OUR WRITERS MEAN BUSINESS
OUR WRITERS MEAN BUSINESS 
Darley Anderson is the founder and proprietor of the Darley Anderson Literary, TV and Film Agency. He is an ex-publisher who had almost twenty years experience in all aspects of general trade publishing. He was also the pioneering creator of the highly successful Overcoming Common Problems series from Sheldon Press – a UK brand leader in popular health book publishing.
He started his Agency single-handedly in 1988 beginning with three writers and a bank overdraft. Over the years Anderson has gained an international reputation as one of the very best – if not the best – talent spotter in the book business.
He represents a wide range of bestselling writers including Martina Cole, Lee Child, John Connolly, Lesley Pearse, Tana French, Constance Briscoe, Chris Carter, Carmen Reid, Clare Dowling, Jane Costello, Tara Hyland, Alex Barclay, Chris Mooney, Adrian Plass, Lucy Summers, Anne Baker, Annie Murray, Lynda Page, Margaret Dickinson, Elizabeth Waite, Michelle Harrison and Cathy Cassidy.
Almost all his writers were unknown and unpublished when they sent their first ms to Anderson. He worked editorially with them before selling their ms. In many cases he negotiated six figure deals for these debuts. In some cases though, he had to persevere for many, many months when US and UK publishers failed to recognise his writers sales potential.
Scrupulous in all business matters and a tough dealmaker, Anderson has negotiated some of the highest seven and eight figure advances ever achieved for British and Irish writers.
All those whom he represents would echo the words of the UK’s biggest selling hardback adult fiction writer Martina Cole, who has said of Anderson: “I have the best Agent in London”.
Rosanna
became the Agency’s Financial Controller in 2008.
After graduating in English Literature at the University of Nottingham Rosanna
joined a dynamic new finance house and fell in love with deal making, deadlines
and pressure, finding work more fun than fun.
She won Cosmopolitan Magazine’s Cook of The Year Competition and took
up the prize of the one year Diploma Course at Leith’s School of Food
and Wine which also included the Wine and Spirit Education Trust Intermediate
Course. She then passed the CIMA Certificate in Business Accounting.
She has worked in farming, banking, law, hotels, catering, the
wine trade, import, export, retail, wholesale and fashion.
She takes great delight in all aspects of the Agency and thoroughly enjoys
being, in the words of Lee Child, The Money Lady.
Madeleine joined the Darley Anderson Agency in February 2007.
At the Agency Madeleine is the agent for Women’s & General Fiction, the agent for Children’s and YA books and the Deputy MD of the Children’s Book Agency.
Madeleine handles all types of accessible literary and popular fiction including genres such as upmarket suspense, romantic comedy, chick lit, humorous, bonkbusters, exotic sagas, psychological suspense, children’s, Young Adult, dystopia, paranormal, high concept, YA thrillers, supernatural and cross over books appealing to both children and adults.
Her fiction clients include Carrie Duffy, Ella Kingsley, J.J. Salem, Carolyn Jess-Cooke, Cally Taylor, Anna-Lou Weatherley, Tracy Bloom, Karen Clarke and Victoria Fox.
Her Children’s and YA clients include Phil Earle, Anne Cameron, C.J Daugherty, S.B Hayes, Lucy Jones, Dave Lowe, Adam Perrott and Rob Stevens.
Madeleine also handles Film & TV rights, working closely with Steve Fisher of the APA Talent & Literary Agency in LA.
Since graduating from St Andrews University with a degree in English Literature and language, Madeleine has worked for the independent publishing company Trojan Books in Berlin, and A P Watt Literary, TV & Film Agency in London.
Peter
Colegrove has been the company accountant since 1992. He is also a director
and company secretary of the Darley Anderson Childrens Book Agency Ltd.
Mary joined Darley Anderson in February 2011. She is Rights Assistant and works closely with Clare Wallace selling foreign rights to publishers from all over the world.
She studied French and Spanish at the University of Newcastle, and spent her third year as an ERASMUS student, studying in Chambery in France and Granada in Spain. On graduating she joined the British Council Teaching Assistant programme and travelled to the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, where she spent a year teaching English to primary school children.
After working at the family’s plant nursery in Norfolk, Mary moved to London to start an internship at Bloomsbury. She spent four months working in their Rights department before joining Darley Anderson.
Steve began his career in television journalism in New York, working for ABC News and CNN. At ABC he worked for World News Tonight as Head of the Research department and an Off Air Reporter and worked closely with then host Peter Jennings. At CNN he wrote anchor copy and field produced.
Turning to Hollywood, Steve trained at ICM, then began his agenting career at the venerable H.N. Swanson Agency, the oldest literary firm on the West Coast. Specializing in representing books to the film and TV business, he represents such authors as Lee Child, John Connolly, Tana French, the estate of Patrick O'Brian, Robert Stone, Gregory Maguire, Peter Matthiessen, James Sallis, and many others.
His current company, Agency for the Performing Arts, has offices in Beverly Hills, New York, and Nashville.
Sophie joined the Agency in November 2009.
She works as the Illustrator and Picture Book Agent, as well as Darley Anderson's Assistant. She also manages the website.
Sophie graduated from Kingston University with a BA in Fine Art. After university, she worked at a popular London Art Gallery doing their Press, PR and Communications. Sophie then went on to spend time in the music industry, doing Radio Plugging and PR for bands. In her spare time, she also ran a business designing and baking cakes for local shops and parties.
Vicki joined the Darley Anderson Agency in February 2010.
She is a qualified proofreader and copy editor and, as well as having experience in PR and advertising, she has previously worked for David Higham Associates, Literary, TV and Film Agency.
Vicki works very closely with our authors editorially on adult, young adult and children’s fiction. She has a meticulous eye for detail, and is an excellent talent spotter and editor.
In 2009 Vicki graduated from Royal Holloway, University of London, with a degree in English Literature and Drama/Theatre Studies. During her studies she gained experience in directing, performing and playwriting but was always most fascinated in the novel, the study of which she specialised in.
Clare joined the Darley Anderson Agency in January 2011. She is the Rights Manager and negotiates deals for translation rights all around the world for all the Agency’s authors.
She formerly assisted the Luxton Harris Ltd literary agency. Graduating with a first from a BA in Creative Writing and Cultural Studies at Bath Spa University, Clare went on to gain a distinction on the MA in Creative Writing. She has proof-listened to hundreds of adults and children’s audio books for AudioGO and worked for Cardiff University as a research assistant and coach to international students.
Camilla
joined the Darley Anderson Agency in July 2007.
At the Agency Camilla represents established and début authors in the UK and the US.
She specialises in commercial and accessible literary crime, thrillers, mysteries, suspense, psychological thrillers, historical crime, high-concept accessible fiction and general fiction. She is always looking for exciting submissions and really enjoys working closely editorially with her authors.
Camilla also runs Pitch An Agent in conjunction with CrimeFest. This annual
event gives new writers the rare opportunity to meet agents and discuss
their work. Click here to visit the Crime Fest website.
Camilla studied English Literature and Psychology at Cardiff University, specialising in Novel Writing. In 2003 she co-founded a successful business and worked on this until 2005. After gaining a distinction from the University of the Arts, Camilla went on to work for a national newspaper before joining the Darley Anderson Agency.