The publishing year: editors' wishes and misses

Publishers talk about the ones that got away in 2011
Masada, setting for The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman
Masada … home to Alice Hoffman's dovekeepers Photograph: Nathan Benn/Alamy

The publishing year: editors' wishes and misses

Publishers talk about the ones that got away in 2011

Alexandra Pringle, editor in chief, Bloomsbury

The book: Other People's Money by Justin Cartwright. A satirical novel about a privately owned bank in trouble. Misplaced millions have to be kept hidden from the regulators and the press … sound familiar?

Why it deserved better: "I think this is his finest book. It received outstanding reviews – the best, probably, he has ever received – and it sold well. Yet not only was it not shortlisted for the Man Booker or Costa; it was not once mentioned in the press as one that should have been nominated. In all the talk of Hollinghurst, Smith and St Aubyn, Cartwright's name was entirely and unaccountably absent."

I wish I'd published: "There were two novels I offered on and was especially sad not to get: Tahmima Anam's luminous and profound The Good Muslim (Canongate) and Louisa Young's enthralling and moving My Dear I Wanted to Tell You (HarperCollins). Both about conflict and loss, both wonderful." 

Roland Philipps, managing director, John Murray

The book: What I Did by Christopher Wakling. When six-year-old Billy, narrator of the book, runs across a busy road, his father smacks him. A passer-by calls social services, plunging the family into every parent's nightmare.

Why it deserved better: "I loved this book because it seemed to me so fresh, so funny, so tense, so artful, and actually quite important. The few reviews it got were raves, but there just were not enough of them. It's unfortunate that The Slap had perhaps taken some of the novelty value out of the story, although that novel is so different in tone, impact and style it shouldn't have been an issue."

I wish I'd published: "Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad (Corsair).  Wonderfully engaging, witty, inventive; great characters. Everything a novel should be."

Philip Gwyn Jones, executive publisher, Portobello

The book: A Just Defiance by Peter Harris. The author was defence lawyer for the "Delmas Four", a group of black men accused of terrorism and murder in apartheid South Africa in 1987. Even though they faced the death penalty they did not deny the allegations, declaring they were soldiers, not terrorists. A chilling courtroom drama and political memoir.

Why it deserved better: "We secured several broadsheet reviews, all positive, and Peter came to the UK for a few events and radio appearances, but the book didn't get much support from booksellers and didn't catch a wave. That seems unjust given Harris's skill at dramatising afresh the perennial dilemma of whether and when political violence can be justified, and at finding the human costs of political principles."

I wish I'd published: "Norman Davies's book on the great lost duchies and principalities, Vanished Kingdoms (Allen Lane). It brilliantly demonstrates how contrariness can illuminate history from an unusual angle and make everything look radiantly different."

Suzanne Baboneau, publishing director, Simon & Schuster

The book: The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman. A 500-page novel about the lives of four women who took refuge in Masada during the siege of AD70. Each has endured great suffering but they are drawn together by their work as Masada's dovekeepers.

Why it deserved better: "Toni Morrison hailed it as a 'major contribution to 21st-century literature' and it is Hoffman's most ambitious and mesmerising novel to date. I would love more readers to be drawn into the extraordinary world of these four remarkable women, to witness their courage and be moved by their plight."

I wish I'd published: "I read David Miller's exquisite novel Today (Atlantic) in one sitting and the memory lingers on. It will resonate with anyone who has lost a loved one and seeks moments of stillness and light in a time of havoc and darkness."

Simon Winder, publishing director, Allen Lane

The book: Britain's War Machine by David Edgerton. A revolutionary account of how Britain fought the second world war. All the standard images of Britain as besieged, alone and suffering from shortages are thrown out. Britain was unique in Europe in being able to fight the war as a rich nation and therefore avoid the worst of the nightmare that engulfed everyone else.

Why it deserved better: "Edgerton is an extraordinarily clever historian and one of only a handful who understands how the modern, material world works. When he agreed to write his new book for us I was so excited. It's a gripping book, full of surprising information and arguments. We even gave it a misleadingly jaunty cover. It got some great reviews, but didn't really connect with the large audience I thought it deserved. Even some of the positive reviewers were unable to get their heads round his message – that our view of our own country is fundamentally and self-deludingly wrong. This refusal to engage, of course, proves his point. I was hoping at least for an angry debate, but our complacency is perhaps almost bottomless."

I wish I'd published: "The West End Front: The Wartime Secrets of London's Grand Hotels by Matthew Sweet (Faber). His Shepperton Babylon is one of my favourite books and I can't wait to read this new one. I'm sure he must be entertaining to edit and probably has a load of stories he had to miss out."

Jamie Byng, publisher, Canongate

The book: To the River: A Journey Beneath the Surface by Olivia Laing. After splitting up with her boyfriend and her job, and with Virginia Woolf as her presiding spirit, Laing walks the 42 miles of the river Ouse in Sussex (where Woolf drowned herself in 1941). A reflection on nature and solitude that twists and turns with the river.

Why it deserved better: "This is one of the most gorgeous and lyrical pieces of nature-writing I have ever read, but as its subtitle hints it is also a subtle exploration of that which is not visible, of the subconscious, madness and longing. It did receive some great reviews but I thought it was the sort of auspicious debut that would win prizes and get hailed as a modern classic."

I wish I'd published: "Patrick deWitt's The Sisters Brothers (Granta). Reminiscent of John Hillcoat's film The Proposition in its honesty, violence and moral ambiguity, it is also funny as hell, beautifully written and riveting as fire. It would have been a bold and exciting winner of the Man Booker prize."

James Gurbutt, publisher, Constable

The books: A Kiss Before Dying/Rosemary's Baby/Stepford Wives/The Boys from Brazil by Ira Levin. Reprints of four chilling suspense novels from a master storyteller that are still fresh and brilliant today.

Why they deserved better: "To us the introductions by Chuck Palahniuk and Chelsea Cain were worth the price of admission alone. But pushing a backlist these days without a film or TV adaptation is tough, regardless of the quality. And these are the finest: A Kiss Before Dying is technically brilliant, edge-of-the-seat stuff and should be compulsory reading for anyone even thinking of writing a book, thriller or otherwise." 

I wish I'd published: "Teju Cole's Open City (Faber) is a book I'd love to have got my hands on – it's rare to come across a novel as beautiful as this."

Nicholas Pearson, publishing director, Fourth Estate

The book: The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood by James Gleick. Chronicles the invention of writing and the first dictionaries, and the creation of the codes and charts that would facilitate navigation and travel, as well as the electronic transmission of signals – a new technology that has redefined our relationship to information and how we see ourselves.

Why it deserved better: "We had high hopes for this story of how we came to the information age, from African drums to the BlackBerry. Our relationship with information in part defines how we see ourselves and this book for the first time tells the whole story. Reviews were terrific but sales very modest – I couldn't understand it."

I wish I'd published: "Eliot it ain't, but the success of Go the F**k to Sleep (Canongate) didn't surprise me. I have recently had a baby. Been too tired to read much else."

Venetia Butterfield, publishing director, Viking

The book: The German Boy by Patricia Wastvedt. In 1947, a 16-year-old German orphan comes to live with his aunt in England. A moving novel of two families entangled by love and divided by prejudice and war.

Why it deserved better: "Two sisters fall in love with the same man, with shocking repercussions. I hoped we'd make larger waves with this novel, but it has been hugely loved by people in-house and readers so I'm hoping it'll be a great success in paperback." 

I wish I'd published: "Belinda McKeon's heart-wrenching and powerful Irish novel Solace (Picador) and Jeffrey Eugenides's The Marriage Plot (Fourth Estate), both of which I thought about, talked about and recommended throughout the year."
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/dec/21/publishing-editors-wishes-misses
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