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Brilliant news!

The BBC and RTÉ are adapting Leonard and Hungry Paul by Rónán Hession for a new 6 part TV series with a stellar cast list.

https://deadline.com/2025/05/leonard-hungry-paul-casting-bbc-rte-drama-1...

Congratulations to Jo McMillan whose novel _The Accidental Immigrants_ is a finalist in the 2025 Orwell Prize for Political Fiction.

Here's what the judges had to say -

' This cleverly conceived, inventively written political fable proves propulsively readable. Dedicated to ‘all the people who lose their lives trying to reach a safer shore,’ The Accidental Immigrants centres on a British couple living on an island in the Mediterranean that, as the Far Right rises, find themselves first disconcerted but then displaced and torn apart by increasingly totalitarian state policies and policing. McMillan’s characters might inhabit a Looking-Glass universe, but in reading this incisive critique of anti-immigration politics we stare straight back at ourselves. This humane, sensitive novel is insidiously shocking; and it looks set to become even more politically relevant given recent electoral results in the UK, Europe and the US.'

Isn't this wonderful news to start the day.

We're winners in the small press awards for The North of England in The British Book Awards - 2025.

I would like to thank our brilliant team of editors, Lin Webb, Leonora Rustamova, Hetha Duffy and Darya Rustamova, some of the finest in the land. The excellence starts with their editorial rigour.

https://www.thebookseller.com/news/the-british-book-awards-2025-small-pr...

Marvellous!

Kevin & Kevin talk about books, thunderstorms. haircuts, Goths, jigsaw factories, AI, and art.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/1HZOTrMne96hJz3FIiV5O7?si=_sn29FSUSoK5K...

Congratulations to Orla Owen whose novel _Christ on a  Bike_ has been long listed for the 100,000 Euro Dublin LIterary Award.

https://dublinliteraryaward.ie/the-library/prize-years/2025/

The short listing will be announced at the end of March with the winner chosen in Dublin in May.

'A poetic tale of loss and belonging.' The Guardian.

A lovely reveiw of Pauls Scraton's novel _A Dream of White Horses_

A Dream of White Horses by Paul Scraton review – images of exile | Fiction | The Guardian

There was a wonderful review of _Ghost Mountain_ by Rónán Hession in The Guardian on Saturday 22nd June by Frank Cottrell-Boyce.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/article/2024/jun/22/ghost-mountain-by-...

Marvellous.

There was a wonderful review by Val Nolan in The Irish TImes on Saturday 25th May where his writing was compared with 'Murakami and Beckett' finishing with this sentence.

'We are very lucky that novels like this are being written today in Ireland.'

The World Book tour took in Hodges Figgis in Dublin - Waterstones , Deansgate Manchester - Waterstones Liverpool - The Book Corner Halifax and The Fitzrovia Chapel courtesy of The Irish Literary Society in London.

The response from readers has been truly wonderful, so much so we've already had to reprint. 

Marvellous.