Camilla Bruce moves to Oneworld with ‘scariest’ novel to date

Oneworld has secured Camilla Bruce’s At the Bottom of the Garden, a “tale of an evil aunt, strange children and restless souls”. 

In his first acquisition for Oneworld, publishing director Wayne Brookes bought UK and Commonwealth rights from Caspian Dennis at Abner Stein on behalf of Brianne Johnson at HG Literary. At the Bottom of the Garden will be published under the Magpie imprint in January 2025 with the paperback edition to follow in August 2025. Bruce was previously published by Transworld and Michael Joseph. 

The synopsis for the novel reads: “Clara Woods is a killer – and perfectly fine with it, too. No harm, no foul if she takes a couple of lives to make her own existence a little bit better. At the bottom of the garden is a flowerbed, long overgrown, where her late husband rests in peace – or so she always thought. Until the girls arrived. Lily and Violet are her adolescent nieces, recently orphaned and in urgent need of care. 

“Raising teenagers is certainly not what Clara had envisioned for herself, but her funds are drying up and the girls come with a neat sum attached. There is only one problem: both girls are untrained witches, with newly heightened powers due to inheriting their mother’s power when she died.” 

“I have been a fan of Camilla Bruce since her first novel You Let Me In was released back in 2020,” said Brookes. “Camilla’s unique blend of urban legend, gothic imagery and dark fairy-tale make her novels totally addictive, and fabulously frightening. I think At the Bottom of the Garden is her scariest and most commercial novel to date and I cannot wait to see it hit the shelves of the UK book stores.”

Bruce added: “I am delighted to have found the perfect UK home for At the Bottom of the Garden, and am incredibly excited to be working with Wayne Brookes and the rest of the Oneworld team.”