Dolly Alderton's first novel goes to Fig Tree

Fig Tree will publish journalist and author Dolly Alderton’s debut novel, Ghosts, about a food writer with a dedicated online following whose personal life is falling apart.

The Penguin General imprint’s publishing director Juliet Annan bought UK and Commonwealth rights excluding Canada from Clare Conville at C&W. Fig Tree declined to divulge figures but said that as Alderton’s publishers, the manuscript was not offered to anyone else. Ghosts will be published by Fig Tree in hardback in October 2020 retailing at £14.99 and then Penguin paperback in £8.99.

The novel follows Nina, a 32 year old food-writer with a loyal online following, but a life that is falling apart. “When she uses dating apps for the first time, she becomes a victim of ghosting, and by the most beguiling of men,” the synopsis reads. “Her beloved dad is vanishing in slow-motion into dementia; she’s starting to think about ageing and the gendered double-standard of the biological clock and then she’s got to deal with her mother’s desire for a mid-life makeover and the fact that all her friends seem to be slipping away from her.”

Fig Tree described Ghosts as “a funny, tender novel filled with whip-smart observations about relationships and the way we live today”.

Ghosts is “The High Low” host’s second book. Alderton’s award-winning memoir Everything I Know About Love was published by  in October 2018 after Fig Tree won the memoir, billed as “a series of interconnected stories” in an auction. It sold 97,385 copies in hardback and a further 82,776 for the paperback, according to Nielsen BookScan. It won Autobiography of the Year at the National Book Awards last year and was shortlisted for Waterstones Book of the Year and a British Book Award. The book has sold in 19 countries to date and has been optioned by Working Title.

Alderton said “I loved working with Fig Tree and being edited by Juliet for my first book. I have always wanted to write fiction, so I am totally thrilled to be writing my first novel with the support and guidance of such a talented team.”

Annan said: “This was deliciously inevitable from the moment Dolly started her career as a journalist. Someone who is such a great non-fiction writer but also a supreme story teller, and as funny and wise as Dolly, is just meant to write fiction. I’m thrilled to be working with her again, not least because she will make me laugh all the time.”

Alderton is an award-winning journalist. She has a column in the Sunday Times and has written for publications including the Daily Telegraph, GQ, Marie Claire, Red and Grazia. She is the co-host of “The High Low” with fellow journalist Pandora Sykes, a weekly pop culture and current affairs podcast, and also writes and directs for television. 

Sykes' debut, a collection of essays, recently went to Hutchinson in an 11-way auction.