When I saw that Oyinkan Braithwaite’s novel ‘My Sister, The Serial Killer’ had been longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2019, I bought a copy immediately. I can’t remember the last time I bought a book without at least glancing at the synopsis, but the title alone was enough to persuade me. Braithwaite’s title…
Before I became an agent, I started out in Fiction Marketing at HarperCollins – a fantastic starter job, gained from applying to an ad in the Guardian (neither interning, nor nepotism involved!) After three years, I wanted to get closer to books but wasn’t sure how. With the scarcity of editorial jobs, and some uncertainty…
We are thrilled to announce that BPA client Carly Reagon has signed with Cathryn Summerhayes at Curtis Brown. The news followed the announcement that Carly was also shortlisted for the Lucy Cavendish College Fiction Prize for her entry “I’ll Find You”. This is such a huge success, and here is what Carly had to say about…
We interviewed author Samuel Pollen about his debut novel ‘The Year I Didn’t Eat’ which is about a teenager named Max who is suffering from an eating disorder. Based on Sam’s own life experience, the novel explores an often unrepresented voice within conversations surrounding eating disorders. We found the novel both heart-warmingly funny and deeply…
Not really being a fan of murder mystery or ‘who dunnit?’ plotlines, I was initially sceptical of Stuart Turton’s debut novel ‘The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle’. Yet, given its critical acclaim as winner of the Costa Book Awards 2018, I thought that there must be something more to it than the Cluedo storylines you…
We are delighted that author and BPA client Ruby Speechley has been signed by Hera for two psychological thrillers, the first of which will be published in July 2019. This success comes just less than a year after Ruby signed with agent Jo Bell from the Bell Lomax Moreton agency. Ruby is a talented writer…
Yesterday evening we had the pleasure of attending the launch for Carolyn Kirby’s debut novel ‘The Conviction of Cora Burns’. We are incredibly pleased about how far both the novel and Carolyn have come since we awarded her first prize in the inaugural blue pencil agency First Novel Award back in 2017, judged by agent…
Mandy Robotham is the author of “Breeder”, the story that was awarded the runner-up prize in the BPA First Novel Award Competition 2018. After completing a masters in creative writing at Oxford Brookes University, Mandy has won several prizes for her short stories. Our judges particularly enjoyed the tension and structure of Mandy’s writing and so we…
Jules Lampshire is the winner of the Blue Pencil Agency First Novel Award 2018 for her novel My Poor Deluded Girl which she wrote while attending the six month Faber Academy Writing a Novel programme in 2017. Our judges praised her work as being “one of those real moments in fiction where a reader can put themselves…
“She has never believed herself fit to be loved by any person. But now she has a new life, of which this is the first moment, and even after many years have passed she will still think: Yes, that was it, the beginning of my life” Sally Rooney’s novel ‘Normal People’ won the Costa…