HarperFiction signs multi-book deal with McLaughlin

HarperFiction has signed a new multi-book deal with romantic fiction author Cressida McLaughlin, which will see four more books in the Cornish Cream Tea series as well as a standalone novel.

Editorial director Kate Bradley acquired world English language rights from Hannah Ferguson at Hardman & Swainson. Christmas Carols and a Cornish Cream Tea will publish for the Christmas season in 2021 and the standalone novel, The Staycation, will publish early 2022.

Bradley said: "It has been thrilling to watch Cressida’s success with the Cornish Cream Tea series and we are only just at the start of this fabulous journey. There are no limits to where we want to take the series and we couldn’t have a more wonderful author in Cressida. Not content to write the most heart-warming and charming novels in the Cornish Cream Tea series, she achieved the feat of also writing a deliciously escapist standalone during lockdown. She is a complete treasure and we are so proud of her and her much-deserved success."

McLaughlin added: "Kate and HarperFiction have done such a wonderful job of getting my Cornish Cream Tea books into readers’ hands, so I’m overjoyed to be writing four more with them. Escaping to idyllic locations in fiction matters more than ever now, and I’m also thrilled that they’ve put their trust in me with The Staycation, something slightly different that I loved writing during lockdown. I can’t think of anything better than writing escapist, romantic books and working with the HarperFiction team, and I am so excited about the future."