John Jarrold

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)!’