Cath Burke, Deputy Managing Director

My first permanent role was as an Editorial Assistant at BCA (Book Club Associates) where I sold books to the one million UK members of the World Books Book Club. After that I joined Harlequin and helped launch and then ran the commercial fiction imprint MIRA.

In 2010 I joined Little, Brown as Editorial Director of Sphere Fiction. I was promoted to Associate Publisher in 2012 and Fiction Publisher in 2013. I became Director of Hachette Audio UK in 2014, Executive Director of Group Rights in 2016 and was promoted to Deputy Managing Director of Little, Brown Book Group in 2019, now also overseeing Sphere non-fiction and the Little, Brown Design team.

Alice Davis, Executive Director of Publishing Ops

I started my publishing career as an editorial assistant at Thames and Hudson and then moved to Wayland just after it had been acquired by Hodder Children’s Books working as a as a desk editor. A few years later I made a huge mistake and took a job as an editor for a tax publisher. I quickly realised how important the content of the books was to me so I decided to become a freelancer. Six months and many, many Jaffa Cakes later I was offered a job at Piatkus Books. I had seven very happy years there and by the time we were acquired by Little, Brown in 2007 I was a non-fiction commissioning editor and also the managing editor. Over the last few years my job has developed organically within the Editorial and Ops departments; I became Publishing Operations Director in 2015 and joined the Exec in 2020.

Charlie King, Managing Director

I joined Little, Brown in 2010 – or, I should say, RE-joined, as my very first job was as Office Junior at Little, Brown in 1997. After university, and a period selling advertising on the Islington Gazette – which was fun, but made me realise I definitely wanted to work in book publishing, not local newspapers! – I got a job at Hodder as marketing assistant, and spent a very happy six years there running campaigns, writing copy and generally learning the ropes. After a spell at Pan Macmillan I returned to L,B. I spent 5-6 years as marketing director here and, after stepping up to a wider role overseeing marketing, publicity and design, I was hugely honoured to become L,B’s managing director in 2015. I love this company – we have the best team in the business! – and I love the work we all do in bringing our authors’ words to life for readers around the world.

Tamsin Kitson, Group Publicity & Marketing Director

I started at Little, Brown as Publicity Assistant directly after graduating from Cardiff university, a very youthful aged 20!

I worked my way up through various roles, devising campaigns for a fantastic range of authors such as J.K. Rowling/Robert Galbraith, Kevin Pietersen, Ewan McGregor, Charlie Boorman, Stephenie Meyer, Mark Billingham, Jenny Colgan, Alex James, Nile Rogers, Carl Hiaasen, Christopher Brookmyre, Asne Seierstad, Martina Navratilova, Jimmy Greaves and David Sedaris. My campaigns have won four industry awards and been shortlisted for a further seven.

I became Group Publicity Director in January 2014, assuming responsibility for our corporate PR at this point too, then moved to head up Marketing and Publicity together in January 2016.

Lucy Malagoni, Executive Publisher Sphere Fiction and Little, Brown Audiobooks 

After writing to countless publishing houses and literary agents to try and secure work experience, I finally heard back from one publisher: Little, Brown. I spent three weeks in the office during the summer of 2007 and have been here ever since! Following my work experience stint, I worked part-time at L,B, alongside my MA studies at Kings College London, supporting a number of different departments including Editorial, Operations, Contracts and Sales. I secured my first permanent role as an Editorial Assistant, working across the Sphere and Piatkus fiction lists in April 2009, was promoted to Commissioning Editor for the Sphere fiction list in 2011 and took on the role of Sphere Fiction Publisher in 2019. I am now Executive Publisher for Sphere Fiction and Little, Brown Audio and so proud to work with our exceptional teams and incredible, inspiring authors.

Hannah Methuen, Sales Director

I first got to know the publishing industry when I joined The Bookseller magazine after university to work in their advertising sales department. I loved hearing about the books and authors from the publishers, and soon realised that I wanted to move into a publishing role. I was lucky enough to find a job in the Sales team at Orion and I’ve been at Hachette ever since.

I was at Orion for 12 years starting as a Key Accounts Executive working on supermarkets and progressed in the UK Sales department eventually becoming Deputy Sales Director. I joined Little, Brown in 2018 as Sales Director.

Andrew Smith, Finance Director

After university and a few temp jobs I started as Junior Management Accountant in LBBG Finance in 2008 gaining experience within the finance function whilst also completing my CIMA professional accounting qualifications. In 2011 I seconded on to the Bibio3 and SAP implementation projects as the Finance Business Process Lead working with all Hachette companies to implement best financial practices. Following the projects’ completion, I worked as Finance Business Solutions Manager in Hachette IT before moving back to LBBG in 2015 as Head of Finance, managing the management accounts team and producing management reporting, budgeting and financial analysis. In 2018 I was promoted to Finance Director including assuming management of the royalties team.

Clare Smith, Fiction Publisher: Little, Brown and Abacus 

My first permanent job was as an editorial assistant at Oxford University Press followed by three years at Hodder Ed, working on the Business and Modern Languages lists. In 1999 I became publishing director for the Business list at Random House. I also began to acquire fiction for Hutchinson, which led to a job starting a new fiction list within the Fourth Estate division at HarperCollins in 2005.

I joined Little, Brown in 2011 to buy literary fiction with page-turning appeal. I became the fiction publisher for LB/Abacus and the associate publisher for the literary imprints in the company.