Archives par étiquette : Randle Editorial & Literary

THE STORYTELLER de Faiqa Mansab

Healing generational trauma through storytelling and solving the mystery of three murders.

THE STORYTELLER
by Faiqa Mansab
Neem Tree Press, June 2024
(via Randle Editorial & Literary Consultancy)

Layla, a scholar of stories, lives a quiet, predictable life until one day she finds a dead woman in her library.

Mira is a renowned storyteller. When a corpse turns up in a red cloak with a note to her from the murderer, she must join forces with Layla and enter the realm of Story for answers in a bid to save herself and her daughter.

This novel is immersed in Sufi literature, Sufi storytelling techniques and fairy tales, but at its heart it is a murder mystery. The story is set in the U.S. and is also about the wounded relationship of a mother and daughter, how they heal their relationship while they solve the murders with the help of fairy tales retold, and old secret Sufi stories. It is Elif Shafak’s Forty Rules of Love meets Donna Tartt’s The Secret History.

THE STORYTELLER explores the healing of wounded motherdaughter relationships through the magic of Sufi storytelling.

Faiqa Mansab is a Pakistani writer. She holds an Mphil in English Literature, an MFA in creative writing with a high distinction from Kingston University London and an MA in Gender and Cultural Studies from Birkbeck University London. She has written and continues to write for numerous publications both local and international. Her debut novel This House of Clay and Water (2017) was longlisted for Getz Pharma Fiction Prize and the German Consulate Peace Prize at the Karachi Literature Festival 2018. Faiqa lives in Lahore with her family. Faiqa is agented by Annette Crossland at A for Authors LitAg.

THE GLASS CLIFF de Sophie Williams

THE GLASS CLIFF is a conversation about what happens when women break the rules, and break through The Glass Ceiling.

THE GLASS CLIFF
Why Women in Power are Undermined and How to Fight Back
by Sophie Williams
Macmillan Business, March 2024
(via Randle Editorial & Literary Consultancy)

Have you ever wondered why there are so few success stories of women in business leadership? Or maybe you’ve wondered what life is really like on the other side of The Glass Ceiling? The world of work is supposedly changing, embracing diversity – yet are the opportunities we’re giving to women really equal to those of men?

Drawing on almost 20 years of research from around the world, The Glass Cliff phenomenon – whereby women are often only hired in leadership roles when a business is already underperforming, meaning their chances of success are limited before they ever even start in the role – is well established, but little known. Until now.

This is the story of The Glass Cliff: a story of a structural inequality disguising itself as the personal failures of women. When activist Sophie Williams gave her viral TED talk on the subject, she was subsequently flooded with accounts of confident, accomplished women who had taken what seemed like a dream leadership role only to quickly find themselves in a waking nightmare. Without the language to describe their experiences they had been left blaming themselves. But learning about The Glass Cliff enabled them to reframe and reexamine what they’d gone through.

Sophie Williams is a professional speaker, the author of Millennial Black & Anti-Racist Ally, a TED speaker, the voice behind @OfficialMillennialBlack, and a racial equity consultant. As a speaker, Sophie regularly delivers keynotes, presentations, workshops and training sessions for businesses such as Apple, Amazon, Google, Barclays, the NHS and more. Sophie’s writing has appeared in publications such as The Guardian, Bustle, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Refinery29, Elle and Grazia.

SHOWSTOPPER de Tom Ramsay

A joyful and hilarious queer YA romance set in the mad mad world of musical theatre.

SHOWSTOPPER
by Tom Ramsay
TBA
(via Randle Editorial & Literary Consultancy)

In the bright lights of the West End, a competition – and romance – is heating up to bring the drama, plot twists and exhilarating highs that only musical theatre can.

Gregarious giant Olly is back at the UK’s most prestigious competition for teen performers to prove he has what it takes to be a leading man after he was sabotaged last year; determined to stand out like his favourite Broadway diva Bernadette Peters.

Nervous novice Tarun would rather be anywhere other than centre stage. Nominated after stepping into his school show under much duress; he’s been blackmailed into attending by his Mum and mates and knows nothing about musicals. As far as he’s concerned, ‘Chicago’ is somewhere you get deep dish pizza, and ‘Hairspray’ is something you buy in Boots.

So when the two boys get paired to share a hotel room, Olly can’t comprehend sharing with someone who doesn’t live and breathe the magical world of musicals, whilst Tarun thinks Olly is “way too much” and cannot decipher a single one of his references. But as they get to talking, they discover they’ve more in common than the opening number might reveal. Amidst the drama of rehearsals, could two boys be falling in love?

The novel is filled to the brim with humour, drama and queer joy, and is a laugh-out-loud page-turner that will be appreciated and embraced both by musical theatre fans and by those who are more sceptical. The love of musicals is irresistibly infectious, as is the romance, and it is perfect for readers who loved Heartstopper, Gay Club, and those who are re-discovering Glee (as well as those who remember it the first time around!)

Tom Ramsay works for a West End Producer as Literary Manager and Dramaturg, looking after new work and writers of theatre for the company. This role has included working on an Olivier-nominated play and helping to translate a musical about the life of Marie Curie from Korean to English. In his own writing, he is passionate about telling queer stories with the hope and optimism that he longed to find on bookshelves growing up, with a touch of theatrical magic for good measure.

SCAREGROUND d’Angela Kecojevic

The brand-new spine-tingling middle-grade novel from Angela Kecojevic, featuring a deliciously spooky atmosphere and a feisty female protagonist, perfect for fans of Katherine Rundell and Jennifer Killick.

SCAREGROUND
by Angela Kecojevic
Seven Seas/Neem Tree Press, September 2023
(via Randle Editorial & Literary Consultancy)

Roll up, roll up, the Scareground is in town…

The infamous Tombola fair has not been back to Greenwich since tragedy struck it years ago, but everything changes when black balloons float into town announcing the return of the Scareground. The whole town is abuzz with excitement and anticipation but Mr and Mrs Crumpet, the bakers, forbid their adopted daughter Nancy from going.

Nancy is certain the fair holds the answers to the disappearance of her birth parents, and with her best friend Arthur Green by her side, they meet the peculiar Skelter Tombola and uncover a world full of magic, mystery and the macabre. But behind such wonders hides a darkness Nancy never expected, a place where she must confront her greatest fears. Not least that someone might find out her hidden talent/curse, just one more thing that makes her different and must be kept secret…

Angela Kecojevic is a senior librarian and a creative writing tutor and has written for the Oxford Reading Tree programme. She is also the author whose work inspired the multi award- winning adventure park ‘Hobbledown’. Her characters can be seen walking around the park, something she still finds incredibly charming! She is a member of the Climate Writers Fiction League, a group of international authors who use climate issues in their work.

RED SMOKING MIRROR de Nick Hunt

A bravura re-imagining of the ‘discovery’ of the Americas, from a prize-winning writer.

RED SMOKING MIRROR
by Nick Hunt
Swift Press, July 2023
(via Randle Editorial and Literary)

The year is 1521 in the Mexica city of Tenochtitlan. Twenty-nine years earlier, Islamic Spain never fell to the Christians, and Andalus launched a voyage of discovery to the New Maghreb.
For two decades the Jewish merchant Eli Ben Abram, who led the first ships across the sea, has maintained a delicate peace in the Moorish enclave of Moctezuma’s breathtaking capital, assisted by his Nahua wife Malinala. But the emperor has been acting strangely, sacrifices are increasing at the temples, a mysterious sickness is spreading through the city, and there are rumours of a hostile army crossing the sea…
A bravura reimagining of an alternate history, RED SMOKING MIRROR is a richly written novel of love and fate, of how cultures co-operate and clash, and of how individuals can shape and are shaped by the times they live through.

Nick Hunt has walked and written across much of Europe. He has written a loose trilogy of books about walking in Europe, the first two of which were shortlisted for the Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year. His articles have appeared in The Economist, the Guardian and elsewhere, and he works as an editor for the Dark Mountain Project. RED SMOKING MIRROR is his first novel.