Headline lands Marsh’s novel about a deaf woman’s role in the invention of the telephone

Headline’s Tinder Press has acquired A Sign of Her Own  by Sarah Marsh, a literary historical novel which centres on the role of a young deaf woman in the invention of the telephone.

Publisher Mary-Anne Harrington acquired British Commonwealth rights from Nelle Andrew at the Rachel Mills Agency. In North America, Laura Brown of Harper Collins’ Park Row imprint acquired in a six-figure pre-empt. Both will publish as their lead debut fiction titles in February 2024.

Marsh was shortlisted for the Lucy Cavendish Prize in 2019 and selected for the London Library Emerging Writers programme in 2020. She has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia and is the daughter of neurosurgeon and author Henry Marsh.

She said: “I grew up deaf and was taught, like Alexander Graham Bell’s pupils, to hide my deafness. I began thinking about the hidden history of the telephone after I started learning British Sign Language, and I’m thrilled that Tinder Press and Park Row Books will be bringing the story to readers in the UK and US. It has been an incredible experience to work with Mary-Anne and Laura.”

Harrington commented: “I fell in love with the character of Ellen Lark on the first page of this novel – passionate, smart, in the grip of a dilemma, she instantly felt like my favourite kind of 19th century heroine. Ellen is deaf, and is grappling with how to tell a story no one around her wants to hear: that of how her former teacher, inventor Bell, has betrayed her and betrayed the deaf community in his work on the telephone. 

“When a rival claimant disputes his right to the patent, Bell asks his gifted former protegee to speak up in his defence. Ellen knows that this is her one opportunity to tell the true story, but to do so will risk her engagement, her future prospects, and will defy her mother’s last wish for her."

“I learned so much reading this novel, which is set at such a fascinating juncture in history but also speaks to our own technologically obsessed age.  But above all, Sarah opened my eyes to what it might be like to navigate the world as a deaf woman daily confronted by the prejudices and assumptions of hearing people.  Ellen’s journey to discover her own voice is such a compelling one, and I can’t wait for readers to discover it next year. I’m hugely ambitious for Sarah, and for this book.”