MCB buys festive trio from Alex T Smith

Macmillan Children’s Books has bought three full-colour gift titles written and illustrated by Alex T Smith. Editorial director Gaby Morgan bought world rights in all languages from Alison Eldred at Arena Illustration.

The first book, The Twelve Days of Christmas, described as “a funny retelling of the classic poem where not quite everything goes to plan”, will be published as a small-format hardback in October 2020. A sequel to How Winston Delivered Christmas, called How Winston Came Home for Christmas, and one further large-format Christmas gift title, will be published in 2021 and 2022 respectively.

Morgan said she was “full of festive cheer and joy” to have acquired the three new titles, to sit alongside How Winston Delivered Christmas. “Alex writes with such warmth, heart and humour and makes us all feel a little bit braver and kinder,” she said.

How Winston Delivered Christmas has sold 13,247 copies through Nielsen’s BookScan since publication in 2018.