BOTOX FOR THE BRAIN sells at Auction in the Netherlands

Tim Drake and Chris Middleton's new book BOTOX FOR THE BRAIN which looks at how (and why) to reduce your brain age has sold after a heated auction through the London Book Fair to the Dutch language publisher Spectrum. The auction was managed by Paul Sebes at Sebes & van Gelderen.

The book is out now widely in other territories.

Rosy Barnes' novel SADO-MASOCHISM FOR ACCOUNTANTS placed with Marion Boyars

I'm delighted to announce the sale of Rosy Barnes' first novel SADO-MASOCHISM FOR ACCOUNTANTS to Catheryn Kilgarriff at the stylish independent house Marion Boyars who I've been much impressed with since their successes with Riverbend and with THE CONCUBINE OF SHANGHAI.

The London Book Fair was fantastic and Tim Thornton's THE ALTERNATIVE HERO was one of my books of the fair with an enormous level of interest world-wide.

Expect more announcements and news on:

Helen FitzGerald
Jon Fink
Adjiedj Bakas
Michael Dean

very soon ...

Sonny Mehta buys Tim Thornton for Knopf

Ahead of the London Book Fair, Sonny Mehta, editor-in-chief of Knopf has bought the North American rights to Tim Thornton's début novel The Alternative Hero (represented by Adrian Weston at Raft) from Dan Franklin at Jonathan Cape in the UK for a substantial five-figure sum. Franklin bought World English Language rights to Thornton's work very recently from Raft in a two-book deal.

The Alternative Hero is a sparkling, darkly comic work of men's fiction that serves up a fast paced and highly entertaining tale for the 30-something reader, set in the music scene of the 1990s. It is a story of hero worship, burnished hope and the idle dreams that so many of us harbour unfulfilled written through the eyes of Clive a massive fan of a band that spectacularly crashes and burns one fateful summer.

Tim Thornton is the drummer of the successful NinjaTunes band FINK.

Raft are currently offering the novel in all other translation territories.

New Authors & New Projects

In the run up to the 2008 London Book Fair I am delighted to have several exciting new projects on our books.

Rosy Barnes Sado-Masochism for Accountants is a punchy début from an acclaimed playwright.

The Marquis de Sade meets...The Office.When Paula's mother suggests she should find a new hobby to take her mind off being dumped, joining a fetish club was not quite what she had in mind... but still smarting from her ex-fiancée's accusation that she is boring, that is exactly what Paula does. Part satire of corporate lifestyle and part exploration of the roles people play between the sheets or the spreadsheets: this is a funny, feel-good comedy.

Rosy Barnes lives in Edinburgh. Her play Bimbo toured Ireland and Scotland to much audience and critical acclaim. Her comic radio play The Dog House was produced by RTE & was short-listed for the PJ O’Connor award.

Michael Dean Blue Horses is a gripping and chilling literary thriller from an accomplished writer.

A chilling literary thriller, Michael Dean’s Blue Horses is set in 1930’s Munich, immediately after the Nazi rise to power. It is an intensely researched novel about Hitler, the investigation into the death of his niece Geli Raubal and a collection of his pornographic drawings of Geli that have disappeared after her death. It is a story about an attempted assassination, corruption and art at a time when the Nazi grip on power is still not absolute – powerfully told and compellingly readable.

Michael Dean is an Oxford history graduate and German translator and has published over thirty non-fiction titles. This is his first novel.

Teri Louise Kelly Sex, Knives and Bouillabaisse

The hilarious, often vexed, and constantly twisted life story of Teri Louise Kelly. Writing as the boy she once was, Teri takes us into the cloistered world of swanky hotels in England and Paris. She describes with solicitous accuracy the pranks, mind games and seedy morals of an ensemble of lunatics over lorded by a booze-addled despot. As a chef, Teri Louise Kelly strutted the line in big kitchens with a cocky impudence and girlish hips; as a writer, she brings to the page a furnace-like blast of candidness coupled with an eye for detail as sharp as a sniper’s. A funny, savage and punchy read. Teri works as a professional chef in Australia.

This memoir is a worthy successor to books like Kitchen Confidential and comes to us from our Australian client Wakefield Press.

The full rights guide will be uploaded shortly on the Raft Website HERE