The Night Brother – publication day 1st June 2017

Heartfelt thanks to everyone who packed out Waterstones, Deansgate, Manchester for the sold-out launch of ‘The Night Brother’!
It was a wonderful evening for my new novel, dedicated:

‘To Manchester
and all the wanderers
who have found a home in this Rainy City’

You can order it here…
https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-night-brother/rosie-garland/9780008166106

The first reviews have come in for ‘The Night Brother’ – and they’re both 5/5. Wow!

Thank you to Happy Meerkat and Little Bookness Lane for loving my words. It means so much.

“Once again I find myself lost in the reverie of Rosie Garland’s exquisite writing. Extraordinarily enchanting, The Night Brother’s emotional bounty caresses each page… Embracing the intimacies and complexities of the heart and soul, The Night Brother doesn’t feel like a story, but a delectable gift. All that remains is for me to offer a thunderous round of applause for what is simply an expressive, breath-taking wonder.”
Little Bookness Lane – read the full text here
https://littlebooknesslane.wordpress.com/2017/05/25/book-review-the-night-brother-by-rosie-garland/

“The Night Brother is a wonderful historical fiction novel with an amazing and intriguing twist… From the moment I read the first page I was hooked… A real exciting and also thought-provoking page-turner that I can really recommend.”
Happy Meerkat – read the full text here
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1888724819

‘For Books’ Sake’ most hotly anticipated books of 2017

Wow – how fantastic. The lovely people at For Books’ Sake have named ‘The Night Brother’ as one of their most hotly anticipated books of 2017!

Listen to the full podcast here – I’m mentioned around the 7min 30seconds mark.

http://forbookssake.podbean.com/e/101-most-anticipated-books-of-2017/

“The For Books' Sake podcast returns! Hosted by Jane Bradley and Paul Forster with correspondent Rebecca Smith, this fortnight you can hear Jane and Paul discuss their most anticipated books of 2017, including...

Defender by G. X. Todd (January, Headline); Not Just Jane by Shelley DeWees (January, HarperCollins); A Beginner's Guide to Losing Your Mind by Emily Reynolds (February, Hodder Stoughton); Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls (March, Timbuktu Labs); Come Let Us Sing Anyway by Leone Ross (March, Peepal Tree Press); The Night Brother by Rosie Garland (June, Borough Press).

Until next time: get in touch via Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or email to tell us which books you're most excited about in 2017!
Editing by Rebecca Smith // Music by She Makes War”

Bridgeman Studio Award 2016: And the winner is....
http://www.bridgemanimages.com/en-GB/blog/bridgeman/post/9211/preview
Standing in The News Building at London Bridge last Thursday the view of London was extraordinary, but for once it paled in comparison to the wealth of talent on display inside the room. The judging for the Bridgeman Studio Award 2016 was an incredible mix of styles, media and the highest levels of creativity.
From almost 1,000 entries from every corner of the globe our Bridgeman Studio team of Lucy Innes Williams and Charlotte Proctor Smith had their work cut out to create a shortlist. The eventual shortlist ended up at 80 entries from over 20 different countries... and the standard was exceptional.
Judging this was not a quick process....
Rosie Garland (Author), Claire Ward (Creative Director Fiction and Non Fiction - HarperCollins), Susie Doore (Publishing Director – The Borough Press), Patrick Burgoyne (Editor – Creative Review), Victoria Bridgeman (CEO Bridgeman images) and Lucy Baxter (Commercial Director – CultureLabel.com) spent nearly three hours selecting and discussing the different entries trying to find a winner.
At stake was an incredible prize of a £1,000 commission for best-selling author Rosie Garland's next title. Rosie was an absolute joy to be around and was so honoured by all the incredible entries. Every single artist who entered this year's competition should be very proud as they made the decision very challenging.
But there has to be a winner.
And what a winner she is! Aitch, An illustrator from Bucharest, Romania is the winner for the Bridgeman Studio Award 2016. Her style of work was captivating and jumped off the wall during judging with its playful, colourful illustrations which were full of depth and charm. Congratulations Aitch!
They came so close!
Three runners up that really came close to winning the BSA2016 this year were Robert Hunter, Isabel Grosse Holtworth and Mary Kuper who each will receive a £50 gift voucher from CultureLabel.com and a selection of books from HarperCollins.
Due to the overwhelming response to the 2016 Bridgeman Studio Award we will be making further announcements for some of the artists who were chosen by each of the sponsor brands and judges. Which brand would you have liked to been chosen by?
Author: Alan Firmin
Website: http://bridgemanimages.com
Digital Marketing Director for Bridgeman Images. Strategic, Creative and Digital professional with 30 international awards, over 20 years of experience with Grey, DraftFCB, Young and Rubicam, Landor and VML. Responsibilities included managing the worlds leading companies Brand, Advertising, Marketing and Digital ecosystems.

The Vixen paperback launch continues!

Thanks and gratitude for the wonderful welcomes and enthusiastic audiences so far.

That's Bar Wotever (London), Manchester Waterstones, The Book Case (Hebden Bridge), Booka Books (Oswestry), the WI Manchester & The Arvon Foundation at Lumb Bank!

Coming up - Word at the Y (Leicester), Waterstones Bradford, Polari at Huddersfield Literature Festival, INCITE (London), Watford Central Library for Herts Litfest 2015 & Literary Death Match in Shoreditch, London. Check the gig list page for details...

Oh yes - I've never had an entire window painted in my honour before - thanks to the amazing artistic skills of Louisa Jones at Booka Books in Oswestry!

'Vixen' is out in paperback!

Launched in London on 10th February at Bar Wotever, and in Manchester on Friday 13th February (lucky for some!). There are many more launch events and readings coming up in February / March 2015... check out the Gig List page for details of one close to you.

Thank you to all the wonderful folk who have already turned up to the readings. Your support is incredible!

Vixen is longlisted for The Green Carnation prize 2014!

The thirteen strong longlist of titles celebrating LGBT writing have been announced after several days of debates between the judges over an exceptional list of submissions, the most the prize has seen in its history to date. This list takes us from fairytale lands to the call centres of Scotland, from Calcutta to Russia and includes fiction, memoir, essays, short stories, non-fiction and the graphic novel.

Chair of the judges for 2014, journalist Kaite Welsh said of the longlist "The judging panel for this year's prize were in luck – some of the most dynamic and exciting books from the past twelve months have been from LGBT authors. Out of those, we've compiled an amazing longlist that should be on everyone's to-read list. The 2014 Green Carnation Prize has coincided with a bumper year for LGBT writing from established authors to new voices. Whittling the list down to 13 was difficult and enjoyable, and we're confident that picking the shortlist from such a great collection will be just as challenging."

Click to go to Green Carnation Prize site

Diva magazine has given 'Vixen' a great review!

'A compelling story about love and devotion set against the backdrop of superstition, pestilence and hardship that dominate the muddy 14th century landscape. Poetic, surprising and ultimately deeply moving, Vixen will have you hooked faster than it takes to drink a jug of ale and – unlike ale – it will stay with you long after you've reached the final page.'

Diva august 2014

My second novel, Vixen, launches today – 17th July 2014!

It has already featured as Grazia magazine's Best Historical fiction pick for summer 2014. Plus, this wonderful review is in the August 2014 issue of Diva magazine.

'A compelling story about love and devotion set against the backdrop of superstition, pestilence and hardship that dominate the muddy 14th century landscape. Poetic, surprising and ultimately deeply moving, Vixen will have you hooked faster than it takes to drink a jug of ale and – unlike ale – it will stay with you long after you've reached the final page.'

Authors Writing on Books

The Palace of Curiosities – reviewed by Max Scratchmann

Much as I want to like all of these books, there are, I'm afraid, a lot of fairly dull bodice-rippers and penny-dreadfuls lurking beneath the stunning cover art on the slew of mock-Victorian novels currently on the market, so it was with great joy that I discovered Rosie Garland's noir tale of life in a nineteenth-century freak show – The Palace of Curiosities.

Enticed by the gothic delicacy of cover art and then seduced by the Angela Carter comparison from Jenny Murray on the flyleaf, I delved into this novel with a mixture of anticipation and cautious scepticism – treating the alluring enticements to enter as nothing more than the world-weary siren call of an over zealous marketing man. But, miraculously, I was not disappointed this time, and though the wonderful Ms Garland, in fact, bears little resemblance to Angela Carter – she's far too original a voice to be a copy of anybody – The Palace of Curiosities is a dark and evocative exploration of the underbelly of Victorian society and a magic-realist journey through the fair grounds and freak shows that so fascinate this reviewer as a visual artist.

The novel follows the converging path of two outsiders, Eve the Lion Girl and Abel the Flayed Man – also known as Mr Lazarus – and takes us on an atmospheric journey that veers in and out of the (believable) supernatural and even manages a happy ending without ever once delving into sentimentality or sugary cliché. The writing is rich and verging on the poetic, and the characters are well-rounded and believable – Eve's story being particularly strong with a heady erotic undercurrent running throughout.

I very seldom resort to overblown kill-to-obtain-this-book soundbites, but this novel is a definite must-read. Highly recommended.

Max Scratchmann

Book: THE PALACE OF CURIOSITIES

Author: Rosie Garland

Publisher: HarperCollins

Click to go to Steve Savage's review site