Picador to publish Brownrigg sequel 20 years on

Picador has acquired Pages For Her by Sylvia Brownrigg, a novel set 20 years on from Brownrigg’s first novel Pages for You.

The new novel, set to be released in 2017, will tell the story of Flannery, a wife and mother, who is invited to a writers’ conference and embarks on an affair with the chair Anne Arden.  

Pages for You, Brownrigg's first novel, told the story of Flannery and Anne’s affair in the form of an account written by the devoted, delirious Flannery after the affair ends.  Pages For Her, the new novel, is about when Anne and Flannery meet again 20 years on from the affair they had when Flannery was a teenager, the affair documented in the older book Pages For You.

Picador said: “Much has changed in the 20 years between the two books’ settings and, for the generation of readers who fell in love with Pages for You, Pages for Her is an opportunity to trace Anne and Flannery’s fortunes.”

“As a standalone novel Pages for Her is an exquisite, enthralling story – funny, sexy, clever,” the publisher added. “To read it and know there is a whole other novel waiting in the wings, another piece of the puzzle, only adds to the experience.”

Sophie Jonathan has acquired UK and Commonwealth rights to Pages for Her by Sylvia Brownrigg from Anna Webber at United Agents.

Brownrigg said: “It has been a great adventure for me as a novelist to revisit two characters I first wrote about when they, and I, were such different people. Time is a powerful equalizer: when these two women meet again, it is no longer clear who has the upper hand—or whether, years on, that question will even arise between them. In many ways, I wrote this novel to find out.”