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HarperPress has bought a flurry of new titles, rebutting fears that the recession might force publishers to cut lists.
Publishing director Clare Smith has acquired the second novel by Julia Stuart after her previous book, The Matchmaker of Perigord, was published by Transworld. Smith bought UK and Commonwealth rights excluding Canada from Grainne Fox at Fletcher & Co. Balthazar Jones and the Tower of London Zoo is about a Beefeater who is asked to set up a menagerie in the tower. Smith described the book as "magical, poignant and completely charming". It will be published in March 2010 as a paperback original.
Editorial director Essie Cousins has acquired UK and Commonwealth rights excluding Canada for The Story Sisters by Alice Hoffman from Karin Schulze at Crown USA. The novel is the story of three sisters who share a terrible secret. It will be published in spring 2010 in paperback.
HarperPress has also signed two six-figure deals for new titles by military historian Richard Holmes. Publishing director Arabella Pike acquired Passchendaele while Susan Watt, also a publishing director, bought a series of four Great War novels entitled The Pride of Tigers, with the first book to be published in 2011. Both deals were through Sonia Land at Sheil Land, and both deals cover UK and Commonwealth including Canada. Pike also bought UK and Commonwealth rights for a "gut-wrenching and intimate" memoir on growing up in Kashmir by Basharat Peer entitled Curfewed Night.