25 August 2020
We are so excited to share the news that Sarah Perry’s bestseller The Essex Serpent will be a TV series starring Keira Knightley! Knightley will also serve as executive producer on the series.
“The Essex Serpent” follows newly widowed Cora (Knightley) who, having being released from an abusive marriage, relocates from Victorian London to the small village of Aldwinter in Essex, intrigued by a local superstition that a mythical creature known as the Essex Serpent has returned to the area.
The series will be directed by Clio Barnard (“The Selfish Giant,” “The Arbor”). Anna Symon (“Deep Water,” “Mrs Wilson”) will serve as lead writer. In addition to Knightley, Jamie Laurenson, Hakan Kousetta, Patrick Walters, Iain Canning, Emile Sherman will executive produce the show alongside Clio Barnard and Anna Symon. Andrea Cornwell will serve as producer. The series will be produced for Apple TV+ by See-Saw Films.
We will publish a tie-in edition of the novel to coincide with the TV/streaming launch.
The Essex Serpent has sold over 550,000 copies across all editions for Serpent’s Tail and rights have been sold in 22 languages. It was the British Book Awards Book of the Year in 2017 and the Waterstones Book of the Year in 2016 and was nominated for the Wellcome, Costa, Walter Scott, Women’s Prizes amongst others.
Sarah Perry’s first non-fiction book, Essex Girls: For Profane and Opinionated Women Everywhere will be published on 1 October.