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Titchmarsh fiction to Hodder

05.04.07 Katherine Rushton

TV gardener Alan Titchmarsh is moving his romance novels from Simon & Schuster to Hodder & Stoughton in a multi-book deal. The paperback of his 2006 novel, Love and Dr Devon, will still be published by S&S in May, but is understood to be his last book with S&S.

The new novels were bought by Hodder non-fiction director Rowena Webb from agent Luigi Bonomi for an undisclosed sum. Neither she, Bonomi nor Titchmarsh would comment on the deal but Suzanne Baboneau, publishing director at S&S, said: "We were outbid."

She added that the company still had "big plans" for the paperback of Love and Dr Devon. The novel has sold nearly 50,000 copies in its original editions, making it his second bestselling novel after Rosie.

Hodder has already published Titchmarsh's two memoirs: Trowel and Error (2002) and Nobbut a Lad (2006), which each sold 120,000 copies in hardback. BBC Books, now part of Ebury, publishes his gardening and natural history books.

Katherine Rushton Alan Titchmarsh Rights deal Hodder

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