Icon signs biography of French president-elect Macron

Icon Books is to publish a "careful examination" of Emmanuel Macron, the 39 year-old president-elect of France, by journalist Adam Plowright.

Commissioning editor Tom Webber acquired UK and Commonwealth rights to The French Exception: Emmanuel Macron's extraordinary rise and risk from Kerry Glencorse at the Susanna Lea Agency.

The publisher said: "A surprise candidate for the presidential elections, Macron formed his own party and was considered a rank outsider until a series of fortuitous events - including his team's survival of a massive last-minute data hack - cleared his path to the presidency in France's most emotional elections since 1948, and allowed him to prevent Marine Le Pen from becoming the first leader of a Western democracy with an openly revisionist view of the Holocaust.

"Plowright is based in Paris, and has been a journalist for fifteen years. Until recently he was deputy editor-in-chief at Agence France Presse. He has been reporting on the French election from the start and has had direct access to Macron and many on his team, making him perfectly positioned to get to the bottom of who Macron is, and what he might plausibly achieve as president of France."

Webber said: "Adam's extremely clear writing and analysis impressed me immediately: his eye for human detail and careful examination of the stages of the Macron surge add a thrilling dimension to this tale of unexpected political victory."

Icon books will publish The French Exception in September as a paperback original.