Welbeck Flame buys four from Bennett

Welbeck Flame has acquired a four-book middle-grade series by M A Bennett, which will follow a 19th-century society, The Butterfly Club, which uses time travel to plunder the future.  

Jane Harris, children’s group publisher, did the deal for world rights with Teresa Chris at the Teresa Chris Literary Agency.

The first title in the series, The Ship of Doom, will be published in March 2022 and will see the young protagonists travel forward to the "Titanic" in 1912 in an effort to steal the Marconi radio, which remains at the bottom of the ocean to this day, despite efforts to recover it. 

Book two in the series, The Mummy’s Curse, will be published in October 2022 and will follow the society to 1922, to Egypt’s Valley of the Kings, where Tutankhamun’s mummy is about to be disturbed after 3,000 years.

Harris said: "I am thrilled to be publishing Marina’s new middle-grade series The Butterfly Club. Marina’s writing is full of visual adventure and extraordinary true references that are cleverly woven throughout the stories. Readers will be taken on journeys they wish will never end, with a cast of characters who are larger than life, wonderfully energetic and immersive."

Bennett commented: "I’m absolutely overjoyed to be working with Jane Harris and the team at Welbeck and delighted to be writing for a new age group alongside my YA work. I’ve always wanted to write rip-roaring adventures through time and now I have the opportunity!"

Bennett is the author of YA series STAGS which was launched in 2017 with S.T.A.G.S. (Hot Key Books).