It’s a great pleasure to share news of significant promotions and appointments within the Blake Friedmann agency team.

We’re thrilled that Kate Burke will be stepping up to become a director on the company’s executive board, working closely with Julian Friedmann, Chairman, and Isobel Dixon, MD and Head of Books, in the management of the agency, along with Head of Finance, Daisy Way and Vice Head of Books, Juliet Pickering, who both joined the Executive Board last year.

Kate Burke joined Blake Friedmann in 2019 from Northbank Talent Management after working as an editor for ten years at Headline, HarperCollins and Penguin Random House. She represents a stellar list of crime, thriller, historical and commercial women’s fiction, including writers Will Dean, Dani Atkins and Allie Reynolds. We’re delighted to be able to recognise Kate’s sterling contribution to the agency, not just through the work of her authors, but also in her sharing of expertise and mentoring support for colleagues. We look forward to developing the company’s future together.

We’re also very happy to announce that Sian Ellis-Martin, who joined the agency three years ago, has been promoted to Associate Agent. She will continue to support Kate Burke’s authors and some of the authors on Isobel Dixon’s list, but will be taking on clients for direct representation too. You can see more about her interests for potential submission here.

Earlier this year we welcomed Tabitha Topping to Blake Friedmann as Book Department Assistant, after she had worked with us part-time since her stint as our Carole Blake Open Doors candidate in 2020 – the first person to do this virtually with the agency. Antonia Coker, who took part in the Carole Blake Open Doors project earlier this year, is also now working with us part-time as an Office Assistant. It’s a joy to see new entrants to the publishing industry flourish in this way.

We continue to work with Kay Peddle of Kay Peddle Literary, and Emma Shercliff of Laxfield Literary Associates, selling rights for their clients internationally and we are very pleased to have expanded our associate agent work with Becky Thomas, at her newly established agency, Lewinsohn Literary.

Further in the Book Department, Samuel Hodder is building a strong list of literary clients and Roya Sarrafi-Gohar supports on Isobel and Juliet’s authors. James Pusey is Head of Rights and Hana Murrell is Senior Rights Manager in the translation rights team, selling our authors’ work in many languages around the world.

Julian Friedmann and Conrad Williams, Head of the Film, TV and Theatre Department, are supported by Louisa Minghella, who also represents a number of her own writers. Lizzy Attree is our Office Manager and Ane Reason is our Contracts Manager – having joined us, like Roya, just as the first lockdown began in March 2020.

We’re exceptionally proud of this talented team, who have done such brilliant work for the agency’s clients over the most challenging time during the pandemic. None of this would be possible without our wonderful clients, and we look forward to sharing more of their work with the world, as we take the agency forward with our excellent colleagues into 2022 and beyond.