The Bridge Street Press snaps up Nasta's 'fascinating new history'

The Bridge Street Press, the new literary imprint from Little, Brown Book Group, has snapped up The Bloomsbury Indians by Susheila Nasta.

World English-language rights were acquired by publisher Sameer Rahim from Candida Lacey at Pearlman & Lacey for publication in May 2027.

"Susheila and I were both delighted by Sameer’s enthusiasm for The Bloomsbury Indians", said Lacey. "He and his team at Little, Brown understood at once the importance of her book as a crucial reframing of the conventional narrative of Bloomsbury, both as a concept of literary and political culture and as a place – with its curry houses and pubs."

The Bloomsbury Indians "opens an exciting new window on the cultural, literary and political landscape of London between the wars".

Nasta charts the lives of activist and publisher, V K Krishna Menon, public intellectual and novelist, Mulk Raj Anand, and poetry editor James Meary Thurairajah Tambimuttu to challenge the idea of "’Bloomsbury’ as a hub for a quintessentially ‘English’ view of modernity".

Nasta is Emeritus Professor of Modern and Contemporary Literatures at Queen Mary, University of London and the founder of Wasafiri, a magazine that platforms diverse contemporary literature. 

Rahim said: "As a longtime admirer of Susheila’s work at Wasafiri and her broader intellectual interventions, the idea of looking at the world of Bloomsbury outside the well-known squares was immediately appealing. She has written a fascinating new history of the place and people that will forever change the way we see this period of English literature."