I joined the Bent Agency’s London office in 2019, after five years spent working with publishers all over the world as a literary scout. Since then I have built a list of clients that includes New York Times and international bestsellers, and whose books have won and been shortlisted for the Nero Book Award, the Barnes & Noble Children’s Book Award, and the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize.

My list spans both children’s and adult books across a variety of genres. Across the board, my tastes lean towards commercial, entertaining, accessible books with clever hooks and something to say about the world. I am particularly interested in seeing submissions from writers from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds.

In children’s books, I am looking for middle-grade and young adult fiction of all genres. For middle-grade, my favourite books combine a quirky voice or setting and a sense of fun with a strong emotional core.

I have a particular love for YA fantasy and in this space I’m on the hunt for books that do something different in a very crowded market; interesting settings, intricate worldbuilding and unusual magic systems are all things that excite me. I am also looking for eye-opening science fiction and speculative fiction for teens, as well as horror and deviously twisty thrillers.

Some of my favourite children’s and YA books: Nevermoor by Jessica Townsend, Rooftoppers by Katherine Rundell, Murder Most Unladylike by Robin Stevens, Lockwood & Co by Jonathan Stroud, The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes, Scythe by Neal Shusterman, Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor, Sadie by Courtney Summers.

I do not represent children’s non-fiction, picture books, or any fiction for an audience younger than middle grade.

On the adult side, I am looking for fantasy and science fiction with strong commercial appeal, and particularly books that break away from the very traditional classics of these genres. I love impeccable, innovative world building, characters who feel like real people, and writing that changes the way I see the world. I am a big horror fan and would particularly like to see horror with a social conscience – send me terrifying fiction for the Get Out audience.

I am also looking for more general fiction with a strong, high concept hook, or a speculative or gothic edge. I have a particular weakness for a well-plotted murder mystery and am always looking for new takes on this – the twistier, the better!

I do not represent non-fiction.

Some of my favourite recent adult books: The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers, Babel by RF Kuang, A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine, How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu, The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton, The Appeal by Janice Hallett, The Mars House by Natasha Pulley.