Elected: 2018
Year of death: 2026
Image credit: Adam Shamsul
Derek Johns began his career in the world of books in the High Hill Bookshop in Hampstead. He then moved to New York, where he became an editor at Random House. On his return to London he was Managing Director of the Bodley Head and later Managing Director of Granta. In 1992 he became a literary agent at A.P. Watt, where he remained until he retired from full-time agenting in 2013. He is the author of a novel, The Billy Palmer Chronicles, and Ariel: A Literary Biography of Jan Morris.
https://www.thebookseller.com/obituaries/derek-johns-influential-publisher-and-agent-dies
Fellows are nominated by peers and elected by our Council of writers – our governing Board. Being elected a Fellow of the RSL is a lifetime honour. This role gives them the opportunity to support other writers, readers and the future of literature. The RSL connects writers in the Fellowship to one another, and to a wider readership.
