Curtis Brown (literary agents)
Encyclopedia
Curtis Brown is a literary and talent agency based in London
, UK. It was founded in 1899 by Albert Curtis Brown.
. He also ran a press syndication agency. Because of his contacts in both the UK and America, he fell into representing authors who were looking for publishing opportunities on the two continents.
The first deal he transacted was selling serial rights in John Oliver Hobbes
’s "The Vineyard". The literary agency element of Brown’s business was accommodated alongside his press agency in Henrietta Street, Covent Garden. In 1914, Curtis Brown opened its first international office in New York; subsequently, offices were opened in Paris, Berlin, Milan and Copenhagen. Brown believed in the exchange of literature between countries as a point of principle to foster international understanding. The company retains a translation rights department to this day.
During this period, Brown carried out agency business on behalf of a large number of well-known writers such as Kenneth Grahame
, AA Milne and DH Lawrence. It also worked on behalf of prominent figures of the day including Winston Churchill
, David Lloyd George
and President Woodrow Wilson.
The company underwent a management buy out in 2002, when agents (Jonny Geller, Ben Hall, Jonathan Lloyd, Nick Marston and Peter Robinson), bought the company from the senior staff at the agency. Lloyd remained as managing director and subsequently became CEO. Robinson left in 2006 to form a solo agency.
In 2008, Curtis Brown and ICM NY Books inked a deal for Curtis Brown to represent ICM’s clients in the UK and across the world.
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, UK. It was founded in 1899 by Albert Curtis Brown.
History
Albert Curtis Brown was an American journalist who was the London correspondent for New York PressNew York Press
New York Press was a free alternative weekly in New York City, that was published from 1988 to 2011. During its lifetime, it was the main competitor to the Village Voice...
. He also ran a press syndication agency. Because of his contacts in both the UK and America, he fell into representing authors who were looking for publishing opportunities on the two continents.
The first deal he transacted was selling serial rights in John Oliver Hobbes
John Oliver Hobbes
Pearl Mary Teresa Craigie was an Anglo-American novelist and dramatist who wrote under the pen-name of John Oliver Hobbes.-Life:...
’s "The Vineyard". The literary agency element of Brown’s business was accommodated alongside his press agency in Henrietta Street, Covent Garden. In 1914, Curtis Brown opened its first international office in New York; subsequently, offices were opened in Paris, Berlin, Milan and Copenhagen. Brown believed in the exchange of literature between countries as a point of principle to foster international understanding. The company retains a translation rights department to this day.
During this period, Brown carried out agency business on behalf of a large number of well-known writers such as Kenneth Grahame
Kenneth Grahame
Kenneth Grahame was a Scottish writer, most famous for The Wind in the Willows , one of the classics of children's literature. He also wrote The Reluctant Dragon; both books were later adapted into Disney films....
, AA Milne and DH Lawrence. It also worked on behalf of prominent figures of the day including Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
, David Lloyd George
David Lloyd George
David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor OM, PC was a British Liberal politician and statesman...
and President Woodrow Wilson.
Recent history
In 1995, Jonathan Lloyd was recruited from publishers Harper Collins to become managing director and two years later Nick Marston joined from rival agents AP Watt to begin a new film, theatre and television department.The company underwent a management buy out in 2002, when agents (Jonny Geller, Ben Hall, Jonathan Lloyd, Nick Marston and Peter Robinson), bought the company from the senior staff at the agency. Lloyd remained as managing director and subsequently became CEO. Robinson left in 2006 to form a solo agency.
In 2008, Curtis Brown and ICM NY Books inked a deal for Curtis Brown to represent ICM’s clients in the UK and across the world.
Novelists and non-fiction writers
- Margaret AtwoodMargaret AtwoodMargaret Eleanor Atwood, is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, and environmental activist. She is among the most-honoured authors of fiction in recent history; she is a winner of the Arthur C...
, Canadian writer - Tony BennTony BennAnthony Neil Wedgwood "Tony" Benn, PC is a British Labour Party politician and a former MP and Cabinet Minister.His successful campaign to renounce his hereditary peerage was instrumental in the creation of the Peerage Act 1963...
, British politician and diarist - Isaiah BerlinIsaiah BerlinSir Isaiah Berlin OM, FBA was a British social and political theorist, philosopher and historian of ideas of Russian-Jewish origin, regarded as one of the leading thinkers of the twentieth century and a dominant liberal scholar of his generation...
, British philosopher and historian of ideas - Winston ChurchillWinston ChurchillSir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
- Daphne du MaurierDaphne du MaurierDame Daphne du Maurier, Lady Browning DBE was a British author and playwright.Many of her works have been adapted into films, including the novels Rebecca and Jamaica Inn and the short stories "The Birds" and "Don't Look Now". The first three were directed by Alfred Hitchcock.Her elder sister was...
, English author and playwright - Lawrence DurrellLawrence DurrellLawrence George Durrell was an expatriate British novelist, poet, dramatist, and travel writer, though he resisted affiliation with Britain and preferred to be considered cosmopolitan...
- Kenneth GrahameKenneth GrahameKenneth Grahame was a Scottish writer, most famous for The Wind in the Willows , one of the classics of children's literature. He also wrote The Reluctant Dragon; both books were later adapted into Disney films....
- James HiltonJames HiltonJames Hilton was an English novelist who wrote several best-sellers, including Lost Horizon and Goodbye, Mr. Chips.-Biography:...
- Howard JacobsonHoward JacobsonHoward Jacobson is a Man Booker Prize-winning British Jewish author and journalist. He is best known for writing comic novels that often revolve around the dilemmas of British Jewish characters.-Background:...
British novelist who won the Man Booker Prize in 2010 for "The Finkler QuestionThe Finkler QuestionThe Finkler Question is a 2010 novel written by British author Howard Jacobson. The novel won the Man Booker Prize in 2010 and was the first comic novel to win the prize since Kingsley Amis's The Old Devils in 1986....
" - Antonia FraserAntonia FraserLady Antonia Margaret Caroline Fraser, DBE , née Pakenham, is an Anglo-Irish author of history, novels, biographies and detective fiction, best known as Antonia Fraser...
, British writer - Michael de LarrabeitiMichael de LarrabeitiMichael de Larrabeiti was an English novelist and travel writer. He is best known for writing The Borrible Trilogy, which has been cited as an influence by writers in the New Weird movement.-Early life:...
, author best known for The Borrible TrilogyThe Borrible TrilogyThe Borrible Trilogy is a series of young adult books written by English writer Michael de Larrabeiti. The three volumes in the trilogy are The Borribles, The Borribles Go For Broke, and The Borribles: Across the Dark Metropolis. Each book contains a separate story but together they form an... - A. A. MilneA. A. MilneAlan Alexander Milne was an English author, best known for his books about the teddy bear Winnie-the-Pooh and for various children's poems. Milne was a noted writer, primarily as a playwright, before the huge success of Pooh overshadowed all his previous work.-Biography:A. A...
- David MitchellDavid Mitchell (author)David Stephen Mitchell is an English novelist. He has written five novels, two of which were shortlisted for the Booker Prize.- Biography :...
, British author of Cloud Atlas - David NichollsDavid Nicholls (writer)-Background:Nicholls is the middle of three siblings. He attended Barton Peveril sixth-form college at Eastleigh, Hampshire, from 1983 to 1985 , and playing a wide range of roles in college drama productions...
, English novelist, author of "One Day" and screenwriter - Vita Sackville-WestVita Sackville-WestThe Hon Victoria Mary Sackville-West, Lady Nicolson, CH , best known as Vita Sackville-West, was an English author, poet and gardener. She won the Hawthornden Prize in 1927 and 1933...
- Charles Gidley WheelerCharles Gidley WheelerCharles Gidley Wheeler was a television screenwriter and historical novelist whose work has been acclaimed in Publishers Weekly, The Washington Post, Kirkus Reviews, and The New York Times....
, British novelist - Lauren DaviesLauren DaviesLauren Davies is a British chick-lit novelist and screenwriter. Davies' screenwriting credits include Waveriders, and she also writes for television and multi-platform games...
, novelist and screenwriter
Playwrights
- Samuel BeckettSamuel BeckettSamuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet. He wrote both in English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour.Beckett is widely regarded as among the most...
- Colin TeevanColin TeevanColin Teevan is an Irish playwright, radio dramatist, translator and academic.Teevan has premiered works in the National Theatres of Ireland, Scotland and the Royal National Theatre in London, He has been a regular collaborator of directors Hideki Noda, Sir Peter Hall, and actors Greg Hicks, Clare...
- Conor McPhersonConor McPhersonConor McPherson is an Irish playwright and director.-Life and career:McPherson was born in Dublin, . He was educated at University College Dublin, McPherson began writing his first plays there as a member of UCD Dramsoc, the college's dramatic society, and went on to found Fly By Night Theatre...
- RC Sherriff
- Nick PayneNick PayneNick Payne is a British playwright who studied at the University of York and subsequently at the Central School of Speech and Drama. He is also a graduate of the Royal Court Young Writer's Programme...
Screenwriters
- David WolstencroftDavid WolstencroftDavid Wolstencroft is a Scottish television writer and author. He is best known as creator of the BAFTA award-winning TV spy drama Spooks and its spin-off series, Spooks: Code 9. Wolstencroft was born in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1969 and grew up in Edinburgh, Scotland, later going on to read history at...
, creator of the BBC series, SpooksSpooksSpooks is a British television drama series that originally aired on BBC One from 13 May 2002 – 23 October 2011, consisting of 10 series. The title is a popular colloquialism for spies, as the series follows the work of a group of MI5 officers based at the service's Thames House headquarters, in a... - Kevin CecilKevin CecilKevin Robert Cecil is a British screenwriter.Writing alongside Andy Riley , he has won two BAFTA awards, the first for writing the Comic Relief one-off special, Robbie the Reindeer, in 2000, and the second for Black Books in 2005...
, co-writer of Channel 4Channel 4Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
sitcom Black BooksBlack BooksBlack Books is a British sitcom television series created by Dylan Moran and Graham Linehan and produced by Nira Park, first broadcast on Channel 4 from 2000 to 2004... - Andy RileyAndy RileyAndy Riley is a British author, cartoonist, comics scriptwriter, and television screenwriter.Riley has written several best-selling cartoon books, The Book of Bunny Suicides , Return of the Bunny Suicides, The Bumper Book of Bunny Suicides, Dawn of the Bunny Suicides, Great Lies To Tell Small...
, co-writer of Channel 4Channel 4Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
sitcom Black BooksBlack BooksBlack Books is a British sitcom television series created by Dylan Moran and Graham Linehan and produced by Nira Park, first broadcast on Channel 4 from 2000 to 2004...
TV presenters
- Cat DeeleyCat DeeleyCatherine Elizabeth "Cat" Deeley is an English television presenter and model. Since 2006, Deeley has also been the host of So You Think You Can Dance in the United States, for which she received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality-Competition...
, TV presenter of "So You Think You Can DanceSo You Think You Can Dance (U.S. TV series)So You Think You Can Dance is an American dance competition and reality show that airs on Fox in the United States.The series first premiered on July 20, 2005, and was created by American Idol producers Simon Fuller and Nigel Lythgoe and is produced by 19 Entertainment and Dick Clark Productions...
" - James HymanJames HymanJames Hyman is a DJ, Radio & TV presenter, music supervisor and MD of JLH, a creative media–marketing company.Hyman put aside his place at the University of Manchester in order to work in the Press office of the, then new, company MTV, despite his parents' misgivings James Hyman (born 18 April...
, DJ, music supervisor and TV presenter
Actors and actresses
- Dev PatelDev PatelDev Patel is a British actor. He is best known for playing Jamal Malik in Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire , for which Patel won a number of awards, including a Critics' Choice Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award...
, British film and television actor best known for his roles in SkinsSkins (TV series)Skins is a BAFTA award-winning British teen drama that follows a group of teenagers in Bristol, South West England, through the two years of college. The controversial plot line explores issues such as dysfunctional families, mental illness , adolescent sexuality, substance abuse and death...
and Slumdog MillionaireSlumdog MillionaireSlumdog Millionaire is a 2008 British epic romantic drama adventure film directed by Danny Boyle, written by Simon Beaufoy, and co-directed in India by Loveleen Tandan. It is an adaptation of the novel Q & A by Indian author and diplomat Vikas Swarup... - Robert PattinsonRobert PattinsonRobert Douglas Thomas Pattinson is an English actor, model, musician, and producer. Born and raised in London, Pattinson started out his career by playing the role of Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire...
, English actor, model and musician best known for his role in TwilightTwilight (2008 film)Twilight is a 2008 American romantic vampire film based on Stephenie Meyer's popular novel of the same name. Directed by Catherine Hardwicke, the film stars Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson. It is the first film in The Twilight Saga film series... - Thomas SangsterThomas SangsterThomas Brodie Sangster is an English film and television actor, best known for his roles in Love Actually, Nanny McPhee, The Last Legion, and voice of Ferb Fletcher in Phineas and Ferb.-Personal life:...
, British film and television actor best known for his roles in Love ActuallyLove ActuallyLove Actually is a 2003 British romantic comedy film written and directed by Richard Curtis. The screenplay delves into different aspects of love as shown through ten separate stories involving a wide variety of individuals, many of whom are shown to be interlinked as their tales progress...
, Nanny McPheeNanny McPheeNanny McPhee is a 2005 fantasy film starring Emma Thompson and Colin Firth. Thompson also wrote the screenplay, which is adapted from Christianna Brand's Nurse Matilda books.-Plot:...
, The Last LegionThe Last LegionThe Last Legion is a 2007 film directed by Doug Lefler. Produced by Dino De Laurentiis and others, it is based on a 2003 Italian novel of the same name written by Valerio Massimo Manfredi...
, and voice of Ferb in Phineas and FerbPhineas and FerbPhineas and Ferb is an American animated television comedy series. Originally broadcast as a preview on August 17, 2007, on Disney Channel, the series follows Phineas Flynn and his English stepbrother Ferb Fletcher on summer vacation. Every day the boys embark on some grand new project, which...
. - Kaya ScodelarioKaya ScodelarioKaya Rose Scodelario is a British actress and model. She is best known for her role as Effy Stonem in the E4 drama Skins.-Skins :...
, English actress and model best known for her role in SkinsSkins (TV series)Skins is a BAFTA award-winning British teen drama that follows a group of teenagers in Bristol, South West England, through the two years of college. The controversial plot line explores issues such as dysfunctional families, mental illness , adolescent sexuality, substance abuse and death... - Sophie McSheraSophie McSheraSophie McShera is a British actress. At an early age she moved to Eccleshill, also in Bradford, where she attended St Joseph's College. Out of school she attended the Footsteps Theatre School before getting her stage break at the age of twelve in comedy The Goodbye Girl...
, English actress known for her roles in Waterloo RoadWaterloo Road (TV series)Waterloo Road is an award-winning British television drama series, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 9 March 2006. Set in a troubled comprehensive school in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, the series focuses on the lives of the school's teacher and students, and confronts social...
and Downton AbbeyDownton AbbeyDownton Abbey is a British television period drama series, produced by NBC Universal-owned British media company Carnival Films for the ITV network. The series is set during the late Edwardian era and the First World War on the fictional estate of Downton Abbey in Yorkshire, and features an...
. - Laura CarmichaelLaura CarmichaelLaura Carmichael is a British actress. She was educated at The Mountbatten School, Peter Symonds College, and Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and her TV appearances include Downton Abbey. She is also a member of The Fitzrovia Radio Hour.-Filmography:...
, English actress who played Lady Edith Crawley in "Downton AbbeyDownton AbbeyDownton Abbey is a British television period drama series, produced by NBC Universal-owned British media company Carnival Films for the ITV network. The series is set during the late Edwardian era and the First World War on the fictional estate of Downton Abbey in Yorkshire, and features an...
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