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From one of the U.K.'s most dazzling authors comes a brutal and funny novel about a pair of fraudulent psychic mediums that is itself an elaborate con game between fact and fiction, life and death--a book as verbally acrobatic as it is emotionally intense.
'Kennedy is a superb writer and the canniness of her observation keeps you reading' Sunday Times Humour, fantasy, rage and despair both help and hinder the protagonists of these stories as they navigate changing circumstances, accumulating losses, moments of comprehension and tenderness. Here is the woman, hoping for a quiet day at the zoo, who finally snaps at a white man's racist tirade and vents years of fury; the micro-celebrity who practises lines for a chat show on which he'll never appear; and the woman who walks out of her honeymoon suite at midnight, perhaps for good. Unsparing in her close examination of human relationships, A. L. Kennedy proves once again why she is regarded as one of our great storytellers. 'Kennedy dissects the small intimacies of inner thoughts... Her prose is typically direct, her sentences clear-cut and yet capable of great tenderness' Observer 'An author with a proven ability to see - truly see - and whose prose can fire like gunshots across the page' New Statesman
Charming lessons in life, death and kindness . . . Hugely moving' Observer This is the story of Mary, a young girl born in a beautiful city full of rose gardens and fluttering kites. When she is still very small, Mary meets Lanmo, a shining golden snake, who becomes her very best friend. The snake visits Mary many times, he sees her grow and her city change, as bombs drop and war creeps in. Lanmo wonders, can having a friend possibly be worth the pain of knowing you will lose them?
LONGLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE Jon is 59 and divorced: a senior civil servant in Westminster who hates many of his colleagues and loathes his work, he is a good man in a bad world. Meg is a bankrupt accountant – two words you don’t want in the same sentence, or anywhere near your CV. Living on Telegraph Hill, she can see London unfurl below her. Somewhere out there is safety. As Jon and Meg navigate the sweet and serious heart of London – passing through 24 hours that will change them both for ever – they tell a very unusual, unbearably moving love story.
A. L. Kennedy, the son of a British diplomat, began a long career in journalism with The Times before the First World War. When he returned to the newspaper in 1919 - as Captain Kennedy - he began to keep a journal of his activities and ideas, his conversations with politicians, officials and journalists. This book is an edited and annotated selection from his journals between 1932 and 1939, during which period he served as The Times' assistant foreign editor and in which capacity he was responsible for most of the leading articles on foreign affairs. His journals provide a fascinating insight into the complicated relationship between The Times and the government: intriguing to read, they are an extremely valuable source for historians of diplomacy politics and journalism in Britain between the wars and help to illuminate our understanding of 'appeasement'.
Before Hitler and the bombs, Alfred Day was a boy in Staffordshire, helpless to defend his mother, to resist his abusive father. The RAF gave him order, skills, another family and a way to be a man. In 1949, Alfred winds back time to see where he lost himself. He picks his way through the clichés that will become all that's left of his war and begins to do what he's never dared - to remember.
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This introduction places Kennedy's work in a clear historical and theoretical context. Its importance is considered in terms of contemporary Scottish identity and relevance to key issues in contemporary culture. Accessible and comprehensive, this guide includes a timeline of key dates, interview with the author and an overview of critical reception.
A collection of 12 stories from an author selected twice as one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists.
After six novels, five story collections and two books of non-fiction, and countless international prizes, A.L. Kennedy certainly has the authority to talk about the craft of writing books – it’s just a wonder she’s found the time. These are missives from the authorial front line – urgent and vivid, full of the excitement, fury and frustration of trying to make thousands of words into a publishable book. At the core of On Writing is the hugely popular blog that Kennedy writes for the Guardian – and we follow her during a three-year period when she finished one collection of stories and started another, and wrote a novel in between. Readers and aspiring writers will have almost ever...