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I started my career in agenting after a brief stint with Carole Blake at Blake Friedmann in 2002. Carole helped propel me into my first official role, and I moved to assist Bill Hamilton at AM Heath Authors’ Agents for over 3 years, from where I then jumped ship to join Sheil Land Associates as a full-time agent and to build my client list. I came to Conville & Walsh Ltd in 2008 to continue to develop a diverse list reflecting my omnivorous publishing tastes, and had by then agented award-winning and best-selling non-fiction while championing both commercial and literary fiction.

One of the very best aspects about my role is the element of surprise – finding something unexpected that will arrest me – but I will, briefly, set out areas I favour.

In the non-fiction arena I have represented and continue to be on the lookout for memoir, biography, history (propelled by a central personal journey), popular (and unpopular) culture, psychology, true crime, food & drink and humour. Areas of interest in non-fiction that I’m looking to explore or have yet to find something I can get 100% behind include popular philosophy, travel and adventure, and spirituality.

Fiction is hard to categorise: I simply love so many different stories.  On one hand I adore quirky, edgy, dark, challenging fiction and on the other, walloping commercial fiction.  There are central aspects that run right across the spectrum of what I read and represent: stories with a resonant emotional pull, those that are ambitious, and stories that will travel outside of the UK to North America and throughout Europe and other translation markets. I want more international fiction and more crime, thrillers and mysteries, and more women’s fiction.

I have had success and want to continue to build the number of US and international authors I represent (the world is truly getting smaller). I also have particular interests in strategising to build careers for writers across media to reflect developing platforms and markets.

And finally, I prefer approaches by email.  Send me a brief outline of not more than a page and the initial 50 or so pages, or if submitting non-fiction, either approach with a paragraph to test an idea out on me or submit something close to a non-fiction proposal.