News
Eleven-strong queue at The Lido A
WORDS Heloise Wood
DÉBUT BY A 24-year-old Brit- ish author about Brockwell Lido has caused a splash ahead of the fair, with the trium- phant UK and US editors both having to double their original six- figure offers.
Caskie Mushens agent Robert Caskie has received offers from 11 territories for The Lido by Libby Page pictured, which draws on the writer’s experience of living in Brixton, near to Brockwell Park’s lido. It features 26-year-old Kate, who joins forces with 86-year-old widow Rosemary to save the pool. Clare Hey, publishing direc-
tor at Orion Fiction, bought UK and Commonwealth rights within 24 hours of submission for a “middling” six-figure sum aſter doubling her original offer. Marysue Rucci, vice-president and editor-in-chief at S&S US, bought
North American rights for a “signif- icant” six-figure sum through Sasha Raskin at New York’s United Talent Agency, acting on behalf of Caskie. It has also sold in Brazil, Finland, Germany, Holland, Israel, Italy, Norway, Spain and Sweden through various pre-empts, with auctions continuing on Monday (13th March).
Caskie found the novel in his slush pile in January, shortly aſter launching a new agency with Juliet
Mushens. Described as “reading group with a bit of literary”, he told The Bookseller its eager reception among publishers reminded him of when he began selling Sarah Winman’s When God Was a Rabbit at PFD. “Everybody has wanted The Lido—there was going to be a UK auction but Orion doubled its original offer,” he said. “I called Libby and she burst into tears.” Page, who has since quit her job in marketing, said: “Aſter a year of sending The Lido to agents and receiving numerous rejections, I was close to giving up when I heard Robert was starting a new agency,” she said. “I decided to send him my manuscript—I’m so glad I did.” Hey and Rucci will edit the book
together, and it will be published in spring 2018. Hey said: “It’s not oſten you read a novel that grabs you immediately and refuses to let you go... when I read it, I knew it was something very special.”
Pan Macmillan steals Stavrakopoulou after eight-way auction
Pan Macmillan has won Francesca Stavra- kopoulou’s “fiercely intelligent” God: An Anatomy after an eight-way auction. It acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Will Francis at Janklow & Nesbit to the author’s first “non-academic” book, which will be published in 2019. Stavrakopoulou, professor of Hebrew
Bible and ancient religion at the University of Exeter, presented the BBC2 documen- tary series “The Bible’s Buried Secrets”. She is currently working on a project with the BBC about archaeology and the ancient world. Her book will explore where the
Ex-MI5 man Marcus inks cross-genre deal for trio Pan Mac is to publish new non-fiction and two novels
from former MI5 officer Tom Marcus, aſter acquiring world rights from Luigi Bonomi at LBA Books. Marcus, whose début Soldier, Spy was released by Michael Joseph in October, will be published by imprint Sidgwick & Jackson in October 2018; his non-fiction book will be a lead title for the list. It will take readers inside one of the most shocking terrorist atacks ever ploted on British soil, and “show what living in the omen who r Kiill
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idea of the Judeo-Christian God came from, the places and artefacts that shaped West- ern thought, and ancient religions and societies of the Biblical world. Georgina Morley, editorial director, non-fiction, called it “fiercely intelligent and academi- cally rigorous, but also utterly gripping”. Stavrakopoulou said: “This will be a book about the little-known and scandalous origins of the religious ideas that still shape us today—whether we like it or not. I can’t wait to see readers’ reactions.” Rights have also been sold in Germany (to Piper) after an eight-way auction.
what it is like to be a spy on the streets of the UK. The title will be published in early 2018, with a second novel to follow in 2019. “There really is no one to touch Tom Marcus: his writing hums with first-hand experience, taking us behind the headlines to the daily batles against terror,” commented Jamie Coleman, senior editor for Macmillan Non-Fiction. Wayne Brookes, associ- ate publisher for fiction, added: “Aſter seeing the way Tom recalls his experiences and connects with readers, I knew I wanted to publish this new fiction series.”
The author has three projects in develop- ment with British production companies for film and TV projects, which his agent said “positions Tom as the most exciting début writer in this space”.
Allende In the Midst of Scribner/Atria liaison
Scribner UK is partnering with US sister company Atria Books to publish the new novel by Isabel Allende above, In the Midst of Winter, this autumn. Editorial director Rowan Cope and Johanna V Castillo, Atria vice-president and executive editor, bought world English-language rights from Gloria Gutiérrez at the Agen- cia Literaria Carmen Balcells. Scribner will publish in the UK and Commonwealth, except Canada, where S&S Canada will publish.
Woolf’s Lost début goes to MJ in six-figure deal
Michael Joseph has acquired H C Cullen’s début The Lost Letters of William Woolf in a six-figure, two-book deal. Fiction publisher Jessica Leeke bought UK and Commonwealth rights from Peter Straus at RCW in a pre-empt, eye- ing a “major” launch in 2018. Leeke said the tale, of a man who works as a “letter detective” in the Dead Letters Depot of east London, was “a life-affirming story of the extraordinary power and resilience of the human heart”.
Rejt bags The Girl on the (Metro) Train for Mantle
After a four-way auction, Mantle’s Maria Rejt and Amy Einhorn of Flatiron Books in the US have jointly acquired La Fille Qui Lisait Dans le Metro by Christine Féret- Fleury, from Judith Becqueriaux at Éditions Denoël. The lists will publish in 2018. Rejt called the title “a life-affirming novel for our times about the transformative power of literature and the bonds people forge through their mutual love of books. It appeals both to the reader’s heart and soul”.
Point Blank bags bleak blackly comic Biggerers
Oneworld list Point Blank has secured UK and Commonwealth rights to Amy Lilwall’s début The Biggerers, an “original and startling” novel set in a future in which “full-sized humans keep mini-humans as pets”. Editor Jenny Parrott, who signed the title from Dan Mandel at Sanford J Greenburger Associates, said of the novel: “Amy thoroughly dis- concerts and shocks the reader with a vision that is both bleak and often hilarious.”
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