QUEENS OF THE CRONE AGE (2026, PS Publishing) - cover reveal and pre-order links

Back in 2021, writing QUEENS OF THE CRONE AGE was something that wasn’t in my five-year plan. 

I’d taken an unpaid sabbatical—my first career break in thirty years– born from exhaustion, and the strong desire to make a reckless change.

So in October 2021, I started on a dream residency in Cill Rialaig, County Kerry. And that’s where I met the Hag, and all my carefully-laid plans fell apart. 

On Bolus Head, on the edge of the Atlantic, I sat in the cottage of the village storyteller reading his magnum opus, Leabhar Sheáin í Chonaill (Seán Ó Conaill’s Book). Inside, a treasury of legends of the Iveragh Peninsula, and curious folktales of gigantic, powerful older women—the Hags—na Cailleacha—of Beara, Bolus and Dingle. 

The more I researched the Cailleach, the more fascinated I grew. A mother goddess, dropping rocks in the ocean from her apron to form islands, a sovereignty goddess who chose kings, a giant force of nature who both created and who was the land.

All around me, signs of the Hag quietly manifested. Stories that found me . . .

. . . a white owl, a cailleach oiche that flew over my cottage three times. And just over the border of Kerry and Cork, near Eyeries, the site where the Cailleach turned to stone—a large rock looking out to sea, decorated with intercessional items left by generations of women. Looking at them, I was struck at the contrast between the Cailleach—powerful, agentic, wise—and the diluted way that older women tend to be represented in literature. I wanted to tie her master-narrative with stories of her modern descendants. And so it was born, a book of tales of contemporary older women wound together with skeins of Hag-lore: stories of love, loss, joy and redemption.

From then on, the Cailleach possessed me . . .

We went on a wild journey together. There were further residencies in Cill Rialaig, where I wrote stories that appear in this book, ‘Ana Ní Áine,’ ‘The Women In The Water,’ and the final story ‘What Happens At The End,’ which went on to win the Paul Cave Prize for Literature in 2024. Thanks to the Kone Foundation, I was awarded a Saari Fellowship in 2022, which later enabled a forest residency near Mynämäki in Finland, where I wrote ‘Uhripuu’ and the companion piece to this book, THEY SHUT ME UP (2023, PS  Publishing). In 2025, I completed this book at a final residency in Cove Park in Argylle & Bute where I reread, reconsidered and rewrote the final draft of what is now QUEENS OF THE CRONE AGE.

In 2024, at my last residency in Cill Rialaig, when I finished the first draft of QUEENS OF THE CRONE AGE, I went again to pay homage to the Cailleach at her stone in Beara. As a closing ritual in the bright August sunshine, I drew a card—the Empress. And so our four-year journey ended together, me, the Cailleach, and the card I drew at her stone: the Empress, Divine Feminine, Earth Mother, sovereignty goddess. Under a blue sky, the Hag restored, landscape incarnate.

From start to finish QUEENS OF THE CRONE AGE was a passion project . . .

 . . . tales of darkness and light, a love-letter to the power and majesty of women, a tribute to ancestral roots, and a possible route back towards a way of being, rooted in earth and love and strength.

I hope you find traces of ancient green Hag-magic within its pages.

Special thanks to the brilliant team at PS Publishing, especially Nicky who acquired this book, Marie who edited it, Mike who designed it, and Tamsin for introducing it into the world.

A signed hardcover edition limited to 100 copies and signed by the author will be available in June for £29 plus postage.

You can preorder a copy here:

https://pspublishing.co.uk/queens-of-the-crone-age-signed-hardcover

A trade paperback edition will also be available for £14.99. You can preorder a copy here:

https://pspublishing.co.uk/queens-of-the-crone-age-trade-paperback