Sarah has been with the agency for almost five years. She began as an assistant to Julian Alexander and Ben Clark, supporting their broad roster of bestselling non-fiction authors and big brand novelists. For her own list, she is currently on the lookout for…

 

Fiction

• Speculative fiction – the real world, with a magical twist – in all its forms. From Natasha Pulley to Bobby Palmer to Kaliane Bradley to Cecilia Ahern to Caro Claire Burke. She wants to wonder: can this be explained by something reasonable, or is it magic?
• High-concept, book-club fiction. She is particularly looking for epic love stories (Alice Winn), unlikeable narrators (Gail Honeyman), stories with a strong sense of place, and unlikely friendships (About A Boy or Remarkably Bright Creatures).
• Upmarket, issue-led novels set contemporarily that make you feel something (sobbing or laughing). In the world of Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors or Lost Lambs by Madeline Cash.

• Horror – folklore, hauntings or possessions, body horror, dark thrillers, female rage, dystopian, witches and magic. Not a huge fan of science-fiction horror!

• ‘Weird Girl Lit’ – anything with slightly unhinged plots and characters, literary-leaning and evocatively written. In the vein of Mona Awad, Virginia Feito, Julia Armfield.
• Very funny, very affirming commercial romances, think Marian Keyes or Sophie Kinsella.
• Compulsive psychological thrillers, the bigger the twist the better.
• Historical fiction – the whole scope, ranging from romances to book club to low fantasy and magical realism. Would particularly love something with nineties or early 2000s nostalgia.

 

 Non-Fiction

• History – big commercial ideas, revisionist, and/or narrative.
• Memoirs with a killer one-line pitch, think Sociopath by Patric Gagne.

 

Books she has loved this year include…

The Lamb by Lucy Rose

The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue by V.E. Schwab

Fundamentally by Nussaibah Younis

Heart the Lover by Lily King

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

Priestdaddy by Patricia Lockwood

Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon

Don’t Let Him In by Lisa Jewell

Love Unlocked by Cecilia Ahern

 

…and the latest novel in her favourite time travelling series, The Chronicles of St. Mary’s by Jodi Taylor.

 

Her favourite book of all time is The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. When not working, she is escaping London, chewing everyone’s ear off about her garden (and boring them to death), and hyper-fixating on the latest pastry she is trying to perfect (currently, cardamom buns).