Time travel comedy wins The Guardian Legend first self-published award

Dinosaurs and Prime Numbers by Tom Moran is the first winner of The Guardian and Legend Press’s new monthly prize for self-published authors.

The book is the first in a series starring Walton Cumberfield and is a bit of a genre crossover that seems to be a time travel comedy.

The Guardian’s summing-up of the book says (rather patronisingly, particularly for a newspaper nicknamed The Grauniad for its generous use of typos): “It is surprisingly easy to forget that Dinosaurs and Prime Numbers is self-published – that it hasn’t been through the editing, streamlining, stringent process of a publishing house.

“Spelling, grammar, the rest of it, are all spot-on, and Moran’s story hangs together neatly, pleasingly, and open-endedly ready for a follow-up.

“Comedy is notoriously difficult to get right, and Moran makes a valiant attempt at it in Dinosaurs and Prime Numbers, ending up with a slice of (sometimes) comic fantasy which deserves comparison to the likes of Robert Rankin.”

Become a self-publishing Legend in The Guardian monthly contest