Senior team changes at Chatto & Windus

Chatto & Windus has reshuffled its leadership team with Becky Hardie taking over from Clara Farmer as publishing director and Farmer taking on a new role as associate publishing director.

Hardie, who has worked alongside Farmer for 14 years, will lead the team while Farmer continues to bring in new authors and manage her list while working on a PhD in publishing history.

There have been further changes in the team, with former Scribe UK publisher Molly Slight joining as Chatto’s editorial director, replacing Rose Tomaszewska, who is taking a career break. 

Chatto’s editorial assistant, Asia Choudhry, has also been promoted to assistant editor. She joined the team in March from the Penguin Random House trainee programme.

Hannah Telfer, Vintage managing director, said: “Farmer is a peerless publishing leader: starter of many publishing trends, a truly dedicated editor and an instinctive collaborator to the great benefit of her authors and colleagues. Her partnership with Hardie exemplifies these qualities perfectly.

“This evolution of that partnership will allow Chatto to benefit from the very best of their expertise, experience and energy. Hardie’s publishing is stellar, notable for its range, quality and success. Her ability to galvanise publishing teams is first-rate and I’m excited to see where she takes Chatto next. To welcome Molly and promote Asia is the icing on Chatto’s cake and further bolsters this exceptional publishing team.”

Farmer has led Chatto for 14 years during which time the imprint has produced three Booker Prize winners. Hardie has been responsible for several landmark publications including Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments and Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow.

Scribe UK’s Slight also served on the board of Wasafiri magazine for three years and was a Bookseller Rising Star in 2019.

Slight said: “It has been a wonderful 10 years at Scribe UK and I am immensely proud of all we have achieved, but the time is right for me to take on new challenges and I cannot think of anywhere better to do this than Chatto & Windus. I am hugely excited and inspired by the team’s vision and the fearless approach they take to publishing. They have an incredible list of authors already, and I am looking forward to working with some of them and helping to bring in new talent.”

The rest of the Chatto team includes senior editor (paperbacks) Victoria Murray-Browne, commissioning editor Kaiya Shang, assistant editors Rosanna Hildyard and Sarah Howe.