Phoenix triumphs in four-way auction for 'captivating' debut novel by Howes

Phoenix has triumphed in a four-way auction for The Painter’s Daughters, a “captivating” debut by Emily Howes.

Publisher Francesca Main acquired UK and Commonwealth rights in a two-book deal from Sue Armstrong at C&W. North American rights have been sold to Carina Guiterman at Simon & Schuster. The Painter’s Daughters will be published as a lead Phoenix hardback in February 2024.

Howes is the winner of the Mslexia Novel Competition 2021, which was judged by Booker Prize-winning novelist Hilary Mantel, agent Jo Unwin and Square Peg publishing director Marianne Tatepo. 

Based on a true story, The Painter’s Daughters re-imagines the lives of the two beloved daughters of artist Thomas Gainsborough, who spent their lives trying and failing to live up to the perfect image the world so admired in their portraits. 

The synopsis explains: “Ipswich, 1759. Sisters Peggy and Molly Gainsborough are the best of friends and do everything together. They spy on their father as he paints, they rankle their mother as she manages the books, they tear barefoot through the muddy fields that surround their home. But there is another reason they are inseparable: from a young age, Molly has had a tendency to forget who she is, to fall into mental confusion, and Peggy knows instinctively that no one must find out. 

“When the family move to Bath, the sisters are thrown into the whirl of polite society, where the merits of marriage and codes of behaviour are crystal clear, and secrets much harder to keep. As Peggy goes to greater lengths to protect her sister from the threat of an asylum, she finds herself falling in love, and their precarious situation is soon thrown catastrophically off course. The discovery of a betrayal forces Peggy to question all she has done for Molly – and whether any one person can truly change the fate of another.”

The second novel in the deal, Mrs Dickens, will tell the story of Charles Dickens’ first wife, Catherine, mother of his 10 children and a bestselling cookery writer. An intimate portrait of a failing marriage, the novel “will bring this forgotten figure into the light, exploring food, fertility and the female body”. 

Howes has worked as a storyteller, theatre maker, performer, writer and director in stage, television and comedy since 2003. Her short stories have been shortlisted for the Bridport Prize, the Bath Short Story Award and the New Scottish Writing Award. In addition to writing fiction, she is completing a masters in existential psychotherapy. 

She said: “I am absolutely thrilled to be working with Francesca and the fantastic team at Phoenix, as well as with Carina at Simon & Schuster in the US. I can’t wait to share the story of Peggy and Molly as I imagine it, both with those who love the paintings, and with those who haven’t yet encountered them. I am also hugely excited to be able to write about Kate Dickens, who travelled the world, bore 10 children, climbed Vesuvius, wrote a cookbook, and yet was dismissed by history as too plain and kind to be interesting (as if kindness automatically confers dullness). It’s a real privilege to be able to imagine the richness of both of these extraordinary worlds.” 

Main added: “As vivid and memorable as the paintings that inspired it, this captivating debut novel is a tender, unsettling and beautiful story of sisterly devotion, truth and deception, and of what it really means to be seen. Emily Howes is a born storyteller who gets right to the heart of her characters and writes with a rare deftness and wit. With The Painter’s Daughters and Mrs Dickens it feels clear that she is embarking on a remarkable literary career and all of us at Phoenix are so excited to accompany her on the adventures ahead.”