​We’re kicking off this week’s news roundup with the fantastic news that The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton has won the Costa First Novel Award 2018! We are over the moon for Stuart, his agent Harry and the whole team at Bloomsbury Raven. A superb beginning to the year. The overall winner of the Costas will be announced on the 29th January 2019.
 
Congratulations to Rachael Featherstone, whose debut novel Puzzle Girl was published in paperback earlier this week by the Dome Press. It has already garnered some fabulous praise during the blog tour “hugely entertaining”, “an hilarious but considered storyline” and possibly our favourite so far: “I’m just going to say this… I love, love, love, LOVE this book! The end”.
 
A Store At War, the debut novel by Joanna Toye, was also published this week by HarperCollins. This gripping wartime drama that has been described by Veronica Henry as “a real page-turner”.
 
The Guardian has selected their ‘ones to watch’, and Luke Turner’s Out of the Woods is sitting firmly on their list for January. Described as a “powerful memoir”, the book is centred on Epping Forest, about sexual abuse, a religious upbringing and life as a bisexual man. It will be published on the 24th January 2019. To see the full article, click here.
 
Staying with Out of the Woods, The Spectator’s Ben Myers reviewed it this week, and what a fantastic review it is! “Out of the Woods is a book full of poetry and pathos. More than anything it is a bold and beautiful study of how to be a true modern man.” To read the full review, click here.

​The cover for Kate Mallinder’s debut YA novel, Summer Of No Regrets, has been revealed and it’s already got us in the mood for the warmer seasons! Simply stunning, this thought-provoking & moving novel will be released by Firefly Press on the 2nd May 2019.
 
Also revealed this week, was the cover for Tania Crosse's new novel The Street of Broken Dreams, the second in the Banbury Street series. Perfect for fans of Elaine Everest and Daisy Styles, this is a poignant story, which will tear at your heart-strings.

​eBook platform Kobo are having a January sale, and you can snap up J.D. Fennell’s Sleeper: The Red Storm, Jean Levy’s What Was Lost and R.C. Bridgestock’s Deadly Focus, all for a fraction of the price. Click here to find out more.
 
Andrew Ewart’s forthcoming debut novel Forget Me (February 2020, Orion) has been sold to Dobrovsky in the Czech Republic.
 
Both The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle and Anna Stephens’ Darksoul (the second in the Godblind trilogy) have been longlisted for the British Science Fiction Association (BSFA) Award. The Awards are awarded each year to the best Novel, Short Fiction, Artwork and work of Non-Fiction, and is voted for by the members of the British Science Fiction Association. To find out more about the Awards, click here.
 
Finally, DHH agent Hannah Sheppard is taking part in the Girls Can Do Anything, Write? event (part of the larger Girls Can Do Anything event in conjunction with London’s Big Read 2019) on the 6th February at the Library Club on St. Martin’s Lane. The event will be a discussion and panel talk (along with fellow panellists Charlie Morris, senior publicity and marketing exec at Stripes Books, Little Tiger and Sunday Times bestselling author Gillian McAllister) centred around understanding the relevance and importance of strong female voices in publishing and books 2019. To find out more about the event and get your ticket, please visit this site.  

We're having a small (okay, HUGE) celebration in the DHH office this morning as Stuart Turton's "mind-blowing" and "audaciously inventive" debut novel, The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle has won the First Novel Award at the Costa Awards 2018! 

Beating off stiff competition, the book has already garnered high praise from the likes of literary heavyweights Sophie Hannah "utterly original and unique", Sarah Pinborough "darkly comic, mind-blowingly twisty" and Ragnar Jonasson "an incredibly enjoyable read", and was the winner of the Books Are My Bag Novel Award 2018, and shortlisted for the HWA Debut Crown 2018. 

The overall winner of the Costa Book of the Year Award 2018 will be announced on the 29th January 2019. 

​Congratulations, Stu!

The cover for Kate Mallinder's debut novel, Summer of No Regrets has been revealed, and it is drop dead gorgeous. 

The good folks over at @CHCCYAFest did the honours on behalf of Firefly Press and we can safely say it is on the most eye-catching YA covers we've seen in a while!

Want to have a look for yourself? Click here. 

​SYNOPSIS
​
After their exams, four sixteen-year-old best friends pledge to live a summer regret-free, doing what they want to do however much it scares them.

Sasha agrees to spend the holiday with her father in Geneva, having not seen him for six years, but is not expecting his new girlfriend, or the young man in the cafe.

Shy Hetal decides to go to science camp, and finds a new competitive spirit.

Nell gets a summer job, but after her accident her mother is scared to let her out of the house - so to do what she wants she will have to lie to her parents.

Cam goes to look for her birth father, scared of the future when she can no longer stay with her foster family. What will she find? As all these choices become difficult, even dangerous, they will need to turn to each other for the strength to face the future.

​Gosh, 2019 came around rather quickly, didn’t it?
 
Well, here we are: at the beginning of a whole new year, and with twelve months of exciting bookish news ahead of us!
 
We’re going to kick the first news roundup of 2019 off with a gorgeous cover reveal. International bestselling author Wilbur Smith has teamed up with client Imogen Robertson for his new book, King of Kings, the long-awaited sequel to his worldwide bestseller, The Triumph of the Sun. It’s a beautiful cover and captures this epic story of love, betrayal and courage perfectly. The book is available for pre-order now and will be published in hardback on the 4th April 2019. 

​Julie Caplin’s The Little Café in Copenhagen has been selected for the January Kindle Monthly Deal, and for the rest of the month, you can snap up this gorgeous, hygge-inspired romantic comedy for only 99p! This is the first in Julie’s ‘Romantic Escapes’ series, with The Little Brooklyn Bakery and The Little Paris Patisserie following soon after.
 
An author’s work is never done it seems, not even over Christmas! L.C. Tyler’s new John Grey historical mystery, The Bleak Midwinter, was published on the 27th December 2018. The fifth in the series sees John Grey in his newly appointed role as a Justice of the Peace, but ‘peace’ is the very last thing knocking on Grey’s door. “Unusually accomplished” (Helen Dunmore); “A dizzying whirl of plot and counterplot” (Guardian).
 
Congratulations to R.C. Bridgestock whose debut novel Deadly Focus, which was revised and republished by The Dome Press, was published in paperback on the 3rd January 2019. The third in the ever-popular DI Jack Dylan series, White Lilies, was also published on the 3rd, as an eBook. The paperback will be released on the 31st January.
 
Client Joanna Toye appeared in the January edition of Wolverhampton Magazine to discuss her debut novel, Store At War, which will be published by HarperCollins next week. Jo will also be appearing as part of the Wolverhampton Literature Festival on February 3rd, at 12.30pm, in the Art Gallery. If you find yourself in the West Midlands at the beginning of February, why not go along?
 
Finally, we’re inching ever closer to the publication of Luke Turner’s debut non-fiction Out of the Woods and a very pleasing start to the year: it has been selected by both the Independent and Observer as a One To Watch 2019. With glowing endorsements from the likes of Amy Liptrot (“refreshing, frank edifying, courageous”), Cosey Fanni Tuttie (“hauntingly exquisite writing”), and Olivia Laing (“brave and beautiful”), we couldn’t agree more! Out of the Woods is published by W&N on 24th January 2019.

Headline has acquired two new novels by women's fiction writer Erin Green, the first of which centres on three strangers on holiday. 

Senior commissioning editor Kate Byrne struck the deal with David Headley at DHH Literary Agency. 

The first novel, New Beginnings at Rose Cottage, will be published in 2019. It tells the story of Benni, Emma and Ruth, each embarking on a solo holiday at Rose Cottage in Devon where "friendship and home comforts" are guaranteed. "Could they each have the happiest of holidays amongst strangers?" ponders the book's blurb. 

Byrne said: "I absolutely love the warmth of Erin's writing. She has a wonderful, engaging voice and a knack for relatable, vivid characterisation across the generations. I'm thrilled she is bringing her new women's fiction novels to Headline."

Green, who previously published three novels with Head of Zeus imprint Aria, said: "I'm delighted by the warm welcome into the Headline family. My imagination and creativiy embraces the opportunity for 'New Beginnings', much like my female characters in New Beginnings at Rose Cottage."

Follow Erin on Twitter: @ErinGreenAuthor

(Taken from The Bookseller article | Katherine Cowdrey)

​The tree is up, the nights have well and truly drawn in, the office Christmas party has been and gone… We can’t quite believe it, but it appears to be that time of year already.
 
The last twelve months have flown by and what a busy twelve months they’ve been! We thought it only fitting to do a bumper DHH News Roundup from the last two weeks.
 
Sunflowers In February by Phyllida Shrimpton has been shortlisted for the Centurion Book Awards 2019, and Sky Song by Abi Elphinstone has been longlisted for the Berkshire Book Awards 2019.
 
New client Micaiah Johnson’s debut novel The Space Between Worlds has been bought in a pre-empt by Hodder & Stoughton, in a deal negotiated by Harry Illingworth on behalf of Cameron McClure at Donald Maass Liiterary Agency. Read the full press release here.
 
As is custom at the end of any given year, ‘Best Books 2018’ have been flying around, and we are very pleased to see some fab DHH titles on some of them. Laura Wilson for the Guardian chose both The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton and Resin by Ane Riel as two of her best crime books of 2018; Seven Deaths was also picked by bestselling author Val McDermid for the Guardian and Barry Forshaw for the Financial Times; Wrecker by Noel O’Reilly was selected by Elizabeth Buchan for the Daily Mail as one of the top historical picks and none other than Ian Rankin chose The Darkness by Ragnar Jonasson as one of his books of the year over on ianrankin.net.

​Congratulations to both Ronnie Turner and R.C. Bridgestock, whose respective books Lies Between Us and Consequences were published over the last couple of weeks (the former in paperback and the latter in eBook). 

​Lucinda Hawksley appeared in BBC4’s Charles Dickens and the Invention of Christmas. Missed it? Fear not - you can catch up here.
 
Who I Am, the second psychological thriller from Sarah Simpson has been trending at No. 1 over on Kobo this week, with her debut novel Her Greatest Mistake trending at No. 4. Not a bad end to the year, Sarah!
 
You may remember we held our Pitch DHH: York event at the beginning of December, and as a result, we’re very pleased to welcome Julia Lund to the Agency. Julia met, and pitched to, Hannah Sheppard. Julia can’t remember a time when she didn’t think up stories (her dad used to call her a mythomaniac), and from the moment she could read, the devoured them. Now, she gets to write them and can’t quite believe she hasn’t made that up too. Her Twitter is @Ju1iaLund. Welcome, Julia!

Delighted for Erin Green who, it was announced today, has signed a two-book deal with Headline in a deal negotiated by David H Headley and Senior Commissioning Editor Kate Byrne. The first book, New Beginnings at Rose Cottage, will be published in July 2019.

​Finally, we have two cover reveals for you. First up, Keris Stainton’s next book The One Who’s Not the One. A hilarious rom com about love, break-ups and finding out who you really are, The One Who’s Not the One will published by Bookouture in February 2019.
 
- -
 
Cat’s life has hit a brick wall. Since she broke up with her ex Sam five years ago she’s quit stand-up comedy, landed in a steady but dull job and lives in a tiny flat with roommates she knows only as The One Who Eats All My Food and The One Who Has Really Loud Sex.
 
Cat, by contrast, is vividly aware that she hasn’t had sex for over two years.
 
So when she bumps into old friend Harvey and sparks fly, Cat is surprised. The more time she spends with Harvey, the more their chemistry grows - but Cat knows she has to ignore her feelings.
 
Because Harvey is Sam’s brother, and so absolutely, 100% off-limited romantically. If only Cat didn’t keep forgetting that…
 
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Secondly, the paperback publication of Lulah Ellender's Elisabeth's Lists is the 7th March 2019 and the cover for this was revealed today! The hardback was published in March 2018 by Granta Books and was hailed as "hauntingly beautiful" by the Guardian, "a moving evocative read" by the Sunday Express and "charming" by novelist Damian Barr. 

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​Many years after the death of her grandmother, Lulah Ellender inherited a curious object - a book of handwritten lists.

On the face of it, Elisabeth's lists seemed rather ordinary - shopping lists, items to be packed for a foreign trip, a tally of the eggs laid by her hens. But from these everyday fragments, Lulah began to weave together the extraordinary life of the grandmother she never knew - a life lived in the most rarefied and glamorous of circles, from Elisabeth's early years as an ambassador's daughter in 1930s China, to her marriage to a British diplomat and postings in Madrid under Franco's regime, post-war Beirut, Rio de Janeiro and Paris. But it was also a life of stark contrasts - between the opulent excess of embassy banquets and the deprivations of wartime rationing in England, between the unfailing charm she displayed in public and the dark depressions that blanketed her in private, between her great appetite for life and her sudden, early death.

Throughout Elisabeth's adult life, the lists were a source of structure and comfort. And now, as Lulah learns that she is losing her own mother, she finds herself turning to her grandmother's life, and to her much-travelled book of lists, in search of meaning and solace.

Elisabeth's Lists is both a vivid memoir and a moving study of the familial threads that binds us, even beyond death.

​- -

​And that’s it for 2018! Thank you so much to our authors, the readers of our authors, publishers and everyone else in between who has made this year truly brilliant.
 
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, from all at DHH Literary Agency.

Hodder & Stoughton has pre-empted a commercial science fiction novel, The Space Between Worlds from debut author Micaiah Johnson, with US rights selling at auction to Crown.

Commissioning editor Sam Bradbury pre-empted UK and Commonwealth rights excluding Canada to the novel. The deal was negotiated by Harry Illingworth at DHH Literary Agency, on behalf of Cameron McClure at Donald Maass Literary Agency. US rights for the debut were sold at auction to Julian Pavia and Angeline Rodriguez at Crown and they plan a simultaneous publication in spring 2020. Financial details were not disclosed. 

Pitched as a cross between “Mad Max” and Blake Crouch’s Dark Matter (Pan Macmillan) "but so much more, the novel uses the concept of multiple realities to explore social issues like race, poverty, and sexuality”, Hodder & Stoughton said.

Set in a world where travelling between parallel earths has become possible, there is just one problem in that no one can visit an earth where they are still alive, the blurb reads. Born in the wastelands outside of Wiley City, Cara is dead in all but eight of the 382 worlds that have been unlocked. Now she has got a job travelling the ‘multiverse', but the information Cara gathers on other earths reveals terrible truths about the nature of her own world meaning she faces a harrowing choice: should she risk everything she's worked for to expose the truth?

Johnson was raised in a Jehovah’s Witness community in the Southern California desert. She graduated high school at the age of 13, received her MFA from Rutgers-Camden, and is currently studying race and robots as a PhD candidate at Vanderbilt. 

Bradbury said: “I am so thrilled to be publishing this incredible, extremely commercial, high-concept sci-fi novel, with heart, intelligence and insight. I absolutely adored this book – it’s one of the most impressive novels I’ve received on submission since I joined Hodder, and I’m amazed by Micaiah’s ability to discuss real world issues whilst also never missing a beat on plot, character and world-building.”

Illingworth said: “The concept alone of this ambitious novel excited me, and Micaiah pulled it off with pitch perfect execution. This is a very special debut indeed; smart, accessible and a huge amount of fun.”

“I’ve always travelled between disparate landscapes – moving between my father’s family in Detroit, my mother’s in rural towns in Arkansas and Illinois, and the Mojave Desert I call home," Johnson said. "Writing The Space Between Worlds allowed me to capture that feeling, alternately delightful and disorienting, of being in a place where everything seems new and different.”

​Follow Micaiah on Twitter: @micaiah_johnson

(Taken from The Bookseller article | Heloise Wood)

​Starting off this week’s news roundup with a big THANK YOU to all of the pitchers who attended our Pitch DHH: York event on Saturday 1st December (we’re a bit early with this news piece, but it was so much fun, we simply can’t wait!). The event was held at the Dean Court Hotel, overlooking the stunning York Minster and we absolutely loved meeting every single one of the writers who came to pitch their books to the DHH agents. We hope you all got as much out of the day as you could, enjoyed yourself and most importantly - found it helpful!
 
For anyone who missed out on the chance to attend Saturday’s pitching event, we will be holding another session next year, so do keep your eyes peeled…!

​We’re welcoming a new client to the DHH Literary Agency this week - hello Clare Riley Whitfield! Clare joins David H Headley’s list and in her own words, is “the wife of a tattoo artist, mother of a small benign dictator and relies on a black Labrador for emotional stability”. Her fiction has appeared on Spelk; Commuter-Lit; the University of Winchester Journal; Alfred; UoW Anthology; Litmus 2017 and Matt Shaw’s Masters of Horror. 

Darksoul by Anna Stephens received a glowing review from Publishers Weekly this week: “Elegant, evocative prose, intense action, and plenty of emotional twists… a story that her fans will find irresistible.” To read the whole review, click here.
 
Netgalley revealed the Book of the Year this year, and our very own The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton was chosen! Congratulations, Stu!
 
Last week, on Simon Mayo’s podcast, bestselling author Ian Rankin recommended The Darkness by Ragnar Jonasson. He’s clearly got brilliant taste… The book is the first in Ragnar’s new ‘Hidden Iceland’ series, featuring Detective Inspector Hulda Hermannsdóttir. To listen to the entire podcast, click here.

There are but 18 shopping days left until Christmas (seriously, how quickly has this one come around?) and we’ve got just the gift: The Wren by Stephen Moss, a year-in-the-life biography that reveals the hidden secrets of this fascinating, paradox of a bird that lives right on our doorstep. This beautiful bestselling edition would sit nicely alongside Stephen’s previous book, The Robin. Just saying… 

And finally, congratulations to Jo Thomas, whose new book, A Winter Beneath the Stars was published last week in paperback. The perfect winter warmer, take a journey to Tellfors in Swedish Lapland and follow Halley as she attempts to save a wedding from disaster, on a journey of a lifetime. “A sparkling, heartwarming, hug of a story” (Miranda Dickinson); “Magically romantic… a book that wraps its arms around you and pulls you in” (Milly Johnson). 

​We’ll start this week’s (slightly later than scheduled) news roundup with some lovely deal news…
 
Fans of Paul Fraser Collard’s Jack Lark series - rejoice! You're getting another three books, as a further deal has been agreed, negotiated by David H Headley and Headline’s Frankie Edwards. This gripping historical war series began life in 2013 with The Scarlet Thief and the most recent, The Rebel Killer, was released in July 2018. The books have been hailed as “brilliant” by Bernard Cornwall.
 
Fantastic audiobook news now for Claire Dyer’s “heartrending” The Last Day, which has been acquired by Oakhill Publishing. The Dome Press published the book in February 2018 and it was met with overwhelmingly high praise from the likes of Julie Cohen (“tender, beautifully written”); Amanda Jennings (“exquisitely written”); Iona Grey (“utterly compelling”) and many more. 

​Two early 2019 releases arrived in the office this week: Puzzle Girl by Rachael Featherstone and Deadly Focus by R.C. Bridgestock. These two titles will be published by The Dome Press in January and we are completely head over heels for these covers!
 
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas round these parts, and Phillipa Ashley is making sure no one forgets it! Her Christmas on the Little Cornish Isles: the Driftwood Inn jumped in at No. 3 in The Bookseller’s Heatseekers’ Chart. The first in Phillipa’s new ‘Little Cornish Isles’ series, the book follows Maisie Samson who has just moved back to quiet Gull Island where she grew up, to help run the family inn. Curl up with a mug of hot chocolate, stick some fluffy socks on, and get that fire going. Thank us later (just FYI, we like Terry’s chocolate orange and bottles of fizz)!
 
Overjoyed for Mr. Stuart Turton as it was announced this week that his debut novel The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle has been included on the Costa shortlist. Lithuanian rights for the book have also been sold to Baltos Lankos in a deal negotiated by Jemma McDonagh at the Marsh Agency on behalf of Harry Illingworth. Not a bad week for Stu, all in all!

Finally, we’re rounding everything off with an exciting cover reveal! Last week, @VictoriaGoldma2 unveiled the cover for Paul Hardisty’s new standalone book, Turbulent Wake (Orenda Books, March 2019). Paul is well-known for his action-packed Claymore Straker novels, but now for something a little different…
 
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Ethan Scofield returns to the place of his birth to bury his father. Hidden in one of the upstairs rooms of the old man’s house he finds a strange manuscript, a collection of stories that seems to cover the whole of his father’s turbulent life.

As his own life starts to unravel, Ethan works his way through the manuscript, trying to find answers to the mysteries that have plagued him since he was a child. What happened to his little brother? Why was his mother taken from him? And why, in the end, when there was no one else left, did his own father push him away?

Swinging from the coral cays of the Caribbean to the dangerous deserts of Yemen and the wild rivers of Africa, Turbulent Wake is a bewitching, powerful and deeply moving story of love and loss … of the indelible damage we do to those closest to us and, ultimately, of the power of redemption in a time of change.
 
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Intriguing, haunting and not without a dose of your much-needed thrills, this is one you won’t want to miss - and it’s available for pre-order now.
 
Paul also recently took part in an interview for The Big Thrill and spoke about his latest Claymore Straker book, Absolution. You can read the whole thing right here.

We're tickled pink this Friday, as Stuart Turton's debut novel The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle has been selected for the Costa Awards First Novel shortlist!

The Costa Book Awards honour some of the most outstanding books of the year written by authors based in the UK and Ireland. 

There are five categories:

• First Novel
• Novel
• Biography
• Poetry
• Children's Book

One of these five winners is also chosen as Book of the Year, announced at an awards ceremony in London in January. 

Launched in 1971 as the Whitbread Literary Awards, they became the Whitbread Book Awards in 1985, with Costa taking over in 2006. 

Of the book, judges said: "Impossibly clever, genre-busting murder mystery that feels like a mash-up of Cluedo, Sherlock and Groundhog Day."

Follow Stuart Turton on Twitter.