Transworld wins nine-way auction for Matthew Bremner's debut

Transworld has won a nine-way auction for The Scheme, the debut by journalist and film-maker Matthew Bremner.

Editorial director Alex Christofi bought UK and Commonwealth rights from Matt Turner at RCW.

The deal followed a nine-way bidding war. North American rights were pre-empted by Michael Flamini at St Martin’s Press. Publication is scheduled for spring 2027.

The book “recounts the story of Scotland’s doomed 1698 expedition to set up a colony in Panama, revealing in the process why Scotland never became a colonial power, and why it was all but forced to join a union with England”, Transworld said. “Eye-opening, thoroughly researched and engagingly written, The Scheme offers a new history of an incident whose consequences echo down the centuries.”

Christofi said: “I loved the idea of this book, telling in full the little-known story of Scotland’s attempt to colonise Panama and thereby control access to one of the world’s great trading routes. But it was only when I read Matthew’s exceptional proposal that this story of swashbuckling ambition, greed and colonial folly came alive – I can see it flying along in the slipstream of The Wager.” 

Bremner said: “The Darien scheme, and Scotland’s attempt to settle modern-day Panama, is a rollocking tale of ambition and colonialism that speaks to the nation’s place in the UK as well as the world. It’s a story full of tragic, forgotten characters, candle-lit boardrooms, dense, steaming jungles and rough-sea voyages. And it weaves together my own heritage as a Scot and the Latin America where I’ve been working for the past decade.”