Conville & Walsh

This week, talk has inevitably turned to the volcanic disruptions to the London Book Fair, and we were disappointed not to have been able to see many overseas editors, co-agents and authors.

However, this week has given us many causes for celebration. On Tuesday, after celebrating our tenth year as an agency, we found out that Jo Unwin has been shortlisted for the Bookseller Industry Literary Agent of the Year.

As well as wooing high profile clients such as Eddie Izzard, Charlie Brooker and Vic Reeves, Jo is committed to finding talented debut writers. Having been with us for little over a year, Jo has taken unsolicited authors and not only found them publishers, but given them careers in writing.

Rights for BEAUTIFUL MALICE have now been sold in 35 languages, with 37 editions, and the book has received considerable media attention despite not yet being published. The author, Rebecca James, who sadly wasn’t able to fly over for the celebrations this week, now has the resources to write full-time.

More recently, Jo worked on a literary debut, PIGEON ENGLISH by Stephen Kelman. Whilst literary debuts often sell for fairly modest sums, Jo had no fewer than twelve UK publishers bidding for the rights, and once again secured a high six-figure sum for Stephen, which will allow him to write full-time.

Jo is also looking ahead to building the careers of debut authors for a younger audience. Sarah Moore Fitzgerald’s BLACKBRICK was recently sold to Elv Moody at Puffin, after deciding, with Sarah, that she was the best editor for the job. As Elv says herself, ‘Sarah is an amazing author, and Jo is a creative, supportive, genius agent.’ In the last month, Jo has sold THE ROYAL PHARTAMONIC ORCHESTRA by Megan Peel, and an adult novel, FLICK by Abigail Tarttelin.

We have also had news this week of yet more prize nominations for both our fiction and our non-fiction authors.

Two of Susan Armstrong‘s clients, Ali Shaw and Jim Powell, have been longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize for their respective debuts. Shaw’s THE GIRL WITH GLASS FEET was already shortlisted for the Costa Book Award, and Jim Powell’s THE BREAKING OF EGGS has only just been published, so it is wonderful to see them gathering acclaim.

Yesterday, we also discovered that two of Patrick Walsh‘s clients have been nominated for this year’s Samuel Johnson prize. Ed Hollis‘s THE SECRET LIVES OF BUILDINGS and Luke Jennings‘s BLOOD KNOTS have both been named on the longlist.

The BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction aims to reward the best of non-fiction and is open to authors of all non-fiction books in the areas of current affairs, history, politics, science, sport, travel, biography, autobiography and the arts. The panel for the 2010 prize is chaired by Evan Davis, a presenter on Radio 4’s Today Programme.