News 25 February 2005

Mainstream is delighted to announce the acquisition of BOTTLE, The Completely True Story of an Ex Football Hooligan by Steve Griff with Ivor Baddiel for publication in Autumn 2005. Bill Campbell acquired the book for Mainstream from Mandy of Watson Little Ltd. BOTTLE is a spoof of all the books written by ex-football hooligans about their experiences and follows the journey of Steve Griff from his early years when he was a young hooligan in nursery, to the culmination of his football violence in the mid 90s, when, on seeing an all-seater stadium for the first time, he lost his bottle, and ran. Ivor Baddiel writes regularly for TV and is probably best known on an international stage for writing the scripts for Stephen Fry at the BAFTAs. He is the brother of the comedian, David Baddiel. His last book, DAVID FECKHAM: MY BACK SIDE was published by Orion in 2004. It will be interesting to see how this spoof sits alongside our genuine hooligan books by the Brimson brothers, Martin King and Martin Knight and Colin Ward. All have sold well abroad, notably in Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the Czech Republic so we hope that BOTTLE will have the same international appeal. For information regarding world rights contact fiona.brownlee@mainstreampublishing.com

The three rights deals mentioned last week have now been confirmed, WHITE STORM and CHELSEA, THE 100 YEAR HISTORY will be published by Mass Media Organisation of Greece. As we don't have a sub agent in Greece the deal was done direct by Fiona Brownlee of Mainstream with Christos Haralampopoulos. FRIENDLY FIRE will be published by Bellona of Poland, the deal was brokered by Anna Smorul of the Graal Agency.

TERROR TRACKER by 'cyber journalist' Neil Doyle continues to make headline news. A story uncovered by Doyle about some new jihad tapes was featured on the main ITV evening news bulletin on Friday night at 10.30pm followed by a full story in the Daily Mail on Saturday.

Doyle has also written a feature for Zoo magazine, on a different topic ('the world's most evil websites'), which will have a plug for TERROR TRACKER in the issue out in two weeks time.

THE FASHION OF FOOTBALL has had some good reviews and got more coverage last weekend when the new Burro - Sergio Tacchini store opened in Covent Garden. Free gift bags including a signed copy of the book were included with each purchase on Saturday February 19th.

Shang a Lang Former Bay City Roller, Les McKeown, is doing the Once In A Lifetime tour in June with David Cassidy, David Essex and the Osmonds. It's 8 dates so far including 2 at Wembley and the NEC (www.tdpromo.com). Total attendance will be in the region of 25,000.

It should give a good boost to sales of his autobiography, SHANG-A-LANG.

Not only has IN HITLER'S BUNKER been sold to several overseas publishers, it also continues to generate a great deal of media interest. In the last week Armin Lehmann has been approached to contribute to a two-hour documentary, 'The Last Days of the Nazis' to be broadcast on Sky TV in April and by the BBC for a radio series on the last months of World War 2 and the immediate years of 'peace' that followed.

After the news last week that Robert Carlyle is to play Paul Ferris in a forthcoming film of his life, Ferris and co-author of THE FERRIS CONSPIRACY, Reg Mackay, are to appear in an hour-long Channel 5 documentary on crime in Glasgow which is being presented by Donal McIntyre.

Mainstream authors now confirmed to appear at literary festivals in 2005 include David Stenhouse, author of HOW THE SCOTS TOOK OVER LONDON, at Wigtown Literary Festival on May 1st. Peter Mortimer, author of COOL FOR QAT and Roger Hutchinson, author of WAXING MOON, have both been invited to appear at the Edinburgh Book Festival in August.

And Finally...

The Mainstream staff were out in force last Saturday for Elaine's wedding at the prestigious venues of St Giles Cathedral and The Signet Library on the Royal Mile. Everyone scrubbed up rather well, particularly Elaine who according to my two-year-old looked like a 'fairy princess'.