One to Watch

‘the writing is so accomplished it’s hard to believe it’s a debut’ image

Other News

Death of Bees wins Regional Commonwealth Prize

We are delighted to announce that Lisa O’Donnell has won the Canada & Europe Regional Prize in this year’s Commonwealth Book Prize,…

Light Between Oceans on Richard and Judy

We are delighted to announce that The Light Between Oceans, the debut novel by M L Stedman, is a Summer 2013 pick on…

Katie Kitamura Shortlisted for Young Lions Award

We are delighted to announce that Katie Kitamura has been named as a finalist in the New York Public Library’s 2013 Young…

Injustice on Orwell Prize Shortlist

We are delighted to announce that Clive Stafford Smith’s book Injustice has been shortlisted for this year’s Orwell Prize for political writing of…

Light Between Oceans at #7 on NY Times list

We are delighted to announce that M L Stedman’s debut novel The Light Between Oceans will be at #7 this week in the…

News Archives

Good News All Round

It’s been quite a week at Conville & Walsh, with good news coming quicker than we could announce it. So here’s our week’s roundup:

  • Foreign Rights Director Jake Smith-Bosanquet stepped up as our new Managing Director. On making the announcement, founders Clare Conville and Patrick Walsh said that Jake was ‘a brilliant strategist with a rare ability to adapt to changing markets and a passionate belief in the books that he has handled for the agency.’
  • Clare Conville was shortlisted for Literary Agent of the Year in the industry’s Bookseller Awards.
  • On Monday we celebrated the international launch of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce, which now has twenty five publishers round the world. The book is currently at number 8 in the Sunday Times bestsellers’ list.
  • Author Tom Holland’s new history, In the Shadow of the Sword, was the most reviewed title in the UK last week, receiving unanimous praise in the major national papers, and will be at number 3 or 4 in this week’s Sunday Times bestsellers’ list. The book now has eight translation publishers.
  • The Mouseproof Kitchen, the first novel by writer Saira Shah, has seen a great deal of interest in the translation rights, with deals now done in Brazil, Germany, Italy and Sweden, and offers in from two other European territories. The North American rights were recently won at auction by Emily Bestler at Emily Bestler Books, part of Simon & Schuster.
  • We have seen wonderful reviews for Brooke Magnanti’s new non-fiction book The Sex Myth, in the Observer and the Telegraph, as well as a rave review for Lisa O’Donnell’s debut novel The Death of Bees in the Scotsman.
  • The North American rights for Saving Normal, a new non-fiction book by Duke professor and former chairperson of DSM 4, Allen Frances, were sold in what’s known as a ‘good deal’ at auction to Peter Hubbard at William Morrow, by agent Carrie Kania. The book has also been pre-empted in The Netherlands by Uitgeverij Nieuwezijds.
  • We have just heard that Golden Boy, the new novel by Abigail Tarttelin, has been pre-empted for UK & Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, by Arzu Tahsin at Orion, in another ‘good deal’.

    It has been an exciting London Book Fair; we’re delighted to have met with so many of the people we work with internationally, and grateful to our authors for having given us such interesting books to talk about. See you next year!

    • 20 Apr 2012

    Next entry: Two on Longlist for Desmond Elliott Prize

    Previous entry: Four in Sunday Times Bestseller lists