Find out why Myrmidon’s Publishing Director believes that setting retail book prices should be none of his business.

Please click here for more details.

In the centenary year of the Great War, Myrmidon’s lead literary fiction title for 2014 will be The Cartographer of No Man’s Land by American novelist, P.S. Duffy, and newly acquired through literary agents Abner Stein and the author’s US agent, Julie Barer.

The centerpiece of the work is the historic assault by Canadian troops on the infamous Vimy Ridge in 1917, but the narrative alternates between the horrors of the Western Front and the effects of war on a small maritime community in Nova Scotia. It tells of an artist and navigator who, despite his pacifist upbringing, joins up in the hope of finding his missing brother-in-law.

Recently published by Norton in the US and by Penguin/Random House in Canada, The Cartographer of No Man’s Land has already been received well by North American critics and a review by Frances Itani in last week’s Washington Post described it as ‘compelling’ and as ‘an addition to the literary canon of World War I of the very best kind’.

Myrmidon’s publishing director, Ed Handyside, states that the centenary year is ‘convenient but coincidental’:

‘We’d have published it anyway. It’s quite simply the best piece of debut fiction I’ve come across for some considerable time. The stark horrors of trench warfare are painted as vividly and authentically as in the novels of Sasoon and Remarque, but amidst and despite all the trauma that afflicts both the combatants and their dependents at home, there is a controlled but strong sense of nobility that I found most affecting.’

The author, P.S. Duffy, grew up in Baltimore but spent summers sailing in Nova Scotia, which she regards as her second home. She is a science writer for the Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota, where she lives with her husband. The Cartographer of No Man’s Land is her first novel.

Photo © Karl Beighley

Tim Murgatroyd travelled up north on Saturday 30th November for a book signing session at the Middlesbrough branch of Waterstones.

Tim’s latest novel, The Mandate of Heaven, is the final instalment in his Medieval China trilogy. Tim had a successful afternoon meeting and greeting customers and completely sold out of the first two books in the trilogy.

Tim will be continuing his Waterstones tour in the new year.

Gavin Weston, author of Harmattan, has had a short story longlisted for the Fish Publishing Short Story Competition.

The Fish Short Story Prize is an established event on the literary calendar. Previous judges, Roddy Doyle, Dermot Healy and Colum McCann are honorary patrons.

Publication in the Fish Anthology (Fish Books) has been, for many authors, a stepping-stone to successful writing careers.

For more information about the short story competition please click here and to read Gavin’s short story please visit his website here.

Myrmidon Moves Into Non-fiction To Publish Companion To Cult TV Drama Breaking Bad

We are proud to announce our first popular non-fiction title. Myrmidon acquired rights to Wanna Cook? The Complete, Unofficial Breaking Bad Companion from ECW Press of Canada.

Wanna Cook? will be published in May 2014, coinciding with the TV BAFTA awards at which Breaking Bad is expected to feature strongly among the nominations, and will be a 500 page paperback priced at £13.99.

For more information please see the press release here.