Young's memoir to begin Borough's non-fiction

The Borough Press will publish novelist Louisa Young’s account of her relationship with her late fiancé, a “charismatic” composer and alcoholic, as its first frontlist non-fiction title.

Suzie Dooré, publishing director at the HarperCollins imprint, acquired world rights to You Left Early: A True Story of Love and Alcohol directly from Young, who is unagented.

It will be issued in hardback in June 2018, when Young’s music group, Birds of Britain, releases its début album, also called “You Left Early”.

Robert Lockhart was a “brilliant man” who died of a heart attack aged 52 in 2012 after battling alcoholism.

The book is described as “an impassioned and elegiac love story”.

Young is the author of a number of novels, including First World War-set My Dear I Wanted to Tell You (HarperCollins).