Chicken House swoops for Walker's ‘outstanding’ teen novel

Chicken House has secured Once Upon A Fever, a “startlingly original" teen novel from Angharad Walker.  

Publisher Barry Cunningham and editorial director Rachel Leyshon won world English rights at auction from Rachel Mann at JULA . Once Upon A Fever will be published in a “beautiful" flapped paperback edition in July 2022.  

Charlotte Colwill, literary agent at JULA and maternity cover for Mann, said: “Angharad’s is such a distinctive and vibrant new voice in children’s fiction and in Once Upon a Fever she has created a truly unique and immersive world that we can’t wait for readers to enter, and we’re thrilled that she will be continuing her career with the team at Chicken House.” 

Walker’s debut, The Ash House (Chicken House), was published in September 2021 and Once Upon A Fever marks her first teen novel. It follows two sisters living in a London-inspired city full of fantastical illnesses and gothic hospitals.

The synopsis reads: “Since the world fell sick with fantastical illnesses, sisters Payton and Ani have grown up in the hospital of King Jude’s. Payton wants to be a methic like her father, working on a cure for her mother’s sleeping fever. Ani, however, thinks the remedy for all illness might be found in the green wilderness beyond the hospital walls. When Ani stumbles upon an imprisoned boy who turns everything he touches to gold, her world is turned upside-down. The girls find themselves outside the hospital for the first time, a dark mystery unravelling…” 

Leyshon commented: “Angharad is a huge rising star and with the phenomenal world she has created in Once Upon a Fever, she has raised the bar to a whole new level. Ani and Payton’s story will never leave readers, and we are honoured to publish.”  

Walker added: “I couldn’t be more excited to continue my journey as a Chicken House author. I am incredibly proud of the work we’ve done together so far. It has been such a delight to create the fantastical world of medicine that readers will discover within the pages of Once Upon A Fever, and I’m thrilled that the adventure will continue. I can’t help but feel that we’re just getting started.”