We are delighted that Kerri’s book, Thin Places, has been longlisted for the Wainwright Prize.

Now in its eighth year and recently described in the media as ‘the UK’s newest major literary prize’, The Wainwright Prize for UK Nature Writing is awarded annually to the book which most successfully inspires readers to explore the outdoors and to nurture a respect for the natural world.

Thin Places is a mix of memoir, nature writing and history: this is Kerri ní Dochartaigh's story of a wild Ireland, an invisible border, an old conflict and the healing power of the natural world.

To be published in the States by Milkweed. Translation rights with Canongate.

We are delighted that Nina Mingya Powles's Magnolia, 木蘭, has sold to Elizabeth DeMeo at Tin House Books, with Alyssa Ogi editing, for publication in summer 2022, by Rebecca Wearmouth at PFD on behalf of Morgan Green Creatives (North American rights).

Shortlisted for the Ondaatje Prize and the Forward Prize, Nina's first full poetry collection (published in the UK by Nine Arches Press) dwells within the tender, shifting borderland between languages, and between poetic forms, to examine the shape and texture of memories, of myths, and of a mixed-race girlhood.

Translation rights are represented by PFD.

Walker Books has this morning announced the acquisition of a further two titles in the Eerie-on-Sea Mysteries series by Thomas Taylor, following on from the 'hugely successful' Malamander.

The fourth and fifth titles will continue to follow Herbert Lemon and Violet Parma’s adventures alongside the eccentric cast of characters living in their unusual seaside town.

Rights to the series have now sold in over 20 territories. The fourth book will publish in Autumn 2022, with the fifth title concluding the series in Autumn 2023; both will have a global release.

Fern’s brilliant book, Sex: Lessons from History is out today with Hodder & Stoughton.

These are the facts: throughout history human beings have had sex. Sexual culture did not begin in the sixties. It has always been celebrated, needed, wanted and desired part of what it means to be human.

In this wide-ranging and powerful new history of sex, Dr Fern Riddell will uncover the sexual lives of our ancestors and show that, just like us, they were as preoccupied with sexual identities, masturbation, foreplay, sex, deviance; facing it with the same confusion , joy and accidental hilarity that we do today.

Congratulations, Fern!

A very happy publication day to Maya with her tenth book, published today with Walker Book.

From the internationally bestselling author of Beetle Boy and the Adventures on Trains series, comes the first book in The Twitchers, a brand new mystery adventure series celebrating friendship, bravery and the incredible world of birds, starring a birdwatching detective called Twitch!

"A twist-laden, thriller-like tale of a bird-mad boy, some bullies and an escaped convict hiding in the nearby woods." Observer

“Enthralling from beginning to end, it really touched my young bird-loving heart! Just wonderful!” Dara McAnulty

Congratulations to Emily Itami, whose book, Fault Lines, is published by Phoenix Books today.

A bittersweet Tokyo love story and bold exploration of modern relationships, Fault Lines is an evocative and sharply observed debut from an exciting new voice in fiction.

'A brilliant modern love story. I found it atmospheric and transporting but also wise, clever and universal in its exploration of love, family and identity. I loved it' Cathy Rentzenbrink

Alluring, compelling, startlingly honest and darkly funny, Fault Lines is a bittersweet love story and a daring exploration of modern relationships from a writer to watch.

Rights also sold in the States, Italy and Czechoslovakia.

MGC wishes Haley congratulations on her debut book, The Ex-Boyfriend Yard Sale, published by Hodder & Stoughton.

'[T]his memoir is one of the smartest, funniest books I've read about love in a long, long time' - Red Online

Haley McGee is in debt. The solution? A yard sale of the gifts from her ex-boyfriends.

Female desire, heartbreak and the chance for integrity are held up in this whip-smart, original and daringly candid memoir. As Haley McGee interrogates her romantic triumphs and failures with unflinching detail and hilarity her exquisite proses elevates this all too human conundrum: is love worth it?

Rights also sold in Canada and Taiwan. Foreign rights represented by PFD.

Firefly Press publish the second book in the hugely successful Crater Lake series today. Expect more scary-funny midgrade adventures in this sequel.

It's five months since the nightmare Year Six school trip to Crater Lake, and something has gone very wrong in Lance's home town of Straybridge. There's been an explosion at the university, a mysterious test creature is missing and no one is allowed in or out of the town. On top of this, Lance has lost touch with his friends since starting at his new school. And now his mum has been acting strangely since they started decorating the Christmas tree.

Rights to Crater Lake have sold in France and Japan.

Congratulations, Jennfer!

MGC is super proud of the wonderful authors of The Highland Falcon Thief, M.G. Leonard and Sam Sedgwick for winning Book of the Year Children’s Fiction prize at the British Book Awards yesterday evening. Presented by Lenny Henry, David Walliams has called it an ‘instant classic’. Thank you to all of the team at Macmillan Children’s Books.

Adventures on Trains is a major mystery series from the prize-winning M.G. Leonard and Sam Sedgman. The first in the series The Highland Falcon Thief, is a breathless train journey full of deceptions, puzzles and clues to solve.

We are thrilled that Nina is one of the six writers shortlisted for this year's £10,000 Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize.

The annual prize aims to reward the author of a work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry that best evokes the spirit of a place.

Nina’s Magnolia, 木蘭 (Nine Arches Press), her first full collection of poems, examines "the shape and texture of memories" and mixed-race girlhood.

The winner will be revealed on 11 May.

In Sweden, refugee children fall asleep for months and years at a time. In upstate New York, high school students develop contagious seizures. In the US Embassy in Cuba, employees complain of headaches and memory loss after hearing strange noises in the night.

Inspired by a poignant encounter with the sleeping refugee children of Sweden, Wellcome Prize-winning neurologist Suzanne O’Sullivan travels the world to visit other communities who have also been subject to outbreaks of so-called ‘mystery’ illnesses.

Reminiscent of the work of Oliver Sacks, Stephen Grosz and Henry Marsh, The Sleeping Beauties (Macmillan) is a moving and unforgettable scientific investigation with a very human face.

Published today by Canongate, My Rock n Roll Friend takes stock of thirty-seven years of friendship, teasing out the details of connection and affection between two women who seem to be either complete opposites or mirror images of each other. This important book asks what people see, who does the looking, and ultimately who writes women out of – and back into – history.

"A gorgeous, vivid account of female friendship, what it is to be a woman in a band, activism, art, motherhood, love and having men take credit for your work" -- Sinead Gleeson

"Philosophical and furious . . . Illuminates rock's double standards . . . This is a book about more than music: it recounts the intricacies of female friendship and its crush of projection, permission, allyship and trying-on-for-size" ― Observer

The Ormering Tide is a coming of age story set amidst a series of darkly foreboding events. Rozel lives with her triplet older brothers and her parents in the bay of a small island. One of her brothers goes missing and the family’s landlord, Mr Willow, is implicated as the menacing truths are discovered. The island is rich with nature; and the islanders’ lives and the steady passing of the seasons contrast sharply with the realities of violence and inevitable revelations. The Ormering Tide explores the inherent human need to keep – and bury – secrets.

Published by Wrecking Ball Press, this is a brooding and astonishing debut from the Mercury Music Prize nominated singer-songwriter.

“When classmates (but not mate-mates) Hallie, Angelo, Gustav and Naira are forced to come to school on a SATURDAY, they think things can’t get much worse. But they’re wrong. “

Jennifer Killick is moving to Farshore, the new name for Egmont Books UK, with two middle-grade fiction titles.

Sarah Levison, senior editor at Farshore, signed world rights in all languages from Morgan Green Creatives. The first book in the deal, Dread Wood, publishes in January 2022.

BBC Sounds have commissioned two more series of the podcast Bad People. Dr Julia Shaw and comedian Sofie Hagen dissect the criminal cases that shock, intrigue and scare us the most.

MGC client, Julia Shaw is is a psychological scientist (UCL) and a science communicator. She is best known for her work in the areas of memory and criminal psychology. Her books include, False Memory and Making Evil.

Check out the weekly podcast here.

MGC client, Margaux Vialleron and Irene Olivo have launched The Salmon Pink Kitchen podcast. Irene and Margaux simmer a podcast in celebration of all things nutritious, tasty and romantic. You can expect pots banging and jolly laughters about food memories, sardines, pasta, the sisterhood, and even vinegar, like all good parties do. Bon appétit!

Listen to the first episode here.

Published today by Guppy Books, Tsunami Girl is part-manga, part-prose powerful coming-of-age story about a fifteen-year-old girl caught up in the March 2011 Great Eastern Japan Earthquake and Tsunami. It is beautifully illustrated by Chie Kutsuwada.

Julian Sedgwick is the author of six books for children, and co-author of the graphic novel Dark Satanic Mills and illustrated novel Voyages in the Underworld of Orpheus Black.

Granny Kumar is back! Meera Syal’s glorious comedy creation returns, with great granddaughter Maya (Ambreen Razia) and arch nemesis Geeta (Harvey Virdi) to chat with the sisters.

Left alone while her family are stuck in quarantine on a world cruise, Granny Kumar decides to host her own series, born out of frustration at seeing or hearing the same old parade of guests on chat shows.

Listen to the first episode here.

The Cost of Love is equal parts brainy and cathartic, as writer, Haley McGee, strives to answer the question: is the cost of love worth it?

Each episode features Haley McGee, a self-proclaimed love idiot, talking to a different expert. The conversations dive into that strange, juicy place where love and money collide. Check out the Broken Hearts Playlist!

Haley’s book, The Ex-Boyfriend Yard Sale, will be published by Hodder & Stoughton in May.

All-aboard for the third amazing journey in the bestselling Adventures on Trains series, Murder on the Safari Star.

Harrison Beck and his Uncle Nat are on the journey of a lifetime aboard the Safari Star – a luxurious steam train that will take them from Pretoria to the Victoria Falls. Close encounters with the amazing animals and landscape of Southern Africa are adventure enough, but things get mysterious when a passenger is found dead inside a locked compartment.

'A chuffing triumph' The Times on The Highland Falcon Thief

The Fall of the House of Byron follows the fates of Lord Byron's ancestors over three generations in a drama that begins in rural Nottinghamshire and plays out in the gentlemen's clubs of Georgian London, amid tempests on far-flung seas, and in the glamour of pre-revolutionary France. A compelling story of a prominent and controversial characters, it is a sumptuous family portrait and an electrifying work of social history.

'Delectable ... a ravishing family saga' Sunday Times

'A hauntingly beautiful portrait of the Byron dynasty' Rebecca Rideal

Published by Canongate, a breathtaking mix of memoir, nature writing and history: this is Kerri ní Dochartaigh’s story of a wild Ireland, an invisible border, an old conflict and the healing power of the natural world.

‘A special, beautiful, many-faceted book’ Amy Liptrot

‘A remarkable piece of writing … Luminous’ Robert Macfarlane

Clare Hey, Publishing Director at Simon & Schuster UK has bought UK & Comm rights in The Yellow Kitchen by Margaux Vialleron.

Margaux Vialleron, who is Translation Rights Agent for David Higham Associates, writes and cooks for book club and culinary community the Salmon Pink Kitchen in her spare time.

Expectation meets Julie & Julia, The Yellow Kitchen is a story of female friendship and love, food and identity.

On behalf of MGC, Rebecca Wearmouth at PFD, has sold US rights to Thin Places to Daniel Slager at Milkweed. Daniel says Thin Places is “wonderfully original and alive, and gorgeously written”.

Kerri’s debut will be published in the UK by Canongate in January of next year. A breathtaking mix of memoir, nature writing and history: this is Kerri 's story of a wild Ireland, an invisible border, an old conflict and the healing power of the natural world

'A remarkable piece of writing . . . Luminous' Robert Macfarlane

Macmillan Children’s Books have bought two more books in the series by MG Leonard and Sam Sedgman - we will be looking forward to following journeys across Australia and the Arctic Circle for Books 5 and 6 in this wonderful series.

We are thrilled that US rights to Ben Alderson-Day’s Presence ; an exploration of the science behind one of the most unusual experiences known to humankind: the feeling that someone or something is there, without being seen or heard, have sold to Michael Flamini at St Martin’s Press, at auction, by Rebecca Wearmouth at PFD, on behalf of Morgan Green Creatives. Ben is Assistant Professor in Psychology at Durham University.

We are delighted that The Highland Falcon written by MG Leonard and Sam Sedgman, illustrated by Elisa Paganelli has won the 2020 Children’s Fiction Books Are My Bag Award. Voted entirely by booksellers and readers, it is a true honour to win the award. As Elisa said, we cannot travel at the moment but we can travel through the book.

Hear whispers in the dining car, find notes in the library, and unknown passengers among the luggage as you help Harrison to solve the mystery aboard one of the world's grandest trains.

'Absolutely exquisite. This little book is a work of art. It is impossible to imagine the reader who will not love it.' - Horatio Clare.

From mountain tops and frozen seas to city parks and desert hills, writer and Arctic traveller Nancy Campbell digs deep into the meanings of fifty words for snow. Under her gaze, each of these linguistic snow crystals offers a whole world of myth and story.

Denise Johnstone-Burt of Walker Books has acquired Justyn Edwards’ debut middle-grade series in a three-book, six-figure deal.

The first title, The Great Fox Hunt, will follow young heroine Flick Lions. Flick has won a place on The Great Fox Hunt, where competitors race to solve the puzzles and win the legacy of the late, famous magician, the Great Fox.

Buccaneer Media, and independent production company Nevision announced a co-production agreement to develop M. G. Leonard’s ‘Beetle Boy’ book trilogy as a live action/ CGI drama series in partnership with Oscar-winning creative studio Framestore (‘His Dark Materials’, ‘Mulan’, ‘Lovecraft Country’.

‘Beetle Boy’ will be written for the screen by Tom MacRae, playwright and creator of ‘Everybody’s Talking About Jamie’, the award-winning West End musical and forthcoming movie.

The imprint’s first publication, in May 2021 will be Fault Lines, a debut novel by British-Japanese author, Emily Itami. Francesca Main acquired World Rights from Kirsty McLachlan in a two-book deal. The novel is described as ‘Brief Encounter’ set in contemporary Tokyo – a witty, sharp and moving story of modern love from a writer to watch.

We are delighted that both Gargantis by Thomas Taylor (Walker) and The Highland Falcon Thief by M.G. Leonard & Sam Sedgman (Macmillan Children’s Books) have been shortlisted for the Children’s Fiction Shortlist for the annual Books are My Bag Readers Awards.

Adapted from Nick Abadzis’ eponymous 2007 graphic novel, “Laika” will tell the story of planet Earth’s first voyager into space, an unwanted stray who survived the streets of Moscow to become the most famous dog in the world. Through the medium of animated VR, the story, co-written by Kapadia and Abadzis, will be told from Laika’s point of view. It is a collaboration with award-winning animation studio Passion Pictures.

Macmillan revealed the cover for Murder on the Safari Star, the third book in the successful series by MG Leonard and Sam Sedgman. To be published in February, 2021.