Global HC publishing deal for Gaynor's Cottingley Fairies tale

HarperCollins has signed a global publishing deal with historical novelist Hazel Gaynor.

The one-book deal, which includes world English rights co-publishing with HarperCollins US, was brokered with Michelle Brower of Kuhn Projects.

Gaynor is the author of A Memory of Violets and The Girl Who Came Home – A Novel of the Titanic (both William Morrow) which won the RNA Historical Romantic Novel Award of the Year in 2015.

Gaynor's new novel blends fact and fiction to tell the story of the two young cousins who created the Cottingley Fairy photographs that fooled the world post-WWI and the present-day woman who set out to discover what really happened 100 years ago.

It will be published in Spring 2017.

Gaynor said: "I am so delighted to be working with the wonderful Kate Bradley and the HarperFiction team in the UK and Ireland. The story of the Cottingley Fairies has fascinated me since I was a young girl growing up in Yorkshire, so I'm incredibly excited to write this novel."

Senior commissioning editor at HarperCollins, Kate Bradley, said: "Hazel Gaynor is a stunning new voice in Historical Fiction and we’re thrilled to be publishing her on the HarperFiction list. Hazel’s writing beautifully blends historical fact with powerfully emotive storylines. Hazel has already made a big impact in this genre and we’re incredibly excited about the future."

Another novel by Gaynor, The Girl from the Savoy, will be published this summer by HarperCollins in the US and Ireland on 7th June 2016 and in the UK on 8th September 2016.