Orion pre-empts 'fiercely romantic' Williams debut

Orion Fiction has pre-empted "fiercely romantic" debut What Time is Love? and one more novel by journalist Holly Williams in a six-figure deal. 

Editorial director Charlotte Mursell acquired UK and Commonwealth rights (excluding Canada) from Tristan Kendrick at Rogers, Coleridge and White. Pre-empts have also been made in France (Calmann-Levy) and Italy (Sperling & Kupfer), and auctions are underway in Germany and Russia, with further sales in the Netherlands (Ambo Anthos) and Croatia (Profil).

What Time is Love? is a love story told over several decades and will ask readers, 'What if you met the right person at the wrong time?' The novel will follow Violet and Albert as their lives collide over and over again, first when they are just 20 years old in 1940s post-war Britain, then again in the late '60s, and at finally at the end of the '80s. Against the backdrop of social change and the constraints of gender expectations, Williams will examine relationships, from the first flush of falling in love, to the devastating breakdown of a marriage, says the publisher. 

Mursell said: "Violet and Albert are two of the most tangible, tenderly crafted characters I’ve ever read—within a few hours, they had crawled inside my heart forever. Fiercely romantic, exquisitely written and with such a brilliant speculative twist, books like What Time is Love? just don’t come along very often. Holly’s exceptional debut is poised to sweep readers off their feet and send ripples across book clubs everywhere—we’re so thrilled she has chosen Orion as her publisher."

Williams commented: "What Time is Love? looks at how a couple may thrive or falter as they reckon with differences in class and gender, opportunity and privilege across the decades. But I was determined it should show the giddy, somersaulting joys of love as well as the struggles. Working on this story, with Tristan as the most brilliant fellow traveller, has kept me going through the past year. I’m so excited to share it with the world and couldn’t be more thrilled that Violet and Albert have found a home with Charlotte at Orion."

What Time is Love? will be a "major" launch for the Orion Fiction imprint, releasing in hardback, e-book and audio in June 2022.