Raven Books to publish its first gift book this autumn

Raven Books has snapped up its first gift book, Maureen Johnson’s Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered in a Quaint English Village, featuring illustrations by Jay Cooper. 

Publishing director Alison Hennessey acquired UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, from Rachel Berkowitz at PRH, in the book, which will be published by the Bloomsbury imprint as a small format hardback and e-book on 26th September 2024. 

The book was originally published by Ten Speed Press in the US in 2021, and will now be published in the UK. According to the publisher, Hennessey found a copy when browsing in Shakespeare & Company bookshop during a trip to Paris and approached Berkowitz directly for the rights.

"This charming, fully illustrated book is an essential guide in how to avoid getting murdered in a quaint English village, where danger lurks around each cobblestoned corner and every bite of scone or sip of tea may be your last", the synopsis reads. "Brought to life with dozens of Edward Gorey-esque drawings and peppered with allusions to classic crime fiction, it gives you the tools you need to stay alive. Repeat after us: don’t look in the pond, keep away from the maze and never trust the vicar."

Hennessey said: "When I saw a copy of Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered… in Shakespeare & Co, my first thought was to be hugely offended that no one had ever bought it for me and then when I discovered it wasn’t published in the UK, I knew we had to rectify that immediately."

The author and illustrator added: “We are consumed by grave suspicion and creeping dread at the interest Raven Books has in our guide; nevertheless, we have agreed to its publication in the UK out of a sense of civic duty. Far too many people have been murdered in your villages – at your fairs and re-enactments, in your tea tents and village halls, during your pantomimes, behind your apiaries, along your sinuous lanes, and under your churches. You are a doomed people, but we will do what we can."