Kate Davies writes 'Mad Men'-inspired love letter to children's publishing for Borough Press

Editor-turned-author Kate Davies’ third novel, Good Books for Bad Children, has been heralded by the Borough Press as an “epic love story” set against the heyday of American children’s publishing.   

Suzie Dooré, editor-at-large, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Judith Murray at Greene & Heaton. The new book marks a change of direction for the Polari-winning author of In at the Deep End and Nuclear Family (both published by Borough). Good Books for Bad Children was acquired on proposal, and is slated for publication in 2026. 

The novel is an epic love story set in New York City over two decades (1953–1973), during the heyday of American children’s publishing. It tells the story of the lifelong friendship, creative collaboration and love triangle between Virginia, a fiery children’s book editor, her favourite author Sylvia, and Ruth, the shy but brilliant illustrator who brings Sylvia’s books to life and turns them into children’s classics.  

The blurb reads: “The three women have to contend with the ‘boys on the sixth floor’ – the company directors – who are constantly looking for an excuse to fold the children’s department in with the adult trade division and put Virginia out of a job, and Ethel Hope Gray, the most powerful children’s librarian in the country, who hates the books that Virginia publishes – especially Sylvia and Ruth’s picture books – and wants to destroy their careers.”

Davies said: “I can’t wait to work with Suzie and the brilliant Borough Press team again on Good Books for Bad Children. 

“The book is a love letter to publishing and children’s books, inspired by my 12 years as a children’s book editor, and by the lives of three brilliant women who revolutionised American children’s books in the middle of the 20th Century: legendary editor Ursula Nordstrom, eccentric librarian Anne Carroll Moore and the glamorous, charismatic Margaret Wise Brown, who wrote dozens of children’s classics, including Goodnight Moon.” 

Dooré said: “Kate is a dream to work with, and I couldn’t be more thrilled to have signed on the line for Good Books for Bad Children, which has both the greatest title and strongest premise I’ve heard in ages. The sample material is killer, too – shades of ’Mad Men’, but set in children’s publishing in New York and based on real people – it’s going to be a riot, and will bring Kate’s wonderful writing to an even wider audience.” 

Murray said the book “has one of the best titles ever, and three of the most fascinating, brilliant, flawed and loveable heroines I have come across”. 

Davies is a novelist, screenwriter and author of children’s books. Before becoming a full-time writer, she worked as an editor at Usborne Publishing, Scholastic Children’s Books, Walker Books, Frances Lincoln Children’s Books and Wide Eyed Editions. She lives in east London with her wife and son.