2025 round-up

Posted on December 1, 2025

We’re looking back and celebrating all the books we have released this year, and their brilliant authors.

We’ve travelled from a Cairngorms glen to a Baltic island, sailed to Cornwall and visited small-town France – plus all the destinations in the travel-writing anthology There She Goes! We discovered life beneath the waves and spent time in wild places, promoting wildlife along the way. In January we welcomed multi-award-winning author A.L. Kennedy, publishing the critically acclaimed Alive in the Merciful Country. Not forgetting our debut novelist: in April, Kingfisher, by NorthBound Book Award winner Rozie Kelly, was a Marie Claire editor’s pick in their spring reading list and one of Northern Life magazine’s best Northern books. Rozie also took part in a sold-out Casual Readers Bookclub event. Hat tip to writer and poet Derek Owusu for recommending her novel!

Our summer author events included one in beautiful Glen Clova and another on a 120-year-old wooden ship. In October we celebrated ten years of Graeme Macrae Burnet’s best-selling and award-winning novel His Bloody Project, publishing an anniversary edition; the book was also discussed on the BBC World Book Club.

As winter approached, Christina Riley’s beautiful Looking Down at the Stars was chosen as a Caught by the River book of the month.

We’ve had a busy and productive year in so many ways. We were named a Small Press of the Year finalist in the British Books Awards for the third year running, and we’ve begun new collaborations with two fellow independent presses and a nature writing prize. We’re also continuing to grow in the US and Canada, working with our team in Minneapolis.

A huge thank you to our authors and readers for such an unforgettable and buzzy year! We couldn’t have done any of it without you.