Christopher MacLehose to lead new imprint at Welbeck

Welbeck Publishing Group has revealed a new imprint, Mountain Leopard Press, which will be led by Christopher MacLehose. It will focus on literary‚ÄØwork and translated literature.

MacLehose arrives at Welbeck following a 13-year stint as publisher of The MacLehose Press at Quercus, which he also founded.

Mountain Leopard Press officially launches in April with MacLehose as publisher and Rebecca Strong coming to the imprint as senior editor. Strong previously worked as an independent agent and at the Crown Publishing Group of Random House in New York, but she began her publishing career with MacLehose at the Harvill Press.

“Drawing on his reputation as the‚ÄØchampion of translated literature in the UK, the objective of Mountain Leopard Press is to be a small and dynamic list that will focus on translated literature in the main but will include a very few outstanding authors writing in English from around the world,” Wellbeck said. “Mountain Leopard Press will publish and champion only the very best books across translated and literary fiction, narrative non-fiction, crime fiction in translation, and illustrated books.”

MacLehose is credited with‚ÄØbringing‚ÄØto English-language readers the‚ÄØMillennium‚ÄØtrilogy of‚ÄØthe‚ÄØbestselling Swedish author Stieg Larsson and many award-winning translators and writers from across 24 languages, including Pierre Lemaitre, Philippe Claudel,‚ÄØSergio De La‚ÄØPava‚ÄØand Lars Mytting. ‚ÄØHe was previously the publisher of the Harvill Press for 21 years where his authors were translated from 33 languages and included‚ÄØRaymond Carver, W G Sebald and Anna Politkovskaya among others. He left MacLehose Press last October, handing over to Katharina Bielenberg as publisher.

MacLehose said:‚ÄØ“Mountain Leopard Press will begin by publishing an explosive memoir, Beirut 2020 by Charif Majdalani, The Earthspinner, a very beautiful novel by Anuradha Roy, and Stranger to the Moon, a devastating fable by Evelio Rosero. In January 2022 will be published the first novel of a historical quartet by James Buchan. The list has translations in progress from seven languages and will strive with all it publishes to contribute to the development of humanity.”

Mark Smith, executive director of Welbeck Publishing Group, said:‚ÄØ“I could not be happier to be reunited with Christopher and his new creation, Mountain Leopard Press.‚ÄØWe had a very successful collaboration at Quercus and the books he curated there over 13 years are‚ÄØsimply world class. The new list looks equally high quality and everyone at Welbeck is looking forward‚ÄØto introducing Mountain Leopard Press authors to readers all around the world.”‚ÄØ

Christopher MacLehose can be contacted at christopher@mountainleopard.press and Rebecca Strong at rebecca@mountainleopard.press.