Press Release: Deals Done
'Intoxicating' Debut Novel Inspired By Silent Film To Serpent's Tail
Posted at 1:14PM Thursday 26 Jan 2012
Serpent's Tail editor Rebecca Gray has bought WEL rights in PETITE MORT, the debut novel by 31-year-old Beatrice Hitchman from Antony Topping at Greene and Heaton. Editor Rebecca Gray who signed the novel in a pre-empt, said, 'PETITE MORT is cross between FINGERSMITH and ED WOOD. It's literary fiction with a great story, plenty of scandal and a pretty darn good twist at the end too. This is a wonderful novel full of intoxication, ruthless ambition and lies within lies.' The 'Petite Mort' of the title is a silent French film from early 1914, long thought lost in a fire that ripped through part of the Pathé film studio in Paris shortly after the film was completed. Now, in 1967, a print of the film has been found in a Parisian suburb – though it is missing one crucial scene, and the film has been crudely spliced back together. The film has a certain notoriety: its star, Alice Roux, was involved in a sensational murder trial not long after completion of the film, and thereafter became a total recluse. Juliette is the young journalist piecing these histories together. She is engaged to Jean-Yves, but falling in love with Etienne, the film enthusiast who may be able to help her uncover the truth about the Alice, the murder, and Petite Mort itself... Beatrice Hitchman was born in London in 1980. She read English and French at Edinburgh University and then studied for an MA in Comparative Literature. After a year living in Paris, she moved back to the UK, trained and worked as a documentary film editor. She has written and directed short films which have toured festivals worldwide. Serpent's Tail will publish PETITE MORT in Spring 2013.
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