Fig Tree wins auction for Alderton début

Penguin General imprint Fig Tree has acquired debut Everything I Know About Love at auction, a series of interconnected stories from journalist Dolly Alderton, formerly The Sunday Times Style Magazine’s dating columnist.

Juliet Annan and Anna Steadman acquired UK and Commonwealth rights (excluding Canada) from Clare Conville at Conville & Walsh. French rights have been pre-empted by Sophie de Closets at Mazarine/Fayard and, according to Fig Tree, there is also "serious" film and TV interest.

Everything I Know About Love is pitched as somewhere between a non-fiction The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank, which Annan also published, and the work of Lena Dunham and Nora Ephron. The stories, promising to strike a chord of recognition with women of every age, are drawn from Alderton's life and that of her friends, interspersed with entries from "The Bad Date Diaries", "The Bad Party Chronicles", recipes, lists and other vignettes.

Alderton, a journalist and film-maker, was The Sunday Times Style Magazine’s dating columnist for the last two years. She created a short film "Anna, Island", inspired by "Desert Island Discs". She is also the former co-host of The Sunday Times' pop culture podcast The Pandolly Podcast alongside Pandora Sykes, with a new podcast, The High Low, launching on Wednesday (1st March).

UK publication is scheduled for spring 2018.