Transworld’s Simon Taylor has pre-emptively acquired two novels from bestselling novelist Jon Courtenay Grimwood. The agent was John Jarrold.
The first novel is Thrones and Powers . . .
On 30 May 1431, Joan of Arc – the Maid of Orleans, whose visions of the archangel Michael inspired her to lead the French against the English during the Hundred Years War – was burned at the stake as a heretic. She was just 19 years old.
Looking on in despair was a young French noble called Gilles de Rais – the only one of the Maid’s followers not to have deserted and disowned her. In the aftermath of Joan’s execution, Gilles is betrayed and condemned to immortality for his part in supposedly turning the Maid against Heaven’s purpose. Centuries later, he now lives quietly in Mexico City as the historian (his speciality is medieval France) Professor Don Gil de Ray, with a retired Yucatec terrorist as his housekeeper and guardian. Then in New York, on his way back to his hotel following a talk he’d given, he is brutally attacked. His assailant is an angel, demanding his obedience to a command from Heaven. And Heaven wants him to discover what has happened to God. But Heaven is a place Don Gil has denied and turned his back on for what it had allowed to happen to Joan . . .
He refuses, obviously. He has no interest in God, alive or dead. He doesn’t want access to Heaven, or to all of time (except perhaps to follow Joan through her future incarnations, to try – again and again, and to fail – to save her soul). After all he is Gilles de Rais, vilified over the centuries by those who would have history believe he was a monster, the original Bluebeard, so why would he – why should he – bend to Heaven’s will?
But then Lucifer makes him an offer: an offer it would be dangerous – for Earth (about which he cares little) and for the very few people he loves, and loves fiercely – to refuse . . .
The second book will be an as-yet untitled historical fantasy.
Jon Courtenay Grimwood was born in Malta and christened in the upturned bell of a ship. He grew up in the Far East, Britain and Scandinavia. Apart from novels he has written for magazines and newspapers. For five years he wrote a monthly review column for the Guardian. He has also written for The Times, Telegraph and the Independent.Felaheen, the third of his novels featuring Ashraf Bey, a half-Berber detective, won the BSFA Award for Best Novel. As did The End of the World Blues, about a British sniper on the run from Iraq and running an Irish bar in Tokyo. His novels have been shortlisted for numerous other awards including the Arthur C Clarke Award, the British Fantasy Award and the John W Campbell Memorial Award.
Moskva, his first crime novel, written as Jack Grimwood, was published Spring 2016. An Amazon Top 10 bestseller, it was listed for the Crime Writers Association’s Steel Dagger/Ian Fleming Award.
Nightfall Berlin, the second Tom Fox novel, was published Spring 2018. The Times called it, ‘A superb creation.’ The Observer called it, ‘Spring’s best thriller.’
Island Reich, his third Jack Grimwood novel, was published Spring 2021. The Financial Times called it ‘Triumphant’. Glasgow Life said ‘Jack Grimwood matches Robert Harris, Joseph Kanon, Ken Follett and John le Carré thrill for thrill…’
Arctic Sun, the third Tom Fox novel, was published Autumn 2023. It was The Times’ Thriller of the Month: ‘Strange alliances, personal vendettas and Cold War conspiracies build to a bloody climax in the snow’. The Independent said, ‘Your new favourite thriller writer’.
The Last Banquet, his literary novel written as Jonathan Grimwood, was published by Canongate in Summer 2013; the French edition was shortlisted, in 2015, for Le Prix Montesquieu.
His work is published in French, German, Spanish, Italian, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Russian, Turkish, Japanese, Danish, Finnish, Dutch, Estonian and American, among others.
He is married to the journalist and novelist Sam Baker. They live in Edinburgh.
Jon Courtenay Grimwood said, ‘I’m absolutely thrilled to be with Simon Taylor at Transworld, and deeply impressed John Jarrold tied up a deal this swiftly; leaving me to get on with writing. Thrones is a book that really matters to me, and I find it hard to say how delighted I am.’
‘Simon was in touch within hours of seeing the press release about Jon joining the literary agency,’ said John Jarrold. ‘We were happy to agree an exclusive look at Thrones and Power for him and Transworld after a conversation, and I’m delighted it has led to a wonderful deal for two books.’
Simon Taylor said ‘Genre-defying, boundary-pushing, ideas-filled and hairs-on-the-back-of-the-neck-raisingly-exciting, Thrones and Powers is – IMHO – the novel of a writer at the peak of his powers. I’ve long been a fan of Jon’s work and am over-the-moon to be publishing this bold and brilliant novel.’
Many congratulations to agency client Neil Williamson who has won the BSFA Award for Best Collection, for the anthology BLOOD IN THE BRICKS (the Award covers both collections and anthologies), edited for and published by Newcon Press. The Awards were presented at the annual Easter Science Fiction Convention this weekend, which took place in the Hilton Metropole hotel at Birmingham airport.
Novelist Jon Courtenay Grimwood has joined the John Jarrold Literary Agency for representation of his forthcoming historical fantasy novels.
The first novel, which will soon be submitted to publishers, is Thrones and Powers. Here are the author’s thoughts:
‘Some books take longer to get right than others! Twenty years ago I wrote a sprawling 200,000+ word time slip novel about Joan of Arc and Gil de Rais. A publisher offered. My then agent suggested the timing was wrong, and it became for me the one that got away.
‘An edit to 170,000 words, and then a less successful one to 140,000 words followed. I knew the story I wanted to tell was in there. I just didn’t know how to get it out. And then, last year, following a series of thrillers, a childhood memoir, and a PhD at St Andrews, I decided that Joan and Gil had haunted me for long enough…
‘I went right back to the beginning, cut away everything that wasn’t essential, lost all that lovely (but indulgent) medieval research, and ended up with the far, far shorter book I should have written in the first place.
‘In it remain the battles, the magic, the time-slip love affairs, the war in heaven, the great fire of London, and the families we make for ourselves to replace the ones in which we’ve never really fitted.
‘(And I’m absolutely delighted to be working with John Jarrold again. He was my editor at Simon and Schuster, and someone whose taste I trust.)’
There are also three synopses for future historical fantasies to discuss with publishers.
Jon Courtenay Grimwood was born in Malta and christened in the upturned bell of a ship. He grew up in the Far East, Britain and Scandinavia. Apart from novels he writes for magazines and newspapers. For five years he wrote a monthly review column for The Guardian. He has also written for The Times, The Telegraph and The Independent. Felaheen, the third of his novels featuring Ashraf Bey, a half-Berber detective, won the BSFA Award for Best Novel. As did The End of the World Blues, about a British sniper on the run from Iraq and running an Irish bar in Tokyo. His novels have been shortlisted for numerous other awards including the Arthur C Clarke Award, the British Fantasy Award, and the John W Campbell Memorial Award.
Moskva, his first crime novel, written as Jack Grimwood, was published in Spring 2016. An Amazon Top 10 bestseller, it was listed for the Crime Writers Association’s Steel Dagger/Ian Fleming Award.
Nightfall Berlin, the second Tom Fox novel, was published Spring 2018. The Times called it, ‘A superb creation.’ The Observer called it, ‘Spring’s best thriller.’
Island Reich, his third Jack Grimwood novel, was published Spring 2021 The Financial Times called it ‘Triumphant’. Glasgow Life said ‘’Jack Grimwood matches Robert Harris, Joseph Kanon, Ken Follett and John le Carré thrill for thrill…’
Arctic Sun, the third Tom Fox novel, was published Autumn 2023. It was The Times Thriller of the Month: ‘Strange alliances, personal vendettas and Cold War conspiracies build to a bloody climax in the snow’. The Independent said, ‘Your new favourite thriller writer’.
The Last Banquet, his literary novel written as Jonathan Grimwood, was published by Canongate in Summer 2013 and shortlisted, in 2015, in the French edition for Le Prix Montesquieu.
The Fallen Blade, the first of three novels set in an alternate 15th-century Venice was published Spring 2011 and went into ten languages in twelve territories. The Outcast Blade, its sequel, was published in Spring 2012. The final volume of the Assassini novels, The Exiled Blade, was published Spring 2013.
His work is published in French, German, Spanish, Italian, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Russian, Turkish, Japanese, Danish, Finnish, Dutch, Estonian and American, among others.
He is married to the journalist and novelist Sam Baker. They live in Edinburgh.
John Jarrold said: ‘I have counted Jon as a friend for over twenty-five years. He’s one of the best writers I ever published, and I’m privileged to be working with him again –Thrones and Powers is a remarkable, fascinating novel, and the synopses he’s sent me for future projects made me grin widely (and want to read them NOW)!’
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.
