The Battle of the Brits returns

Jamie Murray to bring together Britain’s best tennis players in Scotland this December.

Jamie Murray is back in his Tournament Director’s chair and bringing live tennis to Scotland with a special Battle of the Brits - Scotland versus England event to be held on 21-22 December 2021 at Aberdeen’s P&J Live Arena.

Players competing for the trophy will include Jamie, seven-time Grand Slam champion in doubles and mixed doubles, former World No. 1 in men’s doubles, and Davis Cup winner, and Sir Andy Murray, the former World No. 1, two-time Wimbledon champion, US Open and Davis Cup winner and two-time Olympic champion. The tournament will give Scottish sports fans their first chance to watch the Murrays play live on home turf since Andy took on Roger Federer in the Andy Murray Live event in Glasgow in November 2017.

Andy Murray and Jamie Murray

A Scotland team spearheaded by the Murrays will face tough competition from an England line-up that is set to feature their Davis Cup team-mate Dan Evans. At 28 in the world rankings, Evans is currently the UK’s No.1 male player and recently won his first ATP Tour title in Melbourne.  Evans, from Birmingham, is known for his entertaining tennis and feisty on-court demeanour.

A full list of players, and a broadcast partner for Battle of the Brits – Scotland versus England will be released in the coming weeks.

“I am super excited to bring live tennis to Scotland.  Andy and I have had some incredible experiences competing as part of Team GB in Davis Cup in Scotland but to be able to represent Scotland is such a unique opportunity for us especially against England!  I would love to think Andy’s and my achievements can inspire a passion for tennis in Scotland and help build a lasting legacy for the sport here. Bringing big tennis events to Scotland is a huge part of that - this will be an amazing two days of tennis and entertainment for all the family.”

— Jamie Murray

The event itself will feature six matches, four singles and two doubles, played over an intense two-day period. This domestic event follows the successful launch of ‘Battle of the Brits’ in July 2020 at the National Tennis Centre in Roehampton, which was followed by a high-profile mixed team event the following month and a third men’s and women’s singles tournament last December at the same venue.

Let the Battle Begin!

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Notes to editors:

Jamie Murray

Jamie Murray, 35, is a professional tennis player from Dunblane, Scotland.

As a young player he was coached by his mother, Judy, and by the age of 12 was one of the top three players in Europe alongside Rafael Nadal and Richard Gasquet.  He was a GB Junior Internationalist from the age of 10-17 and National 18 + under Boys Doubles Champion in 2002.  He made the decision to concentrate on doubles as a career in 2006. The following year at the age of 21, he won his first Grand Slam title in the mixed doubles at Wimbledon with Jelena Jankovic. Since then, Jamie has gone on to claim 23 ATP doubles titles and captured two men’s Grand Slam doubles titles, at the Australian Open and the US Open in 2016 with current partner Bruno Soares. He picked up another two mixed doubles Grand Slam titles in 2017 with Martina Hingis at Wimbledon and the US Open and most recently he partnered Bethanie Mattek-Sands at the 2018 and 2019 US Opens, his sixth and seventh Grand Slam victories. He was also a key member of the GB team which won the Davis Cup in 2015.

Jamie lives in Wimbledon, London, with his wife Alejandra, who he married in 2010 at Cromlix House near Dunblane. Away from tennis, Jamie enjoys golf (right-handed), playing off a handicap of four. He is a member of Wentworth Club. Jamie is also a columnist with BBC Sport.

Murray was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2016 Birthday Honours for services to tennis and charity.

Battle of the Brits

• Created by Jamie Murray in response to the lack of tournament tennis during the COVID 19 pandemic, the Battle of the Brits is now one of the UK’s leading tennis events series. Battle of the Brits - Scotland versus England will be the fourth tournament in the series after:

  July 2020 - Schroders Battle of the Brits (Men's singles and Men's doubles)

  August 2020 - St. James's Place Battle of the Brits Team Tennis Event (Men's and women's combined team event)

  December 2020 - Battle of the Brits Premier League of Tennis (Men's singles and women's singles events)

• So far Battle of the Brits events have raised over £100,000 for NHS charities.

• The P&J Live Arena is a brand new, purpose-built venue located just 1.5 miles from Aberdeen International Airport. Boasting a seating capacity of over 7,000 attendees, the arena is a fully sustainable venue being powered by Aberdeen’s food and garden waste. 2021’s ‘Battle of the Brits’ event will be a carbon neutral tournament and in partnership with the venue, there will be a focus on sustainability across the entire supply chain, from reducing plastic consumption through to supporting local food banks, and carbon off-setting.

• Tickets for the event are released on Ticketmaster at 1pm on Friday 26th February.

The Players

• Sir Andy Murray OBE is one of the most successful British sportsmen of all time. He won his first Grand Slam title at the 2012 US Open then became the first British man in 77 years to win the Wimbledon singles title the following year. He earned a second Wimbledon trophy in 2016 and is also the first man ever to win a Gold medal for singles in back-to-back Olympic Games (2012 and 2016). He has won 46 ATP Tour titles, including the prestigious ATP World Tour Finals in 2016. He is an eight-time Grand Slam runner-up, having reached five Australian Open finals, the 2008 US Open final, the 2021 Wimbledon final and the 2016 Roland Garros final. In 2015 he joined forces with Jamie in Great Britain’s famous Davis Cup team victory, and in 2016 he ended the year as No. 1 in the world in singles. He was knighted in 2017 having previously been made an OBE.

• Thirty-year-old Dan Evans is currently Britain’s No.1 male tennis player, having hit a career-high ranking of 26 in the world in February of this year after winning his first ATP Tour title at the Murray River Open in Melbourne. Nicknamed “Evo”, Evans has played alongside the Murray brothers in Great Britain's Davis Cup team since 2009 and his eye-catching tennis and gritty, fighting spirit have earned him many important wins in team situations. His best performance at a Grand Slam came at the 2017 Australian Open, where he reached the fourth round. Evans has been part of all three Battle of the Brits events, winning the inaugural tournament in London in June 2020. Evans was born in Birmingham in 1990 and still lives and trains in the city. His Dad David is an electrician, and his mum Bernadette is a nurse. As a child he was a keen squash player before switching to tennis, where his immense flair and natural talent allowed him to score wins over taller, stronger rivals.

• Details of more players to be released in the coming weeks.

More information at:

• Instagram: @battleofthebrits

• Twitter:  @BattleofTheBrit

• Website:  Battle of the Brits

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JamieMurrayTennis

• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/JamieMurrayTennis

• Ticketmaster: https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/venueartist/443377/5346995

• P&J Live Area: www.pandjlive.com 

For more information, or to request an interview with Jamie, please email media@battleofthebrits.co.uk

Repotting Your Life by Frances Edmonds

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“The ultimate handbook for anyone wanting to be challenged, fulfilled and stay young in mind and body.”

— Angela Rippon

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Repotting Your Life: Reframe Your Thinking. Reset Your Purpose. Rejuvenate Yourself Time and Again

By Frances Edmonds
Elliott & Thompson / hardback / non-fiction / 13 May / £14.99 

Do you feel stuck or stifled, but struggle to know what to do next? It’s time to ‘repot’ your life.

“What I learnt along my journey of repotting – a journey that would take me to a whole new country and an undertaking full of possibility and growth – offers, I hope, a useful new model for navigating the increasing number of transitions that we are all called upon to make throughout life in the modern world. And so my gift to anyone embarking on a new stage in life would be an understanding of how best to master the challenging and often daunting process of moving on and branching out. My gift would be proficiency in the art of repotting.”

— Frances Edmonds

In a world in which we’re living longer, and change is a necessary yet often uncomfortable process, Repotting Your Life offers a toolkit to revitalize your relationships, your passions or your career, whatever your age. It is for anyone who feels stuck or stifled, and is struggling to know what to do next.

There are four simple steps in the process of repotting:

Step 1 – Potbound: Know when you need to make a change.

Step 2 – Pots and Plans: Identify where you want to be. Understand what makes you feel fulfilled and matters most to you. Figure out a plan of action.

Step 3 – Pulling up the Roots: Prepare to end one phase of your life and commit to your repotted future.

Step 4 – Bedding In: Put down new roots and re-energize yourself for your next adventure.

With verve, wit and wisdom, Repotting for Life offers the motivation to set aside what is no longer working and the tools required to design a thriving life full of fresh possibility. 

Frances Edmonds has had an extraordinary professional career full of transitions and transformation, latterly becoming a longevity and well-being fellow at Stanford University’s Distinguished Careers Institute in 2018, where her concept of ‘repotting’ was born. She is an inspirational keynote speaker, a cross-generational mentor and helped create the UK’s most prestigious business development network. Previously an international conference interpreter at the European Union, United Nations and World Economic Summits, she is also a bestselling author and broadcaster

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Feature ideas / talking points

• Intergenerational education, teamwork and cross-mentorship: a new model for the future: Frances took up her research fellowship at the Distinguished Careers Institute at Stanford (the epicentre of California’s Silicon Valley, innovation and high-tech) in her mid-60s at the same time as her 30-year old daughter who’d left a lucrative career in investment banking and was studying at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
  
  Independently, they navigated the challenges of their own new beginnings. Together they helped forge a powerful inter-generational community that combined the energy of thrusting young students with the wisdom of experienced elders - a model for tomorrow’s innovative, flexible and highly effective blended teams.

• Ageism: We often talk about diversity and inclusivity – but these concepts rarely extend to “older” people who have enormous amounts of accumulated wisdom to share and are too often denied the appropriate opportunities. Reseach has demonstrated that in business a blended team of mixed ages achieves the best results.

• Post Pandemic Priorities: The new work/life integration model: At a time of global change, more people than ever are being obliged to reassess their priorities. Even before the COVID pandemic, the classic 3-chapter model of Learn, Earn and Retire at 65 had become unrealistic for the vast majority of people. In a world of extended life expectancy, a new model of work/life integration is required that will involve constant oscillation in and out of work and in and out of continuous personal and professional development throughout a far longer life span.

• The huge challenge is that society does not yet have the culture or the institutions to deal with the “30 extra gifted years” of life expectancy that a baby born today will have as compared to a baby born in 1900. What Mindset, Toolset and Skillset will be necessary to successfully navigate the expected “100 year life”?

• How Frances conceived of the idea of ‘repotting’ whilst at Stanford: The plaque at the entrance to Stanford’s world famous Graduate School of Business: “Repotting - that’s how you get new bloom -  you should have a plan of accomplishment and when that is achieved, you should be willing to start off again.” (Ernest Arbuckle – former Dean of Stanford Graduate School of Business.)

• Reframe Your Thinking: Techniques for dialing down the emotion, taking the heat out of negative thought patterns, and “turning the debacle into an earner.”

• Reset Your Purpose:  What happens when you lose your sense of purpose?  The end of a relationship, an empty nest, a situation that’s no longer working… there are endless catalysts that precipitate loss of purpose. How do you identify and move on to the next organising principle in your life?

• Rejuvenate Yourself Time and Again: “Repotting” is a process – and you are never, ever finished. It’s a journey, not a destination. It’s a system, not a goal. The better you understand the system, the more effectively you’ll be able to negotiate today’s increasingly frequent and radical changes.

• Importance of wellness, purpose and community: The key pillars of a meaningful life well-lived.

For more information, please contact Emma Finnigan PR.

Pandora's Jar by Natalie Haynes

In traditional retellings of the Greek myths, the focus is invariably on gods and men, but in Pandora’s Jar: Women in the Greek Myths, Natalie Haynes refocuses our gaze on the remarkable women at the centre of these ancient stories.

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'Hugely enjoyable and witty' - The Guardian

‘Agile, rich, subversive, Pandora's Jar proves that the classics are far from dead, and keep evolving with us.' - Madeleine Feeny, Mail on Sunday

'Haynes is a brilliant classicist as well as a stand-up comedian and with her latest offering, Pandora's Jar, she has effectively written the first textbook codifying this new feminist take on the Greek myths.' - Neil Mackay, Herald

‘Haynes…puts the women of Greek myths on equal footing with the menfolk in an exploration of their stories, motivations and myths. Written in Haynes’ immediately gripping and readable style, we get the stories of Medea – a seriously powerful girl – who ends up betrayed by Jason as well as deep dive into the stories of The Amazons, Penelope and Phaedra to name a few. Both fascinating and incredibly researched if you want to catch up on your Greek myths, this is the place to start.’ - Stylist

‘Beyoncé, Star Trek, Ray Harryhausen ...  the most enjoyable book about Greek myths you will ever read, absolutely brimming with subversive enthusiasm.’ — Mark Haddon

‘Natalie Haynes is beyond brilliant. Pandora’s Jar is a treasure box of classical delights. Never has ancient misogyny been presented with so much wit and style.’ — Amanda Foreman

‘Witty, erudite and subversive, this takes the women of Greek myth—the women who are sidelined, vilified, misunderstood or ignored—and puts them centre stage.’ — Samantha Ellis

‘Funny, sharp explications of what these sometimes not-very-nice women were up to, and how they sometimes made idiots of... but read on!’ — Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid’s Tale

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Pandora’s Jar: Women in the Greek Myths by Natalie Haynes

Picador / paperback / 13 May 2021 / £9.99 / non-fiction

Stories of gods and monsters are the mainstay of epic poetry and Greek tragedy, from Homer to Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, from Jason and the Argonauts to the wars of Troy. Today, a wealth of novels, plays and films draw their inspiration from stories first told almost three thousand years ago. But modern tellers of Greek myth have usually been men and have rarely shown interest in telling women’s stories. And when they do, those women are often painted as monstrous, vengeful or just plain evil. But Pandora – the first woman, who according to legend unloosed chaos upon the world – was not a villain to the Greeks, Helen didn’t always start a war, and even Medea and Phaedra have vastly more nuanced stories than generations of retellings might indicate.

Now, in Pandora’s Jar, Natalie Haynes – broadcaster, writer and passionate classicist – redresses this imbalance. Taking Pandora and her jar (the box was a mistranslation by Erasmus) as the starting point, she puts the women of the Greek myths on equal footing with the menfolk. After millennia of stories telling of gods and men, be they Zeus, Odysseus or Oedipus, the voices that sing from these pages are those of Clytemnestra, Jocasta, Eurydice and Penelope.

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About Natalie Haynes

'Natalie Haynes is the nation's great muse' — Adam Rutherford 

Natalie Haynes is the author of five books. A Thousand Ships, was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2020. Her earlier books include: The Children of Jocasta (2017), The Amber Fury (2014), and The Ancient Guide to Modern Life (2010). She has written and recorded six series of Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics for BBC Radio 4. Natalie has written for The Times, The Independent, The Guardian and The Observer.

Visit Natalie’s Twitter | Facebook | Website 

For more information on this book, please contact Emma Finnigan.

The Power of Geography by Tim Marshall

10 maps that reveal the future of our world: the much-anticipated sequel to the million-copy bestseller Prisoners of Geography

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'Another outstanding guide to the modern world. Tim Marshall is a master at explaining what you need to know and why.' - Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk Roads

‘This valuable book is an urgent and accessible study of the facts and forces that will shape our future on earth and beyond.’ - Ed Husain, author of The House of Islam

'A skilful navigation of the regions that could define geopolitics for future generations. One to read to stay ahead of the game.' - Dharshini David, author of The Almighty Dollar

‘A compelling account of the return of geopolitics by the master of maps.’ - Professor Brendan Simms, author of Britain's Europe: A Thousand Years of Conflict and Cooperation  

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The Power of Geography

THE POWER OF GEOGRAPHY: Ten Maps That Reveal the Future of Our World

Tim Marshall | ISBN: 978-1-78396-537-3

22 April 2021 / Royal Hardback / 368pp / £16.99
Also available in ebook and audio

If you want to understand what’s happening in the world, look at a map.

Tim Marshall’s global bestseller Prisoners of Geography showed how every nation’s choices are limited by mountains, rivers, seas and concrete. Since then, the geography hasn’t changed, but the world has.

In this revelatory new book, Marshall explores ten regions that are set to shape global politics in a new age of great-power rivalry. Find out why Europe’s next refugee crisis is closer than it thinks as trouble brews in the Sahel; why the Middle East must look beyond oil and sand to secure its future; why the eastern Mediterranean is one of the most volatile flashpoints of the twenty-first century; and why the Earth’s atmosphere is set to become the world’s next battleground.

In ten chapters covering Australia, The Sahel, Greece, Turkey, the UK, Iran,  Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, Spain and Space, delivered with Marshall’s trademark wit and insight, this is a lucid and gripping exploration of the power of geography to shape humanity’s past, present – and future.

Tim Marshall

Tim Marshall is a leading authority on foreign affairs with more than 30 years of reporting experience. He was diplomatic editor at Sky News, and before that was working for the BBC and LBC/IRN radio. He has reported from 40 countries and covered conflicts in Croatia, Bosnia, Macedonia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Libya. He is the author of the Sunday Times bestsellers Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps that Tell You Everything You Need to Know About Global Politics and Divided: Why We’re Living in an Age of Walls as well as Worth Dying For: The Power and Politics of Flags; and Shadowplay: Behind the Lines and Under Fire.  #powerofgeography 

Tim is available for interviews, features and events. For further information please contact Emma Finnigan.

Just Another Mountain by Sarah Jane Douglas

An uplifting memoir from a strong female voice that shows the restorative power of mountain walking  

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Just Another Mountain  
by Sarah Jane Douglas 
Foreword by Sir Chris Bonington  
Elliott & Thompson / 20 June / hardback / £14.99 

“Loads of people get horrible diagnoses all the time so really it isn’t anything special or extraordinary that I found myself with membership to the cancer club. To be honest, I’d been expecting it, but the news was still received like a swift kick to the balls. For me, the hardest thing to get my head around was the fact that twenty years earlier I’d held my own mum’s hand when breast cancer stole her life from mine. It had taken me most of my adulthood to recover from her loss... Faced with my diagnosis, there was only one thing I could do, the thing I’d come to rely on so much these last few years. I had to put one foot in front of the other, and just keep walking.”

— Sarah Jane Douglas

In 1997, at the age of 24, Sarah lost her mother to breast cancer. Alone and adrift in the world, she very nearly gave up hope – but she’d made a promise to her mother that she would keep going no matter what. So she turned to the beautiful, dangerous, forbidding mountains of her native Scotland.   

By walking in her mother’s footsteps, she learns to accept her own troubled past, finding the strength to overcome her grief – and, ultimately, to carry on in the face of her own diagnosis twenty years later. 

Searingly honest and utterly relatable, bringing the exhilarating triumphs and challenges of mountain walking to life with wit, charm and raw candour, Just Another Mountain is a story of hope and redemption, of a mother and a daughter, and of how we can learn both to live and to love. Sometimes, all you can do is put one foot in front of the other … and just keep walking. 

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Talking points

• Mountain climbing – from Scotland’s Munros to Kilimanjaro and the Himalayas 

• Mother daughter relationships and dealing with loss 

• Unpicking the mystery of the death of her Mother’s greatest love (and the man who was nearly her stepfather), Gerry, in the Himalayas 

• Female friendship 

• Cancer – and sanity saving daily walks throughout the course of treatment 

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About Sarah Jane Douglas

Sarah Jane Douglas writes the popular blog ‘Smashing Cancer in the Face’. She is an artist and former teacher who lives with her two teenage sons in an old fishing village on the northeast coast of Scotland, is a lover of mountains and is proud to be Munroist number 5764. This is her first book. 

Sarah actively fundraises for Cancer charities. Last year The Show (Breast Cancer Care) raised £150,000, and Sarah also arranged a ‘Full Monty’ to raise money for Maggie’s Highlands. 

Sarah is available for interview, features and events.

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More information

For more information about this book, please don't hesitate to get in touch.

Beyond Reasonable Doubt by Gary Bell

The start of a fantastic new legal series, perfect for fans of Robert Galbraith, written by an acclaimed QC and set in the extraordinary, stranger-than-fiction world of the halls of British justice

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Beyond Reasonable Doubt 
Elliot Rook, QC: Book 1
By Gary Bell (and Scott Kershaw)
13 June 2019 / Hardback / Raven Books / £12.99

Elliot Rook QC is one of the greatest barristers of his generation. He is also a complete fraud.

Unbeknown to the high society of the Inns of Court surrounding him, Rook is not the Old-Etonian, Oxford graduate he pretends to be. In fact, he is an ex-petty criminal with a past that he has spent decades keeping secret. 

Until now...

A young woman has been found murdered on the outskirts of Rook’s home town. Billy Barber a violent football hooligan and white supremacist – is accused of her murder. Barber is insisting that Rook defend him. If Rook refuses, Barber will expose him, bringing crashing to the ground the life and career that Rook has spent his life building. Rook must now team up with Zara Barnes, the state-school-educated apprentice dismissed out of hand by his snobbish legal counterparts, but in whom Rook sees a special talent.

The truth is there for the finding.

But at what cost?

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Talking points

• Gary used his own life as inspiration for his fiction (including pretending to be an Old Etonian)

• Social diversity at the Bar

• Cuts in legal aid and the knock-on effects

• Crime and its causes

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About Gary Bell

Born into a coal mining family, Gary Bell QC left school without any qualifications and was an apprentice mechanic, fork lift truck driver, production line worker, builder, fireman and door-to-door salesman, as well as a notorious football hooligan, before being arrested for fraud aged 18.

After a brief stint in prison he set off to seek fame and fortune abroad and, after two years drifting around Europe ended up penniless and homeless. He next enrolled in a FE College to study his O and A levels, and then went on to study law as a mature student at Bristol University where he 'became' an Old Etonian.

After graduating he spent a year as a litigation lawyer in Beverly Hills before coming back to England to become a barrister. He has spent over thirty years at the Bar, specialising in defending in major fraud and murder trials, becoming a QC in 2012.

Always on the look out for challenges and opportunities he has also been an award winning stand-up comedian; an after-dinner speaker (when at University he won several national debating competitions and was runner up in the World's Humorous Debating Competition at Princeton); he has learned to fly a plane, hosted his own TV show (the Legalizer) on BBC1; writes regularly for national newspapers; has a column in The Spectator and wrote his best-selling autobiography, Animal QC.

* Gary Bell is available for interview, features and events *

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About Scott Kershaw 

Scott Kershaw is the author of two novels. Prior to becoming an author, Scott worked as a professional chef for several years, and travelled the continent as a music journalist.

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More information 

For more information about this book, please don't hesitate to get in touch.

What Lies Around Us by Andrew Crofts

What Lies Around Us by Andrew Crofts

Red Door | 13 June 2019 | Hardback | £12.99

Why would one of Silicon Valley's most powerful billionaires offer a British ghostwriter a million dollars to write the autobiography of one of Hollywood's biggest stars?

Only once he is living and working amongst the world's richest and most beautiful people does the ghost realise that there is way more than a publishing deal at stake. Everyone he meets seems to have a hidden agenda and someone is willing to kill to ensure that their plans work out. But what are those plans, who are the ultimate puppet-masters and how far are they willing to go?

What Lies Around Us takes us to a world where ghostwriters work with presidents, (James Patterson and Bill Clinton writing The President is Missing), and create presidents, (Tony Schwartz who ghosted The Art of the Deal ,  setting President Trump on the road to becoming the most famous name in the world). 

This is the world of myth-makers, story-tellers and media manipulators – the people who really run the world and the ones who shape the global conversations.

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Talking points

• How exactly does it work when a rich and powerful man like Trump decides they want to write a book? Who shapes the message? How is the message sold?

• Who is more likely to be telling the true stories today – ghostwriters, who are paid to create bestselling books, or journalists, who are paid to sell newspapers and create click-bait?

• Why are books still such powerful media weapons, as illustrated by the multi-million selling political books of 2017 from authors like Michelle Obama, Bob Woodward and Michael Wolff?

• How much power do ghostwriters and speech writers exert when telling the stories of political and business leaders and other celebrities?

• Do traditional publishers add any value to a book? In this story every publisher in the world wants the book that the ghost is writing, but if the subject can afford to publish it themselves, why would they need a traditional publishing deal?

• There is so much written about how hard it is to make a living as a writer, less about how much in demand ghostwriters are.                                                              

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About Andrew Crofts

Andrew Crofts has published more than 100 books, including Confessions of a Ghostwriter, Freelance Writer’s Handbook and Ghostwriting, a dozen of which were Sunday Times bestsellers. Best-selling author, Robert Harris quoted Ghostwriting extensively in his novel The Ghost, later filmed by Roman Polanski with Ewan McGregor in the lead. 

Travelling all over the world Andrew has worked with victims of enforced marriages in North Africa and the Middle East, sex workers in the Far East, orphans in war-torn areas like Croatia and dictatorships like Romania, victims of crimes and abused children everywhere. He has also worked with celebrities from the worlds of film, music, television and sport.

Andrew’s fiction includes the critically acclaimed Secrets of the Italian Gardener, in which the same ghostwriter finds himself dangerously enmeshed in the Arab Spring while ghosting for a Middle Eastern ruler.

More information is available from: http://andrewcrofts.com/ and you’ll find Andrew on Twitter at @AndrewCrofts 

Andrew is available for features, interviews and events.

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More information

For more information about this book, don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Dublin Public Transport — New Map Project

A new rail map and public transport website for Dublin unveiled this week

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• New rail map includes ALL Dublin train and tram lines, with interchanges clearly labelled

• Wheelchair accessibility and bike parking information is featured for the first time

• The map uses high quality design – similar to those found in other major European cities

• New Dublin public transport site, dublinpublictransport.ie provides travel information for bus, rail and trams all in ONE place

View fullsize

Although there has been a rail revival in Dublin in recent years, with a significant expansion of Dublin’s tram and train networks, graphic design has failed to keep up! Go to any railway station or tram stop in Dublin and you’ll be struck by the lack of a map highlighting how all the rail services integrate with each other. This contrasts starkly with the abundance of lovingly-designed maps at stations and on trains in other European cities.

With this in mind, Chris Singleton of Style Factory Communications worked with graphic designer Richard Hart to fill this gap. The result: a new Dublin train map showing all rail lines in an easy-to-understand format that wouldn’t be out of place in other European capitals like London, Paris or Berlin.

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Map features

• The map features all DART, Commuter and Luas lines along with at-a-glance frequency guidance.

• Wheelchair accessibility information for each station is included on the new map – something that is missing from existing maps.

• The map provides clear information regarding which stations provide bike and car parking.

• The map includes the two Airlink airport bus routes to help visitors to Dublin switch easily from airport buses onto other modes of transport in the capital. 

This new map will serve as a valuable travel resource for both Dubliners and visitors to the city. It’s currently a BETA version, and feedback from rail users in Dublin is very welcome. The train map can be viewed here.

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A new website for Dublin public transport, too 

Despite the expansion of Dublin’s public transport network in recent years, the capital currently lacks a Dublin-specific travel website to help people make the most of it. So Style Factory has also launched an easy-to-use website that provides, in one place, all the information needed for anyone wishing to travel around Dublin.

The new Dublin Public Transport site aims to give users:

• a clear, concise overview of the travel options available to them

• a high-quality Dublin rail map

• easy access to Dublin journey planners and real-time travel information

• key information about wheelchair accessibility on public transport in Dublin

• information about how to take a bike on Dublin’s public transport network

• a guide to Dublin airport bus services

• a guide to Dublin Port bus services

This website has been produced independently of Dublin’s public transport operators, but using information they make publicly available. As with the map, the site is currently a BETA version, and feedback from Dublin public transport users on it is very welcome.

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About the designer, Chris Singleton

Chris Singleton is originally from Dublin, but has been living in London since 2004. He runs the popular tech / design blog Style Factory and fronts the London-Irish art-rock band Five Grand Stereo.

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More information

If you have any press enquiries or interview requests please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

To Die In Vienna by Kevin Wignall

“The master of the thoughtful crime thriller.”

— Paul Finch, bestselling author of Strangers

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Published in paperback by Thomas & Mercer on 14 June 2018 at £4.99

Freddie Makin is a surveillance expert. He spies on his targets; he follows their every move; he never asks questions about who’s paying him and why. To Freddie it’s just a job – until someone is sent to kill him.

To Die in Vienna by Kevin Wignall

For a year he’s been watching a Chinese academic whose life seems almost suspiciously normal. But now that he’s on the run from whoever wants him dead, he knows he must have seen something incriminating. The only trouble is, he has no idea what. Is the CIA behind all this – or does it go higher than that? Do they know Freddie’s no stranger to undercover intelligence himself? And what about Marina Mikhailova, the academic’s mysterious chess partner – is she in danger too, or is she not to be trusted?

As he’s forced into a lethal game of cat-and-mouse across Vienna, Freddie knows one thing for sure: his only hope for survival is to find out what he’s seen and use it to his own advantage – before his pursuers find out the whole truth about him.

Kevin Wignall is a British writer, born in Brussels in 1967. He spent many years as an army child in different parts of Europe and went on to study politics and international relations at Lancaster University. He became a full-time writer after the publication of his first book, People Die (2001). His other novels are Among the Dead (2002); Who is Conrad Hirst? (2007), shortlisted for the Edgar Award and the Barry Award; Dark Flag (2010); Hunter’s Prayer (2015), which was made into a film directed by Jonathan Mostow and starring Sam Worthington and Odeya Rush; A Death in Sweden (2016); The Traitor’s Story (2016); and A Fragile Thing (2017).

Of the recent film deal Kevin said: "I was in the enviable but difficult position of having two great film offers for this project, but everyone at Focus Features and Nine Stories was so passionate about the book it was an easy decision in the end, not least because Jake Gyllenhaal is such a terrific actor."

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The Long Forgotten by David Whitehouse

“Outlandishly clever, ingenious . . . There’s no question that David Whitehouse is a writer to watch.”

— Janet Maslin, New York Times

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Picador / hardback - £14.99 / fiction / 22 March ‘18 / Ebook - £12.99

‘Dove is walking to work along the canal when he remembers the bog violet. It just appears, however memories do, a glimmer of the past shining through the now…Dove knows nothing of flowers. And there are few of his age (if his age is thirty, which he thinks it is) who know what he now knows of the bog violet; that’s how vivid his memory is…The memory is as lucid as his reflection, stilling on the black glass of the canal. But where has he seen it before, and why is he recalling it now?’

When the black box flight recorder of a plane that went missing 30 years ago is found at the bottom of the sea, a young man named Dove begins to remember a past that isn't his. The memories belong to a rare flower hunter in 1980s New York, whose search led him around the world and ended in tragedy.

Restless and lonely in present-day London, Dove is quickly consumed by the memories, which might just hold the key to the mystery of his own identity and what happened to the passengers on that doomed flight, The Long Forgotten…

‘A great read and a touching and funny exploration of the true meaning of family’ - S J Watson, author of Before I Go To Sleep, on Mobile Library

‘A great, tender-hearted story about stories. It’s a book about what books can give us, and how they can add to our adventure – or even take us on one. A lovely read’ - Matt Haig, author of The Humans, on Mobile Library

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About David Whitehouse

David Whitehouse is an award-winning novelist, journalist and screenwriter. His first novel, Bed, won the 2012 Betty Trask Award and his second novel, Mobile Library, won the 2015 Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize. Originally from Warwickshire, he now lives in Margate with his family.

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Because We Are Bad - OCD and a Girl Lost in Thought by Lily Bailey

'An intense heart-rending rollercoaster of a book’ Will Black, author

‘Extremely compelling’ The Guardian

‘Though Bailey’s intention in writing the memoir is a serious one, her lively style and black humour make it, at times, a laugh-out-loud read.’ The Irish Time

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Because We Are Bad - OCD and a Girl Lost in Thought by Lily Bailey | Canbury Press / memoir / paperback / 15 March 2018 / £7.99

As a child, Lily Bailey knew she was bad. By the age of 13, she had killed someone with a thought, spread untold disease, and ogled the bodies of other children. Only by performing an exhausting series of secret routines could she correct her wrongdoing. But it was never enough. She had a severe case of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and it ruled her life.

Raw and funny, heart-breaking and uplifting, Because We Are Bad reveals with humour, grace and searing honesty what it’s like to live with an almost intolerable burden of obsession.

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About the author

Lily Bailey

Lily Bailey is 24 and a model and writer. She became a journalist in London in 2012, editing a news site and writing features and fashion articles for local publications including the Richmond Magazine and the Kingston Magazine. She also currently works as a support worker for people with disabilities.

As a child and teenager Lily suffered from severe Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). She has worked closely with both OCD Action and OCD UK to help others in similar situations. Because We Are Bad is her first book and relates to her experience with OCD.

Lily is available for interview, to write pieces and for events.

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The Almighty Dollar by Dharshini David

The Almighty Dollar: Follow the Incredible Journey of a Single Dollar to See How the Global Economy Really Works | By Dharshini David | Elliott & Thompson / hardback / non-fiction / 22.2.18 / £16.99

The dollar is the lifeblood of globalisation: China holds billions in reserve for good reason. Greenbacks, singles, bucks or dead presidents, call them what you will, $1.2 trillion worth are floating around right now – and half the dollars in circulation are actually outside of the USA.

But what is really happening as these billions of dollars go around the world every day? By following $1 from a shopping trip in suburban Texas, via China’s Central Bank, Nigerian railroads, the oil fields of Iraq and beyond, The Almighty Dollar answers questions such as:

• Why is China the world’s biggest manufacturer – and the US its biggest customer?
• Is free trade really a good thing?
• Why would a government spend millions building a bridge in a different country?

In lively and entertaining prose Dharshini David lays bare these complex interrelationships through the simple story of one dollar as it moves through the opaque international system. This is essential reading that gets to the heart of how our new globalised world really works.

In addition, Dharshini can discuss:

• Economic facts of Brexit - and the implications for our own fortunes
• The causes and solutions to the gender pay gap
• Women in business
• Debunking markets and financial instruments
• Inequality and the generation gap – why the over 60s are better off, but it’s a terrible time to be under 30

Dharshini David is an economist and broadcaster. From 2009 she fronted Sky News’ daily financial coverage from the heart of the City, as well as co-presenting the channel’s flagship Sky News Tonight programme.

Before joining Sky, Dharshini advised Tesco’s board on broadcast media. Prior to that, she was the face of the BBC’s Wall Street coverage in New York, from where she presented a daily business show, and covered business, economics and consumer issues in London across the BBC, from the BBC1 Ten O’Clock News to Panorama and Radio 4’s Today programme. Dharshini was recruited by the BBC while working on HSBC Investment Bank’s trading floor as its UK Economist. This is her first book

Twitter: @DharshiniDavid
Website: www.dharshinidavid.co.uk
Hashtag: #TheAlmightyDollarBook

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The 4 Pillar Plan - How to Eat, Sleep, Relax and Move Your Way to a Longer, Healthier Life by Dr Rangan Chatterjee

“Rangan’s easy, common sense plan can help everyone live a happier, calmer life”

— Jamie Oliver

“Rangan is revolutionising the way we think about health, he will make you feel better than you have in years.”

— Amelia Freer

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The 4 Pillar Plan by Dr Rangan Chatterjee

The 4 Pillar Plan - How to Eat, Sleep, Relax and Move Your Way to a Longer, Healthier Life by Dr Rangan Chatterjee | Published by Penguin Life, 4th January 2018, trade pb, £16.99

A simple, accessible and inspiring guide to good health from the star of the BBC One series Doctor in the House.

In The 4 Pillar Plan, Dr Rangan Chatterjee presents us with an incredibly simple framework for taking control of our health. He divides health into four pillars: diet, rest, sleep and movement. By making small, easily achievable changes in each of these key areas you can find and maintain good health - and avoid illness. You don't need to excel at any one pillar; what matters is the balance across all the things you do, from :

• Having an electronic 'sabbath' once a week
• Aiming for 12 hours every day without food
• Exposing yourself to sunlight first thing each morning

Based on cutting edge research and his own experience as a GP, and featuring fascinating case studies from real patients, The 4 Pillar Plan is an inspiring, easy-to-follow and practical guide to good health.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee is a pioneer in the emerging field of progressive medicine and is changing the way that we look at illness. He is known for finding the root cause of people's problems by taking a 360 degree approach to health, which was highlighted in the first two series’ of his ground-breaking BBC One TV show, Doctor in the House, that gained him much acclaim from both the public and doctors.

Chatterjee is the resident doctor on BBC Breakfast and has given an inspirational TEDx talk on making diseases disappear. He writes for The Huffington Post, Mind Body Green and has a monthly column on lifestyle medicine in Top Sante. He regularly lectures on his subject at events and conferences around the world.

More information about Dr Rangan Chatterjee is available here: https://www.drchatterjee.com/

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