HarperCollins acquires Richell memoir
HarperCollins has acquired ANZ rights to An Ocean and a Day, a memoir from Hannah Richell, via Sarah Lutyens at Lutyens & Rubinstein Literary Agency.
An Ocean and a Day is Hannah Richell’s personal account of losing her husband, Matt, in a surfing accident on Tamarama Beach in 2014, said the publisher.
‘It is the story of the grief journey she travelled over the first two years of loss, but it is also, more uniquely, an account of what happens beyond those early years, when time and distance offer some perspective and healing. As well as a beautiful, moving and utterly poignant love letter to her late husband, it is also a love letter to Australia, the country that stole her heart; a story of her journey into motherhood; and a testament to the healing power of creativity.’
Before becoming a writer, Richell worked in the book publishing and film industries in both London and Sydney. She currently lives in the southwest of England with her family. Richell has authored several previous books, including One Dark Night (S&S, 2024). Her work has been translated into 21 languages.
She said, ‘An Ocean and a Day is my heart on the page. It is my most personal writing yet, a long-form piece written over 10 years that captures my attempts to reckon with an all-consuming grief and to tether myself in a world turned upside down. While it includes the raw immediacy of sudden loss, it also includes meditations on the shifting weight of a grief carried over time, distance and experience. Given the consolation and connection I have found reading other writers’ words on love and loss, my hope in sharing this now is that it might speak to that one broken heart looking for a light in the dark.’
HarperCollins head of fiction Catherine Milne said, ‘This memoir had me transfixed from the very first page. I read it in the privacy of a quiet, dark house in one marathon session, finishing it messy crying with tears streaming down my face. I love it for its vulnerability, the beauty of the writing, and its many gritty little pearls of insight and hard-won wisdom. I have been lucky enough in my life not to have lost someone that I love dearly, but I felt that reading this book, I was somehow better prepared for what is – inevitably – to come. This memoir is intimate, beautiful, clear, powerful and profound.’
HarperCollins plans to publish An Ocean and a Day in July 2026.
Photo credit: Lucy Williams.
Category: Local news Rights and acquisitions
