One of the hot titles at the London Book Fair last week was a Cinderella-story first novel by American-in-London Kathleen Tessaro, whose Elegance made six-figure sales at auction on both sides of the Atlantic. Morrow executive editor Jennifer Hershey was the winner over six other bidders here, buying U.S. rights in a two-book deal from agent Jonny Geller at Curtis Brown in London, who had sold the same pair to new HarperCollins U.K. publishing director Lynne Drew a few days earlier. The book is about a woman who transforms her life by following the advice of an ancient guide to style for women that she finds in a used bookshop.
Donna Tartt, whose Secret History was a big success 10 years ago and whose next, The Little Friend, will be done here in the fall by Knopf, found a new London home at Bloomsbury, where Alexandra Pringle won the book at auction for a "significant" six figures, after Tartt's previous U.K. publisher, Viking, declined to bid.
