Kirsty Dunseath to join Transworld

Kirsty Dunseath, who quit Orion after 16 years in October, is joining Transworld as publishing director for Doubleday.

Following her departure from Orion, where most recently she was publisher at literary imprint Weidenfeld & Nicolson, Dunseath will start at Doubleday on 25th March 2019, reporting to fiction publisher Sarah Adams.

Dunseath began her career at Jonathan Cape and then The Women’s Press in the 1990s. She went on to join Orion in 2002, where she remained for 16 years, publishing bestselling authors including, most notably, Gillian Flynn, whose book Gone Girl has now sold 4.3 million copies. Her other publishing successes have included Carlos Ruiz Zafón's The Shadow of the Wind, Laura Barnett's The Versions of Us, Emily Fridlund's Man Booker-shortlisted debut A History of Wolves, Michel Bussi's After the Crash and the winner of the Orange Debut prize An Equal Stillness by Francesca Kay. She also published the Call the Midwife series.

Welcoming Dunseath to Transworld, Adams said: "I am thrilled that Kirsty will be joining us as Publishing Director for Doubleday. Not only does she have a keen eye for a future bestseller, as demonstrated by her incredible roster of bestselling and award-winning novels, but she is a passionate, thoughtful and collaborative publisher. We can’t wait to begin working with her."

Dunseath said in October she had "felt the need for a change and to do something new". Commenting on her new position at Transworld and Doubleday she said she was "absolutely delighted" to be joining the team. "Transworld is a publisher I have long admired for their publishing flair and their wonderful roster of bestsellers, and the Doubleday imprint has published some of my all-time favourite novels," she said. "I am hugely excited to be joining such a great team."

Most recently staff changes at W&N have included the promotions of Jenny Lord to publisher of the imprint, where she will be covering both Fiction and Non-Fiction, and Alan Samson to W&N chairman. Jon Wood, formerly Orion’s group publisher, announced he was leaving after 18 years in April and is now on course to join Rogers, Coleridge and White (RCW) as an agent in January.