Nicholas Clee

Book trade journalist, author, hopeless piano player, sporadically hopeful West Ham supporter, no judge of horseracing form. Most recent: Courses for Horses.

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Articles

The Gorgeous Inertia of the Earth by Adrian Duncan

2 months ago | the-tls.co.uk | Nicholas Clee |Damon Galgut |Keith Hopper |Houman Barekat

Can a circle, a two-dimensional object, deepen as well as enlarge? Can the façade of a church be “toothsome”? These and similar questions may occur to readers of Adrian Duncan’s third novel, The Gorgeous Inertia of the Earth. The book opens in “this small city of I”, presumably not named as Innsbruck because Duncan has transferred there from Berlin a statue of the Romantic figures Achim and Bettina von Arnim.
WH Smith to Sell Its Bookstore Division

2 months ago | publishersweekly.com | Nicholas Clee

WH Smith has confirmed that it is in talks to sell its bookstore business. The division, which has 500 branches, employs more than 5,000 staff. The news does not come as a surprise, following similar departures from high streets in the U.K. of such other famous names as Woolworths, Debenhams, and Littlewoods.
U.K. Authors Weigh In on AI Licensing in New Survey

Dec 4, 2024 | publishersweekly.com | Nicholas Clee

Only 7% of authors aware that their work has been used to train AI have given permission for such usage, according to a survey of 13,574 members of the Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society in the U.K. Furthermore, 77% of authors did not know whether their work had been exploited in this way.
A remarkable crime trilogy of doublings and disappearance

Nov 13, 2024 | the-tls.co.uk | Nicholas Clee |Andrew Motion |Nat Segnit |disappearanceBy Nicholas Clee

Graeme Macrae Burnet’s fifth novel, A Case of Matricide, opens, as did his previous three, with a foreword in which “GMB” gives the background to publication.
Two siblings fend for themselves in a totalitarian state

Nov 13, 2024 | the-tls.co.uk | Nat Segnit |Andrew Motion |Nicholas Clee |Hal Jensen

Thirteen-year-old Briar and his younger sister Rose are hiding out in an empty house against an unspecified threat. The keys to the house are attached to a see-through plastic keyring containing a photograph of smiling children. Briar wonders if the photograph is of the house’s former occupants, from a time “when there were household goods and things in it making it lived-in”. No, thinks Rose.
After Return to Hachette, Reagan Arthur Signs First Deal for Elisa Faison Debut

Oct 15, 2024 | publishersweekly.com | Nicholas Clee

Hachette Book Group senior VP and publisher Reagan Arthur and Sceptre executive publisher Federico Andornino in the U.K. and have joined forces to preempt, with a “significant six-figure” offer, Skin Contact, a debut novel by Elisa Faison. Arthur, buying for her new, as-yet-unnamed “boutique” imprint, and Adornino bought world English rights, from Alexa Stark at Writers House, in what will be “a close partnership” between Sceptre and Arthur's imprint.
U.K. Publishing Sales Rose 3% in 2023

May 8, 2024 | publishersweekly.com | Nicholas Clee

Revenue for U.K. publishing in 2023 was £7.1 billion—about $8.9 billion at current exchange rates—up 3% from 2022, the U.K.'s Publishers Association reported. The figure comes from the PA’s Statistics Monitor program, whose figures include domestic and export sales; print and digital sales in the trade, educational, and academic sectors, including journal sales in the latter; and export revenue. With sales up 2%, to £3.6 billion, the academic sector remained the industry's largest category.
London Book Fair 2024: Empowering Women and the Working Class

Mar 15, 2024 | publishersweekly.com | Ed Nawotka |Nicholas Clee |Jo Henry

Two panels at the London Book Fair on Thursday emphasized the ongoing challenge of giving opportunities to the widest number of people in society to write, publish, and advance themselves in the publishing industry.
U.K. Publishing Spotlight: Severn House Evolves

Feb 23, 2024 | publishersweekly.com | Nicholas Clee

As a publishing brand, Severn House has spent 50 years somewhat incognito. By and large it hasn’t landed books on bestseller lists, won prizes, or garnered much media coverage. The company specializes in hardcover genre fiction—fantasy, historical fiction, mystery, romance—primarily targeted to libraries. Furthermore, fully 70% of its sales are not in its home market in the U.K. but in the U.S. The model seems very counterintuitive, but it works.
Frankfurt, Sharjah Book Fairs Impacted by Israel-Hamas War

Oct 15, 2023 | publishersweekly.com | Edward Nawotka |Nicholas Clee

Photo Peter Hirth Frankfurt " “stands with complete solidarity on the side of Israel," said Juergen Boos, the fair's director.