About Us
Johnson & Alcock is an established literary agency, now in its seventh decade and constantly expanding and innovating. We act for a vibrant list of authors, both new and emerging writers and the long-established, in fiction and non-fiction. These include prizewinning and bestselling authors and literary estates across the genres and in all forms of media, both in the UK and internationally. We pride ourselves on representing our authors with care, creativity and hard work.
Our book agents work with our head of rights and a full administrative team in-house, along with carefully selected co-agents for film, TV and translation rights. We offer our authors a tailored, personal service and, importantly, our combined deep experience. We believe in working collaboratively, and encourage a work culture that is positive, progressive, and to the benefit of all our authors and staff alike. In 2020 we launched our Page One mentoring scheme designed to help increase representation and reduce inequality in our industry.
We are members of the Association of Authors’ Agents (www.agentsassoc.co.uk), the trade association for literary agents that upholds the best standards for authors in the publishing industry. Over the years our agents have served in various positions on the committee of the AAA.
History of the Agency
The origins of Johnson & Alcock go back to 1956, when John Johnson (brother of the actress Dame Celia Johnson) founded his eponymous literary agency for authors and playwrights, based on Henrietta Street in Mayfair. Andrew Hewson joined as an assistant in 1969 from theatrical management, and when John Johnson retired in 1977 Andrew bought the agency with his wife Margaret. They ran the agency together, in their new premises on Clerkenwell Green, until her death in 2002. Together they built a formidable client list of commercial and literary novelists, poets, playwrights, and non-fiction authors, and many of these Estates form the bedrock of the agency to this day.
Throughout this period the John Johnson agency continued to expand – first with the acquisition of the Winant Towers Agency in 1983, and later in absorbing the client lists of two other smaller agencies. In 2003 John Johnson merged with Michael Alcock Management, a new agency with a predominantly non-fiction client list, founded by the former publisher at Macmillan, Aurum Press and Boxtree. The combined agency became Johnson & Alcock, which today has offices in Somerset House, a hub of creativity in the heart of central London.
In 2019 the agency gifted a rich collection of records from John Johnson (Authors’ Agents) Limited to London Metropolitan Archives (LMA), covering the years from its foundation to the merger. The archive comprises hundreds of boxes containing a variety of material from extensive authors’ correspondence to original authors’ manuscripts and digital material. The team at LMA has begun to catalogue the archive, with assistance from Andrew Hewson, and we’re delighted this resource will be preserved and available for future generations to enjoy. Please find a longer piece here about the project.
Contact
Please see specific agent biographies under the agents tab, and submission guidelines under submissions. If you wish to get in contact for any reason, you can email the relevant agent directly on [firstname]@johnsonandalcock.co.uk.