  We have identified two late M dwarfs within 10 parsecs of the Sun, by
cross-correlating the Luyten NLTT catalogue of stars with proper motions larger
than 0.18 arcsec/yr, with objects lacking optical identification in the 2MASS
data base. The 2MASS photometry was then combined with improved optical
photometry obtained from the SuperCOSMOS Sky Surveys. The two objects (LP775-31
and LP655-48) have extremely red optical-to-infrared colours ((R-K)~7) and very
bright infrared magnitudes (K_s<10): follow-up optical spectroscopy with the
ESO 3.6-m telescope gave spectral types of M8.0 and M7.5 dwarfs, respectively.
Comparison of their near-infrared magnitudes with the absolute magnitudes of
known M8 and M7.5 dwarfs with measured trigonometric parallaxes yields
spectroscopic distance estimates of 6.4+/-1.4 parsecs and 8.0+/-1.6 parsecs for
LP775-31 and LP655-48, respectively. In contrast, Cruz & Reid (2002) recently
determined spectral types of M6 for both objects, and commensurately larger
distances of 11.3+/-1.3 parsecs and 15.3+/-2.6 parsecs. LP655-48 is also a
bright X-ray source (1RXS J044022.8-053020). With only a few late M dwarfs
previously known within 10 parsecs, these two objects represent an important
addition to the census of the Solar neighbourhood.
