Picador turns up the heat for Venkat's 'urgent' book Swelter

Picador has scooped Swelter, a "compelling history of our bodies in a swiftly warming world", from Dr Bharat Jayram Venkat. 

Editorial director Andrea Henry acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from John Ash at CAA UK on behalf of Amelia Atlas at CAA US. The book will be published in summer 2026 with Amanda Cook at Crown Publishing in the US. 

Venkat argues in Swelter that exposure to heat will become the defining public health issue of the 21st century. It is a "smart and thoughtful history that connects the dots between the biological processes taking place within our bodies, our lived experiences of heat and the large-scale social and political forces shaping the worlds in which we live". 

The publisher continued: "While focused on our growing knowledge of the body, Dr Venkat stresses that the challenges posed by extreme heat are more than skin deep. Swelter is the powerful story of what our lives will look like as we become increasingly unable to withstand the impacts of rising temperatures, and what we can do about it." 

Henry said: "Bharat has the all too uncommon skill of being able to offer up an academic’s scholarly expertise while delivering an intelligent, propulsive reading experience. Taking us from Plato and Aristotle’s theories on how our bodies generate warmth through to the actors’ and writers’ strikes in Hollywood under the beating sun, with a focus on the social consequences of extreme heat, Swelter is urgent, informative, authoritative and accessible popular science. We are delighted to welcome Bharat to the Picador list."

Venkat is an associate professor at UCLA’s Institute for Society & Genetics and is the founding director of UCLA Heat Lab, an interdisciplinary initiative to study the social, biological and political dimensions of heat and its unequal effects. He said: "I’m thrilled that Swelter will be put out by Picador, an imprint that has published so many authors I admire and so many books I love. I’m also so happy to be working with Andrea Henry; the editorial experience and sharp eye she brings will help readers connect to the history of heat and its impacts on the body that unfolds throughout the book."