Newly launched Fern Press acquires 'thrilling' book by Hooper in 'significant' pre-empt

Fern Press has scooped Togetherness: Symbiosis and the Revolution in Our Understanding of Life, a "thrilling and eye-opening" book by Dr Rowan Hooper.

In her first acquisition for the newly launched Vintage imprint, publishing director Michal Shavit bought world English-language rights in a "significant pre-empt" from Patrick Walsh at PEW Literary Agency, for publication in spring 2025. Rights have sold internationally to Knopf in the US, Signal in Canada, Debate in Spain and Zahar in Brazil.

The synopsis said: "In Togetherness, Rowan Hooper will explore how being together opens evolutionary doors and unlocks options not available as a singleton. We will discover extraordinary stories of animals running their own farms, raising plants, livestock and protein to feed their families.

"But symbiosis not only sculpted the lifestyles, the cells and the bodies of all the organisms on the planet, it also created the very world we live in."

Shavit said: "In this important and thrilling popular science book, Rowan Hooper throws light on the science of togetherness, with symbiosis as the key to understanding our world. He brilliantly invites his reader to understand symbiosis, without which, he argues, we can’t understand biology or evolution, nor agriculture, nor how to tackle climate change, nor even how to live sustainably.

"Rowan is not only a brilliant thinker but a beautiful writer and I am delighted that he has joined Fern Press with this book."

Hooper is a biologist and an award-winning journalist, writer and broadcaster. A senior editor at New Scientist magazine, he is the creator and host of the New Scientist Weekly podcast. He is the author of two collections of science journalism published in Japanese by Shinchosha, and two previous books, Superhuman: Life at the Extremes of Mental and Physical Ability (Little, Brown) and How To Spend A Trillion Dollars (Profile Book). 

He added: "It’s a huge honour to be Michal’s first new signing. Fern Press has a wonderful remit – ambitious, inspiring and bold – and I’m excited to join such an extraordinary team. My book tells incredible, rarely heard stories of natural history but also shows how symbiosis made the planet we live on. Most importantly, it shows how symbiosis is key to a new kind of ideology that must underlie our society in the future."