Marian Keyes to write cookery for MJ spring list

Marian Keyes is writing a cookery title for Michael Joseph, as the imprint ramps up its spring food publishing list next year by releasing one title every month during the first half of 2012.

The Penguin imprint has also bought the first title from a new cookery brand that the publisher is as excited about as when it first bought Jamie Oliver. Cookery publisher Lindsey Evans bought world rights to two books from the team behind the Sorted YouTube cookery channel from Borra Garson, Oliver's former agent, at Deborah McKenna. The channel receives more than 800,000 views a month.

Sorted for Beginners by chef Ben Ebbrell and Sorted creative director Barry Taylor will be published in May 2012, and comprises two titles the pair previously self-published, along with fellow Sorted crew members, Jamie Spafford and Mike Huttlestone. The title features short and accessible recipes, with photographs on each page, aimed at young professionals, parents and students on a budget. Michael Joseph will publish a book with brand new content in spring 2013.

Evans said: "I haven't been as excited about a new cookery brand since we bought Jamie Oliver's first book all those years ago . . . Since we first bought Jamie, I'm sure publishers are always on the look-out for the next Jamie. These are young guys with a passion for food, and who are new faces, doing the sort of thing Jamie did as the Naked Chef. They have the same fun interaction with food, and the same kind of off-the-wall ideas.

"They have obviously been influenced by what he did, they would have been about 14 when Jamie first came on the scene, and for those 20-year-olds now, they are the Naked Chef equivalent."

Other cookery titles coming in the first half of the year include Marian Keyes' first food title, Saved by Cake, to be released in February. It will give an account of her recent battle with depression and how baking helped her, including recipes aimed at baking novices, but with the intention that the book would also appeal to fans of Keyes' fiction.

On the move to publish more food titles in the spring, Evans said: "It is a good time to springboard new authors, there is more space in the market . . . Obviously there are the best-loved brands such as Delia and Jamie, but I think people love buying cookbooks and if the content is right and it is published at the right time of year there is always space for new titles." 

Further titles include Diet Rehab by Dr Mike Dow, a guide to withdrawing from addictive foods, being released in January and The Food of Spain by Claudia Roden, released in March, a detailed look at the heritage of food in Spain as well as recipes from the country. The Little Paris Kitchen by Rachel Khoo, a book of classic French recipes, will follow in April, with The Weekend Cookbook by Catherine Hill to be published in June.