Charles Lambert’s novel PRODIGAL, published by Gallic Books in August 2018, has been shortlisted for the Polari Prize 2019. The prize honours writers “whose work explores the LGBT experience, whether in poetry, prose, fiction, or nonfiction”. While there has previously been a Polari First Book Prize, this year is the first time that there will be an award given to an established writer also. The winner will be announced 22 October 2019 at the Southbank Centre’s London Literature Festival, in an event headlined by Tracey Thorn.
VG Lee, author and one of the judges of the prize, said: “Six very different and exciting voices make up the shortlist for The Polari Prize, taking us from the English countryside to Soviet Russia and Post 9/11 New York, a Brighton garden to music-making in Berwick-on-Tweed, and a teenage rites of passage towards selfhood. Any one of these books is a potential winner because each is perfect in its own right.”
PRODIGAL is a fearless, elegantly written exploration of family, trust, death, and what we do to one another in the name of love, told within the wider context of a beautiful yet troubling, queer coming-of-age tale.
Jeremy, a hapless man in his late 50s, scrapes together a living in Paris by writing soft-core pornography under the saucy guise of ‘Nathalie Cray’. When his all-but-estranged sister tells him their father is on his deathbed, Jeremy reluctantly travels back to his parental home in the depths of the English countryside.
Confronted with a life that he had always been eager to escape, his return marks the start of an emotionally fraught journey into the family’s chequered past. The journey takes him back to the unexpected death of his mother in a provincial Greek hospital years earlier and, further back, to the moment at which the Eldritch family fell apart.
It’s a journey composed of revelations, of secrets disclosed and not disclosed, and of something that might, or might not, be reconciliation...
Read a Q&A with Charles on PRODIGAL here.
Last year Charles’s novel THE CHILDREN’S HOME was included in a New York Times list of 13 Haunted Books to read before watching THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE.
Born in England, Charles lives in Fondi, near Rome, working as a university teacher and freelance editor. His first novel, LITTLE MONSTERS, a Good Housekeeping selection, was published in 2008 by Picador, the same year as THE SCENT OF CINNAMON AND OTHER STORIES (Salt Publishing), the title story of which was an O. Henry Prize winner. His second novel, ANY HUMAN FACE (Picador), was described by the Telegraph as 'a slow-burning, beautifully written crime story that brings to life the Rome that tourists don't see - luckily for them.'
In 2014, Charles’s experimental autobiography WITH A ZERO AT ITS HEART (The Friday Project) was one of the Guardian's top ten books of that year. THE CHILDREN’S HOME, a dystopic story of a haunted house, was published in 2016 to widespread praise, followed by TWO DARK TALES, in 2017, both by Gallic Books.
Praise for Charles Lambert
‘Charles Lambert writes as if his life depends on it. He takes risks at every turn.’ — Hannah Tinti
‘Charles Lambert is a seriously good writer.' — Dame Beryl Bainbridge
‘Compelling reading.’ — Patricia Duncker
‘Charles Lambert is a terrific, devious storyteller.’ — Owen King
Praise for THE CHILDREN’S HOME
‘A thoroughly original entry into the tradition of ghost stories, eschewing convention …compulsively readable…A one-of-a-kind literary horror story.’ – Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review
‘Lambert carefully constructs the restricted sphere that Fletcher inhabits, leaving the chaotic larger world and the source of his family fortune largely a mystery. After slowly unfolding Fletcher’s story, Lambert then accelerates the pace to a breathtaking climax. THE CHILDREN’S HOME is a magical, mesmerizing tale about the courage it takes to confront the unknown.’ – Booklist, Starred Review
‘THE CHILDREN’S HOME is like a strange dream in which you can’t quite tell if you’re awake…The resulting story is a weird, poignant journey reminiscent of Calvino that explores fear, power, revenge and redemption. Lambert’s story is addictive … its potent, often brutal, images have a lasting power.’ – Sheri Bodoh, BookPage
Visit Charles’ blog
You can also follow Charles on Twitter.
WILL CARVER, EDWARD CAREY AND WILL DEAN SHORTLISTED FOR THE CAPITAL CRIME AMAZON PUBLISHING READERS’ AWARDS 2019
We are thrilled to announce that three Blake Friedmann authors have been shortlisted for the Capital Crime Amazon Publishing Readers Awards 2019. LITTLE by Edward Carey (Aardvark Bureau, 2018), RED SNOW by Will Dean (Point Blank, 2019) and GOOD SAMARITANS by Will Carver (Orenda Books, 2018) have all been shortlisted for the Independent Voice award.
Capital Crime festival pass holders will be able to vote for the winner in each category from today until 19 September 2019. Winners will be announced at the Capital Crime festival in London on 28 September 2019.
The first book in Will Dean’s Tuva Moodysoon series, DARK PINES, was selected for the Zoe Ball Book Club and shortlisted for The Guardian Not The Booker Prize.
Praise for RED SNOW:
'A complex plot, suffused with the nightmarish quality of Twin Peaks, and a tough-minded, resourceful protagonist add up to a stand-out read.' — The Guardian
‘Dean masterfully ramps up the tension and claustrophobia throughout the story’s sinister series of events before delivering an unexpected and satisfying finale. Tuva is a wonderful creation and Dean’s series is not to be missed.’ — Daily Express
‘It's great. You get snow, ice, Swedishness, murder and liquorice!’ – Marian Keyes
Will Carver’s GOOD SAMARITANS was selected as a Book of the Year in The Guardian, The Telegraph and The Daily Express.
Praise for GOOD SAMARITANS:
‘An unsettling but compelling mixture of the banal, the horrific and, at times, the near-comic, wrong-footing the reader at every turn.’ — The Guardian, The Best Recent Crime Novels
‘I read a lot of novels about homicidal mania and this one made most of the others seem as reassuringly cosy as my favourite slippers. A bleak vision of life - true enough to impart the reader with the thrill of genuine discomfort presented with the chilly conviction of Simenon’s most unflinching romans durs and just as horribly addictive.' — The Telegraph
‘If you like you comedy pitch black and your thrillers more than a little bit twisted, you’ll love it… So dark, so cool.’ — Heat
Edward Carey’s LITTLE was longlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize 2019, the RSL Ondaatje Prize, the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2019, and the HWA Historia Gold Crown 2019. It was also chosen as a Times Historical Book of the Month and a Waterstones Booksellers Favourite.
Praise for LITTLE:
‘Carey, an artist and playwright who has worked at Madame Tussauds in London, has turned his experience into a startlingly original novel. He finds and treasures the ironies and macabre eccentricities of Tussaud’s world. The pages are also enriched by his beautiful and haunting illustrations of body parts and anatomical models’ – The Times
‘Edward Carey’s Gothic tale is a wry meditation on a state between life and death . . . A rattling narrative is fleshed out with visceral detail and illustrations by the author . . . it is both clever and intriguing’ — Daily Mail
‘Don’t miss this eccentric charmer’ — Margaret Atwood
Visit Edward Carey's Website here
Follow Edward on Twitter here
ABSOLUTE PROOF BY PETER JAMES CHOSEN AS A SUMMER READ IN THE LATEST RICHARD AND JUDY BOOK CLUB
Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan yesterday launched their latest Book Club summer selections, exclusive to WH Smith. We are delighted to announce that Peter James’s striking international thriller ABSOLUTE PROOF is one of Richard and Judy’s picks this Summer. Judy describes ABSOLUTE PROOF as ‘fascinating and often funny... Thought-provoking, thrilling, funny and challenging…Peter James’s most ambitious novel yet.’ A Number One bestseller in hardback earlier this year, ABSOLUTE PROOF is out in paperback from Pan Macmillan this week.
The Richard and Judy Book Club launches with another series of podcasts, providing a fantastic introduction to all the featured titles as well as an exclusive interview with each of the authors. WH Smith customers can enjoy exclusive special editions of the Book Club titles filled with added bonus content, including book club discussion points, author Q&As and more recommended reads.
Investigative reporter Ross Hunter nearly didn’t answer the phone call that would change his life – and possibly the world – for ever.
‘I’d just like to assure you I’m not a nutcase, Mr Hunter. My name is Dr Harry F. Cook. I know this is going to sound strange, but I’ve recently been given absolute proof of God’s existence – and I’ve been advised there is a writer, a respected journalist called Ross Hunter, who could help me to get taken seriously.’
What would it take to prove the existence of God? And what would be the consequences? This question and its answer lie at the heart of ABSOLUTE PROOF, an international thriller from bestselling author Peter James.
The false faith of a billionaire evangelist, the life’s work of a famous atheist, and the credibility of each of the world’s major religions are all under threat. If Ross Hunter can survive long enough to present the evidence…
Peter James is the international bestselling author of many award-winning novels. His Detective Superintendent Roy Grace series, set in Brighton – translated into thirty-seven languages with worldwide sales of over twenty million copies – has given him fourteen consecutive Sunday Times Number Ones. In 2015 WH Smith customers voted him the Greatest Crime Author of All Time and in 2016 he was awarded the coveted CWA Diamond Dagger, a lifetime achievement award for sustained excellence. In 2018 he received a Specsavers Honorary Platinum Bestseller Award.
The audiobook of ABSOLUTE PROOF, read by Hugh Bonneville, was shortlisted for a Specsavers National Book Award.
Praise for Peter James
‘Peter James is one of the best crime writers in the business’ – Karin Slaughter
‘Probably the closest we’ll get to a British Stephen King’ – The Financial Times
‘Peter James is one of the most fiendishly clever crime fiction plotters’ – The Daily Mail
‘In my thirty-four years of policing, never have I come across a writer who so accurately depicts “The Job“’ – Detective Investigator Pat Lanigan, Office of the District Attorney, NYPD
Praise for ABSOLUTE PROOF
'Sensational – the best what-if thriller since The Da Vinci Code' – Lee Child
‘Peter James is the thinking man's Dan Brown.' — Barry Forshaw, Radio 5 Live
‘ABSOLUTE PROOF is a thriller that grips from the outset but it’s also incredibly thought-provoking, asking some of life’s biggest questions about science and faith, setting big pharma and high church on a collision course that could change the world. I was thrilled when Peter asked me to provide the narration for his latest, most compelling book.’ – Hugh Bonneville
'With ABSOLUTE PROOF, the King of Crime is now a miracle worker.' – Jon Coates, Sunday Express
‘We are in Dan Brown blockbuster territory, but both atheists and believers will find food for thought in this globe-trotting epic.' – Barry Forshaw, Guardian
Visit the official Peter James website.
Follow Peter James on Twitter.
Follow Peter James on Instagram.
Kaite O'Reilly Shortlisted for the James Tait Black Prize
richard III redux [OR] Sara Beer [is/not] Richard III by Kaite O’Reilly has been shortlisted to win £10,000 in the reputable James Tait Black Prize at the Edinburgh Fringe. The play was written with Phillip B Zarrilli and produced by The Llanarth Group. The play was part of a three-piece shortlist, selected from 80 worldwide submissions.
The play is a riotous one-woman piece promoting inclusivity in the arts and written from a radical disability perspective. It challenges Shakespeare’s representation of the disabled monarch and the creation of ‘the twisted body/twisted mind’ trope, satirising the non-disabled actors who have ‘cripped up’ to play the part in the past.
You can book tickets to the awards ceremony in Edinburgh here.
Headline to publish LOVE IN COLOUR, a collection of representative love stories by Bolu Babalola
Headline Publishing Group has announced the acquisition of LOVE IN COLOUR by debut author, Bolu Babalola, that will be publishing in hardback in April 2020. Katie Packer, Assistant Editor, acquired world rights to the creative partnership project from Hattie Grunewald of Blake Friedmann, whilst Juliet Pickering is on maternity leave.
LOVE IN COLOUR is a collection of representative love stories from mythology and history, retold by the wonderful Bolu Babalola. From magical Nigerian folktales, to homoromantic Greek myths, to the ancient stories of South Asia, Bolu brings new life to tales that truly show the vibrance and colours of love around the world.
The anthology is a step towards decolonising tropes of love, and celebrates in the wildly beautiful and astonishingly diverse tales of romance and desire that already exist in various cultures and communities.
Bolu Babalola is an incredibly talented London-based writer who, in 2016, was shortlisted in 4thEstate's B4ME competition for her short story 'Netflix & Chill', a hilarious teen romance. Whilst writing scripts for TV and film, she also works as a TV and Culture columnist for Dazed.
Katie Packer said: ‘I am so unbelievably excited that this spark of an idea has grown into a fully fledged book. There are so many incredible love stories out there, full of magic and mystery, and Bolu Babalola is the perfect person to breathe life back into them.’
Bolu Babalola said: ‘It's a privilege and honour to be able to re-work these beautiful tales of romance and magic from around our world for our times. Love binds humanity, strengthens and propels and in re-telling and amplifying these stories I hope I can help shine light on how humanity - like love - comes in technicolour.’