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Début dark comedy to Penguin

04.12.07 Anna Richardson

Penguin has snapped up rights in the début novel from ITV executive producer Charles Elton in a hotly contested auction. The publisher bought Elton's Mr Toppit as part of a two-book deal from Felicity Rubinstein at Lutyens & Rubinstein, beating Cape and Fourth Estate in the final round of bidding.

Elton is an executive producer of drama at ITV, and the novel, which will be published under the Viking imprint at the beginning of 2009, is "very Jonathan Coe-like", according to Penguin's Tony Lacey.

"I think it's unquestionably the most exciting new British novel that's come on the market in the last few months, an amazingly assured debut," he added.

The novel is a dark comedy about the corrosive effects of sudden money and fame on a family. It centres on the death of a children's novelist, whose books become hugely successful after his death.

Elton's TV drama credits include "The Railway Children", "Pollyanna", "Northanger Abbey" and the current production "The Time of Your Life".

Media Anna Richardson Penguin Rights deal Charles Elton

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