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.
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.

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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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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.
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Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, from all at DHH Literary Agency.