London book fair roundup: Idris Elba’s thriller deal, the rise of romcom, and fights against censorship | London book fair

The annual London book fair wrapped up on Thursday, marking the end of three days in which 33,000 people associated with the book industry (agents, publishers, authors, among others) gathered in Olympia to broker deals and discuss the state and future of the publishing world. Here’s our roundup of the biggest deals, trends and takeaways from the show.

The week’s starliest book deal was a new thriller series he co-wrote. Idris ElbaIt follows an MI6 field agent sent to Mauritius to investigate an attempted murder. Rights were usurped elsewhere Alex FergusonThe publisher’s first autobiography in 13 years Mishal Hussain‘s first children’s book and the designer’s story paul smith‘s life.

It was a strong week for fantasy And romantic comedyAcquisitions included journalist Moya Lothian-McLean’s “edgy, sexy romantic comedy”, Matchmakers, and two adult fantasy books by Shannon Chakraborty were acquired for a seven-figure sum. Including topics that drive nonfiction deals GLP-1s (The Appetite Reset by Federica Amati), sober curiosity (Hangxiety by Millie Gooch) and assisted death (War to the Death by Paul Brand).

government National Year of Reading was a major topic of discussion in dozens of talks and panels at the fair. Dan Conway of the Publishers Guild shared the origins of the idea: In late 2024, he was sitting in a windowless room in the House of Lords with Penguin president Gail Rebuck when he proposed the idea. Campaign director David Hayman gave an update on the progress: So far they’ve recruited 16,000 of the targeted 100,000 volunteers. Rebuck encouraged participating international publishers to launch similar campaigns in their own countries using the UK’s “playbook”. But a realistic note came from Rosemary Thomas of the National Literacy Trust: “Behavior change doesn’t happen in a year” and framed the campaign as a “launch pad” rather than a fix-it-all.

Some of the most complex and pressing questions facing contemporary publishing were discussed at British PEN’s literary salon; In such a panel, US-style book censorship spreads to UK. While there is anecdotal evidence that librarians are increasingly faced with requests to remove LGBTQ+ books in particular, a lack of data makes it difficult to assess the extent of the problem. Alison Hicks told the audience that those opposing book bans in the UK were individuals such as parents, carers and “increasingly” school headteachers “rather than organized groups such as Moms for Liberty in the US”. The associate professor of library and information studies at UCL conducted a small qualitative study on book banning in the UK.

Louis Coiffait-Gunn, chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, highlighted the need for better evidence. “There is a sense that censorship is increasing as the UK catches a cold from America’s current ills. But we are still relying too much on a few deeply worrying anecdotes.” He spoke alongside Juno Dawson, author of This Book Is Gay. most banned titles Louisa Joyner, co-publisher in the US and Faber.

Another PEN talk focused on: Feedback on diversity, equity and inclusion in publishing. Selina Brown, who launched the Black British Book festival in 2021, said she was seeing fewer books by Black authors being pitched at pitch meetings with publishers each year. “Some big publishers even said, ‘We don’t have a book for you this year.’ They would never turn around and say, ‘We don’t have a white paper.’ That would be crazy. Brown talked about “deeply ingrained” stereotypes in the industry: “It’s hard to reach certain communities; “I was told indirectly, ‘Black people don’t read.'”

Author Nikesh Shukla said many books published in 2020 following the killing of African American George Floyd were rushed “without much editorial work” or support for the authors. Some writers on racism have “felt as if they had to turn to writing a book that perhaps just happened to come across a science fiction book, or a picture book about friendship, or whatever they wanted to write.”

impact of authoritarianism Publishing was also the focus of English PEN. Arabella Pike, publishing director of William Collins, said the books were the opposite of authoritarianism. He defended books, including Putin’s People by Catherine Belton and Kleptopia by Tom Burgis, against intimidating SLAPP action (strategic lawsuits against public participation).

Pike also published her book, Victoria Amelina’s Perspective on Women in War, who was killed by a Russian missile in Ukraine in 2023. He told the audience that HarperCollins decided to continue selling books in Russia after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began. unlike some other major publishersOn the basis that it is “incredibly important” for the Russian public to have access to fact-checked books that have not been “distorted by censorship”. He also spoke of the abuse of the British legal system by oligarchs with “very deep pockets” and said libel laws were “terribly in need of reform”.

Author Kit Fan, who gave up his Chinese citizenship, said authoritarian leaders are “very afraid of things called books.” The “first thing” totalitarian governments do is “burn all records.” Dictators “are afraid of these, because they know that no matter how many books they burn, no matter how many people they try to judge, these words, these stories, these poems are transferred from one person to another.”