THE TUMBLING GIRL by Bridget Walsh on 2024 HWA Debut Crown Award longlist

THE TUMBLING GIRL, the first title in Bridget Walsh’s vivid Variety Palace Mystery series, has been longlisted for the 2024 HWA Debut Crown Award.

The HWA Awards celebrate the best historical writing, fiction and non-fiction and its ability to engage, illuminate, entertain and inform legions of readers. To be considered, the bulk of the narrative of the work submitted must take place at least thirty-five years prior to publication. There are three awards – the HWA Gold Crown (for writers already published), the HWA Non-fiction Crown and the HWA Debut Crown. Previous winners of the HWA Debut Crown Award include THE SECRET DIARIES OF CHARLES IGNATIUS SANCHO by Paterson Joseph and THE SPIRIT ENGINEER by AJ West.

The other titles on this year’s Debut Crown Award longlist are as follows: THE OTHER SIDE OF MRS WOOD by Lucy Barker; THE GOLDEN GATE by Amy Chua; LEEWARD by Katie Daysh; COLOURS OF SIENA by Judith May Evans; THE MAIDEN by Kate Foster; THE PAINTER’S DAUGHTER by Emily Howes; ALL US SINNERS by Katy Massey; OUR HIDEOUS PROGENY by C. E. McGill; THE WITCHING TIDE by Margaret Meyer; THE BEHOLDERS by Hester Musson and THE REVELS by Stacey Thomas.

THE TUMBLING GIRL sees an unlikely duo – ex-actress Minnie Ward and private detective Albert Easterbrook – team up to solve a grisly spate of murders in Victorian London. It was first published by Gallic Books in May 2023, and prior to publication it won the UEA Little, Brown Award for Crime Fiction. It was also shortlisted for the 2024 Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) ILP John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger and reached No. 1 in the US Amazon Kindle New Historical Thriller Chart.

THE INNOCENTS, the sequel to THE TUMBLING GIRL, was published by Gallic Books earlier this year to great acclaim (with The Financial Times describing it as ‘historical crime fiction at its most beguiling’) and Bridget is currently working on the next in the series, THE SPIRIT GUIDE. The latter sees Minnie and Albert uncovering the dark secrets behind a female-only spiritualist group that purports to help its members commune with deceased loved ones.

 

About Bridget Walsh

Bridget Walsh lives in Norwich. She has a PhD in ‘Murder in the Victorian Domestic Sphere’ and an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia.

 Praise for THE TUMBLING GIRL

‘Bridget Walsh’s THE TUMBLING GIRL is the first in what promises to be an entertaining series of historical mysteries… a narrative that neatly weds historical detail and quiet wit.’ – Nick Rennison, The Sunday Times, ‘The best historical fiction books of May 2023’

‘Ms. Walsh does a splendid job depicting Minnie’s flea-bitten yet appealing theatrical world and Albert’s monied yet treacherous milieu.’ – Tom Nolan, Wall Street Journal

‘Walsh impresses in this series launch featuring an unlikely pair of investigators in 1876 London… diligent research pays off in spades here, and her rich and nuanced portrayal of the period will leave readers feeling like they’re on the soggy streets of London. Imogen Robertson readers will be eager for a sequel to this un-put-downable mystery.’ – Publishers Weekly, Starred Review and a ‘Books of the Week’ pick

‘Walsh resurrects the culture and crimes of Victoriana without cliché or condescension, but with warmth, wit, remarkable texture and rare authority.’ – Tom Benn

‘A brilliantly written page-turner. A bravura performance tumbling us into a compelling mystery in a vivid, richly imagined world. You can smell the greasepaint and hear the roar of the crowd on every page.’ – Imogen Robertson

 

Visit Bridget’s website

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MY FATHER’S HOUSE longlisted for the 2024 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction

We are thrilled to announce that MY FATHER’S HOUSE by Joseph O’Connor has been longlisted for the 2024 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. This is the second time Joseph O’Connor’s work has been recognised by the prize – with his acclaimed novel SHADOWPLAY making the shortlist in 2020.

The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction is a prestigious literary prize celebrating quality, innovation and ambition of writing, provided the majority of the novel’s storyline is set at least sixty years ago. Previous winners include WOLF HALL by Hilary Mantel and THE LONG SONG by Andrea Levy.

The other longlisted titles for this year’s prize are: THE NEW LIFE by Tom Crewe, A BETTER PLACE by Stephen Daisley, THE HOUSE OF DOORS by Tan Twan Eng, HUNGRY GHOSTS by Kevin Jared Hosein, FOR THY GREAT PAIN, HAVE MERCY ON MY LITTLE PAIN by Victoria MacKenzie, MUSIC IN THE DARK by Sally Magnusson, CUDDY by  Benjamin Myers, THE FRAUD by Zadie Smith, MISTER TIMELESS BLYTH by Alan Spence, IN THE UPPER COUNTRY by Kai Thomas, and ABSOLUTELY AND FOREVER by Rose Tremain.

Katie Grant, the chair of the judging panel,  said: ‘From the epic to the intimate, from the philosophical to the swashbuckling, from the traditional to the experimental, in each book emotions run deep. If you read the whole list, just like the panel of judges, you’ll never be short of conversation.’ 

From February 2024, the prize is being managed by The Abbotsford Trust, which is responsible for Sir Walter Scott’s Borders home. With the support of The Hawthornden Foundation, and the ongoing patronage of prize founder and Abbotsford patron, the Duke of Buccleuch, the existing Walter Scott Prize team and judges will continue their work.

The shortlist will be announced in May, and the winner announcement and prize-giving event will take at the Borders Book Festival in Melrose, in June.

Based on the true story of Hugh O’Flaherty, an Irish priest in the Vatican who helped escaped prisoners evade capture in Nazi-occupied Rome, MY FATHER’S HOUSE is a powerful literary thriller from a master of historical fiction. Joseph O’Connor has created an unforgettable novel of love, faith and sacrifice, and what it means to be truly human in extreme circumstances.

MY FATHER’S HOUSE was first published to great acclaim in the UK and Ireland by Harvill Secker in January 2023 and in the US by Europa Editions in April 2023. Translation rights have been sold in Brazil, France, Germany, Italy and Sweden, and film rights are under option.

MY FATHER’S HOUSE has been a stellar success, flying straight to No.1 in Ireland upon publication, occupying the spot for four weeks and selling over 100,000 copies in the English language overall. A Waterstones’ Irish ‘Book of the Month’ for February 2024, it is longlisted for the 2024 Dublin Literary Award and last year was shortlisted for the Eason Novel of the Year Award at the 2023 An Post Irish Book Awards (with Joseph shortlisted for the Library Association of Ireland Author of the Year Award at the same event). Last week MY FATHER’S HOUSE was picked by Peter Kemp as a Sunday Times ‘Paperback of the Week’. 

MY FATHER’S HOUSE has been very well received in its many translation markets – most recently in France where Payot & Rivages are already onto their second reprint and publications like Les chroniques de Goliath are describing it as ‘dazzling… A fiction that dives its roots so deeply into historical truth that it becomes entirely credible.’ You can see more of the international praise below and on Joseph O’Connor’s website.

The Irish ambassadors to Italy and the Vatican have jointly organised a celebratory event at the Irish Embassy in Rome in this month which marks both the release of Harvill Secker’s paperback edition of MY FATHER’S HOUSE and Guanda’s Italian edition of LA CASA DI MIO PADRE.

Joseph is currently completing THE GHOSTS OF ROME, the second novel in the Escape Line trilogy (of which MY FATHER’S HOUSE is the first), which is due to be published by Harvill Secker in the UK and Europa in the UK in 2025.

 

Photo credit: Urszula Soltys

About Joseph O’Connor

Joseph O’Connor was born in Dublin, where he still lives. MY FATHER’S HOUSE is his tenth novel: he is also the author of film scripts, radio and stage plays, two collections of short stories, and several bestselling works of non-fiction.

2022 was the 20th anniversary of Joseph O’Connor’s novel STAR OF THE SEA which was an international bestseller, selling more than a million copies in the UK alone and being published in 38 languages. It won France’s Prix Millepages, Italy’s Premio Acerbi, the Irish Post Award for Fiction, the Nielsen Bookscan Golden Book Award, an American Library Association Award, the Hennessy/Sunday Tribune Hall of Fame Award, and the Prix Litteraire Zepter for European Novel of the Year.

He holds an honorary Doctorate in Literature from University College Dublin and received the Irish PEN Award for Outstanding Contribution to Irish Literature in 2012. He is the Inaugural Frank McCourt Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Limerick.

 

Praise for MY FATHER’S HOUSE

‘A gripping, compelling and utterly brilliant read.’ – Liz Nugent

‘I was fortunate enough to get my hands on a beautifully produced advance copy of Joseph's new novel. What a joy and privilege to be an early reader of a work of art from a towering figure in world literature. MY FATHER’S HOUSE is a masterwork. No writer in the world can tell a story the way Joseph O’Connor does. He can, without seeming effort, be all things to all readers, taking us by the hand and guiding us into the very heart of a story, his narrative techniques deployed with such unearthly skill that we’re hardly aware that this was written at all, it feels so real, so urgent, so incredibly alive. This novel is a searing and beautiful example of storytelling’s infinite importance, to our humanness, to our chances of learning from our most terrible and our most transcendent moments, and all our moments in between, to hold all life sacred, to see each other as brothers and sisters, to love and protect each other. No wonder he is so cherished and loved by his countless devotees across the earth. He is a national and international treasure, the most generous and noble of writers, a true master of the art.’ – Donal Ryan

‘A spectacular, thrilling novel… offering much more than tensely plotted thrills… MY FATHER’S HOUSE celebrates triumphant against-the-odds camaraderie. It would require a present-day Puccini to do operatic justice to its tremendous tale.’ – Peter Kemp, The Sunday Times

‘This formidable talent for writing across genres is reflected in his masterly 10th novel, which should reap similar plaudits… This is a literary thriller of the highest order. The incarnation of O’Flaherty, the Irish Oskar Schindler, is sublime. What often elevates a writer is compassion, and O’Connor has it in spades – paying tribute to the courage of those who resist tyranny. Beautifully crafted, his razor-sharp dialogue is to be savoured, and he employs dark humour to great effect. The plot twists keep on coming until the novel’s coda, where a final joyful conceit is revealed.’ – Lucy Popescu, The Observer

‘Joseph O’Connor’s historical novel MY FATHER’S HOUSE manages to be at once a ripping yarn and a profound exploration of moral choices in the worst of times… With lyrical evocation of time and place, scabrous humour and heart-stopping tension, it combines the pleasures of the ideal holiday read with those of a literary masterpiece.’ – Fintan O’Toole, The Irish Times, ‘The Best Books of 2023 so far’

‘This historical thriller is a captivating page-turner.’ – ActuaLitté

‘With his new fiction, Joseph O’Connor once again reinvents the historical genre, intertwining it with elements of suspense typical of noir fiction.’ – Livres Hebdo

‘This book is a real page-turner, where compassion prevails over hatred.’ – L’Arche

‘The interwoven narrative of the protagonists’ testimonies lends a powerful momentum to this page-turner.’ – Benzine

‘In this beautifully written novel, Joseph O’Connor raises the painful question of neutrality. While the Pontiff clings to it like a mussel to its rock, the Irish priest rejects it. He didn’t don the habit to indulge in contemplation. He made a vow of obedience, but his conscience whispers disobedience to him. Do we ever truly know who we are? Only danger reveals it to us. For Hugh O’Flaherty and his choir, doubt is not allowed. Coming from all walks of life, destined never to meet in times of peace, these amateur singers have found each other to form only one audacious soul. Noble heroes on the altar of sacrifice, on the altar of humanity.’ – La Vie en Noir

 

Visit Joseph’s website

TIEPOLO BLUE by James Cahill on Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award longlist

We are delighted that TIEPOLO BLUE by James Cahill has been longlisted for the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award.

The Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award was established in 1954, making it the longest-running UK prize for debut fiction and, except for the James Tait Black and the Hawthornden, the oldest literary prize in Britain. Past winners include Gail Honeyman, Jackie Kay and the late Gilbert Adair, also a Blake Friedmann client.

The other titles on this year’s longlist are: TO FILL A YELLOW HOUSE by Sussie Anie, THE DICTATOR’S WIFE by Freya Berry, MY NAME IS YIP by Paddy Crewe, EDGWARE ROAD by Yasmin Cordery-Khan, LITTLE BOXES by Cecilia Knapp, WHEN WE WERE BIRDS by Ayanna Lloyd Banwo, BLACK BUTTERFLIES by Priscilla Morris, I’M A FAN by Sheena Patel, MOONLIGHT AND THE PEARLER’S DAUGHTER by Lizzie Pook, THE WHALEBONE THEATRE by Joanna Quinn and NO COUNTRY FOR GIRLS by Emma Styles.

Lucy Popescu, the chair of the judging panel, said: ‘We are delighted to announce our longlist of 12 debut novelists tackling a fascinating diversity of subjects. These compelling novels explore art and privilege, war, loss, blackmail and theft as well as love, desire, obsession and the pursuit of power. We visit several UK locations and are transported to the American frontier, Australia, Trinidad, Eastern Europe and the siege of Sarajevo.’

The shortlist for this year’s prize will be announced on 20 March, with the winner being revealed at the National Liberal Club on 24 May.

TIEPOLO BLUE follows the unravelling of revered art historian Donald Lamb. Freed from the constraints of academia, it looks like the anarchic contemporary art scene of 1990s London might be his salvation, but he soon suffers an earth-shattering fall from grace that leaves him questioning everyone and everything.

TIEPOLO BLUE was published in hardback by Sceptre in June 2022 to great acclaim. It attracted widespread praise, including from Patrick Gale and Stephen Fry (the latter describing it as ‘The best novel I have read for ages’), and was also included in the BBC’s and Times Literary Supplement’s ‘Best of 2022’ lists. It will be published in paperback on 27 April 2023.

James is currently writing his second novel, THE VIOLET HOUR, which will be published in hardback by Sceptre in Summer 2024. Set in New York, London and Switzerland, the novel reveals the secret history of a reclusive artist, a monomaniacal collector, and the art dealer caught between them.

Praise for TIEPOLO BLUE

‘The spirit of E.M. Forster is alive and well in James Cahill. The same palpating of damaged moral tissue, the same psychological canniness, the same gently invoked erudition, the same exactitude and eloquence – except Cahill is able to explore forbidden themes that Forster feared to touch on except posthumously’ – Edmund White

‘The best novel I have read for ages. My heart was constantly in my throat as I read… There is so much to enjoy, to contemplate, to wonder at, and to be lost in.’ – Stephen Fry

‘Imagine if Hollinghurst and Murdoch collaborated on a witty update of DEATH IN VENICE and you'll see the appeal of James Cahill's assured debut.’ – Patrick Gale

‘The last debut novel I read that had this much talent buzzing around inside it was Alan Hollinghurst’s THE SWIMMING-POOL LIBRARY.’ – Robert Douglas-Fairhurst

‘Beautifully captures disorientation, tenderness and heat without tipping into excess…an electric new novel written by an author skilled in the evocation of vertiginous, heightened emotion.’ – Michael Donkor, The Guardian, ‘Book of the Day’

‘The plot is propulsive, though the crafted ambience of unease simultaneously destabilizes the reader at every turn. The prose is fluid and precise but the tone equivocal, bathos merging into pathos, tragedy into farce and back again… Oscar Wilde’s paradoxes – about the relationship between art and life, illusion and reality, true and false selves – lie half submerged throughout this bravura debut, but so does the vulnerability of Thomas Mann’s Gustav von Aschenbach… It is the moments when rawness and confusion burst to the surface that prevent this witty yet unnerving book from being too clever.’ – Lucasta Miller, Times Literary Supplement

About James Cahill

Picture Credit: Darren Wheeler

James Cahill was born in London. Over the past decade, he has worked in the art world and academia, combining writing and research with a role at a leading contemporary art gallery.

His writing on art has appeared in publications including The Burlington Magazine, The Times Literary Supplement, The Los Angeles Review of Books, and The London Review of Books. He was the lead author and consulting editor of FLYING TOO CLOSE TO THE SUN (Phaidon, 2018), a survey of classical myth in art from antiquity to the present day. He was the co-curator of ‘The Classical Now’, an exhibition at King’s College London (March-April 2018), examining the relationships between ancient, modern and contemporary art.

He is currently a Research Fellow in Classics at King’s College London.

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