The publishing director of Random House UK's Hutchinson imprint has decided - after a two year battle with extended back injuries - to leave the company for what she termed a "new adventure." Publishing News reports that Freestone - best known for editing Douglas Adams, Sebastien Faulks, Robert Harris and Stephen Fry during her longtime publishing career - is considering her options, including small publishers, but is "definitely not going out on her own."

Susan Sandon, CHA Publisher, paid tribute to Freestone's "huge verve and brilliant instinct" and said she will be "very much missed by us all". Freestone will leave at the end of August, spending the intervening period "making sure all the authors I work with are on course." She added that "James Nightingale, my assistant, has done a fantastic job while I've been away."