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Hodder & Stoughton snaps up Turner's The Queen's Thief series
Hodder & Stoughton has signed up the award-winning The Queen’s Thief series from author Megan Whalen Turner and will publish new paperback editions of the series in the UK.
Senior commissioning editor Molly Powell bought UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, from Jane Putch at Eyebait Management. The first book in the series was published in 1996 in the US and the first of the new paperback editions, The Thief, will publish in the UK in May 2022.
The Thief is described by Hodder & Stoughton as a "classic in young adult fantasy literature" and follows the exploits of the Queen’s Thief, Eugenides, after he is sent on a near impossible quest to steal a legendary object and is thrown into the centre of political machinations, deception and danger
The Thief has been optioned by Disney and is in development for Disney+, with Brian Duffield on board to write the adaptation and Jim Whitaker of Whitaker Entertainment producing.
Powell said: "Since I first read The Thief over 10 years ago, it has remained firmly embedded in my heart. Megan Whalen Turner writes deft, engaging, incredibly clever fantasies that surprise you over and over again and are even better on the second, third, or even tenth re-read. Her world absorbs you, her writing compels you, her characters are second-to-none. To say I love these books would be an understatement: they are a piece of me, and I am over the moon to be bringing them to the UK next year.’
Whalen Turner added: "The books of the Queen’s Thief have made their way into the UK market over the years thanks to the hard work of fans eager to share them. I’m thrilled, and I know many of my readers will be thrilled to have Hodder & Stoughton providing the books with a real home in the UK at last."
Putch said: "Megan Whalen Turner’s books have enthralled readers in the United States for more than twenty-five years. These books are simply great reads. Whether you’re starting to read the Queen's Thief books in adolescence or as an adult, one comes back to these books to read again. And with greater life experience, at any age, one finds new layers, new surprises, hiding in plain sight.
"Megan Whalen Turner is one of our great authors. Interestingly, Megan’s work was first discovered in the UK. It was Diana Wynne Jones who read Megan’s unpublished short stories and championed them to her American editor, launching Megan's writing career. To have Megan Whalen Tuner’s books introduced in the UK market by long-time Queen's Thief reader Molly Powell and her fantastic team at Hodder and Stoughton seems, to me, like a perfect fit."
