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Guppy Books has snapped up The Grimmelings, a "mesmerising" middle grade fantasy novel from former WORD Christchurch Festival programme director Rachael King.
Publisher Bella Pearson acquired UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Australia and New Zealand, in a two-book deal from Gaia Banks at Sheil Land Associates. The novel will be published on 9th May 2024 with the second slated for publication in 2025.
"Bella Pearson is an exceptional publisher, and I’m very happy that her prize-winning, distinguished list will be home to Rachael’s luminous novel The Grimmelings", said Banks. "It’s a perfect match."
Already published in New Zealand earlier this year, The Grimmelings is an "atmospheric and compelling" novel for readers aged eight and over. Possessing "all the hallmarks of a classic modern fantasy", the tale follows Ella and her family who live on a isolated pony trekking farm and find themselves being stalked by a mysterious and sinister spirit in the shape of a black horse.
King said: "I am overjoyed that my novel – which is a bridge between my country of birth, New Zealand, and my ancestral home of Scotland, where I was first struck with the idea – has found a place in the UK inside Guppy’s beautiful book stable.”
Pearson added: “We feel so lucky to be publishing Rachael King’s spell-binding novel here in the UK; a breath-taking tale of courage and sacrifice with echoes of Susan Cooper and Diana Wynne-Jones.”