Ben Dunn

Reading group, women’s fiction, speculative fiction.

For fiction, I enjoy original, well-drawn characters, unusual plots and writing that extends the margins of what is traditionally expected within a genre. I am drawn to unique voices, and often novels written with subtle humour, not ‘funny’ novels per se, but writing that stands out as different and unexpected. I love The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven by Nathaniel Ian Miller, In The Distance by Hernan Diaz as well as The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden alongside the incredible writing of Emily St. John Mandel, Taffy Brodesser-Akner and Donna Tartt. But I’m also drawn to powerful main characters like those of Naoise Dolan, Oyinkin Braithwaite, and Ottessa Moshfegh.

Memoir, narrative-led non-fiction, nature writing, media tie-in (TV, Radio, Social Media, Podcast), pop-science, and big ideas.

I made my start in publishing in the late ’90s, just as it was embracing popular culture as a genre, and the wider audience that came with it. This led me into a career of following and anticipating trends, and I have continued that course into my time as an agent. Aside from our profile-led non-fiction, much of our work can be encapsulated within the mantra that the idea is king. We look for work that is the perfect synergy of writing by an expert voice, married to a new and exciting idea that more often than not provides some form of ‘utility’ to the reader. Two of my most recent books that echo this mantra are Jessica Davies’ incredible call-to-arms about online female health, No One Wants To See Your Dck, and Kate Bryan and David Shrigley’s How to Art*, a book that demystifies the traditionally rarified world of art.