Both The Babylon Run and the omnibus edition combining all three novels of the Dying of Paradise trilogy are now at the proofing stage. Editing these early novels for reissue was a weird experience. A collaboration with a familiar stranger, one who’s fully immersed in and committed to the kind of stuff I don’t do any more.

For that reason I made a deliberate choice not to update or improve. Back then I wouldn’t have been too happy with some old guy taking liberties with my text, so I’m respecting that now. And these are very much pieces of their time; that includes The Babylon Run, unpublished in ’82, held ready until now.

I’ll be honest, I assumed that it would never see the light of day. Or if it did, that no one would be interested. Seems I was wrong on both counts. Though the text was completed in 1982 the publication and copyright dates will fall within this year.

A word on the formats. The completed trilogy will be available both as an Ebook and as a 600-page paperback, price tba. Both versions will include a link to a downloadable PDF of the novelised radio serial that kicked everything off, The Last Rose of Summer. Much of the text was incorporated into Dying of Paradise, so it’s for completists and nostalgists only. If nostalgist is even a word.

The Babylon Run will also be issued as a standalone paperback in the style and pocketbook trim size of Sphere’s 1982 editions, intended for shelving alongside them.

And no, I won’t be republishing the set … for that, there’s Ebay.

Dying of Paradise: The Trilogy ISBN 978 1 9160578 7 6

The Babylon Run ISBN 978 1 9160578 8 3