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W&N has secured a “searing and captivating” investigation into asset managers and private equity, Diminishing Returns, by Guardian journalist Hettie O’Brien.
Publishing director Ed Lake acquired UK and Commonwealth rights excluding Canada to the debut from Matthew Turner at RCW, as part of a 48-hour pre-empt deal. W&N will publish in hardback, e-book and audio in spring 2026, with paperback to follow. North American rights were acquired at auction by Colin Dickerman and Maddie Caldwell at Grand Central.
“The tendrils of assets managers and private equity firms stretch across the globe, reaching into the foundations of our societies: healthcare, housing, childcare, high streets, even water supplies,” the publisher said. “What happens when your home or workplace, the nursery where you drop your children or the company that pipes water into your taps is taken over by a private investment firm? O’Brien takes us to the heart of this industry, using compelling interviews with those whose lives have been affected and profiling its hidden figures to understand its influence on our essential services and why it is so important we push back.”
W&N said that O’Brien was inspired to write the "searing and captivating" book after interviewing tenants who were fighting back against the private equity company Blackstone, which became part of a long read for the Guardian.
Lake said: “As soon as I started reading Diminishing Returns I knew I had to publish Hettie O’Brien, and it was only a few minutes later that I realised she had put her finger on the story of a lifetime – and in fact all of our lives. You can’t understand the direction of politics, the crumbling of government services, the explosion of precarity in housing and health across the global north since the financial crisis of 2008, without understanding the stealthy, sulphurous innovations of the private equity companies. They have in effect pulled off nothing less than a revolution in plain sight. With her canny eye for character and scene and incredible facility for rendering a secretive, seemingly technical world luminous and transparent, O’Brien is the chronicler they richly deserve.”
O’Brien said: "Diminishing Returns tackles a subject I’ve been thinking about for years: why one set of companies became the winners of the financial crisis, and how this huge shift in ownership reaches into all of our lives."
O’Brien is currently a leader writer and assistant editor for the Guardian, where she writes about social affairs and the incursion of finance into everyday life. She is also a contributing writer to the Long Read and Guardian Books. She has previously worked for the New Statesman, as a reporter in Washington DC and as a researcher for Rethinking Economics. She has covered economics, politics and culture for outlets such as the Times Literary Supplement, the Atlantic and the "BBC World at One".