The Word Cloud

Just to say that Martyn Murray's book, The Storm Leopard, is coming out shortly. Martyn worked with both myself and Linda Proud on this wonderful book: a travel story cum meditation on Africa and wildlife and man's relationship to both. Martyn is a professional zoologist, and this tale is an account of his effort to reconnect with the motives that had taken him into the conservation game in the first place. A really atmospheric and resonant book, that lingers in the memory.

I was hopeful that a mainstream publisher (or at least a Canongate type outfit) would take this. Instead it was picked up by a smaller publisher with a passion for the book, and I hope they do really well with it. Here is Martin's blurb about the book, if you're interested.

"As some of you will know, my first book, The Storm Leopard, is to be published next month – about mid June. It is the account of my journey as a zoologist from the Cape to the Serengeti Plains of Africa and my search for an answer to the end of the wild. It is almost 10 years since I flew to Cape Town to begin the journey. It’s been a long time but like any good wine, the book has deepened in flavour during its 17 revisions. And in each new version I edged closer to my subject – the end of the wild. By the final typescript I could smell the storm leopard’s breath in my face.

I hope you will be interested in reading The Storm Leopard – it can be ordered from bookshops, online at Amazon.co.uk, or from Whittles Publishing directly. If you wish to order from Amazon.com, search for The Storm Leopard under Books, then click on Add to Your Wish List and you will be notified when it becomes available, which should be in June right after publication."

And doesn't the book just have a fab cover? What a gorgeous image.

Just heard that Louise's novel, Honour and the Sword, is at #12 in the hardback fiction bestseller charts - in its first week. Wow! Fab outcome.

Well done Victoria Hobbs (from AM Heath) who sold her to Penguin. Well done to Penguin, for doing a great job with the book. Well done to Louise for writing a great book in the first place. And well done to Michelle Lovric who helped her with getting the manuscript into shape in the first place.

The novel is a terrific, seventeenth century swashbuckling romp. And you can find it here. And the great news about really strong hardback sales is that they guarantee an excellent retail platform for the paperback, which is where the real moolah will be made. Fingers crossed ...