Simon Trewin

David Warner reads John Boyne’s haunting novel The House Of Special Purpose this week on BBC Radio 4.  The novel travels to the heart of the Russian empire where young imperial family bodyguard Georgy Jachmenev is privy to the secrets of Tsar Nicholas and his circle.

‘Boyne is a skilled storyteller….his novel is an exciting, fast-paced story that compels the reader through its 70-year span’

(Matthew Dennison. The Times)

BBC iPlayer has all the episodes for your listening pleasure.

Many congratulations to polymath Danny Wallace (left) who has been shortlisted as Columnist Of the Year in the PPA AWARDS for the second-year running for his brilliant column in the appropriately named Short List magazine. The PPA Awards are the most coveted awards in the magazine industry, showcasing excellence, rewarding innovation, and providing the benchmark by which the UK magazine industry judges itself. Each year, finalists and other industry professionals gather together to celebrate the successes of the past year at one of the most spectacular events in the magazine industry calendar. The PPA Awards 2009 will be presented at a glittering 1920s-themed ceremony at the Grosvenor House hotel in Park Lane, London on Tuesday 30 June 2009.

The British Book Industry Awards Shortlists have just been announced. Read about them here

I am very pleased to announce that historian Kate Williams is joining United Agents as a client.

(c) Tony Cohen

Kate studied her BA at Somerville College, Oxford, her MA at Queen Mary, University of London and her DPhil at Oxford. She began researching Emma Hamilton while studying for her doctorate. Her first book, England’s Mistress: the Infamous Life of Emma Hamilton (2006) was ‘Book of the Week’ on Radio 4, shortlisted for the Marsh/ English Speaking Union Biography Prize, and a Book of the Year in the Times and Independent. It is being developed for film by Picture Palace, and the script has been written by Sarah Williams (Becoming Jane).

Kate Williams’s second book, Becoming Queen, about the passionate youth of Queen Victoria and Princess Charlotte, the Queen who never was, was published in September 2008. It was serialised in the Sunday Telegraph Stella Magazine, and Kate discussed it on Woman’s Hour, the Guestlist on Classic FM and the Simon Mayo programme on Radio 5. Continue reading ‘WELCOME TO KATE WILLIAMS’

I am one of six speakers taking part in a How To Get Published masterclass at the London International Book Fair this coming Saturday April 18th at 11 a.m.

The other speakers are Danuta Kean, Kate Mosse, Andrew Miller, Bill Swainson and Gareth Sibson.

Tickets and details here