IT was a successful week for a Halwill based publishing company recently who have held a sell-out showcase event and won a top prize in national publishing awards.

On Thursday, May 11, Ronnie Goodyear and Dawn Bauling of Indigo Dreams Publishing, based in Cookworthy Forest, Halwill, hosted the Indigo Dreams Showcase at Cheltenham Playhouse Theatre, as part of the Cheltenham Poetry Festival.

Two days later, on May 13, they won the ‘Most Innovative Publisher’ award at the prestigious national Saboteur Publishing Awards 2017, held in London.

These annual awards for literature and publishing are voted for by the public and with over 4,000 nominations this year Indigo Dreams were delighted to take the top spot.

Voters’ comments included ‘my vote is for Indigo Dreams because they’re consistently good books, and Ronnie and Dawn are so endlessly supportive of their writers and readers alike’ and ‘working with Indigo Dreams is like becoming part of a great family’.

Indigo Dreams was runners-up for an award last year and were even more delighted to discover they had won first prize this year. They were the only south west based publishers to be shortlisted for the awards.

Their magazine ‘Reach Poetry’ was also shortlisted for an award, in the ‘Best Magazine’ category, but did not win, however that did not dampen the teams spirits.

Mr Goodyear said they were proud to have won and wanted to thank those who voted for them, he said: “It is a great honour to win this coveted award, particularly so because it is national and voted for by people who enjoy what we are doing. We were delighted to be runner-up last year — but this feeling is so much better!

“We know that a number of local people voted for us, and we’d like to thank them so much for their unstinting support.”