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Red editor signs with HC

30.06.08 Benedicte Page

HarperCollins publishing director Lynne Drew has paid a "good" six-figure sum for The Stepmother's Support Group by Sam Baker, editor of Red magazine.

The novel will be published in September 2009; Drew bought British Commonwealth and European rights, with optional Canadian rights, in a two book deal with Jonny Geller at Curtis Brown.

The book took root in an editor's letter that Baker wrote in Red about her experience being a stepmother. The novel is about Natalie, a magazine journalist whose partner is a widower with three children. After a disastrous first meeting with the children, she turns to best friend Clare
for advice.

Clare suggests Natalie talk to her younger sister Lily, who is going through a similar experience. The two women reluctantly meet for coffee but when one of Natalie's colleagues refers a glamorous businesswoman to her "stepmother's support group", a group is born.

Drew said that the book was "grown-up, thoughtful women's fiction while still being very commercial". "I loved the fact this was a book about friendship rather than one woman struggling with an issue," she said.

HarperCollins Benedicte Page Rights deal Red

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