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Pan Macmillan has appointed Robin Harvie as editorial director of a new “high-end” sports list.
Harvie, who will join the company on 14th October from Aurum, will publish across a range of "A-list" autobiographies, narrative, business and health and fitness titles.
At Aurum, Harvie ran the sports list and launched Aurum Sports Classics, which included sports writers John McPhee, Roger Kahn and George Kimball.
Harvie began his career as a publicist at Fourth Estate before moving to the editorial division of the company in 2006, and then joining Aurum in 2011.
In 2011, John Murray published Harvie’s memoir Why We Run: A Story of Obsession, about taking on the 152-mile Spartathlon, the world’s toughest foot race.
Harvie, who will report to Pan Macmillan’s non-fiction publisher Jon Butler, said: “I am absolutely thrilled to be joining Jon and his team at Macmillan. His list is one of the most literary and commercially successful in the business, and I watched with particular envy as Ricky Hatton’s brilliant autobiography flew off the shelves last Christmas. In the past four years we have seen an exponential growth in the sports market, which reflects a growing understanding that the sporting arena is no longer just a place for the elite. I am incredibly excited to have the opportunity to be part of the Macmillan team as we look to uncover the next generation of sports writers across a diverse range of subjects."
The new list will be Pan Mac's first dedicated sports list, although it has published sports titles in the past, including Ricky Hatton’s memoir War and Peace, Ronaldo’s memoir Moments, and The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown, which was shortlisted for last year’s William Hill Prize.
Butler said: “We’ve enjoyed fantastic growth in our non-fiction publishing over the last few years and we’re looking to extend our model of internationally minded, brilliantly written narrative books to other strong genres in the market. I’ve been very impressed by the list that Robin has put together at Aurum over the last three years: full of energetic, entrepreneurial commissioning, smart buys and most importantly of all, writing of the very highest quality. I’m very excited to give him the space at Macmillan to build a unique list of which we can be proud.”