Honno Press

17/07/2025

Good luck to Stevie Davies! The Welsh Book of the Year awards are announced tonight and Stevie is nominated in the fiction category for the riveting Earthly Creatures, an epic historical novel set in 1940s Germany.

10/07/2025

Massive congratulations to Alison Layland on the publication of AFTER THE CLEARANCES today, a bold cli-fi tale of loyalty, resistance and survival.

Pick up the book from your local bookshop or through our bio link.

2056: On a remote island ravaged by storms, a community of exiles, the Seeders, fight to preserve a fragile, self-sufficient way of life. When Sandy arrives from the mainland bearing secrets, Glesni is forced to confront long-hidden truths about her
people.

Far away in the wild hills, Bela lives by her own rules, fierce, and unyielding. But
when she encounters Winter, a fugitive from a shadowy government programme, their
unlikely bond leads them back to the Seeders and a reckoning with the myths that
bind them all.

Rooted in Welsh history and the rhythms of its language and landscape, After the
Clearances is an evocative, hope-filled story of resilience and what it means to belong
in the ruins of what came before.

“After the Clearances follows a community of remote islanders caught up in the
relentless consequences of climate change and harsh authoritarian repression. This is
a bold novel brimming with ideas. Prepare to be provoked.”
Martine Bailey, The Almanack

‘Profoundly atmospheric and affecting - Alison Layland is a very fine writer indeed.’ Philip Gwynne Jones

-fi

03/07/2025

After the Clearances by Alison Layland is published a week today and we have a teaser trailer: https://youtu.be/2y2NMDZEh-8

A bold cli-fi tale of loyalty, resistance and survival. Watch the video to find out more.

Video shared with thanks to creator Trina Layland.

An atmospheric book trailer for the novel After the Clearances by Alison Layland.Buy the book here: https://linktr.ee/AlisonLaylandSee more at https://alayla...

01/07/2025

Ursula is making her way northwards and on Thursday 21st July she will be for a Q&A. Tickets can be booked via here: https://www.anewleafbookshop.co.uk/events/lesleymcevoy-ef6jk

01/07/2025

Thank you Rosy Adams and Folding Rock for this thoughtful review of Alison Layland's upcoming cli-fi novel After the Clearances, out July 10th. Read the full article here: https://foldingrock.com/review-after-the-clearances/

New review on our website: Rosy Adams on Alison Layland's upcoming cli-fi novel with Honno Press , 'After the Clearances.'

Set in the near-future on a fictional island off the coast of Wales, the narrative is split between four characters and studded throughout with fragments of news articles and pieces of the manifesto of the Seeders - the self-sufficient inhabitants of the fictional Yns Hudol.

Find out why Rosy had to make herself slow down to take the story in, the 'pervasive sense of linguistic instability', and above all about the hopefulness of the story at: https://foldingrock.com/review-after-the-clearances/

30/06/2025

Sophie Calon's Long Going is a LoveReading Recommends Staff Pick this week:

"Underpinned by a desire to share the author’s insights into addiction, grief and breaking addiction, Long Going is raw, tender and tremendously readable."

Thanks to Joanne Owen for the pick.

Read more about Sophie's "beautifully written" debut here: https://www.lovereading.co.uk/book/9781916821248/isbn/Long-Going-by-Sophie-Calon.html

From epic historical fantasy to gorgeously sunshiny reads via zig zagging journeys on UK trains.

Click to browse and shop this week's Staff Picks:
https://www.lovereading.co.uk/genres/lrwks/weekly-staff-picks

Slow Trains Around Britain by Tom Chesshyre, Summersdale Publishers
Hard Copy by Fien Veldman, Apollo, Head of Zeus Books
Secrets of the Bees by Jane Johnson, Apollo
Long Going by Sophie Calon, Honno Press
Six Wild Crowns by Holly Race, Orbit Books UK
Eddie Winston Is Looking for Love by Marianne Cronin, Penguin Books

19/06/2025

Huge congratulations to debut author Sophie Calon on the publication of LONG GOING, a deeply personal and incredibly moving memoir about the impact of addiction on a person and their family.

Pick up the book from your local bookshop or through our bio link.

At 50, Sophie Calon’s father was a high-flying lawyer. At 55, he was found dead in Cardiff city centre at Christmas. Meanwhile he had pinballed between tents, homeless shelters, and prison cells. Told through the eyes of his eldest child, Long Going is a lesson in how alcoholism can consume a person – and a family. This searingly honest memoir compiles Calon’s witty and vivacious narrative with letters and messages from her father, mother, and siblings, drawing readers through the family’s struggle as Calon tries to make sense of her father’s addiction and come to terms with their grief.

“A moving and thought-provoking account of an impossible situation.”
Louis de Bernières, author of Captain Corelli's Mandolin

“This portrait pulls no punches but is, at the same time, profoundly life-affirming. Everyone who has an alcoholic in the family should read this book for its compassionate awareness of the damage and chaos caused by addiction, while never forgetting the humanity of the person caught in that trap. A wonderful book.” Gwyneth Lewis, author of Nightshade Mother

“Searing and poetic, Sophie Calon's prose sparkles in this elegiac, gripping memoir... Calon is an immensely readable writer to watch.” Maeve McClenaghan, author of No Fixed Abode

16/06/2025

Only three days until until Sophie Calon's LONG GOING is released. Here she is in Nation.Cymru on her writing journey, writing in Wales and finding your way home: https://nation.cymru/culture/on-being-a-writer-in-wales-sophie-calon/

Sophie Calon I am typing this on the beach, my pauses filled by the back and forth, back and forth of the shallow waves. The sun is low and the sky is a slow, pale blue. I’m at a writing workshop on the Llŷn Peninsula, northwest Wales. I grew up in the opposite corner, down […]