Andrew Lownie Literary Agency : News

Zero Night: The Most Daring Great Escape of World War II sold to Icon

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 19:43:00 +0000

Mark Felton’s Zero Night: The Most Daring Great Escape of World War II has been sold to Icon and the documentary rights optioned for development.

Two agency titles in top 15 non-fiction paperback list

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 19:39:00 +0000

Congratulations to Casey Watson whose Breaking the Silence is no 13 and Cathy Glass whose Please Don’t Take My Baby is no 14 in the paperback non-fiction list this week.

Criminal London event this Wednesday

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 10:28:00 +0000

Kris and Nina Hollington will be appearing at the Woolfson And Tay bookshop this Wednesday at 7pm to talk about their new book Criminal London. The event is almost fully booked, but there may be a few tickets left.

Criminal London talk

Gold Camera Award for Spies Beneath Berlin

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 10:16:00 +0000

The documentary Spies Beneath Berlin, based on the book by David Stafford, has just won the prestigious Gold Camera Award at the 47th U.S. International Film & Video Festival. The book was recently reissued by Thistle Publishing.

Film Fest Awards

Rapid growth for Thistle Publishing

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 16:11:00 +0000

The agency’s new in-house publishing imprint has been quickly expanding, with more than 50 books published in the last two months.

A number of these have reached the Amazon bestseller lists, including David Stafford’s Spies Beneath Berlin, David Haviland’s Why Was Queen Victoria Such A Prude?, and Mary Hollingsworth’s Conclave, which was published days after the Pope stepped down, and which Simon Sebag Montefiore described as follows: “If you want to understand what’s happening in the Vatican now, read this book. grippping, lurid and fascinating, both scholarly and utterly readable, oozing with original academic research, it’s a minute-by-minute, day-by-day account of all the intrigues, manoeuvres, deals, politics and scandals of a papal conclave.” Another of David Stafford’s history titles, Churchill & Secret Service, sold more than 5,000 copies in May alone.

The imprint’s latest releases include Paul Merrill’s hilarious Muddle Your Way Through Fatherhood, which has been generating lots of media coverage, as has Peter Daughtrey’s sensational new theory for the location of Atlantis: Atlantis and the Silver City – just published by Pegasus in the US.

Fiction releases have included collections of Guy Bellamy’s well-loved comic novels, originally published by Penguin, Mei Trow’s cult Lestrade detective mysteries, and RSC actor David Weston’s Dickens-inspired novel Dodger - Down Under, which was launched at a glamorous party last weekend. “I have always thought the Artful Dodger’s story needed telling and now David Weston has told it, in a wonderfully engaging way” - Julian Fellowes.

Forthcoming books include Roger Howard’s Operation Damocles, which tells the story of Israel’s secret war against former Nazi scientists, and has just been published in the US; model Rachel Woods’ guide to the beauty industry The Model’s Guide; and reissues of Andrew Lownie’s acclaimed biography of John Buchan, a three-volume collection of John Buchan short stories, and The Edinburgh Literary Companion, which will be launched during the Edinburgh Festival.

Publication through Thistle has also been the catalyst for a number of more conventional deals. Desmond Seward’s Richard III was reissued by Thistle, and immediately snapped up by Pegasus Books in the US. Chloe Govan’s Amy Winehouse - The Untold Story was serialised in The Sun. And a forthcoming Thistle book, on a secret army unit in Northern Ireland will be serialised in a national newspaper, alongside a major TV investigation.

For more details, visit Thistle Publishing.

Peter Daughtrey on TRE

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 15:27:00 +0000

You can hear Peter Daughtrey’s fascinating interview with Talk Radio Europe through the link below:

Atlantis interview

Stewart Lansley on C-SPAN

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 06:20:00 +0000

Stewart Lansley’s fascinating and timely C-SPAN interview on The Cost Of Inequality can now be viewed online:

C-SPAN interview

Operation Lipstick generating huge interest

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 19:46:00 +0000

Pia Heikkila’s sexy chick-lit novel Operation Lipstick has just been released in Finland, after reaching the bestseller lists in India. The book is generating huge media interest, including the following:

Good News Finland

Bettina - Finland’s biggest chat show

Good Morning Finland

Radio Nova

Frank Ledwidge In Conversation

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 19:23:00 +0000

Frank Ledwidge has given a fascinating interview to The Voice Of Russia:

In Conversation

Recent Foreign Rights Sales

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 14:28:00 +0000

Rights in Jonathan Conlin’s Tales of Two Cities: Paris and London, 1750-1914 were sold in Taiwan and Brazil.

Pegasus bought Turkish rights in Daniel Tammet’s Thinking in Numbers.