Avon acquires 24 new women’s fiction titles as part of significant expansion
Avon, the commercial fiction division of HarperCollins, has acquired 24 women’s fiction titles as part of a significant “expansion of its publishing heartland”.
Commissioning editor Anna Nightingale acquired world all-language rights to a romantic crossover trilogy from debut author Fiona Radcliffe. The Oxford Chronicles follows three pairs of later-in-love lovebirds as they find their way to one another on the cobbled streets of Oxford. The series begins with Secrets Among the Spires in July 2026; Romance on the Riverbank and Love in the Library will follow in March 2027 and July 2027 respectively.
Radcliffe said: “To say that I was delighted when Anna Nightingale signed me would be an understatement! To write for Avon is everything I’ve ever dreamt of for my career and I know I am going to love working with the fantastic team.”
Nightingale has also acquired world all-language rights from Laura Williams of Greene & Heaton to three more books by Kate Storey. Storey’s next book, The Library of Lost Dreams, follows Juliet Finch as she seeks to recover her beloved first edition of The Time Traveler’s Wife, and will publish in February 2027. This will be the start of Avon publishing Storey biannually, and will be followed by two more titles in July 2027 and February 2028.
Storey said: “Writing uplifting books about books for Avon is this ex-English teacher’s dream and I’m so grateful for the opportunity to write more! The Library of Lost Dreams is my most emotional novel to date and it’s set in the school where I used to teach, so Juliet’s story feels very personal and incredibly special to me.”
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Editor Billy Lindon has snapped up two new standalone Second World War sagas from historical novelist Molly Green, set in London institutions: Wartime Secrets at Down Street Station and The Wartime Broadcaster’s Secret. World all-language rights were acquired from Elly James at HBB Agency. The first book will follow a determined young cook serving in the underground railway at Down Street station, which was secretly reopened as a War Cabinet Room. The second will follow the first woman to be a newsreader at the BBC’s famed Bush House, as bombs drop.
Lindon has also negotiated a deal for world all-language rights from Ros Edwards at Edwards Fuglewicz Literary Agency to 10 standalone sagas from novelist Margaret Kaine. The new novels follow the lives and loves of women working in the Staffordshire Potteries factories over the 20th century. Three new frontlist titles and seven repackaged backlist titles will begin with A Mother’s Regret, A Daughter’s Promise and A Family’s Bond in July 2027. Additional titles will follow in digital format across autumn and winter 2027, with paperbacks publishing every six months.
Lindon said: “I have been searching for a saga author of Margaret Kaine’s brilliance for a long time, and I’m so pleased we’ve found each other! At Avon we’re all so excited to bring her immersive and heart-wrenching stories to readers old and new.”
Editor Maddie Wilson acquired world all-language rights from Liza DeBlock at Greenstone Literary Agency for three new European-set, escapist, destination romance novels from returning Avon author Annabel French, the first of which will publish in November 2026.
Elsewhere, Helen Huthwaite acquired world english rights from Caroline Sheldon at RCW to three more feel-good and laugh-out-loud romcoms by author Fiona Gibson. This marks Gibson’s return to Avon after a period of publishing by Boldwood Books. The first title will be published in March 2027, with Lindon as editor.
