Veteran literary agent Andrew Hewson dies aged 83

Andrew Hewson, literary agent and founder, director and former chairman of the Johnson & Alcock literary agency, has died at the age of 83.

Hewson began his career working front-of-house at the Newcastle Playhouse, and was hired in 1969 by the literary agent John Johnson, brother of actress Dame Celia Johnson and founder of his eponymous agency.

He was initially brought in to help with representation of Johnson’s American publishing links and to build the agency’s list of playwrights and was also tasked with unfurling the Union Jack on Royal birthdays at the office in Albemarle Street in London.

Hewson acquired the agency from Johnson, when he retired in 1977, with his wife Margaret joining him soon after. The pair were a "formidable professional partnership" that lasted until her death in 2002.

The couple looked after a "brilliantly eclectic list" which included poets George Barker and Jenny Joseph, playwrights David Pownall and Michael Hastings, novelists James Hamilton-Paterson, Dick Francis, Elaine Dundy and William Trevor, and non-fiction writers such as AL Rowse and Peter Fleming. During his career, he represented worldwide bestsellers, including The White Hotel by DM Thomas, the thriller Night Sky by Clare Francis, and horror novel Candlenight by Phil Rickman. All of these books were the start of lifelong careers with the agency, which also oversaw the early career of Maeve Binchy, and a merger with Winant Towers bringing children’s author Leon Garfield into the agency.

In 1985, Hewson began representing Beryl Bainbridge and along with his wife "put Beryl’s contracts and finances back on even keel", all while creating a lifelong friendship that lasted until Bainbridge’s death in 2010.

During his career, he also looked after the Royal Library’s books and catalogues and attended two Royal Garden parties and "took great joy smuggling cakes and sandwiches home in his top hat for his daughter Anna".

After his wife’s death, Andrew merged the agency with Michael Alcock’s eponymous agency rebranding as Johnson & Alcock, and settled into offices in Clerkenwell. He continued as chairman of the agency and oversaw the next generation of talent – taking on the nature writer Ronald Blythe, watching Dick Francis pass the reins of their bestselling brand to his son Felix Francis, and driving the resurgence of classic Estates such as Elizabeth Taylor and Barbara Comyns. He served multiple times on the committee of the AAA, and acted as a kind and generous friend, agent and mentor to all those who met him.

Hewson never formally retired, but relaxed his professional life in order to spend more time with his daughter Anna and two grandchildren Esme and Milo, and found happiness in a new life with Carmela, an old family friend whom he married, and stepson Harry.

He was hailed as one of “the last true gentlemen in publishing”, and battled cancer for more than a year with stoicism and a lack of fuss. A tribute to him read: "He was a man of immense culture and refinement, compassionate, with a warmth of understanding and impeccable literary judgement. His legacy survives in the agency that he ran for almost 50 years, and it will continue to champion his belief in looking after authors with kindness, humility and decency. "

James Hamilton-Paterson said: “With Andrew Hewson’s death the world of British publishing has lost one of its brightest and most experienced literary agents. He inherited the John Johnson agency, and with it John’s authors, of whom I must be one of the very few survivors. I soon became friends with Andrew and his first wife Margaret and spent many riotous Scottish holidays in the house in Aboyne that had belonged to Andrew’s late mother, who wrote children’s fiction under the name Jean Ross. From there Andrew led merry and taxing rambles in Deeside and the Cairngorms. A skilled countryman, he was an excellent fly-fisher and could equally demonstrate the right way to paunch and skin a hare. 

“As a literary agent Andrew was conscientious to a fault, intimidatingly well-read and with an encyclopaedic recall of authors and titles that never deserted him. A devoted father to Anna and his grandchildren, he had a wide circle of unusual friends and acquaintances, all of whom loved him for his great good humour and unfailing kindness.”

Charlie Campbell, co-owner and director of Greyhound Literary, said: “Andrew Hewson may well have been the nicest person in publishing. He was also a brilliant literary agent. I was lucky enough to start out as his assistant’s maternity cover in 2004 and I immediately thought ’this is what publishing should be like’ (just as the industry was about to change even more). Funny, warm and so self-effacing, he leaves a lasting legacy, with his agency and clients in excellent hands. He will be much missed.”