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Ask The Agent — Alice Saunders
Simon Whaley chats to Alice Saunders of The Soho Agency about Multi-generational sagas
This piece was first published in the August 2026 print issue of Writing Magazine
Alice Saunders worked in the rights department at Quadrille Publishing before joining Lucas Alexander Whitley (LAW) as an assistant to Mark Lucas in 2001. She became an agent in 2011, and in 2019 LAW joined forces with Factual Management to create The Soho Agency. Her clients include Esther Walker, Sophie Ranald, Simon Toyne and Solitaire Townsend.
What do you enjoy most about being a literary agent?
Ah, everything! Genuinely, it’s hard to choose one area. I’ve been doing this for over twenty years now, and I still absolutely love my job. There’s nothing like receiving a manuscript, and knowing from the first paragraph that everything else on the to-do list will be for tomorrow as I get to be transported into another world. As an agent, you get to flex every creative muscle in the development of an author’s career, and it is such a privilege to support authors and team them up with great publishing partners.
