INDEPENDENT PUBLISHERS SHOWCASE # 5. CLARET PRESS
Today I am delighted to share my fifth Independent Publishers Showcase, welcoming Claret Press to the weekly showcase.
Established in 2015 Claret Press was set up as a purely independent publisher with its books now sold and read across the world. Bring new and exciting authors to readers. Books published that will engage but also relevant. Publishing both fiction and non-fiction and on a personal note I have enjoyed the books I have read from Claret Press.
Seven of the books published by Claret Press have since been turned into audio books by Essential Audiobooks based out of New York. They have been shortlisted for the 2020 RSL Christopher Bland Award for Black Tea by Stephen Morris. Claret Press are an exciting independent publisher and if you have not had a look at their books, it is worth having a look at their website detailed below.
Keep an eye on their Twitter feed @ClaretPress of visit their website: Claret Press
A selection of the fiction titles currently released and soon to be released through Claret Press:
Black Tea by Stephen Morris
Published: 25th September 2019
Summary:
‘Elegiac, evocative and disarmingly candid… it can be soothingly poetic and then bring you to a standstill with its sharp, searing honesty.’ BBC Russia correspondant, Lucy Ash’This fascinating autobiographical travelogue is an unblinking self-analysis.’ Zinovy Zinik, Russian author’a triumph of art as well as of observation.’ Paul Binding, cultural critic and authorInspired by the artful prose of Primo Levi, Raynor Winn and Deborah Levy, Black Tea is a book about Russia that starts in London at the height of the Cold War and ends on a beach in Crimea forty years later.Morris combines elements of his life forged during the breakup of the Soviet Union to create a memoir based on reflections and memory, and a narration that starts in England leads the reader on a journey through Russia from the White Sea to the Caucasus.The book comes to terms with the central lacuna in twentieth-century thought: the tacit support for communism by Western intellectuals. It describes the author’s father’s support of Russia and his activism on behalf of nuclear disarmament in the 1970s, and contrasts this with his grandmother’s stark warnings of the evils of socialism, and his own ambiguous position growing up in the suburbs outside London, a position that was for many years dominated, in spirit, by a huge military map of the Soviet Union tacked to his bedroom wall.Highly informed with a unique perspective, Black Tea chronicles the changing geography, politics and personality of Russia over his thirty years there. A reflection and a travelogue, Steve Morris hauntingly explores love and identity, commitment and family.
Plague by Julie Anderson
Published: 15th September 2020
Summary:
There are many ways to die. Plague is just one of them.
Work on a London tube line is halted by the discovery of an ancient plague pit and, within it, a very recent corpse. A day later another body is found, killed in the same way, also in a plague pit. This victim is linked to the Palace of Westminster, where rumours swirl around the Prime Minister and his rivals.
As the number of deaths climbs, the media stokes fear. Government assurances are disbelieved. Everyone feels threatened. This has to be resolved and fast.
The Westminster connection enables Detective Inspector Andrew Rowlands, working alone on a series of rapes and murders of vulnerable young people in central London, to finally persuade his superiors that there is a pattern. He is assigned to lead the case. Cassandra Fortune, a disgraced civil servant, is given the uncomfortable task of investigating the investigation, while joining forces with Rowlands to find the killers before Parliament rises for recess.
Together they navigate the arcane world of the Palace of Westminster as the body count grows. But someone is leaking important details about the case to the press and the media ratchets up the pressure. Misinformation and malice online feeds distrust and panic and the Black Death begins to stalk the streets of London once again.
Meanwhile the commercial and political world focuses on the launch of a huge government Thames-side building programme worth billions. Powerful forces, in Parliament and the City, are competing for its spoils. How, if at all, does this link with the killings? Drawn into the melee, Cassandra Fortune finds herself the object of the attentions of one of the major players, wealthy City broker, Lawrence Delahaye. The attraction is mutual. Fortune and Rowlands discover a shadowy underground network of influence and power as they race against the clock to prevent the death of more innocents and the destruction of the Mother of Parliaments itself. Cassandra will be forced to make a terrible decision as she faces ruin. Time is running out and it’s not clear what, or who, is going to survive.
Urban Creatures by Sarah Gray
Release Date: 25th May 2020
Summary:
Urban survival makes creatures of us all. Clamouring for love, terrified of boredom and anxious for success, we fight a futile battle.
Primal urges feed the city, stalking its inhabitants. From a psychotherapist gorging on tragedy to a grief-stricken father searching for his daughter’s lost soul, humanity’s subterranean secrets and shames are unearthed.
In her third collection of short stories, Sarah Gray occupies the edge of reality, dexterously inhabiting and defying form and genre. Gray’s stories shift from the unsettling to the surreal to the frightening, all cut with her characteristic black humour.
Brushstrokes in Time by Sylvia Vetta
Release Date: 6th January 2016
Summary:
Brushstrokes in Time is the fictional memoir of Chinese artist Little Winter, who tries to re-establish the bond with her American daughter, telling the story of her emotional and rebellious past. While growing up in Communist China, Little Winter discovers talent and rebellion, joining ‘The Stars’ art movement for freedom of speech in an era where self-expression and love was a dangerous act.
Little Winter and her haunting love story connects us to a time of hope for freedom, and to a man frustrated by being kept in small shoes.
A Very Important Teapot by Steve Sheppard
Release Date: 18th October 2019
Summary:
A Very Important Teapot is a comedy thriller revolving around the hunt for a lost cache of Nazi diamonds in Australia.
Dawson’s life is going nowhere. Out of work and nearly out of money, he is forlornly pursuing the love of Rachel Whyte. But Rachel is engaged to Pat Bootle, an apparently successful local solicitor who has appeared from nowhere.
Then, out of the blue, Dawson receives a job offer from his best friend, Alan Flannery, which involves him jumping on a plane to Australia to “await further instructions”. But instructions about what?
This is the start of a frantic chase around south eastern Australia with half the local underworld, the police and the intelligence agencies of three countries trying to catch up with Dawson.
What is Flannery’s game?
Why has Pat Bootle turned up in Australia?
Who is the beautiful but mysterious Lucy Smith?
What is the teapot’s secret?
What has folk music got to do with anything?
And how do guns actually work?
Dawson’s life will never be the same again.
Visit the Claret Press Website for information on all their books: Claret Press
You can also find them on Twitter: @ClaretPress and Instagram: @claretpress and Facebook: @Claretpublisher
If you have enjoyed this week’s showcase please look out for my next Independent Publishers Showcase next week. If you are an indie publisher and would like to add your name to the showcase, you can contact me via Twitter: @TheLastWord1962
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