Picador acquires 'extraordinary' debut from Nugent

Picador has acquired a “funny and self-deprecating" novel about growing up by debut author Ashleigh Nugent. 

Salma Begum, editorial assistant, and Ravi Mirchandani, editor in chief, acquired world print, digital and audio rights to Locks from Clare Coombes at the Liverpool Literary Agency. It will publish on 13th April 2023. 

The novel follows Aeon, a mixed-race teenager from a middle-class Liverpool suburb, who is desperate to discover his Black roots and develop an authentic Black identity. The only Black people he knows well are his dad and his cousin, Increase – but they don’t count. Aeon’s dad is set on ignoring race and climbing the social ladder, and Increase is a self-professed anti-Black racist. Aeon’s ambitions seem set to be fulfilled when he and Increase travel to Jamaica. But Aeon soon finds that smoking weed, attempting to grow dreadlocks and wearing some big red boots do not make him fit in. And then, in Jamaican prison, Aeon learns that, there, he is the White boy. 

Begum said: “Locks is a story about identities: the ones that are thrust upon us and the ones we thrust back at the world. It’s about being a Black boy in Merseyside and the white boy in Montego Bay. It’s about growing your hair, buying a cane and finding yourself in a cage on your seventeenth birthday. Locks is an extraordinary novel. A funny, self-deprecating, pain-ridden recollection of one boy’s adventure: his growing up and wising up.” 

Mirchandani added: “Ash’s voice, his ear for the language, his wit, and his propulsive storytelling grabbed my attention from the first page of Locks - it was as though I was listening to the audiobook even though I was reading - and didn’t let go until I reached the end. I am delighted we will be publishing him at Picador.” 

Nugent said: “As the events that inspired Locks unfolded, I knew that, as long as I survived, they would form the basis of my first book. What I didn’t know was that it would take nearly 30 years to get from that prison cell in Jamaica to this publishing deal with Picador. It’s been a long journey. But here I am. And I hope my journey may inspire others who once had a negative self-fulfilling prophecy foisted on them, so that they may now rise up regardless, live their purpose and make art of their scars.”