You are viewing your 1 free article this month. Login to read more articles.
Mardle Books has signed Eighteen Seconds, a memoir from Louise Beech about her mother.
Publisher Jo Sollis acquired world all-language rights, excluding audio, from Emily Glenister at D H H Literary Agency. The memoir will be published on 27th April 2023 in paperback and e-book.
Eighteen Seconds looks back to the day Beech’s mother jumped from a bridge, her recovery and survival. The synopsis reads: "Family is the best thing in your life. And the worst. My mother once said to me, ‘I wish you could feel the way I do for 18 seconds. Just 18 seconds, so you’d know how awful it is.’ I thought about it. Realised we could all learn from being in another person’s head for 18 seconds. Eighteen seconds inside Grandma Roberts’ head as she sat alone with her evening cup of tea, us girls upstairs in bed. Eighteen seconds inside one-year-old Colin’s head when he woke up in a foster home without his family. Eighteen seconds inside the head of a girl waiting for her bedroom door to open."
Sollis commented: “Louise’s talent for writing fiction makes her deeply personal memoir one of the most vivid and engaging life stories I have ever read. Her insight, compassion and humour make it easy for you to read something that should be very difficult. We are honoured to be bringing this book to print.”
Beech added: "When I began writing Eighteen Seconds, I wasn’t even sure I’d share it with anyone. It was so personal and honest and raw. Then I realised that my words might be a comfort or validation to anyone else going through the same difficulties. Now I’m just delighted that Mardle will be sharing my story with the world, and that I’ll be sharing a platform with the dynamic and unique non-fiction they publish. They have such passion and vision for the memoir, and I’m excited to see it become a reality.”
"Simply put, Eighteen Seconds is special," Glenister said. "So personal and so raw, it is an absolute privilege to represent it."