PRODUCT PREVIEW
slight cosiness to this which I
wasn’t too keen on, but she’s a
beautiful writer.
Carmen Reid
Late Night Shopping
Corgi, £6.99, 30th, 9780552154833
A Tesco favourite who sold
75,000 copies of The Personal
Shopper. She’s not as “fluffy”
as her new Cecelia Ahern-style
covers suggest.
Karen Quinn
Holly Would Dream
Pocket, £6.99, 2nd,
9781416527657
The Ivy
Chronicles sold
200,000 copies
with help from
“Richard &
Judy”. The follow-up sold a
respectable 70,000 copies—this
romantic caper should do the
same.
Irvine Welsh
If You Liked School, You’ll
Love Work
Vintage, £7.99, 5th, 9780099483595
The five short stories collected
here tread water somewhat,
but novella Kingdom of Fife is
encouraging for those awaiting
his new novel in July. This
sold 45,000 copies in trade
paperback.
Armistead
Maupin
Michael Tolliver
Lives
Black Swan, £6.99, 2nd,
9780552772938
My reader felt
this was rather
uninspired, but
maybe the seventh in the
Tales in the City series is best
not deviating from what’s
familiar. The original was voted
Britain’s favourite gay/lesbian
novel in 2006.
Sophie Kinsella
The Secret Dreamworld of the
Shopaholic (tie-in)
Black Swan, £7.99, 2nd, 9780552774819
The film features Isla Fisher,
fiancée of Sacha Baron Cohen,
and appears at the same time as
Kinsella’s new hardback.
Bobby Charlton
My Manchester United Years
Headline, £7.99, 26th, 9780755316205
In an era of unremarkable
memoirs from overpaid
underachievers, this stands out
a mile. It should be the first title
in any Father’s Day display.
Michael Palin
New Europe
Phoenix, £8.99, 26th, 9780753823972
Orion’s decision to publish his
illustrated titles as B-format
travel writing was inspired.
Ian Botham
Head On
Ebury, £7.99, 5th, 9780091921491
The public are tiring of
ghosted cash-ins from sports
stars in their 20s, so Botham
may well match the number
one achieved with his first
autobiography in 1994.
Imogen Edwards-Jones
Beach Babylon
Corgi, £7.99, 16th, 9780552154635
Transworld has established a
great brand with the Babylon
books. This ideal beach read is
the fourth—the first, helped by
TV, has sold 150,000 copies.
General Sir
Mike Jackson
Soldier
Corgi, £8.99, 2nd,
9780552156028
Jackson is full
of reasoned
insight into
modern warfare.
Transworld’s equivalent last
year was Vulcan 607, which
sold 200,000 copies.
Naomi Klein
The Shock Doctrine
Penguin, £8.99, 26th, 9780141024530
Klein lays bare the global impact
of rampant capitalism and will be
in the UK to promote. This might
sell six figures.
Gervase Phinn
The Heart of the Dales
Penguin, £7.99, 26th, 9780141027678
Much loved and much imitated,
Phinn should make the top 10
again. The backlist is being rejacketed.
John O’Farrell
An Utterly Impartial History of Britain
Black Swan, £7.99, 19th, 9780552773966
Some of this is hilarious, some
rather contrived satire, but it’s
warm enough to appeal to the
Bill Bryson market. I preferred
Ian Crofton’s History Without
the Boring Bits, which was
published by Quercus at the
same time.
Harry Patch & Richard Van
Emden
The Last Fighting Tommy
Bloomsbury, £7.99, 2nd, 9780747593362
This remarkable memoir has
22 The Bookseller Spring Paperback Preview | 4 January 2008 www.thebookseller.com
sold more than 15,000 copies.
Patch is the last surviving
British soldier from the First
World War and publication
is due just before his 110th
birthday.
Patrick Bishop
3 Para
Perennial, £7.99, 2nd, 9780007257805
Fighter Boys sold more than
125,000 in the UK and with the
renewed focus on the conflict
in Afghanistan, this should also
sell strongly.
Mark J Penn
Microtrends
Penguin, £8.99, 5th, 9780141035383
Penn, past adviser to Clinton,
Blair and Gates and the man
who coined the term “soccer
mom” explains how, in a world
of mass marketing, any lifestyle
trend which applies to just 1%
of a population is significant. A
little too US-centric to read in
big chunks, but fascinating.
Ranulph Fiennes
Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know
Hodder, £8.99, 26th, 9780340951699
His first volume of
autobiography sold more than
150,000 copies and he’s still got
a great media presence.
BUBBLING UNDER
Don DeLillo
Falling Man
Picador, £7.99, 6th, 9780330452243
A fabulous return to form after
Cosmopolis and a smart riposte
to the neophytic swagger of the
McSweeney’s crew.
Mandasue
Heller
Shafted
Hodder, £6.99, 12th,
9780340899526
For some
reason, Heller
still can’t quite
shake off the
Martina Cole association, but
that’s not much of a handicap
given the latter’s popularity.
Jenny Colgan
Operation sunshine
Sphere, £6.99, 5th, 9780751537628
Colgan’s last title, West End
Girls, saw a huge leap in sales.
Felicity Lawrence
Eat Your Heart Out
Penguin, £7.99, 26th, 9780141026015
Another important book from
the 100,000-selling author of
Not on the Label.
SPRING PAPERBACK PREVIEW
Ronnie Wood
Ronnie
Sidgwick & Jackson, £7.99, 6th,
9780330445047
A good title for Father’s Day,
but die-hard Rolling Stones
fans aside, the big sales
will have to wait until Keith
Richards speaks.
Jools Holland
Barefaced Lies and Boogie-woogie
Boasts
Penguin, £7.99, 5th, 9780141026770
Entertaining. He’s not the
greatest interviewer, but with
Jools it’s always been about the
music.
Laurence Rees
Their Darkest Hour
Ebury, £7.99, 5th, 9780091917593
A remarkably clear-headed
exploration of some of the
evils perpetrated in the
Second World War and full of
shockingly candid interviews.
Auschwitz sold more than
150,000 in both editions.
ONES TO WATCH
Robert Littell
Vicious Circle
Duckworth, £7.99,
26th, 9780715637494
The winner of
the LA Times
Book Prize. The
hardback sold
well and Littell’s
profile may be boosted by
Ridley Scott’s dramatisation of
his previous title, The Company,
on the BBC this year.
Rajaa Alsanea
Girls of Riyadh
Penguin, £7.99, 5th, 9780141030616
Great reviews for this account
of young life and love in Saudi
Arabia. It has broad appeal and
I’d expect this to build strong
sales through word of mouth.
Jonathan would like to thank his panel
of readers who helped him assess the
titles previewed. They are as follows in
alphabetical order: Nina Allan, Lisa Bird,
Debbie Bone, Heather Cooper, Oliver
Craner, Janette Cross, Laura Dearlove,
John Devlin, Angela Downes, Chris
Doyle, Brit Eide, Alison Flood, Jim Gent,
Mohara Gill, Jessica Gossling, Vashti
Gwynn, Rebecca Hart, Sara Havler,
Helena Hennessy, Nicky Jeanes, Becky
Jones, Lisa Kennedy, Sarak Knibbs,
Veronica Leek, Radhika Lingham,
Rachael Lloyd, Saara Marchadour,
Sarah Myers, Roger Parks, Telka Pelova,
Anna Richardson, Stephanie Scaife,
Sean Shapiro, Niki Smith, Sarah Vanden-
Abeele, Shamy Teejai, Chris Thomson,
Ian Watson and Anna Zammit.
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