Martha Perotto-Wills
- Submission status
- Solicited only
- Submission route
- Response time
- Assume no reply = no after 16 weeks
- Last checked
- 14 days ago
About
Martha assists Molly Ker Hawn and is actively building her own list, representing mostly authors of adult literary fiction and of science fiction, fantasy and horror.
Before working in publishing she was a bookseller and cataloguer of second-hand and antiquarian books, and took a master's degree in Queer History. She joined the Bent Agency's United Kingdom office in 2019, spent six years there as an assistant and then associate agent, and started at David Higham at the end of 2025.
Genres
Looking for
- stylish, voice-driven, witty, honest literary fiction with characters who feel like real people
- literary and upmarket fiction inflected, lightly or heavily, with science fiction, fantasy or horror
- science fiction, fantasy and horror with elevated prose and nuanced character work but genre-typical plot, stakes and sense of fun
- historical fiction, with postmodern or genre twists encouraged, by authors totally immersed in the tone, language and culture of their period
- authorial confidence
- singular narrative voices
- beautiful sentences
- knotty interpersonal relationships
- transportive writing
Not looking for
- queries other than referrals, while she is temporarily closed to catch up
Agency submission guidelines
Assume no response = no after 8-16 weeks depending on the agent.
Clients include
- Freddie Kölsch
- Rebecca K Reilly
- Peter Scalpello
- Anneke Schwob
Other agents at David Higham Associates
Andrew Gordon
Andrew joined David Higham Associates in 2007 and is a director of the company and head of the Books department. Before becoming an agent he worked on the publishing side for fifteen years, in publicity at Hodder & Stoughton and as an editor and publisher at Little, Brown and Simon & Schuster. His list is primarily non-fiction and includes leading historians, journalists and commentators. He is a member of the Advisory Committee of the Cundill History Prize.
Genres:Biography · Business · Current Affairs · Historical (Non-Fiction) · Memoir +4 more
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Christabel McKinley
Christabel came into publishing via teaching English in Korea, where she taught literature to children between six and eleven years of age. She believes children's books should be accessible, inclusive and unpatronising, as well as impactful and a pleasure to read. She represents authors and illustrators across the spectrum of writing and illustrating for children and young adults, spanning fiction to non-fiction and picture books to graphic novels.
Genres:Children's Books · Fantasy · Graphic Novels · Historical Fiction · Middle Grade +3 more
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Elise Dillsworth
Elise became a literary agent in 2012, having previously been a commissioning editor at Virago Press. She co-founded the Diversity in Publishing Network in 2004, which received the New Venture Award from Women in Publishing in 2005. Her authors have won or been nominated for awards including the Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, the Caine Prize, the Commonwealth Short Story Prize, the Forward Prize and the Women's Prize for Fiction.
Genres:Biography · Literary Fiction · Memoir · Narrative Non-Fiction · Other Non-Fiction
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Esme Bright
Esme assists Andrew Gordon and Jessica Woollard and is starting to build her own list of literary fiction, narrative non-fiction and poetry.
Genres:Literary Fiction · Memoir · Narrative Non-Fiction · Other Non-Fiction · Poetry
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Isobel Boston
Isobel joined David Higham in 2025 after more than ten years working as an editor in illustrated children's publishing. She began her career at Templar Publishing and Big Picture Press, commissioning across a boutique list of illustrated books, and was later Commissioning Editor at Walker Books. She is building a list of children's book creators and works across all formats.
Genres:Children's Books · Graphic Novels · Middle Grade · Narrative Non-Fiction · Other Non-Fiction
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Jemima Forrester
Before joining David Higham in 2016 Jemima was Senior Commissioning Editor at Orion Publishing Group, and she has brought that collaborative, editorial way of working into her role as an agent.
Genres:Commercial Fiction · Contemporary Fiction · Crime · Fantasy · Historical Fiction +7 more
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Jessica Woollard
Jessica has been a literary agent for thirty years, beginning her career at Toby Eady Associates, where she worked first for Alexandra Pringle and went on to become a Director before leaving ten years later for The Marsh Agency. She joined David Higham in January 2016 on returning from Mumbai, where she had been working as an agent remotely for five years. She was the agent for H is for Hawk, and represents academics, activists, artists, scientists and journalists. Authors she works with have won or been shortlisted for major prizes including the Booker, the Baillie Gifford, the Costa, the Guardian First Book Award, the National Book Award, Waterstones Book of the Year, the Wainwright and the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year.
Genres:Historical (Non-Fiction) · Literary Fiction · Narrative Non-Fiction · Other Non-Fiction · Politics +1 more
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Lizzy Kremer
Lizzy joined David Higham in 2004, after working for an agent and, before that, as a publicist. She is Managing Director of the agency, a former President of the Association of Authors' Agents and a British Book Industry Awards Agent of the Year, and she advocates for clients on the industry issues that shape writing and publishing. Her strong engagement with the economics of publishing means she has a particular interest in taking on authors mid-career, whether bestsellers or not. She lives between London and New York.
Genres:Commercial Fiction · Contemporary Fiction · Crime · Literary Fiction · Narrative Non-Fiction +2 more
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Maddalena Cavaciuti
Maddalena studied English Literature at the University of Bristol and joined David Higham Associates in 2017 after a spell working in marketing and events. In 2019 she helped to run the first of many David Higham Open Days for Under-Represented Writers. She is the agency's Head of Audio and works with Managing Director Lizzy Kremer on selected projects.
Genres:Commercial Fiction · Crime · Fantasy · Mystery · Paranormal Romance +5 more
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Molly Ker Hawn
Molly joined David Higham as a director of the company in 2025, after fourteen years running the United Kingdom arm of the Bent Agency. Her primary focus is books for children and young adults, and she has worked in publishing for most of the last thirty years. She sells directly to publishers in the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada and Australia, and about half her clients are American or Canadian. Her authors' books have been New York Times, Sunday Times and international bestsellers, and have won or been shortlisted for the Michael L. Printz Award, the William C. Morris Debut Award, the Barnes & Noble Children's Book Award, the Costa Book Award, the Waterstones Children's Book Prize and the Carnegie Medal. She served for three years on the governing committee of the Association of Authors' Agents.
Genres:Children's Books · Contemporary Fiction · Fantasy · Graphic Novels · Historical Fiction +5 more
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Nicola Chang
Nicola joined David Higham Associates in 2020 and represents prize-winning writers of literary and general fiction, non-fiction and poets. Her authors include Sara Ahmed, Raymond Antrobus, J. M. Coetzee, Jacqueline Crooks, Emma Glass, Gabriel Krauze, Saba Sams and Kae Tempest. Nicola is a recipient of the London Book Fair’s Trailblazer Award and a Bookseller Rising Star. Nicola responds first and foremost to original voices that challenge the idea of what a literary novel, and sentence, can do, as well as propulsive character-driven novels with intricate plots, unforgettable set pieces and dazzling dialogue. Nicola is drawn to experiments in form that defy easy definition, vernacular-inflected realism, the tragicomic, the weird and ethereal, seeking emotional complexity and transformative storytelling. In non-fiction Nicola is interested in narrative-driven, persuasive perspectives, a unique fearless voice and the interplay between the personal and the political, particularly from early-career scholars, critics and writers thinking deeply and universally about society through subjects such as the arts, food, family, language, creativity, sport, the body, work, travel and music, and if these works can be delivered provocatively and humorously, all the better.
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Orli Vogt-Vincent
Orli is building a literary fiction and non-fiction list, and also works across Managing Director Lizzy Kremer's list of internationally bestselling writers.
Genres:Contemporary Fiction · Literary Fiction · Narrative Non-Fiction · Other Non-Fiction · Romance
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Sara Langham
Sara is actively building a list of literary and upmarket fiction and non-fiction. Generally, Sara is looking for wonderful, clear writing with beauty at its heart, great hooky plot-driven stories and/or a combination of both. Sara admires authors such as Elif Batuman, Miranda July, Sarah Moss, Katie Kitamura, Miriam Toews, Sarah Hall, Catherine Newman, Ali Smith, Ann Patchett and Helen Garner. Sara loves speculative and genre-bending fiction such as The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley and The Echoes by Evie Wyld, and novels that play with form and structure, such as Theory and Practice by Michelle de Kretser and Fair Play by Louise Hegarty. Sara is interested in short stories, both dark and gentle comedies, and books on the edges of horror. Sara would love to find a really wild idea that is immaculate on the page. Sara is keen to find a great love story set against the backdrop of historical events as well as swoony contemporary love stories. Sara loves literary crime and is interested in detective novels and literary thrillers such as Sebastian Barry’s Old God’s Time, Eleanor Catton’s Birnam Wood or Kate Atkinson’s Jackson Brodie series. In non-fiction, Sara is always looking to learn new things and enjoys works such as A Thread of Violence by Mark O’Connell, Monsters by Claire Dederer, A Month in Siena by Hisham Matar and Question 7 by Richard Flanagan. Sara would love to find a graphic novel on any subject.
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Stephanie Glencross
Stephanie joined David Higham Associates in 2018, having previously been the Editor at Gregory and Company Authors' Agents, where she worked alongside Jane Gregory building the client list and working with authors on their manuscripts and ideas. She is proud to have edited many award-winning authors including Val McDermid, Mo Hayder, Catherine Ryan Howard, Paula Daly, Tan Twan Eng and Belinda Bauer, and brings a lot of editorial experience to her agenting. Before becoming an editor she spent several years at the BBC, first in the Radio Drama department and then in the Story Department of EastEnders, where she learned a great deal about the power of characterisation and the construction of cliffhangers. She was a judge on the Crime Writers' Association Debut Dagger Award for several years, and her love affair with crime fiction started with Nancy Drew and was nurtured by Sara Paretsky, Patricia Cornwell and Michael Connelly.
Genres:Commercial Fiction · Crime · Mystery · Psychological Suspense · Thriller
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Veronique Baxter
Veronique joined David Higham Associates in 1999 and was made a Director in 2007, and has built an eclectic list of adult fiction, children's books and non-fiction. She represents authors of literary and genre fiction alongside a substantial children's list, and is a keen reader of non-fiction, with recent projects spanning narrative history, travel, memoir and true crime. Her authors have won or been shortlisted for prizes including the Women's Prize for Fiction, the Sunday Times New Writer of the Year, the Costa Prize, the Carnegie Medal, the Greenaway, the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, Granta's Best of Young British Novelists, the Desmond Elliott First Novel Prize, the Booker Prize and the Orwell Prize. Her taste in adult fiction and non-fiction is broad, but she is predominantly attracted by quality of prose, strong and distinct voices, nuanced characterisation, ambitious storytelling and compelling, original plots.
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