This excellent cradle-to-grave biography of a much loved novelist who goes in and out of fashion captures her alarming habits and tormented love affairsIn 1971 the author Barbara Pym was at her day job at the International African Institute when she noticed “Mr C” laboriously attacking his lunchtime sandwich with a knife and fork. Pym made a mental note of the detail before asking herself ruefully, “Oh why can’t I write about things like that any more – why is this kind of thing no longer acceptable?” Ten years earlier, Jonathan Cape had dumped her after her sixth book on the grounds that her brand of anthropological observation of English social manners was old lady-ish, dull and didn’t sell. As an extra humiliation, no other publishing house had been interested in picking up Miss Pym: books built on “the daily round of trivial things” could hardly compete with Frederick Forsyth’s The Day of the Jackal or, if you were feeling fancy, Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude. Jonathan Cape had even published John Lennon (Pym liked the Beatles, but still). Clearly there was no place in contemporary literature for Mr C and his oddly formal way with a sandwich.There is nothing unusual about major minor novelists having a disappointing and disproportionate decline, followed by a posthumous flowering in reputation and sales. What’s unusual about Pym is that her phoenix moment came while she was still alive. In 1977 the Times Literary Supplement asked well-known... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2021-04-08 06:30:07 UTC ]
Titles from Faber, No Exit Press, HarperCollins, Viking and Jonathan Cape have been shortlisted for this year’s John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-07-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Jonathan Cape has signed an award-winning debut American poet to its list, Ocean Vuong, tipped to be "an important new voice" after making "huge waves" in the US. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-06-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Jonathan Cape has acquired two new novels from British-Australian novelist and major literary prize-winner Evie Wyld. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-06-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Jonathan Cape is publishing BRIT(ish): Getting Under the Skin of Britain’s Race Problem by Afua Hirsch, social affairs editor for Sky News. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-03-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Buster Books, publisher of colouring books for ‘Brilliant Boys’ and ‘Gorgeous Girls’ to switch to ‘gender neutral’ titles in futureGirls will no longer be defined as “glamorous” and “gorgeous” while boys get to be “amazing” and “brilliant” at Buster Books, after the children’s publisher... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2016-01-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Jonathan Cape has acquired the new book by Jung Chang, author of Wild Swans (William Collins). Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-09-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Tom Avery has been promoted to editorial director of William Heinemann. Avery joined the Cornerstone imprint in 2011 as editor, and was made senior editor in 2013. Before joining William Heinemann he was at Jonathan Cape and Vintage Books. Avery publishes non-fiction and some literary... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-08-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Bill Clegg, Anne Enright, Marlon James, Laila Lalami, Tom McCarthy, Chigozie Obioma, Andrew O'Hagan, Marilynne Robinson, Anuradha Roy, Sunjeev Sahota, Anna Smaill, Anne Tyler and Hanya Yanagihara are this year's Man Booker "Dozen", longlisted for the £50,000 prize. There are five US authors on... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-07-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Dan Franklin will step down from his role as publishing director at Jonathan Cape at the end of the year, with Michal Shavit [pictured], currently deputy publishing director at Harvill Secker, taking his place. Franklin, who is aged 66, will take the title of associate publisher and will... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-07-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Jonathan Cape has acquired at auction a “biography of the 1919 Spanish ‘flu pandemic’”. Alex Bowler, editorial director at Jonathan Cape, bought world rights after a three-way auction to Laura Spinney’s book from David Miller at Rogers, Coleridge & White. Bowler said: “Laura’s aim is a... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-06-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Beth Coates has been promoted to the role of editorial director at Vintage Paperbacks. Coates will now be responsible for the day to day running of the paperback editorial team as well as continuing her work across Jonathan Cape. Her appointment follows the promotion of Rachel Cugnoni to the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-06-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Jonathan Cape has acquired a book of short stories by Daisy Johnson at auction. Editorial director Alex Bowler signed UK and Commonwealth rights to two books by Johnson from Jack Ramm at Eve White Literary Agency. Johnson is a 24-year-old prizewinning graduate of Oxford University’s Fiction... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-04-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Cutting out the middlemen of the literary world can lead to the discovery of acclaimed authors such as Andrea BennettPublishers are playing literary agents at their own game, seeking out new talent for themselves and cutting out the industry’s powerful middlemen.Executives within HarperCollins,... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-02-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A novel self-published following a Kickstarter campaign is competing against books from Jonathan Cape and Blackfriars in the best debut novel category at the Kitschies. The Kitschies, which covers novels containing elements of the speculative and fantastic, honours writing in four categories. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-02-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Evangelical publishers are predicting little impact on sales and plans for future books about round trips to the hereafter following the admission by Alex Malarkey that the story he told in 'The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven' is false. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-02-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A new novel by Salman Rushdie being published this autumn will blend “history, mythology, and a timeless love story to bring alive a world - our world – that has been plunged into an age of unreason”. Jonathan Cape will publish Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights in September, seven... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-01-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Dan Franklin is to step away from his divisional responsibilities at Penguin Random House’s Vintage, but will remain publishing director at Jonathan Cape. Meanwhile Rachel Cugnoni, publishing director of the paperback imprint, has been promoted to a new cross-divisional role as publishing... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-01-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Headline has acquired six novels by bestselling historian Alison Weir. Publishing director Mari Evans bought UK and Commonwealth rights to the books from Julian Alexander at Lucas Alexander Whitley. Weir’s non-fiction publishing will continue with Penguin Random House’s Jonathan Cape. The... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-11-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Tributes have been paid to author and former publisher Raleigh Trevelyan, who has died aged 91. Trevelyan, who passed away on October 23rd in Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, worked at Jonathan Cape and Michael Joseph, and also wrote a number of books for Faber, including a wartime memoir and... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-10-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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