Seven Dials bags Escape to the Chateau duo's story

Seven Dials has acquired a book by the stars of the Channel 4 series "Escape to the Chateau" that will be hitting shelves in October 2020 as "a superlead release".

Vicky Eribo, publishing director, acquired world rights for A Year at the Chateau by Dick and Angel Strawbridge from Julian Alexander at The Soho Agency, and it will publish in hardback, e-book and audiobook on 29th October.

A Year at the Chateau will be a narrative account of the Strawbridges' first year at the Château de la Motte Husson, pitched as "a truly irresistible story of adventure and heart, epic ambitions and a huge amount of hard graft".

The book chronicles how the couple swapped their two-bedroom flat in east London for an abandoned and derelict castle in the heart of the Loire Valley and embarked on the adventure of a lifetime with their two young children Arthur and Dorothy. Challenges included what to do about bedrooms infested with flies, the wind rattling through cracked windows, and just one working toilet, and readying the chateau for their wedding, while the book also comprises "glorious descriptions of rural life in France, with charming characters, delicious food and wonderful seasonal produce".

Eribo said: "I couldn’t be more thrilled to welcome Dick and Angel to our list. 'Escape to the Chateau' is television escapism at its finest: idyllic French countryside, 19th-century decadence, and a seemingly impossible dream realised. Like so many people, I have been obsessed with the show for years, so the opportunity to help Dick and Angel translate their story to the page was incredibly exciting. A Year at the Chateau is just the sort of charming and comforting narrative we all need right now."

Dick and Angel Strawbridge said: "We are delighted to be working with Vicky and the lovely team at Orion. They are creative and open minded, and understand exactly who we are. We are having such fun reliving our first year in the chateau. We laughed out loud and had tears in our eyes on numerous occasions during the planning stage, as we remembered the good times and the challenges, and of course the children: Arthur was two and Dorothy just zero when we moved (they are growing up too fast!).

"To our surprise, even writing about the difficult moments has been a pleasure. Mainly because we have come such a long way since those early days when we had an abundance of dust, grime and flies, but no electricity, water or heating. Obviously we are writing this together and we have two very different voices, and different memories of what occurred. We love the fact that our book reflects and celebrates this; it feels like the perfect way to share the full story of the start of our adventure."