Anthony Sheil dies

Aitken Alexander Associates has announced the death of agent Anthony Sheil.

Sheil died peacefully in the early hours of yesterday morning (Tuesday 10th January), aged 84.

Sheil set up Anthony Sheil Associates in 1962, where he was to give the late Gillon Aitken his start as an agent. He later co-founded Wallace Aitken and Sheil in New York in 1974. In 1991 he became chairman of Sheil Land Associates which he left in 1998 to work as an independent agent in association with Aitken Alexander Associates.

The agency said: "Over the years Anthony had represented literary giants like John Fowles and John Banville, important non-fiction from authors like John Keegan and Paddy Leigh Fermor as well as bestselling writers like Catherine Cookson and Josephine Cox.  After his departure from his eponymous agency he took a more modest role, but he continued to work as an agent to the end and had become a much-loved colleague to all at Aitken Alexander."
 
Sheil had lost his beloved wife, Annette, last year.