Brooke leaves Chatto for Sceptre

Juliet Brooke is moving from Chatto & Windus to Sceptre to become its editorial director.

Welch makes the move on 13th November after 11 years at Chatto & Windus and will play a key role in developing Sceptre’s non-fiction programme, as well as in acquiring fiction for the imprint.

Her appointment follows Drummond Moir’s promotion to publisher for Hodder Non-Fiction last December.

While senior editor at Chatto & Windus, Brooke published Ruth Scurr’s acclaimed biography John Aubrey: My Own Life, Andrew Solomon’s Far From the Tree and Far and Away, and Xiaolu Guo’s memoir Once Upon a Time in the East, as well as bringing new names to the list like Peter Moore’s Sunday Times bestseller The Weather Experiment, Judy Murray’s Knowing the Score and the forthcoming The Language of Kindness by Christie Watson. Among the novels she has published are Neverhome by Laird Hunt, The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer and The Country of Ice Cream Star by Sandra Newman. In addition, she co-devised the Hogarth Shakespeare series, now published in 28 territories, and published its first two titles – Jeanette Winterson’s The Gap of Time and Howard Jacobson’s Shylock is My Name – as well as the latest, which is Dunbar by Edward St Aubyn.

She was a Bookseller Rising Star in 2015.

Carole Welch, publishing director at Sceptre, said: “I am extremely pleased that Juliet is joining Sceptre. She is a smart, creative, dedicated editor and a passionate champion of the books and authors she publishes, whose vision I admire and whose interests will both consolidate and bring an exciting new dimension to our list. I very much look forward to her joining the Sceptre team.”

Brooke said that after “eleven wonderful years” at Chatto it was time for a “fresh adventure”.

“I’ve spent years reading Sceptre’s prize-winning fiction and so many of those books have become classics seen on every bookshelf,” she added. “I am looking forward to helping build the already fantastic non-fiction list into a series of classics for the future.”