PUBLICATIONS
WATERSTONES
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BOOKSHOP.ORG
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​​FOYLES
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BLACKWELLS
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WITHOUT WARNING & ONLY SOMETIMES
Scenes from an Unpredictable Childhood
THE BEST OF EVERYTHING
An unforgettable novel about kindness and its power to change lives
REVIEWS
​"This is a book of such tenderness, full of pain, grief and despair and yet playful and joyful at the same time. Kit de Waal has an uncanny ability to create vivid characters with such empathy that I want to reach into the pages to hug them. I truly loved this book."
Liz Nugent, author of Strange Sally Diamond
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"What a wonderful novel, bursting with life. Kit de Waal is a writer who knows all the secret longings of the human heart ."
Cathy Rentzenbrink, author of Ordinary Time
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"Beautiful. De Waal has the power to astound, to lift and console, to make life with her sentences."
Donal Ryan, author of The Queen of Dirt Island
A heart-wrenching love story from the internationally bestselling author of My Name Is Leon
Mona is a young Irish girl in the big city, with the thrill of a new job and a room of her own in a busy boarding house. On her first night out in 1970s Birmingham, she meets William, a charming Irish boy with an easy smile and an open face.
They embark upon a passionate affair, a whirlwind marriage - before a sudden tragedy tears them apart.​ The Trick to Time is an unforgettable tale of grief, longing, and a love that lasts a lifetime.
It's 1981, a year of riots and royal weddings. The Dukes of Hazzard is on TV. Curly Wurlys are in the shops. And trying to find a place in it all is nine-year-old Leon. He and his little brother Jake have gone to live with Maureen. They've lost one home, but have they found another?
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Maureen feeds and looks after them. She has wild red hair and mutters swearwords under her breath when she thinks they can't hear. She claims everything will be okay. But will they ever see their mother again? Who are the couple who secretly visit Jake? Between the street violence and the street parties, Leon must find a way to reunite his family...
It's an exciting day for Timothy Flowers. It's the third of November, and it's Friday, and it's his twenty-first birthday. When Timothy walks to his usual street corner to see his favourite special bus, he meets Charlie. Charlie is a builder who is desperate for Timothy's help because Timothy is very tall, six feet six inches. Timothy has never had a job before - or no work that he's kept for more than a day. But when Timothy and Charlie have to collect money from a local thug, things don't exactly go according to plan...
Over the course of one day, Timothy's life will change for ever.
In her first YA novel, Costa-shortlisted Kit de Waal responds to classic Moby Dick by tearing the power away from obsessive Captain Ahab and giving it to a teenage girl.
Dinah's whole world is upside down, dead things and angry men and cuts all over her head that are beginning to sting....
Seventeen-year-old Dinah needs to leave her home, the weird commune where she grew up. She needs a whole new identity, starting with how she looks, starting with shaving off her hair, her 'crowning glory'. She has to do it quickly, because she has to go now.
OTHER TITLES AVAILABLE AT:
QUICK, ONLINE READSARTICLES, ESSAYS AND OTHER WRITINGS
Part of RTE's Book Show, read by the author
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Kit de Waal’s winning flash fiction Romans Chapter 1 verse 29 Sins of the Heart and Crushing Big
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Published in Books Ireland Magazine
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Essay: Brick, Stone,Glass, Steel
Listen on BBC Radio 3
Article: My 60th isn’t ‘just another birthday’. It’s a turning point
Published in The Guardian
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Article: Make Room for Working Class Writers
Published in the Guardian
Awards and prizes
"Crushing Big" 2015 Bridport Prize, Flash Fiction, First Prize
"I Am the Painter's Daughter" 2015 Bare Fiction, Flash Fiction, Second Prize
"Romans 1 Verse 29, Sins of the Heart" 2014 Bridport Prize, Flash Fiction, First Prize
"The Beautiful Thing" 2014 Bath Short Story Award Short Story Second Prize and BBC Radio 4 Drama
"Adrift at the Athena" 2014 A Midlands Odyssey and BBC Radio 4 Drama
"The Old Man & The Suit" 2014 Costa Short Story Award, Second Prize
"Blue in Green" 2014 Readers' Choice award, SI Leeds Literary Prize
"A Glass of Light of Silver" 2013 Final Chapters Anthology: Writings About The End Of Life
"The Way of the World" 2013 The Sea in Birmingham, anthology
"A Taste of Death" 2011 Fish Prize, shortlisted