Sceptre is the literary imprint of Hodder & Stoughton, publishing international fiction and non-fiction that is not only entertaining but also stimulating, provocative, sometimes challenging and always superbly written. We know time is short, so why would you waste it? That’s why we spend our time carefully choosing only a small number of new books to publish each year, ones we believe will be worth your time reading and that you’ll want to keep on your shelves (or on your e-reader) and press into the hands of your friends. We love to discover new voices and nurture their talent over the long term – authors we’ve launched and continue to publish include David Mitchell, Siri Hustvedt, Andrew Miller, Jake Arnott, Jill Dawson and Glen David Gold, while more recent debutants include Ned Beauman (a Granta Best of Young British Novelist), Emma Henderson (shortlisted for the Orange Prize), Kevin Powers (winner of the Guardian First Book Award), Fiona McFarlane (shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award), Fredrik Backman (a Richard & Judy pick) and Anna Smaill (longlisted for the Man Booker). We’ve also been joined by authors who began their careers elsewhere like Chris Cleave, Clare Morrall, Peter Ho Davies, Steve Toltz and Sjón, and in non-fiction by Tristan Gooley, Rolf Dobelli, Rod Judkins and Iain Martin. Last but not least, we are proud of our long-standing authors such as Melvyn Bragg and Thomas Keneally, whose Booker Prize-winning novel Schindler’s Ark was one of the first books on the list when Sceptre began life as Hodder & Stoughton’s literary paperback imprint in 1986.
