John Jarrold profile picture

John Jarrold

I am here for Networking

About Me

I work as a literary agent, and editor for new writers and publishers. I started attending SF conventions in 1973, and joined publishing full-time in 1988. I spent fifteen years working in London publishing, running SF and Fantasy imprints Orbit, Legend and Earthlight. I have published authors from Iain Banks, Robert Holdstock and Greg Bear to Robert Jordan and David Gemmell, as well as thriller writers including Stel Pavlou, John Sandford and Tim Willocks. Having also worked in public libraries for fifteen years before getting into publishing, I think you might say that I like books. I've also been asked by indy film producers to do some script-editing on occasion.Check me out on this website: http://www.johnjarrold.co.uk

My Interests

Apart from SF and Fantasy (and literature in general), my main interests are film, archaeology and history, sport, opera (particularly Mozart), cookery, military history and hardware, computer games, both world wars, music in general, mythology, Shakespeare and the history of theatre, and English literature.

I'd like to meet:

Jenny Agutter, Sigourney Weaver, Diana Rigg...oh, sorry, you didn't mean that, did you?Writers (published and unpublished); publishing and other media professionals; interested parties.

Music:

50s and 60s RnB; opera; jazz (from big band to the Jazz Warriors); lots of Good Stuff.

Movies:

CASABLANCA, THE MALTESE FALCON, PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN, THE SEARCHERS, BUILD MY GALLOWS HIGH, HEAVEN KNOWS MR. ALLISON, A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH, I KNOW WHERE I’M GOING, GALAXY QUEST, THE LAST VALLEY, SLEEPY HOLLOW, THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS, THE CORPSE BRIDE, ED WOOD, ZULU, THE LONGEST DAY, A CANTERBURY TALE, SCROOGE (ALASTAIR SIM), THE LIFE AND DEATH OF COLONEL BLIMP, ALFIE (ORIGINAL), GET CARTER (ORIGINAL), A FEW DOLLARS MORE, A NIGHT AT THE OPERA, A DAY AT THE RACES, GUYS AND DOLLS, THE IPCRESS FILE, HIGH SOCIETY, THE PHILADELPHIA STORY, LEON, THE THIN MAN, THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD, CAPTAIN BLOOD, THE PRINCESS BRIDE, THE RIGHT STUFF, THE BIG CHILL, THE BIG EASY, THE BIG SLEEP, ALIEN, GHOSTBUSTERS, CYRANO, THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING, TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE, THE BLUES BROTHERS, OLIVIER'S HENRY V AND RICHARD III…many others

Television:

The Avengers, The West Wing, The League of Gentlemen, CSI (original series)...

Books:

Many, many favourites. Fiction ranges from Dickens' OUR MUTUAL FRIEND to Iain Banks' THE BRIDGE. Non-fiction from Orlando Figes' NATASHA'S DANCE (A Cultural History of Russia) to Roy Porter's ENLIGHTENMENT.Since I published SF and Fantasy for fifteen years, I have a number of favourites there, too. Let's mention authors rather than specific books: Alfred Bester, Philip K Dick, Frederik Pohl & C M Kornbluth, Greg Bear, Brian Aldiss, J G Ballard, Tom Disch, Roger Zelazny (pre-AMBER), Robert Silverberg, Ursula Le Guin, William Gibson, Iain M Banks, Ian McDonald, Alastair Reynolds, Ken MacLeod, Jon Courtenay Grimwood, on the SF side. Fritz Leiber, E R Eddison, J R R Tolkien, George R R Martin, Robert Holdstock, Tim Powers, Mike Moorcock, Ian R MacLeod, Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman, Steven Erikson, Guy Gavriel Kay in Fantasy. There are a great many others I could also mention!

Heroes:

Robert Mitchum, Richard Dawkins, Jacob Bronowski

My Blog

new client

The latest client of the John Jarrold Literary Agency is Natasha Rhodes. Rhodes is the British-born author of two supernatural thrillers for Solaris Books, Dante's Girl and The Last Angel, as well as ...
Posted by John Jarrold on Thu, 19 Jun 2008 08:34:00 PST

Adam Nevill’s debut horror novel

Adam Nevill's debut novel, BANQUET FOR THE DAMNED, is published in paperback in the UK by Virgin Books today. It's a terrific modern horror novel, set in St Andrews, Scotland, but with echoes of M R J...
Posted by John Jarrold on Thu, 05 Jun 2008 02:07:00 PST

June is bustin out all over

And June will also be a very interesting month for the literary agency.  Stephen Hunt's fantasy novel COURT OF THE AIR, published to acclaim in the UK by HarperCollins in 2007, will see its first...
Posted by John Jarrold on Sun, 01 Jun 2008 03:24:00 PST

Another year

Well, May has been an interesting month.  Four novels by clients of the agency were published - that's the most in one month, so far (In hardback: THE KINGDOM BEYOND THE WAVES by Stephen Hunt (Ha...
Posted by John Jarrold on Sat, 31 May 2008 10:38:00 PST

Iain Banks in Lincoln, UK

Just a reminder that Iain Banks will be in Lincoln on Monday May 12, taking part in the Book Festival - I'm interviewing him at 8p.m.  Should be fun!  Be there or be a drone. You can get tic...
Posted by John Jarrold on Thu, 17 Apr 2008 02:06:00 PST

fantasy author Q&A

There's a new Q&A with RED WOLF CONSPIRACY author Robert V S Redick on the Gollancz website:  http://www.orionbooks.co.uk/QandA.aspx?id=14330&catID=3. ..
Posted by John Jarrold on Wed, 12 Mar 2008 06:06:00 PST

New deal for Stephen Hunt

John Jarrold has concluded a second, three-book World Rights deal for UK fantasy author Stephen Hunt with Sarah Hodgson of HarperCollins Voyager, for a good five-figure sum.   Hunt's first book ...
Posted by John Jarrold on Fri, 07 Mar 2008 02:51:00 PST

Spider’s Bride review

Just seen this review of Debbie Gallagher's debut novel, THE SPIDER'S BRIDE on Fantasy Book Spot.  It was published by Prime in the US at the end of last year:   A nameless modern woman step...
Posted by John Jarrold on Sat, 23 Feb 2008 02:56:00 PST

Saxon Bullock

Several people have misread my previous post.  Now please concentrate!  I compared my reaction to reading Ken MacLeod's novel when commenting on reading Saxon's book, I didn't compare Saxon'...
Posted by John Jarrold on Fri, 15 Feb 2008 09:54:00 PST

new client, great new SF novel

The latest client of the John Jarrold Literary Agency is journalist Saxon Bullock. Saxon Bullock has been working as a freelance writer since 2000, and has written for a variety of magazines and webs...
Posted by John Jarrold on Thu, 14 Feb 2008 02:51:00 PST