Prestige Drama
On sale
7th May 2026
Price: £14.99
‘DISARMINGLY HILARIOUS’ SUNDAY TIMES
‘ROLLICKING . . . CAUSTIC, WITHERING AND GENUINELY FUNNY’ INDEPENDENT
‘FUNNY AND TRAGIC’ TLS
‘BOISTEROUS’ NEW YORK TIMES
‘A COMEDY ABOUT TRAGEDY. BRUTAL, PROFOUND AND VERY FUNNY‘ NINA STIBBE
Derry is already abuzz with news that famous American actor, Monica Logue, has flown to the city and will be starring in a new series set during the Troubles. And then she goes missing . . .
All eyes are on Diarmuid, the flaky scriptwriter who was the last to see Monica alive. From budding young actors hoping for a role to grieving parent whose story forms the backbone of the narrative; newspaper editors covering the mystery to taxi drivers hearing all the news from their clients, Prestige Drama follows the city’s cast as they all try to locate themselves in Monica’s disappearance.
Séamas O’Reilly’s debut novel is a comedy about dramatising tragedy, and the responsibilities of a teller to a tale. It brings to life the voices of a city, the people, families and communities who find themselves obsessed with, and terrified of, interrogating their past.
‘VERY FUNNY . . . [O’REILLY] HAS A GIFT FOR CAPTURING STRANGE BEHAVIOUR AND THE COMEDY IN ALL OF OUR UGLY HUMANITY’ OBSERVER
‘SPARKLING WITH HEARTACHE AND WIT. I’M IN LOVE WITH EVERY CHARACTER’ CAROLINE O’DONOGHUE
‘BRISTINGLY FUNNY, RICHLY HUMANE. SÉAMAS O’REILLY HAS A RARE AND VITAL COMIC GIFT’ MARK O’CONNELL
‘I HOWLED WITH LAUGHTER. SÉAMAS IS A NATURAL STORYTELLER’ ANNIE MAC
‘A HILARIOUS AND PROFOUND NOVEL’ ED CAESAR
‘NOBODY ELSE COULD WRITE A BOOK LIKE THIS ABOUT TRAGEDY, LOSS AND WHO GETS TO TELL A STORY, WITH SUCH DEFT AND MOVING WIT’ EVA WISEMAN
‘O’REILLY IS A STARTINGLY PERCEPTIVE WRITER’ SPECTATOR
‘ROLLICKING . . . CAUSTIC, WITHERING AND GENUINELY FUNNY’ INDEPENDENT
‘FUNNY AND TRAGIC’ TLS
‘BOISTEROUS’ NEW YORK TIMES
‘A COMEDY ABOUT TRAGEDY. BRUTAL, PROFOUND AND VERY FUNNY‘ NINA STIBBE
Derry is already abuzz with news that famous American actor, Monica Logue, has flown to the city and will be starring in a new series set during the Troubles. And then she goes missing . . .
All eyes are on Diarmuid, the flaky scriptwriter who was the last to see Monica alive. From budding young actors hoping for a role to grieving parent whose story forms the backbone of the narrative; newspaper editors covering the mystery to taxi drivers hearing all the news from their clients, Prestige Drama follows the city’s cast as they all try to locate themselves in Monica’s disappearance.
Séamas O’Reilly’s debut novel is a comedy about dramatising tragedy, and the responsibilities of a teller to a tale. It brings to life the voices of a city, the people, families and communities who find themselves obsessed with, and terrified of, interrogating their past.
‘VERY FUNNY . . . [O’REILLY] HAS A GIFT FOR CAPTURING STRANGE BEHAVIOUR AND THE COMEDY IN ALL OF OUR UGLY HUMANITY’ OBSERVER
‘SPARKLING WITH HEARTACHE AND WIT. I’M IN LOVE WITH EVERY CHARACTER’ CAROLINE O’DONOGHUE
‘BRISTINGLY FUNNY, RICHLY HUMANE. SÉAMAS O’REILLY HAS A RARE AND VITAL COMIC GIFT’ MARK O’CONNELL
‘I HOWLED WITH LAUGHTER. SÉAMAS IS A NATURAL STORYTELLER’ ANNIE MAC
‘A HILARIOUS AND PROFOUND NOVEL’ ED CAESAR
‘NOBODY ELSE COULD WRITE A BOOK LIKE THIS ABOUT TRAGEDY, LOSS AND WHO GETS TO TELL A STORY, WITH SUCH DEFT AND MOVING WIT’ EVA WISEMAN
‘O’REILLY IS A STARTINGLY PERCEPTIVE WRITER’ SPECTATOR
Reviews
Viciously and hilariously astute . . . A riotous mixture of raucous humour, burning sarcasm, genuine empathy and real sadness
Every bit as darkly funny as you might expect
Séamas is one of my favourite living writers. Honestly - there is nobody else who could write a book like this about tragedy, loss and who gets to tell a story, with such deft and moving wit
Prestige Drama is bristlingly funny, richly humane, and alive with insight into how we live with the complexities of a violent past. Séamas O'Reilly is a writer with a rare and vital comic gift
The Hollywood-ification of Northern Ireland and the rise of Troubles tourism is brilliantly and bitterly rendered in this very funny book. O'Reilly - a Derry native and regular writer for The Observer magazine, whose memoir Did Ye Hear Mammy Died? was similarly uninterested in sentimentality - has a gift for capturing strange behaviour and the comedy in all of our ugly humanity
O'Reilly is a startlingly perceptive writer, capturing with acuity the rogue characters, rifts, gripes and festering resentments that make up this motley community
Disarmingly hilarious
In this kaleidoscopic rendering of the case of a missing film star, Séamas O'Reilly manages to convey all the grief, humour, charm of the people Derry City through the colourful voices of its inhabitants. He is a natural storyteller, writing in vivid, beautifully articulated sentences. Séamas understands deeply the conjoinment of pain and humour in the Irish psyche. I howled with laughter in parts. But the pain lies between the lines, buried beneath the surface of small talk and gossip. This is where Séamas is best, at rendering the complex contradictions of a modern city which can't escape the ghosts of its past
A comedy about tragedy. Séamas O'Reilly has written a brutal, profound, and very funny novel
Funny and tragic
Rollicking . . . caustic, withering and genuinely funny
Séamas O'Reilly has created a vast mosaic of voices, each sparkling with heartache and wit. I'm in love with every character in this novel, and like most prestige dramas, it ended far too soon.
Everyone's going to talk about how funny Prestige Drama is. That's a no brainer. But behind every brilliant line is shimmering humanity, and a deeply satisfying investigation into one of fiction's biggest questions. Does taking your broken heart and making it into art actually work, or just lead to the creation of more broken hearts?
Séamas O'Reilly is very good
I couldn't be looking forward to it more
Impressive . . . This tragicomic set piece deftly encapsulates one of the novel's observations: that Derry is defined by its recent history even as it tries desperately to outgrow it
A tragicomic portrait of a community . . . vital, soulful, reflective, battle-scarred, comic, and/or profane . . . A virtuoso chorus of community experience gives voice to undead trauma
A coal black portrait of a struggling community
There is hilarity and pathos on every page. Utterly engaging and authentic, Prestige Drama says so much about Derry and its people, about Irish culture and its pathologies, and about the challenges and necessity of storytelling in a heavily storied place
Prestige Drama is a hilarious and profound novel. Seamas O'Reilly has an acute ear for the rhythms of real speech, and for the lies we tell ourselves