Gill Books signs two-book deal for ‘spine-tingling’ series by Dave Rudden

Gill Books has signed a two-book deal for a “spine-tingling” new series by Dave Rudden. Venetia Gosling, children’s publisher at Gill Books, acquired world English-language rights (excluding North America) to the new fiction series, Tales of Darkisle, from Clare Wallace at the Darley Anderson Children’s Book Agency, UK.

Tales of Darkisle debuts in May 2025 with Conn of the Dead, and the second book, Nell on Earth, will follow in early 2026. The “spooky” new series is aimed at 9-12-year-old readers, and follows creatures from Irish folklore in a modern setting. It is illustrated throughout by Ali Al Amine, who is also represented by Clare Wallace.

The synopsis to the first book reads: “Conn of the Dead follows 11-year-old serial miscreant Conn, who accidentally releases the Abhartach monster while poking around UCD’s National Folklore Collection. A terrifying chase through the university ensues, as the bodiless sorcerer hunts Conn through every piece of technology it can find. Can Conn work out how to defeat the Abhartach before it regains its true power…?”

Rudden is also the author of Knights of the Borrowed Dark (Puffin), which won Children’s Book of the Year at the Irish Book Awards in 2016.

Gosling said: “I’m delighted to have acquired this very commercial new junior horror series from Dave Rudden – set in Ireland, with contemporary characters encountering legendary monsters from Irish mythology, it’s creepy and funny and full of heart – and kids are going to love it. Dave is a brilliant writer, and fantastic at events, so I know we’re going to have a lot of fun promoting it, too.”