The Ballad of Ronan McCoy with Colin Morgan
Wed 17 Jun 2026
7:00pm at Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution, 16-18 Queen Square, Bath, BA1 2HN
Book + Ticket gives you 1 ticket with a copy of the book included, all tickets include 15% off any books purchased on the night, and author talk.
Other ways to book:
Email books@mrbsemporium.com, call 01225 331155 or pop into the shop at 14-15 John Street, Bath. BA1 2JL.
We are absolutely thrilled to welcome beloved actor Colin Morgan, for a special event as we celebrate publication of his debut novel.
The Ballad of Ronan McCoy is a beautifully written, tender coming-of-age story about friendship and first love, loss and letting go, and the hopes and fears of a young man standing on the cusp of the rest of his life. For fans of Douglas Stuart, Michael Magee, David Nicholls and Andrew O’Hagan.
Colin Morgan grew up in Northern Ireland, a boy with an instinctive love for stories: hearing them, telling them, writing them, performing them. As an adult he counts himself very lucky that not much has changed, finding himself on stage, in front of a camera, before a microphone or with pen in hand, storytelling. As an actor he is known for his roles in BBC fantasy series Merlin, the science fiction drama Humans, and Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast.
** PLEASE NOTE: Colin will not be doing an in-person signing at the event, but will be able to pre-sign and dedicate copies of the book, so if you purchase a book+ticket, please let us know the name of the person you would like it dedicated to in the order comment.**
Can’t make it to the event? Order a signed and dedicated copy here.
About the book:
Brendan’s best friend, his only friend, is Ronan McCoy. He knows things about Brendan that no one else does: about his job washing the cars at Feeney’s Funeral Home, about the loneliness he sometimes feels even when surrounded by hundreds of others at school. But Brendan never told Ronan about the dark feeling that sits at the bottom of his stomach, the feeling that tells him something bad is coming. It never comes when Ronan’s around.
Ronan is smart and sporty and popular, totally comfortable in his own skin: all the things that Brendan himself isn’t. But Ronan always makes him feel like a good friend, a good person, a better Brendan.
Standing at the school gates on the first day of term, the dark feeling begins to form in Brendan’s stomach. And when Ronan doesn’t turn up, Brendan learns that something terrible happened to his best friend over the summer and he’ll never be the same again. Over the course of the final year of school, Brendan will have to learn to navigate the new shape of their friendship and find a place for himself in the world without Ronan to protect him.
“A painfully optimistic book that does the favour of making you laugh as it breaks your heart” – Kenneth Branagh
“A tender, elegant novel about the beauty and importance of friendship…One of the most moving books I’ve read in some time” – John Boyne