Stuart Urban’s ‘spellbinding and uniquely watchable’ THE SECRET hits the Netflix Top 10

THE SECRET – the BAFTA-nominated crime drama from writer/director Stuart Urban – has entered the weekly Netflix Top 10 for most-watched series in the UK.

Starring James Nesbitt (whose performance was nominated for Best Actor at the 2017 Royal Television Society awards) and Genevieve O’Reilly, THE SECRET is a chilling four-part series based on the events that occurred between 1991 and 2011, and the extreme actions taken by dentist Colin Howell and Sunday school teacher Hazel Buchanan to enable their illicit affair.

Originally broadcast on ITV in 2016 to critical acclaim, viewers on Netflix are re-discovering Stuart’s gripping series, and the dark true story behind it. The series won Best Drama at the 2016 Royal Television Society’s Northern Ireland awards, as well as garnering nominations for Best Miniseries at the BAFTAs and Best Drama Series at the Broadcast Awards in 2017.

About Stuart Urban

Stuart is an award-winning writer, director and executive producer who has worked across both film and TV for more than thirty years.

After honing his craft working on long-running series ‘The Bill’ and ‘Bergerac’, Stuart won the BAFTA Award for Best Single Drama in 1993 for his Falklands War drama AN UNGENTLEMANLY ACT. He would follow this up in 1996 with a second BAFTA Award for Best Drama Serial, for his directorial work on the BBC’s seminal series OUR FRIENDS IN THE NORTH.

His theatrical writer/director credits include PREACHING TO THE PERVERTED, REVELATION and MAY I KILL U? He is also a celebrated documentary maker, with the BIFA-nominated TOVARISCH, I AM NOT DEAD – telling the story of his own father’s escape from both the Russian Gulags and his family’s fate in the Holocaust – and the recent Sky crime documentary THE MYSTERY OF SUZY LAMPLUGH.

Praise for THE SECRET:

‘The real achievement of Stuart Urban’s superb script was in capturing the weird balance of religious devotion and sexual obsession that seemed to normalize the relationship in Howell and Buchanan’s minds… THE SECRET was masterly, an excellent reason to stay in on Friday nights to come’ – Gerard O’Donovan, The Daily Telegraph

‘Startling…. resembles a darkly comic Ulster version of ‘The Affair’, should give…ITV a hit for viewers who find ‘The Durrells’ too twee. Compelling …confirms (N Ireland) as a powerhouse of TV drama.’ – Mark Lawson, The Guardian

‘I can’t remember a better portrayal of suburban charm hiding suburban evil…it’s hard to create suspense when you already know the ending. But in this case...it was still a nailbiter.’ – Matt Rudd, The Sunday Times

‘A kind of Shakespearean drama of passion and repentance, really powerful and deep.’ – Rev. Richard Coles, Saturday Live on BBC Radio 4

‘A terrific dramatization…I have watched ahead and it only gets better…truly chilling…there being nothing quite so terrifying as a man convinced of his own righteousness.’ – Euan Ferguson, The Observer

‘Told with passion and power…the sort of tale we’ve seen many times before, yet what made THE SECRET so interesting was the way Stuart Urban’s smart script dealt with it… Urban sensitively depicted a close-knit community where religion was central.’ – Sarah Hughes, The i

‘Does a smooth job of making grueling events believable….that’s one of the best things in Stuart Urban’s script – a sense of how important religion, being part of “a flock” is….a calm morality tale.’ – Radio Times, Pick of the Day.

The Secret is astounding. Urban, Murphy, Nesbitt, O'Reilly are just absurdly good.

— Hugh Laurie (@hughlaurie) May 22, 2016

OXBLOOD by Tom Benn and CASE STUDY by Graeme Macrae Burnet longlisted for Gordon Burn Prize

We are delighted that OXBLOOD by Tom Benn and CASE STUDY by Graeme Macrae Burnet have been longlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize, selected by judges Jonathan Liew, Denise Mina, Stuart Maconie, Heather Phillipson and Chitra Ramaswamy.

Also longlisted are Free by Lea Ypi, Companion Piece by Ali Smith, Your Show by Ashley Hickson-Lovence, Scary Monsters by Michelle de Kretser, About A Son by David Whitehouse, Aftermath by Preti Taneja, Constructing a Nervous System by Margo Jefferson, Keeping the House by Tice Cin, The Perfect Golden Circle by Benjamin Myers and Wayward by Vashti Bunyan.

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.

The 2022 shortlist will be announced in August. The winner 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.

OXBLOOD by Tom Benn

‘One of the most powerful and urgent writers of our times.’ — David Peace      

‘Powerful and so beautifully written – like David Peace wrote Alan Warner’s The Sopranos and so lyrical, too.’ – Harriet Tyce     

‘Reading OXBLOOD is a compelling and deeply unsettling experience; this is a novel that glitters with the dark energy and lifeblood of its characters’ – Naomi Booth

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Wythenshawe, South Manchester. 1985.

The Dodds family once ruled Manchester’s underworld; now the men are dead, leaving three generations of women trapped in a house haunted by violence, harbouring an unregistered baby.

Matriarch Nedra presides over the household, which bustles with activity as she prepares the welcome feast for her grandson Kelly’s return from prison.

Her grieving daughter-in-law Carol is visited by both the welcome intimate ghost of her murdered lover, and by Mac, an ageing criminal enforcer, a man who may just offer her a real and possible future.

And then there is Jan—the teenage tearaway running as fast as she can from her mother, her grandmother and her own unnamed baby.

Over the course of a few days, the Dodds women must each confront the true legacy of the men who have defined their lives, and seize the opportunity to break the cycle for good.

A blistering portrait of a family on fire, Oxblood lays bare the horror of violence, the exile of grief and the extraordinary power of love.

About Tom Benn

Tom Benn is an author, screenwriter and lecturer from Stockport, England. His first novel, THE DOLL PRINCESS (Cape), was shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize and the Portico Prize, longlisted for the CWA’s John Creasey Dagger, and a The Daily Mirror Book of the Week. His other novels are CHAMBER MUSIC (Cape) and TROUBLE MAN (Cape). He won runner-up prize in the 2019 International Desperate Literature Prize for Short Fiction, and his creative nonfiction has appeared in The Paris Review Daily. He won the BFI’s iWrite scheme for emerging screenwriters. His first film, ‘Real Gods Require Blood’, premiered in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, and was nominated for Best Short Film at the BFI London Film Festival.

Follow Tom Benn on Twitter

CASE STUDY by Graeme Macrae Burnet

‘A novel of mind-bending brilliance.’ – Hannah Kent

‘A thrilling investigation into sanity and identity.’ – Alice O’Keeffe, The Bookseller

‘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

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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.

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.

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.

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.

Follow Graeme on Twitter

KAITE O’REILLY’S ‘richard iii redux’ TAKES TO THE STAGE IN MADRID

Sara Beer in ‘richard iii redux’. Image credit: Artezblai

Kaite O’Reilly and Phillip Zarrilli’s play ‘richardiii redux, or Sara Beer [is/not] richard iii’ – nominated for the 2018 James Tait Black Prize for Drama – has just finished its first international run, at the Teatro de la Comedia in Madrid.

The play, reflecting on Shakespeare’s representation of disability in his acclaimed historical tragedy, stars Sara Beer as the iconic machiavel. According to Kaite, ‘our piece interrogates, satirises and subverts Shakespeare's attitude towards physical difference through a parallel contemporary story: a bogus autobiography of performer Sara Beer, who had the same form of scoliosis. Through irreverent references, we break down the construction of the “twisted body, twisted mind” stereotype of Richard III as evil incarnate – and we do it with laughter and moments of playfulness and absurdity.’

Praise for ‘richard iii redux’:

‘richard iii redux or Sara Beer [is/not] richard iii is a bold, informative, occasionally traumatic, and irreverently amusing 70 minutes of theatre.’ – Othniel Smith, British Theatre Guide

‘Richard III Redux is an insightful piece of disability art, mixing demonstrably excellent work by disabled people with biting social comment. More than this, it lets us into a new Richard, one free of disabling barriers. But rather than talking about it, my best advice is go and see it. You won’t regret it.’ – Chris Tally Evans, Disability Arts Online

‘Sara Beer and Kaite O’Reilly’s approach to Richard III is certainly unique… It is a brave piece, and one that demonstrates how Shakespeare’s work can be actualised without being fit into a mold it doesn’t belong in. All in all, the show managed to give a layered interpretation of an iconic character by approaching it from an angle that, while often visited in the past, has never been entirely in the spotlight. It is an excellent, immersive experience that is sure to leave its audience thinking well after its conclusion.’ – Chiara Strazzulla, Arts Scene in Wales

Seen in a shop window in Madrid: bag with ‘Quit drama - you’re not Shakespeare’ which may be frighteningly apt as we’re here ⁦@TEATROCLASICO⁩ with #richardiiiredux - a crip’ response to The bard monstering & othering atypical bodies…. pic.twitter.com/bp4kyca7qo

— Kaite O'Reilly (@kaiteoreilly) June 12, 2022

Joseph O’Connor wins the 2022 AWB Vincent American Ireland Fund Literary Award

Joseph O’Connor and Caitríona Fottrell (CEO of the American Ireland Fund)

We are thrilled to announce that Joseph O’Connor has been awarded the 2022 AWB Vincent American Ireland Fund Literary Award.

The AWB Vincent American Ireland Fund Literary Award is one of Ireland’s most illustrious literary prizes, with past recipients of the award including Seamus Heaney, Edna O’Brien, Michael Longley, William Trevor, Colm Toibin and Eavan Boland. It is given each year to a ‘promising or established writer in Ireland who best reflects the great Irish literary tradition’ and is named in honour of Mr. AWB Vincent who was one of the founders of the American Ireland Fund and who initiated the award in 1972. The winner receives a cash prize of $25,000 and this year’s prize was presented at a private reception in Killarney, County Kerry on 16 June 2022 during the annual Worldwide Ireland Funds conference.

Caitriona Fottrell, President and CEO of The Ireland Funds, said: ‘We would like to congratulate Joseph O’Connor on his significant contribution to the Irish and international literary landscapes. This award is truly deserved and is a testament to Joseph’s talent, creativity, and hard work. He now shares The Ireland Funds AWB Vincent Literary Award with some of the titans of Irish literature.’

Joseph O’Connor said: ‘Forty years ago, at the age of 17, inspired by many of the great writers who have received this award, I began to write fiction and to dream I might one day have a novel published. To be now invited into a group that includes the lighthouses of my early teens, is a humbling honour and a blessing. I am profoundly grateful to The Ireland Funds for this extraordinarily generous act of support and for all it has done, and continues to do, for the arts, culture, and education in Ireland.’

Joseph O’Connor is the author of many novels, collections of short stories, and bestselling works of non-fiction. He has also written film scripts and radio and stage-plays. STAR OF THE SEA (2002) was an international bestseller, selling more than a million copies and being published in 38 languages. His most recent novel, SHADOWPLAY (2019), has won him extraordinary praise and won Novel of the Year at the An Post Irish Book Awards. It was also shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize, The Dalkey Novel Prize and the Costa Novel Prize, among others. The French edition was shortlisted for the Jean Monnet Prize and the Vintage paperback was a Richard and Judy Winter 2020 pick. Joseph’s upcoming novel, MY FATHER’S HOUSE, will be published in January 2023.

The Ireland Funds is a global philanthropic network established in 1976 to promote and support peace, culture, education and community development throughout the island of Ireland, and Irish-related causes around the world. With chapters in 12 countries, The Ireland Funds has raised over $600 million for deserving causes in Ireland and beyond, benefiting more than 3,200 different organisations with both financial and non-financial support.

Praise for Joseph O’Connor:

‘A masterful storyteller.’ — Neel Mukherjee, The Times

‘Joseph O'Connor has the magic touch, he brings whole eras alive.’ — Colum McCann

‘A great writer performing Olympian literary storytelling.’ — Sir Bob Geldof

'Like Joyce, O'Connor combines his panoramic range with a close eye to the grain and texture of the phrase ... An astonishingly accomplished writer.'  — Terry Eagleton, The Guardian

‘Ireland’s greatest storyteller.’ — The Sunday Independent

‘One of the best writers working today.’ — Alice Walker

About Joseph O’Connor

Joseph O’Connor was born in Dublin, where he still lives. 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.

Visit Joseph O’Connor’s website

THE LAST THING TO BURN by Will Dean makes 2022 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award shortlist

 Will Dean’s highly acclaimed thriller, THE LAST THING TO BURN, has been shortlisted for the 2022 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award.

The Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award is one of the UK’s most prestigious crime-fiction awards, with its annual winner announced in a prize ceremony at the Harrogate Crime Festival. Members of the public can now vote for their favourite crime novel over at https://harrogatetheakstoncrimeaward.com/. Voting closes on Friday 8th July, with this year’s winner announced on the 21st of July.

The other shortlisted titles are: THE NIGHT HAWKS by Elly Griffiths, SLOUGH HOUSE by Mick Herron, MIDNIGHT AT MALADAR HOUSE by Vaseem Khan, TRUE CRIME STORY by Joseph Knox, and DAUGHTERS OF NIGHT by Laura Shepherd-Robinson. None of the shortlisted authors have ever won this coveted prize before, making this year’s competition even more exciting.

The prize’s executive director Simon Theakston said: ‘What a fantastic shortlist, six thrilling tales which deliver shocking twists and unforgettable characters! We raise a glass of Theakston Old Peculier to all of the shortlistees and look forward to revealing the winner in July as we kick off the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival.’

Sharon Canavar, chief executive of Harrogate International Festivals, added: ‘We are delighted to announce this year’s Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year shortlist, featuring six novels by some of the most exciting crime writers working today. Whisking readers around the world and through time, this shortlist is a fantastic demonstration of the variety to be found in crime fiction. The public have a tough task ahead choosing just one winner and we can’t wait to see who they vote for.’

THE LAST THING TO BURN is an extraordinary story of resilience and determination in the most horrific of circumstances. As well as winning praise from both readers and reviewers, THE LAST THING TO BURN has been longlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger and the Goldsboro Books Glass Bell Award, and was voted International Book of the Year by the Rick O’Shea Book Club.  It was first published by Hodder Books in January 2021 and is now available to buy in paperback.

Will’s most recent standalone, FIRST BORN, was published by Hodder on the 14th of April 2022. He is also the author of the Tuva Moodyson Mysteries, a crime series set in Sweden and published by Oneworld. The fifth instalment of the series, WOLF PACK, will be published in the Autumn.

Praise for THE LAST THING TO BURN:

‘This is a brilliant, chilling depiction of life on the very edges of society. I read it in one sitting, and lived every second of the book with the characters. Compelling, horrifying and gripping, and written with such empathy and control, it's probably the best thing I will read this year’ — Jane Casey

‘MISERY meets ROOM ... a triumph’ — Marian Keyes

‘Ratchets up the tension to the point where I had to check my pulse’ — Liz Nugent

‘Brilliantly written... Terrifying’ — Ruth Ware

‘Outstanding. The best thriller in years’ — Martina Cole

Credit: Rosalind Hobley

‘THE LAST THING TO BURN is one of the best thrillers I have read in years: I consumed it in great gulps, desperate to find out how Thanh Dao’s story played out, and then read it again, more slowly, savouring her courage and her unvanquished sense of self, despite everything.’ — Alison Flood, The Observer

About Will Dean:

Will Dean grew up in the East Midlands, living in nine different villages before the age of eighteen. After studying law at the LSE, and working many varied jobs in London, he settled in rural Sweden with his wife. He built a wooden house in a boggy forest clearing and it's from this base that he compulsively reads and writes.

Follow Will on Twitter and Instagram, and visit his YouTube channel.