Desmond Elliott (24 December 1930 – 12 August 2003) was a British publisher and literary agent. He started his career with the publishing house Macmillan before going on to found his own publishing company Arlington Books. In a career spanning nearly 60 years he was responsible for discovering a number of writers who went on to be bestsellers including

Penny Vincenzi Penelope Vincenzi (née Hannaford; 10 April 1939 – 25 February 2018) was a British novelist, who wrote 17 novels and 2 collections of stories. Her sales by 2014 amounted to over 7 million copies. Early life She was born Penelope Hannaford, on ...

''Man Alive''
BBC. and Jilly Cooper.

Career

Desmond Elliott was born in London on Christmas Eve 1929. Following the death of his father he was placed in the Royal Masonic Orphanage in Dublin, Ireland at the age of 10. He was well educated and won a scholarship to Trinity College, Dublin, however he decided to travel to England in 1947 at the age of 16, with just £2 and a letter of introduction from the editor of '' The Irish Times''."Desmond Elliott"
(obituary), ''The Daily Telegraph'', 30 August 2003. Elliot first worked as an office boy for Macmillan Publishers, before joining

Hutchinson (publisher) Hutchinson was a British publishing firm which operated from 1887 until 1985, when it underwent several mergers. It is currently an imprint which is ultimately owned by Bertelsmann, the German publishing conglomerate. History Hutchinson began ...

and then Michael Joseph (publisher). After being fired by

Max Reinhardt (publisher) Max Reinhardt (30 November 1915 – 19 November 2002) was a British publisher. He published Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn, George Bernard Shaw and Graham Greene. Biography Max Reinhardt was born on 30 November 1915 in Istanbul to Austrian parents. ...

he received £1,000 compensation and a job offer from Sidney Bernstein, of

ITV Granada ITV Granada, formerly known as Granada Television, is the ITV franchisee for the North West of England and Isle of Man. From 1956 to 1968 it broadcast to both the north west and Yorkshire but only on weekdays as ABC Weekend Television was it ...

– who then had second thoughts. Using the remainder of his compensation, he set up as an independent agent in 1960 and founded Arlington books. His dedication and business sense made Elliott one of the most successful men in his field. Elliot was key to the creation of a list of hugely successful blockbuster novelists such as Candida Lycett Green, Penny Vincenzi and

Lynda Lee-Potter Lynda Lee-Potter (; 2 May 1935 – 20 October 2004) was a British journalist. She was best known as a columnist for the '' Daily Mail''. Early years Lynda Higginson was born into a working-class family in the mining town of Leigh, Lancash ...

. He also introduced Tim Rice to Andrew Lloyd Webber as an early client. Respected and loved by his authors, in the words of Candida Lycett Green, Elliott was simply "magic".

Lifestyle

Desmond Elliott lived his life with verve, drinking only champagne, treating Fortnum & Mason as his local "cornershop" and only ever crossing the Atlantic on Concorde. His office was in Mayfair and he had houses in St James's and on Park Avenue.

The Desmond Elliott Prize

Before his death in 2003, Desmond Elliott stipulated that his literary estate should be invested in a charitable trust that would fund a literary award "to enrich the careers of new writers". The annual

Desmond Elliott Prize The Desmond Elliott Prize is an annual award for the best debut novel written in English and published in the UK. The winning novel can be from any genre of fiction and must exhibit depth and breadth with a compelling narrative. The winner receiv ...

was therefore founded in 2007, awarding a sum of £10,000 to the author of a first novel published in the UK. Elliott told novelist Sam Llewellyn his ideal novel was a "cross between a treasure hunt and a race" and the winning novel must therefore exhibit depth and breadth with a compelling narrative.

References

External links

The Desmond Elliott Prize
{{DEFAULTSORT:Elliott, Desmond 1929 births 2003 deaths Publishers (people) from London Literary agents 20th-century English businesspeople