From the multi-award-winning author – a beautiful, stunningly ambitious novel telling the story of a young girl’s battle for survival and search for the truth in occupied Vienna **WINNER OF THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZE FOR HISTORICAL FICTION 2026**‘A shimmering masterwork’ Alice Austen‘An extraordinary novel about resilience’ Amanda Craig‘A mesmerising tapestry woven across history’ Gina Rippon‘Gripping and profound. A masterful work of rare complexity that lingers and haunts’ Christine LeunensAdelheid Brunner does not speak. She writes and draws instead and her ambition is to own one thousand matchboxes. Her grandmother cannot make sense of this, but Adelheid will stop at nothing to achieve her dream. She makes herself invisible, hiding in cupboards with her pet rat, Franz Joseph, listening in on conversations she can’t fully comprehend.Then she meets Dr Asperger, a man who lets children play all day and who recognises the importance of matchboxes. He invites Adelheid to come and live at the Vienna paediatric clinic, where she and other children like herself will live under observation.But the date is 1938 and the place is Vienna – a city of political instability, a place of increasing fear and violence. When the Nazis march into the city, a new world is created and difficult choices must be made.Why are the clinic's children disappearing, and where do they go? Adelheid starts to suspect that some of Dr Asperger’s games are played for the highest stakes. In order to survive, she must play a game whose rules she cannot yet understand.

From the multi-award-winning author – a beautiful, stunningly ambitious novel telling the story of a young girl’s battle for survival and search for the truth in occupied Vienna **WINNER OF THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZE FOR HISTORICAL FICTION 2026**‘A fierce celebration of the messy nature of humanity itself’ Daily Mail‘A shimmering masterwork’ Alice Austen‘An extraordinary novel about resilience’ Amanda Craig‘A mesmerising tapestry woven across history’ Gina Rippon‘Gripping and profound. A masterful work of rare complexity that lingers and haunts’ Christine LeunensAdelheid Brunner does not speak. She writes and draws instead and her ambition is to own one thousand matchboxes. Her grandmother cannot make sense of this, but Adelheid will stop at nothing to achieve her dream. She makes herself invisible, hiding in cupboards with her pet rat, Franz Joseph, listening in on conversations she can’t fully comprehend.Then she meets Dr Asperger, a man who lets children play all day and who recognises the importance of matchboxes. He invites Adelheid to come and live at the Vienna paediatric clinic, where she and other children like herself will live under observation.But the date is 1938 and the place is Vienna – a city of political instability, a place of increasing fear and violence. When the Nazis march into the city, a new world is created and difficult choices must be made.Why are the clinic's children disappearing, and where do they go? Adelheid starts to suspect that some of Dr Asperger’s games are played for the highest stakes. In order to survive, she must play a game whose rules she cannot yet understand.Triumphant and tragic, soulful and spirited, The Matchbox Girl is a burningly brilliant book – that brings the stories of a generation of lost children into the light.‘A vividly imagined story told with real drive and heart’ Rachel Seiffert‘Unique and profoundly human’ Emma Darwin‘One of the most charismatic and companionable narrators I’ve ever come across’ Toby Litt‘The sheer brilliance of Alice Jolly’s writing stopped me in my tracks, stole my breath’ Angela Findlay‘An important, powerful book, so real I couldn’t put it down’ Kathleen Jones

From the multi-award-winning author – a beautiful, stunningly ambitious novel telling the story of a young girl’s battle for survival and search for the truth in occupied Vienna **WINNER OF THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZE FOR HISTORICAL FICTION 2026**‘A fierce celebration of the messy nature of humanity itself’ Daily Mail‘A shimmering masterwork’ Alice Austen‘An extraordinary novel about resilience’ Amanda Craig‘A mesmerising tapestry woven across history’ Gina Rippon‘Gripping and profound. A masterful work of rare complexity that lingers and haunts’ Christine LeunensAdelheid Brunner does not speak. She writes and draws instead and her ambition is to own one thousand matchboxes. Her grandmother cannot make sense of this, but Adelheid will stop at nothing to achieve her dream. She makes herself invisible, hiding in cupboards with her pet rat, Franz Joseph, listening in on conversations she can’t fully comprehend.Then she meets Dr Asperger, a man who lets children play all day and who recognises the importance of matchboxes. He invites Adelheid to come and live at the Vienna paediatric clinic, where she and other children like herself will live under observation.But the date is 1938 and the place is Vienna – a city of political instability, a place of increasing fear and violence. When the Nazis march into the city, a new world is created and difficult choices must be made.Why are the clinic's children disappearing, and where do they go? Adelheid starts to suspect that some of Dr Asperger’s games are played for the highest stakes. In order to survive, she must play a game whose rules she cannot yet understand.Triumphant and tragic, soulful and spirited, The Matchbox Girl is a burningly brilliant book – that brings the stories of a generation of lost children into the light.‘A vividly imagined story told with real drive and heart’ Rachel Seiffert‘Unique and profoundly human’ Emma Darwin‘One of the most charismatic and companionable narrators I’ve ever come across’ Toby Litt‘The sheer brilliance of Alice Jolly’s writing stopped me in my tracks, stole my breath’ Angela Findlay‘An important, powerful book, so real I couldn’t put it down’ Kathleen Jones

From the multi-award-winning author a beautiful, stunningly ambitious novel telling the story of a young girl's battle for survival and search for the truth in occupied Vienna **WINNER OF THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZE FOR HISTORICAL FICTION 2026**'A fierce celebration of the messy nature of humanity itself' Daily Mail'A shimmering masterwork' Alice Austen'An extraordinary novel about resilience' Amanda Craig'A mesmerising tapestry woven across history' Gina Rippon'Gripping and profound. A masterful work of rare complexity that lingers and haunts' Christine LeunensAdelheid Brunner does not speak. She writes and draws instead and her ambition is to own one thousand matchboxes. Her grandmother cannot make sense of this, but Adelheid will stop at nothing to achieve her dream. She makes herself invisible, hiding in cupboards with her pet rat, Franz Joseph, listening in on conversations she can't fully comprehend.Then she meets Dr Asperger, a man who lets children play all day and who recognises the importance of matchboxes. He invites Adelheid to come and live at the Vienna paediatric clinic, where she and other children like herself will live under observation.But the date is 1938 and the place is Vienna a city of political instability, a place of increasing fear and violence. When the Nazis march into the city, a new world is created and difficult choices must be made.Why are the clinic's children disappearing, and where do they go? Adelheid starts to suspect that some of Dr Asperger's games are played for the highest stakes. In order to survive, she must play a game whose rules she cannot yet understand.Triumphant and tragic, soulful and spirited, The Matchbox Girl is a burningly brilliant book that brings the stories of a generation of lost children into the light.'A vividly imagined story told with real drive and heart' Rachel Seiffert'Unique and profoundly human' Emma Darwin'One of the most charismatic and companionable narrators I've ever come across' Toby Litt'The sheer brilliance of Alice Jolly's writing stopped me in my tracks, stole my breath' Angela Findlay'An important, powerful book, so real I couldn't put it down' Kathleen Jones

When Alice Jolly's second child was stillborn and all subsequent attempts to have another baby failed, she began to consider every possible option, no matter how unorthodox.Shot through with humour and full of hope, Dead Babies and Seaside Towns is an intensely personal account of the search for an alternative way to create a family. As she battles through miscarriage, IVF and failed adoption attempts, Alice finds comfort in the faded charm of Britain's crumbling seaside towns. The journey ultimately leads her and her husband to a small town in Minnesota, and to two remarkable women who offer to make the impossible possible.In this beautifully written book, Alice Jolly describes with a novelist's skill the events that many others have lived through – even if they may feel compelled to keep them hidden. Her decision not to hide but to share them, without a trace of self-pity, turns Dead Babies and Seaside Towns into a universal story: one that begins in tragedy but ends in joy.

Coventry, 1941. The morning after one of the worst nights of the Blitz. Twenty-two-year-old Rose enters the remains of a bombed house to find her best friend dead. Shocked and confused, she makes a split-second decision that will reverberate for generations to come.More than fifty years later, in modern-day Brighton, Rose’s granddaughter Lara waits for the return of her eighteen-year-old son Jay. Reckless and idealistic, he has gone to Iraq to stand on a conflict line as an unarmed witness to peace.Lara holds her parents, Mollie and Rufus, partly responsible for Jay’s departure. But in her attempts to explain their thwarted passions, she finds all her assumptions about her own life are called into question.Then into this damaged family come two strangers – Oliver, a former faith healer, and Jemmy, a young woman devastated by the loss of a baby. Together they help to establish a partial peace – but at what cost?

Words begin to lose their meanings, flaking off into air like moths. Friendships cultivated over a lifetime fall apart in testing circumstances. What does the stranger with yellow eyes really want?From Far Around They Saw Us Burn is the eagerly awaited first short story collection from Alice Jolly, one of the most exciting and accomplished voices in British fiction today.The extraordinary range of work gathered here is united by a fascination with how everyday interactions can transform our lives in unpredictable ways. These are stories of lonely people, outcasts and misfits, and the ghosts that inhabit our intimate spaces. The result is a compelling, arresting and, at times, devastating collection – not least in the title story, which was inspired by the tragic true events of the 1943 Cavan orphanage fire.Written with an exemplary eye for detail and an intimate understanding of the complexities of human nature, Jolly's collection builds up towards the ultimate question: what is revealed of us when we peel away the surfaces, and is it enough?

When a stranger arrives in town, with a bulging blue bag and a whiff of adventure, the neighbourhood takes notice. When he asks for his meals to be sent to his room and peace and quiet for reading, curiosity turns to obsession. Each day he stays there, locked in his room, demanding books: Plath, Kafka, Orwell, Lawrence, Fitzgerald, James, Bronte (the eldest), Dickens, Dumas, Kesey - on and on, the stranger never leaving his room. Who exactly is he? What is he reading? And will it be able to save us from the terrible state of the world? Written by award-winning author Alice Jolly, and based on an idea by the book lovers of Swindon town, this funny and, ultimately, dystopian tale, reminds us of the importance of literature in an increasingly dark world.

From the multi-award-winning author – a beautiful, stunningly ambitious novel telling the story of a young girl’s battle for survival and search for the truth in occupied Vienna **WINNER OF THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZE FOR HISTORICAL FICTION 2026**‘A shimmering masterwork’ Alice Austen‘An extraordinary novel about resilience’ Amanda Craig‘A mesmerising tapestry woven across history’ Gina Rippon‘Gripping and profound. A masterful work of rare complexity that lingers and haunts’ Christine LeunensAdelheid Brunner does not speak. She writes and draws instead and her ambition is to own one thousand matchboxes. Her grandmother cannot make sense of this, but Adelheid will stop at nothing to achieve her dream. She makes herself invisible, hiding in cupboards with her pet rat, Franz Joseph, listening in on conversations she can’t fully comprehend.Then she meets Dr Asperger, a man who lets children play all day and who recognises the importance of matchboxes. He invites Adelheid to come and live at the Vienna paediatric clinic, where she and other children like herself will live under observation.But the date is 1938 and the place is Vienna – a city of political instability, a place of increasing fear and violence. When the Nazis march into the city, a new world is created and difficult choices must be made.Why are the clinic's children disappearing, and where do they go? Adelheid starts to suspect that some of Dr Asperger’s games are played for the highest stakes. In order to survive, she must play a game whose rules she cannot yet understand.

From the multi-award-winning author – a beautiful, stunningly ambitious novel telling the story of a young girl’s battle for survival and search for the truth in occupied Vienna **WINNER OF THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZE FOR HISTORICAL FICTION 2026**‘A fierce celebration of the messy nature of humanity itself’ Daily Mail‘A shimmering masterwork’ Alice Austen‘An extraordinary novel about resilience’ Amanda Craig‘A mesmerising tapestry woven across history’ Gina Rippon‘Gripping and profound. A masterful work of rare complexity that lingers and haunts’ Christine LeunensAdelheid Brunner does not speak. She writes and draws instead and her ambition is to own one thousand matchboxes. Her grandmother cannot make sense of this, but Adelheid will stop at nothing to achieve her dream. She makes herself invisible, hiding in cupboards with her pet rat, Franz Joseph, listening in on conversations she can’t fully comprehend.Then she meets Dr Asperger, a man who lets children play all day and who recognises the importance of matchboxes. He invites Adelheid to come and live at the Vienna paediatric clinic, where she and other children like herself will live under observation.But the date is 1938 and the place is Vienna – a city of political instability, a place of increasing fear and violence. When the Nazis march into the city, a new world is created and difficult choices must be made.Why are the clinic's children disappearing, and where do they go? Adelheid starts to suspect that some of Dr Asperger’s games are played for the highest stakes. In order to survive, she must play a game whose rules she cannot yet understand.Triumphant and tragic, soulful and spirited, The Matchbox Girl is a burningly brilliant book – that brings the stories of a generation of lost children into the light.‘A vividly imagined story told with real drive and heart’ Rachel Seiffert‘Unique and profoundly human’ Emma Darwin‘One of the most charismatic and companionable narrators I’ve ever come across’ Toby Litt‘The sheer brilliance of Alice Jolly’s writing stopped me in my tracks, stole my breath’ Angela Findlay‘An important, powerful book, so real I couldn’t put it down’ Kathleen Jones

From the multi-award-winning author – a beautiful, stunningly ambitious novel telling the story of a young girl’s battle for survival and search for the truth in occupied Vienna **WINNER OF THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZE FOR HISTORICAL FICTION 2026**‘A fierce celebration of the messy nature of humanity itself’ Daily Mail‘A shimmering masterwork’ Alice Austen‘An extraordinary novel about resilience’ Amanda Craig‘A mesmerising tapestry woven across history’ Gina Rippon‘Gripping and profound. A masterful work of rare complexity that lingers and haunts’ Christine LeunensAdelheid Brunner does not speak. She writes and draws instead and her ambition is to own one thousand matchboxes. Her grandmother cannot make sense of this, but Adelheid will stop at nothing to achieve her dream. She makes herself invisible, hiding in cupboards with her pet rat, Franz Joseph, listening in on conversations she can’t fully comprehend.Then she meets Dr Asperger, a man who lets children play all day and who recognises the importance of matchboxes. He invites Adelheid to come and live at the Vienna paediatric clinic, where she and other children like herself will live under observation.But the date is 1938 and the place is Vienna – a city of political instability, a place of increasing fear and violence. When the Nazis march into the city, a new world is created and difficult choices must be made.Why are the clinic's children disappearing, and where do they go? Adelheid starts to suspect that some of Dr Asperger’s games are played for the highest stakes. In order to survive, she must play a game whose rules she cannot yet understand.Triumphant and tragic, soulful and spirited, The Matchbox Girl is a burningly brilliant book – that brings the stories of a generation of lost children into the light.‘A vividly imagined story told with real drive and heart’ Rachel Seiffert‘Unique and profoundly human’ Emma Darwin‘One of the most charismatic and companionable narrators I’ve ever come across’ Toby Litt‘The sheer brilliance of Alice Jolly’s writing stopped me in my tracks, stole my breath’ Angela Findlay‘An important, powerful book, so real I couldn’t put it down’ Kathleen Jones

From the multi-award-winning author a beautiful, stunningly ambitious novel telling the story of a young girl's battle for survival and search for the truth in occupied Vienna **WINNER OF THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZE FOR HISTORICAL FICTION 2026**'A fierce celebration of the messy nature of humanity itself' Daily Mail'A shimmering masterwork' Alice Austen'An extraordinary novel about resilience' Amanda Craig'A mesmerising tapestry woven across history' Gina Rippon'Gripping and profound. A masterful work of rare complexity that lingers and haunts' Christine LeunensAdelheid Brunner does not speak. She writes and draws instead and her ambition is to own one thousand matchboxes. Her grandmother cannot make sense of this, but Adelheid will stop at nothing to achieve her dream. She makes herself invisible, hiding in cupboards with her pet rat, Franz Joseph, listening in on conversations she can't fully comprehend.Then she meets Dr Asperger, a man who lets children play all day and who recognises the importance of matchboxes. He invites Adelheid to come and live at the Vienna paediatric clinic, where she and other children like herself will live under observation.But the date is 1938 and the place is Vienna a city of political instability, a place of increasing fear and violence. When the Nazis march into the city, a new world is created and difficult choices must be made.Why are the clinic's children disappearing, and where do they go? Adelheid starts to suspect that some of Dr Asperger's games are played for the highest stakes. In order to survive, she must play a game whose rules she cannot yet understand.Triumphant and tragic, soulful and spirited, The Matchbox Girl is a burningly brilliant book that brings the stories of a generation of lost children into the light.'A vividly imagined story told with real drive and heart' Rachel Seiffert'Unique and profoundly human' Emma Darwin'One of the most charismatic and companionable narrators I've ever come across' Toby Litt'The sheer brilliance of Alice Jolly's writing stopped me in my tracks, stole my breath' Angela Findlay'An important, powerful book, so real I couldn't put it down' Kathleen Jones

When Alice Jolly's second child was stillborn and all subsequent attempts to have another baby failed, she began to consider every possible option, no matter how unorthodox.Shot through with humour and full of hope, Dead Babies and Seaside Towns is an intensely personal account of the search for an alternative way to create a family. As she battles through miscarriage, IVF and failed adoption attempts, Alice finds comfort in the faded charm of Britain's crumbling seaside towns. The journey ultimately leads her and her husband to a small town in Minnesota, and to two remarkable women who offer to make the impossible possible.In this beautifully written book, Alice Jolly describes with a novelist's skill the events that many others have lived through – even if they may feel compelled to keep them hidden. Her decision not to hide but to share them, without a trace of self-pity, turns Dead Babies and Seaside Towns into a universal story: one that begins in tragedy but ends in joy.

Coventry, 1941. The morning after one of the worst nights of the Blitz. Twenty-two-year-old Rose enters the remains of a bombed house to find her best friend dead. Shocked and confused, she makes a split-second decision that will reverberate for generations to come.More than fifty years later, in modern-day Brighton, Rose’s granddaughter Lara waits for the return of her eighteen-year-old son Jay. Reckless and idealistic, he has gone to Iraq to stand on a conflict line as an unarmed witness to peace.Lara holds her parents, Mollie and Rufus, partly responsible for Jay’s departure. But in her attempts to explain their thwarted passions, she finds all her assumptions about her own life are called into question.Then into this damaged family come two strangers – Oliver, a former faith healer, and Jemmy, a young woman devastated by the loss of a baby. Together they help to establish a partial peace – but at what cost?

Words begin to lose their meanings, flaking off into air like moths. Friendships cultivated over a lifetime fall apart in testing circumstances. What does the stranger with yellow eyes really want?From Far Around They Saw Us Burn is the eagerly awaited first short story collection from Alice Jolly, one of the most exciting and accomplished voices in British fiction today.The extraordinary range of work gathered here is united by a fascination with how everyday interactions can transform our lives in unpredictable ways. These are stories of lonely people, outcasts and misfits, and the ghosts that inhabit our intimate spaces. The result is a compelling, arresting and, at times, devastating collection – not least in the title story, which was inspired by the tragic true events of the 1943 Cavan orphanage fire.Written with an exemplary eye for detail and an intimate understanding of the complexities of human nature, Jolly's collection builds up towards the ultimate question: what is revealed of us when we peel away the surfaces, and is it enough?

When a stranger arrives in town, with a bulging blue bag and a whiff of adventure, the neighbourhood takes notice. When he asks for his meals to be sent to his room and peace and quiet for reading, curiosity turns to obsession. Each day he stays there, locked in his room, demanding books: Plath, Kafka, Orwell, Lawrence, Fitzgerald, James, Bronte (the eldest), Dickens, Dumas, Kesey - on and on, the stranger never leaving his room. Who exactly is he? What is he reading? And will it be able to save us from the terrible state of the world? Written by award-winning author Alice Jolly, and based on an idea by the book lovers of Swindon town, this funny and, ultimately, dystopian tale, reminds us of the importance of literature in an increasingly dark world.