PFD | The Bookseller

PFD ordered to pay up

Publication Date: Thu, 17/04/2008 - 14:42

PFD has been ordered to pay £125,000 to one of its former agents, after losing the first of 19 pending employment tribunal cases.

The verdict went in favour of Duncan Hayes (pictured), who represents comedy performers and writers including Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. He was one of the 12 agents dismissed by PFD parent group...

Home | Joel Rickett | PFD | United Agents
Flying a United flag

Publication Date: Thu, 03/04/2008 - 14:57

In their first interview since leaving PFD, the United Agents Books team tell The Bookseller how the extraordinary saga has changed them, and about their plans for the UK’s largest-ever start-up agency.

"The inmates are taking over the asylum". So declared Metro Pictures chief Richard A Rowland when he heard that Mary...

Flagship Feature | Joel Rickett | PFD | United Agents
Peace at last for PFD rebels?

Publication Date: Mon, 31/03/2008 - 07:48

The 29 rebel agents who fled PFD, the UK's oldest and largest tenpercentery, to launch breakaway outfit United Agents have endured a year of turmoil and conflict. But now, at last, peace appears to be in sight, reports Variety.

After a few months of staff working from home and out of temporary offices under a cloud of litigation,...

Agents | PFD | Philip Jones | Rights
PFD loses Evelyn Waugh estate

Publication Date: Wed, 26/03/2008 - 07:55

US agent Andrew Wylie has has snatched Evelyn Waugh's literary estate from PFD, the agency that handled it for the past 80 years, reports the Times.

According to the newspaper, "it is the ease with which Mr Wylie nabbed the Waugh estate that will really set tongues wagging in the build-up to the annual gossip-fest that...

Anna Richardson | Evelyn Waugh | Home | PFD
PFD takes p.o.d. route

Publication Date: Tue, 18/03/2008 - 15:45

Agency PFD is entering a relationship with Lightning Source which will enable it to make out of print works from its authors and estates available through print on demand.

Authors and estates already signed up to the service include the V S Pritchett estate, the Storm Jameson estate and author Angela Huth.

PFD believes the deal...

Alison Flood | Home | PFD | Print-on-demand
Deal fillip for Michel at PFD

Publication Date: Fri, 14/03/2008 - 10:51

PFD has struck a raft of new rights deals, with c.e.o. Caroline Michel selling Robert Sackville-West's History of Knole to Michael Fishwick at Bloomsbury, Norman Stone's World War II to Simon Winder at Penguin, and Harriet Harvey-Wood's The Battle of Hastings to Ravi Mirchandani at Atlantic.

...

Anna Richardson | Caroline Michel | PFD | Rights deal
PFD tribunal reaches court

Publication Date: Thu, 21/02/2008 - 13:49

A claim brought by agent Duncan Hayes against his former employers Peters, Fraser & Dunlop (PFD) reached an employment tribunal this week. At the central London court, the judge heard details of Hayes' departure from PFD to join the breakaway group United Agents. Both sides are now awaiting judgement.

Other cases are expected to...

Joel Rickett | PFD | Rights
CSS share deals spark speculation

Publication Date: Fri, 01/02/2008 - 08:30

Two directors of CSS Stellar have snapped up £500,000 of shares in the group, sparking fresh speculation about the future of its embattled agency arm PFD.

On 18th January, CSS vice-chairman Julian Jakobi and director John Webber bought two million CSS shares at 25p each. A large tranche of the shares were aquired from Nicholas...

Agents | CSS Stellar | Joel Rickett | PFD
Greene & Heaton takes Bath prize from PFD

Publication Date: Wed, 09/01/2008 - 08:15

Literary agency Greene & Heaton is taking over sponsorship of the writing prize at Bath Spa University. The annual award, for the best novel produced by a student on the Creative Writing MA, was previously run by rival agency PFD, but the university decided to switch sponsors following an uncertain patch for the company.

The...

Bath Literary Festival | Greene & Heaton | Joel Rickett | PFD | Prize
Michel rejects backlist neglect

Publication Date: Mon, 17/12/2007 - 15:52

Caroline Michel has vehemently denied that PFD will neglect the backlist of authors who have departed with their agents. The PFD c.e.o. described suggestions by the Society of Authors that PFD may "sit on" the rights to previously published books as "ill-informed".

Michel highlighted the appointment of Marcella...

Caroline Michel | Joel Rickett | John LeFanu | PFD | Society of Authors