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Nicholas Pearson has been hired by Hachette’s literary imprint John Murray as publishing director six months after his departure from Fourth Estate.
Pearson started his career at The Bodley Head and Jonathan Cape before going on to work at Orion, Faber & Faber and most recently Fourth Estate, where he worked for 26 years. He left following a redundancy process in August 2022.
For nearly 20 years Pearson edited and published Hilary Mantel, twice winner of the Booker Prize for her Wolf Hall trilogy, and was also Doris Lessing’s editor for the last years of her writing life. He has published acclaimed writers including Jonathan Franzen, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and Alan Garner, whose novel Treacle Walker was shortlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize.
Pearson’s authors have won numerous awards including the Nobel Prize for Literature, the Booker Prize, the Women’s Prize for Fiction, the Samuel Johnson and Baillie Gifford Prizes for Non-Fiction, and the Costa Book Award.
In his new role Pearson will build a new list of literary fiction and non-fiction at John Murray, where he will work closely with Jocasta Hamilton, executive publisher of John Murray, Baskerville and Two Roads, and Rosie Gailer, communications director and director of trade publishing at John Murray Press.
He starts on 13th February and will report to Nick Davies, managing director of JMP. Davies said of Pearson: “I speak from personal experience when I say that Nick is one of the warmest, most generous, most loyal publishers you could ever hope to meet. He has an unerring eye for the finest fiction and non-fiction and is beloved across the industry—by authors and agents, by his colleagues and by his competitors. He will slot in beautifully alongside the hugely talented commissioning team at John Murray.”
Pearson said: “I was lucky enough to work with Nick Davies way back when he was starting out at Fourth Estate. It was no surprise when he soon went on to be such an outstanding publisher and I was thrilled when he asked me to work for him and be part of the brilliant team he has built at John Murray. This is a very exciting new chapter for me. I’ve missed working with writers these past six months and I can’t wait to start.”
Hachette UK c.e.o. David Shelley added: “I’m extremely excited that Nick Pearson is to be joining John Murray. His track record speaks for itself and his taste is perfectly aligned to the rich literary history of the imprint. I think he will do great things.”