KAITE O'REILLY DISCUSSES HER NEW PLAY "COSY"

In this article in the Wales Arts Review,  Kaite O' Reilly discusses her new play COSY, and its themes of aging and mortality. 

I want to handle this often feared topic with wit, as well as sobriety and respect. I love human beings ability to live joyfully and in the moment, despite the knowledge our time is finite and we will all die one day. How these two opposing perspectives co-exist is fascinating to explore theatrically – and the deceptions, avoidances, contradictions and confrontations within a family with distinct and different ethical, religious, and political perspectives

Performed by a cracking all-Welsh cast, COSY is a darkly comic look at three generations of women as they share the joys and humiliations of getting older.  This new work – at turns hilarious and heartbreaking – examines issues relevant to us all; youth, ageing, and the last, great taboo.

COSY will be performed at the Weston Studio in Cardiff from the 8th - 12th March. 

For more information follow this link

RACHEL'S BLUE BY ZAKES MDA PUBLISHED BY SEAGULL PRESS

Seagull Press have published Zakes Mda’s RACHEL’S BLUE in a beautiful hardback edition, available now across North America, the UK, India and other English language markets outside South Africa (where Kwela’s edition is available). The novel was longlisted for the 2016 International DUBLIN Literary Award and in South Africa it won the University of Johannesburg Prize.

RACHEL’S BLUE is set in Athens, Ohio, and deals with the story of old high school friends Rachel Boucher and Jason de Klerk who reconnect­ and rekindle a relationship that quickly becomes passionate. Initially, all seems well. But then Rachel meets someone else. Jason’s anger boils over into violence—violence that turns the community on its head, pitting friends and neighbours against one another. And all this happens before Rachel realizes she’s pregnant.

The novel was written as a response to the legal situation that persists in many US states today – that the father of a child conceived from rape can claim the same paternity rights as any father. Although RACHEL’S BLUE is set in Athens County, Ohio, many of the issues raised in the book are familiar to South Africa and reviewer Eckard Smuts wrote on SlipNet that “one of the novel’s strongest accomplishments is the ease with which Mda has transplanted his sensitivity to such issues – and to their human impact – from the more familiar South African setting of his earlier work to the apparently fertile grounds of the American Midwest.”

Zakes Mda has just completed a very busy and successful tour in South Africa to promote his latest novel LITTLE SUNS, published in South Africa by Penguin Random House’s Umuzi imprint.

Follow Zakes Mda on Twitter: @ZakesMda

About the author

Zakes Mda is the author of the much loved classics of South African literature WAYS OF DYING and THE HEART OF REDNESS, among many others. He was born in the Eastern Cape, but spent his early childhood in Soweto, finishing his school education in Lesotho. He is a prolific writer of novels, plays, poems and articles for academic journals and newspapers, and his writing has been translated into twenty languages. His creative work also includes painting, and theatre and film productions. Mda is a recipient of South Africa’s Order of Ikhamanga. He is based in Athens, Ohio, where he spends his time writing and teaching.

Praise for Zakes Mda

‘Mda writes from the inside with a rare combination of passion and truth that will connect with readers everywhere.’ – Booklist

‘A voice for which one should feel not only affection but admiration.’ – New York Times

‘Zakes Mda is among the most acclaimed exponents of a new artistic freedom. His fiction has a beguiling lyricism and humour.’ – The Guardian

Role Available: Finance Manager

The Finance Manager has overall responsibility for company and client accounts for the Agency.   This includes processing all client monies, processing company payroll and overseeing processing of company accounts.

The role supervises the Contracts and Royalties Associate, the Office Manager/HR Manager and external Bookkeeper.

Hours:                   4 or 5 days per week
Salary:                   Depending on experience

Client Accounts

·         Overall responsibility for client accounts.
·         Prepare weekly pay run: process payments received, pay & report to clients, transfer commission income to the company bank account.
·         Enter sales details/royalties in database, check details of payments/advances.
·         General maintenance of database.
·         Respond to client queries and requests, with support from royalties associate.
·         Follow up on overdue purchaser payments, with assistance from the royalties associate & agents.
·         Monthly commission analysis and reporting.
·         Income reporting for quarterly VAT return & annual VAT report to HMRC

Company Accounts

·         Oversee processing of company accounts by Office Manager.
·         Update accounting systems
·         Prepare material for company accounts, including quarterly VAT and year end accounts for audit, in conjunction with external bookkeeper.
·         Review finance reports for presentation to the Board and external accountants.
·         Cash-flow analysis & planning.
·         Prepare monthly payroll, including PAYE and pension payments and reconciliations.
·         Submit end of year payroll.

Requirements:

Ideally the applicant will have at least 2 years’ experience in a similar role.

Excel
Accounts & payroll software: ideally Sage 50 accounts and payroll.
Database: ideally Bradbury Phillips

Closing date for applications: 29th February 2016

Send cv to Sian Jenkins:  sian@blakefriedmann.co.uk

David Gilman's GATE OF THE DEAD, third in action-packed MASTER OF WAR SERIES, published today

GATE OF THE DEAD, the gripping third title in David Gilman’s action-packed MASTER OF WAR series, is out in hardback in the UK today. This popular series, published by Head of Zeus, began with Amazon #1 bestseller MASTER OF WAR and follows the adventures of Thomas Blackstone, a stonemason-turned-archer during the Hundred Years' War.

As the For Winter Nights review says:  ‘David Gilman, again, achieves wonders with his recreation of the Hundred Years War. But a strong part of its appeal has been watching Thomas Blackstone grow from the young stonemason archer who fought at Crécy.’ Readers love David Gilman’s band of characters, including the strong women, and reviews praise his expert blend of historical fact and fiction in this epic story of conflict, loyalty and love. The MASTER OF WAR series draws hundreds of glowing 5-star reader reviews on Amazon and in total more than 100,000 copies of the first two titles in the series have been sold.

GATE OF THE DEAD opens in Lucca, Tuscany in 1358: Thomas Blackstone has built a formidable reputation in exile, fighting as a mercenary amid the ceaseless internecine warring of Italy's City States. Success has bred many enemies, who will seize any opportunity to destroy the man they cannot overcome on the field. So when a dying man delivers a message recalling Blackstone to England, it seems almost certain to be a trap. Yet Blackstone cannot decline – the summons is apparently from the Queen.

Blackstone will brave the terrors of the High Alps in winter, face the Black Prince in tournament in Windsor, confront the bloody anarchy of a popular revolt in northern France and submit to trial by combat. And every step of the way, he will be shadowed by a notorious assassin, a killer who has been instructed to inflict the maximum pain on his target before he despatches him to hell.

The MASTER OF WAR series has been sold in Brazil, Hungary, Spain and the Czech Republic and more offers are pending. David is currently writing the fourth Thomas Blackstone novel. His stunning standalone THE LAST HORSEMAN, featuring American and Irish characters in the South African War, will also be published by Head of Zeus, in Summer 2016.

Praise for the MASTER OF WAR series:

‘Move over Bernard Cornwell!  Historical fiction at its best’ – Historical Novel Society

‘If you only read one historical debut this year, make it this one. The prose is sharper than a bodkin arrow, the pace faster than thought and to be honest it was a book that I just couldn’t put down. Great stuff.’ – Gareth Wilson, Falcata Times

 ‘A violent, tempestuous, glorious novel. I was gripped from the very beginning and the book never once let go of me until its end, by which point I was exhausted by its intensity, thrills and trauma. Among my top historical fiction reads of 2015.' – For Winter Nights

 ‘See-saw drama at its best… so many reasons why, when life tried to encourage me to put the book down, I resisted stridently. This is writing that twists around seldom seen hist-fict depth.’ – Ani Johnson, The Bookbag

 Visit David’s Website

Follow David On Twitter

ROSALIND POWELL’S ADOPTION MEMOIR, HOW I MET MY SON, PUBLISHED TODAY

‘Honest, funny and, crucially, helpful to anyone who has ever had difficulty conceiving or considered adoption, this is required reading.’ – Emma Thompson

A warm, honest account of what it is to adopt and to build a family from scratch, Blink will publish HOW I MET MY SON today. The Sunday Times Magazine printed an extract last weekend, Stella feature an interview about the book this Saturday, and Prima Magazine have an exclusive feature written by Rosalind in their March issue (out now). She will be on a special adoption-themed Robert Elms show on BBC Radio London next week.

Rosalind will also be on ITV’s THIS MORNING, on the sofa with Holly and Phil, discussing adoption and her own experience of making a family.

About the author:

Rosalind Powell swapped arts administration for journalism 23 years ago and has since written for a wide selection of newspapers including The Observer, The Independent, Guardian, The Sunday Times, and The Mirror as well as magazines such as Red, Grazia, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan and Hello!, where she is currently Contributing Editor.