Pan Mac bags Ryan's The Kitchen Front

Pan Macmillan has bagged The Kitchen Front by Jennifer Ryan, billed as “The Great British Bake Off” set in World War Two.

Publishing director Gillian Green acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Karolina Sutton at Curtis Brown, on behalf of Alexandra Machinist at ICM Partners. It will publish in original paperback in March 2022 with an early trade paperback for export.

The publisher said: “Described by journalist and writer Cathy Kelly – as ‘The Great British Bake Off set in World War Two’, the novel is loosely based on the real BBC Radio show of the same which launched in 1940 with the aim of offering housewives ever creative ways of dealing with food rationing. As well as the Ministry of Food's Marguerite Patten, the show featured real housewives – and Jennifer has used this as the starting point for her fictionalised cookery competition. It follows the fortunes of a group of women from very different walks of life – there’s the lady of the manor, her kitchen maid, a young widow and a chef from London all competing to become The Kitchen Front cook."

Ryan, author of The Chilbury Ladies’ Choir (The Borough Press), was also inspired by the wartime recipe book belonging to her grandmother and a selection of authentic recipes is included in the novel. It has already won praise from Jill Mansell and Veronica Henry who called it “absolute perfection”.

Green said: “I’m so delighted to be welcoming the wonderfully talented Jennifer Ryan to Pan Macmillan. The Kitchen Front is such a magnificent feast of a novel: as much about family, friendship and overcoming adversity as it is about food. At a time when most of us are just trying to keep calm and carry on, this is such a gloriously nostalgic, escapist, witty and warm hug of a story that is perfect for fans of Dear Mrs Bird, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and book groups everywhere.”