Gregory and Adegoke attend HarperCollins Big Book event

Philippa Gregory, Yomi Adegoke and Trinny Woodall were among the high-profile writers at HarperCollins’ “Big Book” event for retailers yesterday evening (27th April).  

Gregory’s Normal Women (William Collins) is one of the publisher’s lead titles for the autumn, meanwhile Adegoke’s The List (Fourth Estate) has also been touted as a major release alongside Woodall’s Fearless (HQ). 

A number of authors and HarperCollins staff mingled with booksellers at the showcase in the Ham Yard Hotel in London’s Covent Garden. Charlie Redmayne, HarperCollins UK c.e.o., said the publisher has an “incredibly strong” Christmas programme this year, pinning hopes on Peter Kay’s T.V.: Big Adventures on the Small Screen (HarperNonFiction) as “the biggest non-fiction book of the autumn”. “We’re certainly looking to set it up in that way and we’re going to get behind it in that way” he said. 

In a film played in the hotel’s basement cinema, a number of editors and sales staff discussed the books they were most excited to be publishing over the coming year from the likes of Cher, Tom Burgis, Shirley Ballas, Chris Packham and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.  

Redmayne also updated retailers on HarperCollins’ new “state-of-the-art" warehouse at Robroyston, revealing it will be ready at the beginning of 2024 and run for a year in tandem with the current site at Bishopbriggs to work out any potential issues before it is run properly on its own. Redmayne promised it will enable “a huge improvement in the service” and marks a “really exciting chapter” in the publisher’s “long history in Scotland”.