Latest News
September 2023
WAHALA Shortlisted for The Diverse Book Awards.
Created by bestselling, award-winning author Abiola Bello and award-winning publicist Helen Lewis to highlight the best of the diverse voices published in the UK & Ireland both traditionally and self-published.
The Winner will be announced on
October 25th, so fingers (and paws) crossed!
June 2023
WAHALA Longlisted for the Goldsboro Books Glass Bell Awards.
The Glass Bell Award is the only prize that rewards storytelling in all genres – from romance, thrillers, and ghost stories, to historical, speculative, and literary fiction – and is awarded annually to ‘a compelling novel with brilliant characterisation and a distinct voice that is confidently written and assuredly realised’.
David Headley, founder of the Glass Bell Award says: “2022’s debut game was incredibly strong and so when we started having conversations about putting together our Glass Bell longlist – coupled with established authors putting out some of their best works yet – I knew we had a challenge ahead of us. However, my team and I work very closely to make sure that we are all in agreement about what goes on the longlist and once again, I am delighted with the outcome. The aim of the Glass Bell Award is to acknowledge incredible storytelling – and this year is no exception!”
May 2023
WAHALA Longlisted for the TIKTOK Book Awards.
Wahala was Longlisted in the Best Book I Wish I Could Read Again For The First Time category alongside such writers as Salley Rooney, Matt Haig, and Malorie Blackman.
19 March 2023
WAHALA wins Comedy Women in Print - New Voice Award.
Part of Penguin’s Sue Townsend legacy initiative with CWIP - it was awarded to Anglo-Nigerian author Nikki May for her comedic and joyously relatable friendship thriller.
The CWIP Prize was launched by actor, author and stand-up comedian Helen Lederer in 2019 as a literary platform to increase exposure for diverse female witty voices in comedy fiction and as a way of celebrating fresh and established talent.
Judges: ‘Incredibly relatable and so funny!’
19 May 2021
WAHALA is being adapted for the BBC by Bafta-nominated writer Theresa Ikoko (Rocks).
Theresa Ikoko says: “I can’t wait to bring Nikki May’s amazing book WAHALA to the screen with BBC and Firebird. It is a fantastic, intriguing, suspenseful story of friendship, rivalry secrecy, and revenge, think Big Little Lies meets Girlfriends meets Peckham! It’s also a really amazing celebration of Nigerian British culture, which I’m a proud flag-bearer of, so it’s going to be a lot of the correct jollof rice, awe-inspiring geles and breath-taking moments, we hope you love it!”
WAHALA is executive produced by Mona Qureshi for the BBC and Elizabeth Kilgarriff for Firebird Pictures. BBC Studios will distribute the series internationally.
21 April 2021
Firebird Pictures, the BBC Studios-backed drama production house co-founded by former BBC Commissioning Editor Elizabeth Kilgarriff, has won the option for debut novel WAHALA by author Nikki May, fighting off competition from multiple bidders.
Firebird’s Kilgarriff, whose credits include Bodyguard, Luther, and The Cry, said: “Being entrusted by Nikki to bring the wonderful WAHALA to screen is a huge privilege. Putting female friendship under the spotlight and featuring real, funny, and refreshingly imperfect women, Nikki has created a story that is both utterly relatable and fantastically epic – everything you could want to make standout, thrilling and entertaining drama with plenty to say about our lives today”.