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but there will be more. You can imagine there will be some funny takes on it as well, with the American/British connection.”
Publishers are being much more cautious when it comes to celebrity autobiographies, and there aren’t as many huge advances for showbiz memoirs as there once were. The main spring title is attract a lot of coverage. “Denise doesn’t want her son to be remembered as a murdered child and with this beautifully written book, she succeeds. It’s about the legal battle to change the way the law treats victims of crime, so it’s campaigning as well,” says Caroline.
On a lighter note, Strictly Come Dancing contestant Susan Calman is bringing a book out in the autumn called
which aims to persuade people to be kinder to each other and spread more joy.
In the world of fiction, publishers are elbowing each other in their quest to find the next blockbuster thriller, says Alice O’Keeffe, books editor of The Bookseller.
“In the past few years, domestic noir has been really strong. It kicked off with the success of Gone Girl and The Girl On The Train, so every publisher is still looking for this year’s Girl On The Train. Domestic noir is still where everybody’s at,” she says. “The stand-out debut is
It’s terrific. It starts with a narrator who you believe to be a wronged divorcee, whose wealthy ex-husband has traded her in for a younger version, and she talks about the revenge she is going to take. It stands out in a very crowded market.”
which focuses on the power struggle between a working mother and the nanny she employs, leading to a double murder, are other novels to watch.
Romantic fiction seems to be increasingly set in Cornwall, Alice notes, following on from novels by the likes of Judy Finnigan and Fern Britton.
“There are plenty of escapist novels, and Cornwall seems to be the popular setting for commercial women’s fiction. There’s still a continuing craze for novels set in cafes, or about cupcakes. Maybe there’s a Bake Off influence in there too.
“Sophie Kinsella has a new book coming out – about a couple who realise they are going to have had seven decades of married life together if all goes well, so they concoct this plan to keep their relationship fresh and exciting, which goes really wrong because a secret comes out. “Joanna Trollope is another stalwart. She has picked a topical theme for her next book, Comedian and actor Susan Calman – pictured above with her Strictly Come Dancing partner Kevin Clifton – hopes her book, The Kindness Quest: Dancing For Joy might make us all a bit nicer about a middle-aged couple getting married, but they both had families before – and it’s how their respective children get along. She’s very good at taking modern life dilemmas and turning them into fiction.”
Alice predicts that 2018 is going to be a good year for historical fiction, too.
“The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry has opened up the public’s interest in historical fiction more. Sarah Waters has sold in big numbers and that has further fuelled interest. is a terrific debut by Imogen Hermes Gowar, which opens in 1785 with a sailing merchant whose boat has been missing for months, with no contact from the captain. Then one night, the captain arrives home – he has sold the ship for what appears to be a mermaid.” Broadcaster and non-fiction writer Sally Magnusson’s debut novel
takes a real event in which barbary pirates turned up in Iceland and raided the coast, kidnapping 400 Icelanders and taking them to Algiers to sell them into slavery. This tells the story of the wife of the pastor. Keep an eye out for wellestablished authors who always deliver, including Kate Atkinson, whose new novel features a post-war Secret Service heroine whose life starts to unravel; crime writer Belinda Bauer, whose next psychological thriller is out in May, while Sarah Pinborough follows Behind Her Eyes with a twisty new thriller
also out in May. And there are plenty of follow-up novels to get your teeth into, she adds, most notably the last in Jojo Moyes’ barnstorming trilogy which began with expected to be huge.
Finally, there are several books out in 2018 which will continue the popularity of stories where women battle the elements.
“It was a big thing in non-fiction for ages, with