Toby Eady

{{short description|English literary agent (1941–2017}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

Toby Eady (28 February 1941 – 24 December 2017) was an English literary agent, whose clients included Bernard Cornwell, Patrick Marnham, Rachel Seiffert and Jung Chang.{{cite magazine|url=https://www.thebookseller.com/news/toby-eady-dies-697761|title=Literary agent Toby Eady dies|first=Benedicte|last=Page|magazine=The Bookseller|date=27 December 2017|access-date=13 January 2018}} When he set up his own agency, Toby Eady Associates, in 1968, his first book was Jack's Return Home by Ted Lewis, which was eventually made into the Michael Caine film, Get Carter. In 2015, Eady sold his agency to David Higham Associates.{{cite web|url=https://www.davidhigham.co.uk/about-us/history/|title= David Higham Associates – Past, Present, Future|website=Davidhigham.co.uk|access-date=4 November 2022}}

Eady's mother was the author Mary Wesley. His father was Heinz Otto Ziegler, a Czech political scientist and Royal Air Force pilot.{{cite news|url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/article/toby-eady-obituary-l6jf927q9|title=Toby Eady|date=13 January 2018|access-date=13 January 2018|newspaper=The Times}} Eady was educated at Summer Fields School in Oxford, Bryanston School in Dorset, and read modern history at Wadham College, Oxford.{{cite ODNB|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-88714|title=Siepmann [née Farmar], Mary Aline [other married name Mary Aline Eady, Lady Swinfen; pseud. Mary Wesley]|first=Patrick|last=Marnham|date=11 August 2022|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/88714 |isbn=978-0-19-861412-8 |access-date=4 November 2022}} He was survived by his widow, the writer Xinran Xue, whom he married in 2002. He had previously been married to Isobel Macleod.{{cite news | url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2018/02/19/toby-eady-literary-agent-obituary/ | title=Toby Eady, literary agent – obituary | newspaper=The Telegraph | date=19 February 2018 }}