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Bloomsbury publishing director Michael Fishwick has beaten off interest from several other publishers to acquire world rights in a "biography" of the North Sea by début writer Tom Blass.
The deal was done with Tim Bates at Pollinger Limited for an undisclosed sum.
The book, entitled North Sea, will "trawl the bottom and skim the waves of the sea, searching for all that glistens, enraptures, enrages or appals: a lost sea-shanty, a personal story, a tragic episode, a compelling tale of derring-do, an implausible fact or unturned page of history," said the agent.
Fishwick said Blass' debut was "a great concept for a great travel book", describing the writing
as "authoritative, lyrical from time to time, perceptive and very sharp; reminiscent of WG Sebald, Jonathan Raban and Adam Nicolson." Bloomsbury will publish in 2012.