Farewell Agent Yeeles

 First of all, apologies for my deathly silence on this blog.  I was finishing my manuscript off and I got so completely IN to what I was doing that I let things slip.  Things like eating lunch.  And going to bed at a normal hour.  And switching my head off and going to sleep once I got there.  And writing blogs.  But now I’ve actually got my manuscript finished - give or take a bit of tidying up.  And I’m totally back on top of things.

And this month, I have to say GOODBYE and a big fat massive THANK YOU to Hayley Yeeles, my (ex) agent at Pollinger Ltd, who has looked after me for the last four years.  As well as sorting out contracts and explaining to me what CONSUMER FACING means and nagging me to have multiple social network accounts and a BIGGER INTERNET PRESENCE,  Agent Yeeles - aka Yeelesy - has been a key player in the production of all four of the novels I’ve written in the last four years.  She’s been one of my top cheerleaders and has frequently chipped in with useful suggestions and helpful advice about what the YOUTH are into.  (In this area, she’s been particularly handy because – although she doesn’t acknowledge it - she’s still practically a baby herself.)  And thanks to Yeelesy, I now know a lot of useful things that I never knew before. Stuff like:-

1. There is a Dutch band from Kortrijk called Goose.
2. The Hunger Games is actually a really good book.
3. JLS put their faces on all sorts of interesting consumer products.
4. The Cittie of Yorke in Holborn is an AMAZING old Victorian gin palace.  That bad photo is us having a drink in one of the snug drinking booths last week.  I’m on the left looking old and fat and Yeelesy is on the right looking like a cartoon character.  (Her words, to be fair.)  In real life, she actually looks NOTHING AT ALL like this.

But sometimes, Yeelesy has made me feel like the baby.  After writing three Lottie Biggs books, Yeelesy talked me out of several panic attacks and calmly told me I was quite capable of writing something different.  As usual, she was bang on DEAD RIGHT because I totally have actually.

The reason we’re now parting company is because Yeelesy has decided she’s had enough of being freezing cold and she’s heading off to Australia.  I shall miss her.  I’ll even sort of miss that bit where we stood around in dodgy doorways of Holborn or King’s Cross while she stopped to have a fag.

Yeelesy, you’ve been a tremendous amount of FUN and tremendously PATIENT and tremendously HELPFUL and tremendously GENEROUS with your time.

THANKS KID AND HAVE A FAB TIME IN AUSTRALIA.

Right.  Sentimental mush over.  I’m still represented by Pollinger Literary Agency and my new agent is Joanna Devereux – who I met last week and who is very lovely and who seems quite happy enough with this cold chilly island that is Britain.  So onwards to 2012. 

HAVE A GOOD CHRISTMAS AND SEE YOU ALL IN THE NEW YEAR.