Horace Bent: hit me baby one more tome rings out at LBF

Welcome back, Olympians! A point of order first: can we agree to call this the first proper IRL London Book Fair post-pandemic? I only say this because I imagine you, like me, spent last year’s event in a bleary Covid haze and I can’t quite say I was actually “there”. In fact, I believe I was in some sort of dream-like fugue state because I seem to have a clear recollection of me spreading some rumours, er, I mean, doing some Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein-level journalistic digging, that Curtis Brown was imminently to be sold to CAA. And then asking Jonny Geller about it, to which he replied: “That old chestnut? A sale is out of the question!” That couldn’t have happened, could it?

Anyway, UTA (which bought Curtis Brown in the end, you may not have heard) are in town in force—perhaps wandering through the International Agents’ Centre with the practised eye of a vintner at harvest who can accurately judge which grapes are ripe for the plucking. But what agency wouldn’t want to join UTA if that means their illustrious Tinsel Town clients—Harrison Ford, Charlize Theron, Bob the Drag Queen—might show up at the Christmas ’do?

Speaking of Hollywood, or Hollywood-adjacent, the biggest news in literature this past week—apart from the launch of Granta’s Best British Irritatingly Young Novelists List (it seems one or two of them are published by Granta Books, fancy that!)—has of course been Britney Spears revealing she has nearly finished her “brutally honest” memoir. It probably won’t be as brutal once K-Fed and Jamie Spears’ lawyers give it a good going over. But I and my fellow Britney Army troops are feverish with anticipation... Actually, that’s not Miss Rona coming back, is it?

More pertinently, who the heck is stepping up to buy the book in the UK? Simon & Schuster US supposedly paid $15m for the tome, so I imagine they might be keen to sell some rights. I think it may be a really good fit for Jacques Testard’s Fitzcarraldo. At any rate, in honour of the impending Britney memoir drop, for the entirety of this LBF I shall be wearing an exact replica of the iconic double denim—a.k.a. “the Canadian tuxedo”—outfits she and Justin Timberlake wore at that awards show when they were dating back in the early Noughties. Ah, those were the days.

A final bit of housekeeping: heads up, HarperCollins’ big cheese Brian Murray. There is a last-minute change to the programme and instead of fielding softballs at your keynote from David Roche, your interlocutor will be one Mick Lynch. He’s a local lad, loves to chat with c.e.o.s, and sounds mighty interested in how HarperCollins US settled with its striking workers. You’ll be in good hands, Mr Murray.