You are viewing your 1 free article this month. Login to read more articles.
H C Australia bags Rebecca Armitage's The Heir Apparent in ‘substantial’ six-figure pre-empt
The Heir Apparent by Australian Broadcasting Corporation journalist Rebecca Armitage has been acquired for a “substantial” six-figure sum in a 24-hour pre-empt by HarperCollins Australia.
The two-book deal was brokered between Gaby Naher at Left Bank Literary and Catherine Milne at HarperCollins Australia. Reagan Arthur, for her imprint at Grand Central/Hachette US, then pre-empted the US rights from Kimberley Witherspoon at Inkwell Management in a “major” one-book deal.
The UK rights sold to Priyal Agrawal at HQ, from Victoria Hobbs at A M Heath, and a four-way German auction with Piper Verlag, and a Dutch pre-emptive deal with Xander Uitgevers, have just been completed. Translation rights are being handled by A M Heath. Publication is slated for spring 2026.
The novel is described as “a stylish work of upmarket women’s fiction about a contemporary UK princess who renounced her family to become a doctor in Australia". But when her father and twin brother—the next two in line for the throne—die in a skiing accident, she’s hauled back to the UK, where her uncle has his eye on the crown, and where secrets about her past, her dead mother and her brother’s marriage threaten to unravel the whole family... "and now she has to choose: a kingdom, or her hard-won independence?”
As an ABC journalist, the author, Armitage, has reported extensively on the royals and became fascinated by Harry and Meghan when they chose to step away from the royal family. She is the digital editor for the ABC’s International Desk, and was previously a multiplatform producer with the ABC’s Specialist Reporting Team and a producer at 730.
Arthur described the book as “an irresistible, page-turning modern fairy tale about the price and rewards of duty, independence, and love”, while Milne said it was “an absolutely delicious, compulsively readable, stylish work of upmarket women’s fiction about a young English aristocratic woman, who has to choose between duty and her heart”.
