Orion acquires The Spark Girls

Orion has acquired a new novel to be the first in a series of sagas from journalist and author Fiona Ford. 

Laura Gerrard, commissioning editor for Orion Fiction, acquired UK and Commonwealth (excluding Canada) rights to The Spark Girls and one untitled novel by Ford from Kate Burke at Diane Banks Agency. Orion will publish in mass market paperback and e-book in April 2017.

The Spark Girls, set in spring 1940, tells the story of Kitty Williams, a young, courageous woman who has suffered her fair share of tragedy but is determined to do her part in the battle against Hitler. When she signs up to the Women’s Auxiliary Service (ATS), she finds new friends in Di, Peggy and Mary, but also new obstacles to overcome in her professional and personal life.

Gerrard said: "I am incredibly excited to have acquired The Spark Girls for the Orion list. Fiona writes with incredible warmth and heart which ensured that I fell for her characters immediately. I am thrilled to be working together to bring this new saga series to the market."

Ford added: "I am thrilled to be joining Orion, home to an incredible stable of authors that I have long enjoyed reading for many years. As a journalist with a huge love of history, researching, writing and planning The Spark Girls has been a pet project for quite some time. I knew straightaway that Orion was the perfect home for my first novel as not only did the team seem to understand just what I was trying to create, but Laura's passion for my heroine's story shone through immediately. I already feel as though I am in very safe hands with her and the rest of her team."

Ford has 15 years’ experience on women’s weeklies and monthlies. She has previously ghostwritten two novels and written one further novel, under pseudonym Fiona Harrison, for Harlequin.