London Book Fair 2025 Agents' Hotlists: IRC is set to take on Trump and his tech bros
The international book trade rolls into the 54th London Book Fair (LBF) complete with thorny, complicated issues to tackle – headed up, of course, by artificial intelligence (AI): a technology that may prove so far-reaching and disruptive that the switch to digital of a decade-and-a-half ago might seem a trifle by comparison.
AI will no doubt be vying with the increasingly dismaying state of geopolitics, in which Germany’s recent election only underscores that the parties of the book-burners (historically) and book-banners (very currently) are in the ascendancy across the West. AI and geopolitics are not mutually exclusive; that the current US government is in thrall to (run by?) tech bros does not augur well for those keen on protecting authors’ works. The sanctity of copyright is just the start of difficulties that may arise for the trade out of Donald Trump’s sledgehammer to international norms, from export-biting tariff wars to a chilling attack on free speech.
Americans are “back in force” at Olympia, with exhibitor numbers up to pre-pandemic levels, according to new LBF director Adam Ridgway. It will be interesting to see how acquisitive the members of the world’s biggest books market will be, and for what kind of titles. Will they be cowed? Or, will they, as in the first Trump presidency, produce many courageous works explicitly against or at least culturally opposed to – by dint of subject matter or the authors’ backgrounds – the current assault on democracy and decency?
Books could be a light in the gloom and a corrective to the avalanche of misinformation in our post-truth world
Judging by what is on offer via our new-look LBF Agents’ Hotlists, there will be much to raise the ire of your average AR-15-totin’, Truth Social-postin’ MAGA-hat-wearer, should US companies wish to acquire. Saying a manuscript is “out” on submission this LBF has never been more apropos, as agenting seems to have collectively donned those “Sounds Gay, I’m In” T-shirts with far more LGBTQ+ representation than in previous Hotlists. Nearly one in 10 of the 404 titles in the following Hotlists have queer themes, many in the romcom/romantasy BookTok end of the market, seven of which have the word “Sapphic” in their pitches. But these submissions run the gamut from more literary titles, including Avery Curran’s gothic horror-tinged The Secret History-esque Spoiled Milk, to non-fiction, such as Ashley Douglas’ Marie Maitland, a biography of the trailblazing, Scottish 16th-century lesbian poet.
Non-fiction in general has had a tricky time in the UK of late but the “smart” side of the sector remained strong and looks set to grow. There are numerous entries tackling politics (Anjani Trivedi writes on the battle over energy storage in Power Struggle), the climate emergency (David Farrier’s Nature’s Genius), the need for rigorous science (Susan D’Agostino’s How Math Will Save Your Life) and salient history lessons (Mark Jones’ on-the-nose Evening Over Potsdam, which focuses on what can be learned about saving democracy from looking at the Weimar Republic’s slide into fascism).
I may be over-egging the anti-Trump side of the Hotlists merely because the climate seems so very grim. But if there was a lesson from his first administration, it was that books could be a light in the gloom and a corrective to the avalanche of misinformation in our post-truth world. Books can provide hope – and some will get their launches at this LBF’s International Rights Centre (IRC). Nolite te bastardes carborundorum, folks.
