Madeleine Milburn on running her own literary agency, discovering "Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine" and what makes a perfect book-club book

Rachel and Simon speak to the literary agent Madeleine Milburn. She started her career in publishing as a foreign rights assistant at A P Watt, the world's first modern literary agency (now part of United Agents). She then moved to Darley Anderson as head of rights, where she represented her own clients and helped set up the children's division. In 2012 she founded the Madeleine Milburn Agencyand has since represented numerous bestselling authors, including Nita Prose ("The Maid"), Elizabeth Macneal ("The Doll Factory") and Ashley Audrain ("The Push"). "Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine" by Gail Honeyman has sold over 3 million copies worldwide, was the inaugural selection for Reese Witherspoon's Book Club and is being adapted for the screen by Witherspoon's production company, Hello Sunshine, and MGM. Madeleine won Literary Agent of the Year at the British Book Awards in 2018 and has been listed by The Bookseller as one of the 150 most influential people in the book trade every year since 2017. We spoke to Madeleine about her entry into publishing, setting up her own literary agency and her determination to make greater use of the slush pile.