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A first (published, that is) novel from a small press made it onto the prestigious Man Booker Prize long list this year. The news reached the delighted publishers at the best possible time – during a meeting with their funders. Clare Morrall’s Astonishing Splashes of Colour (Tindal Street Press, Birmingham, UK, £7.99) is now on the short list. It is fiction, but her plot has a scientific puzzle at its heart: synaesthesia. Compelling stuff, wonderfully written.