David Higham Associates is one of the leading agencies for writers in the world, managing the careers of authors, screenwriters and illustrators across all genres in all markets. We have over fifty staff working in our modern Soho office across the main departments of Books; Film, TV & Stage; Translation Rights and Accounts.
Founded in 1935 and still independent and thriving ninety years later, DHA has some of the most successful literary careers of the twentieth century in our care. We believe it is our ability to foresee the future while safekeeping the past that makes us one of the most successful agencies in the world. Please explore our Agent and Author pages to gain a sense of the range of our work across adult and children’s fiction and non-fiction, poetry, literary estates and scriptwriting.
We promote our clients’ work at the highest level and are known in the industry for negotiating the very best terms available in the marketplace. We are editorially driven, providing personal, hands-on guidance on all aspects of our clients’ careers. In short, DHA clients are at the heart of everything we do. From creative support to focusing on the minutiae of every clause of every contract, we know that our success depends entirely on the creators we represent but also on the attention we pay to their careers and the quality of our advice.
DHA agents are at the forefront of understanding and navigating a rapidly evolving digital landscape, monitoring and capitalising upon the new formats and platforms entering the market every year. As a team we collaborate on everything we do, pooling knowledge and experience and supporting each other’s successes.
We are longstanding members of the Association of Authors’ Agents (AAA) of which current and former MDs Lizzy Kremer and Anthony Goff have both served as President, and also the Personal Managers’ Association (PMA). We are proud to support the industry-wide commitment to professional behaviour in bookselling and publishing, which can be read below. We recognise that DHA is not fully representational and as a company are working together to change this. Our statement about anti-racism can also be read in the section below.
We run a paid, six-month full-time internship programme, alumni of which have gone on to many fulfilling permanent jobs in the industry. Please see our Internships page for more information.
Our founder, David Higham, was born in 1895. After serving in the First World War he took up a job in the books department at Albert Curtis Brown’s literary agency. Among his colleagues there were Nancy Pearn and Laurence Pollinger, and following Albert’s decision to bring in his son to run things, a new agency was created.
With a loan from Harold Macmillan among other benefactors, Pearn, Pollinger & Higham began trading in 1935. With Nancy’s death in 1950 and Laurence’s departure, the agency was renamed David Higham Associates in 1958. One of David’s colleagues at this time was the writer Paul Scott, who would later find fame as author of the Raj Quartet and the Booker-winning Staying On, but who was also a highly effective literary agent. Among the talents he acted for were Muriel Spark, Arthur C. Clarke and Keith Waterhouse, all of whose estates the agency still represents today.
David himself remained active until his death in 1978, by which time the agency had moved from Dean Street in Soho to Lower John Street (where it would remain until 2013, with the move to Waverley House). Further consolidation came with the formation of the Film, TV & Stage department, representing original drama and screenplays as well as adaptations of our books.
In the late 1990s the agency grew again, embracing the work of authors in the care of Laurence Pollinger’s younger son, Murray. It was at this point that our path to pre-eminence in the field of children’s literature began, with DHA championing the work of writers such as Roald Dahl, Jacqueline Wilson, Clive King, Anne Fine, Jenny Nimmo and Michael Morpurgo, as well as adult authors including Penelope Lively, Alexander McCall Smith and J. M. Coetzee.
After 2015 the agency expanded considerably, absorbing the lists of agents Toby Eady, Jane Gregory and Laura Cecil before their retirements and appointing new agents across the three main departments.
In 2025, DHA welcomed the list of agent Molly Ker Hawn, whose particular focus on children’s and young adult books in both the UK and the US strengthened our presence in the American market.
Now in our tenth decade of business, David Higham Associates is better placed than ever to promote the work of its uniquely talented and varied clients, in all media and all territories around the world.
The products of the creative industries, whether books, films or poetry, should reflect the society in which they are made, but in fact proportionately few black writers are published and many children do not find characters with whom they can closely identify in the books they read. As a workforce publishing is overwhelmingly white. DHA believes that it is not enough for those who work in our industry to self-identify as nonracist. In order for our competitive industry with its complex power structures to become more representative, we each need to be anti-racist and for that anti-racism to be demonstrated in decisive positive action in recruitment and in company culture.
We are enacting a clear plan of action for ourselves as a company in the areas of recruitment, staff retention, training, recompense, communications and culture as well as in our author submissions policy in order to accelerate the pace of change in the agency, where many of us benefit from our white privilege and have been afforded opportunity, for example through our socio-economic background or as a result of not living with a disability.
We are committed to talking openly and frequently about our anti-racist and inclusive stance as a company and we welcome communication with us about this policy. We will be good allies to colleagues from under-represented and marginalised backgrounds across the industry and demonstrate and enact our anti-racism and inclusive stance in public arenas.
We recognise that our industry’s lack of diversity to date has not been without huge cost to many and we are willingly investing money and time towards realising the ideals and objectives we are setting ourselves.
Endorsed by the Association of Authors’ Agents, Booksellers’ Association, the Publishers’ Association and the Society of Authors
PRINCIPLES
1. We in the books industry support creative expression and freedom of speech. However, our creative realm is also a professional one and we expect high standards of behaviour from everyone we encounter in the course of our work, including colleagues and customers.
2. We will protect the passion, imagination and creativity of everyone in the books industry. We will celebrate and promote diversity and inclusion so that all voices can be heard.
3. We will recognise our influence and make a commitment to work together to prevent abuse of power, creating a work environment free of discrimination, harassment including sexual harassment, bullying and intimidation.
4. We will ensure that everyone in our industry is treated with dignity and respect so that individuals are supported and able to speak out.
COMMITMENT
1. We share a united vision of professionalism for publishing, bookselling and literary performance.
Authors, publishers, agents and booksellers are colleagues and collaborators in business and all parties can expect a high standard of professional behaviour from one another.
Our professional behaviour is thoughtful and anticipates consequences – and is required in every environment where people interact for work reasons, including but not limited to: offices, bookshops, parties, committees, lunch meetings, awards ceremonies, rights fairs, festivals and any other venue, formal or informal; as well as online and in all communications.
Creative collaboration often necessitates the sharing of personal experience but we will understand that such collaboration is a professional act and not an invitation to inappropriate intimacy.
In a professional context we will never make unwanted personal or sexual propositions, suggestive remarks or gestures, or instigate unwanted physical contact.
We acknowledge that it’s not appropriate to use humour or ‘banter’ to make comments that have the effect of isolating or humiliating others.
Our professional communication will focus on facts, not emotion, and be respectful to all parties.
We have a right to retain our privacy, and to feel safe and valued in the working environment. No colleague should feel obliged to use personal social media accounts for work purposes.
2. We celebrate and actively promote diversity and inclusion in all its forms, including and not limited to the nine protected characteristics cited in The Equality Act 2010: age, disability, gender reassignment (including trans), marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.
We want all voices to be heard. Inclusivity is crucial to the future success of our industry. We look to writers to continue to explore ways to reflect and test us in their work.
It is not acceptable to make dismissive or hostile remarks about a person on any basis or to make assumptions about someone’s lifestyle, interests or abilities.
We will be sensitive to our potential vulnerabilities and differences. For example, no one should feel pressured to drink alcohol within a work environment, even if the work environment is a party.
3. We will recognise our position and influence. We will act appropriately and with responsibility and recognise that professional behaviour never allows for abuse of power.
We recognise that power is situational and that we can all be in a position of greater relative power. For example, when we have greater experience or are in a more senior role; where there is privilege inherent in our cultural heritage, education or socio-economic status; when we have access to somebody or something that is highly valued; when we are in a position where it is somebody’s job to ‘look after’ us; then we will recognise the power we have and use it responsibly.
We acknowledge that behaviour we might perceive as commonplace or sociable can feel inappropriate to someone, even if they don’t express their discomfort.
When we are in a position of greater influence, it is our responsibility to foster a working environment in which everyone in both formal and more relaxed situations is treated with professionalism, integrity and respect.
4. We will support one another and take action by:
LISTENING: If someone tells us that they find something racist, sexist, threatening, or uncomfortable, they have a right to that judgment and that feeling. We will behave with empathy, respect and understanding.
SPEAKING UP: If we experience unwanted behaviour, we will clearly explain what makes us uncomfortable and ask for the behaviour to stop.
BEING ALLIES: We will not remain silent in the face of unacceptable behaviour. We will listen to and empower those who have experienced such behaviour. We will bear witness and support appropriate action being taken, regardless of the status or the relative ‘importance’ of the individuals involved.
USEFUL DEFINITIONS
Harassment is defined by the Crown Prosecution Service as ‘unwanted conduct . . . which has the purpose or effect of violating an individual’s dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for that individual’.
Bullying is defined by ACAS as ‘offensive, intimidating, malicious or insulting behaviour, an abuse or misuse of power through means that undermine, humiliate, denigrate or injure the recipient’.
Discrimination is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as ‘the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people, especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex’.
Author: where ‘author’ is used, it is implied to include creators including but not limited to illustrators, translators, spoken word performers, graphic novelists and writers of books of all kinds.