Why Hebden Bridge publishers Bluemoose Books is only releasing books by women after impressive 2019

“In terms of sales it has been our best ever,” says Kevin Duffy who founded the company with his wife Hetha back in 2006.

Duffy and his team certainly seem to have an unerring instinct for quality – they spotted the huge talents of the now multi-award-winning Ben Myers, publishing several of his early works and had a big success with his 2018 novel The Gallows Pole.

Inspired by the true story of the Cragg Vale coiners, an 18th century Calderdale counterfeiting gang, it received great critical acclaim and went on to win the prestigious Walter Scott award, the world’s leading literary prize for historical fiction.

That was closely followed by Myers’ back list being picked up by Bloomsbury.

“Both those things increased our visibility,” says Duffy. “The biggest problem for small presses is making people aware of our existence. With Ben being more on the up and up, people have been visiting our website and looking at our other books and authors, which is great.”

And then last year they struck gold with the debut novel of Irish writer Ronan Hession. Leonard and Hungry Paul, a beautifully written lyrical novel about friendship, family, quiet connections, ordinary people and everyday kindness and valuing the simple things in life, was a word-of-mouth runaway success.

Published in March, it was almost immediately chosen for BBC Radio 2’s Book Club, was selected as a summer read by The Observer and in October was shortlisted for the An Irish Post Irish Book Awards.

“It’s just gone on to sell and sell. I think most publishers would say that a lot of it is about timing and if you get it right...,” says Duffy.

“With the world going to hell in a handcart, I think people are looking for solace in their books and in Leonard and Hungry Paul you have got it – it is balm for the soul. That’s what people are writing to me in emails on a daily basis; they are saying ‘thank you so much for publishing it’ and people are carrying those characters around with them.”

Another big hit for Bluemoose last year was Clara Barley’s The Moss House. This was another debut novel and its success also owed a lot to good timing.

Telling the love story of 19th century Yorkshire landowners Anne Lister and Ann Walker, it arrived on the scene shortly after the hugely popular and acclaimed Sally Wainwright-scripted BBC series Gentleman Jack which introduced the extraordinary Lister – scholar, traveller, mountaineer and uncompromising non-conformist – to the rest of the world.

“Everyone in the Calder Valley knew about Anne Lister, it’s a bit like the Cragg Vale coiners too, and those stories are so powerful,” says Duffy. “It sounds like a cliché but it is our job to find those stories and get them out there. And think it’s also about having a gut feeling about what readers will want.”

Bluemoose have also built up a mutually beneficial relationship with independent bookshops.

“They have got behind us massively, without their support we wouldn’t be here,” says Duffy. “They are telling us that readers are looking for new, exciting, original voices and they are generally not finding those in the big high street booksellers.”

This year the company will be publishing only books written by women writers, aged 45 plus.

“It seemed to us that women over a certain age were being marginalised by mainstream publishing and their stories were not being told anymore,” says Duffy. “So we decided that we would focus on that this year. We have got four great stories and what links them all is that they are about women being silenced.”

Saving Lucia by Anna Vaught will be the first book to be published in April. “It tells the story of two women – Violet Gibson, the Irish aristocrat who shot Mussolini and James Joyce’s daughter Lucia, both of whom were put away to be silenced.”

In June they will publish Heidi James’ second novel The Sound Mirror which Duffy describes as “a really powerful intergenerational story” followed in September by Sharon Dougal’s Should We Fall Behind, a timely exploration of identity and belonging and finally in November comes East Coast Road by Anna Chilvers about how a long-distance walk helps a young woman deal with a traumatic experience.

“While there is a link, they are all completely different,” says Duffy. “We just want to let people know what great stories there are out there.”