Kate Mills at Orion has pre-empted Essie Fox's debut gothic novel, THE SOMNAMBULIST, plus one further book, from Isobel Dixon at Blake Friedmann.   Orion acquired UK and Commonwealth rights, including Canada for a good five figure sum. Italian rights have already been sold to Castelvecchi.

Sweeping from the boisterous Victorian East End music halls to a desolate Herefordshire mansion where a body lies buried in the woods, the story follows Phoebe Turner as she unravels a tangled web of family secrets.  Haunted by visions of bloody footprints in the snow, Phoebe is forced to confront the darkness in her past in order to reveal her true parentage.

Kate Mills says: 'I'm a huge fan of the classic Victorian ghost story and Essie Fox has given the genre a delightful twist.  From the moment I began to read this, I was desperate to publish it.  It's the most vivid and compelling story I've read in a long time, gloriously brooding and atmospheric.  Peopled with music hall artistes, laudanum addicts, grieving widows, and wicked half-brothers, Essie creates the seething underbelly of Victorian life.   It's wonderfully commercial with shades of Sarah Waters and Diane Setterfield, but there are nods to Wilkie Collins and Charlotte Bronte as well.   You can tell how much Essie enjoyed writing this story and that enthusiasm is utterly infectious.  Everyone at Orion fell under her spell and we're very much looking forward to publishing The Somnambulist in hardcover in Spring 2011.'

Essie Fox writes the popular blog, The Virtual Victorian, and lives in London.