Tag: Firefinch

Firefinch acquire rights to Doctor Hannah Scott’s behind-the-curtain look at anaesthetics

Posted : Monday 7th September 2026

Margaret Stead has acquired UK & Commonwealth rights to While You Were Sleeping by Consultant Anaesthetist Hannah Scott, from Claire Conrad at Janklow & Nesbitt. Firefinch will publish in spring 2027.

While You Were Sleeping follows Hannah Scott’s journey into anaesthetics, from junior doctor to the top of her profession. Scott takes us into the operating theatre to give us a witty, behind-the-scrubs account of everything that happens while you’re unconscious under anaesthetic: the jokes, the crises, their consequences, the surgeons and their egos, and the drugs and equipment that keep us safe and pain-free.

Anaesthetists are the medics who keep us alive, in a near-death state, when we’re under the knife, desperately ill in ICU, or giving birth. They are the great generalists, working on every kind of operation. They send us to the world beyond consciousness and bring us safely back again.

Beyond the operating theatre, balancing the demands of the role with motherhood and personal life took its toll. Hannah examines the expectations on women working in medicine, the pressure on the NHS, and the choices she had to make for her career and for her family. While You Were Sleeping is a fascinating, informative and at times shocking account of a life lived on the edge of death.

Margaret Stead said: ‘While You Were Sleeping is a rare gem: a brilliantly told, behind-the-scenes look at the art of anaesthetics. Filled with a wealth of astonishing material, it is hilarious and heart-breaking. Hannah makes us see once again just how lucky we are to have the NHS, and how we must fight to ensure we never lose it.’

Hannah Scott said: ‘Writing While You Were Sleeping – revealing what happens on the other side of unconsciousness through the true stories of patients I have cared for: the funny, the moving, the frightening and, sometimes, the heartbreaking –  has been a joy. I am absolutely thrilled that While You Were Sleeping has found its home with Firefinch. I couldn’t be happier that they will take these stories, and the extraordinary people within them, out into the world for readers to enjoy. I feel incredibly lucky to have the chance to share my hidden world.

While you were Sleeping by Hannah Scott will be published by Firefinch Publishing in March 2027

Cover for Black Earth, the first novel in the Stoke Rising trilogy, revealed

Posted : Monday 20th July 2026

Four decades on from Margaret Thatcher’s ‘The Enemy Within’ speech, Firefinch revealed the cover for Black Earth, the first novel in a gripping state-of-the-nation trilogy from former serving Met Homicide Detective turned crime-writer Kate London. Black Earth is the first in the Stoke Rising series spanning the three decades from the miners’ strikes of the early 80s to the rise of New Labour and the far right in the early 00s, seen through the eyes of one Detective and one family at the heart of a country divided. An exceptional literary crime novel, it will captivate fans of Red Rising, This is England and Adolescence. It will cement Kate London as a unique talent in the crime space.

The novel has already drawn critical acclaim from peers, as well as former Labour leader Neil Kinnock, who praised its ‘authentic knowledge of policing and combines it with convincing understanding of the intricacies of the 1984 Miners’ Strike’. He called the novel ‘completely intriguing.’ Author of He Said/She Said, Erin Kelly called it ‘Everything crime fiction should be: gripping, gritty, multi-layered and moving’ while author Anna Mazzola ‘loved it’, calling it ‘a scorching start to a distinctive new detective series… gripping, gritty and powerful‘.

1959. A group of boys from the mining village of Murton run out to play together. When a tragedy occurs, it changes the lives of these boys and everyone around them forever, sending shockwaves that reverberate through their lives.

1984. Detective Constable Ian Wheedon has been running away from himself since he was a boy. He worked in Merseyside covering serious crime, but now lives in a remote police house working as a local cop. His brother, Stephen, is on the front lines of the miners’ strike in Stoke.

The force is already stretched to breaking point when Ian is called in to investigate the brutal murder of a childhood friend. The case brings Ian face-to-face with his past, his family, and with the life he left behind. As tensions erupt and tempers fray, the community fractures. When Stephen’s son Christopher goes missing, it becomes a race against time to solve the case. Ian and his family must fight for the answers they need and the future they want, before it’s too late.

Watch the trailer here:

Murder at 30,000 Feet publishes to rave reviews

Posted : Thursday 16th July 2026

Flight 868 is a ticket to paradise, a non-stop service to San Juan, Puerto Rico. Over a dozen tipsy passengers are off to a destination wedding.  A team of high school baseball players are headed to a tournament. The plane is packed with people looking forward to the trip of a lifetime.

But under cover of turbulence, a killer strikes – and when the lights come back on, a passenger is found brutally murdered. As holiday dreams turn into nightmares, a bewildered air marshal must solve the crime. For this is no ordinary flight and there’s only one certainty: the killer is on the plane – and the only way out is down…

The thriller of the summer just landed. Murder at 30,000 Feet is a high-stakes locked-room mystery you won’t be able to put down. But don’t just take our word for it – early readers have been raving about it!

Cover for The Art of Poison unfurled

Posted : Monday 6th July 2026

The clandestine love affair and scandalous murder trial of Madeleine Hamilton-Smith shocked Victorian society. Now the events are reimagined in a brilliant debut novel from playwright, Katherine Tozer, coming January 2027.

A novel of love, murder, scandal and revenge, The Art of Poison is for fans of Kate Summerscale’s The Suspicions of Mr Whicher and Hallie Rubenhold’s The Five, as well as readers of historical fiction by Sarah Perry, Stacey Halls and Tracy Chevalier.

Glasgow, 1855. When handsome Pierre Emile L’Angelier, a marauding Jerseyman with a passion for ferns, sets his cap at twenty-year-old debutante Madeleine Hamilton Smith, it’s not the first time he’s had ideas above his station. For Madeleine, bored and wayward, he is an exciting distraction, and they embark on a clandestine affair. But Emile treacherously hoards her letters and when she throws him over for a more eligible suitor, he threatens to send them to her father.

When Emile is found dead of arsenic poisoning, Madeleine is arrested, her explicit correspondence exposed at a trial that scandalized Victorian society. But was she a victim of her class, gender, and the expectations of women? And what if someone else had a motive for murder and revenge…?

Based upon meticulous research, this is a dramatic re-telling of one of the most notorious murder cases of the Victorian era.

Find out more about The Art of Poison here

The Piano Teacher of Montparnasse – trailer and cover reveal

Posted : Thursday 14th May 2026

Heather Morris, author of the international bestseller, The Tattooist of Auschwitz, returns with a masterful new novel that captures the astonishing bravery of ordinary people in extraordinary times.

In 1942, the Nazis came for a Jewish family living in Montparnasse, occupied Paris. In the chaos of their arrest, the eleven-year-old daughter fled to the only person she trusted: her piano teacher…

With the authorities closing in, Andrée and the girl are caught in a desperate race to stay alive. Soon, they are separated, and so starts Andrée’s fight for survival. She is determined to return and honour her promise to save the girl who has been entrusted to her care.

Epic in scope and inspired by real events and people, The Piano Teacher of Montparnasse tells the story of piano teacher and French Resistance operative, Andrée Levallois, and the young girl she risks everything for.

I Am You selected as Pick of the Month in Sunday Times Historical Fiction review

Posted : Sunday 5th April 2026

The Sunday Times has reviewed Victoria Redel’s novel, I Am You, and selected it as their Pick of the Month. They wrote:

“Gerta Pieters, the narrator of this compelling tale, enters the service of the van Oosterwiijck family in 1653 at the age of eight, disguised as a boy. Maria, the daughter of the house and a few years older than Gerta, sees through the masquerade, yet the two form a close bond. When Maria travels to Amsterdam, where she hopes to make her mark as a female painter, Gerta accompanies her as her maid. Together they fight for the recognition of Maria’s gifts as a still-life artist at a time when women cannot become members of the city’s Painters’ Guild. The two become secret lovers, and Gerta trains herself to become a skilled painter in her own right. However, as Maria’s fame grows, tensions and jealousies arise that threaten to undermine their relationship and to reveal what is better kept hidden. Victoria Redel’s fourth novel is not only a vivid evocation of 17th-century Amsterdam but also a powerful exploration of the nature of female creativity.“

I Am You by Victoria Redel is the debut novel from Firefinch Books and is available now.

Firefinch acquires breathtaking new novel, The Piano Teacher of Montparnasse, by international bestselling author Heather Morris

Posted : Tuesday 7th October 2025

Kate Parkin and Margaret Stead of Firefinch are delighted to announce the acquisition of world rights all languages in a new novel by Heather Morris – author of the global phenomenon, The Tattooist of Auschwitz trilogy.

In 1942, the Nazis came for a Jewish family living in Montparnasse, occupied Paris. In the chaos, the eleven-year-old daughter ran to the only person she could trust, her piano teacher, Andrée Levallois, secretly a French Resistance operative. Andrée took her in, risking everything. But the authorities were closing in, and soon Andrée and the girl were caught in a desperate race to stay alive. Andrée was denounced, arrested, tortured and sent to the hell of Ravensbrück Women’s Concentration Camp. There, she fought for her life, determined to return and honour her promise to save the girl who had been entrusted to her care. Epic in scope, and based on true life people and events, Heather Morris has written a story of breathtaking beauty, at once gripping, heartbreaking and uplifting.

Heather Morris author
Credit Tina Smigielski

Heather Morris was born in New Zealand. Her life changed in 2003 when she met Lale Sokolov. His story formed the basis of his first novel, The Tattooist of Auschwitz and its follow up Cilka’s Journey. Her third novel, Three Sisters, concluded the trilogy. Heather’s books have sold over 19 million copies worldwide and have been translated into more than 50 languages.

Kate Parkin said ‘Once again, Heather Morris has uncovered a story of extraordinary bravery. The powerful bond between Andrée Levallois and the child she sheltered resonates down the generations as a symbol of the best of humanity in the worst of times. I defy anyone to read this and not be moved.  We are honoured to be able to publish it.’

Margaret Stead said ‘Working with Heather has been one of the greatest privileges of my career. She is a wonderful writer – collaborative, creative, empathetic. The stories seem magically to find her, and this new novel is utterly spellbinding and, once again, based on real people and events. Kate and I are so lucky that Heather has decided to join the Firefinch team, and we can’t wait to share The Piano Teacher of Montparnasse with her readers across the world.’

Heather Morris said ‘I am delighted to be joining the team at Firefinch Publishing, a team I have worked with in the past, a team who contributed so much to the success of my novels. Going forward, together, we will continue to bring stories of hope, resilience, love, and incredible courage of ordinary people who lived during extraordinary times.’

The Piano Teacher of Montparnasse by Heather Morris will be published by Firefinch in autumn 2026