, the critics have praised not just her storytelling qualities but her brilliance in creating characters which live on in the mind. DAVID PILLING The Financial Times Asia Editor spent seven years as Tokyo Bureau Chief. He is a superb writer and recently returned to cover the effects of the tsunami for the FT Magazine. He is writing Bending Aversity, a book on Japan before and after the tsunami for Penguin Press UK. MATT RIDLEY Matt's brilliant books The Red Queen - Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature, The Origins of Virtue and Genome - The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters have all been international sellers. Genome hit the New York Times list in hard and paperback and has sold in 27 languages. Nature via Nurture won the US National Academy of Sciences Book Prize and was shortlisted for The Aventis Science Prize. He wrote a short biography of Francis Crick for the Harper Eminent Lives series. HarperCollins UK and US publish his major new work The Rational Optimist. which has already won two US awards www.rationaloptimist.com EUGENE ROGAN Director of The Middle East Centre at St Antony's College Oxford, Eugene won the Albert Hourani Prize for Frontiers of The State in The Late Ottoman Empire and has edited books on the war for Palestine, Modern Jordan and Egypt. Penguin Press and Basic Books published The Arabs - A History to huge critical acclaim and great sales. In this, his first trade book, he draws on the Arabs' experience of their history, giving a much more balanced picture of the past 500 years. He has updated the book to include the events of The Arab Spring. He is now writing The First World War in the Middle East for Penguin Press and Basic Books. www.sant.ox.ac.uk/people/rogan.html FRANCESCA STAVRAKOPOULOU An atheist historian of ancient religions and the Hebrew Bible, Francesca studied Theology at Oxford, where she completed her doctorate and then taught. In 2005 she became Senior Lecturer in the Department of Theology at Exeter University. She is writing The Social Life of the Corpse for OUP (World Rights) and writing and presenting a three part series called The Bible's Buried Secrets for BBC2. PHILIP STEPHENS The Financial Times' distinguished Political Editor now plans a major new book on Anglo US relations. His book Politics and The Pound was described by Hugo Young as ' A brilliant piece of contemporary history'. He has covered Tony Blair's career for 15 years and Viking US and Politicos UK published Blair - The Making of a World Leader. MIRIAM STOPPARD One of Britain's best-loved doctors, Dr Stoppard's The Complete Book of Baby and Childcare is a constant best-seller. She has written books on family health, women's health, nutrition, sex and health for older people. Menopause was a bestseller. DK published her major book The Family Health Guide, which was shortlisted for the WHSmith Award, the definitive Defying Age and The Family Health Guide, the charming and practical The Grandparents' Book and Your Pregnancy Planner. DK are launching their APP programme with Miriam Stoppard on Pregnancy. www.miriamstoppard.com ROY STRONG Roy's magnum opus The Story of Britain hit the bestseller lists in 1996 and still sells and sells. The companion volume The Arts in Britain is also published by Pimlico. The beautiful The Artist and the Garden was published by Yale and received superb reviews. The Laskett, the story of the creation of his garden in Herefordshire with his wife Julia Trevelyan Oman, was published just after her death. His most recent books include the bestselling A Little History of the English Country Church, and Visions of England, published by Cape to great acclaim in July 2011. KATHERINE SWIFT A magical new voice in gardening, Katherine's The Morville Hours, a delicious book about the house and garden where she lives in Shropshire, set in the form of a book of Hours, was published in May and has been a bestseller. Bloomsbury paid a high advance for this and produced an exquisite design. Bloomsbury published The Morville Year to wonderful reviews in 2011 and will publish The Morville Rose a year later. ROMA TEARNE Her ambitious and complex first novel Mosquito, set against the background of her native Sri Lanka at the height of the troubles, was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel award, the American Kiriyama Prize, whose judges refer to it as 'an ambitious and affecting debut by a promising new talent' and the LA Times First Novel Award. It is beautifully written and the characters are entirely convincing. HarperCollins publish Bone China, also set in Sri Lanka and England, Brixton Beach, which was selected for the Channel 4 TV Book Club and The Swimmer, which was long listed for The Orange Prize. She has just delivered a groundbreaking new novel, The Road to Urbino. www.romatearne.com ANGELA THIRLWELL For years a lecturer in literature at Birkbeck College, Angela compiled The Folio Society's Anthology of Autobiography. Her Willam and Lucy - The Other Rossettis was published by Yale and very well received. Chatto publish Into The Frame, her biography of the Pre-Raphaelite Ford Maddox Brown as seen through the lives of the four very disparate women in his life. ADRIAN TINNISWOOD This architectural historian's His Invention So Fertile, a biography of Christopher Wren has been a huge success with Cape. Mitchell Beazley published Visions of Power and The Arts and Crafts House and The Art Deco House. Cape published By Permission of Heaven - the Great Fire of London and The Verneys, a brilliant story of a 17th century family based on over 30,000 documents, which was shortlisted for the 2007 Samuel Johnson Prize. Cape and Riverhead published Pirates of Barbary - Corsairs, Conquests and Captivity in 17th Century North Africa to brilliant reviews. Cape and Basic US have just commissioned The Rainborows. Adrian is also writing a historical novel called Grace, set in 16th century England. COLIN TUDGE Distinguished science writer and research fellow at LSE, Colin's books include the encyclopaedic The Variety of Life (OUP). The Guardian describes So Shall We Reap as his 'magnum opus': 'It is a huge and significant work, a wake-up call to politicians who are fiddling while our prospect of survival burns... Tudge combines an eclectic mind with analytical powers and the humane sweep of a political philosopher'. Penguin Press and Crown US publish his major works The Secret Life of Trees: How they Live and Why They Matter and Consider the Bird (The Secret Life of Birds), which have received wonderful reviews. He is the author behind The Link: Uncovering our Earliest Ancestor, which charts the sensational discovery of 47 million-year-old Ida. Colin has been described by Booklist as 'science writer extraordinaire'. www.colintudge.com ROSEMARY VEREY (Estate of) In her lifetime, Rosemary transformed English gardening. The Englishwoman's Garden was one of the most successful gardening books of the '70s. She also wrote The Scented Garden, Classic Garden Design, The Winter Garden, Good Planting and Good Planting Plans and the series English Country Gardens was screened by the BBC, who also published a tie-in book. Her reputation is international and she designed gardens all over the world. EDMUND DE WAAL This famous potter is also a wonderful writer. Chatto and Farrar Straus US published the bestselling The Hare with Amber Eyes, which took the British market by storm and has sold over 60,000 hardbacks and 160,000 paperbacks. It is both the biography of a collection (of Japanese netsuke) and of a family (the Jewish von Eprussi family), about loss and diaspora and the survival of objects. The New Yorker described it as 'the most enchanting history lesson imaginable'. It has been shortlisted for six prizes and won The Costa Biography award and The Galaxy Award. Rights have sold in 23 languages and film rights have been optioned by Allon Reich at DNA Films. Edmund now plans The White Book – A Journey Through Porcelain for delivery May 2014. www.edmunddewaal.com HUGH WILFORD This young historian, working at California State University, Long Beach, is the author of The Mighty Wurlitzer: How the CIA Played America (Harvard), on how the CIA set up a wide network of 'front' organizations during the early days of the Cold War to counter Russian propaganda and how by the late 1960s the whole enterprise had fallen into disgrace. He is now writing America's Great Game, on the early years of the CIA in the Middle East, for Basic Books. LUCY WOODING Lecturer in History at Kings College London, Lucy's Rethinking Catholicism in Reformation England was an Oxford Historical Monograph. She is a beautiful writer and has written an excellent biography of Henry VIII for Routledge. She is writing a major book on Tudor England for Yale University Press. LUCY WORSLEY Chief Curator of the Historic Royal Palaces, Lucy is a sparkling young historian whose PhD thesis was on William Cavendish. Cavalier - A Tale of Chivalry, Passion and Great Houses, a genuine 'upstairs-downstairs' of life in the home of a cavalier, was published by Faber. Faber have also published Courtier. Faber published If Walls Could Talk - An Intimate History of the Home this spring to coincide with a BBC TV series for Silver River Productions which has caused a sensation and Lucy has been hailed as an exciting new historian for Television. www.lucyworsley.com LUCY YOUNG Acknowledged by Mary Berry as her 'right arm', food writer and demonstrator Lucy brings together a wealth of culinary experience and a fresh outlook in her first solo cookbook Secrets From a Country Kitchen, published by Ebury. Her book Absolute, Aga Easy, is a modern take on Aga cookery, a must-have for Aga-owners. Ebury also publish another indespensible book for Aga owners Secrets of Aga Cakes and lovely baking guide Tips for Better Baking. Her latest book is Secrets of Aga Puddings and she is also co-author with Mary Berry of Cooking Up A Feast. www.maryberry.co.uk/aga_lucyyoung.asp |