My agent and friend Rochelle Stevens, who ran her own successful literary agency for 40 years, has died of cancer, aged 73.
Rochelle represented writers and directors in screenwriting, radio and the theatre, and was well known as huge fun and a tough negotiator. For those lucky enough to be her clients, she was their greatest champion, fiercely protective and an enthusiastic, encouraging and always honest first reader. She showed as much care and dedication for smaller passion projects as she did for commercial big hitters.
Born in Hackney, east London, to Doree (nee Rosenfeld), who ran a dress shop, and Reg Levene, an engineer and maker of scientific instruments, Rochelle went to West Hatch high school where she attained A-levels in French and English. She also took secretarial courses where she learned the shorthand that she remained proud of throughout her life.
Her literary career began at the National Theatre, where she was involved not only in its productions but its expansion, culminating in its move from the Old Vic to its current site on the South Bank. It was there that she became PA to the general administrator, Peter Stevens, whom she married in 1979.
Rochelle worked in London for Clive Goodwin, the celebrated agent, and as a story editor for Verity Lambert, a producer at Euston Films. During a spell living in Manhattan with Peter, she fell in love with Zabar’s, the Jewish delicatessen, and New York, returning most years.
In 1984, Rochelle struck out on her own and started her eponymous agency in Islington, north London. Frances Arnold joined the company in 1991 and the two worked alongside each other for the rest of Rochelle’s life. Their Christmas parties were the stuff of legend – with their clients very much part of a family.
Peter died in 2016; in recent years Rochelle divided her time between two gloriously colourful homes in Peckham, south-east London, and Sidlesham, West Sussex. She loved her dogs, her clients, her friends, her obsessions (Uzbek rugs, Lea Stein brooches, orange wine), and was a spectacularly good gardener and cook.
She is survived by her sister, Barbara.
