Changing of the Guard
Philippa Milnes-Smith, managing director and publisher of Puffin Books, is stepping down within the next three to six months, after a successor has been found. Milnes-Smith, who has been with Penguin for 14 years and been head of Puffin for the last five, said in an interview, "I need to move on. I need new challenges. Last year we had a tough year and we pulled it 'round. The backlist suffered very badly in the U.K. We needed to beat the market, which we're now doing through a new focus on frontlist titles. We've slimmed down to a few big authors who we are committed to, and we're now running ahead of budget. I'm proud of that achievement."
The year 2000 was a difficult one for all U.K. children's publishers (except Bloomsbury, thanks to Harry Potter), largely as a result of schools' buying power dwindling under budget cuts. Puffin has pruned its fiction backlist still more (after significant cuts in 1995) and has strengthened its frontlist publishing with the recent joint U.S./U.K. deal to acquire Brian Jacques's titles and, earlier this year, with the successful bid for bestselling Irish author Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl, the book much touted as the next Harry Potter. Both represent the current Puffin policy, which appears to favor the acquisition or development of established authors as much as the nurturing of new talent. Outside fiction, Puffin has also had strong success with titles such as Text Me and the Digimon series.
"At Puffin, we have a very catholic list, representing a wide range of tastes," said Milnes-Smith. "We currently have a clear sense of where we are and where we're going, as we confidently celebrate our 60th birthday. I feel immensely privileged and very happy to have been involved in the most recent Puffin developments and, with the planned handover period, I know that I can leave things properly."
Anthony Forbes Watson, CEO of Penguin U.K., said, "Milnes-Smith has brought a commercial focus to Puffin that has made it a much stronger business than it was before. It has a more concentrated approach to developing the opportunities of the frontlist while also making the necessary changes to the backlist. These provide the basis for our development in the next three to five years. There are huge opportunities in children's publishing, despite the recent difficulties. The concentration will now be on a few authors and properties that will provide the potency of children's books. In children's fiction now, there is no getting away from the critical importance of highly charged advocacy for new voices. It's become much more like adult publishing in that respect. Taking a punt on a new author is risky, but we have to put our eggs in a few baskets. That is where the excitement is and that is where Puffin is."
Milnes-Smith's departure comes against a background of great change within the Penguin children's division. Last year's acquisition of Dorling Kindersley has led to a merger of Ladybird and DK children's division, described by Penguin as "bringing together two of the best-known brands in children's publishing." The closure of the Ladybird offices in Nottingham, with the loss of 11 jobs, raises questions about the future of the Ladybird identity, one of the longest surviving brand names in the U.K. But key Ladybird staff remain in the realignment: Ladybird's former managing director Michael Herridge as publisher of a new licensing division made up of DK, Ladybird and Funfax; former head of non-licensed publishing Stephanie Barton as publishing director of DK's preschool and primary division; and marketing director Catherine Bell as U.K. marketing director for DK's adult and children's lists. "Ladybird has been owned by Pearson for 30 years," said Forbes Watson, "but it has never been a full sister to Puffin or even to Longman, because it is not author-led. It is a full sister to DK. Using the international contacts of DK and developing the photographic opportunities it offers will take Ladybird closer to its origins. Ladybird, DK and Puffin will be unified in U.K. selling, but not in creativity. Unlike the other two, Puffin is author-led and it will remain creatively independent, with its own new managing director."
Billy Elliot
The film Billy Elliot, the story of a coalminer's son from the north of England who swaps his boxing lessons for ballet class, was a box office hit last year. Now nominated for three Oscars, including best director (Stephen Daldry), best supporting actor (Julie Walters) and best original screenplay (Lee Hall), it is a moving story of a boy finding his own way of expressing himself through dance, in complete contrast to the hardships of his background. And it has now been adapted into a novel by Melvin Burgess, to be published in April by The Chicken House, and by Scholastic in the U.S. Told in three different male voices—Billy, his friend Michael and his Dad, Jackie—the book gives the characters greater depth than in the film and adds insight to Billy's thoughts about his life and especially about the death of his mother.
Barry Cunningham, managing director of The Chicken House, said, "After seeing the film, I just wanted there to be a book—not just the usual novelization but a novel that could do justice to Lee Hall's wonderful screenplay. Melvin Burgess was just the writer." Burgess jumped at the chance. "When Barry Cunningham asked me to the novelization, I knew straight away that I wanted to do it. The whole thing had to be done ridiculously quickly, and it was only possible because everything had been thought out so well—characters, situations, drama, story were all there for me. I've used multiple first-person narratives, as in Junk and Bloodtide, as it seemed the best way to show a side of things that a film can't do."
Fickling Goes Bicontinental
David Fickling Books has become the first bicontinental children's publisher, as a result of a new deal which sees the imprint move from Scholastic, under which it was launched just over a year ago, to Random House in the U.K. and U.S. Under the new agreement, David Fickling authors will be able to be published simultaneously in the U.S. and the U.K. working with the same editor and within the same publishing company. The idea for the new imprint came from Craig Virden, president and publisher of Random House Children's Books in the U.S., who has published some David Fickling titles in the U.S. including Philip Pullman, with total support in the U.K. from Philippa Dickinson, chairman of the Random House Group children's division.
"I've always wanted Fickling back at Transworld," Dickinson said. "As he says, 'It's like coming home.' In getting David we have attracted a world-class children's book editor and publisher who can operate on a global scale." Dickinson and Fickling worked together at Transworld where Fickling brought Jacqueline Wilson, Philip Pullman, Ian Beck and K.M. Peyton, among others. Fickling, previously publishing director of Scholastic, left Scholastic at the end of 1999 to set up his own list devoted to fiction, poetry and picture books. With a long-established reputation as an editor of exceptional flair, enthusiasm and commitment, he has worked with many prize-winning authors, most notably Philip Pullman on His Dark Materials trilogy—the last of which, The Amber Spyglass, was published on the David Fickling list last autumn.
Pullman, whose The Book of Dust (a companion volume to His Dark Materials) will be published as a David Fickling Book, sees an immediate and direct benefit from it being "thoroughly and beautifully designed to fit both the U.K. and the U.S. markets." He has worked with David Fickling for over 16 years now. "It's long been understood that an author's primary relationship is with his or her editor. It couldn't be otherwise, really," Pullman said. "Fickling was associated with His Dark Materials before a word was written; it was over lunch with him eight years ago that I first floated the idea, and his superb editorial judgment and his boundless enthusiasm have guided and sustained me for many years. He can put his finger unerringly on what doesn't work, at the same time as conveying his excitement about what does; and whereas no author enjoys having it pointed out that anything he or she does is less than gem-like or flawless, it helps when the pointer-out knows so much about how stories work."
For Fickling, the creation of a joint adult/children's, joint U.K./U.S. list is "a double-dream time. The opportunity to publish directly into the huge and receptive U.S. readership is a British editor's dream. To publish for children, but not to be necessarily restricted to children's books, is a children's editor's dream. I have always thought it nonsensical for publishers to divide their market into children and adults and I have never subscribed to that old excuse that a book is too American or too English. We love good American books over here; it stimulates our culture no end, and I suspect the feelings are mutual." David Fickling Books will continued to be based in Oxford.
What's Next for Pullman
Following the enormous success of The Amber Spyglass, Pullman is already planning The Book of Dust, though he declined to be more specific, explaining that it is not yet written. "The Book of Dust will not be a simple reference book—far from it," he said. " want to go into the background of Lyra's world, and the creation myth that underpins the whole trilogy, and to say something about some of the other characters, and about the alethiometer and the history of the subtle knife, and so on. Furthermore I want it to be richly illustrated. It'll be story-driven, not reference-driven, and I'll need to brood over it in silence before I find the right form for it."
In the meantime, Pullman is working on the filmscript for Peter Dickinson's The Changes trilogy and working on a shorter novel, on the scale of his Clockwork. Though David Fickling Books will publish The Book of Dust, Pullman will continue to work with his existing publishers "because I've had nothing but happy relationships with all of them."
And the Award Goes to...
On February 22, Pullman collected his second Children's Book of the Year Award for The Amber Spyglass at the British Book Awards, beating off opposition from three other novels—J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Bloomsbury), Jacqueline Wilson's Vicky Angel (Transworld) and Jamila Gavin's Coram Boy (Mammoth)—and two picture books, Jez Alborough's Hug (Walker) and Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar Board Book and Toy Set (Hamish Hamilton). The Amber Spyglass's success in both adult and children's markets was highlighted at the ceremony. Pullman, who won the same award in 1996 for Northern Lights (the first volume in the His Dark Materials trilogy, published in the States as The Golden Compass), said, "To win with Northern Lights was wonderful; to win a second time is incredible."
Quentin Blake, Curator
Almost at the end of his two-year tenure as the U.K.'s first Children's Laureate, Quentin Blake has brought children's illustration to a new audience through a ground-breaking exhibition that has just opened at the National Gallery in London. In "Tell Me a Picture," Blake has chosen 26 of his favorite paintings, hung in alphabetical order, which puts Michael Foreman next to Goya and Edward Hopper next to Roberto Innocenti.
Blake's intention in the exhibition is twofold: to help break down barriers between children and art, and to encourage children and adults alike to enter the imagination of each artist and enjoy the story that their picture tells. Blake has used his role as Laureate to take children's books into all sorts of places—such as the National Gallery—which have never dealt with the subject before. The exhibition runs through June 17.
Gullane Buys David & Charles
David & Charles has sold its children's list to Gullane Entertainment, the rights company previously known as Brit Allcroft, which already owns Thomas the Tank Engine, Sooty and Art Attack. The sell-off, for £1.1 million, follows talks between Gullane and David & Charles about televising the successful picture book Harry and the Bucketful of Dinosaurs.
The new list, to be known as Gullane Children's Publishing, will publish titles to support its rights portfolio. David & Charles staff, including editorial director Mandy Suhr and art director Paul Burgess, will move to Gullane. David & Charles were bought last year by F&W Publications, the U.S.-based book club operator and special interest publisher. The children's list, with sales of £1.12 million for 2000, is small and devoted to picture books.
