Frankfurt Book Fair 2019 - Berla & Griffini ...
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Frankfurt Book Fair 2019
1Table of Contents
CONTACT INFORMATION AND LIST OF CO-AGENTS.............................................................................................................. 3
FICTION
Abigail Dean GIRL A ..................……………………………………………………………………................................................................ 5
Jennifer Saint ARIADNE ..................……………………………………………………………………........................................................ 6
Libby Page THE CAFÉ THAT NEVER SLEEPS...........................……………………….………………………………..…................... 7
Libby Page THE ISLANDERS..................…......……………………….………………………………..….................................................. 8
Richard Osman THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB …………………..........…………………………………………………..…......... 9
Jackie Clune I’M JUST A TEENAGE PUNCHBAG............................................................................................................................. 10
Jen Williams DOG ROSE DIRT ……………………………………………………………………..…......................................................... 11
Vanessa Savage THE WOODS ……………………………………………………………………..….......................................................... 12
Lia Louis DEAR EMMIE BLUE ..................……………………………………………………………………..…........................................ 13
Jessie Burton THE CONFESSION..........…………………………………………………………………………….…...…........................... 14
Claire Douglas THEN SHE VANISHES .……………………………………………………………………..….......................................... 15
Amy McCulloch JINXED and UNLEASHED ……………………………....…………………..….......................................................... 16
Stacey Halls THE FAMILIARS ……………………………………………………………………..….......................................................... 17
Stacey Halls THE FOUNDLING ……………………………………………………………………..…........................................................ 18
NON-FICTION
Emma Barnett PERIOD. ........................................................………………………………………………………...................................... 20
Kate Spicer LOST DOG ……………………………………………………………………..…........................................................................ 21
@BorderIrish MY BREXIT.......…………………………………………………………………………………………………......................... 22
Paul Behrens THE BEST OF TIMES, THE WORST OF TIMES?……………............................................................................... 23
Louis Theroux I GOTTA GET THEROUX THIS ................................................................................................................................ 24
Sir Trevor McDonald AN IMPROBABLE LIFE ................................................................................................................................ 24
Lord Michael Cashman ONE OF THEM ............................................................................................................................................ 24
Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah UNTITLED ................................................................................................................................................ 25
Marc Hamer SEED TO DUST................................................................................................................................................................... 26
Ece Temelkuran UNTITLED .................................................................................................................................................................. 27
ELISE DILLSWORTH AGENCY
Yvonne Battle-Felton REMEMBERED ............................................................................................................................................... 29
Irenosen Okojie NUDIBRANCH ........................................................................................................................................................... 30
2Caskie Mushens: Elise Dillsworth Agency:
Juliet Mushens: juliet@caskiemushens.com Elise Dillsworth: elise@elisedillsworthagency.com
Robert Caskie: robert@caskiemushens.com
Liza DeBlock liza@caskiemushens.com
Co-Agents
Eastern Europe Spain, Portugal, Brazil Germany Scandinavia
Prava i Prevodi MB Agencia Literari SL MOHRBOOKS AG Sebes & Bisseling
Yu-Business Centre P.O. Box 31308 Seefeldstrasse 303 Herengracht 613
Blvd Mihaila Pupina 10B/I 08080 Barcelona CH-8008 Zürich 1017 CE Amsterdam
11070 Belgrade Spain Switzerland The Netherlands
Serbia
Italy China and Taiwan Turkey Israel
Berla & Griffini Grayhawk Agency AnatoliaLit The Deborah Harris Agency
Via Stamp 4 14F, No 63, Sec. 4, Xinyi Rd No 48 Or.Ko Apt 9 Yael St
20123 Milano Taipei 10651 B Blok D:4 Jerusalem 93502
Italy Taiwan 34710 Kadikoy-Istanbul Israel
Turkey
France Korea Japan
Eliane Benisti Agency Duran Kim Agency Tuttle-Mori Agency
80 rue des Saints-Pères 203 Century II 2-17 Kanda Jimbocho
75007 Paris 56 Banpodaero-18-gil Chiyoda-ku
France Seocho-gu Tokyo 101-0051
Seoul 0665 Japan
Korea
3Fiction
4GIRL A
By Abigail Dean Primary agent: Juliet Mushens
GIRL A, the debut reading group novel by Abigail Dean, reads like Room meets The Girls. It’s
about a young woman who escaped an abusive household as a teen, forced to confront her
family history after the death of her mother. It sits alongside novels like MY ABSOLUTE
DARLING, WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN and MY DARK VANESSA.
GIRL A tells the story of Lex Gracie. Lex doesn’t want to think about her family. She doesn’t
want to think about growing up in her parents’ House of Horrors. And she doesn’t want to
think about her identity as Girl A: the girl who escaped. When her mother dies in prison and
leaves the siblings the family home, she can’t run from her past any longer. Together with
her sister, Evie, Lex intends to turn the House of Horrors into a force for good. But first she
must come to terms with her six siblings – and with the childhood they shared.
On submission: Inspired by the real life Turpin Case this is reading group fiction at its finest, marrying a
19 September page-turning plot with beautiful writing, and themes that you’ll want to discuss with
everyone once you’ve read the book.
All rights available
Abigail Dean graduated from Cambridge with a Double First in English. After five
years as a lawyer, working between London, New York and Kuala Lumpur, she took last
Text: summer off to write the novel ahead of her thirtieth birthday. She now works as a lawyer
Unedited manuscript for Google, and is writing her second novel, THE CONSPIRACIES: it follows two people in the
aftermath of a shooting, one who lost her mother that day, and one who believes it was a
5
hoax and sets out to expose it.ARIADNE by Jennifer Saint
Primary agent: Juliet Mushens
ARIADNE by Jennifer Saint is a feminist literary retelling of the ancient
Greek myth and will sit alongside books like THE SONG OF ACHILLES and
THE SILENCE OF THE GIRLS.
Ariadne is the eighteen year old Princess of ancient Crete. Beneath the
palace of Knossos, the ferocious Minotaur runs crazed through the
Labyrinth – Minos’s greatest shame, and Ariadne’s brother. When Theseus
arrives in Crete as a sacrifice to the beast, Ariadne falls in love with the
On submission: October handsome hero.
But in a world where women are nothing more than pawns of the gods,
All rights available and of powerful men, will Ariadne’s decision to betray Crete for Theseus
ensure her happy ending? Or will she find herself sacrificed for her lover’s
Text: ambition?
Unedited manuscript Jennifer Saint studied Classics at university, and now works as a teacher.
6THE 24 HOUR CAFÉ
Pub date:
23 January 2020
Text: Manuscript by Libby Page
Rights sold: Primary agent: Robert Caskie
Film agent: Emily Hayward-Whitlock at the Artists Partnership
UK: Orion – Harriet
Burton
Korea: Gu-Fic Welcome to the café that never sleeps. Day and night Stella's Café opens its
Norway: Gyldendal
doors for the lonely and the lost, the morning people and the night owls. It is
Sweden: Pirat
Forlaget many things to many people but most of all it is a place where life can wait at
the door. A place of small kindnesses. A place where anyone can be whoever
Option publishers:
they want, where everyone is always welcome.
US: Simon and Germany: Ullstein Meet Hannah and Mona: best friends, waitresses, dreamers. They work at
Schuster Hungary: Alexandra
Israel: Modan
Stella's but they dream of more, of leaving the café behind and making their
Brazil: Intrinseca
Bulgaria: Soft Press Italy: La Nave di Teseo own way in life.
China: Xiron Poland: Owka
Croatia: Segrta Hlapica Portugal: Bertrand Come inside and spend twenty-four hours at Stella's Café; a day when Hannah
Czech: Euromedia Russia: Hemiro
Denmark: GADs Slovak: Ikar and Mona's futures will be changed and their friendship tested. Today is just
Estonia: Helios Spain: Suma the start, but it is also marks a conclusion. Because all beginnings are also
Kirjastus Turkey: Yabanci endings. And all endings can also be beginnings...
Finland: Otava Konyveshaz
France: Editions Kero
7THE ISLANDERS
by Libby Page Primary agent: Robert Caskie
A tale of family estrangement set across two very different islands: the Isle
of Dogs in London and a remote Scottish island known as Kip.
The death of Lorna Irvine’s parents sends her and her teenage daughter
back to the island where she grew up for the first time in decades, where
she must confront the truth of her past, reconnect with her family and
Pub date: TBD discover where she really belongs.
Delivery date: January
2020
• The Islanders sold in Germany based on a synopsis alone.
Rights sold: • The Lido was a bestseller in Germany.
UK: Orion • The Lido has sold over 80,000 copies in the UK.
Germany: Ullstein • Libby’s debut novel, The Lido, was published April 2018 and immediately
entered the Sunday Times Bestseller list after just three days on sale and
Option publishers: remained there for 5 consecutive weeks, peaking at Number 4.
See THE 24 HOUR • Catalyst Global Media has optioned The Lido for film; writers have been
CAFE attached and are currently working on the script.
8THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB
By Richard Osman Primary agent: Juliet Mushens
In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet up once a week to
investigate unsolved killings.
But when a local property developer shows up dead, 'The Thursday Murder
Pub date: 3 September 2020
Club' find themselves in the middle of their first live case.
Text: Edited manuscript The four friends, Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron, might be octogenarians,
Rights sold: but they still have a few tricks up their sleeves. Can our unorthodox but
UK: Viking – Katy Loftus brilliant gang catch the killer, before it's too late?
US: Pamela Dorman Books
Czech: Jota
France: Lattes Richard Osman is best known as the co-host of the UK game show Pointless.
Germany: Ullstein He is the creative director at Endemol UK and is also a regular on panel shows
Israel: Tchelet such as Have I Got News For You and writes a column for the Radio Times.
Italy: SEM Libri
Netherlands: Cargo
Poland: Muza • Sold for seven-figure sum in the UK after a 10-way auction, the highest amount
Serbia: Vulkan paid for a debut in a decade
Slovenia: Mladinska • Sold at auction in multiple territories, including a signification 6-figure sum in
Spain: Planeta Germany
Taiwan: Faces • Film rights sold to Amblin Entertainment after a 14-way auction 9
Film: Amblin EntertainmentI’M JUST A TEENAGE PUNCHBAG
by Jackie Clune
Primary agent: Robert Caskie
Film agent: Emily Hayward-Whitlock at The Artists Partnership
I’M JUST A TEENAGE PUNCHBAG is a laugh out loud, sob on the bus journey through the so-
called life of a middle aged mum. Ciara is mum to three ungrateful, entitled teenagers, is
married to steady Martin, a man with hairy udders, and is grieving for her mum who now
lives in the wardrobe in a cardboard box from the crematorium. She finds solace in her
anonymous blog, and in the daily chats she has with her mum’s ashes (often the best
conversations she has all day.)
Despite the menopause, the invisibility of middle age and the daily self esteem bashings
curtesy of her kids, Ciara manages to navigate the stormy waters of grief and family life -
until her mask slips and she is cast out from the family bosom. She embarks on a mission to
fulfil her mum’s dying wishes to have her remains sprinkled from the top of the Empire
Pub date: 9 July 2020
State Building, finding company, distraction and - ultimately - herself in the process.
Text: Full manuscript If motherhood is a job - who says you can’t resign?
Rights sold: Jackie Clune is an actor and writer from London. She has toured the world as the star of
UK: Hodder – Hannah Black Mamma Mia! and has appeared in the all-female Shakespeare company in NYC. She has
numerous TV appearances and is the author of two books - Man of the Month Club
(Quercus) and Extreme Motherhood - The Triplet Diaries (Macmillan.) She has written for
various publications - The Guardian, The Daily Mail, Red Magazine, Grazia and Top Sante.
She has four children including a set of triplets. 10DOG ROSE DIRT
by Jen Williams Primary agent: Juliet Mushens
When prodigal daughter Heather Evans returns to her family home, it’s for an unhappy
reason: her mother Colleen has killed herself, and Heather must pick up the pieces. Sorting
through her mother’s belongings Heather makes an alarming discovery – stacks and
stacks of carefully preserved letters from the notorious serial killer Michael Reave.
The Red Wolf, as the press dubbed him, has been in prison for over twenty years, serving a
life sentence for the gruesome and ritualistic murders of several women across the
country, although he has always protested his innocence. The police have had no reason to
Pub date: listen, yet Heather isn’t the only one to suddenly have cause to re-examine the Red Wolf
January 2021 murders – the body of a young woman has been found, dismembered and placed inside a
tree, the corpse planted with flowers. Just as the Red Wolf once did.
Text: Unedited
Manuscript What did Heather’s mother know? Why did she kill herself? And with the monstrous Red
Wolf safely locked inside a maximum security prison, who is stalking young women now?
Rights Sold: Teaming up with DI Ben Parker, Heather hopes to get some answers for herself and for the
UK: HarperCollins – newest victims of this depraved murderer. Yet to do that, she must speak to Michael Reave
Natasha Bardon herself, and expose herself to truths she may not be ready to face. Something dark is
US: Crooked Lane walking in the woods, and it knows her all too well.
Germany: Fischer
• Acquired after exclusive submission in the UK
• Sold in Germany after a 4-way auction 11THE WOODS by Vanessa Savage
Primary agent: Juliet Mushens
Two girls went down to the woods... but only one came back.
There's a lot from Tess's childhood that she would rather forget. The family
who moved next door and brought chaos to their quiet lives. The two girls
who were murdered, their killer never found. But the only thing she can't
remember is the one thing she wishes she could.
Pub Date: 23 January 2020 Ten years ago, Tess's older sister died. Ruled a tragic accident, the only
witness was Tess herself, but she has never been able to remember what
Text: Full manuscript
happened that night in the woods.
Rights sold:
UK: Little, Brown Now living in London, Tess has resolved to put the trauma behind her. But an
emergency call from her father forces her back to the family home, back to
Option Publishers: where her sister's body was found, and to the memories she thought were
US: Grand Central lost forever....
Czech: Baronet
France: Editions La Martiniere Praise for THE WOMAN IN THE DARK:
Germany: Droemer • “Savage carefully sustains the growing tension to the final twist. Psychological
Poland: Sonia Draga thriller fans will be rewarded.” – Publisher’s Weekly
Russia: Eksmo • “With echoes of The Shining, the mounting tension and creeping dread kept
Spain: Alianza de Novelas us utterly spooked – and utterly hooked.” – Heat Magazine 12DEAR EMMIE BLUE
by Lia Louis
Primary agent: Juliet Mushens
At age 16, Emmie Blue stood in the fields of her secondary school and let go of a red balloon into
the sky. Attached was her name and email address… and a secret. A secret she wanted to be free
of. A secret nobody else knew. That was until 16-year-old Lucas Moreau found her balloon, weeks
Pub date: Spring 2020 later, on a beach in Brittany, France, and emailed the address attached. An email that found
Emmie when she needed it the most.
Text: Edited manuscript
Rights: Now, eternal-optimist and planner Emmie is about to turn thirty – the age by which she thought
UK: Trapeze – Katie Brown she’d have everything on her life plan ticked off – and best friend of fourteen years (and
US: Emily Bestler Books unrequited love of her life) Lucas has something to ask her. Something he can’t ask over the
Croatia: Znanje phone. And this, Emmie is sure, is when it all slots into place. This is when her life starts. When
Czech: Albatros she finally gets the man she has loved all her adult life. But Lucas has news. He’s getting married.
Germany: Ullstein And he wants Emmie to stand at the altar beside him, as his best woman.
Hungary: Publish and More
Italy: Rizzoli Fabbri Now the one thing Emmie has been counting on, is no longer hers to count on, and everything she
Netherlands: HarperCollins planned is up in the air.
Norway: Bastion
Romania: Grup Media Emmie Blue is about to learn everything she thinks she knows about life (and love) is just that:
Russia: ST License Agency what she thinks she knows. Is there such thing as ‘meant to be’? Or is it true when they say that
Slovenia: Hisa Knjig and
life is what happens when you are busy making other plans?
Avrora AS
Spain: Planeta
• Sold in 14 territories, including in Germany after a hotly contested 10-way auction, and in the
Sweden: Forum
US for a 6-figure sum at auction.
13Option publishers: THE CONFESSION by Jessie Burton
Primary agent: Juliet Mushens
Audio: Audible (UK) Film agent: Rich Green at the Gotham Group
Brazil: Intrinseca
Bosnia: Buybook
Bulgaria: Ciela One winter's afternoon on Hampstead Heath in 1980, Elise Morceau meets Constance
Canada: HarperCollins
Catalan: Ara Libres Holden and quickly falls under her spell. Connie is bold and alluring, a successful writer
China: Dook whose novel is being turned into a major Hollywood film. Elise follows Connie to LA, a city
Czech: Argo of strange dreams and swimming pools and late-night gatherings of glamorous people. But
Denmark: HR
Ferdinand whilst Connie thrives on the heat and electricity of this new world where everyone is
Estonia: Varrak reaching for the stars and no one is telling the truth, Elise finds herself floundering. When
Greece: Patakis she overhears a conversation at a party that turns everything on its head, Elise makes an
Pub date: Hungary: Libri
19 September 2019 Iceland: Forlagid impulsive decision that will change her life forever.
Israel: Matar
Text: Final pdf Latvia: Zvaigzne ABC Three decades later, Rose Simmons is seeking answers about her mother, who disappeared
Lithuania: Baltos
Rights sold: Lankos when she was a baby. Having learned that the last person to see her was Constance Holden,
UK: Picador - Norway: Font a reclusive novelist who withdrew from public life at the peak of her fame, Rose is drawn to
Francesca Main Poland: Literackie
Croatia: Profil Knjiga the door of Connie's imposing house in search of a confession.
Portugal: Presenca
Finland: Otava Russia: Eksmo
France: Gallimard
Praise for THE CONFESSION:
Serbia: Laguna • ‘An absorbing tale of self-discovery.’ Woman & Home
Germany: Suhrkamp Slovak: Ikar
Holland: Luitingh Slovenia: Ucila
• ‘Jessie Burton always writes perceptively about female identity and creativity, but here
Italy: La Nave Di Spain: Salamandra she also explores motherhood in all its guises and nuances to stunning effect.” Red
Teseo Taiwan: Rye Field • ‘Dazzlingly good. THE CONFESSION is that rare thing: an utterly engrossing novel
Korea: Gimmyoun Turkey: Epsilon which asks big questions without ever once losing sight of the storyteller's need to
Romania: Humanitas Ukraine: Vivat
Sweden: Modernista
entertain and move.’ – Elizabeth Day, author of THE PARTY and HOW TO FAIL
Vietnam: Dinh Ti 14THEN SHE VANISHES
Pub date:
8 August 2019
by Claire Douglas
Primary agent: Juliet Mushens
Material:
Final pdf Everything changed the night Flora Powell disappeared.
Heather and Jess were best friends - until the night Heather's sister vanished.
Jess has never forgiven herself for the lie she told that night. Nor has Heather.
Rights Sold:
UK: Michael Joseph –
Maxine Hitchcock But now Heather is accused of an awful crime.
US: HarperCollins
Germany: Penguin Verlag And Jess is forced to return to the sleepy seaside town where they grew up, to ask
Option Publishers: the question she's avoided for so long:
Canada: HarperCollins
France: Harlequin Books What really happened the night Flora disappeared?
Hungary: Tericum
Italy: Nord
Korea: Gu-Fic • THEN SHE VANISHES has sold 36,000 copies in its first publication month
Netherlands: AW Bruna • Claire Douglas has sold more than 130,000 copies in Germany, was #3 on the German
Norway: Gyldendal bestseller list and was the #1 bestselling trade paperback debut 2018
Poland: Foksal • She has recently made the German bestseller list for three weeks in a row with STILL
Portugal: Jacaranda ALIVE
Sweden: Modernista • She is an Italian bestseller
Taiwan: Faces • Claire Douglas is a 3-times Sunday Times Top 5 Bestseller
15JINXED and UNLEASHED by Amy McCulloch
Primary agent: Juliet Mushens
Pub date: Pub Date:
9 August 2018 22 August 2019
Text: Final pdf Text: Final pdf
Rights Sold:
Rights sold:
UK: Simon & Schuster France: Pocket Jeneusse UK: Simon & Schuster –
– Lucy Rogers Brazil: Pensamento Lucy Rogers
Bulgaria: Ecliptic US: Source Books
US: Source Books
Netherlands: HarperCollins Czech: Talpress Netherlands: HarperCollins
Spain: Nocturna Germany: CBJ
Lacey Chu has big dreams of working for the company behind When Lacey Chu wakes up in a hospital room with no recollection
the 'baku' - a customizable smart pet that functions as a phone but of how she got there, she knows something is up. But with her
makes the perfect companion for its user. The only problem is, customizable smart pet, Jinx, missing in action and Moncha, the
she's just been rejected from Profectus Academy - the elite company behind the invention of the robot pet, up to
academy for cutting-edge tech. something seriously sinister, she’s got a lot of figuring out to do.
Then Lacey meets Jinx... Jinx is an incredibly advanced cat baku Lacey must use all her engineering skills if she has a chance of
who opens up a world that Lacey never new existed, including stopping Moncha from carrying out their plans. But can she take
entry into the hallowed halls of Profectus. But what is Jinx, really? on the biggest tech company in North America armed with only a
His abilities far surpass anything written into his coded. He seems level 1 robot beetle ... ?
to be more than just a robotic pet.
• JINXED was a Buzz Book at Book Expo America
• ‘A solid series starter for tinkerers and adventurers alike.’ -Kirkus
He seems ... real.
16THE FAMILIARS by Stacey Halls
Primary agent: Juliet Mushens
Film agent: Emily Hayward-Whitlock at the Artists Partnership
Fleetwood Shuttleworth is 17 years old, married, and pregnant for the fourth time. But
as the mistress at Gawthorpe Hall, she still has no living child, and her husband
Richard is anxious for an heir. When Fleetwood finds a letter she isn't supposed to read
from the doctor who delivered her third stillbirth, she is dealt the crushing blow that
she will not survive another pregnancy.
Then she crosses paths by chance with Alice Gray, a young midwife. Alice promises to
Pub date: 7 February 2019 help her give birth to a healthy baby, and to prove the physician wrong.
Text: Final pdf As Alice is drawn into the witchcraft accusations that are sweeping the North-West,
Rights sold: Fleetwood risks everything by trying to help her. But is there more to Alice than meets
UK: Bonnier – Margaret the eye?
Stead
US: Mira Soon the two women's lives will become inextricably bound together as the legendary
China: Beijing White Horse trial at Lancaster approaches, and Fleetwood's stomach continues to grow. Time is
Time Culture Development running out, and both their lives are at stake.
Croatia: Znanje
Czech: Pavel Dobrovsky • The bestselling debut in the UK for 2019
Hungary: XXI. Század • Sold over 40,000 hardback copies to date
Italy: Giunti • Hit #3 on The Sunday Times Bestseller List after 3 days on sale and remained on
Lithuania: Balto the list for 11 straight weeks, peaking at #2
Poland: Swiat Ksiazki • Sold in a 9-way auction
Russia: Eksmo
Spain: Ediciones B
17
Film for tv: The BureauTHE FOUNDLING by Stacey Halls
Primary agent: Juliet Mushens
London, 1754. Six years after leaving her illegitimate daughter Clara at
London's Foundling Hospital, Bess Bright returns to reclaim the child she
has never known. Dreading the worst - that Clara has died in care - the
last thing she expects to hear is that her daughter has already been
Pub date: reclaimed - by her. Her life is turned upside down as she tries to find out
6 February 2020
who has taken her little girl - and why.
Text: Edited manuscript
Rights sold:
Less than a mile from Bess' lodgings in the city, in a quiet, gloomy
UK: Bonnier – Margaret townhouse on the edge of London, a young widow has not left the house
Stead in a decade. When her close friend - an ambitious young doctor at the
US: Mira Foundling Hospital - persuades her to hire a nursemaid for her daughter,
Option publishers: she is hesitant to welcome someone new into her home and her life. But
China: Beijing White Horse her past is threatening to catch up with her and tear her carefully
Time Culture Development
Croatia: Znanje
constructed world apart.
Czech: Pavel Dobrovsky
Hungary: XXI. Század Poland: Swiat Ksiazki
Italy: Giunti Russia: Eksmo
Lithuania: Balto Spain: Ediciones B
18Non-fiction
19PERIOD. IT’S ABOUT BLOODY TIME.
by Emma Barnett
Primary agent: Robert Caskie
Emma loathes her period. Really, she does. But there’s something she loathes even more:
not being able to talk about it. Freely, funnily and honestly. Without men and women
wrinkling their noses as if she’s pulled her tampon out and offered it as an hors
d'oeuvre.
But somehow, despite women having had periods since the dawn of time, we’ve totally
clammed up on anything to do with menstruation. Why, oh why, would we rather say
‘Auntie Flo’ than ‘period’? Why, in the 21st century, are periods still seen as icky? Why
are we still so ignorant about such a fundamental bodily process?
Pub date: Now, in Period., Emma draws on female experiences that will make you laugh, weep
5 September 2019 (and, most probably, squirm), in a fierce and funny rallying cry to smash this ridiculous
taboo once and for all.
Text: Final pdf Because it’s about bloody time.
• Sold in a 4-way publisher auction in the UK.
Rights sold: • ‘I want to hear what Emma Barnett says about everything, and this terrific and timely book proves to
UK: HQ – be no exception.’ Elizabeth Day
Charlotte Mursell • ‘Funny, fiery and full of surprising facts.’ -The Sunday Times Magazine
• ‘I wish this book had been written before I stopped having them. I might have enjoyed them more!
It’s brilliant, informative and funny. Period.’ Jennifer Saunders 20LOST DOG: A LOVE STORY
by Kate Spicer Primary agent: Robert Caskie
Kate is a middle aged woman trying to steer some order into a life that is going off the
rails. When she adopts a lurcher called Wolfy, the shabby rescue dog saves her from
herself. But when the dog disappears, it is up to Kate to hit the streets of London and
find him. Will she save him, as he has saved her - or will she lose everything?
As she trudges endlessly calling his name in the hopeless hope she may find him, she
runs into other people’s landscapes and lives, finding allies amongst psychics, bloggers
and mysterious midnight joggers. Trying to find her dog tests her relationship, and her
Pub date: sanity, to its limits – and gets her thinking about her life, and why things have turned out
4 April 2019 as they have for her. A brilliant, life-affirming memoir, LOST DOG is a book like no other
about both about the myth of modern womanhood, and the enduring mystery of the
Paperback pub date:
30 January 2019 relationship between human and canine.
Text: Final pdf • Lost Dog has sold over 10,000 copies and was a Sunday Times Bestseller for several weeks
• ‘Sharply observed and deeply funny, it's one of the best, most enjoyable books of 2019 so far.’ -British
Rights sold: Vogue
UK: Ebury – Robyn Drury • 'Lost Dog is already one of my books of the year. Spicer writes like a dream...You will love it.' India
Film: Weimaraner Republic Knight, Sunday Times
• ‘It’s a mature piece of writing that never falters... It hits you right in the heart.’ -Literary Review
• ‘Kate Spicer made me care about a f***ing dog. I don't know who I am anymore.’ -John Niven
• Optioned by Lynn Harris at Weimaraner Republic, who has produced films such as Gravity, Magnolia,
and Man of Steel. 21I AM THE BORDER, SO I AM
by The Irish Border @BorderIrish
Primary agent: Robert Caskie
‘The iceberg always blinks at the last minute.’ – @BorderIrish
‘I was living the quiet life, watching the traffic and the sheep go
by and then Brexit came along and I listened to people
dismissing my importance. I could see the danger coming in the
distance, like a cold front on the Tyrone skyline. So I thought,
how can an invisible border be heard?’
Pub Date:
31 October 2019
97 years young, the Irish Border may be a late adopter of
Text: final material Twitter, but with more than 82k followers including Taoiseach
Leo Varadkar, Piers Morgan and Alastair Campbell, the Border
Rights sold: isn’t so invisible anymore.
UK: HarperCollins Ireland –
Eoin McHugh
• ‘Channelling the spirit of Monty Python, Father Ted and Oscar
Wilde, [@BorderIrish] trolls the Brexit process with a tone that
is whimsical, sometimes surreal and always pointed.’ – Guardian
22THE BEST OF TIMES, THE WORST OF TIMES?:
FINDING OPTIMISM UNDER THE SPECTRE OF COLLAPSE
by Paul Behrens
Primary agent: Robert Caskie
THE BEST OF TIMES, THE WORST OF TIMES? is a riveting popular science
book with alternating Pessimism, then Hope chapters on each aspect of our
future—energy, food, climate, economics, population and progress—which
guides readers through the two wildly different futures we are racing
towards.
Pub date:
July 2020 The Pessimism chapters reveal the existential consequences of our current
behavioural trends, without diluting the brutal truth to shelter readers. The
Text: Partial available, Hope chapters shed light on the epic, vital and worthy effort demanded by a
full manuscript by brighter future; considering what optimism really means, and how it could
November 2019
bring about a long-overdue reconciliation between our ethics and our
Rights sold:
actions.
UK: Indigo Press –
Susie Nicklen A SAPIENS for the environment, THE BEST OF TIMES, THE WORST OF
TIMES? is a book about our future, and the stakes couldn’t be higher.
23Biographies and Memoirs
Primary agent for all: Robert Caskie
Pub Date: 19 September 2019 Pub date: 17 October 2019 Pub date: 6 February 2020
Rights sold: Rights sold: Rights sold:
UK: Macmillan – Ingrid Connell UK: W&N – Alan Samson UK: Bloomsbury – Alexandra Pringle
Netherlands: Ambo Anthos
The most iconic voice in This actor turned politician
Acclaimed film and British broadcasting has writes a memoir chalk full
documentary maker Louis written a much anticipated with wicked showbiz gossip,
Theroux reflects on his career, memoir about his life and a stirring history of a civil
taking readers on a joyous career, from his childhood to rights movement, a clear-
journey from his anxiety-prone interviewing the likes of eyes exposition of Britain’s
childhood to is unexpectedly Mandela, Obama, and many standing in Europe, and an
successful career. more. unforgettable love story. 24THE SEX LIVES OF AFRICAN WOMEN
by Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah
Primary agent: Robert Caskie
THE SEX LIVES OF AFRICAN WOMEN is a creative non-fiction book that tells the
individual stories of diverse African women from the continent to its Diaspora. The
women featured self-identify as women or trans women, and their stories focus on
various memories ranging from mistreatment to finding sexual freedom in a time of
revolution.
The effects of Victorian style colonial norms, alongside a rise in religious
fundamentalisms, has meant that for the most part, African girls are taught not to
Coming soon talk about sex. That sex is a taboo subject, something that is not done, or should be
done only within the confines of a hetero normative marriage with a focus on
Text: Proposal procreation and male pleasure.
Rights sold:
In this collection, women from all regions of the African continent and Diaspora
UK: Dialogue Books - speak up about sex, negotiating pleasure, diverse sexualities, bodily integrity, and
Sharmaine Lovegrove
the possibilities for sexual liberation in specific local contexts. This book shows that
in spite of Africa’s diverse cultures, customs and languages, there are threads that
interconnect African women’s experiences of sex. The narratives in this book also
highlight how African women are negotiating sexual pleasure with agency, and in
diverse, complicated ways. 25SEED TO DUST by Marc Hamer
Primary agent: Robert Caskie
Working through a year in the garden of a large country estate, a gardener
explores the path that led him there. His days are spent with the magnolias
and roses, moths and beetles and the distant lady who has employed him
for the past thirty years. A broken biographical telling of the journey,
Pub Date: January 2021 mythology and poetry of an outcast boy who just wanted to be somebody’s
flower, to an old man who has and is everything that he wants.
Rights sold:
UK: Harvill Secker – Liz Foley
‘Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance meets Vita Sackville-West’.
Option publishers:
US: Greystone • HOW TO CATCH A MOLE was chosen by the American IndieBound.org for its Indie Next
Czech: Host List which promotes the best books in the country at independent bookshops
Denmark: Kristeligst Dagblad
Forlag Praise for HOW TO CATCH A MOLE:
Estonia: Varrak • ‘How To Catch A Mole is a beguiling mixture: part autobiography, part
Germany: HarperCollins handbook, part travel book, part philosophical treatise. I’m happy to
Netherlands: De Geus report that it succeeds on each level.’ -Mail on Sunday
Italy: La nave di Teseo • ‘Not only a compelling meditation on the 'little gentleman in black
Norway: Cappelen velvet'…but also a fascinating, lyrical account of the loneliness and
Polish: Foksal beauty of life on the margins, a memoir of vagrancy.’ -Times Literary
Romania: Sc Publica Com SRL Supplement
Russia: Eksmo
Spain: ArielUNTITLED
by Ece Temelkuran Primary agent: Robert Caskie
For the past few decades politics has taught us that if you are not an
optimist, then you must be a pessimist. However, the time for these
dichotomies is over and it is time to say, ‘Let’s get real.’
Pub date: coming soon After looking at how politics went off the rails in HOW TO LOSE A
COUNTRY, Ece Temelkuran now focuses on what we do now and how we
Text: Proposal
start to build a new political narrative. This book is for people who want
Option Publishers: to change the political status quo but do not know how, and tells them
UK: 4th Estate (WEL) – Helen that it is ok to stand up and say enough is enough.
Garnons-Williams
US: Harper360
Croatia: Naklada Ljevak Laying out ten commandments, Ece outlines how to be, what to do, and
France: Stock how to challenge things in the 21st century.
Germany: Hoffman und Campe
Greece: Dioptra
Holland: Ambo Anthos
Italy: Bollati Borringhieri Praise for HOW TO LOSE A COUNTRY:
Portugal: Temas e Debates • ’This is essential’ Margaret Atwood on Twitter
Spain: Anagrama • ‘She's one of the most acute and perceptive analysts of the furtive growth of fascism.
Ukraine: Vivat Everyone should know about this’ Philip Pullman
• ’Vibrates with outrage’ The Times
27Elise Dillsworth Agency
In association with Caskie Mushens
Elise Dillsworth: elise@elisedillsworthagency.com 28REMEMBERED
by Yvonne Battle-Felton
It is 1910 and Philadelphia is burning. For Spring, there is nothing worse than sitting up half the
night with her dead sister and her dying son, reliving a past she would rather not remember in
order to prepare for a future she cannot face.
Edward, Spring's son, lies in a hospital bed. He has been charged with committing a crime on the
streets of Philadelphia. But is he guilty? The evidence - a black man driving a streetcar into a store
window - could lead to his death.
Surrounded by ghosts and the wounded, Spring, an emancipated slave, is forced to rewrite her
story in order to face the prospect of a future without her child. With the help of her dead sister,
newspaper clippings and reconstructed memories, she shatters the silences that have governed
Pub date:
her life in order to lead Edward home.
7 February 2019
REMEMBERED brilliantly reimagines the past and explores themes of identity, community and the
Text: Manuscript legacy of slavery. With a great ear for dialogue and skilful inventiveness, Yvonne has crafted a
deeply affecting and memorable story which will appeal to readers of Toni Morrison, Octavia
Rights sold:
Butler and Colson Whitehead.
UK: Little, Brown
US/Canada: Blackstone • Remembered won the Northern Writers' Award in 2017.
• A writer of fiction and creative non-fiction, her writing has been published in Not Somewhere Else But Here: A
Contemporary Anthology of Women and Place, Welter, Slices, and The Chesapeake Reader Literary Journal.
• She holds an MA in Writing from Johns Hopkins University and a PhD in Creative Writing from Lancaster
University where she is an Associate Lecturer.
29NUDIBRANCH
by Irenosen Okojie
Nudibranch is a collection of stories featuring offbeat characters caught up in
extraordinary situations.
Stories include - a mystical woman of the sea in search of love arrives on an island
inhabited by eunuchs; dimensional-hopping monks navigate a season of silence and
face a bloody reckoning in the ruins of an abbey; an aspiring journalist returns from a
failed excursion in Sydney and turns into what she eats; an artist in Berlin finds
redemption and inspiration in a muse named Dee-light; a Grace Jones impersonator
has an unusual addiction and a darker, Orwellian future is imagined where oddly
detached children arrive in cycles and prove to be dangerous in unfamiliar
surroundings.
Pub Date: 7 November 2019
These are stories that jolt, surprise and disturb as they play with boundaries of time
Text: Manuscript and reality.
Rights sold: • Irenosen Okojie's debut novel, Butterfly Fish, was a recipient of a 2016 Betty Trask Award.
• Her debut short story collection, Speak Gigantular, was shortlisted for the 2016 inaugural Jhalak Prize and
UK: Dialogue Books the 2017 Edge Hill Short Story Prize.
• The story 'Animal Parts' was nominated for a 2016 Shirley Jackson Award.
• "An original and highly unpredictable imagination, in a single sentence, Irenosen Okojie can whip the rug
from under your feet. She's that rare and admirable thing - a writer who is also a risk taker. Prepare to be
startled." Rupert Thomson
• "Creates a whole new geography of the imagination." Michele Roberts
• "Read her writing for the risk, for the heart, for the imagination." Ben Okri 30You can also read
