Authors

Announcing the acquisition of Only the Wild, by Victor Kelleher

/ christmaspresspicturebooks / Leave a comment

Christmas Press is delighted to announce that we have acquired world rights in Only the Wild, a brilliant new novel for upper middle-grade/YA readers by multi-award-winning author Victor Kelleher. The novel will be published in September 2026 under the Eagle Books imprint and was acquired via Margaret Connolly of Margaret Connolly and Associates.

Christmas Press publishing director Sophie Masson said, ‘We are proud to have published three of Victor’s novels already, Wanderer (2022) The Cave (2024) and The Lastling (2025) and are thrilled to have acquired this extraordinary new novel from one of Australia’s greatest writers for children, whose brilliant work continues to enthral readers and to break new ground. In Only the Wild, Victor has created a reimagined future Antarctica, or ‘Great Southland’, where a vicious war is raging between fiercely determined clans of small farmers and a ferocious band of eco-warriors called the Wilders, whose aim is to eradicate all human presence in the Great Southland and return it to wilderness. Only the Wild is a brilliant mix of exciting adventure and thought-provoking themes, which raises many timely questions.’

An intriguing timeline introduces us to what brought history to this pass, and then the reader is plunged straight into the precarious world of Evan, son of a farming family, who dreams of finding a middle way between the warring factions, an unpopular idea on both sides which will lead him into great danger. After rescuing Emmy, a little girl who’s the sole survivor of an attack on a neighbouring family, he is confronted by a Wilder, a ruthless young woman named Reyne, and only just manages to escape with the child. But now Reyne is on his trail…and what happens next will set the scene for an extraordinary chain of events that will reach across time to change the fate of the Great Southland.

Victor Kelleher explains: ‘More than anything else, it was my long interest in the Rewilding movement that inspired me to write Only the Wild. In particular, I was drawn in by the ongoing debates. Should a rewilded area exclude humans? Or include them? If you’re going to argue the merits of re-introducing species such as wolves and bears and big cats, how can you in all conscience exclude us, the top predator? Ah, say the opponents of that view, humans are a special case: they’re the ones who destroyed wilderness in the first place. And so the arguments go on and on. Rather than join in, I set out to write a novel that embodied the very spirit of such disputes, imagining a future reforested Antarctica, completely free of ice, fought over by rival groups: farmers, and the Wilders. And then there’s Evan, who sees this great southland as his home, as long as he is prepared to live in tune with nature. This three-part struggle, and its resolution, is at the heart of the novel.’

Announcing the joint acquisition of a fantastic Ursula Dubosarsky collection!

/ christmaspresspicturebooks / Leave a comment

Eagle Books (an imprint of Christmas Press) and Roffo Court Press (UK) are proud to announce that we have jointly acquired world rights in Life and Breath, a brilliant collection of short stories for upper middle-grade/YA readers by multi-award-winning author Ursula Dubosarsky. In a unique event, Life and Breath will be simultaneously published, in separate editions, in Australia and the UK in March 2026.

Discoveries from the past, hopes for the future – and the decisions we make on a knife edge that clarify our own sense of self. These elements inform Ursula Dubosarsky’s multi-award-winning novels and are in sharp, bright evidence in these thirteen beautifully crafted short stories, by turns poignant, funny, reflective and joyful – nearly always mercurial – previously published in anthologies and magazines but collected together for the very first time. Ursula Dubosarsky has written brand-new notes on the origins of each story.

Christmas Press publishing director Sophie Masson said, ‘This is such a special book, in so many ways—not only is it Ursula’s first collection of short stories and her first book for older readers in a while, but its publication is also the fruit of a decades-long friendship between Ursula, Jon Appleton of Roffo Court Press, and myself. At Christmas Press, we’ve previously published two of Ursula’s other books, Two Tales of Twins from Ancient Greece and Rome (illustrated by David Allan, 2014) and The Boy who Could Fly and other Magical Plays for Children (illustrated by Amy Golbach, 2019) and we are absolutely delighted to be collaborating with Ursula and Jon at Roffo Court Press on this wonderful book.’

Jon Appleton, publisher at Roffo Court Press, said, ‘A highlight of working in publishing is producing books you most want to read. I knew Ursula Dubosarsky’s short stories would be mini gems, as indeed her novels are, and so deserving to be united between covers in a brand-new publication, full of vitality and originality. It’s been exciting and rewarding working with Ursula and Sophie to bring this glorious book into being.’

Ursula Dubosarsky reflects on the book’s genesis: ‘It’s an uncanny feeling to look back over your writing life over a period of nearly 40 years. All these stories were written at very different times, for me, for publishing, for Australia and for the world. And yet, there it is, through them all, that continuous thread of something unmistakably me that’s been in my writing since childhood. I can hardly define what that something is – the writing “me”, I suppose it must be. Gathering the stories together has been like collating photographs together in an album, with all the mystery of your past, present and even future selves between the covers. I’m completely thrilled by this project – Jon, Sophie and I have known each other through all those years, warmly bonded by sincere friendship and a commitment to writing, especially writing for children and adolescents. I remember once my mother saying to me, “Ursula, someone should collect your short stories together in a book.” Well, now someone has, and I couldn’t be more grateful or honoured.’

A news article about it appeared in Books+Publishing yesterday.

Publication day for The Lastling

/ christmaspresspicturebooks / Leave a comment

Today is the publication day for our latest Eagle Books title, Victor Kelleher’s marvellous new science fiction adventure novel, The Lastling!

It’s the third Victor Kelleher title which we’ve had the pleasure and privilege of publishing, and like its predecessors, Wanderer (2023) and The Cave (2024) it’s absolutely brilliant–exciting, moving and thought-provoking, and we are thrilled to be publishing it. It’s a gorgeous production too, with striking cover and internal illustrations by Lorena Carrington, and elegant design by Authors’ Elves.

With its Android and human protagonists, The Lastling is both an extraordinary adventure set in a disturbing future, and also a timely and thought-provoking exploration of what it really means to be human.

Here’s Victor on what inspired the novel: Artificial intelligence, robotics, and the whole notion of the android have been much in the news recently, and rightly so, in light of current technology. Yet underlying this interest is a much longer-standing issue: will AI be friendly to us, or will it threaten our human world? Many novels and films have offered an answer to this question. Some, like the film Terminator, give us two possible answers – AI as both friend and mortal enemy.  So what does The Lastling add to this debate? At one level, like Terminator, it gives two answers, in the forbidding person of Brother John and the gentle figure of Guido. However, it also poses deeper questions. How does an android as gentle as Guido survive in the face of both AI and human aggression? How does he interact with someone as deeply human as Verne? And how does he out-think his own programming? Is such independence on his part even possible? And if so, is he, in some profound sense, also human? Now there’s a scary thought! And it’s that scary thought, more than any other, that inspired me to write this novel.

Congratulations to Victor on a wonderful novel which we are sure is just going to fly into the hands of eager readers!

Publication day for The Cave!

/ christmaspresspicturebooks / Leave a comment

Today is publication day for The Cave, Victor Kelleher’s fabulous new novel. Set in a richly-recreated Paleolithic past, The Cave is both an extraordinary adventure and a moving exploration of loss, survival and courage. This is the second fantastic new Victor Kelleher novel that we have published, after Wanderer (2022) which was shortlisted for the 2023 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards. We are thrilled to be bringing it to readers, and warmly congratulate Victor on another brilliant book!

Cover and internal illustrations by Lorena Carrington.

You can watch a trailer for The Cave here.

We have acquired another wonderful Victor Kelleher novel!

/ christmaspresspicturebooks / Leave a comment

Christmas Press is delighted to announce that we have acquired world rights in The Lastling, a brilliant new science fiction novel for upper middle-grade readers by multi-award-winning author Victor Kelleher. The novel will be published in April 2025 under the Eagle Books imprint and was acquired via Margaret Connolly of Margaret Connolly and Associates. It follows the author’s Wanderer (2022) which was shortlisted for the 2023 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, and The Cave (April 2024).

Christmas Press publishing director Sophie Masson said, ‘This is the third novel by Victor that we’ve had the pleasure of acquiring, and we are thrilled to be able to publish his extraordinary new book. With its Android and human protagonists, The Lastling is both an extraordinary adventure set in a disturbing future, and also a timely and thought-provoking exploration of what it really means to be human.’

Guido is an Android whose job it is to guide humans through the Wilderness Park, last remaining tract of unspoiled country, while Verne, a human girl, is a thief, working in the city. When Enforcers are dispatched to eliminate all the Androids, Guido, desperate to survive, does the forbidden thing and disobeys a direct order, triggering dire consequences. Years later, Verne, who knows nothing of Guido, is hired to break into the home of an old Enforcer and retrieve a mysterious weapon. It is then that her and Guido’s stories intersect. What happens next is as compelling as it is unexpected, setting both Verne and Guido on a path that reveals dangerous truths about the world they thought they knew, as well as forging a bond of trust between them, despite their differences.

As to what inspired the novel, Victor Kelleher said: ‘Artificial intelligence, robotics, and the whole notion of the android have been much in the news recently, and rightly so, in light of current technology. Yet underlying this interest is a much longer-standing issue: will AI be friendly to us, or will it threaten our human world? Many novels and films have offered an answer to this question. Some, like the film Terminator, give us two possible answers – AI as both friend and mortal enemy.  So what does The Lastling add to this debate? At one level, like Terminator, it gives two answers, in the forbidding person of Brother John and the gentle figure of Guido. However, it also poses deeper questions. How does an android as gentle as Guido survive in the face of both AI and human aggression? How does he interact with someone as deeply human as Verne? And how does he out-think his own programming? Is such independence on his part even possible? And if so, is he, in some profound sense, also human? Now there’s a scary thought! And it’s that scary thought, more than any other, that inspired me to write this novel.’

Victor Kelleher(right) and Sophie Masson at the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards announcement event, 2023

Great advance review for The Cave!

/ christmaspresspicturebooks / Leave a comment

We are delighted that our forthcoming title, Victor Kelleher’s superb upper-middle-grade novel, The Cave (out in April 2024), has received a great review in the very widely-read Books+Publishing newsletter.

The full review, by Anica Boulanger-Mashberg, is only available to B+P subscribers, but here’s a short extract:

Kelleher laces the fairly straightforward text with hints of more complex philosophical tension—Ulana’s utilitarian idealism favours sharing resources and knowledge, while Trug relies on more defensive trade tactics, with Irian suspended between them, fighting his own demons and slowly fostering a sense of purpose in the aftermath of losing his known world. Kelleher sets out to humanise the cave-dwelling people, whose language and inner worlds are not far from ours, emphasising their surroundings and discoveries. Readers of Gary Paulsen’s Hatchet may appreciate the elemental struggles, while others will enjoy the novelty of the setting.

We can’t wait for the book’s release–we know readers are absolutely going to love it!

Book cover illustration and design by Lorena Carrington.

Fabulous review for The Key to Rome

/ christmaspresspicturebooks / Leave a comment

There’s a new, fabulous review for The Key to Rome on the popular Read Plus blog. Here’s a short extract:

Highly recommended. Sophie Masson is a master at weaving historical facts into captivating stories, and this book is no exception….The exciting plot moves along well, and readers are drawn into the dangerous game Livia is playing when she tries to figure out what the key means and why her uncle and his enemies will do anything to get or destroy it.  But will they uncover the truth in time to stay alive?  Detailed background notes and a glossary at the back of the book are very helpful additions for young readers.

You can read the whole review here.