A Sip of Claret News | We're Back!

11th October 2024

(ps. This is a condensed version of the Newsletter sent to our mailing list.)

We're Back!

It’s been a good few months since I last wrote because we took an extended summer break. Welcome back everyone! I hope you had a lovely summer and are enjoying autumn. You’ll notice that the newsletter has a new look, something that we spent some time developing. Let us know what you think.* As always, we love to hear from you.

Something happened just before I left for my summer hols which crystalised a few things for me. While I didn’t record the conversation, this is near as dammit.

The phone rang. A talent agent with, she assured me, a high-profile client. Hollywood wanted to make his biopic but he first wanted his memoir out. She had had little success with other publishing companies because her client had misspoke, something he now regretted and he wanted to set the record straight. She was aware of Operation Ark by Pen Farthing** and thought I might be interested.

I must confess that I heard the silent ka-ching! I could practically see my spreadsheet turning from red to black.

She then told me who her client was: Steven Seagal.

“The martial arts superstar!” I exclaimed. You could tell she was pleased that I recognised his name. He’d starred in popular action thrillers in the 1980s and 1990s. Babes. Bullets. Body blows.

“He’s very down to earth. I’ve dealt with him a number of times and found him to be entirely reasonable. He knows he expressed some things badly and he wants to set the record straight.”

As she pitched me on publishing Steven Seagal, I googled him. With the phone clamped between my shoulder and my ear, I ran my eye down his Wikipedia entry.

I stopped counting the rape allegations when they reached a dozen. His stuntmen allege abuse. Seagal endorsed Putin’s invasion of Ukrainian territory and called Putin “a brother”. And so on. It’s a long and sordid entry.

The talent agent wrapped up her pitch with, “He’s misunderstood – like Nigel Farage.”

It is to my credit that I didn’t burst into laughter. The one thing that you can never accuse Nigel Farage of is obfuscation. His hate mongering is as clear as a bell.

But this sort of call had never happened to me before. I unearth the diamonds in the rough and polish them up. I am unapologetically triumphant about the fact that, despite our small size, Claret Press titles have been longlisted, shortlisted and won major publishing awards.

Having said that, as an indie press I’m usually the publisher of last resort. Agents don’t contact me. And don’t respond when I contact them.

She dangled another carrot before me. “I have other high-profile clients who want to publish their memoirs.” And name-dropped two more disreputable figures from our polity.

There was a long silence. Finally I said, “As you know from our website, we support democracy, common decency and human rights. If Steven Seagal endorses democracy and human rights in his memoir then I would be prepared to read his manuscript.”

“It’s not about politics. It’s about his career as a martial arts star in Hollywood.”

“Ah. Well. Yes. But. I do think he might be able to shoehorn his support for democracy and human rights somewhere into his book.”

Then it was her turn for a long stretch of silence and finally, “Hmmmmmm….”

I had to stifle a bark of astonishment. Really? Seriously? Endorsing democracy and human rights was too big an ask?

Apparently it was.

It seems that Claret Press will not be publishing Steven Seagal. And I’m ok with that. There are lines you just don’t cross – not ever. As a result, there are some books you just don’t take – not ever.

But I was then and remain taken aback. Steven Seagal appears symptomatic of a disturbing trend where authoritarianism is in and democracy is out. I had thought that the argument in favour of democracy had been long won. Silly me.

And silly them. I know enough history to know how authoritarianism ends.

Aside from a good story, the call made a decision for me. Claret Press is leaving Twitter.

During the summer, Elon Musk fomented civil violence in England. To what end is unclear to me. What is clear is that this is not a man or a platform committed to promoting dialogue or finding common ground through sharing views and information. Violence does not foment democracy.

I cannot permit my publishing company to legitimise his platform by maintaining an account on it. I certainly don't judge anyone who continues to use Twitter/X. But it's simply not for Claret Press. So we will be leaving Twitter and joining BlueSky. If you are on BlueSky, please follow us via @claretpress.bsky.social

And of course our usual social media of Instagram and Facebook. We hope to see you there.

Katie Isbester, Publisher

*Send us an email to contact@claretpress.com if you'd like to provide feedback. We always appreciate it.

**For our new subscribers, Pen was a controversial figure during the Afghanistan Evacuation three years ago. He criticised the poor planning and the government’s insistence to go on vacation, delegating the evacuation to the most junior members of staff. Claret Press recently published his memoir. I’m only slightly biased, but you should read it.

We are thrilled to announce that Jill Culiner has won the Canadian Jewish Literary Award for Biographies/Memoirs 2024 for Those Absent On the Great Hungarian Plain!

About the Canadian Jewish Literary Awards: Marking its tenth successful year, the Canadian Jewish Literary Awards recognises and rewards the finest Canadian writing on Jewish themes and subjects in a variety of genres.

What the judges said about Those Absent: "Writer, photographer and social critic Jill Culiner presents vignettes from what was planned as a six-week excursion to find traces of Jewish presence in rural Hungary, and evolved into a multi-year sojourn exploring memory, culture and hard truths about what can lie beneath the surface in the human heart."

Our many congratulations to Jill - we're simply delighted that Those Absent has received the recognition it deserves.

The full blog post can be read on our website here.

The prologue can be read on our website here.

(photo credit: Henry J Allen)

We're excited to welcome Harry Whitehead as our latest author! Harry Whitehead is a novelist and director of the Centre for New Writing at the University of Leicester, where he also directs the annual free lit-fest, Literary Leicester.

His first novel The Cannibal Spirit (Penguin) was called 'powerful, brave, ambitious' (The Globe & Mail), 'a unique work, compelling, complex, thought-provoking and impressive' (Quill & Quire), 'a thriller with a Joseph Conradian plot' (The Walrus). He’s published short stories, reviews, essays and more in a wide variety of genres. He used to work in the film business and, before that, lived in the Far East.

We were hooked by his gritty, sophisticated eco-thriller set in the Arctic, and cannot wait to share more about it in the coming months. You can find Harry on Instagram @harrywhitehead45 and Twitter/X @HDWOWL.

We're excited to share our new online series Adaptations and Conversations, in which Katie Isbester (Publisher) and her friend Michelle discuss books, their adaptations to film, TV and theatre, and answer your comments.

Tell us which you liked more, what translated brilliantly between the media (or didn't) and what each evoked in you. It's our first livestream and we'd love for you to join the conversation.

The link to the Youtube livestream is: https://youtube.com/live/luYBC5zxxFk?feature=share

We hope to see you there.

In our new occasional livestream, we'll feature Claret Press authors and you'll be able to ask them questions or make a comment. This is a fun and intimate hour with authors to discuss their writing, their thoughts and anything else that Katie Isbester can think up.

Our first event will be on 5th November 2024, 7pm-8pm, with Pen Farthing. The link to watch the livestream on YouTube is here:https://youtube.com/live/yhQEtY2caUg?feature=share.

And just in case you haven't heard enough about Operation Ark, read on for more news.

For our US readers, Pen Farthing will be in Frisco, Texas on October 25th 2024 for a talk and book signing. For full details and to book a place, please contact the Nowzad team at events@nowzad.com.

We were also pleased to see that Operation Ark had been given a really excellent and considered review by author/blogger Maryse Kluck, who amongst many things said that the book "reads like a thriller movie: its prose and story makes it a page turner."

Operation Ark’s story carries a warning. Western intelligence underestimated the brutal speed with which the Taliban moved... Reading Farthing’s book made me think about our enemies now, those who are not in Afghanistan, but in the West, or near the West.

Part one of the review can be read here, and more reviews and blog pieces can be read on Maryse's website at www.marysekluck.com.

On a final note, it's Black History Month. We thought as a Clapham-based publisher that we should pay tribute to William Wilberforce and rest of the Clapham Sect who campaigned for the Abolition of Slavery.

And, of course, we have our Adaptations and Conversations event next week, where we'll be discussing Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams and its story of a modern Black female experience.