The Team

Diana Tyler

Diana worked in BBC Radio Drama before undertaking freelance work in film and stage productions, including co-organising the memorable Bedford Square Book Bang. She is a founding Director of MBA and especially interested in widening the range of her clients’ writing talents by encouraging them to work across several genres. Her clients include fiction and non-fiction authors and writers for film, TV, radio, and the stage. She is a member of the Council of the PMA and for seven years was co-chair of the Dramatists’ & Directors section.

Laura worked as an editor, mainly in the genre of popular fiction, for HarperCollins, Heinemann and Penguin. She became an agent in 1994, working first with Jennifer Kavanagh and in 1997 she joined MBA. Since becoming an agent, her interests have broadened to include literary fiction and non-fiction, including history, biography, travel and also self-help, health and parenting. She also has experience of working with children’s authors.

David was made a Director at MBA in 2009. He is always looking for terrific new writers, focusing on a wide range of subjects, including literary fiction, upmarket non-fiction, memoir, crime, politics, history, health and lifestyle, business and pop culture. He works very closely with a variety of clients including journalists, novelists, sports figures, actors, doctors, TV personalities, business figures, and military historians. He brings a strong editorial and commercial approach to all proposals and manuscripts, believing that it takes more than a good idea to s

Susan brings to MBA a strong background in the areas of foreign rights and contract negotiation. She is Contracts Manager at MBA as well as an agent in her own right and is building up a strong list of clients, mainly in the non-fiction field. Susan represents a number of journalists and has a penchant for off-beat projects, although she also has a keen eye for the commercial. She enjoys working closely with clients from proposal stage onwards and hopes to continue discovering great, new writers.

Sophie studied theatre and television in Winchester and worked as a freelance television researcher for several years on factual programmes. She has also written children’s books for Macmillan Education and worked on magazines as a sub editor. She joined MBA at the end of 1993 and moved to agenting original and talented children’s writers, working on picture books, early readers, non-fiction and YA fiction.

Stella Kane has had a long career in book publishing working at Penguin Books, The Womens’ Press and Quartet Books where she was Publishing Director for eight years. She was Secretary of The Authors’ Club until 2010, and is now working with The Arts Club in Mayfair on their members events programme. She works part time at MBA selling foreign rights.

Jean represents screenwriters and directors working in film and television drama and comedy (including children's television), as well as radio and theatre writers.

Tim has been involved in literary agency financing since the mid 1970s, and has been at MBA for about 20 years. He is responsible for all financial matters within the agency, for both company and clients. He is ably assisted by Claire Ingram.

Fiona joined MBA in June 2009, after a series of internships at a variety of publishing houses and trade journal BookBrunch. She studied English Literature at Newcastle University where she also produced plays for the University Theatre Society. Fiona assists all book agents with their work, in particular Diana Tyler and Laura Longrigg. She also manages the MBA website and runs the MBA twitter account.

Harriet joined MBA in November 2010. She studied Film & Theatre at the University of Reading and has an MA in Scriptwriting from City University. She has worked as a script reader for various film/TV production companies and for theatres including The Orange Tree and The Old Vic and has done placements at Blake Friedmann Literary Agency and the London Screenwriters’ Festival. She works on MBA’s film/TV side, assisting Jean Kitson and Diana Tyler.

Dagmar has worked at MBA for over 20 years, and provides administrative support to all agents.

The Team

Diana Tyler

Laura Longrigg

David Riding

Susan Smith

Sophie Gorell Barnes

Stella Kane

Jean Kitson

Tim Webb

Fiona Barrows

Harriet Davis

Dagmar Wolfinden