Edna O’Brien pays tribute to her friend and fellow writer Philip Roth. In her poem, ‘One need not be a chamber to be haunted’, Emily Dickinson wrote of the mind’s many niches and the spectral encounters of night. I have been thinking of the forbidding rooms of Philip Roth, a man so studiously private in…
Bake Off with Gordon Burn
By Lee Brackstone Gordon Burn is not a hard person to talk about, or make sense of, in the world we find ourselves in nine years after his death. He comes up often in my engagement on social media; a ghostly afterlife that may have fascinated someone who was so engaged with how the media…
It’s raining cats . . . or dogs?
To celebrate the publication of Old Toffer’s Book of Consequential Dogs by Christopher Reid, illustrated by Elliot Elam, we asked some of our authors and staff whether they were cat people or dog people, and to write a little bit about their cat(s) or dog(s). DOGS Claire Barker, author of Picklewitch and Jack I…
A Room of My Own: Children’s author Claire Barker shares her writing space
Most of my mornings start the same way: I march up the big hill with the dogs and fill my pockets with treasures – nuts, leaves, snail shells, pebbles. We crunch through the silent woods as crows watch us and buzzards sail on the thermals overhead. Then I make an eye-poppingly strong pot of coffee…
Jenny Uglow wins the Hawthornden Prize for Literature 2018
The Hawthornden Prize for Literature 2018 was awarded to Jenny Uglow for her ‘outstanding biography of a secretive genius’, Mr Lear. The award was presented on behalf of the Hawthornden Literary Retreat by Christopher Reid, chairman of the judges, at a reception at the London Library. The Hawthornden Prize rewards works of ‘imaginative literature’ whether prose…
Faber announces The Heartland – the second book by Nathan Filer
Faber is thrilled to be publishing Nathan Filer’s highly anticipated second book, The Heartland: finding and losing schizophrenia. A powerful work of non-fiction, it is the follow-up to his Costa Book of the Year debut novel, The Shock of the Fall. Louisa Joyner, Editorial Director, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights, plus EU, excluding Canada, from Sophie Lambert at C+W. In The Heartland, Nathan Filer, a…
Faber Children’s celebrate a year of successes
The crowning of Faber as the Independent Publisher of the Year at the Nibbies was the icing on the cake for Faber Children’s after another year of exceptional results. The list achieved an excellent financial performance, up 40% in value on last year. We also saw fabulous awards success across the board, including the two…
Faber appoints Granta’s Alex Bowler to the role of Publisher
Faber & Faber is delighted to announce that Alex Bowler has been appointed to the role of Publisher for all adult publishing. Alex Bowler is currently Executive Publisher, Granta Publications. He joined Granta in 2016 as Publishing Director and was appointed Executive Publisher in June 2017, taking on the running of all aspects of…
Faber announces John Grindrod’s Iconicon
We’re thrilled to announce the acquisition of an ‘essential’ new non-fiction title from John Grindrod. Iconicon tells the history of British buildings from the 1980s to the present day, using both famous structures and ordinary homes to show how a nation lives amidst the gradual dismantling of the welfare state. It takes up the story…
Cover Design: See What Can Be Done
The title of this book – See What Can Be Done – is not a boast but an instruction. Designing the cover for Lorrie Moore’s See What Can Be Done: Essays, Criticism, and Commentary was one of the first jobs I was given after starting at Faber & Faber in September last year. The brief…
Faber to publish intimate story of the NHS by Owen Sheers
Faber & Faber is delighted to announce the acquisition of To Provide All People, a powerful virtuosic ‘film-poem’ by the prize-winning poet, novelist and playwright, Owen Sheers. Mitzi Angel acquired UK, EU and Commonwealth rights from Zoë Waldie at Rogers, Coleridge & White. Faber will publish in July to coincide with the 70th anniversary of…
I am the son of a refugee – but that is not why I wrote Child I
Steve Tasane’s Child I tells the story of a group of undocumented children living in a refugee camp. They have stories to tell but no papers to prove them. Here, the author explains why he wrote his astonishing novella. I am the son of a refugee, but that it not the only reason why I wrote…
Faber announces Old Toffer’s Book of Consequential Dogs
We are thrilled to announce the acquisition of Old Toffer’s Book of Consequential Dogs by Costa Award winner Christopher Reid, who wrote the collection in response to an invitation from the Estate of T. S. Eliot. The idea for a collection of poetry about dogs came to Eliot himself, when in conversation with his driver, who gave him the highly promising phrase ‘consequential dogs’. Eliot,…
Announcing Lanny, Max Porter’s second novel
We are delighted to announce the acquisition of Max Porter’s second novel, Lanny. There’s a village sixty miles outside London. It’s no different from many other villages in England: one pub, one church, red-brick cottages, council cottages and a few bigger houses dotted about. Voices rise up, as they might do anywhere, speaking of loving and…
Faber signs Walls, a major new work of non-fiction
Laura Hassan, editorial director, has acquired UK and Commonwealth rights in Walls: A History of Civilization by David Frye from Scribner. Faber & Faber will publish 4 October 2018. Frye’s brisk, colourful narrative of invasions, empires, kings, and khans reveals that the history of walls is more than a tale of bricks and stone; it is the story of civilization…
