News 14 August 2006

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Acquisition:

Mainstream is delighted to have acquired world rights to ELIZABETH TAYLOR, The Lady Was a Vamp by David Bret. It is the result of years of research and includes many 'spiked' interviews and information which other biographers have shied away from revealing. Written by an established biographer of Hollywood icons, it is straight to the point and opinionated. He claims that Taylor is the most controversial Hollywood icon since Mae West. She has spent her entire life screwing up every relationship she had, many of which were with husbands who were gay or bisexual. In her heyday she was the most self-centred star in the firmament - her extravagances were obscene. Yet in the wake of her friend Rock Hudson's death from AIDS in 1985 she has raised millions of dollars for AIDS foundations, putting her own career unselfishly on the line. Whilst never yielding his tremendous admiration and respect for this legendary figure, David Bret has stripped away the veneer to reveal Elizabeth Taylor as she really was: attention seeking, avaricious, monstrous towards her peers, arrogant, reckless, even foolish at times, but above all a survivor, the last truly great Hollywood superstar in the wake of whom every single one of today's so-called 'headliners' fades into oblivion. Bill Campbell bought the book from Guy Rose at Futerman Rose & Associates. A publication date is not confirmed.

Rights Deals:

AFTER THEY KILLED OUR FATHER by Loung Ung, which we announced in the last newsletter, has been sold in a pre-empt to Arena in The Netherlands for a good five figure advance.

US rights for KITCHEN CON by Trevor White have been sold to Arcade in the US, Thomas Dunne (St Martins) and Carroll and Graf were the under-bidders. Serial rights for KITCHEN CON have been sold to THE OBSERVER to appear in the September edition of OBSERVER FOOD MONTHLY

We are delighted to announce our first ever sale to Indonesia with the sale of DON'T EVER TELL to Penerbit Erlangga. We hope that it will be the beginning of a long and fruitful relationship! DON'T EVER TELL has been in the Top 5 of the paperback non-fiction bestseller chart in the UK for the last 12 weeks.

Ilene Kreshka at Transnet has been working hard on our behalf. She has sold IN HITLER'S BUNKER to Tammerraamat in Estonia and THE PALACE DIARIES to Latvia. After a nail biting few weeks we have been told by the Palace that we can proceed with publication. THE PALACE DIARIES was serialised in the MAIL ON SUNDAY over the last two weekends and made a news story at the front of the paper. One further extract is still to run.

Finally, FOOTBALL AND GANGSTERS by the UK's leading investigative crime writer, Graham Johnson, is going to be serialised over three days in THE SUN  the week commencing 18 September.

WHO OWNS THE WORLD is getting terrific pre publication reviews. PUBLISHING NEWS have described it as 'rigorous and revealing study; the first time this information has been made so accessible.' and THE BOOKSELLER have called it a 'riveting and completely eye-opening history of landownership.' Rights have already been sold to Warner in the US. Mainstream will publish in November 2006.

In addition to the extract in THE OBSERVER FOOD MONTHLY, KITCHEN CON will be reviewed in THE MAIL ON SUNDAY in early September. ARENA MAGAZINE have given the author his own regular column as they were so impressed with the book and GQ are going to review.

Craig Murray has been receiving blanket media coverage for the controversial MURDER IN SAMARKAND. He has been on the TODAY PROGRAMME, BBC Radio 4, NEWSNIGHT, BBC2 and has had some great reviews:

"An important and well-told story from a frontline of the war on terror.  A very good thing indeed." Justin Marozzi, The Spectator, 29 July 2006.
 "An amazing narrative, beautifully written, of one man's war on the war on terror.  Fascinating, compelling...a bloody good read."  John Sweeney, The Literary Review, August 2006.

Further reviews are confirmed in THE DAILY MAIL and THE GUARDIAN

Another topical book is SQUADDIE by Steven McLaughlin. He has appeared on BBC Radio 5 three times, most recently to talk about the poor equipment troops have to use in Iraq, as a damming MP's report about it came out last week.

In July he had two major interviews printed in the Dutch newspaper 'Algemeen Dagblad', and the Japanese 'Hokkaido Press', which demonstrate the international flavour that SQUADDIE has now taken on. Earlier on in June I also appeared on the top rated German TV news channel 'ADR', to discuss SQUADDIE and injuries to unfortunate Gulf War veterans.

On July 25 he appeared on the top-rated Sky Islamic channel political show 'The Agenda', hosted by world-renowned journalist Yvonne Ridley. Reviews will also be appearing in the September editions of ICE and FRONT magazine - two top selling 'lads mags'!

Patrick Myler, whose widely acclaimed RING OF HATE: the Brown Bomber and Hitler's Hero' was recently issued in paperback by Mainstream, has earned a generous tribute on the American website devoted to boxers' records, www.boxrec.com The editorial comment was: 'As we agreed on the Boxrec forum, Myler is very possibly the best boxing author around. I read Ring of Hate and thoroughly enjoyed it.' It is published in the US by Arcade.

Events:

The Edinburgh Book Festival is now in full swing featuring events with Magnus Magnusson (13 August, 4.30pm), Neil Doyle (15 August, 2.30pm), Trevor Royle (15 August, 3.30pm); Billy Kay (18 August, 7.30pm), James Hunter (27 August, 11am) and Alistair Moffat (27 August, 11am).

Awards:

PETER MORTIMER was presented with a special award by Yemen Voice Magazine for (I quote) 'In recognition of His Valuable Contribution in Promoting the History of the Yemeni Community in Britain.'

And Finally...

Our deepest sympathy to Trevor Royle whose youngest son died suddenly last month while taking part in a charity cycle run from London to Oxford.