I suppose the first gentle push towards The Friendly Ones happened in the very early 1970s. My family was living in South London. My mother worked for the fire brigade, and had a friend in the office who lived very near by. The friend asked us round; there was some family event. She was Indian, and her house was not quite like ours. It was a house of gorgeous colours, an unusual perfume in the air, and a grandmother wearing something beyond my powers of description in both colour and construction – I think it must have been a brilliant pink sari. The manners of the family were unfamiliar – the four of us were divided into separate rooms to be entertained.. Afterwards the fact was clear: not everybody is like you.
4th Estate and William Collins writers open up about LGBTQ+ identities
In celebration of Pride in the UK, we have put together a selection of writing by 4th Estate and William Collins authors who have used their craft to represent the lives of those in the LGBTQ community. Whether writing non-fiction, fiction, or something in the middle, these writers have significantly contributed to the demonstration that love is love, by writing complex depictions of individuals outside the heteronormative spectrum (this list is non-exhaustive).
Merry Christmas! If, like us, you’ve had your dinner and would like to take yourself to a quiet corner with something good to read and a cup of tea (or a second Christmas dinner- why not?) , rather than get into yet another discussion about politics or similar tricky topics with your aunt’s husband, then we have a treat for you.
Kindle have discounted a whopping 12 of our bestselling titles. Just click on the tiny price next to each title below and you’ll be able to read Wolf Hall, Americanah, All the Light We Cannot See, Pretty Honest and many more in an instant. With enough titles to take you through to 2016, you’ll have a very happy new year too. Read more…
The Folio Prize has revealed the 80 books nominated by The Folio Prize Academy for consideration by this year’s Folio Prize judges, and an extraordinary eight of them are 4th Estate titles – that’s 10% of the nominations! Read more…
What the hell is a weather bomb? We at 4th Estate are crossing our fingers and dreaming of a White Christmas. If literature is a form of wish fulfilment, our books are doing a good job today. Here are 4 not-really-but-please-make-it-so passages from our books that we would love to snuggle up with by a roaring fire today: Read more…
This Christmas we’ve decided to make your present buying a lot less stressful by asking the 4th Estate team to hand-pick books for all your relatives. Hopefully this will mean less umming and ahhing in the bookshop, and more oohing and ahhing on Christmas Day…
We asked 4th Estate staff to write 30 words on one of 30 classic 4th Estate titles. Here’s Key Account Manager Vanessa Bloor on ‘The Northern Clemency‘ by Philip Hensher
‘One of my all time favourite novels about English family life, The Northern Clemency is an extraordinarily accomplished novel featuring a fascinating and richly portrayed cast. It’s moving and also very funny – one scene in particular will stick with me forever. I could not put it down.’
‘Art is the only serious thing in the world. And the artist is the only person who is never serious.’ – Oscar Wilde
