Bonnier Books UK promotes Russell and Stretch

Bonnier Books UK has promoted Francesca Russell to publicity director across its adult trade business while Karen Stretch has been made campaigns director.

Russell, currently publicity director of Zaffre and Manilla Press, will now oversee publicity strategy for all the company’s four adult trade imprints, including non-fiction imprints Blink Publishing and John Blake. The fiction and non-fiction publicity teams will report into her.

She joined as publicity director of the company’s fiction imprints in 2018, having previously been Penguin Random House’s publicity director for Century and Arrow and deputy publicity director for the Cornerstone division, working with author brands including James Patterson, Katie Fforde, Anthony Horowitz, Phil Collins and Tom Hanks.

Russell said: “The last two years working at Zaffre have been just brilliant; in particular working with such passionate, collaborative colleagues, building brands and breaking new talent. I am excited to expand my remit to work alongside the hugely talented non-fiction team and look forward to building on the growth and success we are achieving across the business together.”

Kate Parkin, m.d. of adult trade publishing, added: “Since joining us two years ago, Francesca has played a major part in the growth of our fiction imprints. The stellar campaigns she has masterminded for brand authors Heather Morris and Lynda La Plante, together with the brilliant launches of Stacey Halls’ The Familiars, Christy Lefteri’s The Beekeeper of Aleppo, and Anton du Beke’s One Enchanted Evening, have meant that our fiction has rarely been out of the bestseller lists. As we grow and develop our non-fiction publishing, I am hugely excited to have Francesca’s creative, innovative and energetic input on this side of the business, and I look forward to all that she will bring to this role.”

Stretch, currently publicity director of adult non-fiction imprints Blink and John Blake, takes up a newly-created, strategic role designed to strengthen the impact of publicity campaigns across Bonnier Books UK’s adult trade business. She joined then start-up imprint Blink Publishing in 2014 and has previously held publicity roles at Penguin Books, the BBC and Channel 5 and has a background in journalism, including at the Mail on Sunday.

She said: “It has been an honour and a privilege to be part of the company's non-fiction journey since the launch of Blink in 2014. As our adult trade publishing goes from strength of strength, I’m hugely excited about my new role, working across our fiction and non-fiction imprints.”

Parkin called her “one of the industry’s leading publicists”, saying: “One of the founder members of Blink, she has led that imprint on an extraordinary journey from Alfie Deyes’ Pointless Book to The Mountbattens, Gone Fishing and I Let Him Go, via celebrities such as Gary Barlow, Roger Daltrey and Burt Reynolds. More recently she has played a major part in the publishing of our first Manilla Press non-fiction title, The Future We Choose, proving once again her versatility and publishing smarts. Calm under pressure, creative, thoughtful and dedicated to our authors and their books, we are truly fortunate to have Karen in this key role.”