The party’s over

Au revoir to HHB founder Heather Holden-Brown

This is an overdue blog post, reflective of a post-London Book Fair busy spell.  Last month’s three days at Olympia were enlivening and encouraging – with an industry out in force and full of measured optimism about the future.  Elly’s meetings with editors were largely very positive, despite everyone acknowledging the challenges of the moment, with the rising costs of publishing books and a sense of caution around what the rapid growth of AI will mean for us all in the years to come.

Off the back of the Fair, the announcement of Rory Cellan-Jones’s forthcoming title SOPHIE FROM ROMANIA sent the book soaring to number 30 in the Amazon chart, despite it not being published by Square Peg until October.  And on the subject of selling like hotcakes, Pip Payne (AKA The Slimming Foodie)’s new book EASY MEALS EVERY DAY has flown straight into the non-fiction bestseller list upon publication last week.

Last week we had the grand ‘au revoir’ to Heather.  It was an evening at The Broadcaster in White City, overlooking the old BBC building where she first started her publishing career.  We felt incredibly grateful and honoured that so many of our authors, publishers we have enjoyed working with over the years, fellow agents and friends came along to raise a glass to HHB and her own next chapter.  Photographer Anna McCarthy took some photos that beautifully captured the spirit of the night, we would highly recommend her for any authors looking for new headshots.

And so we hurtle onwards with some excellent books being released in the months ahead. First up is THE ITALIAN GARDEN from award-winning historical novelist, Charlotte Betts, being published by Piatkus next week.