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Founder, director & literary agent

Madeleine Milburn

Madeleine founded the MM Agency in 2012, building it into a truly global literary agency based in the UK.

Biography

Working with a network of publishers and producers based all over the world, Madeleine represents debut writers, journalists, and established authors. With her tight-knit team, she handles all rights to every book including UK, US, international and Film & TV.

In 2018, Madeleine was named Literary Agent of the Year at the British Book Awards, and was shortlisted again in 2020. She has appeared on The Bookseller’s list of the 150 most influential people in the book trade every year since 2017. 

Madeleine represents authors based in the UK, US, Canada and Australia, and has a strong reputation for talent spotting writers and launching their careers with major publishers internationally. She works across all genres and has a particular passion for smart, accessible literary fiction, that can be discussed by book clubs. She has launched the careers of multiple bestselling authors, some of them the highest-earning in the book trade. Gail Honeyman’s Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine has sold millions of copies worldwide, remained on the New York Times bestseller list for over 84 weeks, and won the 2017 Costa Book Awards. Madeleine also discovered Elizabeth Macneal’s international bestseller The Doll Factory, and bestselling brand authors including C.J. Tudor, C.L. Taylor, Fiona Barton and Holly Bourne. In January 2021, three of the agency’s authors spent multiple weeks on the New York Times bestseller list simultaneously: The Push by Ashley Audrain, Wintering by Katherine May, and The Authenticity Project by Clare Pooley. 

What I'm Looking For

Character-driven debuts, original voices, quirky storytelling, uplifting fiction, high concepts, fascinating viewpoints. Epic stories with big universal themes, issue-driven crime, dark fast-paced thrillers and mysteries, fear-inducing suspense, moral dilemmas, fiction that mixes up the genres. Thought-provoking stories, emotional journeys, inspirational stories, love stories, narrative memoir, writing I cannot put down.

Submissions

What I'm Looking For

I’m the Director of Madeleine Milburn Ltd and an Agent, and I have a voice-driven list: I work across all genres for all ages, both literary and upmarket commercial.  I’m always on the lookout for new writers, the key thing for me is a unique voice and a strong, compelling protagonist.

When a really special book comes along I feel it from the moment I start reading, I look for a concise covering letter and then I look for a gripping and unforgettable voice: a narrator who is going to pull me in and never let me go.

I’m seeing a trend for quirkier narrators. Whether they’re unreliable, struggling with illness, mental-health issues, memory loss or social awkwardness, protagonists are becoming more and more lifelike and with that, more and more relatable to readers. I fell in love with the heroine in Gail Honeyman’s Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine as soon as I started reading it – she’s a bit of an oddball who tends to say exactly what she’s thinking and struggles with appropriate social skills, but she’s such an endearing character too.

I think the different ways in which a story is told can be really interesting, for instance Laura Barnett’s The Versions of Us moves between three different versions of the same story. I’m looking for unique ways of telling stories, particularly given the new ways we absorb information on social media. Anything that feels topical.

Aside from finding new crime and thriller authors, I’d love to find more upmarket women’s fiction; for instance a big, sweeping love story or a contemporary look at modern life.  I would definitely like to find an extremely emotional read but also some more uplifting fiction, something that offers hope in the challenging world we live in.  Publishers keep telling me they are looking for inspirational stories that offer escapism.

I am also very interested in high concepts, true stories and true crime that work particularly well for Film & TV.

I’d love to represent some more literary fiction – Sally Rooney, Maggie O’Farrell and Hanya Yanagihara are all favourite authors.

Ten of my favourite books (excluding my authors!)

I am I am I am by Maggie O’Farrell

The Tin Man by Sarah Winman

Anything Is Possible by Elizabeth Strout

Normal People by Sally Rooney

One Day by David Nicholls

The Fact of a Body by Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich

The Child in Time by Ian McEwan

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

The Magus by John Fowles

 

Ten of my favourite shows

Crime drama Apple Tree Yard

Netflix series The Sinner

American comedy Transparent

Two Brothers Pictures The Missing

British Comedy series FleaBag

Satirical series Black Mirror

HBO series Olive Kitteridge

British crime drama Happy Valley

Danish series The Bridge

Sitcom Motherland

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Chloe Seager

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Managing Director & literary agent
Giles Milburn

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