This page shows archived news and extracts of reviews from national press and magazines, newest first.

The Most Intimate Place is reviewed in The Guardian by Laura Wilson. She writes:

You can read the whole review here.

The Maia Press has been acquired by Arcadia Books, and will remain a separate imprint within that company. Maggie Hamand and Jane Havell will remain involved in an editorial and design capacity.

The film 'Far North', based on the title story in Far North & Other Dark Tales, is launching at selected cinemas throughout the UK on 26th December.

Directed by Asif Kapadia, the film stars Michelle Yeoh, Sean Bean and Michelle Krusiec, and is shot in the breathtaking Arctic landscapes of Svalbard. To watch a trailer of the film, go here.

Psalm 119 was picked as a New Statesman Book of the Year for 2008. Reviewer Noreena Hertz says:

Psalm 119 was reviewed in The Guardian by Catherine Taylor:

You can read the whole review here.

Diane Schoemperlen's At a Loss for Words was reviewed in the Financial Times on 2nd August 2008. Rosie Blau writes:

Read the whole review here.

The Maia Press has won the Mayor of Hackney’s 2008 Business Award for Best Women's Business. Maia was also shortlisted for Best Product Design and the overall Best in Business Awards. The judges praised the company's "success in a highly competitive field" and for its achievement at a national and international level.

The prize was presented by Hackney Mayor Jules Pipe and 'Apprentice' winner businessman Tim Campbell at the Geffrye Museum in Hackney on the evening of 23 April. The judges were: Sinclair Beecham MBE, co-founder of Prêt-à-Manger, Ian King, Business Editor of The Sun, Enzo Testa, Executive Managing Director of Archant London, and Yvonne Thomson CBE, Founder of Choice FM.

Maggie Hamand's The Resurrection of the Body was reviewed in Laura Wilson's Crime Fiction column in The Guardian on 15 March 2008.

Read the whole review here.

To celebrate the release of Far North - Asif Kapadia’s new thriller starring Michelle Yeoh and Sean Bean based on a story by Sara Maitland – Maia are publishing a new collection of Maitland’s “modern traditional tales” inspired from myths and legends from all over the globe. Far North is a dark tale exploring a supernaturally-tinged love triangle set in the frozen wastes of the Arctic Circle.

The film has already been shown to critical acclaim at the Venice Film Festival. It will be shown at the London Film Festival on Tuesday 30 Oct at the Odeon West End, and on Wednesday 31 Oct at Rich Mix, Bethnal Green. The book - entitled Far North and Other Dark Tales - is scheduled for release in March 2008 to tie in with the film's release in the UK.

Maia published Sara Maitland's collection On Becoming a Fairy Godmother as one of their first titles in 2003.

Sara Maitland is an acclaimed writer who won the Somerset Maugham Award with her first novel; she is the author of five further novels and six collections of short stories, as well as works on feminism and theology.

Reviews:

To read the CNN interview with Sean Bean at the Venice Film Festival, go here. To read about the film on Michelle Yeoh's website, go here.

Kolton Lee's debut The Last Card is described by Peter Guttridge in The Observer (23 September) as:

It was also reviewed in The Guardian on 18 August. Laura Wilson writes:

Read the whole review here.

At the Edge of Light was reviewed by Murrough O'Brien in The Independent on Sunday on 2 September:

Under the title 'Sex, death and the fight for a Finnish teenager's body and soul', Paul Binding writes in The Independent (3 September):

Read the whole review here.

In a long review in the News Statesman magazine on 1 October, Lucy Beresford writes:

Read the full review here.

What it Takes to be Human received a four-star review in The Independent on Sunday on 12 August:

Read the whole review here.

A review in the Daily Mail on 10 August also praised the novel for its 'mythic intensity and breadth of vision' - read the full review here.

Danny Rhodes's Asboville (published on 19 October) has been reviewed in the New Statesman of 20 October. Mary Fitzgerald writes:

In the The Guardian's 'First Novels' column, Rachel Hore writes:

Emma Tennant's The French Dancer's Bastard has been enthusiastically review in The Times Literary Supplement of 20 October. Michelene Wandor writes:

Michael Arditti's A Sea Change (published on 28 September) has been critically acclaimed on publication. It has received an extensive review in the Independent on Sunday of 8 October. To read the review, by Paul Binding, go here. Extracts from other reviews:

An extensive illustrated extract of Michael Arditti's new novel, A Sea Change, was published in the Independent on Sunday on 17th September 2006.
It was published on 28th September.

Scott Pack, former chief buyer at Waterstone's, has picked Maia's debut novel, Asboville by Danny Rhodes, as one of the ten books he has enjoyed most this year. 'Simple, honest and effective British fiction... this will win awards.' To read Scott's blog, go to:

http://www.thefridayproject.co.uk/pack/

Asboville has been picked as a Waterstone's 'Paperback of the Year' and is now in a 3 for 2 promotion.

The Invisible Ones by Karel Van Loon was reviewed in The Independent on Friday 7 July. Justin Wintle wrote: 'A timely novel by a talented Dutchman... compelling.'

To read the whole article, go here.

Dreda Say Mitchell's Running Hot (published by Maia in November 2004) has won the John Creasey Memorial Dagger, awarded by the Crime Writers' Association for a first work of crime fiction by an unpublished writer.

Dreda Say Mitchell is the first black British writer to win this prestigious crime novel award, which in the past launched the careers of Patricia Cornwell, Walter Mosley, Minette Walters and Louise Welsh.

The Maia Press editorial director, Maggie Hamand, met Dreda while teaching one of her creative writing courses at The Groucho Club in London and was instantly struck by her writing voice. On the basis of an outline and sample chapter she was signed up - a big risk for a small independent publisher who publish only six titles a year, but one that has paid off.

Dreda Say Mitchell was born into London's Grenadian community in the 1960s, and grew up in a council block in the East End of London. She attended state schools before taking a degree in African History in SOAS. She currently works for Islington Education Authority, raising black achievement in schools, and the inspiration for her books comes from her life and work.

To read the whole article, go here.

Michael Arditti's Unity (published on 9 June) has been receiving wonderful reviews:

To read the whole article by Jane Shilling, 'Twisted sister's radical turn', go here.

To read the whole Guardian article, 'Strutting and fretting', go here.

To read the whole article, 'Where Mitford meets Baader-Meinhof', go here.

More praise for 'Unity':

Olivia Fane's The Glorious Flight of Perdita Tree (published on 2 June) has been chosen by Waterstone's for their recommended 'Summer Reads'. Here's what The Times reviewer had to say:

To read the whole review, go here.

Lewis DeSoto's A Blade of Grass was one of six books shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize. This is the second year of the Prize that singles out a work of literature - fiction or non-fiction - which as a profound sense of the spirit of a place.

Here are the comments of the three judges on 'A Blade of Grass':

Merete Morken Andersen's Oceans of Time, translated by Barbara Haveland, was one of 16 books on the longlist of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. The Prize, which is shared between author and translator, aims to honour a great work of fiction by a living author which has been translated into English from any other language and published in the United Kingdom.

Barbara J Haveland's translation of 'Oceans of Time' was also shortlisted for the prestigious Oxford Weidenfeld Translation Prize.

Nicholas Clee reviewed 'Running Hot' in The Guardian on 9th April 2005:

To read the whole review click here.

Some more recent praise for Running Hot:

Three more titles were published in October and are available from Waterstones, Amazon and most good bookshops:

  Oceans of Time - Merete Morken Andersen

  Essential Kit - Linda Leatherbarrow

  Running Hot - Dreda Say Mitchell

Details of the launches can be found in the events section.

Find out about these books by clicking the "Books" link on the sidebar, or clicking here.

Praise for Merete Morken Andersen's Oceans of Time:

To read the whole review click here.

To read the whole review click here.

To read the whole review click here.

A Blade of Grass by Lewis DeSoto was one of the 22 books out of 132 entries on the longlist of the Man Booker Prize 2004. It was the only title by a small independent publisher on the longlist.

To read the whole review click here.

UK Publishing News of 16 July 2004 featured a two-page spread on the Maia Press by Vivienne Menkes, who interviews Hamand and Havell on their search for "really original writing that isn't pedestrian." To read the whole article, entitled 'Woolf tones', go here.

All three of Maia's spring titles were selected for The Bookseller's 'Best original titles' for May. Michael Arditti's 'Good Clean Fun' and Adam Zameenzad's 'Pepsi and Maria' in the 'hip urban reads' section, and Lewis DeSoto's 'A Blade of Grass' in the 'first novels' section.

The three books have now been published and and are available from Waterstones, Amazon and most good bookshops:

  Pepsi and Maria   —  Adam Zameenzad

  Good Clean Fun   —  Michael Arditti

  A Blade Of Grass —  Lewis DeSoto

Details of the launches can be found in the events section.

Boyd Tonkin reviewed Adam Zameenzad's 'Pepsi and Maria' in The Independent on 7 May:

To read the whole review click here.

Amanda Craig in the Literary Review for May:

In The Times, Chris Power writes:

Helen Davies writes in The Big Issue:

Wayne Clews writes in City Life, Manchester. :

Michael Arditti has been interviewed in the Camden New Journal. Read the whole review: God, gay lives, and a bit of dodgy cheese.

He has also been interviewed in the June issue of Gay Times, and in the June issue of Attitude (these two publications are not available online). In the interview in Attitude, Michael Langan writes:

Three more titles were published in October and are available from Waterstones, Amazon and most good bookshops:

  Various authors - Uncut Diamonds

  Hélène du Coudray - Another Country

  Norman Thomas - The Thousand-Petalled Daisy

Find out about these books by clicking the "Books" link on the sidebar, or clicking here.

'The Thousand-Petalled Daisy' is the 'Friday Book' in The Independent of 21st November. Michael Arditti writes:

To read the whole review click here.

The Independent on Sunday reviewed 'The Thousand-Petalled Daisy' on 26th October. Awarding the novel 4 stars out of a possible 5, Murrough O'Brien writes:

To read the whole review click here.

'Uncut Diamonds' was reviewed in the Christmas issue of The Big Issue. The review, by Fiona Hook, reads:

'On Becoming a Fairy Godmother' was reviewed in The Guardian on 29th November. Alfred Hickling writes:

To read the whole review click here.

'In Denial' was reviewed at length by Sarah Curtis in the Times Literary Supplement on 28 July. She writes:

The Times Literary Supplement also reviewed 'On Becoming a Fairy Godmother' on 8th August. Stephanie Cross writes:

Boyd Tonkin's 'A week in books' column in The Independent Magazine features Maia Press and wishes us 'a fair wind.' Read the full text here

Booker Prize Chairman, Martyn Goff OBE, helped launch the Maia Press at the Groucho Club, Soho, on 19th June, the publication date of the new publishing house’s first three titles.

A short report of the launch can be found here

Since the release of our first books on 19th June, there have been a number of reviews, including a review of 'In Denial' in the fictional shorts section of The Times. Here is a small extract:

To read the whole review click here.

A much longer review of 'On Becoming A Fairy Godmother' was published in The Spectator. Here is a small extract:

Read the whole thing here.