This Month at Saraband - July
We’re well and truly into summer now. Needless to say, we have recommendations for holiday reading, rain or shine. And we have big news on the launch of a year-round book feast. Read on!
Stuck for reading inspiration? How about Booker-longlisted Case Study by Graeme Macrae Burnet? Or, if literary lives fascinate you, you could check out Emily Brontë Reappraised by Claire O’Callaghan, ahead of what would have been Emily Brontë’s 205th birthday on July 30th. Claire is a leading Brontë academic and part of the Brontë Society, but has written this relevant, entertaining and accessible biography for any enthusiast to enjoy.
Newsletter Exclusives
This month, we’re giving away a copy of Linda Cracknell’s Writing Landscape, which will be an inspiration for anyone practising writing about their observations in nature – be it for journals, essays or letters.
In the book, one of Linda’s prompts is to assign two-word ‘paint chart’-style names to express the colour of something you find in nature. For example: velvet truffle, minted glory, or Martian skies. To enter the competition, all you need to do is suggest a two-word paint name for the shade of green on the Writing Landscape book cover.
Send us your suggestions by filling out this form.
*UK only. Entries close Wednesday 26th July. One entry per person.
Happy 1st birthday Cold Fish Soup!
This August will mark the first anniversary of the publication of Cold Fish Soup, Adam Farrer’s award-winning debut book – an accessible, relatable, thought-provoking and often funny collection of essays drawn from his life experience. It’s been a whirlwind of a year for Adam, and we’re so proud of the success he has achieved: from a book signing tour of independent bookshops across Yorkshire to appearances at literary festivals up and down the country, and from being an Audible bestseller to being shortlisted for the Audiobook Award at the Independent Publishers Awards.
We’ll make this wonderful book the focus of our Yorkshire Day celebrations on August 1st, which is almost the publication anniversary. Adam’s experience of growing up in Withernsea, a seaside town in East Yorkshire, is central to the book. Polly Atkin’s review of Cold Fish Soup sums it up perfectly: “it is a love letter to Withernsea and all the people in it, its crumbling cliffs, its strange beauties and its losses, that made me love Withernsea too.”
If you’re yet to read Cold Fish Soup and want to fall in love with the unique town of Withernsea, you can purchase your copy here.
Introducing our Premium Substack
We’re delighted to launch our premium Substack offering! For the price of a coffee a month, you will get access to a host of Saraband extras, including exclusive previews, discounts, guest posts from our authors, and one free book of your choice from our quarterly themed collections. The collection will include new titles and one or two you may have missed, and will cover different genres each season.
We have two premium subscription types: monthly and annual subscriptions. Here’s what is included in each:
Our first quarterly book selection theme is Summer, and once you’re a paid subscriber you can choose one title from the following selection:
· The Bay by Julia Rampen (literary fiction)
· The Land Agent by J David Simons (literary fiction)
· Shocked Earth by Saskia Goldschmidt, trans. Antoinette Fawcett (translated fiction)
· A Time of Birds by Helen Moat (cycle travel memoir)
· The Nature of Summer by Jim Crumley (nature writing)
Audiobook of the Month: Cold Fish Soup
In last month’s newsletter you will have seen that we marked Audiobook Appreciation Month by celebrating our outstanding audiobooks. If you missed it, you can read the full blog post here.
In response to demand, we’ve revamped our website so that you can easily purchase our audiobooks directly from us. We have partnered with industry-leading Glassboxx to distribute our audiobooks and ebooks purchased from our website, so you’ll need to download the free Glassboxx app to your smartphone or tablet. This will also give you access to many other independent publishers’ audiobooks.
We also have an exciting offer for our newsletter subscribers. Each month, we’ll select an ‘Audiobook of the Month’ and you’ll receive a discount code to purchase the chosen audiobook title from our site. Free subscribers will receive 50% off the list price, and paid subscribers will be able to buy the audiobook for a generous 75% discount.
For our first Audiobook of the Month, we’ve chosen Cold Fish Soup by Adam Farrer. This is narrated by Adam himself, bringing an often hilarious and always heartfelt touch to the listening experience. To download Cold Fish Soup, add the audiobook from our website here, and then add code SRLOS50 at checkout for 50% off. If you subscribe to our paid premium Substack, you’ll receive an email with the 75% discount code shortly afterwards.
Happy listening!
Coming Soon
As we step into summer and look ahead, here are our upcoming titles to keep an eye out for:
The Bay by Julia Rampen (debut)
In an old-fashioned fishing community on Morecambe Bay, change is imperceptibly slow. Treacherous tides sweep the quicksands, claiming everything in their path.
As a boy, Arthur had followed in his father’s and grandfather’s footprints, learning to read the currents and shifting sands. Now retired and widowed, though, he feels invisible, redundant. His daughter wants him in a retirement home. No one listens to his rants about the newcomers striking out nightly onto the bay for cockles, seemingly oblivious to the danger.
When Arthur’s path crosses Suling’s, both are running out of options. Barely yet an adult, Suling’s hopes for a better life have given way to fear: she’s without papers or money, speaks no English, and chased by ruthless debt collectors. Her only next step is to trust the old man.
Combining warmth and suspense and recalling a true incident, The Bay tells a tender story about loneliness, confronting prejudice, and the comfort of friendship, however unlikely—as well as exposing one of the most pressing social ills of our age.
Orwell’s Island by Les Wilson
Revered across the globe as an author of compelling novels, journalism and essays that came to define the twentieth century, George Orwell was an unmatched political visionary, shining a light on the insidious nature of propaganda. Yet this chronicler of war, social injustices and urban poverty spent his later years living in a rustic and remote farmhouse, miles from the nearest neighbour. His rural escape was on the Hebridean island of Jura – another paradox, given that he harboured a deep-seated prejudice against Scotland for much of his life.
In 1946, Orwell arrived at his isolated home of Barnhill as a grieving widower living in the shadow of war and the nuclear threat. It was there he wrote his masterpiece, Nineteen Eighty-Four. Beyond the writing desk, he was transformed: his new life was one of natural beauty and tight-knit community – and he grew to love a corner of the world he had once dismissed.
Orwell’s Island casts important new light on a great modern thinker and author. No previous biography has revealed so much about Orwell’s later years or his time on Jura, despite this being where he created Big Brother, the Thought Police and Room 101—creations still in common currency today.
Peat and Whisky: The Unbreakable Bond by Mike Billett
Bringing together landscapes, geology, history, people and their whisky, and addressing the key role of peatlands in mitigating climate change, Peat and Whisky: The Unbreakable Bond is a love letter to peat, Scotland, and its most famous artisan product. It is, as Dave Broom says in his introduction, an essential read for enthusiasts, penned by the perfect guide.
Through epic journeys around Scotland and back in time, Mike Billett immerses us in the science and stories of ancient peatlands and bogs and captures the spirit of places where whisky has been distilled for centuries. He sheds light on how peat imparts its distinctive aroma to the world’s finest single malts. He looks back to tradition and heritage, as well as forward to a future in which the dark matter will remain part of the recipe for liquid gold – and become an increasingly precious living sponge for atmospheric carbon.
Whether you're a whisky connoisseur, a lover of Scotland’s beautiful landscapes, an armchair traveller or a history buff, this unforgettable book will deepen your appreciation for the land itself and help you to understand the profound connection between peat and the unmistakable character of a Scottish single malt.
Women in Translation Month
August is Women in Translation Month, and we have the perfect book for you to add to your shelves. Shocked Earth, originally published in Dutch as Schokland, by Saskia Goldschmidt and translated by Antoinette Fawcett, is an exploration of the dangers of industrial gas extraction, changing farming methods and their impact on our environment, and what it means to have your identity intensely entwined with your place of birth, in a compelling family saga.
Femke, her mother Trijn and her grandfather have very different ideas about how to run their family farm. Tensions between mother and daughter are growing; Femke wants to switch to sustainable growing principles, whilst her mother considers this an attack on tradition. Femke’s on-off girlfriend is sometimes less than supportive. And to make matters worse, their home province of Groningen is experiencing a series of earthquakes caused by a fracking operation near their farm. While the cracks and splinters in their farmhouse increase, the authorities and the state-owned gas company refuse to offer the local farming community any help. In Shocked Earth, Saskia Goldschmidt investigates what it means to have your identity intensely entwined with your place of birth and your principles at odds with your closest kin. And how to keep standing when the world as you know it is slowly falling apart.
Events
Adam Farrer @ The Grove, Ilkley, 20.7.23
Linda Cracknell @ Edinburgh International Book Festival, 22.8.23
Julia Rampen @ Golden Hare Books, Edinburgh, 31.8.23
Julia Rampen @ FACT, Liverpool, 19.9.23
Catherine Czerkawska @ Tidelines Book Festival, 23.9.23
Mike Billett @ Wigtown Book Festival, 25.9.23