LONDON, UK – June 9, 2015 – London-based Brick Lane Publishing announces the launch of its latest novel, Tying Down The Lion, by Gloucestershire author Joanna Campbell. It is released June 15, 2015.
ABOUT THE BOOK
It is the summer of 1967 and the Bishop family are departing their UK home for a continental road trip. Their destination: Berlin, a gritty city recovering from the bombs of World War Two and now sliced in half by the Cold War. Will the journey unite the Anglo-German family, or forever rip them apart?
Grandma Nell loathes foreigners, especially German daughter-in-law Bridget. She’s none too pleased about son Roy jamming the whole family into an aging Morris Traveller for the duration. Granddaughter Jacqueline observes the trip – and the resultant spillage of family secrets – with a keen eye and a notepad in which to pen it all.
This is a story of ordinary people in an extraordinary situation, and the discovery of how something divided can be more revealing than a perfect whole. It is a quest for a family who build walls in their minds as they try to discover who they are and where they belong.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Joanna Campbell was born in 1960 and she lives in the Cotswolds. She is married and has three daughters. She has a degree in German from Exeter University and has taught both English in Germany and German in England.
As part of her degree course, which included the study of East Germany, Joanna lived in West Germany for a year, where she taught English. All the people she met were keen to share their experiences of both World War Two and the Cold War in which they were immersed. Most of all, they were enchanted that an English girl could, despite past and present hostilities, choose to live in their country, learn their language and try to understand how the ordinary person felt.
Joanna is a qualified proofreader. She has also worked as a secretary, retail manager and financial adviser during the eighties, mainly because she liked having big hair and shoulder-pads. Her stories have been published in various writing magazines and she has also written for popular women’s magazines. She has been shortlisted five times for an array of notable writing awards. In 2013 she came second in the William Trevor/Elizabeth Bowen International Short Story Competition, and she also won the local prize in the Bath Short Story Award. In 2012 she came second with the Scottish Association of Writers, and in 2011 she won first prize with Exeter Writers.
Lara Schonberger, Commissioning Editor at Brick Lane Publishing, commented:
“‘Tying Down The Lion’ is a remarkable, coming-of-age story that touches on war and survival, bigotry and the holocaust, and family secrets and forgiveness. It will appeal to readers of all ages.
“This is an exciting time for Brick Lane Publishing. We have more top-notch manuscripts in the pipes, ranging from tales of endurance and humanity in the trenches of World War One, to a fascinating anthology of short stories from London’s East End.”
RRP (paperback, special edition): £8.99
ISBN: 9780992886332
Also available in ebook.
Brick Lane Publishing specialises in fiction and non-fiction books that remind readers, somehow, there is still good in this mixed-up world.www.bricklanepublishing.com
