From the Agents Posts

Viola Hayden joined Curtis Brown as an associate agent in Jonny Geller’s office after working in publishing at Cornerstone, Michael Joseph and most recently as a commissioning editor at Sphere, an imprint of Little, Brown. We caught up with Viola to find out more about her love of books, how she’s adapted to working from […]

Cathryn Summerhayes re-joined Curtis Brown in September 2016 having started her literary agency career there as an intern in 2004. She represents an amazing list of clients including Dr Adam Kay, Naomi Wood, Kirsty Logan, Lisa Taddeo, Lucy Foley and Sir Ranulph Fiennes. Cathryn was named Literary Agent of the Year at the 2019 British Book Awards. […]

It’s important that we all take care of ourselves in this time of self-isolation. What better way to keep your spirits up than to read, read, read … From much needed comedy to comforting classics, sweeping fantasy and the latest must-reads, these recommendations from the literary agent teams at Curtis Brown and C&W will provide […]

Every author will ultimately develop their own approach to planning and writing a novel and there’s certainly no one-size-fits-all solution. Nor is there a consensus among the professionals. If you’re wondering how to plan your own novel, here are ten steps to get you started.

Nick Marston is the Chairman of Curtis Brown’s Theatre, TV and Film department. He’s been an agent here at Curtis Brown since 1997, representing an extraordinary array of screenwriters, directors and playwrights including Conor McPherson, Enda Walsh, Mark O’Rowe, Stuart Carolan, Eugene O’Brien, Hossein Amini and Rowan Joffe. Ahead of our first ever course in Writing an Original TV Drama Serial […]

A very special component of our London-based novel-writing courses are the visiting speaker sessions where the literary agents from Curtis Brown and C&W come in with major authors or leading publishers to talk to the student group. These evening events give our students a great chance to find out about the reality of publishing and […]

Have you been mulling over a good story idea for years but failing to actually get it started? Or perhaps you’re putting words down but feeling unsure of what you’re doing and where you’re headed with it? Writing a novel can be exciting and hugely satisfying, but at times it can feel like an impossibly […]

We are thrilled for Elizabeth Lee, our 79th student to get a major book deal. Liz was awarded the Marian Keyes scholarship to study on our six-month online novel-writing course. After completing the course, Curtis Brown’s Lucy Morris fell in love with her novel, Cunning Women, a searing story of forbidden love and the curtailing […]

When the wind is howling and you feel the crunch of leaves underfoot there’s nothing quite like escaping the cold and opting for a different type of chill – by getting your teeth stuck into creepy ghost stories (and maybe some sweets) … To help you get in the Halloween spirit we asked the book […]

We are delighted to announce the longlist for the Curtis Brown First Novel Prize. We received 3,000 submissions from across the UK & Ireland. We were so impressed by the standard of the submissions; it was truly difficult to choose our longlist. After many weeks of reading, our judging team narrowed the longlist to these […]