Books
Life! Death! Prizes!
 Billy Smith is a 19 year old spending his gap year working at the local museum. When his mother is murdered in a bungled street robbery it falls to him to take care of his six-year old half-brother Oscar. Under pressure from all sides – his aunt, Oscar's father, the school authorities and social services – and increasingly, self-destructively obsessed with the whereabouts of his mother's killer, Billy watches helplessly as his world begins to unravel. Moments of tenderness and consolation are too few to halt Billy's slide into what appears to be the inevitable tragedy of lost hopes and wasted lives. But there is always a possibility that even in despair positive roots can take hold.
Stephen May has created a cast of powerfully memorable characters – all of them flawed, and even the worst of them somehow strangely sympathetic. As in the best fiction, all these characters have their reasons, their histories, their failings and their strengths. They all contribute to what is ultimately a tale of human resilience and dignity. Billy's story is one of urgency and truly compelling turns, with poignancy as well as laugh-out-loud humour, which leaves its firm stamp on the reader's mind far beyond the final page.
Life! Death! Prizes! will be published by Bloomsbury Jan 2012
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Praise for Life! Death! Prizes!
'Stephen May's writing is muscular, tender and touching.'
Willy Russell - author of Shirley Valentine, Blood Brothers and Educating Rita
'Left in charge of his six-year-old brother after their mother's murder, Billy is a depressed, profane, randy, impecunious teenager, given to vengeful rages and obsessed with a video game; he also turns out to be one of the wisest and most appealing parents I’ve ever encountered. I don’t know how he does it, but Stephen May manages to balance hilarity and sadness in nearly every sentence of this deftly comic, completely engaging and at times absolutely hair-raising novel. Life! Death! Prizes! deserves every one of its exclamation marks.'
Suzanne Berne - Orange prize winning author of A Crime In The Neighbourhood
'Life! Death! Prizes! is a raw, funny and heartfelt book, full of surprising tenderness and hope - a fine achievement'
A. L. Kennedy - Costa award winning author of Day and Paradise
'I loved this book for its touching, truthful - sometimes shocking - and painfully funny portrayal of two brothers struggling to stay together after the death of their mother. It's a paean of praise for the other side of contemporary youth, the side that, with all its foibles and failures, is still driven by love and connection'
Mavis Cheek - author of The Sex Lives of My Aunt
'Stephen May is a talent to be watched – rich language and humane perceptions’
Sir Arnold Wesker - author of Roots and Chips With Everything
'I loved Life! Death! Prizes! I read it over a weekend, barely putting it down, and when I'd finished and had to leave Billy and Oscar to the rest of their lives, I felt bereft. Stephen May has the sharp eye of David Nicholls and the verve of Kate Atkinson.'
Suzannah Dunn - author of The Confession of Katherine Howard
'A heartbreaking tale, propulsively told. By turns bleak, funny, and tender, LIFE! DEATH! PRIZES is an intoxicating gulp of a novel.' Christopher Wakling - author of What I Did
'... full of surprises, this acutely observed story of grief and love begins bleakly, ends up full of compassion and has great deal to say about modern families and the world we live in en route. It's a real achievement, and introduces Stephen May as a talent to be reckoned with.' Melvin Burgess - author of Junk and Doing It
'Gritty, witty, uplifting, sharp – it reminded me of Nick Hornby in its portrayal of modern family in all its glorious chaos.' Kate Long - author of The Bad Mother's Handbook
'Echoes of J.D. Salinger and Dave Eggars, this is a book about boys, brotherhood, teenage heroism and confusion. It is happysad and good. Stephen May is a major new talent, sharply observant of the human condition.' Monique Roffey, author of White Woman on the Green Bicycle, shortlisted for Orange prize 2010.
TAG
 Mistyann is fifteen, unpredictable, unreliable and violent. She's also gifted. And now she's on her way to Wales for a special residential course for talented youth. An American psychologist wants to unlock her potential, help her become the person that she's always dreamt of being. God help Wales. God help us all.
Part bleakly comic confession, part twisted romance, TAG is the fast-moving, at times shocking, story of two lives turned upside down by reckless moments and impulses that won't be denied. Think Lord of the Flies meets A Curious Incident... Full of wit, drama and an eye for the absurdities of the way we live now... TAG is a memorable debut novel.
Order this book from Cinnamon Press or Amazon.
Praise for TAG
'…This is a fast-paced novel. At times it feels as though May chose to leave out conjunctions, opting instead for short sentences which communicate clearly and without superfluity the feelings and observations of the characters.
The writing is measured and controlled. May does not interpret characters or plot for his reader; he appears to trust us to understand. Indeed, part of the pleasure of this novel is the reader's changing relationships with Mistyann and Jonathan.
A strong and hopeful story written by a man in complete control of his text and his characters; and it is this which singles out TAG as a special book, entirely deserving of its place on the Wales Book of the Year longlist...' www.walesonline.com
'Though TAG is not a teenage novel any more than Catcher In The Rye is, the vivacity and iconoclasm of Mistyann will surely particularly appeal to young adult readers in the way that Holden Caulfield did, while Jonathan Diamond's weary stoicism in the face of a world he is beginning not to understand should resonate with all ages. Both characters are the kind that get under your skin, and by the end of the book you find yourself rooting for them both.'
Ray French, author of Going Under.
'... A compelling and very readable first novel. May writes with a fresh, new voice that skips lightly between the two main characters even when the storyline gets very dark.'
Sue Brickay, Bedfordshire on Sunday
'Very funny and politically resonant.'
Katie Popplewell, Manchester Evening News
 Stephen May's TAG was awarded the Media Wales Reader's Prize as the book on the Wales Book of the Year longlist voted the most enjoyable by readers.
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