New Plum Sykes series to Bloomsbury

Bloomsbury is to publish a new series set among Oxford University’s Champagne Set during the 1980s by Plum Sykes.

Alexandra Pringle, group editor-in-chief at Bloomsbury, acquired UK rights to the first two books in Sykes’s Oxford Girls mystery series from Rebecca Carter at Janklow & Nesbit (UK) Ltd. In the US, Luke Janklow sold North American rights to Jonathan Burnham at HarperCollins Inc. in a "major" deal. The first book in the series, Murder Most Posh, will be published on both sides of the Atlantic in April 2017.

Murder Most Posh follows Ursula Flowerbutton as she starts her first term at Oxford University in autumn 1985. She is expecting a Brideshead-Revisited world of parties, punting and floppy-haired Etonians, but "certainly not a murder". When confronted with a dead body at her first tutorial she turns detective.

"Witty, satirical and peopled with unforgettable characters, this is a story of high society, low morals and a middle-class girl", the publisher said.

Sykes has written two previous novels for Penguin: Bergdorf Blondes and The Debutante Divorcée.

Pringle said: “I am overjoyed to be publishing next spring Plum's first novel, we hope of many, in the Oxford Girls mystery series. I've scarcely ever enjoyed a book so much - hilarious, gripping, divinely entertaining and extremely clever, it is Agatha Christie meets 'Clueless', or Lord Peter Wimsey meets The Devil Wears Prada. Irresistible.” 

Rebecca Folland at Janklow & Nesbit UK is handling all translation rights.