John Murray backs Herron with retailer events

John Murray is embarking on a PR and marketing campaign for Mick Herron's Slough House, hosting a raft of events with booksellers online in a show of support for both the series and retailers during the latest lockdown.

The publisher, which has published Herron since 2015, has said it has sold one million copies of the Slough House series, starring protagonist Jackson Lamb, across all editions. The latest book in the series, the seventh, publishes on Thursday (4th February).

Events running as part of the campaign include Mick Herron in conversation with Val McDermid for Golden Hare Books, with Ann Cleeves for At Home With 4 Indies (hosted by Forum Books), with Sam Leith for Toppings and with Alex Clark for Blackwell’s. Slough House will also be the Times+ Book Club pick for March where Herron will be in conversation with Lucy Atkins.

"Mick Herron is one of our most beloved house authors here at John Murray Press, and it has been a joy and a privilege to watch his following grow with each new Slough House novel," said Nick Davies, John Murray Press m.d.. "The team has pulled out all the stops to find creative ways of reaching new readers and to support all our retail partners, including Waterstones and the independent sector, who have championed Mick from the very start. This is our most energising campaign to date, and even though we are undoubtedly publishing in trying circumstances, I believe we will see a new level of engagement for Jackson Lamb."

Herron’s series has been adapted for Apple TV+ and is currently filming with a cast including Oscar-winner Gary Oldman who is set to play Jackson Lamb. Other confirmed actors for the series include Kristin Scott Thomas who will play Diana Taverner, Jack Lowden as River Cartwright and Jonathan Pryce as the retired agent David Cartwright.

Since Slough House was announced last autumn, an extensive, media campaign has followed: the first interview ran in the Guardian Review on Saturday 16th January while still to come are interviews in the Telegraph and Wall Street Journal and appearances on BBC Radio 4’s "Today" programme, TalkRadio and Times Radio. Herron is also set to appear on a series of popular podcasts.

To mark the seventh book in the series, John Murray launched the Slough House Club newsletter, which includes exclusive content, competitions and offers. The digital campaign has been running since the announcement of the Waterstones special edition in November and is being bolstered with a two-wave wide-reaching programmatic campaign running through the first few months of the year, with special summer activity planned.