no ordinary cat - ANTHEA

UK
chatto & Windus
(Juliet Brooke)
Holland
Artemis
uK Publication date 7 March 2013 Fiction
Jennie Rooney
RED JOAN
‘Joan had always imagined they would come for her
at night. She did not imagine a day like this, cold and
bright and perfectly still.’
Joan Stanley is a thoroughly ordinary old lady of 85 – or
so it appears. But once Ms Hart and Mr Adams from MI5
come to call, so begins a round of daily questioning that
unlocks her surprising past.
Her story begins when in 1937 she wins a place to study
natural Science at newnham College, Cambridge and
along with her home-made clothes, her mother borrows
an unsuitably glamorous mink coat for Joan to take with
her. The coat brings her to the attention of the radiant
Russian-born beauty Sonya Galich, and through her Joan
meets her charismatic cousin, Leo.
It is only at the end of the Second World War, with
the dropping of the bomb, when she has become
personal assistant to Professor Max davis at the Metals
Research Facility in Cambridge that she decides to pass
information to Russia because she believes it will make
the world a safer place. And by now she has access to
secrets that are important.
If Leo has never told Joan everything, then she in turn
now begins to betray Max, even though she is falling in
love with him. And what, later, of her adopted son? How
does nick feel all those years later when his mother is
revealed to have been a Soviet spy?
Can we ever really know everything about one another,
even those closest to us? In the post-War world of smoke
and mirrors, who should we trust? And is there ever such
a thing as a higher loyalty than to those we love?
UK
Harpercollins
(Katie Espiner)
uK Publication 28 March 2013 Fiction
Rosie Garland
THE PALACE OF CURIOSITIES
THE PALACE oF CuRIoSITIES is set in early victorian
London, and is told through the eyes of EvE, the Lionfaced
Girl, and interwoven with the story of ABEL,
the Flayed Man. Both of them freaks of nature, both
searching for escape. It explores life on the outer fringes
of society in 1850; what it is like to be different, and
traces their struggle for self-discovery on the boundaries
of what is perceived as human.
The novel is inspired by ‘freak show’ performer Julia
Pastrana, who suffered from hypertrichosis terminalis,
a condition where the body is completely covered with
thick hair. She was discovered by a man who taught
her to sing and dance, toured the world with her, and
eventually married her.
Rosie Garland lives in Manchester. Following her MA in
English Literature, she made a living singing with Goth
band The March violets. She began writing seriously in
the 1990s. Since then her stories have won numerous
prizes and she has published five poetry collections.
‘An author completely in control of her material.’– Sarah
Waters
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