Hellie Ogden

Hellie joined WME’s London office as co-head of the UK Book division in 2023. She represents fiction, children's books and non-fiction and enjoys novels with bold storytelling, moving prose and vivid, thought-provoking characters. She is actively taking on new clients and as an editorially focused agent, she has a keen interest in helping to develop and nurture debut writers. Follow her on Twitter @hellieogden.

Hellie featured in the Bookseller Rising Stars List and was shortlisted for the Kim Scott Walwyn Prize. She represents a number of global bestsellers and award-winning writers across genres. She often speaks at writing conferences and mentors debut writers.

"I'm incredibly hands on editorially, and I love to help shape a piece of work from the very rough idea through to a polished, original manuscript. So I'm looking for a few special, standout books every year that I can pump my energy into. I'm happy to receive manuscripts even when just at a rough stage - that really excites me. I work extremely closely with our New York office, translation rights team, digital departments and the LA TV/film agents in building international and cross-media careers for my clients. I’m always excited to hear from debut authors and hungry to read great material!

I'm on the lookout for high-concept thrillers and suspense with fresh hooks, big ideas and daring twists. A new crime series with a protagonist that you want to come back to again and again and love stories from exciting new voices. I adore historical fiction, I'm always open to original, courageous ideas and seeing a time/place/person in a new light. Page turning literary fiction tapping into the millennial experience, nostalgia, sexuality, and family complexities always interest me. I'm proud to represent a list that is conversation-starting, diverse and eclectic. 

Favourite authors include Maggie O'Farrell, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Tana French, Rachel Joyce, Liane Moriarty, Isabel Allende, Marian Keyes, Sarah Waters and Chris Riddell. I love those books that hit the reading group sweet spot - upmarket, but with a clever commercial hook so something like WHERE'D YOU GO, BERNADETTE? which has real flair and heart. Or QUEENIE for its pure joy and painful honesty. I thought WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING was extraordinarily good and I'm often drawn to family stories, and writing that is sharp, witty and warm like LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY. Female-led mysteries in the vein of HOW TO KILL YOUR FAMILY, the beautiful GIRL A and the skilfully crafted SUCH A FUN AGE are firm favourites.

I read broadly, literary through to commercial, and in a bookshop I will hunt for moral complexities, unusual twists and prose that will floor me emotionally and challenge me too. I always want to be transported out of my comfort zone and to feel genuine emotional depth in the pages I read. I never tire of the mother/daughter dynamic, and now raising three young girls myself, that feels particularly acute. I'll forever enjoy work that celebrates women. 

On the YA-side it's stories with a big heart and voice that tackle the often messy side of growing up. Books like WE WERE LIARS and HEART-SHAPED BRUISE. I’ll happily read any romantasy and great world building. When it comes to middle-grade I'm open to all sorts, but I have a real love of adventure mixed with magic, and I read on repeat Eva Ibbotson. I devoured the SKANDAR series and love something eccentric and mad and outrageously fun. I will always hunt out books that make me cry. THE BOY AT THE BACK OF THE CLASS I thought was phenomenal.

In non-fiction I focus on memoir, standout cookery/lifestyle writers and moving narrative nonfiction projects as well as work that has a social following with cross-media potential. I was in awe of Dolly Alderton and her debut EVERYTHING I KNOW ABOUT LOVE, Emilie Pine's NOTES TO SELF, THREE WOMEN by Lisa Taddeo and the extraordinary Candice Brathwaite's I AM NOT YOUR BABY MOTHER.”