W&N reveals new title from Philippe Sands coming 2024

Weidenfeld & Nicolson has acquired a third book from Philippe Sands, loosely connected to the QC and Baillie Gifford Prize-winning author's books East West Street and follow-up The Ratline. 

Pinochet in London will share the story of a landmark case and major moment in Sands' law career: the arrest of Augusto Pinochet in London in October 1998. It was the first time that a former head of state has been arrested on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity while travelling abroad. According to W&N, five decades after the Nuremberg trials, the Pinochet case was the moment in which the idea of international criminal justice came to fruition.

Jenny Lord, W&N publisher, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Georgia Garrett at Rogers, Coleridge & White for publication in hardback, audio and e-book in 2024.

Lord said: "The story of Pinochet’s arrest and trial is an extraordinary one that resonates with the past and the wider narrative of international law in fascinating ways. No one handles such complex historical and contemporary interweaving narratives as deftly as Philippe, and we are thrilled to be publishing his next major work of non-fiction."

Sands, a professor of Law at UCL and a practising barrister at Matrix Chambers, as well as president of English PEN, said: "Pinochet was one of the most momentous cases I’ve ever been involved in, acting in opposition to my closest friend – yet it is only more recently have I come to learn of its unexpected connection to the stories I told in East West Street and The Ratline. I am so delighted to take the narrative forward into its next phase, working with a truly wonderful publishing team."