Rachel Hamilton, Literary Agent
Rachel’s journey to agenting has been a twisty-turny one, through ad agencies, a men’s prison, a building site, a secondary school and lots of lit fests. She fell in love with storytelling as an English teacher – perhaps because it was the easiest way to get students to stop talking and listen to her – and has been published by Simon & Schuster (UK), OUP (UK), Scholastic (US), and Motivate (Middle East). While promoting her books, Rachel discovered she preferred talking about other people's stories, so she trained as a moderator to chat with writing heroes, like Alexander McCall Smith, Onjali Rauf and Jasper Fforde. She wow-ed her mum by interviewing Richard and Judy (on a sofa), and disappointed an unruly mob of seven-year-olds by refusing to let them invade the stage while Nadia Hussain was icing gingerbread men.
After a spot of freelance editing, Rachel made the move into agenting and found her dream home at The BIA, where she's looking forward to building her own list. She loves books with humour, particularly if it's edgy and smart and triggered by characters' own actions, flaws and foibles. She is also a sucker for strong-voiced action stories that make you fall in love with a character and then plunge them into peril, pushing the 'what if' premise to extremes with a few clever twists and turns. There's no better feeling than being genuinely surprised, but in a forehead-slapping 'Dur! Should have seen it coming' way.
After a spot of freelance editing, Rachel made the move into agenting and found her dream home at The BIA, where she's looking forward to building her own list. She loves books with humour, particularly if it's edgy and smart and triggered by characters' own actions, flaws and foibles. She is also a sucker for strong-voiced action stories that make you fall in love with a character and then plunge them into peril, pushing the 'what if' premise to extremes with a few clever twists and turns. There's no better feeling than being genuinely surprised, but in a forehead-slapping 'Dur! Should have seen it coming' way.