Delivered Spring '07
Published Summer of ’07
Before I Die - JENNY DOWNHAM
David Fickling has issued a press release explaining why this novel, acquired from Catherine Clarke at Felicity Bryan Agency, is to be published at breakneck speed.
Dear Readers
This press release is really a letter. I simply want to tell as many people as possible about Before I Die, a quite outstanding novel by debut writer Jenny Downham, which I have just acquired from Catherine Clarke at Felicity Bryan Agency. I need to take this step because we are, by modern standards, publishing Before I Die in record quick time and there is really no time for the usual word of mouth to gather momentum. I am relying on you!
I don’t want to say very much about the book at all except for three things.
Firstly, I urge everyone to read Before I Die. You will not be disappointed. It is both searing, unsentimentally honest and at the same time almost shockingly life-affirming. If anyone has got closer to imagining what it actually means to die (and so live!) then I have yet to read them.
Secondly, Jenny Downham is a formidable writing talent and Before I Die is stark, poetic, and both beautifully written and unstoppably readable.
Thirdly: Why are we publishing so quickly? Partly and very plainly because I don’t think the public should be kept waiting a single second longer than necessary to read this book. And partly to show that we can. Nowadays books sometimes have to wait an inordinately long time to get published. Often a book taken on by an editor is not published for one, two, three years… I have always revered the nimble publishing of legends of yore like Victor Gollancz who could receive a manuscript in August and have it in the shops by Christmas. A small, personal imprint like DFB can be nimble and quick, SHOULD be nimble and quick.
Especially with literary gold dust in its hands.
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