Virago snaps up 'dazzling' historical novel by Sherwood

Virago has snapped up a “dazzling” historical novel by Kim Sherwood. 

Rose Tomaszewska, editorial director, bought UK and Commonwealth rights to A Wild & True Relation from Sue Armstrong at C&W, having published Sherwood’s first novel, Testament, at riverrun in 2018. It will publish in February 2023.

A Wild & True Relation opens during the Great Storm of 1703, as smuggler Tom West confronts his lover Grace for betraying him to the Revenue. Leaving Grace’s cottage in flames, he takes her orphaned daughter on board ship disguised as a boy to join his crew. But Molly, or Orlando as she must call herself, will grow up to outshine all the men of his company and seek revenge, and a legacy, all of her own. Woven into Molly’s story are the writers, from Celia Fiennes to Hester Thrale to George Eliot, who are transfixed by her myth and who, over three centuries, come together to solve the mystery of her life. 

The publisher said: “With extraordinary verve and chutzpah, Sherwood remakes the 18th Century heroical novel and challenges women’s writing and women’s roles throughout history.” 

Sherwood is a novelist and a lecturer in creative writing at the University of Edinburgh. Testament was released in 2018, winning the Bath Novel Award and the Harper’s Bazaar Big Book of the Year, and was shortlisted for the Author’s Club Best First Novel Award, and longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize.  

In 2019, Sherwood was shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award. She will also be the first woman to write a James Bond novel, publishing Double or Nothing with HarperCollins in September 2022.  

Tomaszewska said: “When I first met Kim to discuss Testament, I told her I was excited to work with her because though it was a formidable first achievement, I didn’t think it would be the best book she’d ever write. She’s already lived up to my hopes: A Wild & True Relation is an astonishing feat of research and imagination. Playing with the form of the 18th Century novel and ventriloquising writers from Johnson and Thrale to Dickens and Eliot, Kim shows she has the guts to take on four centuries of women’s writing and make it a thrilling page-turner. We are launching this with a major campaign at Virago.” 

Sherwood added: “I have been writing these characters since 2009, so long I feel as if they must be my true relations. To see them go into the world now feels momentous. I am especially grateful to have found a home for this novel about women writing their own adventures with Rose Tomaszewska at Virago, and I am proud to be part of this historic and trailblazing publisher.” 

Armstrong also commented: “I knew something special was coming when Kim first told me she was following her prize-winning debut, Testament, with an epic, subversive smuggling novel set in the 18th Century. When A Wild & True Relation landed, not only was it all I dreamed it would be, it surpassed every expectation. Utterly unique and devilishly fun, this dazzling tour de force affirms Kim as one of the most exciting young writers out there.”