Leander Deeny sold UK rights to Hazel’s Nightmares to Suzy Jenvey at Quercus. This is the first novel by the 23-year-old Oxford graduate. It “describes how the strange animals that haunt the nightmares of an old lady need a director to tell their story and get them under control. Six-year-old Hazel becomes that director.”
“It’s an extraordinary book. I’ve never read anything like it,” Jenvey said. “I don’t know where I’ll fit it in, but like The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, there’s no reason an adult wouldn’t read and enjoy it as much as a child.”
Quercus publicity says the book “combines the rich imagination of Lewis Carroll and Maurice Sendak with the child/adult crossover appeal of Mark Haddon.” It will be published in 2008.
Jenvey was only appointed children’s publisher at Quercus three weeks earlier, but managed to scoop other, more established publishers, due to her longtime working relationship with Caroline Michel of the William Morris Agency, who sold it to her. “Caroline was my first boss at Jonathan Cape,” Jenvey said. “She very rarely deals with children’s books, but when this came along, she immediately thought of me.”