Chris Wellbelove

I joined Aitken Alexander as an agent in 2017 after six years at Greene & Heaton. I was made a Director of the agency in 2018 and appointed as Head of the Book Department in 2020.

I represent fiction, nonfiction and poetry. Writers on my list include Daisy Johnson, Evie Wyld, The Secret Barrister, Kaliane Bradley, Kevin Jared Hosein, Vanessa Onwuemezi, Andrew McMillan, Kayo Chingonyi, Liz Berry, Jonathan Liew, Matthew Green, Sophie Elmhirst, Grace Blakeley, Gary Stevenson, Jerome Roos, Andrew Pontzen, Wayne McGregor and Ita O’Brien.

In fiction I am particularly drawn to invention, imagination and personality, and novels where those things are employed to say something meaningful and to entertain the reader. This might mean a high concept, such as in Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad or Kaliane Bradley’s forthcoming The Ministry of Time; the conjuring of a world or moment in history, like in Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay; or the use of an unlikely relationship to open up an aspect of human experience, as in Sigrid Nunez’s The Friend. Some of my other favourite contemporary fiction writers are Alan Hollinghurst, Yaa Gyasi, Elif Batuman, Ben Lerner and Mohsin Hamid. I am especially looking for literary novels that prioritise plot – whether that be through a speculative or historical world I haven’t seen before, a domestic or family story, or anything in-between. If you’re working on fiction that you think might chime with me then please do get in touch.

I represent a wide range of nonfiction writers, from journalists and memoirists to thought leaders, academics and cultural figures. Much of the nonfiction I work on is ambitious in scope, and I am keen to find original thinkers and those working on ideas of universal relevance, across history, economics, anthropology, science, business, psychology and behavioural science, nature and environment, and sport. I am drawn to projects that aim to challenge orthodoxies, introduce new ways of thinking about a subject, show us how to live better or seek to steer the cultural conversation. But book ideas don’t always arrive fully-formed, and I like to work on proposals from their inception. What is especially exciting to me is sitting down with an expert and working out the best way in to their specialism for a general reader, or thinking about when might be the right moment for a book in the career of a journalist or a public figure. I’m always happy to hear from writers who are just beginning to think about a nonfiction book.   

I am assisted by Francesca Morgan: francesca@aitkenalexander.co.uk

Please do not submit unsolicited work directly to Francesca. Our submissions guidelines can be found here and work that is submitted to Francesca will not be considered.