Nick Brown’s Cold War thriller ANGEL THREE begins shooting in Ontario

Credit: Anita Doran - @electrospirit - on Instagram

ANGEL THREE – novelist Nick Brown’s first screenwriting credit – has this week started filming in Ontario, Canada. The production will be overseen by director Anita Doron, the writer of the Oscar-nominated animated film The Breadwinner.

Starring Nahéma Ricci (Antigone), ANGEL THREE is a thriller set in 1987 Berlin – a divided and dangerous city – and follows an agent who must cross city lines in order to deliver a crucial witness and a priceless document to safety in the west.

The film is being produced by Bunk 11 Pictures and Genco Pictures, and will be released in 2023.

About Nick Brown

Nick Brown found initial success with his Agent of Rome novels. Described by The Times as 'gripping', the critically acclaimed series has now reached six volumes and has been translated into Spanish and Dutch. 

Now working as a freelance writer, Nick has 'ghosted' a number of screenplays in a variety of genres, from science fiction to family drama. Several of his own scripts have been optioned, with ANGEL THREE the first to enter production.

Nick’s screenwriting is represented by Julian Friedmann.

Graeme Macrae Burnet’s CASE STUDY shortlisted for Ned Kelly Award

CASE STUDY by Graeme Macrae Burnet has been shortlisted for the 2022 Ned Kelly Award for Best International Crime Fiction.

The Ned Kelly Awards were established in 1996 by the Crime Writers Association of Australia to reward excellence in the field of crime writing, making them one of Australia’s oldest and most prestigious prizes to honour the genre.

The other titles on this year’s ‘Best International Crime Fiction’ shortlist are: THE HERON’S CRY by Ann Cleeves, THE MAID by Nita Prose and CRY WOLF by Hans Rosenfeldt.

CASE STUDY was published in paperback in the UK by Saraband Books on 14 April 2022 and 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. It has also been longlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize 2022. It was published by Text in Australia in October 2021 and a deal for North American rights is being concluded, with translation rights sold in nine territories.

The winners of the Ned Kelly Awards will be announced in August.

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

*

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

Joseph O’Connor returns with the Rome Escape Line trilogy

We’re thrilled that Harvill Secker will be publishing an extraordinary trilogy of literary thrillers set in Rome during the final, tumultuous years of World War II, by the bestselling author of SHADOWPLAY and STAR OF THE SEA, Joseph O’Connor. Liz Foley, Publishing Director at Harvill Secker, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights (excluding Canada) in all three novels and has been joined by Europa’s Editor-in-Chief Michael Reynolds, who has also acquired the three titles for publication in the US and Canada.

My FATHER’S HOUSE, the first title in the Rome Escape Line trilogy, is inspired by the true story of Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty, an Irish priest assigned to the Vatican who, together with a group of unlikely accomplices, risked his life to smuggle Jews and escaped Allied prisoners out of Italy right under the nose of his Nazi nemesis, Gestapo officer Paul Hauptmann. The further titles will take two other characters in the Escape Line group as their focus, as they face their own challenges in the fight to save others in dangerous times.

MY FATHER’S HOUSE will be published by Harvill Secker and Europa in January 2023. Rights are also already sold in France, Italy and Sweden.

Based on an extraordinary true story, MY FATHER'S HOUSE is a powerful literary thriller from a master of historical fiction. Joseph O'Connor has created an unforgettable novel of love, faith and sacrifice, and what it means to be truly human in the most extreme circumstances.

Joseph O’Connor said: ‘I am absolutely thrilled and excited that MY FATHER’S HOUSE will be published by Harvill Secker and Europa. Working on the book with editor Liz Foley has been a joy, and I deeply admire the skill and professionalism of the whole Harvill / PRH team. It is also such a great pleasure to be published by Michael Reynolds at Europa, where the passion for excellence is so strong. This novel means a lot to me and I couldn't imagine it in better hands as it sets out to meet its readers on both sides of the Atlantic.’ 

Liz Foley, Harvill Secker said:  'MY FATHER'S HOUSE is a moving and masterful literary thriller – quite extraordinary in being a beautiful read and also intensely gripping. We can’t wait to bring readers to the wartime Rome Joe so brilliantly conjures and introduce them to the Escape Line.’

Michael Reynolds, Europa, said: ‘Joe’s ability to render character and atmosphere, to create a fully realized world in his novels is unparalleled. He writes each member of his cast of characters with remarkable vividness and conveys just what is at stake in their actions—not only the lives of the people they help but the future political and moral bearings of a world riven by war. MY FATHER’S HOUSE is epic in scope, gripping, beautifully written, and it is an important book because of the questions it raises about how one ought to act. The publication of MY FATHER’S HOUSE will be a big event at Europa, and the excitement in-house is already palpable.’

Isobel Dixon said: ‘MY FATHER’S HOUSE is an extraordinary true story, conjured into an unforgettable novel, one that delivers nail-biting tension along with scenes of great beauty and heartbreaking tenderness. There is such excitement around this very special book, and I know that excitement will spread from Joe’s publishers to many more readers – and we are all thrilled that there is more to come from Joe’s magnificent characters as well.’

 About Joseph O’Connor

Joseph O'Connor was born in Dublin. His most recent novel, SHADOWPLAY, won Eason Novel of the Year at the An Post Irish Book Awards 2019 and in 2020 was shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award, Novel of the Year at the Dalkey Literary Awards, the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award, the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction and the Jean Monnet Prize. In 2022, he was awarded the AWB Vincent American Ireland Fund Award for his contribution to Irish literature.

Joseph is the author of eight other novels: COWBOYS AND INDIANS (Whitbread Prize shortlist), DESPERADOES, THE SALESMAN, INISHOWEN, STAR OF THE SEA (American Library Association Award, Irish Post Award for Fiction, France's Prix Millepages, Italy's Premio Acerbi, Prix Madeleine Zepter for European novel of the year), REDEMPTION FALLS, GHOST LIGHT (Dublin One City One Book Novel 2011) and THE THRILL OF IT ALL. His fiction has been translated into forty languages. He received the 2012 Irish PEN Award for outstanding achievement in literature and in 2014 he was appointed Frank McCourt Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Limerick.

Praise for Joseph O’Connor and SHADOWPLAY

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

‘Joseph O’Connor’s magnificent novel does even more than fly, it soars.’ — Michael Dirda, The Washington Post

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

‘Breathtaking … SHADOWPLAY is a book undaunted. … As much as this is a hugely entertaining book about the grand scope of friendship and love, it is also, movingly – at times, agonisingly – a story of transience, loss and true loyalty.’ Sadie Jones, The Guardian

‘A vibrantly imaginative narrative of passion, intrigue and literary ambition’ — Miranda Seymour, New York Times

'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

‘Subtly drawn and intensely affecting… Mr. O’Connor’s main characters—Stoker, Irving and the beloved actress Ellen Terry—are so forcefully brought to life that when, close to tears, you reach this drama’s final page, you will return to the beginning just to remain in their company.’ — Anna Mundow, Wall Street Journal

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

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.