Laetitia Rutherford

My current focus is on literary and upmarket fiction and non-fiction (including lifestyle and wellbeing). I am currently not looking for Crime fiction.

In my fifteen years as a literary agent, I have worked with many extraordinary, award-winning writers such as Chris Cleave, Rana Dasgupta, Xiaolu Guo and Evie Wyld, and with many such as Xinran and Diane Wei Liang who write in English as a second language. I firmly believe that what you have to say matters more than your grammar; but also look for brilliance, originality, and accomplishment in your writing. Over my decade at Watson, Little, I have built a successful Crime Fiction list, including Jenny Blackhurst, Alex Marwood and Ajay Chowdhury, all bestselling authors with series in TV development, who have won many awards between them including the Edgar Award, the Macavity Award, the Silver Nielsen Bookscan Award for over 500,000 sales, and Harvill Secker Bloody Scotland Award. Watson, Little is a growing agency with several agents and my forward focus is about curating a small list of Literary writers. Within this, I continue to look for creativity and diversity. I welcome stand-out stories driven by a strong leading idea and emotional depth, with fresh perspectives and transporting arcs. If historical, let your novel speak for today.

Tones of charm and humour also work well for me. I love cats, food and cooking, and nature, and I love how-to-live concepts from experts, activists, or new cultural voices. A deft and delightful eternity-in-a-grain-of-sand concept (seen in books I’ve sold across many languages like A Friend Like Ben or The Power of Chowa) would be a delight to take to readers around the world.

Favourite novels include Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff, Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo, The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett, An American Marriage by Tayeri Jones, Lullaby by Leila Slimani, Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason, Lanny by Max Porter, No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood, The Poisonwood Bible and Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver, The Light Between Oceans by ML Stedman, Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead, Milkman by Anna Burns, The Master by Colm Toibin. In Non-Fiction, I loved In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado, Maggie Nelson’s The Argonauts, and Amy Liptrot’s The Outrun. And among modern classics: Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea, Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse, Toni Morrison’s Sula, Sam Selvon’s The Lonely Londoners. I also love the exciting contemporary poetry scene including Mary-Jean Chan, Nina Mingya Powles and Ella Frears.