Out with the old, in with the new

The last LBF at Kensington Olympia

The 2026 London Book Fair last month marked a final turn at the Olympia venue and as of next year we’ll be heading out East to ExCeL London.  We had a good three days, caught up with friends old and new and met lots of fresh faces.  On the Wednesday, the Bookseller announced a new deal we’ve done for Mishal Husain who will be writing a children’s book for DK and they also featured an interview with Elly about the agency and the current state of publishing.  There are plenty of ‘hot topics’ at the moment, not least the big question of how A1 will fit into processes without jeopardising jobs or threatening creativity. It felt quite emotional slipping through the Kensington crowds for the last time.   

There have been events and appearances aplenty.  In February Saliha was back on the BBC’s Saturday Kitchen, Thuy Diem Pham had her Channel 4 Sunday Brunch debut and a brand-new eight-episode weekly podcast series launched with Sam Goldsmith cooking for Gavin & Stacey’s Joanna Page and Mathew Horne and guests. In March, The London Library hosted a sold-out evening with Rachel Trethewey, Carla Kaplan and Amy Rosenthal discussing the Mitford clan with Rachel Holmes.  We partied (and sold books) at the Ivy Club for Max Pemberton and Courtney Raspin’s THE WEIGHT LOSS PRESCRIPTON. And in the coming weeks Rory Cellan-Jones and Mishal Husain will both be talking about their books at the Guernsey Literary Festival.

Nex week we will be celebrating the release of Annabelle Thorpe’s THE GREAT ESCAPE: Britain’s 400-year Love Affair with Holidays and then we have the publication of archaeologist Ben Robinson’s COASTLINE and Trine’s Hahnemann’s MIDNIGHT SUN the following week.