PRH's Francesca Russell to join Bonnier Zaffre

Francesca Russell, currently Penguin Random House's publicity director for Century and Arrow and deputy publicity director for Cornerstone, is joining Bonnier Zaffre as publicity director. 

Russell begins in her new role leading Zaffre's publicity team across adult and children's lists on 9th April. She replaces Emily Burns who is leaving the company to start her own PR and communications agency, BrandHive.

“I’m hugely thrilled Francesca is joining us to head up the publicity team across our adult and children’s lists at Bonnier Zaffre," said James Horobin, executive director, Bonnier Zaffre.

"It’s a very exciting time to be joining Bonnier Zaffre as we head into our third year. 2018 sees the beginning of our Wilbur Smith publishing programme and we have no less than four publications from Lynda la Plante. Francesca and her team will work closely with sales, marketing and editorial colleagues to deliver outstanding publicity platforms for both our established and emerging authors. We are very much looking forward to welcoming Francesca to the team.”

Russell, who has worked with authors brands including James Patterson, Sylvia Day, Katie Fforde, Harlan Coben, Conn Iggulden and Jojo Moyes while at Michael Joseph and Cornerstone, said she looked forward to the "new challenge" at Zaffre.

"Commercial fiction and helping every reader find their next story is my real passion," she said. "I can’t wait to spread the word about Bonnier Zaffre’s brilliant books, working closely with the whole division to get great results. I’ve learnt so much at Penguin Random House and now I’m looking forward to a new challenge."