Groundbreaking Book on Obsessive Love SMITTEN by Dr Tom Bellamy – aka “Dr L” – Snapped up by Watkins Media and Pre-empted by St Martin’s Press

We are thrilled to announce that neuroscientist Dr Tom Bellamy’s book Smitten: Romantic Obsession, the Neuroscience of Limerence and How to Make Love Last, has been acquired by Watkins Media in the UK, with an audiobook publishing with Bolinda, and in the United States by St Martin’s Press. SMITTEN investigates the under-explored area of limerence – obsessive love – through the latest ideas in neuroscience, and sheds light on the little-understood element of the human experience: infatuation. It offers practical guidance for those experiencing limerence and seeking emotional balance. You can pre-order the book here.

Former Watkins Commissioning Editor Lucy Carroll bought UK and Commonwealth rights from Juliet Pickering, with Commissioning Editor Sophie Blackman now editing the book. Audio rights for the UK and Commonwealth were won at auction by Bolinda, while US rights were pre-empted by Senior Editor Anna deVries at St Martin’s Press. The hardback and audio editions will be published in the UK on 8 April 2025, with the US edition following in Autumn 2025.

Dr Tom Bellamy says, ‘I'm delighted to be publishing SMITTEN with Watkins, who were so supportive of my vision for a science-based approach to practical self-help. Having blogged about limerence and its impact on relationships for seven years, it's great to now be able to bring that vision to life, and explain how the fundamental neuroscience of intense infatuation affects people's lives. Working together to craft the book into a guide that makes sense of obsessive love, and learn how to manage it, has been a fantastic experience.’

‘Neuroscientist Dr Tom Bellamy is just the person to help people manage their limerence, combining empathy and advice with groundbreaking science,’ said Sophie Blackman. ‘“Dr L” offers important tips on how to manage this little-known phenomena that is experienced by so many people, and we're excited to be championing his book at Watkins.’

Watkins Head of Marketing & Publicity Laura Whitaker-Jones added: ‘As Dr. Bellamy has proven through his blog and website, which receive around 120,000 hits per month and for which views have exceeded 3 million overall, there is an audience of readers clearly very curious about the science underpinning love and attraction. I particularly love that in the book he marries his extensive research with comments from those who have experienced limerence first-hand, allowing him to thoroughly dive into the ins and outs of obsessive love in an approachable, frank and engaging style. It is our hope, after reading this book, that anyone struggling with unwanted feelings negatively impacting their wellbeing can use this book to find emotional equilibrium.’

Juliet Pickering says: ‘I believe that SMITTEN will become an essential and classic book on romantic love, and submitting it to publishers has led to some fascinating and brilliant conversations. I look forward to readers being able to identify and move past their own limerence, and hopefully Tom’s book will ensure many happier relationships are able to thrive!’

SMITTEN

“Butterflies” in the stomach, intrusive thoughts, fantasies about imaginary scenarios, mood swings from euphoria to despair… aren't these all the familiar hallmarks of new love? Not quite. These are characteristics of the psychological state of “limerence”, also known as obsessive, passionate or addictive love that can become unhealthy.

Millions of people will experience limerence at some point in their life, and in this book, neuroscientist Dr Tom Bellamy explores advances in neuroscience since the term was coined in the 1970s, and sheds light on this little-understood element of the human experience. Discover:

  • What drives limerence

  • How to recognise limerence in yourself and others

  • How to manage the phases of addiction to another person

  • How to move past it to sustain longer, more fulfilling relationships.

With supportive advice about next steps, this book will help readers struggling with unwanted feelings to find emotional equilibrium.

About Tom Bellamy

Dr Tom Bellamy, PhD is a neuroscientist and Associate Professor at the University of Nottingham. He received a PhD in Neuroscience from UCL in 2001 and held a personal fellowship at the Babraham Institute in Cambridge from 2004 to 2010. He has published over forty scientific papers, abstracts and book chapters on esoteric aspects of neurophysiology. He now writes about how the mechanisms of neurophysiology can help us understand human behaviour. He started the blog “Living with Limerence” in 2017, where "Dr L" offers practical guidance on coping with unwanted infatuation. Page views have exceeded 3 million. The blog is an active online community that also offers guides and courses.

Visit the Living with Limerence website.

Graeme Macrae Burnet and Janice Galloway included in Publishing Scotland’s Anniversary List, 50 Books for 50 Years

We are delighted that books by Graeme Macrae Burnet and Janice Galloway have been included by Publishing Scotland’s 50 Books for 50 Years, a list of ‘iconic titles’ supported by Publishing Scotland assembled to ‘celebrate the vibrancy and breadth of Scottish publishing’.

Graeme was selected for HIS BLOODY PROJECT, his Booker Prize-shortlisted novel presenting troublesome and often conflicting accounts of a murder in a Highlands crofting community in the 1860s. The book was published by Publishing Scotland-supported Glaswegian independent Saraband in 2016, and won the Saltire Society Fiction Book of the Year Award.

Janice’s inclusion was for THE TRICK IS TO KEEP BREATHING, ‘a shocking and darkly funny portrait of mental illness, loneliness and waste’ about a woman’s grief in the wake of her married lover’s death. The winner of the Allen Lane/MIND Book of the Year and the Scottish Arts Council Book Award, and nominated for numerous others, the book was named one of Scotland’s ten favourite novels by a poll of over 8,000 readers in 2013. First published by Polygon in 1991, the book was re-issued as a Vintage Classic in 2015.

Congratulations Graeme and Janice!

Photo Credit: Euan Anderson

About Graeme Macrae Burnet

Graeme Macrae Burnet was born in Kilmarnock, Ayrshire and now lives in Glasgow. He has also lived in the Czech Republic, France, Portugal and London.

His first novel, THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ADÈLE BEDEAU (Contraband, 2014), received a New Writer’s Award from the Scottish Book Trust and was longlisted for the Waverton Good Read Award. A second Inspector Gorski novel, THE ACCIDENT ON THE A35, was published in 2017, and the trilogy will conclude with A CASE OF MATRICIDE in October 2024.

HIS BLOODY PROJECT (Contraband, 2015) won the Saltire Society Fiction Book of the Year Award and the Vrij Nederland Thriller of the Year, and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, the LA Times Mystery Book of the Year and the European Crime Fiction prize. It has been published in over twenty languages. His latest novel CASE STUDY was published in October 2021 by Saraband (UK), Text (ANZ) and Bolinda (UK audio) to wide critical acclaim. The North American edition was published in November 2022 by Biblioasis. It has been longlisted for the Booker Prize 2022 and the Dublin Literary Award, and shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize and Ned Kelly International Crime Prize.

Graeme was named Author of the Year in the 2017 Sunday Herald Culture Awards and has appeared at festivals and events in Australia, New Zealand, the US, Russia, Estonia, Macau, Lithuania, Ireland, Germany and France, as well as in the UK.

Praise for HIS BLOODY PROJECT

‘This engrossing novel… is an impressive feat of literary ventriloquism. Around an atrocity in a grim backwater, it opens up vistas into social and geographical divides and conflicting beliefs about criminal responsibility.’ – Peter Kemp, Sunday Times, ‘2016’s Best Books’

‘Graeme Macrae Burnet sucked me in from the very first page with compelling narratives about a triple murder. A series of convincing but unreliable voices circles the central event and left me breathless.’ – Val McDermid, The Guardian, ‘Best Books of 2016’

‘A smart amalgam of legal thriller and literary game that reads as if Umberto Eco has been resurrected in the 19th-century Scottish Highlands.’ – Mark Lawson, The Guardian

Photo Credit: James McNaught

About Janice Galloway

Janice Galloway was born in Ayrshire in 1955. Her first novel, THE TRICK IS TO KEEP BREATHING (Vintage), now widely regarded as a contemporary Scottish classic, was published in 1991. It was shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel, Scottish First Book, Italia Premio Acerbi and Aer Lingus Awards, and won the MIND/Allen Lane Book of the Year. Her second novel was FOREIGN PARTS (Vintage, 1995), which won the McVitie's Prize. CLARA (Vintage), a fictionalised account of the life of Clara Schumann, was published in 2003 and won the Saltire Book of the Year.

BLOOD and WHERE YOU FIND IT, two collections of short stories, first published in 1991 and 1996 respectively, later became COLLECTED SHORT STORIES (Vintage) in 2009. Janice also wrote two collaborative books of short fiction and poetry with sculptor Anne Bevan, and libretti, poems and a play. Prizes and awards include The American Academy of Arts and Letters EM Forster Award, and the Creative Scotland Award. She has written and presented three radio series for BBC Scotland and has been a guest on several BBC Radio 3 shows. 

Janice is the author of two works of 'anti-memoir': THIS IS NOT ABOUT ME (Granta, 2010), was shortlisted for The Biographer's Club First Book and won Scottish non-fiction Book of the Year; ALL MADE UP (Granta, 2011) won the SMIT Book of the Year and a Creative Scotland Award.

Her latest book, JELLYFISH (Granta, 2019), is a short story collection exploring sex and sexuality, parenthood, relationships, the connections between generations, death, ambition and loss.

Praise for THE TRICK IS TO KEEP BREATHING

‘I wish everyone would read THE TRICK IS TO KEEP BREATHING by Janice Galloway. Galloway writes with an unflinching intimacy in this tale of a woman mourning the death of her married lover.’ – Douglas Stuart (author of SHUGGIE BAIN), New York Times

‘Resembles Tristram Shandy as rewritten by Sylvia Plath.’ – The New York Times

‘A totally authentic portrayal of both the numbness and the frantic overthinking when you’re going through grief. There are lots of unconventional elements – the pages peppered with obsessive lists, different fonts, italicised shards of memory, commercial slogans, trash mag gossip and horoscopes – but it never feels heavy-handed. It brilliantly, agonisingly captures the indifference of a modern world eating up Joy as she struggles to cope with the loss of her partner.’ – Richard Milward, The New Statesman

Romalyn Ante’s second poetry collection AGIMAT to be published by Chatto & Windus

We are delighted to announce that AGIMAT, the second poetry collection by prize-winning poet Romalyn Ante, will be published by Chatto and Windus in hardback and eBook in the UK on 5th September 2024. World English Language rights were acquired from Isobel Dixon by Chatto & Windus poetry editor, Sarah Howe.

Speaking on the announcement of Chatto’s first poetry list under her stewardship, Sarah Howe said: ‘I could not be more proud of this daring, resonant, beautiful set of books, the first under my editorship at Chatto. It has been a joy working with our poets, existing and new, to bring these important works to the world. I look forward to the day readers will hold these stunning objects in their hands, and be changed by them.’

Romalyn Ante’s debut collection, ANTIEMETIC FOR HOMESICKNESS (also published by Chatto & Windus) was shortlisted for the Jhalak Prize and longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize. Romalyn has previously won the Poetry London Prize and the Manchester Poetry Prize and AGIMAT has already been chosen as a Poetry Book Society Autumn Recommendation and garnered praise from fellow poets and early readers (see more below).

this charms the buried light of stars –

this deflects bullets – this unblooms a war –

In some Filipino clans, parents pass down to each child an AGIMAT, an amulet, in the hope its magic will protect and empower them. In a world of daily pain and loss, Romalyn Ante’s second collection asks: how do we keep safe what we hold most dear?

At the dawn of the pandemic, the poet – a practising nurse in the NHS – is thrown onto the frontlines of the war against COVID-19. Past conflicts swim into the now. When she falls in love with a man of Japanese heritage, it forces a reckoning with her family’s suffering under Japan’s brutal wartime occupation of the Philippines. Elsewhere, we meet the irrepressible goddess Mebuyan, who, in Philippine myth, nurses the spirits of children in the underworld. Here, she watches over young people in crisis – a girl who can’t stop cutting herself, a teenager who has leapt from a railway viaduct.

These are poems of strength and solace; they question what it means to fight, and what it takes to heal.

Romalyn is currently developing her first novel, THE LEFT-BEHIND CHILD, a lyrical and vivid depiction of childhood and rupture inspired by her and her mother’s stories of leaving the Philippines to work and care for others in the United Kingdom.

Photo credit: S Chadawong

About Romalyn Ante

Romalyn Ante FRSL is a British-Filipino poet, essayist, and editor. She grew up in the Philippines and migrated to her second home, Wolverhampton, in 2005.

She is co-founding editor of harana poetry, a magazine for poets who write in English as a second or parallel language, and the founder of Tsaá with Roma, an online interview series with poets and other creatives. She was awarded the Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellowship and she currently sits as an editorial board member for Poetry London magazine. 

She is the first East-Asian to win the Poetry London Prize (2018) and the Manchester Poetry Prize (2017). She also won the Creative Future Literary Award 2017.

Apart from being a writer, she also works as a specialist nurse practitioner. Her debut poetry collection, ANTIEMETIC FOR HOMESICKNESS, is published by Chatto & Windus and was an Irish Times Best Poetry Book of 2020, an Observer Poetry Book of the Month and a Poetry School Poetry Book of the Year 2020. It was also a National Poetry Day UK Recommended Read and was shortlisted for the Jhalak Prize and longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize.

 Praise for AGIMAT

‘Ante is an alchemical wonder of a poet: unparalleled in her image-making, raw to both historical and contemporary damage and rich in cultures. Utterly original, AGIMAT is itself a talisman – a fiery binding of pain and a message of love to the wounded and lost. Keep these poems with you as I will – always.’ – Fiona Benson

‘If translation is always physical, often joyous work – the act of carrying meaning across the chasms separating languages – then AGIMAT is about the daily embodied acts involved in this labour. To live in translation is to be estranged. Yet the joy of translation comes from this very estrangement. Romalyn Ante makes us feel this, as estrangement transforms into its own vibrant space of joy. Ante’s irrepressible inquiries into translation create a colourful linguistic sanctuary.’ – Jason Allen-Paisant

‘Romalyn Ante’s mesmeric new collection is deeply rooted in the dualities of life, cultural identity, and the profound interplay of personal and communal experience. Vivid, lyrical, and always surprising, it is a testament to those who navigate the complex legacies of history toward healing and resilience. It is both a balm and a call to action, reminding us of the transformative power of bearing witness.’ – Nathan Filer

‘Romalyn Ante’s first collection introduced us to a voice both vibrant and thoughtful. This collection grows out from this – now coming with a feeling of added power and forcefulness. This is a special book – both urgent and beautiful.’ – Niall Campbell

‘With precision, deftness, and at times playfulness, AGIMAT weaves in mythical and modern imageries, the universal with the intimate. The result is a powerful and hopeful collection, filled with heart and beauty, that illuminates us to the many forms that caring and healing can take.’ – Cecile Pin

Praise for Romalyn Ante

‘Captivating, playful, moving, witty and agile... an unforced poet with a lightness of touch and fortitude’ – The Guardian

‘Romalyn Ante is a poet to fall in love with’ – Liz Berry

‘Ante’s poems are like embers, pared back to a slow-burning emotional core’ – Times Literary Supplement

Vist Romalyn’s website.

Follow Romalyn on X (previously Twitter) and Instagram.