A great literary agent knows not only how to sell a book to a good publisher but also how to coax the best book out of the author. For many writers, Kate Jones, literary agent at ICM Books, was one such: both enabler and muse. Clear-minded, empathetic and alive to every nuance, she was the indispensable filter through whom her authors’ initial book-thoughts flowed at the beginning of the long journey to publication. Having helped to shape the initial thoughts and prise out of her authors the essence of what they should be writing, she was passionately supportive and business-like throughout the writing and publication process. A widely-read and incisive reader, she inspired her authors to aspire to their highest eloquence and clarity.
Kate Shirley Jones was born in 1961 and brought up in Grays in Essex, the daughter of a barber who, while cutting his customers’ hair, chatted to them about jazz and golf. Even at primary school Jones read voraciously. Having soon devoured every children’s book in the library, she was given permission to advance to the adult section. By the age of 11 she was lost in War and Peace.
Her happy primary-school years were followed by educationally unfulfilled teenage years at the newly comprehensive senior school, where mediocre teaching was the norm. She finished at sixth-form college, the first person in her family to get an A Level — though hers were not good enough to get her to university. She began to work in a bread shop and to sell spare parts for cars. Then she had a call from her one outstanding teacher, Mr Moorhouse. He told her that she must brush up her A-Level results and apply to Goldsmiths College. This she did — and came out three years later with a first in English.
Lively-minded impatience drove her career from then on. While learning to type she sold central heating door to door before becoming a secretary at the Tessa Sayle literary agency. At once she embraced publishing, excited by its infinite possibilities and pleased to discover that in the world of books you could just do what you thought was good. Two years later she moved from the agency side of the industry to the publishing side, intrigued to find out how books were actually produced. At Macmillan she worked for the managing director, Philippa Harrison, who became a mentor, an exacting boss who “tested” her by asking her to write reports on manuscripts which came in. Jones passed the test and she was soon doing a wide variety of editorial work.
At 29 she moved to the Penguin Group, as senior editor at Hamish Hamilton. Here she built up an impressive list of authors including, Gerry Conlon, Anthony Beevor, Martin Bell and Germaine Greer, and created what she called “a rather natty crime list”.
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In her mid-thirties she was found to have breast cancer, which required chemotherapy and radiotherapy. She recovered, but she and her husband John Tackaberry, a QC 22 years her senior, thought this would rule out their having a baby. The medical profession tended to agree, But with the help of IVF and Dr Mohamed Taranissi, a longed-for baby was born to them.
During her post-cancer sabbaticalJones took on the unrestful task of being Martin Bell’s agent for his campaign in the 1997 general election, when he stood as an Independent against Neil Hamilton in the “safe” Conservative seat of Tatton, and won.
Jones returned to Penguin in 1998 as editorial director of Viking and Penguin General. As well as looking after her established authors, she reissued P. G. Wodehouse in paperback and acquired the backlist of Ian Fleming’s novels. She later became a part-time consultant for Ian Fleming Publications, and helped to develop the idea of a series of Young Bond books.
In 2003 Jones was asked by the New York literary agency ICM Books to set up its London office with Margaret Halton. Here, striding joyously into the office each morning in colourful clothes and jangling earrings, she nurtured her own list of authors, who were to include James Friel, Hadley Freeman, Mick Brown, Robert Peston and Rageh Omaar. In 2007, quietly, and taking even her colleagues by surprise, she negotiated the deal for Cherie Blair’s memoirs with Little Brown. She was also proud of her growing list of children’s authors, among them Charlie Fletcher and Grace Dent. She herself rang up Louise Arnold after reading her winning entry in the BBC’s “Are you the new J. K. Rowling?” competition. Arnold, who was working in a supermarket, found herself transported to the dazzling world of successful book-writing, her stories soon translated into many languages.
As an agent Jones was intrepid, never afraid to take a phone call and argue on behalf of her authors. She enjoyed debating a point to its conclusion, always did it with courtesy and good humour — and got a great deal of spirited mental-agility practice at home in Kentish Town with her lawyer husband.
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She had the gift of making the person she was speaking to feel uniquely loved and cared about. But this was not blanket niceness, covering everyone. She had a huge ability to empathise, and her laughter was the sound of pure delight. But she also had the ability to dislike. She could not bear thoughtless aggression, in the publishing world or anywhere else. When liver cancer was diagnosed and found to be incurable, only five days before she died, she and her husband drew up a short but pleasing list of people she would thankfully never have to deal with again.
She is survived by her husband and by their daughter.
Kate Jones (Kate Tackaberry), literary agent, was born on July 11, 1961. She died of liver cancer on February 1, 2008, aged 46