News 8 March 2005

Mainstream is delighted to have acquired the rights to ALWAYS A MARINE, The Return to Civvy Street by Steven Preece for publication in October 2005. In this second memoir Steven Preece covers the difficult transition from being an aggressive serviceman to eventually mellowing into a respectable ordinary citizen. Preece spent seven years serving as an elite Royal Marine Commando. When he left in 1990, officially he was no longer a marine but mentally nothing had changed. He found that survival in the real world was as challenging as that in the armed forces and discovered he could not shed his tendency to turn to aggression and violence. As a result finding employment was difficult and he was forced to look for work abroad. In ALWAYS A MARINE he recounts his experiences in France (where he escaped a hotel fire), Germany (where he teamed up with an ex SAS trooper), Morocco (where border guards fired shots at him) and the Philippines (where he was caught up in a scam). Eventually fate led him to the world of the ninja where aggression is seen as a sign of weakness. On a cold November winter morning, thirteen and a half years after leaving the marines, Preece stood at a Remembrance parade and finally let go of the past forever. Steven Preece's first book, AMONGST THE MARINES, was published by Mainstream in 2004 and rights were sold to Random House Australia and to Oldag in the Czech Republic. Mainstream control world rights for both books, for further information contact fiona.brownlee@mainstreampublishing.com

A host of sporting celebrities, including Franz Beckenbauer and Ukrainian heavyweight Vladimir Klitschko, bid farewell to German boxing legend Max Schmeling, subject of Patrick Myler's RING OF HATE, on 2 March. German Interior Minister Otto Schily said in a speech at the funeral in Hamburg's St Michaelis church that "the champion of all weights was also a champion of fair play. A true gentleman has left us". Former Wimbledon champion Michael Stich also attended the service for a man who inflicted the first ever defeat on Louis at Madison Square Garden in New York in 1936, although he lost the re-match in 1938. Adolf Hitler repeatedly tried to persuade Schmeling to join the Nazi party in order to use him as a propaganda tool, but the boxer refused and was eventually forced serve as a paratrooper and was injured in the invasion of Crete. During the infamous Kristallnacht pogrom in 1938, when synagogues and Jewish businesses were attacked, he hid the brother of a Jewish friend and helped him escape to the United States. After World War II, Schmeling had a highly successful business career and gave financial help to the destitute Louis, also setting up a foundation to help charity groups and retired boxers in need. RING OF HATE, Patrick Myler's biography of Schmeling and Joe Louis will be published by Mainstream in March. US rights have been sold to Arcade. For information about all other rights please contact fiona.brownlee@mainstreampublishing.com

Flesh and Blood Diane Blood is again in the news responding to reports that a Midlands woman wants posthumous conception and needs to raise the £3,000 a throw for IVF. Diane has already been on BBC Midlands Today Evening News and has been approached by other members of the media. A production company working for Channel 4 have also been in touch regarding a docu drama based on Diane's book, FLESH AND BLOOD.

POWDER WARS, published last year, has been made into a one-hour Channel Five documentary produced by author Graham Johnson and presented by hard-hitting investigator Donal Macintyre, due for broadcast soon (March 2005.) For his work on Powder Wars and exposing the cash for pardons scandal in the Sunday Mirror, where he works as Investigations Editor, Graham Johnson has been shortlisted for the prestigious UK Press Gazette Reporter of the Year award. The winner will be announced on 15 March.

The first serialisation of WEEKEND WARRIOR, A Territorial Soldier's War in Iraq by Kevin J. Mervin will run in the News of the World on Sunday, 13 March.

Gina Mallett has confirmed an author tour to coincide with publication of LAST CHANCE TO EAT on Thursday, 19 May.

Last Chance to Eat Preparations are now in place for The London Book Fair from Sunday, 13 March to Tuesday, 15 March. Mainstream will be represented by Peter MacKenzie and Karen Brodie on the Scottish Publishers Stand, D94 and Fiona Brownlee in the rights centre on Table T644. If you are a bookseller, serial buyer or a foreign publisher and would like to make an appointment please contact Karen.brodie@mainstreampublishing.com and we will see if we can squeeze you in. The Mainstream rights list will be mailed to all overseas publishers before the Fair.

And Finally...

Happy 1st Birthday to Grace Campbell, daughter of Mainstream MD, Bill Campbell and Publicity Director, Sharon Atherton. She will be 1 on Sunday, 13 March, which explains why Bill isn't attending the Book Fair this year.