Myrmidon has acquired the rights to Queen of Bedlam, a self-published debut novel by Laura Purcell based on the life of Queen Charlotte, wife of “mad” King George III of England. It will be the first in a series of novels about the lives of royal women from the Georgian period.

For the full review in The Bookseller please visit their website here.

The Afterword Reading Society are a group of book lovers who read books together and share their thoughts in the Canadian newspaper, the National Post.

The Cartographer of No Man’s Land was their book choice for January and they have a unique and interesting way of showing their understanding and enjoyment of the novels they read.

To see their Q and A with P.S.Duffy, and to see their charts and opinions, please click here to take you to their blog post.

Breaking Bad, which reached its climax in 2013 to a record audience of 10.3 million American viewers, had been a sleeper hit in America and the UK until its dramatic fifth series. However the show, which follows Walter White’s transformation from high school chemistry teacher to meth amphetamine kingpin, has always been critically acclaimed and has won Emmy awards and nominations since its debut in 2008.

Wanna Cook? is the Complete, Unofficial Breaking Bad Companion and is a comprehensive 500 page guide to all five seasons of the Emmy award and Golden Globe award winning TV drama.

The companion includes guides to every episode aired and includes details such as camerawork, settings and music, as well as in depth analysis of the wider themes of the series including the roles of violence, place, self-change, legal ethics and fan reactions.

Due for release in May 2014.

From Lionel Shriver’s Big Brother to Jim Crace’s Harvest, and from Ruth Rendell’s No Man’s Nightingale to Iain Banks’ The Quarry, Guardian readers pick their favourite reads of 2013.

Below is the review from Bob Horne based in West Yorkshire.

The Mandate of Heaven by Tim Murgatroyd (Myrmidon) completes an epic trilogy of conflict, culture and passion in medieval China as the brutal Mongol occupation of the Middle Kingdom threatens civilised ancient tradition. Its imagery is gently poetic and complements the robustness of the narrative. Far away in time and space; contemporary in issues, character and relationships. Outstanding.

For the full list of reviews please click here.

Myrmidon has acquired the rights to two original accounts by British Second World War prisoners of the Japanese who worked on the famous ‘River Kwai’ Railway, the subject of the film The Railway Man due to be released in cinemas next year.

Railroad of Death is the original classic account of the construction of the Burma Railway by John Coast, then a young officer in the Norfolk Regiment who wrote his original manuscript on the voyage home. Railroad of Death was a 1946 bestseller and provided inspiration for the film Bridge over the River Kwai and a groundbreaking 1969 BBC documentary Return to the River Kwai. Incorporating Coast’s 1969 interviews for the BBC with his Japanese captors as well as an introduction putting Coast’s experiences into context, Railroad of Death will be published in paperback and ebook in May 2014.

In November 2014 Myrmidon will republish And The Dawn Came Up Like Thunder by Leo Rawlings in hardback and ebook. An artist before the war, Rawlings drew what he witnessed around him as a prisoner of the Japanese, leading him to be unofficially commissioned after his capture to keep a visual record of the prisoners lives. The new edition will include pictures never before published as well as new commentary on Rawlings’ experiences by Dr Nigel Stanley an expert on Rawlings and the medical problems faced on the Burma Railway.

Associate Editor Justin Nash who acquired the rights directly from the families for Myrmidon said, “Both are classics steeped in humanity and crying out to be brought back to the wide audience the books previously had and deserve. Railroad of Death by John Coast was the first and the best account of the camps on the Burma Railway. It also documents the fight of a group of young officers for survival against the Japanese and frustration with the old guard of senior officers who ran the British end of the camps. And The Dawn Came Up Like Thunder by Leo Rawlings is both fascinating and unique. His eyewitness drawings and paintings vividly and uncompromisingly bring to life the diseases, hardships and other sufferings of the prisoners of war.”

The books are to be the first in a range of publications of witness testimony from ordinary soldiers from all sides in the great conflicts of the 20th century and Myrmidon are actively seeking both unpublished war diaries and classic accounts that may now be out of print.