About the Agency

Georgina Capel joined William Heinemann’s rights department in 1983 before moving to Secker and Warburg as Rights Director. After five years at Secker she went on to Jonathan Cape as Rights Director and deputy Managing Director before becoming Group Rights Director of Random House.

She works with top international authors and has been negotiating global deals for the past twenty years. She is married to the publisher Anthony Cheetham.

Rachel studied Literature at King’s College London and, after spending time at various publishing houses and literary agencies, joined Georgina Capel in 2010. She became a Director of the agency in 2016.

Her clients have been longlisted for the Booker Prize and Desmond Elliott Prize, shortlisted for the Orwell Prize and Jane Grigson Trust Award, and are winners of the Manchester Fiction Prize and RSL Giles St Aubyn Award. Their books have been awarded Blackwell’s Book of the Year and Waterstones’ Book of the Month.

Rachel represents writers of literary fiction, as well as book club and commercial fiction (including thrillers and YA). In non-fiction, her interests include history, travel, food, nature writing, investigative journalism, popular science and popular psychology.

She oversees the Foreign Rights department at the agency, and represents clients for their television and radio work, as well as their public appearances.

Irene joined Georgina Capel Associates in 2017, having previously worked at Faber & Faber and Gregory & Company Authors’ Agents. She has an MA in Modern Literature from the University of Siena in Italy and an MA in Publishing Studies from City University London.

Irene’s list of clients includes ST and FT best books of the year, winners of the Saltire Award, Fitzcarraldo Prize, as well as Ledbury and Seamus Heaney Prize shortlisted authors. She is looking for literary fiction and narrative non fiction (style is paramount), well-crafted crime and sci-fi. Her non fiction interests are broad and encompass history, politics, science, psychology and true crime. She is building a curated list of poetry.

Polly joined Georgina Capel Associates in 2021. She studied English Language and Literature at the University of Oxford and has a masters in Creative Writing: Prose Fiction from the University of East Anglia. She is interested in literary and commercial fiction, narrative non-fiction, memoir, and poetry.

Simon Shaps is the former CEO of ITV’s global production business, and from 2005 to 2008 was ITV’s Director of Television, with responsibility for commissioning and scheduling across ITV1 as well as ITV’s digital channels. After leaving ITV, Simon was appointed chairman of four media companies – Mercury Media, A Brand Apart , Back2Back and Ignite – and advised a number of other businesses.

He is the former chairman of the Royal Television Society, the Cultural Diversity Network and the National Film and Television School. In February 2013, Simon was appointed Managing Director of International Content and Production, CORE Media Group, a role he remained in until the merger of Core with Endemol and Shine at the end of 2014.

Simon now has his own company, Simon Shaps Ltd, and also works in a consultancy role for a number of media clients.

*The email address below is not for Simon Sebag Montefiore*