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Abacus goes modern

27.11.09 | Katie Allen

Abacus has acquired "a perfectly pitched comic novel" about modern life, written by début author Ceri Radford.

Rowan Cope, editor at Little, Brown and Abacus, acquired British & Commonwealth rights to A Surrey State of Affairs from Peter Robinson at the Peter Robinson Literary Agency for what the publisher said was a "good sum for a début author".

Cope described the book as "a kind of contemporary take on E M Delafield's classic The Diary of a Provincial Lady". She said: "I am delighted to have acquired the book and to be working with Radford, who is a hugely talented writer, and set to be a star."

Radford is an assistant editor on the comment desk at the Daily Telegraph. She conceived the character of Constance as a fictional blogger on the Telegraph website, before developing her into the heroine of the novel.

"The Tele­graph are thrilled that Ceri has written the book," said Cope, who described the book's heroine Constance as "unworldly and—usually unwittingly—very funny".

Abacus will publish A Surrey State of Affairs as a trade paperback original in March 2011. 

• Abacus
• Catherine Neilan
• debut
• Katie Allen
• Rights deal