Conville and Vyner launch Francis Bacon-inspired imprint

Agent Claire Conville and author Harriet Vyner have launched Cheerio, a new imprint and film production company commissioning work inspired by the artist Francis Bacon. 

Cheerio, named after Bacon's preferred drinking toast, has partnered with the artist's estate to release essay collections, books and film from contributors across a broad range of artistic disciplines. Books will be released in collaboration with Profile.

Initial contributors include the authors D B C Pierre and Tade Thompson, the playwright and director Neil Bartlett, art dealer Anthony Reynolds, artist and choreographer Holly Blakey, curator James Birch and DJ Joe Fletcher.

Future contributors include the Turner Prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller along with fashion designer Bella Freud, artist Blondey McCoy, Iain Sinclair, gallery director Ingrid Swenson and production firm Sulk Youth.

Conville and Vyner said: “We are honoured and thrilled that the estate of Francis Bacon has entrusted us to set up Cheerio. We aim to commission innovative books and films that confound received ideas, open the door to new perceptions and that we believe will intrigue, disturb and thrill audiences, old and new, very much in the spirit of Francis Bacon.”

Cheerio will release four to six books and up to four short films a year. Its first books, released in from 2022 onwards, include Bacon in Moscow by James Birch with Barry Miles, billed as a funny and personal account of an audacious attempt by James Birch, the English curator, to mount the ground-breaking Francis Bacon exhibition at the newly furbished Central House of Artists, Moscow, in 1988.

Little Snake: An Enquiry into Gambling and Life by D B C Pierre will feature a Trinidadian road trip undertaken by the Man Booker Prize-winning author and examines the nature of gambling, the love affair of the gambler and game and the mindset of an obsessive practitioner.

Finally, Jackdaw by Tade Thompson is a a gothic novel about a psychotherapist whose body becomes possessed by the soul of a dead artist.

Helen Conford, publisher at Profile, said: “I’m delighted to be working with Clare and Harriet on such a fizzy, original imprint with such a great range of distinctive voices and bold plans. Cheerio, as Francis Bacon would say.”

In addition, Cheerio has signed a three-year partnership with The White Review on its Poet’s Prize from this month. Established in 2017, the award is open to unpublished poets, and gives the winner a cash prize, editorial support, and publication in a print issue.

With Cheerio’s support, the Poet’s Prize will award £2,500 to the winner, an increase on previous years and equivalent to the award money of the magazine’s long-running Short Story Prize. The 2021 prize will be judged by poets Jay Bernard, Emily Berry and Kayo Chingonyi.