John Jarrold

Don D’Auria at Flame Tree Press has acquired World English Language rights in Captain Artemis and the Martian Undead by Fiona Moore. It’s a queer #ownvoices SF novel that blends the cheeky lesbian protagonist of A Master of Djinn with the alternate twentieth-century space exploration of the Lady Astronaut series and For All Mankind, and has a retro style that’s all its own. The agent was John Jarrold.

It’s 1965 and Captain Evangeline Artemisia ‘Artie’ Quelch is the lead pilot on the British Commonwealth Space Programme’s shuttle run between Earth and its thriving Mars colony, with adventure beckoning in the archaeological dig site nearby and romance with the lovely Doctor Evelyn Verity in full swing. And then people begin dying. As unexplained deaths and equipment failures mount up, the colony’s security officer Margaret Salmond accuses the rival European colony, while others blame the ancient Martian technology unearthed at the dig. Artie’s attempts at investigating are thwarted when her problematic journalist ex-girlfriend turns up to ask awkward questions. When the dead begin mysteriously coming back to life, it’s up to Artie to prevent war between the Commonwealth and Europe and to save the lives of everyone on Mars from the terrors the colonists have accidentally unleashed—but it all depends on her being able to atone for her past and win the heart of Evelyn!

Fiona’s earlier work has appeared in Clarkesworld, Asimov’s, Interzone, and seven consecutive editions of The Best of British SF. As well as winning the BSFA Award for short non-fiction at Eastercon in 2024 and being shortlisted in all four adult fiction writing categories in 2025, (Best Novel, Best Shorter Fiction, Best Short Fiction, Best Collection), she has been a BSFA Award finalist three other times, has written three stage plays, four audio plays, a number of guidebooks to cult television series, and the nonfiction crossover Management Lessons from Game of Thrones – which was shortlisted for a World Fantasy Award in 2023. She is also a regular contributor to Galactic Journey, a multi-Hugo-nominated blog dedicated to the science fiction of the 1950s and 1960s, and Professor of Business Anthropology at Royal Holloway, University of London.

Fiona Erskine has joined the John Jarrold Literary Agency for representation of her forthcoming science fiction novels.

The Lye follows a flying power station on an interplanetary relief mission. The chief engineer – Maya – faces plague, mutiny, sabotage and dark political forces as she strives to bring heat, light and power to the inhabitants of a stricken planet before their time runs out. The intimacy of Becky Chambers meets the hard science of Alastair Reynolds when a dysfunctional crew are thrown together on their first quest. The Lye will also appeal to readers of Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir – and viewers of Star Trek.

Her first international thriller, The Chemical Detective, was published in 2019 by Point Blank (Oneworld) and shortlisted for the Specsavers Debut Crime Novel Award. The Jaq Silver series continues with The Chemical Reaction (2020), The Chemical Cocktail (2022) and The Chemical Code (2023) and the quartet has been optioned for Film & TV (represented by Juliet Mushens and Emily Hayward-Whitlock). Her stand-alone portrait of a Scottish factory, Phosphate Rocks: A Death in Ten Objects (2021), made the UK Literary Review’s top ten crime novels. Losing Control (2024) is the first in a police procedural series.

Fiona Erskine is the pen name of Professor Fiona Macleod, a chemical engineer with many decades of industrial experience, who currently teaches process safety in the School of Chemical, Materials and Biological Engineering at the University of Sheffield.

‘This is multi-stranded, full of very different, involving characters – some of whom are human – and the Lye itself is only one of the varied, brilliantly-imagined settings. It’s a remarkable SF debut from an outstanding writer,’ said John Jarrold.

Ian Whates of Newcon Press has acquired World English rights to publish a brilliant science fiction novella, THE PACKET, by Neil Williamson, which was previously serialised in ParSec magazine . The agent was John Jarrold.

 THE PACKET is set on an early 20th century ocean liner where things aren’t quite what they seem.

Since his first publication in Territories magazine in 1994, Neil’s stories have appeared regularly in magazines and anthologies.

His books include, The Moon King, Queen of Clouds, The Memoirist, Secret Language and The Ephemera.

Neil has been a finalist for British Science Fiction Association, British Fantasy and World Fantasy Awards.

Mia Dalia, an internationally published, Crime Writers Association-nominated author of all things fantastic, thrilling, scary, and strange, has joined the John Jarrold Literary Agency. Dozens of her short stories have been featured in anthologies, literary journals, magazines, online, and narrative podcasts.

Her new novel, Perforated Sky, is set on a remote island at the edge of the world, where an ancient nightmare has been awakened. Now that the light is going away, can you fight the darkness and survive the endless night beneath the perforated sky?

As an archaeologist by training, Tim Prentice was excited to learn of a new discovery on Paradise Island, touted to rewrite the course of human history. But he hadn’t been a scientist for a long time. In the war-torn, climate-wrecked world, Tim Prentice was lucky to get a janitorial gig at the new research facility. Now, the longer he spends on the island, the more he finds himself descending into madness. Is it the darkness and isolation, or is something eldritch watching him—watching all of them—with a menacing eye and whispering of nightmares to come?

Mia’s work has been selected as one of Tales to Terrify‘s top ten best stories of 2023, shortlisted for the Crime Writers Association’s Short Story Dagger Award 2024, and praised by authors and editors such as Michael Marshall Smith – “One of the best novels I’ve read in years”, Stephen Jones – “horror tour-de-force”, Clay McLeod Chapman – “every flip of the page leads its readers deeper into uneasy dream”, Neil Sharpson, Edward Ashton, M.R. Carey, A.C. Wise, and more.

She is the author of the novels Estate Sale and Haven, novellas Alakazam, Tell Me a Story, Discordant, Arrokoth, Do You Know The Muffin Man? and the collection Smile So Red and Other Tales of Madness.

Her upcoming work will be featured by Lethe Press, Earthling Publications, PS Publishing, Crystal Lake Publishing, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, and more.

“From the first page I loved this,” said John Jarrold. “The voice, the story, the characters and the setting all drew me in as I read on. Mia has a very special talent. And I love cosmic horror!”

Don D’Auria of Flame Tree Press has acquired World English rights in ANCESTRAL, the new novel by doyen of horror writers, Ramsey Campbell. The book will be published in 2026. The agent was John Jarrold.

Long ago the Bystone and Stanton families were enemies, for reasons nobody remembers now. Lou Stanton and Ray Bystone are married with a young son Tim. It’s his choice to spend a summer holiday visiting places in England the families seem to remember although they’ve never been there: the dauntingly dark Boggart’s Grot, Umbrage Cove where the ocean turns voracious, Fay Woods that birds have good reason to avoid, Stalking Edge where the fog feels as solid as flesh… If he’s driven by inherited memories, what is he bringing home? If even the ancestors who summoned what the sites hid were unable to control them, can anybody living do so?

Flame Tree have published Ramsey’s most recent novels, AN ECHO OF CHILDREN, THE INCUBATIONS, THE LONELY LANDS, FELLSTONES, THE WISE FRIEND and SOMEBODY’S VOICE, as well as a number of his backlist titles.

Ramsey Campbell  is the only living horror writer to appear in the Oxford Companion to English Literature. He was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of Liverpool John Moores University in 2015.

Film-maker, screenwriter, producer and novelist Guillermo del Toro has tweeted about Ramsey Campbell: “An absolute master of modern horror. And a damn fine writer at that.”