Dear Book-Lovers,
We wanted to get in touch to tell you all about the exciting project we've been secretly working on.
We are delighted to introduce you to Fox, Finch & Tepper - a new publishing company brought to you by the team at Mr B's. On November 6th, 2014 we launched our first two titles: "The Shiralee" is an Australian classic by D'Arcy Niland and "The Next Step in the Dance" is a Louisiana-set novel by one of our favourite authors Tim Gautreaux.
We'll tell you more about both of these books shortly, but before we do here's a brief history of Fox, Finch & Tepper, how we came about, the kind of books we plan to publish and how you can get involved.
How our publishing story began...
  We dipped our toe in the publishing pool for the first time in 2012 when we teamed up with Canongate to produce a limited edition hardback of Arto Paasalinna’s Finnish folk tale “The Howling Millerâ€. A year later we embarked on a similar project with Orion and Geoffrey Household’s “Rogue Maleâ€. Both books were for sale exclusively at Mr B's, and in no time at all, both books sold out.
 Emboldened by the success of our tentative attempt at publishing we decided to strike out on our own. In January this year Kate headed to Edinburgh to find out how the lovely folk at Canongate produce their titles, sell them into bookshops and publicise them and Nic dusted off his lawyer's jacket and set about negotiating the rights to two titles that our team had read and fallen in love with. A few weeks later research done, rights secured, Fox, Finch & Tepper was born.
About the name...
We named Fox, Finch & Tepper after three of our favourite literary heroes whose qualities we’d like to reflect in our publishing efforts:
- Roald Dahl’s tenacious, independent-spirited "Fantastic Mr Fox" (note the absent tail)
- Finch is Scout Finch - the curious young storyteller from Harper Lee’s "To Kill a Mockingbird"
- The final member of our literary trio is the lesser known Murray Tepper from “Tepper isn’t Going Out†by Calvin Trillin - a novel about a man whose job it is to identify target markets for different products, but who really just wants to sit in his car, in a parking space on the busy streets of New York, and read – despite the many angry drivers who are desperate to nab his spot!
About our publishing mission...
Our first two titles both epitomise the kind of books that we want to publish at Fox, Finch & Tepper. Here's why:
- Both books have been previously published before but have sadly gone out of print in the UK and we believe they both deserve to be read and loved by many more readers;
- both feature strong, intriguing, well-drawn characters;
- both are wonderfully atmospheric and give a great sense of the places where they are set.
About our books:
So here they are, our first two titles:
The Shiralee by D'Arcy Niland
 Our first book “The Shiralee†by D’Arcy Niland is set amidst the dusty back roads and small towns of New South Wales where Mac Macauley a tough, itinerant worker has been enjoying a solitary lifestyle on the road, travelling from one small town to the next and catching up with old friends and locals on his way. “Shiralee†is an old Australian word, which means burden and the burden of this book is Buster – Macauley’s four-year-old daughter who he snatched from her mother in a fit of pique and who must now become his companion on the road. Macauley doesn’t warm to having a little girl tugging at his heels and the lifestyle of traveller isn’t really suited to vulnerable little Buster, but gradually Macualey’s feeling toward his young burden begin to soften.
Here's one of our favourite short scenes from the book:
"She bobbed along at Macauley’s side. He glanced down. All he saw was the large straw hat and each boot coming successively into view beneath it. It was like walking with a mushroom. He had worked it out from observation that she had to take three steps to equal his one. He slackened his pace with deliberate imperceptibility. He didn’t want her to discover that it was a voluntary concession. That would have embarrassed him. Further, she was shrewd enough to latch on to the weakness, adopting it as a habit and profiting from it when necessary. The idea was to force it into her understanding that she had to toe the line. There was no compromise, let alone subversion ."
A note on the designer:
The cover illustration for our edition of "The Shiralee" was designed by Mark Boardman, a fantastic young artist from Bristol. Check out more of his work here: www.mark-boardman.com. We love his interpretation of our logo too!
 The Next Step in the Dance by Tim Gautreaux
Book no.2 from Fox, Finch & Tepper is “The Next Step in the Dance†– you might have come across Tim Gautreaux before via Mr B’s. Ed absolutely adores Tim’s novel set in 1920’s Louisiana “The Missing†– in fact it’s our bestselling book ever! “The Next Step in the Dance†is Tim Gautreaux’s debut novel, it's also set in Louisiana but some 60 years later, in a small-town called Tiger Island, a watery, swampy little place strung with Spanish Moss, and with a variety of run-down bars and dance halls where much of the action takes place. The residents are wise old-timers whose families have lived here since time began. The main characters are a young married couple – Paul a laid back machinist and his ambitious, sharp-tongued wife Colette. Colette is desperate to escape the claustrophobia of her home town in favour of a more varied and sophisticated lifestyle, but Paul and Tiger Island prove hard to leave behind.
Here's one of our favourite short scenes from the book:
"...And then like an electric shock came the face of Colette, staring out into the dark, seeing nothing, certainly not him, her face more beautiful than he had ever seen it, full of energy and excitement. Before he could move, she sailed by and was gone. He caught a glimpse of dark hair flowing over her shoulders, and then nothing, a baggage car and an empty coach, the end of the train. He was left in a dark, windy guilt. He had fixed the giant machine that was taking her away, had forgotten that his love was on the train. He began to sense what he’d lost, and as the steam whistle fluted a huge warning a mile to the west, he tried to remember her face, her perfume. He cupped his hands over his nose, hoping for some trace of her there, but he smelled only the oily  scent of machinery.â€
A note on the designer:
The cover for our edition of "The Next Step in the Dance" was designed by Athena Cauley-Yu. Athena is the co-owner of fabulous Bath stationery haven Meticulous Ink. Check out her version of our logo too!
How you can get involved...
We would love to stay in touch with you and ask for your help in promoting and developing Fox, Finch & Tepper. Here's how you can get involved:
- Buy the books from Mr B's or from your local bookshop - as long as you buy them on a high street somewhere then you'll be supporting us immensely. These books are already available from all good bookshops and it would be brilliant to see them on the shelves of booksellers and book-lovers from all around the UK.
- Tell your friends about "The Shiralee" and "The Next Step in the Dance" and about Fox, Finch & Tepper and bang on about how good they'd be as book group books/Christmas pressies!
- Follow us on twitter @foxfinchtepper
- Check our website www.foxfinchtepper.com
- Email us with your ideas for great, out-of-print books that we might like to publish in the future
We hope you're intrigued by this little insight into Fox, Finch & Tepper. Enjoy the books!
Very best wishes from all the team at Mr B's and Fox, Finch & Tepper x
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