You are viewing your 1 free article this month. Login to read more articles.
Orion acquires rights Holly Seddon's 'heart-wrenching' thriller
Orion Fiction has acquired the rights to Holly Seddon’s new "heart-wreching" thriller 59 Minutes. UK & Commonwealth (excluding Canada) rights were acquired from Sophie Lambert at C&W.
Emily Bestler acquired US rights in a two-book pre-empt, for Emily Bestler Books.
59 Minutes follows the journey of three women trying to make it home to and protect their families, after everyone receives a message that missiles are set to destroy England in 59 minutes time.
The publisher has described the novel as "thoroughly gripping and gut-wrenching".
Seddon is the author of several thrillers, including international bestseller Try Not to Breathe, The Hit List, and The Short Straw.
She said: "How people behave when the usual rules do not apply has always fascinated me. Everyone likes to think they would be a hero during a disaster, but we can’t all be heroes… In 59 Minutes, the characters are facing the most extreme form of existential crisis—total nuclear destruction—and asking themselves how they will spend their last 59 minutes, and what this means about who they really are. Ultimately, beneath the terror and fast-paced adventure, 59 Minutes is about what really matters to us, when nothing will matter at all soon.
"Nuclear expansion looms for the UK, many of its allies and a significant number of its antagonists. The doomsday clock is set at 90 seconds to midnight. When I started writing 59 Minutes, it felt like fiction. By the end of my first draft, with the government’s new emergency alert system in place, it felt like a spectre of possibility. 59 Minutes has been the most terrifying book to write, but also the most life-affirming and—at times —even joyous. I love these characters as if they’re members of my own family, and I hope readers love them as much as I do."
Leodora Darlington, publishing director at Orion Fiction, said: "It has been such a privilege working with Holly on this book; yes, it’s a book about a nuclear missile threat, but on many levels, it’s really about what it means to be human. The very best and worst of it. My heart was in my mouth as I swept through the pages, at once desperate to tear through the book to find out what would happen to these women and families Holly draws you so close to, but also desperate to savour Holly’s beautiful prose. I can’t wait for readers to discover this incredible and important story."
Lambert said: "59 Minutes has everything— tightly focused narrative, an utterly page-turning structure, characters who you immediately fall for, Holly’s signature brilliant storytelling and a proposition that you can’t look away from. It deserves to fly and I’m thrilled that Leodora Darlington and Emily Bestler will be publishing it with such ambition."
Orion will publish the novel, 59 Minutes, in April 2025 in hardback, e-book and audiobook.
