Barnes and Noble has selected Major Pettigrew for their Discover New Writers series, summer 2010.  This is such an honor and I am looking forward to casually hanging around those nice ‘Discover’ displays in my local B&N!

Please join me and many friends, old and new, as I launch my book in my longtime home city of Brooklyn.  Thanks to the owners and staff at Bookcourt on Court Street for inviting me to read in their amazing store.  Bookcourt has stood at the heart of the Broooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill and Boerum Hill communities for many years (I remember wrangling my way through the door with babies) and helps make the big city feel more like a warm and friendly village.  See you there.

Please join me as I launch Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand in Washington, D.C. with a reading at Politics and Prose at 6pm on Saturday March 13.  I am delighted that Washington’s most renowned independent bookstore has made room on their busy calendar to invite me and I hope you’ll come by if you’re in the area.  Bring lots of questions – it’s awfully lonely up on a podium when no one has questions.

On Bookstore Shelves March 2, 2010, Random House announces Helen Simonson’s debut novel, Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand.

You are about to travel to Edgecombe St. Mary, a small village in the English countryside filled with rolling hills, thatched cottages, and a cast of characters both hilariously original and as familiar as the members of your own family. Among them is Major Ernest Pettigrew (retired), the unlikely hero of Helen Simonson’s wondrous debut. Wry, courtly, opinionated, and completely endearing, Major Pettigrew is one of the most indelible characters in contemporary fiction, and from the very first page of this remarkable novel he will steal your heart.

Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand will be available in the UK in July 2010 from Bloomsbury Press.