TIEPOLO BLUE By James Cahill shortlisted for Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award

Picture: Authors’ Club

TIEPOLO BLUE, James Cahill’s electric debut, has advanced to the shortlist 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, overall, the third oldest literary prize in Britain. Past winners include Gail Honeyman, Jackie Kay and the late Gilbert Adair, also a Blake Friedmann client. This year’s winner will be revealed at dinner on 24 May, to be held at the National Liberal Club.

Also shortlisted alongside James are: THE DICTATOR’S WIFE by Freya Berry, MY NAME IS YIP by Paddy Crewe, WHEN WE WERE BIRDS by Ayanna Lloyd Banwo, BLACK BUTTERFLIES by Priscilla Morris, and THE WHALEBONE THEATRE by Joanna Quinn.

Lucy Popescu, the chair of the judging panel, said: ‘We are proud to recommend six exceptional debuts. These dazzling novelists cover a range of subjects from art and privilege, love and loss, knowledge and selfhood, the pursuit of power and the devastating consequences of war. We travel with them through eastern Europe to the American Frontier, from England’s past to Trinidad today.’

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, a sweeping psychological drama and satire of the international art world, which will be published in hardback by Sceptre in summer 2024.

Praise for TIEPOLO BLUE

‘Startlingly impressive . . . a heavily perfumed, sexually tender, psychologically acute novel’ – Claire Allfree, Daily Mail

‘The story of Tiepolo Blue and its people have invaded my dreams . . . Don’s disintegration is painful to read, but it all grips you like a thriller. 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

‘Not only an addictive pageturner, Cahill’s book taps into the tensions and suspicions between generations that feel incredibly relevant for our testy times’ – Jessie Thompson, Evening Standard

‘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’ – Edmund White

‘The plot is propulsive, though the crafted ambience of unease simultaneously destabilizes the reader at every turn . . . It’s a measure of Cahill’s sleight of hand that he manages to inject his plot with such page-turning momentum’ – Lucasta Miller, TLS

‘Tells a gripping tale of the worlds of traditional academia and art history pitted against those of contemporary art, each failing horribly to understand the other. As a result, all becomes infused with satirical comedy and ghastly tragedy’ – Norman Rosenthal

‘I just devoured Tiepolo Blue, I could not put it down. The longing, the beauty, the detail, the complexity, the art, the intellect and the emotion . . . What a triumph!’ – Paul Kindersley

‘Interrogating beauty and meaning in art, Tiepolo Blue rewards rereading . . . a stylish tale of love and long-game revenge’ – Rebecca Swirsky, Royal Academy Magazine

‘Dizzying and exciting and unsettling, and beautifully told’ – Reverend Richard Coles, ‘Big Writers on Their Best Reads of 2022’, Daily Mail

‘This is a novel full of suspense and surprise. It made me laugh and brought back memories of a time in my own life. I missed the characters as soon as I’d finished’ – Sarah Lucas

‘The musings of the book’s protagonist on the radical power of art to act as a catalyst for personal change make it an exhilarating, erudite read’ – Liam Hess, Vogue.com

‘I travelled on the exquisite vessel of James Cahill’s prose, unable to disembark. The journey is sensual, treacherous and elegiac. The final landing, breathtaking’ – Maggi Hambling

‘[An] arresting debut novel . . . a masterly attention to detail and an irresistibly propulsive, almost swaggering style’ – Michael Delgado, Literary Review

‘Wow. It is magnificent. Simply magnificent . . . Tiepolo Blue really has blown me away: the gorgeous phrase-making; the sure-footed pacing; the (re-)immersion in a world I know, or knew, in a way that is both hard-edged with historical detail and almost hallucinatory’ – Robert Douglas-Fairhurst

About James Cahill 

Picture: 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 completing his second novel THE VIOLET HOUR (Sceptre, 2024).

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

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BOBBY MARCH WILL LIVE FOREVER by Alan Parks nominated for the Macavity Awards 2022

We’re delighted that BOBBY MARCH WILL LIVE FOREVER by Edgar Award-winning author Alan Parks has been shortlisted for the Macavity Award for Best Mystery Novel 2022.  

Also shortlisted in the Best Mystery Novel category are: The Dark Hours by Michael Connelly, Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby, 1979 by Val McDermid, We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker and Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead.

The nominees and winners of the Macavity Awards are chosen by members of Mystery Readers International, who vote for their favourite mysteries in five categories. It is named after the ‘mystery cat’ in T.S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats. Past winners of the Best Mystery Novel award include Blacktop Wasteland by S.A. Cosby, The Chain by Adrian McKinty, November Road by Lou Berney and Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz.

BOBBY MARCH WILL LIVE FOREVER is the third in the highly acclaimed Harry McCoy series and was published in the US and Canada by Europa in April 2021, following its first UK publication in 2020. It recently won the Best Paperback Original category at the 2022 Mystery Writers of America Edgar Allan Poe Awards.

Rights to the series have been sold in more than ten countries around the world. The fourth book in the series, THE APRIL DEAD, was shortlisted for the McIlvanney Prize in 2021, while the latest book, MAY GOD FORGIVE, has been longlisted for the McIlvanney Prize 2022.

BOBBY MARCH WILL LIVE FOREVER by Alan Parks

Who is to blame when no one is innocent?

There’s a heatwave in Glasgow and the drugs trade is booming. The whole force is searching for missing thirteen-year-old Alice Kelly. All except Harry McCoy, who has been taken off the case after a run-in with the boss, and is instead sent alone to investigate the death of rock-star Bobby March, who has just overdosed in the Royal Stuart hotel.

The papers want blood. The force wants results. McCoy has a hunch. But does he have enough time?

Praise for the Harry McCoy series

‘The meticulously described setting is so suggestive readers may even catch whiffs of stale cigarette smoke and patchouli. Fans of Scottish noir will be satisfied.’ – Publishers Weekly

‘Parks’ sprawling plot offers not tidy whodunit puzzles but a wide-angle view of a gritty city in the grip of crime, home to an entertaining cross section of characters. Broad-shouldered McCoy is suitably unflappable as he walks Glasgow’s mean streets.’ – Kirkus Reviews

‘Parks captures the feel of a city long vanished in a breathless and tense retro crime caper.’ – The Sun

‘A series that no crime fan should miss: dangerous, thrilling, but with a kind voice to cut through the darkness.’ – Scotsman

‘Pitch-black tartan noir, set in 70s Glasgow ... Compelling ... with an emotional heart that’s hard to ignore.’ – Daily Mail

About Alan Parks 

Alan Parks was Creative Director at London Records in the mid 1990’s, then at Warner Music, where he created ground-breaking campaigns for artists including All Saints, New Order, The Streets, Gnarls Barclay and Cee Lo Green. He was also Managing Director of 679 Recordings, a joint venture with Warner Music. His debut novel BLOODY JANUARY propelled him onto the international literary crime fiction scene immediately and his work has been hailed by contemporary writers and critics alike.

BLOODY JANUARY was shortlisted for the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière, FEBRUARY’S SON was nominated for an Edgar Award, BOBBY MARCH WILL LIVE FOREVER was picked as a Times Best Book of the Year, won an Edgar Award and has been shortlisted for the Macavity Award for Best Mystery novel, THE APRIL DEAD was shortlisted for the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Book of the Year and MAY GOD FORGIVE has been longlisted for the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Book of the Year.

Alan was born in Scotland and attended The University of Glasgow where he was awarded a M.A. in Moral Philosophy. He still lives and works in the city that is so vividly depicted in the 1970s setting of his Harry McCoy thrillers.

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CASE STUDY by Graeme Macrae Burnet shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize 2022

We are delighted that CASE STUDY by Graeme Macrae Burnet, published in the UK by Saraband, has been shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize 2022. This follows hot on the heels of the novel’s longlisting for the Booker Prize and shortlisting for the Ned Kelly Award in Australia, where Text published in October 2021.

Also shortlisted for this year’s Gordon Burn Prize are: About a Son by David Whitehouse, Aftermath by Preti Taneja, Constructing a Nervous System by Margo Jefferson and Free: Coming of Age at the End of History by Lea Ypi.

Founded in 2012, the Gordon Burn Prize covers both fiction and non-fiction, and seeks to award works that push boundaries, cross genres or otherwise challenge readers’ expectations. It remembers the Newcastle-born writer Gordon Burn, a journalist and author of 10 books including Alma Cogan and Somebody’s Husband, Somebody’s Son. Past winners include A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance by Hanif Abdurraqib, This Is Not Propaganda by Peter Pomerantsey, For the Good Times by David Keenan, The Long Drop by Denise Mina and In Plain Sight: The Life and Lies of Jimmy Savile by Dan Davies.

CASE STUDY, described as ‘a novel of mind-bending brilliance’ by Hannah Kent, was first published in the UK by Saraband in October 2021, with the paperback following on 14 April 2022. Bolinda publish the audio edition. CASE STUDY has already been the recipient of numerous accolades, including being chosen as a Book of the Year in 2021 by The Spectator, The Scotsman and Waterstones and being picked as one of Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s favourite books of the year too. Rights to CASE STUDY have been sold in ten further territories, with more under offer currently, with North American rights sold to Biblioasis recently – more news on this to follow shortly.

The winner of the Gordon Burn Prize 2022 will be announced at Durham Book Festival on Thursday 13 October 2022. The winner will receive a £5,000 award and a three-month retreat at Gordon Burn’s cottage in the Scottish borders.

CASE STUDY by Graeme Macrae Burnet

I have decided to write down everything that happens, because I feel, I suppose, I may be putting myself in danger.

London, 1965. An unworldly young woman suspects charismatic psychotherapist Collins Braithwaite of involvement in a death in her family. Determined to find out more, she becomes a client of his under a false identity. But she soon finds herself drawn into a world in which she can no longer be certain of anything.

In CASE STUDY, Graeme Macrae Burnet presents both sides: the woman’s notes and the life of Collins Braithwaite. The result is a dazzling, page-turning and wickedly humorous meditation on the nature of sanity, identity and truth itself, by one of the most inventive novelists writing today.

Praise for CASE STUDY:

 ‘Consistently inventive, caustically funny and surprisingly moving, this is one of the finest novels of the year.’ – Christian House, Financial Times

‘It’s a book that is enormous fun to read, a mystery and a psychological drama wrapped up in one. Buoyed by the evident pleasure Macrae Burnet takes in spinning such a tightly knit tale – the author’s note at the end is magnificent – CASE STUDY is a triumph, and ought to give Saraband another success story.’ – Alex Preston, Guardian, ‘Book of the Day’

‘Fun and funny, sly and serious, a beguiling literary game that manages to say more about the nature of the self than any number of more self-consciously solemn works.’ – David Szalay

‘Brilliant, bamboozling… In addition to CASE STUDY’s ludic pleasures, Burnet captures his characters’ voices so brilliantly that what might have been just an intellectual game feels burstingly alive and engaging.’ – Jake Kerridge, 5-star review, Sunday Telegraph

‘What’s real and what’s not is beside the point in this skilful portrait of a disturbed woman and her encounters with an experimental 1960s psychotherapist . . . Both strands quickly become compelling . . . I was hooked like a fish.’ – Leyla Sanai, The Spectator

‘This is a novel which, like Macrae Burnet’s previous ones, holds the attention, develops an insidious narrative interest, and poses questions about the nature of the self and the authenticity of identity . . . As in his other novels, Macrae Burnet writes with an admirable lucidity, at the same time being able to probe and shed light on the dark places of the mind. Writing in a prose that is spare, deadpan and yet alive, he poses questions about the nature and perception of what we choose to call reality. He is an uncommonly interesting and satisfying novelist.’ – Allan Massie, The Scotsman

About Graeme Macrae Burnet

Graeme Macrae Burnet was brought up Kilmarnock, Ayrshire and now lives in Glasgow. He has also lived in the Czech Republic, France, Portugal and London. He has appeared at festivals and events in Australia, New Zealand, the US, Russia, Estonia, Macau, Ireland, Germany and France, as well as in the UK. He has also been shortlisted for European and American literary awards.

His first novel, THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ADÈLE BEDEAU (Contraband, 2014), received a New Writer’s Award from the Scottish Book Trust and was longlisted for the Waverton Good Read Award. A second Inspector Gorski novel, THE ACCIDENT ON THE A35, was published in 2017, the year he won Author of the Year for the Sunday Herald Culture Awards.

HIS BLOODY PROJECT (Contraband, 2015) won the Saltire Society Fiction Book of the Year Award, and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the LA Times Book Awards. It has been published to great acclaim around the world and film rights have been optioned by Synchronicity.

His latest novel CASE STUDY is longlisted for the Booker Prize and shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize in the UK and the Australian Ned Kelly Award for International Crime Fiction 2022.

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THE YOUNG TEAM by Graeme Armstrong shortlisted for the Betty Trask Prize & Awards

We are thrilled that Graeme Armstrong’s THE YOUNG TEAM has been shortlisted for the Betty Trask Prize & Awards for a debut novel by a writer under 35. Judge Vaseem Khan commended the shortlisted novels for being ‘measured and precise’, ‘erudite and linguistically nimble’, ‘quietly powerful’, and ‘a narrative whose power lasts long after the reading stops’. Also shortlisted are Bad Love by Maame Blue, The Last Good Man by Thomas McMullan, The Liar’s Dictionary by Eley Williams, The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave and The Water House by Nneoma Ike-Njoku.

The Betty Trask Prize and Awards, awarded by the Society of Authors, were founded after Betty Trask left a bequest to the Society of Authors in 1983 to fund prizes for first novels written by authors under the age of 35 in a traditional or romantic, but not experimental, style. The total prize fund is £26,200. ​Past winners include Zadie Smith, David Szalay, Hari Kunzru and Sarah Waters.

The winners will be announced online on Wednesday 9th June, in an online ceremony presented by novelist Joanne Harris.

THE YOUNG TEAM was published in 2020 by Picador and became a Times top 10 bestseller. The paperback was published in April 2021.

2005. Glasgow is named Europe’s Murder Capital, driven by a violent territorial gang and knife culture. In the housing schemes of adjacent Lanarkshire, Scotland’s former industrial heartland, wee boys become postcode warriors.

2004. Azzy Williams joins the Young Team [YTP]. A brutal gang conflict with their deadly rivals, the Young Toi [YTB] begins.

2012. Azzy dreams of another life. He faces his toughest fight of all – the fight for a different future.

Expect Buckfast. Expect bravado. Expect street philosophy. Expect rave culture. Expect anxiety. Expect addiction. Expect a serious facial injury every six hours. Expect murder.

Hope for a way out.

Inspired by the experiences of its author, Graeme Armstrong, THE YOUNG TEAM is an energetic novel, full of the loyalty, laughs, mischief, boredom, violence and threat of life on these streets. It looks beyond the tabloid stereotypes to tell a powerful story about the realities of life for young people in Britain today.

‘Raw and lyrical . . . written in a voice that recalls Irvine Welsh and Alan Warner – dialect that fizzes off the page.’ – The Observer

‘Graeme Armstrong's debut novel is an instant Scottish classic.’ – The Skinny

‘Vivid, dynamic and sharp as a whip.’ – Janice Galloway, author of The Trick is to Keep Breathing

‘[A] gripping debut novel . . . [Armstrong] is quite a phenomenon . . . one of the most admired young voices in British fiction.’ – Mike Wade, The Times

Photo: Robin Farquhar-Thomson

Graeme Armstrong is a Scottish writer from Airdrie. His teenage years were spent within North Lanarkshire’s gang culture. He was inspired to study English Literature after reading Irvine Welsh’s TRAINSPOTTING at just sixteen. Alongside overcoming his own struggles with drug addiction, alcohol abuse and violence, he defied expectation to read English as an undergraduate at the University of Stirling; where, after graduating with honours, he returned to study a Masters’ in Creative Writing.

He regularly volunteers within the community visiting prisons and schools, giving talks on his experiences of gang-culture and substance abuse. He promotes a message of anti-violence and abstinence-based recovery.

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