We at Voyager are so excited to be welcoming Robin Hobb to the UK this weekend. The timing is marvellously auspicious, coinciding as it does with the publication of her fabulous novella, The Wilful Princess And The Piebald Prince (sumptuously illustrated by Jackie Morris); with the announcement of her new 3-book deal with us — the long-awaited return to pick up the threads of the story of our favourite characters, Fitz and the Fool (beginning with Fool’s Assassin in August 2014); and also with the rare arrival of the World Fantasy Convention in the UK, this year in Brighton, where she will be appearing on several panels, meeting with fans and guesting at the Voyager party.
But for me the nicest coincidence of all is that this year marks a quarter of a century since Robin — or as I know her, Megan — and I have been working together. Our first correspondence is dated 1988, when as an editor at the small independent publisher Unwin Hyman I bought the UK rights to The Reindeer People and Wolf’s Brother by a certain little-known American fantasy writer working quietly under the name ‘Megan Lindholm’. ‘Robin Hobb’ was some years away from being even a twinkle in anyone’s eye, and by the time it came into existence Unwin Hyman had been swallowed up by HarperCollins and the Voyager list was in the process of being formed.
Assassin’s Apprentice, the first of the Farseer books to which The Wilful Princess And The Piebald Prince forms a sort of prequel, was published in 1995 as part of the launch of Voyager, became a worldwide bestseller and kicked off one of the most beautifully written and passionately loved fantasy series in the history of the genre. We can’t wait to see her and to celebrate her remarkable achievements in style.
Jane Johnson, Publisher, HarperVoyager UK
