Pearson's ‘hilarious’ debut goes to Usborne for six figures in eight-way auction

Usborne has acquired the “hilarious, touching and wise” debut novel by Jenny Pearson in an “intense and heated” eight-way auction.

Fiction director Rebecca Hill paid a six-figure advance for the world rights to The Super Miraculous Journey of Freddie Yates, in a three-book deal. She said the story was “an instant hit with everyone in the Usborne offices. Debates raged over who snort-laughed the loudest at its side-splitting humour. With a voice that leaps off the page and straight into your heart, Jenny has written a book packed with laughs, tears and wisdom, and I’m so excited to welcome her to the Usborne list and for the stellar journey that lies ahead.”

Hill acquired the rights from RCW agent Sam Copeland, who said: “It is rare to find a book that genuinely makes you laugh. It is rare to find a book that has a wonderful, well-drawn and warm friendship in its heart. And it’s also rare to find a book that makes you properly cry at the end. It’s impossibly rare to find all three together, but that’s what this book succeeds in doing.”

The story is about a boy who finds out his biological father is still alive so sets out to find him with his two best friends in tow. The trio unwittingly setting off a chain of ‘miraculous’ events, via an onion-eating competition, a couple of super-hero costumes, and some very angry antique thieves. But Freddie discovers that some things can’t always be explained – and, sometimes, what you’re looking for has been with you the whole time.

Usborne will publish in the UK in 2020 and rights have already sold in Italy, with two more territories under offer.