Five Leaves is a small publisher based in Nottingham, publishing 15 or so books a year. Our roots are radical and literary. These days our main areas of interest are fiction and poetry, social history, Jewish secular culture, with side orders of Romani, young adult, Catalan and crime fiction titles. You can find our latest and forthcoming books below, backlist section by section, and order books through a secure site run by Inpress. Our books are also available from bookshops and internet sites including The Book Depository and Amazon.
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Welcome To Five Leaves Publications
Five Leaves News
Five Leaves – together with The Bookcase in Lowdham – jointly organises Lowdham Book Festival in Nottinghamshire. Most of the authors are not from Five Leaves of course – but some are. As this update goes to press we are busy putting the programme together. Here’s a taster; Roy Strong, Jonathan Meades, Julian Owen and (Five Leaves writer) Gillian Darley on things to do with architecture; Posy Simmonds and Martin Rowson doing some things with illustration; literary type DJ Taylor (on the regional novel); novelists Matt Haig, Eve Makis, Karen Maitland, Five Leaves’ authors Clare Littleford and Nicola Monaghan; Five Leaves’ poets Andy Croft and Adrian Buckner; in memoriam for Philip Callow, Arnold Rattenbury and Vernon Scannell; local history from Michael Payne and ex-Evening Post editor Barrie Williams; George Alagiah on multiculturalism; our Ken Worpole on Dockers and Detectives; music from the Lark Rise Band, Kiki Dee, Show of Hands; David McKie on the buses and Ben Macintyre on spying; Louise Scull on childlessness and Catharine Aronld on Bedlam; archive material from The London Magazine and Bromley House Library; Joe Boyd on rock music; a big book fair; a children’s programme organised by Elizabeth Baguley. Lots more to come.
Email info@fiveleaves.co.uk if you would like a printed programme in May, or keep an eye on www.lowdhambookfestival.co.uk
Lowdham Book Festival runs from June 20-28th. The final line up subject to confirmation.
We are pleased to support the establishment of another new publishing house in Nottingham… or at least publishing back bedroom… Five Leaves’ poetry editor Jenny Swann has set up her own Candlestick Press – see her website candlestickpress.co.uk. Candlestick will concentrate on pamphlets – though her initial list includes that rarity, a poetry handkerchief, featuring a poem by Maura Dooley. The pamphlets are very well produced, accessible, and shrink wrapped in the hope that galleries and card shops may sell them with cards. Candlestick has had a long genesis as we have worked through the idea of how to make poetry pamphlets sell, away from the poetry reading. Jenny is convinced that there is a huge untapped market for good poetry.
We are also pleased to be involved with the celebrations marking Alan Sillitoe being given the Freedom of the City of Nottingham, to coincide with his 80th birthday and the 50th anniversary of the great Nottingham novel Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. Alan is doing many events around the City, and – ever restless – has began teaching at Ruskin College in Oxford. Allan contributed a short story to the Five Leaves’ collection City of Crime, some poems to our Poetry: the Nottingham Collection. The title of our anthology of the new generation of Nottingham fiction writers, Sunday Night and Monday Morning was a direct homage to Sillitoe’s work.
A word on some of our plans for the next few months…. Over the summer we are beefing up our young adult section, and publishing some books for younger readers. Nick’s Blues by John Harvey came to us from an unlikely route as it was first published in French, even though John is a well-known writer in the UK. Mostly he writes for adults (including one Crime Express book for us) but here he writes something of a cross-over book aimed at a younger audience, which will also be enjoyed by his large adult fan base.
Spokes is book of short stories for young adults about the Romani world, written by Janna Eliot. We think this is the first book of its kind.
We are pleased to publish A Beautiful Place for a Murder by double-Carnegie Award winner Berlie Doherty. This book had its origins in a short story we first published in In the Frame. In addition to these new books we are re-issuing two books by East Midlands writers with local settings, The Naming of William Rutherford (set in Eyam – the plague village in Derbyshire) by Linda Kempton and The Secret World of Polly Flint (set in Rufford Park in Nottinghamshire) by the late Helen Cresswell.
While announcing new titles we can reveal that our Crime Express imprint has signed up a raft of crime writers for books over the next year – Ray Banks, Lawrence Block (from the USA), Allan Guthrie… more to be announced next time.
We will also be launching a full length crime series, under Five Leaves crime. The first books are by Carl Tighe, from Derby and Manchester, and Russel McLean from Dundee. Carl has written several books before, but not crime, but this will be Russel's first book.
We are also editing a book by first time writer Rod Madocks, an enormous book set in the world of secure hospitals. Rod spent ten years writing the novel, which landed on our desk at 160,000 words. It is now down to 114,000 words and looking good. Five Leaves is very excited by this book - No Way to Say Goodbye - and you'll be hearing more of it later. Stephan Collishaw has joined our list, or, rather, will with his next novel.
Readings and Events
“The Other America” – Smokestack radical American poets on tour, performing with Will Kaufman singing from the work of and talking about Woody Guthrie (a Five Leaves’ literature promotion in association with Smokestack Books).
Southwell Library, King Street, Southwell
Part of Southwell Library Poetry Festival. Other Five Leaves’s writers reading include Cathy Grindrod
Info: info@fiveleaves.co.uk
Peter Mortimer reprises "Off the Wall" at Humshaugh Village Hall, Northumberland.
Info and directions: info@fiveleaves.co.uk
Peter Mortimer’s RIOT plays at Unity Theatre in Liverpool.
Info: www.unitytheatreliverpool.co.uk
Adrian Buckner (supported by June English) reading from “Contains Mild Peril” at Nottingham Poetry Society, New Mechanics Institute, Nottingham.
Info: info@nottinghampoetrysociety.co.uk
Jewish exiled writers reading from If Salt Has Memory Poetry Café, London (nearest tube Covent Garden)
Small admission charge.
Hackney Limmud with Bernard Kops and many others.
The Petchey Academy, Hackney
Info: www.limmud.org
John Harvey reading – including from Nick’s Blues and Trouble in Mind at Reading Festival of Crime Writing – with Mark Billingham.
Victoria Hall, Reading Town Hall. £6/£5
Info: www.readingfestivalofcrimewriting.org.uk
Jewish East End Celebration Society (www.jeecs.org.uk) hosts a tribute to Rudolf Rocker, anarchist, writer, Yiddish newspaper editor and author of Five Leaves' The London Years.
Bouchercon 2008; Baltimore, MD (USA)
Guest of honour: John Harvey
Info: www.charmedtodeath.com
Lowdham Book Festival winter weekend – on biography
Info: www.lowdhambookfestival.co.uk
Five Leaves’ poetry evening in Camden United Reformed Church with Penny Feinstein, Naomi Jaffa and Adrian Buckner.
Info: info@fiveleaves.co.uk
Gillian Darley talks about Villages of Vision at Onslow Hall, Guildford
Info: www.artsandcraftsmovementinsurrey.org.uk
Jonathan Wilson will be reading from A Palestine Affair, Hiding Room and An Ambulance is on the Way in an exclusive London reading at Joseph’s Bookstore.
Info: www.josephsbookstore.com
Latest Publications:
The Okinawa Dragonby ISBN: 978-1905512393 , 96 pages
£4.99
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Jack deals in cardboard, selling expensive and rare gaming cards to rich collectors. He makes plenty of money, travelling the world. He meets millionaire Henri, the man who has everything. Well, almost everything. Henri wants the elusive Okinawa Dragon, a one-off card given to a Japanese businessman who refuses to sell. A plan is hatched, and Jack is soon on his way to Osaka to complete Henri’s collection. There is only one way to get hold of something somebody doesn’t want to give.
Praise for Nicola Monaghan’s The Killing Jar:
"An exuberant debut that reaches the parts of Britain mainstream fiction usually leaves alone." - The Independent
"Direct and deceptively simple. In spite of the suffering there are surprising touches of humour and tenderness that bloom like flowers on asphalt." - The Times
"...often violent, it isn't gratuitous, and Kerrie-Ann's strident voice sounds authentic; her plight compelling and affecting."
- Independent on Sunday
"Utterly compelling reading about a 'dead stormy'" - coming of age Booklist (starred review)
"startling and potent debut novel. Powerful and complex."
- The Independent
The Quarryby ISBN: 978-1905512423, 96 pages
£4.99
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A frightened phone call from her young daughter sends Jenny Carter into the darkness of Quarry Woods, seventeen years after she swore she’d never return. What she finds there triggers a journey back to a horrific event in her own childhood – an event which now threatens the present.
is the author of two previous crime novels. She is the crime reviewer of the Yorkshire Post.
The Secret World of Polly Flintby ISBN: 978-1905512485, 148 pages
£4.99
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"Have they told you?" His voice was lowered now, he was speaking of secrets to be told.
"Told me? What?"
"Of the lost village..."
As soon as she arrives in Wellow, Polly Flint knows there is magic in the place. And she should know because she is an unusual girl who can see things others can't.
Polly Flint seems to be able to call up a village that had disappeared from the face of the earth - and the people who lived in it, as they slip in and out of time.
Helen Cresswell, who also wrote Lizzie Dripping and the Bagthorpe series, was runner up for the Carnegie award four times. The Secret World of Polly Flint was runner up for the Whitbread award and was televised by Central Television. The book is set in Nottinghamshire, where she lived.
A Beautiful Place for a Murderby ISBN: 978-1905512454, 160 pages
£5.99
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It was the first time my mum had left me on my own. Five days of glorious freedom stretched in front of me. “Enjoy yourself,” I shouted, waving her off. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine!”
I danced back into the house, whooping with delight. And half an hour after she’d gone, I was plunged into the worst experience of my life.
Shaun Parker is a suspect in a murder at a lonely cottage near his house – only Caroline, his girlfriend, believes in his innocence. Can they find the real murderer before the police charge Shaun?
Berlie Doherty is the author of Dear Nobody and Granny Was a Buffer Girl, both of which won the Carnegie Prize. She has written over fifty books. She lives in Derbyshire, the setting for A Beautiful Place for Murder. You can read more about her on www.berliedoherty.com.
Nick's Bluesby ISBN: 978-1905512461, 200 pages
£5.99
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Four days after Nick Harman’s seventh birthday, his father climbed onto a bridge high above four lanes of traffic, paused, then threw himself to his death on the road below. That was a little over nine years ago. Today Nick was sixteen. The clock alongside his bed read 7:59.
Nick lives with his mother on a tough housing estate in north London. On his sixteenth birthday, his mother gives him a box of things left by his father all those years ago. The contents lead Nick to try and discover what led his father from being a successful blues singer to the point where he took his own life.
Against a background of shifting allegiances, involving both the violent gangs on the estate and his first serious involvement with a girl, Nick is forced to come to terms, not only with who his father was but who he is himself.
“A fine novel about growing up by one of the masters of British crime fiction.” - Le Monde
John Harvey has written many books of crime fiction and won the Crime Writers' Association Diamond Dagger for Sustained Excellence in Crime Writing. You can read more about him on www.mellotone.co.uk.
The Naming of William Rutherfordby ISBN: 978-1905512447, 160 pages
£5.99
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The little cradle creaked on curved rockers, creak, creak on the flagstone floor; a tiny cradle of dark brown wood, with carved acorns on each of the corners of the square wooden hood. Figures in long dresses and white bonnets surrounded it. One of them turned her face to Jack. "Jack, please help us!"
Jack's dream is frightening and confusing. It is so vivid that it seems almost true and he senses that it contains some sort of message for him.
Jack's intuition is correct, and the cradle comes to play an important part in his life, for in mysterious ways it links him with the past - so much so that he begins to live in two worlds; his ordinary, everyday time and one in Eyam, an isolated village in Derbyshire in the year 1665.
As the story unfolds Jack learns his destiny. It seems he is the only one who can help.
The Naming of William Rutherford was short-listed for the Sheffield Children's Book Award and nominated for the Carnegie Medal.
"...a writer who knows how to weave plot, character, and major themes into a haunting, wonderful story. Ten out of ten..."
Weekend Telegraph
Forthcoming Titles:
Riotby ISBN: 1905512492 , 96 pages
£6.99
Due August 2008, click here to pre-order
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“This is an electric light. It switches on and off here. Always put it on before you leave the room empty. You wish to work on the ships?”
RIOT, recalls the events of 2 August 1930, the Yemeni and British seamen’s riots in South Shields, but it speaks to the Britain of today. During the disturbances a police officer was stabbed and more than 20 Yemenis were later deported from the country. The play is relevant to today's ethnic tensions and tells an important story about a little-known piece of social history.
Author, Peter Mortimer says "The play tries to understand what caused this riot. The Arabs got blamed for high levels of unemployment at the time and they were the scapegoats."
"An honest, sympathetic, sometimes self-deprecatingly humorous but illuminating book that is deeply relevant to the troubled times we're currently living through" - Shields Gazette
"It is about the cauldron of prejudice, ignorance, generational divide and politics which brewed up into the ingredients for a riot."
- The Journal
"Touching, thought-provoking and, at times, humorous"
- North Tyneside News Guardian
"An astounding piece of work. A genuinely brilliant piece of theatre."
- Newcastle Evening Chronicle
RIOT plays The Customs House, South Shields in June and Unity Theatre in Liverpool in July.
Spokesby ISBN: 978-190551 478, 160 pages
£5.99
Due July 2008, click here to pre-order
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A scarlet wheel on a blue and green flag, bright against the grey sky. Gisela leaned against the stone balustrade, tired after the journey. She'd forgotten how hectic London was, and wondered how she'd ever managed to cope with the daily commute... But she was glad she'd come. Glad she'd brought Andrej. It was important for her young son to know his roots.
Spokes is made up of stories from across the Traveller world featuring British Gypsies, settled and still travelling; Irish Travellers; East European Roma; and people whose Romani background has remained under wraps in the face of a hostile world. There's an old violinist, a middle-aged mechanic, a young radio presenter, a schoolboy, a retired banker, a tea-lady, and a teacher. Sometimes humorous, sometimes tragic, every story is based on real incidents.
Janna Eliot is a member of the Gypsy Council, the Roma Support Group and plays guitar with the London Gypsy Orchestra.