Fleet wins Murray's memoir on growing up amidst musical legends

Fleet has landed My Family and Other Rock Stars, the "brilliant" memoir from novelist Tiffany Murray. 

Editorial director Rhiannon Smith and senior editor Amy Perkins acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Cathryn Summerhayes at Curtis Brown at a four-way auction. The memoir will be published in May 2024. 

"I’ve long been a fan of the fabulous Tiffany and when I read this proposal I was overjoyed," said Summerhayes. "Such an honest, funny, clever, unique idea and I know the team at Little, Brown will publish it with love and gusto, as it deserves."

The memoir chronicles Murray’s childhood growing up at Rockfield Studios in the Wye Valley, the recording studio of artists such as Black Sabbath, Queen, Rush and David Bowie. Her mother was the resident Cordon Bleu chef and so Murray grew up around these singers and saw how they lived day-to-day whether is was Bowie refusing a salmon buffet or Freddie Mercury’s love for a Great Dane. The publisher wrote: "For Tiffany, they were the background to a whirlwind childhood of freedom, adventure and continuous change. The one constant throughout is the extraordinary relationship between Tiffany and her mother, as they build an unconventional family around them in the most unlikely of locations." 

Murray commented: "What I wanted to do with these stories and recipes was dig down and chart not only the spark of our fractured family, but the chaos and wonder of the mid-1970s to early-80s at Rockfield studios. It’s also a story of the ruthlessness of the music business and the ways in which songs, recipes and the natural world heal." 

Smith said: "I knew I wanted to publish Tiff’s unique, moving, hilarious and completely engrossing memoir from the moment I started reading. Set at the iconic Rockfield Studios, but seen through the eyes of Tiff as a child, she manages to weave a story of food and family and music that is going to be unlike any other." 

Perkins added: "Not only is this the story of a truly unique childhood, it’s one that leaps off the page due to Tiffany’s exceptional writing. Layered with stories of stars as you’ve never seen them before, but with the beating heart of familial love that we can all relate to, it’s set to be an incredibly special book."