News 11 June 2003

We have just acquired two new titles from agent Peter Cox. The first, THE REAL NUREYEV is a biography of Rudolph Nureyev by his stage manager and confidante, Carolyn Soutar. She has had the complete cooperation of Robert Tracy, Nureyev's lover for the last fourteen years of his life who has never before spoken of his relationship with him. It will be the most accurate book yet about the 20th Century's greatest ballet icon. World rights available.

The second acquisition, MR NASTY by Cameron White, charts the rise, fall and ultimately the redemption of a wannabe player in the global narcotics business. Cameron White wasn't your archetypal drugs dealer. He juggled a successful career as a talent and literary agent at ICM with an equally successful career as a dealer. Both paid well, unfortunately he derived as much pleasure from partaking of the drugs as he did from the money he made from them. It was only in Australia, after becoming addicted to heroin that Cameron made the decision to seek help and turn his back on the drugs world for good. He is now 35 and has been clean for three years. His story is not glamorous but rather gives an insight into what it is really like in the twilight world of dealers, users and abusers. He also shows that there is light at the end of the tunnel for those caught in the downward spiral of drug use and this book shows that it is possible to reach it. World rights available.

Last week, Rights Director, Fiona Brownlee was in Los Angeles for the US Book Fair (BEA). MR NASTY and THE REAL NUREYEV, as the most recently signed books, received most interest, closely followed by IN HITLER'S BUNKER by Armin Lehman (Autumn 03), FRIENDLY FIRE by Lynn Picknett, Clive Prince and Stephen Prior (Spring 04) and HOMELAND by Nick Ryan (Spring 03). Other books which were popular with North American publishers included HITLER'S BASTARD, BAGHDAD'S SPY, SHANG A LANG, GRASS and THE SUCCESS THROUGH THE ZODIAC SERIES.

While Fiona was getting stuck in gridlock traffic and grumbling about the smog in LA, Publicity Manager, Sharon Atherton was strutting round London in bright sunshine visiting serial buyers with the new catalogue. The Mainstream Autumn 03 catalogue celebrating 25 years of independent publishing has just been produced and looks wonderful. Copies are being mailed at the moment but if you would like to see one and are not sure if you are on the mailing list please e-mail webenquiries@mainstreampublishing.com

And Finally...

As we celebrate our quarter century, Bill Campbell, one of the co-founders of Mainstream has written an introduction to the new catalogue:

'Twenty-five years. The flicker of an eyelid, the flash of a camera... at the same time one remarkable journey from setting up as a two-man operation with more courage than capital to becoming one of the UK's leading independent publishers. The highs have been too many to list, the authors too numerous and talented to thank individually. We've published paupers and princesses, spooks and sports people, chancers and chancellors in one delicious, rollicking ride through the years. In Mainstream's first quarter of a century we have tried to adhere to our principles of high quality publishing of a decidedly independent nature - integrity with flair, if you like. This landmark autumn/winter catalogue is our strongest to date. We would like to use it as an opportunity to thank all of our friends in the booktrade and the media as a whole for their fellowship and support and to confirm Mainstream's commitment to writing worth reading.'