HarperCollins acquires new Whiting novel
HarperCollins ANZ has acquired world rights to The Nocturnals, a new novel by journalist and author Frances Whiting.
According to the publisher, The Nocturnals tells the story of a close-knit group from schooldays who reunite 15 years later: “Nina, the Good Girl. Beatrice, the Poetess. Harriet, the Ghost. Cosmo, the Professor. And Hunter, the Golden Boy.”
A rift in the friendship had scattered them across the globe, but now Hunter has called them back together. “Because to outsiders, they might be, in turns, a little bit weird, a little bit glamorous, and a little bit dangerous,” said the publisher. “But to each other, they are, and always will be, the Nocturnals.”
Whiting, a national senior feature writer for news magazines, won the Clarion Awards’s prize for outstanding contribution to journalism in 2023. Her national column features in News Limited weekend magazines, and her weekly Sunday column has run for 28 years. She is the author of the novels Walking on Trampolines and The Best Kind of Beautiful, as well as 2 collections of her columns, Oh to Be a Marching Girl and That’s a Home Run, Tiger (all with Pan Macmillan).
Whiting said, “I wanted to write a gloriously messy and joyous book. I wanted to write a book that will make readers laugh out loud and also sob unattractively onto their sleeves. I wanted to write a book filled with characters that people would care about.
“I loved creating this ragtag band of misfits – Hunter, Beatrice, Cosmo, Nina and Harriet – collectively the Nocturnals. I hope they stay with their readers long after they close the last page.”
Publisher Catherine Milne said, “I absolutely adore this novel – charming and witty, wise and deep, tender and true. Fran is such a gifted storyteller, and to quote the Australian Women’s Weekly, her novels have ‘all the appeal of a Richard Curtis movie’. I guarantee these are characters that you will fall in love with and will not want to leave.”
HarperCollins has scheduled The Nocturnals for release on 31 March 2026.
Category: Local news Rights and acquisitions
