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News 22 March 2002ACQUISITIONS
LONDON BOOK FAIR The London Book Fair was attended by six members of Mainstream staff and numerous authors. The Scottish Publishers stand was slightly more difficult to find this year, tucked away towards the back of the hall but the tartan table clothes and scent of whisky being opened seemed to lure people over!
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Publicity
BURKE AND HARE, the true story of the notorious duo due to be published in October 2002, was given a pre pub push last week when their story was told in a CHANNEL 4 documentary THE ANATOMISTS. And Finally...
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OMAN
was commissioned in October just missing the Frankfurt rights list and
due to its imminent publication was inadvertently omitted from the London
rights list. An error we are rectifying by making it headline news in
this week's newsletter! Following ten years' residency in the Sultanate
of Oman, John Beasant began researching its little-documented political
history. In this book he claims that while Omani spin doctors promoted
what was believed to be the country's development into a modern Arab state,
the state was actually run by ex-military officers. Beasant reveals a
web of exploitation woven through all manner of political and commercial
interests, and casts light on the dark practices so often involved in
the sale of arms to Middle Eastern states and the political use to which
the sale of 'black gold' - oil can be put. John Beasant is a former press
secretary to two Commonwealth Prime Ministers and a Head of State in the
Islamic world. While writing OMAN he was expelled from the Sultanate after
rejecting a bribe not to proceed with publication. 
When
Mainstream aren't publishing exposés of world leaders and revealing
terrorist plots we are publishing sports books. As the only publishers
to have won the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award twice
we are always looking to future winners. I mentioned John Andrews forthcoming
book about fishing a few weeks ago. Now we have signed a golf book by
the well known writer Norman Dabell which could also be a contender. European
golf tour is a travelling circus and journalist Dabell has been an integral
part of it for many years. NATURAL HAZARD is a humorous account
of life on the golf circuit taken from his diaries of three decades. Woods,
Ballesteros, Faldo, Montgomerie, Westwood, Lyle, Woosnam Langer, Olazabal,
Garcia…are all mentioned in the book and Dabell gives a new insight
into their lives on tour. Dabell is author of the hugely successful WINNING
THE OPEN (sold to NTC Contemporary in the US) and HOW WE WON THE
RYDER CUP.
The
most interest from overseas publishers was in HOMELAND (already
sold to North Eastern University Press in the US); FRAMED (for
which film rights have been sold to Film Four); WAR OF THE WINDSORS
(our alternative Golden Jubilee celebration!) all Autumn 2002 titles and
ON THE EDGE OF A LIFETIME which will be published in May.
Serial
for THE FILTH ran in THE SUNDAY PEOPLE last weekend and has resulted
in numerous enquiries on this web site.
The
launch for NOW SOLO at the Mandarin Oriental took place on Tuesday
evening and was extremely well attended with photographer from HELLO magazine
and diarists from the DAILY TELEGRAPH. Jennifer Murray has already been
interviewed on MIDWEEK, RADIO 4; LONDON TONIGHT, LWT and has been booked
to appear on GLORIA HUNNIFORD, CHANNEL 5 next week.
Adam
Robinson, author of TERROR ON THE PITCH, visited the UK from the
Middle East last week to do a series of radio interviews. He has since
been booked to do an interview with the FINANCIAL TIMES and the SUNDAY
TIMES.