Allen Lane bags exploration of same-sex marriage from Atherton Lin in six-way auction

Allen Lane has bagged a book exploring the recent history of same-sex marriage from Jeremy Atherton Lin in a six-way auction. 

Ka Bradley, commissioning editor, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, to Deep House from Laura Macdougall at United Agents. It will publish in autumn 2024. 

The book explores the recent history of same-sex marriage, following Atherton Lin and his now-husband’s own journey from illegal visa overstayer to sanctioned couple. Using his own story as a starting point, as well as that of his parents’ interracial marriage, Atherton Lin explores intersecting stories of queerness, legality, migration and anti-establishment relationship practices. 

He said: “This is a big moment for me. The legacy of Allen Lane provides yet more motivation to write with integrity. I know how energetically the Penguin group supports its LGBT+ writers and the fact that Ka Bradley, the uniquely sharp and sensitive UK editor of Gay Bar, will shepherd Deep House is a dream not just for me but for everyone involved internationally.” 

Bradley said: “I am so happy to be working with Jeremy again – he is a writer with a profound sense of beauty and sensuality, and a mesmerising intellectual force. Deep House, like Gay Bar before it, will be a pivot on which the cultural conversation turns, deepening and enriching our critical perspectives on same-sex marriage and alliances across boundaries. At a time when civil liberties are threatened with destruction, writers of Jeremy’s calibre could not be more necessary. I am delighted to welcome him to Allen Lane.”