Rachel Blackmore’s ‘powerful and deeply affecting’ COSTANZA longlisted for Historical Writers’ Association Debut Crown award

COSTANZA – Rachel Blackmore’s acclaimed Renaissance Rome-set debut novel – has been longlisted for the Historical Writers’ Association Debut Crown award. The prestigious 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 work must take place at least thirty-five years prior to publication.

‘Hypnotic, sensual, heartbreaking, and shocking, COSTANZA is flawless in execution and is set to be a classic for years to come,’ wrote the HWA in their statement. ‘A rich and compelling evocation of art and obsession in 17th-century Rome.’

A passionate feminist retelling of a true seventeenth-century tale, COSTANZA brings the tragic muse of famed sculptor Gianlorenzo Bernini to vivid life. The novel was published by Renegade Books in August 2024, with a paperback published worldwide in July earlier this year, and translation rights have so far sold in eight languages. Rachel’s next novel will be published by Renegade Books in Summer 2026.

Longlisted alongside Rachel are THE WICKED OF THE EARTH by A. D. Bergin, THE INSTRUMENTALIST by Harriet Constable (Bloomsbury), NEPTHYS by Rachel Louise Driscoll (Harvill Secker), MURDER IN CONSTANTINOPLE by A.E. Goldin (Pushkin Press), WINTER OF SHADOWS by Clare Grant (Black Spring Crime), A POISONER’S TALE by Cathryn Kemp (Bantam), SPITTING GOLD by Carmella Lowkis (Doubleday), THE EIGHTS by Joanna Miller (Fig Tree), A LITTLE TRICKERIE by Rosanna Pike (Fig Tree), THEY DREAM IN GOLD by Mai Sennaar (Picador), and A CASE OF MICE AND MURDER by Sally Smith (Bloomsbury).

The winner will follow in the footsteps of last year’s honouree, Blake Friedmann’s own Bridget Walsh, who was recognised for her Victorian London crime novel THE TUMBLING GIRL, and 2023 winner THE SECRET DIARIES OF CHARLES IGNATIUS SANCHO by Paterson Joseph. The shortlists will be announced on 15 October, ahead of the awards ceremony in Central London on 19 November 2025.

Congratulations Rachel!

About COSTANZA

Rome, 1636: In the scorched city of Rome, the cobbled streets hum with gossip and sin... Costanza Piccolomini is a respectable young wife - until she meets Gianlorenzo Bernini, the famed sculptor and star of Roman society, whose jet-black gaze matches his dark temper. From the second they set eyes upon each other, a fatal attraction is born.

Their secret love burns with a passion that consumes them. But with every stolen kiss and illicit tryst, Costanza's reputation is at stake. Meanwhile, Bernini has a dangerous desire: he wants to make Costanza immortal. He vows to possess her not just in body and soul, but also in marble.

When Bernini unveils his sculpture of Costanza, she is exposed as his lover, marking the undoing of their affair - and the beginning of a scandal which will rock Roman society. For Bernini would rather destroy Costanza than let her go.

Betrayed. Abandoned. Banished. This was meant to be the end of Costanza's story. But Costanza is no ordinary woman: from the ashes, she will rise...

History calls her a Muse. Temptress. Fallen woman. This is her story. Based on a true story, COSTANZA brings to life a feminist icon who has been written out of history.

Photo: Nicolas Laborie

About Rachel Blackmore

Born in Birmingham the daughter of a theatre director and a teacher, Rachel developed her love of language and storytelling at a young age. She went on to study Early Modern History, before embarking on a career in politics which morphed into a long bout as a speechwriter – a craft she now teaches.

Rachel spent more than a decade working and raising a family, before taking a career break to write historical fiction about marginalised women, as a way of looking at contemporary issues.

In 2021 she was a runner up in Harper’s Bazaar Short Story Competition and won the Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair in 2022. Her debut novel, COSTANZA, a historical novel set in Renaissance Rome telling the story of Costanza Piccolomini, the muse of Bernini, was published by Dialogue Books imprint Renegade in August 2024.

She lives in London with her three teenagers, two cats and one dog.

Praise for COSTANZA

‘Spent my week immersed in this stunning piece of historical fiction, COSTANZA… This gorgeous, intimate portrayal of Costanza herself, reminded me of THE MARRIAGE PORTRAIT in its melding of art & artistry with the lives of the women of the time’ – Jennie Godfrey

‘Wonderful… This novel took over my life for the time I was buried in it. Powerful and deeply affecting storytelling bringing us a new perspective on a famous story’ – Paterson Joseph

‘Sumptuous, immersive and bold, Costanza breathes life into a woman frozen in marble for three hundred years, finally giving her a chance to speak… Costanza is both a cathartic cry and a clarion call for justice for generations of forgotten women’ – Hesse Phillips

‘COSTANZA by Rachel Blackmore is a mesmerising, powerful tale of a young woman’s seeming rise to power and riches as the muse of a famous artist, only to come crashing down as his true nature is revealed.’ – Laura Shepperson

‘The substance, the textures the feel of the city was so immediate and immersive. It’s one of those historical novels that transports the reader straight to the time and place… A fabulous, evocative novel with plenty of food for thought.’ – Elizabeth Chadwick

‘I was mesmerised by COSTANZA, a searing, fierce tale of obsession, revenge, and resilience. Blackmore’s lush, sensuous prose evokes seventeenth-century Rome superbly, from its seamy underbelly to the glamourous Bernini circle. An unforgettable debut novel.’ – Naomi Kelsey

‘A shocking story… It is most persuasively written, obviously deeply felt and the detail is excellent. Quite apart from anything else, I will look at Bernini in a new light.’ – Elizabeth Buchan

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Jeanette Ashmole interviewed by Drama Quarterly

Drama Quarterly recently profiled our screenwriter client Jeanette Ashmole, exploring her unconventional journey from criminal barrister, police officer, and criminal investigator—with more than two decades of frontline legal experience—to TV legal consultant and now screenwriter.

Jeanette has quickly established herself as a trusted voice in TV, bringing a rare level of authenticity to the dramas she advises. Her credits include major productions for broadcasters such as ITV, Sky, and the BBC—among them are shows such as Grace, Jimmy McGovern’s acclaimed series Time and Unforgivable, as well as a recent adaptation of a Harlan Coben bestseller. Her legal and police background allows her to help with character development, story, and procedural detail with a precision that can only come from lived experience.

In the article talking about Jimmy McGovern’s ‘Time’, she explains: “I was involved right from the start to build all those character backgrounds and make sure it worked, as well as reading scripts, giving notes, and working with the costume department,” Jeanette explains.

Now, Jeanette is turning her knowledge and expertise into the creation of her own original projects, blending gripping storytelling with the same realism that has defined her consultancy work. She is represented by Julian Friedmann.

Read more about Jeanette and her unique career journey in Drama Quarterly’s article here.

Ivan Vladislavić longlisted for top South African prize for ‘cinematic, masterful’ portrait of Johannesburg, THE NEAR NORTH

We are delighted to announce that Ivan Vladislavić – one of South Africa’s foremost writers of both literary fiction and non-fiction – has once again been longlisted for South Africa’s prestigious Sunday Times Literary Awards, with his latest work THE NEAR NORTH recognised among the nominees for this year’s non-fiction award.

The non-fiction award honours ‘the illumination of truthfulness, especially those forms of it that are new, delicate, unfashionable and fly in the face of power’ through their ‘compassion, elegance of writing, and intellectual and moral integrity’. Ivan’s book THE NEAR NORTH is a vivid account of life in Johannesburg in times of crisis. From the stony ridges of Langermann Kop in Kensington to the tree-lined avenues of Houghton, the book invites the reader to follow Ivan through the city’s streets, meeting its ghosts and journeying through time and (often circumscribed) space, finding meaning in the everyday and incidental. The book was first published by Picador Africa in March 2024; an extract from the book, ‘A Faceless Compass’ was published in the Yale Review and is available to read online.

Ivan is a previous winner of both the non-fiction and fiction awards – the only writer to have claimed both to date – having triumphed in non-fiction for his ‘ingenious love letter’ (Geoff Dyer) to Johannesburg PORTRAIT WITH KEYS (SA: Umuzi; UK: Portobello Books) in 2007, and in fiction with his ‘imaginatively wild’ (Neel Mukherjee) novel THE RESTLESS SUPERMARKET (SA: Umuzi; UK: And Other Stories) in 2002.

Congratulations Ivan!

Photo: Minky Schlesinger

About Ivan Vladislavić

Ivan Vladislavić was born in Pretoria in 1957 and lives in Johannesburg. His books include the novels THE DISTANCE, THE RESTLESS SUPERMARKET, THE EXPLODED VIEW and DOUBLE NEGATIVE, and the story collections 101 DETECTIVES and FLASHBACK HOTEL. In 2006, he published PORTRAIT WITH KEYS, a sequence of documentary texts on Johannesburg. He has edited books on architecture and art, and sometimes works with artists and photographers. TJ/DOUBLE NEGATIVE, a joint project with photographer David Goldblatt, received the 2011 Kraszna-Krausz Award for best photography book.

His work has also won the Sunday Times Fiction Prize, the Alan Paton Award, the University of Johannesburg Prize and Yale University’s Windham-Campbell Prize for fiction. He is a Distinguished Professor in the Creative Writing Department at Wits University.

Praise for THE NEAR NORTH

‘Some of the most moving prose ever written about this former mining town…What a chronicle of a city in perpetual crisis.’ – Jacob Dlamini (author of ASKARI)

‘Ivan Vladislavić’s hand, not unlike that of Marlene Dumas, is unshaking as it paints silent, slow and highly vivid, almost cinematic, lines on the canvas of our shared Johannesburg… A masterful form of reportage of life spent seeing… feeling.’ – Bongani Madondo

‘A bewitching meditation. A raw, literary, and heart-felt ode to life in Johannesburg.’ – Andrew Harding

‘An elegant, gentle, bitter-sweet ramble through the streets of Johannesburg with the incomparable Vladislavić.’ – Jonny Steinberg

‘Ivan is one of South Africa’s best writers… the book is filled with exquisitely observed observations of Johannesburg in all its different moods and the different way people experience the different streets of Johannesburg: absolutely exquisite writing.’ – John Maytham, CapeTalk

‘THE NEAR NORTH has the febrile, hallucinatory feel of JG Ballard’s earlier apocalyptic novels, but tempered and made gentle by a Proustian attention to the ordinary that manages to make the book both paean and threnody.’ – Chris Roper, Daily Maverick

‘Vladislavić's helpless addiction to the inexhaustible variety of the ordinary reality is what makes his books so extraordinary. THE NEAR NORTH is a delightful addition to a substantial output.’ – Michiel Heyns (translated from Afrikaans)

‘There is sadness, rage, confusion and humour in the author’s responses to things but they come together in a reassuring gentle wisdom, an acceptance of things as they are, even as he wishes they could be different. There has been no waning of the author’s observational powers, and no waxing of the author’s ego. It’s a beautiful book. A true thing.’ – Karin Schimke

Praise for Ivan Vladislavić

‘Ivan Vladislavić occupies a place all of his own in the South African literary landscape: a versatile stylist and formal innovator whose work is nevertheless firmly rooted in contemporary urban life.’ – J.M. Coetzee

‘Mysterious, lyrical and wickedly funny… Ivan Vladislavić is one of the most significant writers working in English today. Everyone should read him.’ – Katie Kitamura

‘In a country obsessed with social realism, Vladislavic has always tried to find less obvious ways to approach the world.’ – Damon Galgut

‘Vladislavić's narrative intelligence is nowhere more visible than in his way with language itself… We enter incidents in medias res – as though they were piano études – and exit them before we have overstayed our welcome.’ – Teju Cole

‘Nothing short of a great contemporary writer, he pushes at form and content to make something strangely new and profound.’ – Neel Mukherjee

Visit Ivan's website.

Sheena Lambert won Best Irish Language Film at the Galway Film Fleadh July 2025

Dublin-based screenwriter, playwright and novelist Sheena Lambert has won the Best Irish Language Film award at the 2025 Galway Film Fleadh for her debut feature film BÁITE, which premiered at the festival in July.

Set in the fictional rural village of Glanaphuca in the late summer of 1975, BÁITE follows Peggy Casey as she struggles to preserve her family's pub and the unity of her family. The story takes a dark turn when a body is discovered in the receding waters of a local lake, drawing the attention of Dublin Detective Frank Ryan. As Ryan's investigation intensifies and uncomfortable questions mount, Peggy's carefully constructed world begins to collapse, threatening to transform the Glanaphuca community forever.

The film's success at one of Ireland's most prestigious film festivals marks a significant milestone for Lambert, who adapted the screenplay from her 2015 novel THE LAKE (HarperCollins). As an established Irish writer, she brings a deep understanding of character and place to her debut feature.

You can also find BÁITE in Mick Jordan’s list of top films of Galway Film Fleadh 2025 here.

Sheena Lambert is represented by Julian Friedmann for her books, screenplays and plays.

PASSIONTIDE by Monique Roffey nominated for the inaugural CARICON Prize for Caribbean Literature

PASSIONTIDE – the latest novel by Costa Prize winning author Monique Roffey (THE MERMAID OF BLACK CONCH) – was shortlisted for the very first CARICON Prize for Fiction, a new annual literary award honouring outstanding works by Caribbean authors and storytellers across the diaspora. The paperback edition of the book was published in the UK by Vintage in May, with an American paperback forthcoming from Knopf on 23 September 2025.

In their nomination statement, CARICON called PASSIONTIDE ‘a provocative tale of love, faith and rebellion,’ adding that ‘Roffey confronts the tension between institutional power and human desire, crafting a bold vision of resistance and liberation in a tightly controlled society.’

The awards were started to spotlight voices that explore the richness, complexity, and evolution of Caribbean identity and experience across four categories: Fiction, Poetry, Children’s Literature and Young Adult Literature. Also shortlisted for the Fiction award were VILLAGE WEAVERS by Myriam J.A. Chancey, A HOUSE FOR MISS PAULINE by Diana McCaulay, CASUALTIES OF TRUTH by Lauren Francis-Sharma and The Lost Love Songs of Boysie Singh by Ingrid Persaud.

Rights for PASSIONTIDE were acquired by Alex Russell, Editorial Director at Vintage (UK and Commonwealth) and John Freeman, Executive Editor at Alfred A. Knopf (US) with a French edition to be published by Memoire D’Encrier in 2027. Monique’s previous novel, THE MERMAID OF BLACK CONCH, was a worldwide success, winning the Costa Book of the Year Award 2020 and being nominated for the Goldsmiths Prize, Folio Prize, Republic of Consciousness Prize, OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, the Orwell Prize and the Ondaatje Prize. It has so far been translated into fourteen languages, and optioned for film.

Congratulations on this latest accolade, Monique!

About PASSIONTIDE

Early one morning, at the close of St Colibri’s carnival, a young female steel-pan player is found dead beneath a cannonball tree. It is a discovery that will transform the lives of everyone on this small island.

As the days pass, this shocking event draws together four women. There’s Sharleen, a journalist with an eye for the real story. Her childhood friend Tara, a pink-haired, straight-talking local activist. Gigi, the ‘notorious’ founder of the Port Isabella Sex Workers Collective. And Daisy, first lady of St Colibri, who is haunted by a disappearance in her own family decades ago.

In a community in which women’s voices are often silenced and violence against them is overlooked time after time, the group soon find themselves compelled to speak out – and to act. But even they could never have foreseen the consequences of their courage…

About Monique Roffey

Monique Roffey, FRSL, is an award-winning Trinidadian-born British writer of novels, essays, literary journalism and a memoir. THE MERMAID OF BLACK CONCH won the Costa Book of the Year Award 2020, and was nominated for eight other major awards. Her other Caribbean novels, THE WHITE WOMAN ON THE GREEN BICYCLE and HOUSE OF ASHES have also been nominated for awards. ARCHIPELAGO won the OCM Bocas Award for Caribbean Literature in 2013. Her work has been translated into many languages and adapted for screen. She was a co-founder of Writers Rebel within Extinction Rebellion and she is a member of the Hard Art collective. She is also a Professor of Contemporary Fiction at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Praise for PASSIONTIDE

‘Roffey is channelling a woman story so deep and old it feels foundational to who we are and can be.  Raw and beautiful and in your face, this novel is a liberating read.’ – Julia Alvarez

‘PASSIONTIDE is a bold rallying cry of a novel. Vital, enraging and brilliant. I loved it.’ – Sarah Winman

‘Beautiful and important… By the end of this book, I was ready to join the revolution.’ – Safiya Sinclair

‘PASSIONTIDE has scale, politics and power – a thrilling read, I loved it’ – Sadie Jones

‘The best book I have read in years. It’s so wonderful: so rich, inspiring, funny, moving. A true chronicle of hope, in sisterhood, community, faith and men’ – Rosie Boycott

‘The spirit of carnival itself is in the writing. A powerful and electrifying novel’ – Jason Allen-Paisant

‘A vital novel that addresses a grossly normalised horror – it’s also fiery, funny and ferociously feminist, written with a singular rhythm and style, a beautiful ease.’ – Diana Evans

‘A raging, searing protest cry… A heartfelt novel filled with solidarity, love, joy, and moreover, unflinching honesty.’ – Courttia Newland

‘Riveting… Guided by its intricately drawn characters and razor-sharp characterisation, the novel captivates readers from its opening pages to its compelling conclusion’ – Roger Robinson

‘Once again, and with a terrific, lively cast of police officers, hookers, politicians, mothers, young women, old women, even the dead – Roffey lures you into her mesmerising world and spins an intricate, human story you can't wait to unravel. Yes, let’s smash the patriarchy!’ – Amanda Smyth

‘Roffey’s world-building power is evident on every page… Taken as a whole, PASSIONTIDE offers a devastating critique of the interrelationship between religion, sexism and colonialism… a full-throated campaign for change.’ – Kit Fan, The Guardian

‘The larger-than-life characters and at times ribald humour turn what could be a polemic into an exhilarating fantasy… Roffey’s use of Trinidadian English gives the narrative authenticity, particularity and lyrical energy.’ – Lindsey Hilsum, Times Literary Supplement

‘A masterful exploration of love, identity, and the complexities of human relationships.’ – Chaya Colman & Sophie Ezra, Glamour Magazine, ‘Best new books of June 2024’

‘Suspense-filled and simmering with anger’ – Francesca Peacock, ‘The Best New Fiction’, Mail on Sunday

Praise for Monique Roffey

‘Monique Roffey is a unique talent and most daring and versatile of writers. I never know what to expect and I’m never disappointed.’ – Bernardine Evaristo

‘Monique Roffey is a writer of verve, vibrancy and compassion, and her work is always a joy to read.’ – Sarah Hall

‘Monique Roffey has established herself as a fearless writer with her choices of subject and her visceral style.’ – Kapka Kassabova, The Guardian