top of page

Lead Title Graphic Novel Book deal with Bloomsbury Publishing

Beccy Blake

Bloomsbury Children’s has announced three major new illustrated funny fiction series, including a hilarious, highly commercial graphic-novel debut from UK author and illustrator Beccy Blake, and exciting new directions for stars of the Bloomsbury list Catherine Doyle and Tom Percival. All three form part of a wide-ranging strategy to put accessibility at the heart of Bloomsbury’s publishing for children as a response to emerging data about falling rates of reading for pleasure and literacy, as addressed by Publishing Director and Editor-in-Chief Rebecca McNally in her keynote speech at the Bookseller Children’s Conference.  

A superlead acquisition heading into Frankfurt Book Fair, publishing in February 2026, is Chicken Hill: Attack of the Zombie Cactus. A full-colour middle-grade graphic novel from UK debut author and illustrator Beccy Blake, it is a flagship title for this growing space on the list. World rights in three off-the-wall adventure books about Ferdy, Gripper and Tink, who investigate all things strange in the seriously odd town of Chicken Hill, were acquired in a pre-empt by Commissioning Editor Eleanor Willis from Gill McLay at the Bath Literary Agency.

Willis says, ‘When I saw early material for Chicken Hill, I knew this was something very, very special. Working with Beccy to develop the series into hilarious, accessible and brilliantly madcap adventure stories has been a dream commission. Beccy Blake is an absolute creative powerhouse, and we’re thrilled that Bloomsbury is her publishing home.’

Blake adds, ‘I am thrilled to bits to be working with such a superb team at Bloomsbury. The wonderfully weird world of Chicken Hill is my dream project and a realisation of all the ideas, jokes, characters and stories that I’ve been evolving over my career as an illustrator.’





3 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

Comments


info

beccs@beccyblake.com

+44 (0) 7810170542

+44 (0) 1225834973

  • Instagram
  • Linkedin
  • CP_green_64x64

© Beccy Blake. Beccy Blake owns the copyright to all images and posts on this website and therefore does NOT consent to Wix or any other companies using them to train generative AI platforms or use for any other AI purpose in perpetuity.

This includes all future AND past posts, stories and images on this website.

bottom of page