Rights director Kirby to leave Penguin Random House after 33 years

Jane Kirby, rights director for Penguin Random House UK, representing Vintage, Michael Joseph and Transworld, is stepping back from her role and plans to leave the company at the end of the year. 

She joined Viking Penguin as rights manager in 1989, taking on additional roles at Penguin Australia, Hamish Hamilton and as rights director for Puffin. Moving to Random House in 2002, Kirby was the rights director for Vintage for 20 years, playing a significant part in many great publishing success stories with writers such as Ruth Ware, Jo Nesbo, Anna Politkovskaya, Volker Ullrich, Billy O’Callaghan and Irvine Welsh.

More recently, she has led an extended rights team working across multiple PRH divisions, again helping to launch numerous debut writers across the group as well as nurturing established brand names. 

Chantal Noel, group rights director, said: “In her remarkable 33 years at Penguin Random House, Jane has been a brilliant ambassador for the rights business, developing loyal friendships over the years with colleagues, authors, agents and international publishers alike.  Jane’s a fantastic all-rounder and has been a great publishing colleague, both at Vintage and beyond, and her deep experience, good instincts and dedicated author care will be much missed. We wish her all the very best for the future.” 

Kirby added: “It has been my great privilege to work at Penguin and Random House alongside the most talented, creative and inspiring teams in the business. I am immensely proud of the achievements of the rights teams I have worked with over the years, and it gives me joy to see the PRH rights team go from strength to strength. There are too many people to mention here individually, but I particularly wish to thank Richard Cable and, latterly, Chantal Noel who have supported and guided me over the years, and of course all my wonderful rights colleagues.” 

PRH will be recruiting for a successor.