Curtis Brown and Conville & Walsh join forces

Curtis Brown has bought a 50% stake in fellow agency Conville & Walsh.

Conville & Walsh will retain its name and operating independence, with Curtis Brown chief executives Jonny Geller and Ben Hall joining its board. The smaller agency will move into Curtis Brown's Haymarket offices in November.

The two will share resources and combine areas of expertise, plus author services such as Conville & Walsh's speaker's bureau Hire Intelligence and Curtis Brown Creative's writing courses.

Conville & Walsh co-founder Clare Conville said: "In the fast-changing landscape of international publishing, this will be a fantastic opportunity to combine C&W's strengths and skills with those of Curtis Brown's and to ensure we continue to offer a bespoke service supported by a powerful agenting alliance to all our authors."

Her fellow C&W co-founder Patrick Walsh said: "This is about our authors. For the last eighteen months we've explored how best to extend our authors' reach in the new publishing multiverse. Working with Curtis Brown, who we've long known and respected, struck us as an exciting solution."

Geller hailed the development as "one of the most exciting developments in the history of Curtis Brown", saying he had long admired the C&W team, "especially Clare and Patrick's verve and brilliant championing of their authors". He commented: "Any author with ambitions to widen their readership and to express themselves in any media should be represented by an agency capable of making this happen. We believe that by listening to our authors' needs and responding dynamically to the changing markets, together, we will provide that information."

The two agencies have previously worked closely together on film projects, including deals for M L Stedman, S J Watson, James Holland and Rachel Joyce.

The development follows the acquisition of A P Watt by United Agents in November last year, indicating a move towards consolidation among agencies.

Conville & Walsh has meanwhile also announced that Sophie Lambert, previously an agent at Tibor Jones working with Kevin Conroy Scott, will be joining Conville & Walsh as a literary agent on 8th April. Her 30 fiction and non-fiction clients include Nathan Filer, whose debut book was won by HarperCollins after an 11-way auction. 

Alex Christofi is also being promoted to literary agent from his position as assistant to Patrick Walsh. 

Meanwhile, Dorcas Rogers has been promoted to the role of finance manager at Conville & Walsh, succeeding Alan Oliver who left the agency at the end of last year. 

In a separate development, Conville and Walsh agent Jo Unwin has today also announced she is moving to Transworld to take up the post of deputy publishing director. She takes up her post on 8th April.