Morrow wins 13-way auction for Jordan Harrison’s Gothic debut


HELOISE WOOD Deputy news editor


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ig Tree has pre-empted a “genre-bending, Never Let Me Go meets Rebecca” debut novel from playwright and


Orange Is the New Black screen- writer Jordan Harrison ( 1). North American rights, meanwhile, were won by William Morrow in a hotly contested 13-way auction. Helen Garnons-Williams, publishing director of Fig Tree, pre- empted UK and Commonwealth rights to Miss Archer from Caspian Dennis at Abner Stein. Morrow’s vice-president and editorial direc- tor Jessica Williams won the book in the US auction from Julie Barer at The Book Group. Publication is scheduled for early 2027. The novel, set in the present day,


follows Dre Archer, the governess to a strange boy she is entrusted to raise in an isolated, Gothic mansion where all are forced to maintain the illusion that they are living in the Victorian era. The boy, Albie, is “sensitive, rash, emotion- ally obtuse and possibly brilliant”. He also believes the year is 1884.


Everyone working in the home acts accordingly, striving to keep the future safely outside their doors. Dre, too, is expected to follow along and not ask questions. Fig Tree called Miss Archer


“intensely original and page- turning literary fiction with Gothic undertones and a specula- tive slant”, adding that it “deftly explores pressing questions about Artificial Intelligence, individual freedom, creative genius and, above all, what it means to be human”. Garnons-Williams added that


Harrison’s book was an “audacious debut: a brilliantly inventive, playfully profound literary adven- ture where there are surprises around every corner.” New York-based Harrison has


1 ZACK DEZON


Miss Archer deftly explores pressing questions about Artificial Intelligence, individual freedom, creative genius and, above all, what it means to be human


Hare today, Pet tomorrow: Canongate to publish second book by Chloe Dalton


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anongate has swooped for the second book by Chloe Dalton ( 2), author of the


publisher’s 2024 Christmas hit, Raising Hare. Editorial director Helena Gonda acquired world English rights to Pet from Caroline Michel at Peters Fraser + Dunlop. Canongate subsequently sold US rights to Denise Oswald at Pantheon. The title will publish across the UK and US in Spring 2027.


Dalton’s debut Raising Hare was


a bestseller on publication last year and jumped back into the charts at the start of 2025. It was longlisted for the 2025 Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction and shortlisted for the Waterstones Book of the Year 2024. In Pet, Dalton will try to under-


stand the origins and nature of the human-pet relationship “as a lens through which to reconsider our attitude to the natural world”. The


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had almost 20 plays produced since his initial full-length offering, Kid-Simple. His breakthough came with 2014’s Marjorie Prime, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The play was later adapted for the big screen and starred Jon Hamm, Geena Davis and Tim Robbins. Harrison’s other accolades include a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Horton Foote Prize for Best New American Play. He also worked for three seasons as writer and producer of Netflix’s Orange Is the New Black. Harrison said he was excited to


be at Fig Tree, “the home of some of my favourite contempo- rary authors, including Ferdia Lennon and Claire Fuller. I wrote Miss Archer without knowing if anyone would ever read it apart from me and my husband, so it is a ‘pinch-me’ moment”.


publisher explained that the book “seeks to inspire new thought on individual consciousness in how we perceive pets and their wild counterparts and question the process of domestication”. The acquisition comes as Dalton


2 FISHER STUDIOS


is assisting on a UK campaign for the protection of hares. She will be speaking at a Parliamentary event on 26th March in support of a new private members’ bill urging the establishment of a “close season”, banning the killing or taking of hares from 1st February to 30th September each year. The event is hosted by Baroness Helic and Lord Randall in co-operation with the Born Free Foundation.


London Book Fair


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