Transworld have renewed their subscription to C. K. McDonnell’s outrageously entertaining and award-winning comic fantasy series, The Stranger Times with Simon Taylor acquiring world English rights in three more novels from Ed Wilson at Johnson & Alcock, beginning with Relight My Fire coming in Bantam hardcover in January 2024.
Taylor pitches the series – centred around the misfits and ne’er-do-wells who work at a struggling Manchester-based weekly newspaper dedicated to investigating the weird, the unexplained and the inexplicable – as ‘the Fortean Times reading love-child of Ben Aaronovitch and Terry Pratchett – it’s smart, irreverent and, frankly, bloody funny, and the same could be said about its author! Caimh is not only a terrific talent but also one of the most engaged, committed, hard-working and fun authors a publisher could wish for’.
With three novels already published, The Stranger Times series has proved hugely popular, winning fans throughout the UK and Ireland. It recently won Best Audio at the British Fantasy Awards, in acknowledgement of the much-admired audiobooks and spin-off podcast series, featuring stories narrated by Caimh’s former cellmates from the comedy circuit. The series is a bestseller in Germany, where Eichborn have acquired the three new novels from Hélène Butler, Head of Rights at J&A. Caimh now has an eager readership in other foreign territories including Spain, Turkey, Ukraine, and across Eastern Europe.
Caimh McDonnell said: ‘I’m delighted to be teaming up with the lovely people at Transworld to bring more of The Stranger Times to an unsuspecting world. Three books in and it feels like I’ve barely scratched the surface. Plus, it’s either keep doing this or get a real job, and my dogs don’t like it when I leave the house.’
Ed Wilson said: ‘In these turbulent times for print media, we’re delighted that Transworld are supporting the spunky northern newspaper The Stranger Times for another three outings. Whether you know him as Caimh or CK McDonnell, he is one of the funniest writers around and his fans (readers and listeners) cannot get enough of his books. Relight My Fire is a stunning fourth instalment in the series, and we’re hopeful he can get books 5 and 6 out before the coming apocalypse.’
