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Tipperary Novelist Expecting a Magical Year

January 201523rd

Entertainment

Tipperary Novelist Expecting a Magical Year

One of this year’s most anticipated children’s books, The Magic Maloneys and the End of the World, is the first novel by Cloughjordan-based author Nigel Quinlan.

The Magic Maloneys and the End of the World will be published on 7 May by Orion Children’s Books (Hardback at £10.99, 9781444014143), and in the US by Roaring Brook Press as The Maloneys’ Magical Weatherbox.

Neil and Liz Maloney live in the midlands, and their father is the Weatherman. This isn’t the person on the television talking about high pressure and rainfall; the Weatherman is the gatekeeper of the seasons. But this year autumn hasn’t arrived. What do a tourist, two hags, and a bog beast have to do with it all? Why can Mrs. Fitzgerald control the weather? And can Neil and Liz stop the chaos before it’s the end of the world?

While The Magic Maloneys and the End of the World is Nigel Quinlan’s first published novel, he has been writing his whole life.

‘From my very first story about a pair of chickens who rob a bank [written when he was seven or eight] to this book about a family who keep the seasons in a phone box, I've been trying to make the ideas that come into my head come alive on the page,’ he says.

This novel is based on an idea Nigel first developed in a short story over twenty years ago, and he wrote and revised most of the novel after moving to Cloughjordan with his family, where he also founded the Cloughjordan Writers’ Group, which meets Sundays in Sheelagh na Gig bookshop in Cloughjordan.

Although this novel is Nigel’s first, he is no stranger to publication. His short stories for adults have been published in the magazine Albedo One and This Way Up, an anthology of Irish science fiction/fantasy writing. He has also contributed to Sunday Miscellany, most recently with the poem ‘January Rises’, which was broadcast earlier this month. He is currently working on his second novel for Orion Books.

Nigel blogs about writing and books at The Weatherbox:http://nigelquinlan.tumblr.com.

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