Wishing our Chairman Naim Attallah a very happy birthday. He is 89 years old today! Memories by Naim Attallah is available here now.

‘Pomeranski has the humour and dark undertow of Woody Allen’s romp, Small Time Crooks. Someone should send a copy of the book to Guy Ritchie. Through his memories of people and place, the author gives a sense of how Brick Lane and Brixton were almost like a village, set apart from the cosmopolitan centre of the heaving metropolis. Bawdy, vivid and entertaining, Pomeranksi is a perfect lockdown read.’

Book Blast Diary reviews Pomeranski by Gerald Jacobs. You can read the full review here.

‘Tell us about your latest novel, Pomeranski, and what inspired you to write it.
The principal characters and their actions are invented, so Pomeranski is not an autobiographical novel. However the atmosphere is not invented. The book is set in an actual place and time: Brixton in the 1950s and ’60s.

I was prompted to write it by a fascination with the idea and apparent compulsiveness of revenge, and also with the concept of autodidacticism, educating oneself to a high level outside the system. But these are underlying themes. More explicitly, there is a passionate love affair, at least one murder and a sub-plot set in Jamaica.’

Here’s an extract from a new interview with Gerald Jacobs on Book Blast Diary. You can read the full interview here. Pomeranski by Gerald Jacobs will be available soon. For more information on the title, go here.

The Bookseller writes about the Authors’ club launch of LitFest Online in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Quartet author Gerald Jacobs will be speaking about Pomeranski at the festival. You can read the full Bookseller article here and read more about Pomeranski by Gerald Jacobs here.

‘Sewell, whose non-art essays were awarded the Orwell Prize, called himself “queer” rather than “gay”, which he thought a silly misuse of language and not at all appropriate. Neither of those faults can be applied to this absorbing book which thoroughly deserves its reissue. ‘

The Catholic Herald reviews The Complete Outsider by Naim Attallah. You can read the full review here and get your copy of the book here.

‘Historical, poetic, touching, deserving of applause. It should be read to children. Young people will receive great examples and adults will admire them.’

The critic Ralph Peter reviews Portuguese edition (Matrix) of The Old Ladies of Nazareth by Naim Attallah. You can read the full review on our chairman’s blog here.

A RACE FOR A CURE FOR COVID-19*

By Dr. Philip Salem

April 9, 2020

In critical times, such as the one the world is going through today, one would need courage, hope, and knowledge. Scientific research, which is the main tool for making new knowledge, is our redemption. This is the only way to discover a cure for COVID-19, and to win the war against this pandemic.

We are late in our attempt to find a treatment for COVID-19. Consequently, more than 80,000 people have already died. More than four months ago, and since the first outbreak of this disease in China, it was clear that this enemy was not waging a war against China itself, or against any other country, but rather waging a war against all people, against all mankind. However, we had hoped that doctors and scientific researchers from all over the world would grasp this opportunity and jump over the closed geographical borders, to work together and find a cure for this disease as quickly as possible. As medicine does not recognize geographical borders; It rises above geography, nationalism, politics, and religion. It rises to man.

Amidst this darkness that envelopes the world, and the panic that imprisons more than a third of humanity in its homes, we see a dim light from afar. The international organizations, such as the World Health Organization (WHO), and the major institutions for scientific research in the world, have just started clinical trials to develop a new treatment for this disease. However, we must remember that between the greed of the pharmaceutical companies to make a profit on one side, and the scientist’s lust for fame on the other side, objectivity may evaporate and the truth may disappear. Thus, I shall try to evaluate as objectively as possible the clinical trials which are already in progress. In the past fifty-two years, I have witnessed the development of new drugs and treatments for cancer diseases. Also, I have witnessed the development of new drugs for microbial infections as these infections pose major threats to cancer patients and remain the most important cause of death from cancer. This new research on coronavirus aims to overcome the disease through two strategies: The first is to discover a drug that kills the Coronavirus directly. In the second strategy, the objective is to strengthen and enhance the immune system in the patient’s body, in order for this system to become capable of destroying the virus itself.

In the first strategy, research focuses on four drugs:

•       Hydroxychloroquine (HC)

•       Chloroquine (CL)

•       Azithromycin (Z pak)

•       Remdesivir (RD)

These drugs are conventional and we know a lot about them particularly about their toxicity profiles.  (HC) and (CL) have been used for decades to treat Malaria and other Chronic Diseases. (Z pak) is an antibiotic against viruses and it is usually used in infections like the common cold and the flu. (RD) is an anti-viral agent usually used for the treatment of  HIV infections. On March 29, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had officially given the green light for research to evaluate the efficacy of (CL), (HC), and (Z pak). This means, without a doubt, that the FDA had reviewed data suggestive but not conclusive that these drugs are effective in the treatment of Coronavirus. Some studies conducted in France had indicated that patients who received treatment with the combination of (HC) and (Z pak) had achieved better results compared to patients who did not receive such treatment. This combination was also used in the treatment of patients in the city of Kansas, US, and the results were similar to those of France. However, these studies are not definitive as they were carried out in haste, and the number of patients treated is small. Also, we had learned from China’s experience that patients who received  (HC) and (CL) for diseases other than Malaria, like Lupus Erythematosus and Rheumatoid Arthritis did not develop COVID-19. The question here is whether these drugs were indeed capable of protecting patients from the Corona infection. Based on these positive, but only suggestive, indications, the FDA launched a new scientific research trial to enroll a total of 1100 patients in New York City, and to treat them with the combination of  (HC) and (CL). Last week the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the SOLIDARITY project. It is a huge scientific research project, in which many countries all over the world will participate and treat thousands of patients. This project focuses on studying the effectiveness of four kinds of treatments. These four treatments are considered by WHO as the best among all treatments available for now. These treatments are:

1. Remdesivir(RD) alone.

2. The combination (HC) with (CL).

3. The combination of lopinavir and ritonavir. These two drugs are usually used in the treatment of AIDS.

4. The third combination plus Interferon-beta.

This protocol was designed with the utmost speed, and its objective is to determine within a very short period of time the effectiveness of these treatments. Also, the French organization for medical research, INSERM, has followed the example of WHO and has launched another project called DISCOVERY. In this new project, 3,200 patients from European countries will be treated with the same drugs as the SOLIDARITY project. A few days ago, Britain initiated several trials to evaluate the efficacy of the anti-viral drug Remdesivir, as this drug is manufactured by the British pharmaceutical Gilead Sciences.

In the second strategy, a new approach has been used. It is the treatment with immunotherapy. Immunotherapy has radically changed the landscape of the treatment of cancer. Let us hope that it will do the same for the treatment of infectious diseases. While the studies that we talked about used conventional medications, immunotherapy uses new tools and exploratory methods, including infusing patients with plasma taken from a person who was infected and achieved a cure from the disease. Hypothetically this plasma should contain antibodies against the virus and these antibodies could be used in the prevention and treatment of COVID-19. Consequently, technology companies are using new methods for developing these antibodies in the lab in big quantities for the treatment of patients. Another approach is Stem Cell Therapy where the patient receives his/her own stem cells extracted from his/her blood . There are also other methods that will strengthen and enhance the immune system so that this system will be capable of conquering the disease.

This is a simple exposé of the scientific landscape of research on a new treatment for coronavirus, from China to Europe to the United States. But let me ask four simple questions.

1. Do we have definitive evidence that a drug is now available for the treatment of  COVID-19? The answer is, NO.
2. Are there some indications that would make us believe that some of these treatments we have talked about in this article, might be helpful? The answer is, YES.
3. How long do we have to wait to know something which is scientifically valid and proven? The answer is a few weeks,  Four to Six.
4. What do we tell the patient who is infected and who is threatened by death today? shall we tell him let us wait? The answer is NO. We tell him to explore with his doctor the possibility of receiving treatment with the combination of (HC) and (Z pak). I fully understand that this treatment might be associated with minor side effects; But I believe that the harm that may result from using this treatment, is much less than the damage that may result from not using it.

The world is going through very difficult times. Times unimaginable by the human mind. But we will survive. To survive, we need patience, faith, and science. We reject the slogan raised by the world which calls for “social distancing”. We believe that there had been no day in the past that we needed each other more than today. During these times we need to embrace each other in brotherhood, human warmth, and humility. We need to return to ourselves, to our humanity. Tolstoy says in his book “Master and Man” “ One should not wait until he is close to death to embrace the peasant working for him in the field”. such an embrace is our deliverance from the death that stares at us. Consequently, I want to raise another slogan “physical distancing” instead of “social distancing”. This is to emphasize the value of human cohesion and human bonding.

We also hope that we have learned from this experience that God is one, Man is one, and Earth is one. We hope we have learned that health is the most important thing a person may possess. And that the most important human right is the right to health because this right is the right to life. One should be alive first to exercise all other human rights. There is no human right that should supersede the right to health. We also hope that a new world order will emerge from the womb of this hell, a new order that respects God, man, and values. We hope that a new United Nations will also emerge. A United Nations that is capable of establishing peace in the world and which is respectful of human rights. Consequently, the United Nations should seriously consider reforming the UN Charter of the Declaration of Human Rights. This Charter should be changed in a manner where the right to health should be the most important and sacred human right. All other human rights which are already established in the Charter fade compared to the right to health. There is no life without health.

This is a global war. A war against all of us. A war against man.  I kneel and pray. Tomorrow the sun will rise. Tomorrow man will win.

*This editorial was published in Arabic, in Annahar Newspaper in Beirut on Thursday, April 09, 2020

Congratulations to Ted Gorton, author of Only The Dead, for being shortlisted among London’s literati!

The Authors’ Club announced the shortlist for the annual Best First Novel Award 2020 yesterday. The shortlisted titles are as follows, with the judges’ assessments: (more…)

In the light of the Coronavirus outbreak, like many other independent publishers, we have had to suspend some of our scheduled publications for the time being. MEMORIES by Naim Attallah, SIXTY SOMETHINGS by Nicola Madge and Paul Hoggart, THE SINS OF G. K. CHESTERTON by Richard Ingrams and MARKED CARDS by Emmanuel Olympitis are being postponed until further notice.

We are going ahead as planned with POMERANSKI by Gerald Jacobs (30 April, fiction) and THE MAKING OF AN IMMIGRATION JUDGE by James Hanratty (7 May, revised & updated PB, non fiction). Please email publicity for further info at: georgia@quartetbooks.co.uk

The economic fallout and human suffering because of this pandemic is incalculable. But life must go on. So while you are social-distancing at home, there’s nothing like a good book to offer shelter and inspiration. Books can be ordered online from our shop

We can beat this nasty virus with connectedness, friendship and good books! Be safe. Be well.

Iran’s Poet of Female Desire, Forough Farrokhzad, is celebrated in a novel by Maryam Diener

posted 2/3/2020

Beyond Black There Is No Color: The Story of Forough Farrokhzad is written in the first person, as if narrated by Forough herself, in a loose diary style. It depicts real-life episodes in Forough’s life: her marriage as a teenager to a much older man, her early experience of motherhood and divorce, her affair with the married film director Ebrahim Golestan, and her 12-day stay in a leper colony, which became the subject of her award-winning documentary.

For those unfamiliar with the poet, the book is an introduction to her life and legacy. For those who know her well, it is a reminder of the powerful voice that she was and is . . .

READ MORE, click here

BOOK INFO, click here

BROADWAY ARTS FESTIVAL  | A celebration of the arts in north Cotswolds

“Pre-Raphaelite Sisters: Models & Muses” Talk by Jan Marsh  | Sat June 13 @ 5:30 pm – 7:00 pm

Join festival goers for an illustrated talk by Jan Marsh, curator of the recent exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, which features familiar and newly-discovered images by and of women in the movement, including Jane Morris, Marie Spartali Stillman and Jamaican-born Fanny Eaton.

Dr Jan Marsh is a long-standing expert on the Pre-Raphaelite movement with trailblazing books and exhibitions on Elizabeth Siddal, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Christina Rossetti and May Morris to her credit.

There will also be a book signing.

The event will take place in The Lifford Hall in Broadway

Tickets £15

Tickets go on sale to the general public through the website at 10am on Good Friday (April 10th 2020) and to Benefactors of the festival 2 weeks earlier.
If you become a Benefactor of the Broadway Arts festival you can qualify for priority booking so find out more HERE  

BOOKS
Get your copy of Pre-Raphaelite Sisterhood HERE

Get your copy of The Legend of Elizabeth Siddal HERE

Image credit: Ophelia by John Everett Millais, 1865-66. Private Collection

Do book prizes count these days, other than boosting book sales and giving literary book chatterers something to chat about?

Whatever your point of view, when it comes to contemporary fiction, it’s an honour just to be nominated.

So Quartet’s author T.J. Gorton is chuffed that his novel Only the Dead – A Levantine Tragedy has been longlisted for the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award.

Especially since the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award is now in its 66th year, making it the longest-running UK prize for debut fiction and – except for the James Tait Black and the Hawthornden – the oldest literary prize in Britain.

Longlisted BOOK INFO
Only the Dead – A Levantine Tragedy by T.J. Gorton | 14 GBP ISBN 978-0-70437-460-7 published 27 June 2019

Only the Dead is part adventure story and part exploration of the moral complexities arising from war, brutality and the desire for revenge.

Read the review in COUNTRY LIFE by Barnaby Rogerson HERE

Longlist announced for Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award 2020

Today, Monday 2 March, the Authors’ Club announces the longlist for the annual Best First Novel Award.

The longlisted books are as follows:

Claire Adam Golden Child (Faber & Faber)

George Alagiah, The Burning Land (Canongate)

Layla AlAmmar, The Pact We Made (Borough Press)

Jim Al-Khalili, Sunfall (Bantam Press)

Damian Barr, You Will Be Safe Here (Bloomsbury)

Sara Collins, The Confessions of Frannie Langton (Viking)

Joanna Glen, The Other Half of Augusta Hope (Borough Press)

TJ Gorton, Only the Dead (Quartet)

Anne Griffin, When All is Said, (Sceptre)

Jenny McCartney, The Ghost Factory (4th Estate)

Beth O’ Leary, The Flatshare (Quercus)

Jacqueline O’Mahoney, A River in the Trees (Riverrun)

Laura Shepherd-Robinson, Blood & Sugar (Mantle)

Lucy Popescu (chair of the judging panel) commented: “We’ve had another amazing year and so have 13 on the longlist. These remarkable debut novelists cover an array of subjects from climate change to South Africa, from slavery to Irish history as well as contemporary social comedy. Once again women dominate the longlist. It’s thrilling to support this fascinating list of debut novelists tackling such wide-ranging themes.”

 Key Dates

Shortlist announcement: 27 March

Shortlisted authors event at Hatchards Piccadilly: Thursday 30 April

The winner will be announced at a dinner at the National Liberal Club: Wednesday 20 May

 About the Prize:

The winning novel is selected by guest adjudicator Andrew Miller from a shortlist drawn up by a panel of Authors’ Club members, chaired by Lucy Popescu.

The prize is open to any debut novel written in English and published in the UK between 1 Jan and 31 Dec 2019 with one important exception: novels first published

in another country of origin will not be considered. The prize of £2500 exists to support UK-based authors, publishers and agents, so the novel must originate in the UK and not have been published anywhere else in the world before its UK publication

Inaugurated in 1954, the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award is now in its 66th year, making it the longest-running UK prize for debut fiction and – except for the James Tait Black and the Hawthornden – the oldest literary prize in Britain.

Past winners have included Brian Moore, Alan Sillitoe, Paul Bailey, Gilbert Adair, Nadeem Aslam, Diran Adebayo, Jackie Kay, Susan Fletcher, Nicola Monaghan, Laura Beatty, Anthony Quinn, Jonathan Kemp, Kevin Barry, Ros Barber, Hisayo Rowan Buchanan and Gail Honeyman. Last year’s prize was awarded to Guy Gunaratne.

Past adjudicators have included Louise Doughty, AK Kennedy, Vikram Seth, Philip Hensher, Joanne Harris, Deborah Moggach and, going back further, Kingsley Amis and Compton Mackenzie.

 About The Authors’ Club

Established by Walter Besant in 1891, the Club has provided a social meeting place for writers for 125 years.