“A fascinating and intimate portrait of a garden over time … Reading is like being given a rusty key to a beautiful secret garden." - Ben Dark, Author of The Grove

Hidden away behind high stone walls in the centre of London is Lambeth Palace Garden, a 10-acre site that has been continuously cultivated for more than a thousand years. Join Head Gardener Nick Stewart Smith as he unlocks the gates and invites us to wander through a secret garden where nature is at the heart of everything and where a thoughtful approach to gardening creates a haven for all sorts of native wildlife, allowing nature to flourish in the midst of one of the world’s busiest cities.

Published today by The History Press. All translation and US rights with PFD.

This Ragged Grace tells the story of Octavia's journey through recovery from alcohol addiction, and the parallel story of her father's descent into Alzheimer's. Looking back over this time, each of the seven chapters explores the feelings and experiences of the corresponding year of her recovery, tracing the shift in emotion and understanding that comes with the deepening connection to this new way of life. Over the course of this seven-year period, life continues to unfold. Paths are abandoned, people fall ill, waters get choppy, seemingly impossible things are navigated without the old fixes.

Published by Canongate today. All translation/US rights with PFD.

Hodder Press has snapped up a new book from Wellcome Prize-winning neurologist Suzanne O’Sullivan on medical diagnosis.

Executive publisher Kirty Topiwala acquired world all-language rights for The Age of Diagnosis from Morgan Green Creatives in an exclusive submission. It will publish in 2025 as one of the flagship titles on the new imprint.

When we are suffering, it is natural to seek a diagnosis. We want a clear label, understanding and, of course, treatment. But is diagnosis an unqualified good thing? Could it even make us worse instead of better? Through the stories of real people, neurologist Suzanne O’Sullivan will compare the impact of a medical label to the pain of not knowing.

Cassell, part of the Octopus Publishing Group, has made a dash for The Path We Run: The Incredible and Very Personal Story of Women’s Ultrarunning by Jen Benson.

Trevor Davies, publisher, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Kirsty McLachlan at Morgan Green Creatives. It will publish on 1st August 2024.

In her book, running journalist Benson looks at the science, hidden history and what it takes personally to run an ultra-marathon. The backbone of the book is Benson’s own story of training for and running her first 100-mile ultramarathon, through the Brecon Beacons (Bannau Brycheiniog).

We are wishing Kerri the happiest of publication days as her book, Cacophony of Bone, is published today by Canongate.

Cacophony of Bone maps the circle of a year - a journey from one place to another, field notes of a life - from one winter to the next. It is a telling of a changed life, in a changed world - and it is about all that does not change. All that which simply keeps on - living and breathing, nesting and dying - in spite of it all. When the pandemic came time seemed to shapeshift, so this is also a book about time. It is, too, a book about home, and what that can mean.

Milkweed will publish in the States and all translation rights are with Canongate.

Hannah Westland at Serpent’s Tail has signed UK and Commonwealth rights to No Small Thing by Orlaine McDonald.

This beautifully written debut captures one year in the lives of three generations of Black British women in one family in South London, the past that tore them apart and the present that has brought them together.

It is about trying to find your place in the world, grappling for a sense of identity and belonging without any solid thing to tether you or guide you. It is about the choices we make when our options are limited, limited by being a woman, poor, Black. It is about how to be a mother when your mothering instinct is gone, or perhaps was never there in the first place. Ultimately, it is about the damage we do to the people we claim to love the most. Publication is scheduled for summer 2024.

Translation rights with PFD.

Published today by Picador, we wish Sarah the happiest of publication days for her memoir, The Archaeology of Loss.

When you find your husband lying dead, you think you will not forget a single detail of that moment. As an archaeologist, I like to get my facts right, and I will try my best to do so, but five years have passed since that day in 2016 and I am excavating my own unreliable memory. I cannot go back and check.

'Extraordinary, unflinching, wonderful, moving' - Nina Stibbe, author of Love, Nina

Although Sarah had devoted her professional life to the study of death and how we grieve, she found that nothing could have prepared her for the reality of illness and the devastation of loss.

Translation rights with PFD.

Andrew Simmons at Birlinn acquired world all-language to Breathe: Seven Life Lessons from the Edge of the World, a memoir by Guinness world-record breaking adventurer Hughes

The book, part memoir, part manifesto, will be published in the summer of 2024. Hughes has explored some of the wildest environments on earth. In 2017, she became the youngest woman in the world to climb both sides of Mount Everest, and in 2020 became the youngest woman to ski solo to the South Pole. With reference to her all-extreme experiences and backed with psychological research, the publisher said: "Breathe encompasses tales of bravery, risk and pressure on an epic scale and expertly turns them into valuable lessons that can be applied to our everyday challenges."

Welcome to Eldey, an island with deadly secrets.

Mona: a carefree artist, staying at the Cloister to work on her illustrations.

Beth: the harried mother of a toddler, on the remote Welsh island for a weekend with her family.

Charlotte: a reluctant stepmother who wanted a romantic getaway with her husband.

One of them is a serial killer who poisoned four of her friends at her eleventh birthday party. They all fit the profile. Who will risk everything to kill again?

An absolutely gripping Welsh crime novel, perfect for fans of Sarah Pearse and Lucy Foley. Out today with Canelo Crime. Congratulations, Sarah!

All translation rights with PFD.

The Great Fox Heist is out today with Walker Books! The stakes are high in this fast-paced mystery adventure starring young magician Flick Lions. The second book in the Great Fox series.

How well do you really know someone...?

Flick is a magician who needs answers. Her father is still missing, and top illusionist the Great Fox doesn't seem interested in finding him, despite his promises. Determined to solve the mystery of her father's disappearance and of The Bell System, his greatest and most mysterious magic trick, Flick must pull off an impossible diamond heist to win. But danger lurks around every corner, and nothing is what it seems.

Congratulations, Justyn!

There's a thief in Aves Wood! M.G. Leonard, internationally bestselling author of Twitch, Beetleboy and Adventures on Trains, returns with the third gripping wildlife mystery for birdwatching detectives The Twitchers!

When the peregrine falcon nest is raided, Twitch realizes a thief is at work. Horrified, he and the Twitchers set out to catch the dangerous criminal, only to be ensnared in a deadly trap. Can they save themselves and stop the villain before anyone gets hurt?

Clutch is a thrilling spring mystery adventure about friendship, bravery and protecting nature. Out today with Walker Books.

Writer and journalist, Alice Driver’s non fiction book, Artists All Around, telling a lifelong friendship between her mother and the writer and illustrator, Maurice Sendak, has sold to Lynn Grady at Princeton Architectural Press.

A narrative of a child and an artist searching for and finding meaning in art. The deal was brokered by Rebecca Wearmouth at PFD, on behalf of Kirsty McLachlan. PAP will publish in Spring 2025.

All translation rights represented by PFD.

Lucy Earley at Walker Books has acquired a YA romance set in Northern Ireland exploring teen pregnancy from Children’s Books Ireland Award winner Kelly McCaughrain. It follows McCaughrain’s award-winning début, Flying Tips for Flightless Birds..

Publishing in January 2024, Little Bang follows shy science nerd Mel and slacker songwriter Sid, who get pregnant unexpectedly on their first date. This is Northern Ireland in 2018, where abortion is still illegal, and suddenly they are facing an impossible decision. Caught between families with conflicting views, Mel and Sid’s relationship starts to fall apart, and Mel finds herself feeling alone with the impossible dilemma of the Little Bang growing inside her.

All US and translation rights represented by PFD.

Rachael Allen at Granta Books acquired UK and Commonwealth rights to Oluwaseun Olayiwola’s debut poetry collection, Strange Beach after a three-way auction.

In poems exploring sex, and love, death and loss, Strange Beach is an examination of being a queer Nigerian-American man, in a different country, far from home. Granta said: is a wrangling of the various selves we hold and perform – across oceans and within relationships – through a highly patterned and textual lyrical play: it is a deeply moving and philosophical tapestry.

Granta magazine will publish several of Oluwaseun’s poems in August. The Guardian also featured Oluwaseun’s poem “Simulacrum” as “Poem of the Week” this week; a poem which Carol Rumens argues “embodies Olayiwola’s fusion of talents”.

All US and translation rights represented by PFD.

Robinson has pre-empted The Piano Player of Budapest: A True Story of Survival, Hope and Music by Roxanne de Bastion, described as “a story about a piano and its most prodigious player – how it, along with him, survived".

Editorial director Emma Smith acquired UK and commonwealth rights in a “swift pre-empt”. The Piano Player of Budapest will publish in hardback, e-book and bespoke audio edition in June 2024.

When her father died, singer songwriter Roxanne de Bastion inherited a piano she knew had been in her family for over 100 years. But it is only when she finds a cassette recording of her grandfather, Stephen, playing one of his compositions, that the true and almost unbelievable history of the piano, this man and her family begins to unravel.

All US and translation rights represented by PFD.

Published today by MUP, Presence explores one of the most curious experiences known to humankind: the universal, disturbing sense that someone or something is there when we are alone – the feeling of an unseen presence. Presence takes us alongside Ernest Shackleton’s expedition crossing South Georgia in 1916, to meet mediums and robots and step through real, imagined and virtual worlds. This compelling story will stoke the fascination of sceptics and ardent believers alike who are drawn to the mystery of the unseen.

St.Martins will publish this month in the States, with Alpina to publish in Russia. All translation rights represented by PFD.

Congratulations, Ben!

Happy publication day to Jennifer Killick and the third book in the Dread Wood series, entitled Flock Horror.

Angelo and his friends know that together they can handle any pretty much anything – including giant mutant spiders or snake-like parasites that burrow into your brain. But when a terrifying new enemy attacks from above it seems they have met their ultimate match . . . how can they defeat giant vampire birds that are after BLOOD?

With summer term in full force – and sports day and prom night on the horizon – the whole school is in danger. The gang need a plan to bring safety to the skies!

All translation rights with Farshore.

We are thrilled that Haley McGee’s show, Age is a Feeling, has been nominated for an Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Affiliate Theatre. Currently showing at the Soho Theatre, Age Is A Feeling wrestles with our endless chances to change course while we’re alive. A covert rallying cry against cynicism and regret. A call to seize our time.

This never-the-same-twice show is a gripping story about how our relationship with mortality shapes the way we live.

Congratulations, Haley!

As the only book award voted for by young people, children from across the UK are now invited to select their favourite books across three categories – Books for Younger Children, Books for Younger Readers and Books for Older Readers.

In the Older Readers category, the shortlisted titles are: Dread Wood (Farshore) by Jennifer Killick; The Light In Everything (Bloomsbury) by Katya Balen; and While The Storm Rages (Andersen Press) by Phil Earle.

The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony on Saturday 10th June.

Stone Will Answer is an unusual adventure story of resilience and homecoming, of weight and motion, of rediscovering love and faith, and of journeys practical, spiritual and geological. A captivating blend of exploration, memoir and myth, and an insight into a beguiling craft, it asks what lessons might be learned from stone, what we choose to carry with us and what we return to put down or pick up again. Published by Harvill Secker, this is Beatrice Searle’s first book.

A gifted writer, capable of luminous description ― Spectator

Congratulations, Bea!