Non-Fiction - Zeno Agency Ltd.

Four new Mark Adkin eBooks out next week…

Posted on Friday, April 28th, 2017

Next week (30th), Pen & Sword Books will publish four of Mark Adkin‘s history books in eBook. Here are the details…

Pictured above, let’s start with THE BATTLE FOR GOOSE GREEN (originally published in 1992)…

Goose Green was the first land battle of the Falklands War. It was also the longest, the hardest-fought, the most controversial and the most important to win. What began as a raid became a vicious, 14-hour infantry struggle, in which 2 Para — outnumbered, exhausted, forced to attack across open ground in full daylight, and with inadequate fire support — lost their commanding officer, and almost lost the action.

This is the only full-length, detailed account of this crucial battle. Drawing on the eye-witness accounts of both British and Argentinian soldiers who fought at Goose Green, and their commanders’ narratives, it has become the definitive account of most important and controversial land battle of the Falklands War.

A compelling story of men engaged in a battle that hung in the balance for hours, in which Colonel ‘H’ Jones’ solo charge against an entrenched enemy won him a posthumous V.C., and which for both sides was a gruelling and often terrifying encounter.

THE CHARGE (originally published in 1996)…

The Real Reason the Light Brigade was Lost

The charge of the Light Brigade is one of Britain’s best-known glorious military disasters. On 25 October 1854, during the siege of Sebastopol, the Light Brigade attacked Russian gun positions at Balaclava. The charge lasted 7 minutes; of 673 officers and men who went into action, 247 men and 497 horses were lost. This book shatters many long-held conceptions of how and why it happened, and who was to blame.

Mark Adkin, a former professional soldier, has combined military expertise and detailed research of participants’ accounts with a careful examination of the actual ground. His story switches carefully from the strategic and tactical problems of the battlefield to what it was like for the trooper riding down the valley or a Russian gunner serving his cannon. Through the novel use of sketches the reader can, at every stage, look down on the battlefield from the same position as that used by the British commander-in-chief, Lord Raglan. He sees the situation as Raglan saw it when he gave his order that launched the Brigade down the valley of death. Raglan gave the order, Captain Nolan delivered it, Lord Lucan received it, and the Earl of Cardigan executed it.

History has disagreed over the share of the blame. This book makes a masterly analysis of the probabilities and discusses factors previously overlooked. There is a cogent argument, never made before, that the blunder was deliberate. The result is a gripping and definitive study of a debacle that has never ceased to enthral the imagination.

THE WESTERN FRONT COMPANION (originally published in 2013)…

The Complete Guide to How the Armies Fought for Four Devastating Years, 1914-18

To comprehend and chronicle the sheer scale of the conflict on the Western Front demands a book of similar scope. Now, published for the centenary of the start of World War I in August 2014, here is that book. More than merely a chronological account of the fighting, “The Western Front Companion” is an astonishingly comprehensive and forensic anatomy of how and why the armies fought, of their weapons, equipment, and tactics, for over four long and bloody years, on a battlefield stretching from the Belgian coast to the Swiss frontier — a distance of 450 miles.

Comprehensive coverage of World War I’s Western Front

Breaks down the battles that took place in France and Belgium from 1914 to 1918 in trenches and fields, on muddy river plains, and against forts

Covers the uniforms, equipment, and weaponry, as well as the strategy, tactics, and orders of battle of all sides

Impressively illustrated with color maps, diagrams, charts, drawings, and period photos

Includes modern-day photos overlaid with markings to show troop movements

Required reference for scholars and military history buffs as the war’s 100th anniversary approaches

THE BATTLE FOR AFGHANISTAN (with Mohammad Yousaf, originally published in 2007)…

The Soviets versus the Mujahideen during the 1980s

This is the story of the defeat of Soviet Russia’s forces in Afghanistan by a guerrilla force known as the Mujahideen, heavily backed by Pakistan and the USA. The Mujahideen paved the way for the Taliban regime, to exist having all but defeated the Russian Army in the late 80’s. The author, Brigadier Mohammad Yousaf, was head of the Afghan Bureau of Pakistan’s Inter-Service Intelligence and as such was effectively the Mujahideen’s commander-in-chief. He controlled the flow of thousands of tons of arms across Pakistan and into its occupied neighbor, arms that were bought with CIA and Saudi Arabian funds from the USA. One of the Mujahideen’s close allies was none other than Osama Bin Laden. This compelling book was put together with great skill the by military historian, Mark Adkin in conjunction with Brigadier Mohammad Yousaf and is essential reading for anyone interested in the truth behind the Afghanistan War which led to the conditions that exist there today.

Andrew Hodges delivers Strachey Lecture

Posted on Friday, November 18th, 2016

Last week, Andrew Hodges gave the Strachey Lecture at the University of Oxford, about Alan Turing’s ‘work and ideas from the definition of computability, the universal machine to the prospect of Artificial Intelligence‘. Below you can find a video of the event…

Andrew Hodges is the author of the best-selling ALAN TURING: THE ENIGMA, which is published in the UK by Vintage and in the US by Princeton University Press — it has also been published widely in translation. The biography was adapted into the Oscar-winning movie THE IMITATION GAME, in 2014. Here’s the synopsis…

Alan Turing was the mathematician whose cipher-cracking transformed the Second World War. Taken on by British Intelligence in 1938, as a shy young Cambridge don, he combined brilliant logic with a flair for engineering. In 1940 his machines were breaking the Enigma-enciphered messages of Nazi Germany’s air force. He then headed the penetration of the super-secure U-boat communications.

But his vision went far beyond this achievement. Before the war he had invented the concept of the universal machine, and in 1945 he turned this into the first design for a digital computer.

Turing’s far-sighted plans for the digital era forged ahead into a vision for Artificial Intelligence. However, in 1952 his homosexuality rendered him a criminal and he was subjected to humiliating treatment. In 1954, aged 41, Alan Turing took his own life.

Here is just a small sample from the many glowing reviews the book has received…

‘A first-rate presentation of the life of a first-rate scientific mind… it is hard to imagine a more thoughtful and warm biography than this one.’ — New York Times Book Review

‘One of the finest scientific biographies I’ve ever read: authoritative, superbly researched, deeply sympathetic and beautifully told.’ — Sylvia Nasar, author of A Beautiful Mind

‘Andrew Hodge’s book is of exemplary scholarship and sympathy. Intimate, perceptive and insightful, it’s also the most readable biography I’ve picked up in some time.’ — Time Out

‘One of the finest scientific biographies ever written.’ — New Yorker

‘This rather shadowy figure has now finally been lifted into the light of day… it has to be said that Andrew Hodges has put together an extraordinary story.’ — Sunday Telegraph

‘Hodges’s biography is sensitive, sympathetic and uncompromisingly intellectual. The maths is extremely hard work – but helps the lay reader to appreciate the scale of Turing’s achievements.’ — Brandon Robsaw, Independent on Sunday

‘Life and work are both made enthralling by Hodges, himself a scientist.’ — Sunday Times

‘Andrew Hodges, in this fine biography… brings Turing the thinker and Turing the man alive for the reader and thus allows us all to share in the privilege of knowing him.’ — Financial Times

Out Now: WRITING TO THE POINT by Algis Budrys

Posted on Monday, November 23rd, 2015

WRITING TO THE POINT: A COMPLETE GUIDE TO SELLING FICTION, Algis Budrys‘s classic guide, is now available as an eBook. Published by WordFire Press, here’s the synopsis…

The classic work of writing instruction back in print! The complete, concise guide to writing fiction that sells from one of the most popular instructors of the Writers of the Future and Clarion workshops.

Get a master’s competitive edge in the writing business. Bestselling writer, editor and renowned writing teacher Algis Budrys, known as “AJ” to his many students, has distilled his fifty years of success into Writing to the Point. Write better stories. Fix mistakes in your current stories.

Writing to the Point contains all the writing articles that appeared in the classic tomorrow Magazine, re-edited and expanded. Algis Budrys has taught hundreds of people at scores of workshops, was a well-known critic, editor, and author in his own right.

In addition to being the author of such SF classics as ROGUE MOON (published by Gollancz), WHO? and MICHAELMAS, Budrys was also a highly sought-after manuscript doctor. WRITING TO THE POINT is a fantastic guide to writing by one of SF great authors and editors. Gollancz’s SF Gateway has also published an omnibus containing three of his critically acclaimed novels: THE IRON THRONE, the aforementioned MICHAELMAS, and HARD LANDING.

You can learn more about Algis Budrys here.

‘AJ’s information is, and always has been, solid gold. Every writer can learn from this book.’ — New York Times bestselling author Kevin J. Anderson

Zeno represents Algis Budrys on behalf of his estate.

Cover: ART AND WAR by Lavie Tidhar and Shimon Adaf

Posted on Tuesday, October 20th, 2015

Above is the cover for Lavie Tidhar‘s upcoming collaboration with Shimon Adaf, ART AND WAR: POETRY, PULP AND POLITICS IN ISRAELI FICTION. Due to be published by Repeater Books in 2016, here’s the synopsis…

Shimon Adaf and Lavie Tidhar are two of Israel’s most subversive and politically outspoken writers. Growing up on opposite sides of the Israeli spectrum — Tidhar in the north of Israel in the Zionist, socialist Kibbutz; Adaf from a family of religious Mizrahi Jews living in Sderot — the two nevertheless shared a love of books, and were especially drawn to the strange visions and outrageous sensibilities of the science fiction that was available in Hebrew. Here, they engage in a dialogue that covers their approach to writing the fantastic, as they question how to write about Israel and Palestine, about Judaism, about the Holocaust, about childhoods and their end. Extending the conversation even into their fiction, the book contains two brand new short stories — “Tutim” by Tidhar, and “third attribute” by Adaf — in which each appears as a character in the other’s tale; simultaneously political and fantastical, they burn with an angry, despairing intensity.

In related news, Lavie has also been selected as one of seven ‘Israeli expat writers to watch in the new year’ by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

Few writers have the chutzpah to write fiction about Osama bin Laden or create an alternate history of Auschwitz, yet the prolific Tidhar has done both… Raised on a kibbutz but now a resident of London, Tidhar also edited the recently published anthologies “Jews Vs. Zombies” and “Jews Vs. Aliens.” Tidhar writes at the intersection of speculative fiction, noir, thriller and fantasy. His newest novel, “Central Station,” about Tel Aviv’s bus station, was written in English, like the majority of his work, and is forthcoming in March 2016.

Lavie Tidhar’s latest novel, A MAN LIES DREAMING, is published in the UK by Hodder. It is due to be published early 2016 by Melville House (details to come). Earlier this year, the novel won the Jerwood Fiction Undercover Prize. He is also the author of the critically-acclaimed THE VIOLENT CENTURY, published in the UK by Hodder and in the US by Thomas Dunne Books. His 2011 novel OSAMA won the World Fantasy Award — it is available from PS Publishing.

THE IMITATION GAME Wins Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay

Posted on Monday, February 23rd, 2015

Based on Andrew Hodges‘s ALAN TURING: THE ENIGMA, THE IMITATION GAME last night won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay! Starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley, the movie began generating Oscar buzz just after its first advance screenings, and great reviews just keep coming. First published in 1983, many consider the biography to be the finest ever written about Turing.

ALAN TURING: THE ENIGMA is published in the UK by Vintage Books and in the US by Princeton University Press – it has also been published in translation (see Andrew’s author page for a full list). Here’s the synopsis…

The full story behind the persecuted genius of wartime codebreaking and the computer revolution.

A new edition to celebrate Alan Turing’s centenary, includes a new foreword by the author and a preface by Douglas Hofstadter.

Alan Turing was the extraordinary Cambridge mathematician who masterminded the cracking of the German Enigma ciphers and transformed the Second World War. But his vision went far beyond this crucial achievement. Before the war he had formulated the concept of the universal machine, and in 1945 he turned this into the first design for a digital computer.

Cover Reveal: Andrew Hodges’s THE IMITATION GAME Tie-In Editions

Posted on Friday, October 10th, 2014

We’ve already shared with you the trailer and early responses to Andrew Hodges‘s ALAN TURING: THE ENIGMA, but now we can finally unveil the tie-in edition covers! Andrew’s book inspired the upcoming Benedict Cumberbatch-starring THE IMITATION GAME. Vintage Books (left) publishes the book in the UK and Princeton University Press publishes in the US. The tie-in editions are due to hit shelves in mid-November, around the time of the movie’s release in cinemas.

Here’s the synopsis…

Based on the real life story of legendary cryptanalyst Alan Turing, this is the official film tie-in for The Imitation Game, a the nail-biting race against time by Turing and his brilliant team of code-breakers at Britain’s top-secret Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park, during the darkest days of World War II.

This film tie-in tells the true story behind the nail-biting race against time following Alan Turing (pioneer of modern-day computing and credited with cracking the German Enigma code) and his brilliant team at Britain’s top-secret code-breaking centre, Bletchley Park, during the darkest days of World War II. Turing, whose contributions and genius significantly shortened the war, saving thousands of lives, was the eventual victim of an unenlightened British establishment, but his work and legacy live on.1954, aged 41, Alan Turing committed suicide and one of Britain’s greatest scientific minds was lost.

Below is the full cover wrap…

And, finally, the latest trailer for the movie…

Upcoming New Anthology by Ian R. MacLeod

Posted on Tuesday, July 29th, 2014

We’re very happy to share with you the details of Ian R. MacLeod‘s upcoming new collection, FROST ON GLASS. The book is due to be published by PS Publishing in spring 2015.

Alongside ten of Ian’s best recent stories (each bookended by afterwords by the author) and a selection of his non-fiction, the collection includes a brand new eponymous story – ‘a dystopian novella set on a writers’ commune’ – and also a new essay about ‘that perennial subject of where writers get their ideas from’. This substantial volume, Ian writes, is ‘a big, fat Christmas pudding of a book.’ The title, he continues, ‘reflects the delights and frustrations of writing fiction, which is a theme which runs through much of the rest of FROST ON GLASS‘. Here’s the provisional table of contents (which may change, slightly)…

Introduction: Don’t Look Back.
THE DISCOVERED COUNTRY — Afterword: Silver Machines
HECTOR DOUGLAS MAKES A SALE — Afterword: A Cul-de-Sac in Los Angeles
Foreword: Different Warts and All — A Truncated Life in Books
THE COLD STEP BEYOND — Afterword: The Future isn’t Real
A Concise and Ready Guide — Afterword: Bloody Dragons
An Empty Grey Cell of One’s Own
RE-CROSSING THE STYX — Afterword: On Being Dark
THE TRAVELLER AND THE BOOK — Afterword: On Writing Rubbish
I’ve Got This Idea For A Story…
THE CRANE METHOD — Afterword: Rejection
The Decline of the English Ghost story
LETTER TO WILL — Afterword: Those Who Can’t…
Me and the Mushroom Cloud
TUMBLING NANCY — Afterword: Other Writers
FROST ON GLASS — Afterword: Writer’s Block
ENTANGLED — Afterword: Volcanoes and Dinosaurs

An exact publication date hasn’t yet been set, but we’ll be sure to share it with you as soon as we know. The same goes for the cover art, which is still in production.

Alan Turing Movie Adaptation Update and Long-Overdue, Posthumous Pardon!

Posted on Tuesday, December 31st, 2013

Above is the first official photograph from the set of The Imitation Game has been released, via the movie’s official Twitter account. The Imitation Game is an adaptation of Zeno client Andrew Hodges‘s critically-acclaimed biography of Alan Turing: ALAN TURING: THE ENIGMA.

In related, long-overdue news: Just before Christmas, Queen Elizabeth II issued a posthumous, full pardon to Alan Turing nearly sixty years after the mathematician’s death. Turing, who helped crack the German Enigma code and change the course of the Second World War, is also considered one of the fathers of modern day computing. He was subject to humiliating treatment and punishment before his death because of his sexuality. On March 31st, 1952, Turing pleaded guilty and was convicted of ‘divers [sic] counts of Gross Indecency’. There has been a decades-long campaign to attain a pardon for Turing, and we’re delighted that the Crown and government have finally done so.

ALAN TURING: THE ENIGMA is published by Vintage in the UK and Princeton University Press in the US. It has also been translated in a number of other languages.

Iain Sinclair’s AMERICAN SMOKE Tour – Updates & Extra Details

Posted on Wednesday, November 6th, 2013

We announced some early details regarding Iain Sinclair‘s upcoming book tour, but there have since been some additional dates and events added to the schedule. Celebrating the release of Iain’s much-anticipated new book, AMERICAN SMOKE, there are plenty of opportunities to learn more about the book and also hear the author speak on the topic. AMERICAN SMOKE is due to be published in the UK in November 2013 (Hamish Hamilton) and in the US in April 2014 (Farrar Strauss).

First up, we want to draw your attention to some recent coverage. The mainstream British has been filled with praise for AMERICAN SMOKE. The Saturday Telegraph magazine featured an interview with the author, ‘Iain Sinclair on walking, markets and his impossible challenge’. Also on Saturday, reviews of AMERICAN SMOKE appeared in the Financial Times – ‘In AMERICAN SMOKE his voice is still urgent; it still has things to tell us. If we know what’s good for us, we’ll listen.’ – and also in The Times (sadly, behind the pay-wall). We understand that there are many more reviews on the way, from across the media. The Telegraph also ran a review, in which AMERICAN SMOKE is described as a ‘wonderful’ book, one the reviewer ‘loved’. A review in The Guardian states that, while reading the book, ‘the US wafts away, as grippingly haunted as Sinclair’s prose.’

And there’s still more to come: Esquire will run a piece by Iain in their December issue, about Kill Your Darlings film. Dazed and Confused‘s December will feature an interview with Iain, as will the Big Issue and The Hackney Citizen.

The London Review Bookshop is offering three wonderful special editions of AMERICAN SMOKE (one of which is pictured, below) – any one of these is a must for Sinclair and Beat Generation aficionados everywhere. Although, be quick – stock is selling out fast.

And finally, to re-cap, here are the rest of the dates for Sinclair’s tour:

Wednesday November 6th (today!) — Royal Society of Literature

Thursday November 7th — Iain Sinclair and Gary Walkow present Beat at the Whitechapel Gallery

Friday November 8th — LAUNCH of American Smoke at the Sea Cadets Building in Stoke Newington

Wednesday November 20th — ICA

Thursday November 21st — LRB Bookshop

Thursday November 28th — Topping and Company Bath

Wednesday December 4th — Broadway Bookshop event

Wednesday January 8th — Central St Martins

Budrys Benchmarks

Posted on Monday, August 5th, 2013

BENCHMARKS CONTINUED: F&SF “BOOKS” COLUMNS 1975-1982, BENCHMARKS REVISITED: F&SF “BOOKS” COLUMNS 1983-1986, and BENCHMARKS CONCLUDED: F&SF “BOOKS” COLUMNS 1987-1993, all published by Ansible Editions, form a complete three-volume collected edition of Algis Budrys‘s classic Science Fiction review columns from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. The first volume was published 30th November 2012, and the second and third were published at the beginning of last month.

Budrys is one of the grand masters of Golden Age Science Fiction and Fantasy. Born January 9th 1931, in Kaliningrad, before eventually emigrating to the United States, he was a prolific writer of short stories, novels, and genre-focused non-fiction. Over the course of his long career, he would produce some now-classic SF novels – for example, ROGUE MOON, MICHAELMAS, and WHO? (which was recently re-issued as part of the Library of America’s collection AMERICAN SCIENCE FICTION: CLASSIC NOVELS OF THE 1950s). Budrys also influenced the growth of the genre as a agent, critic and mentor of new authors. The Benchmarks series is a project that has brought some of his greatest non-fiction writing back into print, and are a must for any devotee of SF and the genre’s history.

Algis Budrys sadly passed away June 9th 2008, in Evanston, USA. Here’s what some people have said about Budrys and his work…

‘Although he never received a major award – he turned down the author emeritus award from the Science Fiction Writers of America in 2005 – his small canon of novels and 200 short stories were critically well received for what the influential author and futurologist Charles Platt called their “depth, humanity, and political sophistication”.’ — The Guardian (Obituary)

‘Algis Budrys was one of the handful of literary geniuses who have found that science fiction is the field most open to the exploration of their deepest personal convictions’ — Tim Powers

‘The most terrifying pages in any SF novel I have ever read’ — Robert Silverberg on ROGUE MOON

‘Budrys is incapable of writing anything less than a deeply thoughtful book. This one is sometimes a bit aridly written, sometimes fiercely charged, always full of fine invention. One of the season’s more important offerings.’ — Kirkus on MICHAELMAS (Starred Review)

‘… his three major novels — , , and MICHAELMAS — are an achievement of central importance to the SF field, all the more because each tries to do something different, with an approach and structure reshaped each time.’ — Locus

‘This study of the human psyche has an incredible amount of power which when combined with the study of relationships and exploration of that final frontier – the inevitable truth that is death – creates a unique and breathtaking novel that simply has no equal, a true classic in every sense.’ — SF Book Review on ROGUE MOON

‘… a tight, taught thriller packed full with wonderful ideas and it’s beautifully written… a great plot and a sense of wonder…’ — SF Reviews on MICHAELMAS

And, finally, we leave you with this quotation from the man himself, about what Science Fiction and Fantasy actually do…

‘What science fiction does – and fantasy, too – is speculate about the nature of things. SF frequently turns to the past. All kinds of SF and fantasy is set centuries in the past. People forget that when they talk about SF as a medium for predicting the future. You’re bound to predict a few things, but that’s just coincidence. That’s not what SF is for. SF is for speculating, not predicting.’ — Algis Budrys (1997)

Gollancz’s SF Gateway offers Budrys’s 1985 BENCHMARKS: GALAXY BOOKSHELF as an eBook; this collects his earlier reviews for Galaxy magazine. The three new BENCHMARKS collections (there is no overlap) are forthcoming in e-format from Ansible Editions.