Category: Our Collaborators

The People Behind When the Sparrows Grow Anxious: Lili Yazdi and Trish Amichi

It doesn’t take just a writer to write a book. It takes collaborators, advocates, editors, agents, translators, encouragers and behind-the-scenes influencers to help bring a book out into the open.

When the Sparrows Grow Anxious is no exception.

At Nick Owen Publishing, we have been privileged to work with two such people: Lili Yazdi and Trish Amichi. Both have played an important part in helping this remarkable book find its way into the world.

A grayscale illustrated portrait of a woman wearing a headscarf and glasses, featuring soft and abstract lines.

Lili Yazdi

As the founder of Kia Literary Agency, I represent authors whose work expands perspectives, honours lived experience, and contributes meaningfully to contemporary literature. I am especially passionate about stories that explore identity, migration, resilience, and the complexities of human connection.

Kia is dedicated to introducing Iran’s literary talent to global markets, with a strong focus on children’s and young adult literature. The agency connects Iranian authors, illustrators, and publishers with readers and industry professionals worldwide, while also bringing distinguished foreign titles to Iran.

Over two decades, Kia has built an extensive international network through active participation in leading book fairs , platforms which allow us to showcase Iranian works , foster cross-cultural literary exchange, and advise on international publishing and rights.

Most recently, I served as lead agent for the forthcoming title ; When the Sparrow Grow Anxious: Diaries from Tehran at War by acclaimed Iranian writer Ali Asghar Seidabadi, set for release by Nick Owen Publishing House, a respected independent UK publisher.

 Through my work, I aim to continue building a literary home where powerful stories are nurtured, protected, and brought into the world with integrity. 

Trish Amichi

A sketched portrait of a person with short hair and a neutral expression, depicted in shades of gray and white.

My professional experience reaches across the Health, Education and Arts sectors. I am Founder and Program Coordinator of BIG ONES LITTLE ONES® (BOLO) – an international visual art/literacy program set up in 2004, open to all irrespective of barriers, real or perceived. Recognising art as a means of communication, BOLO gives young ones a voice and allows them to become the storytellers of their own lives. Connecting classrooms, communities, cultures and countries means these stories can be exchanged and shared – celebrating diversity, raising awareness of our common humanity.

More recently I have been responsible for concept development and English language editing of a new bilingual children’s picture book. Raising awareness of childhood dementia, My Box of Memories has just been published in Iran.

Being part of the team that has brought When the Sparrows Grow Anxious to life is both an honour and a privilege. 

Through his images and words, Ali Asghar Seidabadi quietly documents the everyday lives of men, women and children trying to maintain some sense of normality while living under the constant threat of attack. He calls out the futility of war and reminds us that no-one and nothing is spared when the bombs are dropped. Above all else, this book is a plea for peace — not just for Iran or the Middle East, but for the whole world.

To order your copy now or find out more about the work of NOP please feel free to get in touch here!

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Thank you for your response. ✨

Email:     nick@nickowenpublishing.co.uk
Website: www.nickowenpublishing.com

When the Sparrows Grow Anxious: Diaries from Tehran at War
Author: Ali Asghar Seidabadi
Publisher: Nick Owen Publishing Ltd
Publication: 15 June 2026
ISBN: 9798197042132
Format: [Hardback / Paperback / Kindle / eBook)
Available from: Nick Owen Publishing / Amazon

#WhenTheSparrowsGrowAnxious

#DiariesFromTehran

#BooksBuildBridges

A stylized illustration of a bird with a brown and white plumage, standing on two legs against a white background.

When the Sparrows Grow Anxious: how do you decide on a book title?

When the Sparrows Grow Anxious takes its title from the ordinary bird that lives close to human beings: on rooftops, in courtyards, near windows and in streets where life continues even when history becomes unbearable.  It arose through Ali Seidabadi’s immediate experience of the recent bombings in Tehran and in the book he writes:

“My childhood in the village was filled with the sound of sparrows, and during this war, their voices have felt like the sound of life itself.

I have seen how, at the moment of an explosion, they become restless and frantic.

I have felt their absence on days when the blasts were intense.

I have always remembered spring by the sound of sparrows – but this year, they have noticeably diminished.

I want to turn what I have written so far into a book. I had already chosen a title for it:

When the Sparrows Grow Anxious: Diaries from Tehran at War

He wrote this close to World Sparrow Day – 20th March. Whilst this marks the spring equinox in the Northern Hemisphere, it is also the New Year in Iran (Nowruz) which Ali writes about in the book and illustrates with photos: it’s a time when sparrows are nesting and their presence in cities and farms becomes most visible.

A digitally painted illustration of a bird with brown and white feathers, shown in profile.

Much like canaries in coal mines, sparrows are indicator species. Their disappearance signals air pollution, loss of green spaces and fewer insects. They are closely tied to our lives; they nest in eaves, feed on crumbs and chirp in courtyards. Their decline reflects how modern cities are losing biodiversity. Sparrows also show up in Persian poetry and Sufi thought as symbols of humility, resilience, community, simplicity and divine care: the idea that even the smallest creature is noticed. These ideas resonate strongly with Persian poetic and moral traditions that value tavazo (humility) and finding meaning in the ordinary. 

World Sparrow Day fits neatly with that cultural view: paying attention to the small, ordinary things that hold spiritual and ecological meaning: and in Ali’s book, the anxious sparrow also becomes a witness, a warning and a companion to ordinary life in Tehran under pressure.

We are pleased to announce that in the future, NOP too will remember World Sparrow Day on 20th March and dedicate our work to those small indicators of health and well-being which we unwittingly rely upon so much.

Thanks to Lili Hayeri Yazdi for additional text: and to Paul Warren our resident illustrator for his responses to When the Sparrows Grow Anxious.

To order your copy now or find out more about the work of NOP please feel free to get in touch here!

← Back

Thank you for your response. ✨

Email:     nick@nickowenpublishing.co.uk
Website: www.nickowenpublishing.com

When the Sparrows Grow Anxious: Diaries from Tehran at War
Author: Ali Asghar Seidabadi
Publisher: Nick Owen Publishing Ltd
Publication: 15 June 2026
ISBN: 9798197042132
Format: [Hardback / Paperback / Kindle / eBook)
Available from: Nick Owen Publishing / Amazon

#WhenTheSparrowsGrowAnxious

#DiariesFromTehran

#BooksBuildBridges

A stylized illustration of a bird with a brown and white plumage, standing on two legs against a white background.

When the Sparrows Grow Anxious: is it still the work of the English?

In Iran, there is a famous common saying: “It’s the work of the English” and whilst the UK government resisted backing the US war on Iran at its inception, this nation state has hardly covered itself in glory in the region over many decades.

Growing up in England and looking on at the conflicts that perpetuate in the Middle East has left many of us feeling utterly at a loss about how to understand those conflicts, let alone consider how to contribute to their solutions.  In the last 20+ years alone, those who we thought of as progressive thinkers who could make a significant difference to peace in the region just turned into clones of the same war mongering wolves who continued to wreak havoc.  The UK government’s involvement in the Iraq war spings to mind for example.

So with that context in our minds and with Trump’s more recent insanities (“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again…”) how do we respond?  

In early May, we were blessed with an introduction to the author, Ali Asghar Seidabadi through a long standing friend in Sydney, Australia, Trish Amichi, and her colleague Lili Yazdi who has been a long standing colleague with Ali himself.  They were on a quest to have When The Sparrows Grow Anxious printed as soon as possible and we were happily in a position to be able to oblige and support that quest.

NOP was founded with a simple conviction: that small, independent publishers have a responsibility not only to entertain readers, but also to take seriously the stories that might otherwise remain unheard. We publish books that are humane, distinctive, thoughtful and sometimes difficult to categorise. Some are comic, some are reflective, some are deliberately eccentric. But at the heart of every Nick Owen Publishing book is a commitment to voice: to the individual perspective, the lived experience, the marginal note, the private observation, the story written at an angle to the official account.

When the Sparrows Grow Anxious belongs firmly within that tradition.  It records the texture of ordinary life under extraordinary pressure. Through diary fragments, reflections, memories and sharply observed moments, it allows readers to experience what conflict does to time, language, family, friendship, humour, fear and hope.

We are publishing this book because it speaks from a place that is too often spoken about rather than listened to. It offers an intimate account of Tehran during a period of danger and uncertainty, but it also reaches beyond one city and one conflict. It asks what it means to remain human when public events invade private life. It asks how people continue to notice birds, food, jokes, books, neighbours and weather when history presses against the window.

For an independent publisher, this is vital.

Publishing this book also reflects our belief that books can create connections across borders. At a time when public debate is often reduced to slogans, suspicion and noise, When the Sparrows Grow Anxious invites a slower, more attentive form of reading. It asks us to sit with another person in their days, to recognise vulnerability without sentimentality, and to understand that the consequences of war are lived not only in headlines, but in kitchens, streets, silences and small acts of endurance.

We are proud to bring this book to readers.

It is a work of witness, memory and moral imagination. It is also, in its quiet way, an act of trust: trust between writer and reader, between publisher and author, and between people separated by geography but connected by the fragile, stubborn hope that words still matter.

Photo: Attack on a factory in Tehran.  Photo by Mohammad Mahdi Pourarab

To order your copy now or find out more about the work of NOP please feel free to get in touch here!

← Back

Thank you for your response. ✨

Email:     nick@nickowenpublishing.co.uk
Website: www.nickowenpublishing.com

When the Sparrows Grow Anxious: Diaries from Tehran at War
Author: Ali Asghar Seidabadi
Publisher: Nick Owen Publishing Ltd
Publication: 15 June 2026
ISBN: 9798197042132
Format: [Hardback / Paperback / Kindle / eBook)
Available from: Nick Owen Publishing / Amazon

#WhenTheSparrowsGrowAnxious

#DiariesFromTehran

#BooksBuildBridges

Day Four at Roland Garros: Jones Falls, Boulter Remains, Djokovic Persists and the Clay Begins Making Demands

Dear resigned reader,

It is my solemn responsibility to report that Day Four of Roland-Garros opened with British interests once again standing on the edge of the continent, clutching a water bottle, a tactical plan, and a slightly damp copy of Les Conquêtes Normandes d’un Tennisman Vieillissant.

After the previous day’s withdrawal of the British men from the singles campaign — an event which should not be described as a retreat, although several historians have already cleared their throats — attention turned to Francesca Jones, who had carried into the second round the glow of a breakthrough Grand Slam victory.It is my solemn responsibility to report that Day Four of Roland-Garros opened with British interests once again standing on the edge of the continent, clutching a water bottle, a tactical plan, and a slightly damp copy of Les Conquêtes Normandes d’un Tennisman Vieillissant.

After the previous day’s withdrawal of the British men from the singles campaign — an event which should not be described as a retreat, although several historians have already cleared their throats — attention turned to Francesca Jones, who had carried into the second round the glow of a breakthrough Grand Slam victory.

Hear more here!

Alas, the glow met Marie Bouzkova.

Jones lost 6-0, 7-6(3) in one hour and 36 minutes. The first set was a grim little administrative annexation: brief, decisive, and conducted with the sort of efficiency that causes British observers to start discussing “positives” before the second changeover. But Jones, to her credit, did not depart quietly. She fought her way into the second set, forced a tiebreak, and restored enough dignity to ensure that the match became not a collapse but a brave, if ultimately unsuccessful, resistance movement. 

This leaves Katie Boulter as the last remaining Briton in the singles draw, due to face Anastasia Potapova, the 28th seed, in the next round. One does not wish to overburden her with national symbolism, but by this stage she is effectively carrying British tennis, several Union flags, three BBC live blogs, the hopes of Loughborough, and at least one imaginary goat across the red clay of Paris.  The British position, therefore, may be summarised as follows: the men have left the field; Jones has fallen with honour; Boulter remains at her post; and the clay, like Normandy in a mood, continues to ask difficult questions of anyone arriving from across the Channel.

Elsewhere, the tournament proceeded with its usual blend of brutality, elegance and overheated civic theatre.

Iga Swiatek moved into the third round by beating Sara Bejlek 6-3, 6-3. This was not Swiatek at her most imperial, but even a slightly contested Swiatek on Roland-Garros clay resembles a duchess politely reclaiming a disputed estate. Bejlek resisted; Swiatek absorbed; order was restored. 

The largest shock came when Ukraine’s Yuliia Starodubtseva defeated second seed Elena Rybakina 3-6, 6-1, 7-6, removing one of the tournament’s major contenders in a match of rising tension and late-stage implausibility. In Julian’s terms, this was a classic Roland-Garros castle breach: everything appeared secure, the first set had been signed off, and then someone discovered that the battlements were made of wet paperwork. 

Novak Djokovic, meanwhile, continued his stately procession through Paris, defeating Frenchman Valentin Royer 6-2, 6-2, 6-7, 6-3. Royer did what any decent Frenchman on Chatrier should do: involved the crowd, refused to be decorative, and briefly suggested that a national uprising might yet be available. Djokovic then returned to business, as Djokovic usually does, with the weary authority of a man who has seen every revolution and misfiled most of them. 

There was also considerable drama around Jakub Mensik, who defeated Mariano Navone in a five-set ordeal lasting more than four and a half hours, then collapsed with full-body cramps after winning a fifth-set tiebreak. Mensik called the heat “insane”; Julian has entered it in the minutes as “meteorological aggression by the host nation.” 

The heat, in fact, has become one of the tournament’s central characters. Temperatures have climbed above 30°C, making the courts faster, the rallies sharper, and the players increasingly vulnerable to the sort of slow physical unravelling normally associated with badly planned European campaigns. 

There were efficient advances, too. Alexander Zverev beat Tomas Machac 6-4, 6-2, 6-2, while Casper Ruud closed the day by defeating Hamad Medjedovic 6-3, 6-2, 6-4. Ruud’s victory set up a meeting with Tommy Paul, and suggested that after his previous round’s medically dramatic five-set wandering, he had rediscovered both his legs and his paperwork. 

Mirra Andreeva recovered from a set down to beat Marina Bassols Ribera 3-6, 6-1, 6-1, which is precisely the sort of scoreline that begins as inconvenience and ends as conquest. Belinda Bencic also moved through, beating Caty McNally6-4, 6-0, her first Roland-Garros appearance since becoming a mother in 2024. 

And then there was Jesper de Jong, the Dutch lucky loser who, having already removed Stan Wawrinka from the tournament, continued his unlikely progress by beating Federico Cina 6-3, 6-1, 6-3. De Jong has now reached the third round after entering the main draw through fortune’s side door, which Julian considers either inspiring or administratively suspicious. 

Day Four, viewed through the British field glasses, was a day of narrowing hopes. Francesca Jones departed with dignity after a career-best run; Katie Boulter became the final British singles representative; and the red clay once again reminded Britain that continental campaigns require more than courage, politeness and an excellent grass-court tradition.

Beyond the British perimeter, Swiatek advanced, Rybakina fell, Djokovic endured, Mensik cramped, Zverev and Ruud imposed order, Andreeva accelerated, Bencic returned with authority, and De Jong continued his lucky-loser pilgrimage through the draw like a man who had accidentally inherited a small Norman estate and decided to keep walking.

In summary: Britain is down to one standard-bearer; France is still theatrical; the heat has become a policy issue; Djokovic remains irritatingly permanent; and the clay is no longer merely a surface but a red continental intelligence with views on empire, ambition and footwork.

And somewhere, between Court 6 and the Bayeux Tapestry, a goat has begun drafting tomorrow’s press release.

Les Conquêtes Normandes d’un Tennisman Vieillissant: the Audiobook

Les Conquêtes Normandes d’un Tennisman Vieillissant: the Audiobook

Les Conquêtes Normandes d’un Tennisman Vieillissant  is now available as an Audiobook on Audible.

£10.00
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Les Conquêtes Normandes d'un Tennisman Vieillissant

Les Conquêtes Normandes d’un Tennisman Vieillissant

A gloriously absurd tennis adventure in which Andy Murray — or rather Lord Andrew John Paul George Ringo Murray of Kirkintilloch — sets his sights on Roland Garros.

£19.99
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Day Three at Roland Garros: British Interests, Red Clay and the Sad Collapse of the Expeditionary Spirit

Dear disappointed reader,

It is my difficult responsibility to report that British interests at Roland-Garros have entered what the Foreign Office might call “a period of reduced optimism.”

Day Three began with the familiar hope that somewhere, somehow, a British man might cross the red clay with sufficient purpose to disturb the French, alarm the draw, and postpone the nation’s annual conversation about whether we are, in fact, constitutionally unsuited to loose surfaces. Instead, by close of play, Britain’s men’s singles campaign had ended. Hear all about it here:

This was not so much a defeat as a small withdrawal from continental Europe, carried out under heat, pressure, and the faint smell of sun-baked disappointment.

Jacob Fearnley was the first to fall, losing to Juan Manuel Cerúndolo 6-2, 7-6(0), 7-6(7). There were moments when resistance appeared possible. Fearnley steadied himself, worked his way into the match, and even held a set point in the third. But clay is not impressed by moments. Clay demands treaties, logistics, footwork, patience and, where possible, several generations of Iberian ancestry. Cerúndolo, by contrast, looked like a man who understood the surface not as an inconvenience but as a home address. He slid, spun, waited, nudged and eventually extracted the match as though removing an English tourist from a French roundabout.

Then came Cam Norrie, Britain’s senior campaigner and a man who normally gives the impression of having been assembled from discipline, angles and moral fibre. Against Adolfo Daniel Vallejo, Norrie had four set points in the opening set and could not convert them. This, in Julian’s view, is precisely the sort of thing that should be escalated to a subcommittee before it becomes symbolic. Having lost the first-set tiebreak 9-7, Norrie retired while trailing 7-6(7), 2-0. Thus ended not merely a match, but Britain’s presence in the men’s singles draw: quietly, uncomfortably, and with the unmistakable air of a campaign that had misread the terrain.

One should not overstate the matter, of course. This was not Agincourt in reverse. No one lost a duchy. No monarch was captured. But there was, nevertheless, a sense that the British expedition had crossed the Channel, inspected the red earth, and decided that discretion remained the better part of athletic scheduling.

The women’s draw, mercifully, retained two British outposts. Katie Boulter, having won the previous day, remained in the tournament, as did Francesca Jones, whose earlier victory over Beatriz Haddad Maia still glowed in the national memory like a small but perfectly serviceable signal fire. Britain, therefore, was not entirely absent from the singles map. It had simply moved from the men’s department into the care of women who appeared rather better prepared for practical adversity.

Elsewhere, while British tennis was packing away its men’s singles hopes, the tournament continued to behave like Roland-Garros: which is to say, like a large red theatre designed to expose frailty, test ambition, and occasionally humiliate the over-seeded.

The day’s largest shock came when Adam Walton, an Australian wildcard, defeated Daniil Medvedev 6-2, 1-6, 6-1, 1-6, 6-4. Medvedev’s relationship with clay remains complicated. At times he appeared to be playing tennis; at others he looked like a man disputing the terms of a tenancy agreement with the surface itself.

For British viewers, there was some consolation in this. At least we are not alone. Even great powers suffer on clay. Even top seeds can be reduced to puzzled gestures and administrative despair. The red earth is no respecter of passport, ranking or self-image.

France, meanwhile, discovered a teenage hero in Moïse Kouamé, aged 17, who beat former US Open champion Marin Čilić 7-6(4), 6-2, 6-1. The crowd, naturally, responded as though Normandy had been reconquered, the Republic renewed, and a promising young man had been handed responsibility for the emotional wellbeing of the entire nation.

This was exactly the sort of thing British tennis finds difficult. The French do not merely support a teenager; they convert him instantly into a cultural event. One minute he is winning a first-round match, the next he appears to be representing history, youth, clay, destiny, and possibly a very good regional cheese.

Aryna Sabalenka opened her campaign with a firm 6-4, 6-2 win over Jessica Bouzas Maneiro, striking the ball with the sort of authority that suggests she would be an excellent person to chair a hostile merger. Coco Gauff, defending champion, recovered from early resistance against Taylor Townsend to win 6-4, 6-0, tidying the second set as if clearing the minutes of a difficult meeting.

Naomi Osaka also moved through, beating Laura Siegemund 6-3, 7-6(3). She spoke afterwards of nerves, slipperiness and trying to smile more, which Julian has marked for inclusion in the forthcoming NOP pamphlet: How to Maintain Grace While Standing on Treacherous European Dust.

The women’s draw also supplied a major upset when Kim Birrell defeated fifth seed Jessica Pegula 1-6, 6-3, 6-3. Pegula became the highest seed to fall so far, undone after a commanding first set by the sort of reversal that Roland-Garros seems to keep in a locked cupboard for dramatic purposes.

And finally, Jannik Sinner arrived in the night session, beating French wildcard Clément Tabur 6-1, 6-3, 6-4. Sinner did not appear troubled by the heat, the crowd, the surface, the occasion or, indeed, the human condition. He advanced with alarming neatness. If British tennis is currently a field note in uncertainty, Sinner is an instruction manual printed in three languages and laminated.

In conclusion…

Day Three will be remembered, from a British perspective, as the day the men’s singles effort came to an end: Fearnley fought but fell, Norrie battled but withdrew, and the red clay once again reminded the nation that empire, lawn tennis and queueing etiquette do not automatically transfer to Paris in late May.

Yet all was not lost. Boulter and Jones remained alive in the women’s draw, carrying British hopes with rather more resilience and considerably less historical baggage.

Beyond the British perimeter, Walton ambushed Medvedev, Kouamé became France’s latest teenage cause célèbre, Sabalenka and Gauff imposed order, Osaka smiled through danger, Birrell toppled Pegula, and Sinner proceeded like destiny in sponsored shoes.

In summary: the British men have left the field; the British women remain at their posts; the French have found a boy hero; the Australians are causing mischief; and the clay continues to behave like an ancient continental power with a long memory.And somewhere, just beyond the umpire’s chair, a bilingual goat is laughing into a glass of Normandy cider.

Les Conquêtes Normandes d’un Tennisman Vieillissant: the Audiobook

Les Conquêtes Normandes d’un Tennisman Vieillissant: the Audiobook

Les Conquêtes Normandes d’un Tennisman Vieillissant  is now available as an Audiobook on Audible.

£10.00
Shop now
Les Conquêtes Normandes d'un Tennisman Vieillissant

Les Conquêtes Normandes d’un Tennisman Vieillissant

A gloriously absurd tennis adventure in which Andy Murray — or rather Lord Andrew John Paul George Ringo Murray of Kirkintilloch — sets his sights on Roland Garros.

£19.99
Shop now