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'A quietly incendiary piece of writing, at times heartbreaking, at other times really wonderfully funny... a profoundly humane, funny and smart novel' Independent A dying man and his only son. Six old friends. A missing videotape. And a reunion in a crumbling house on the edge of The Quarry. Praise for Iain Banks: 'The most imaginative novelist of his generation' The Times 'His verve and talent will always be recognised, and his work will always find and enthral new readers' Ken MacLeod, Guardian 'His work was mordant, surreal, and fiercely intelligent' Neil Gaiman 'An exceptional wordsmith' Scotsman
THIS IS IT—WHERE QUARRY'S STORY ALL BEGAN. AND ANOTHER LIFE ENDED. The assignment was simple: stake out the man's home and kill him. Easy work for a professional like Quarry. But when things go horribly wrong, Quarry finds himself with a new mission: learn who hired him, and make the bastard pay.
“The most frightening novel of the year.” – The Scotsman Todd, Randy, and Carter come across a boy while roaming the countryside near their town. They take him hostage in a cave in an abandoned quarry and consider what to do next. In Lord of the Flies, William Golding needed a plane crash and a desert island to bring out the capacity for violence and evil in his English schoolboys. Jane White, a mother and housewife living in Godalming when she wrote Quarry, needed only a chance encounter in fields not unlike those around her own development. Quarry is deeply unsettling. White’s teenaged kidnappers ride bikes, worry about exams, have to be home in time for supper. Yet they also imprison and torture another boy with the cold calculating objectivity that Hannah Arendt called “the banality of evil.” Written in cool, realistic prose, Quarry pulls the reader into a vortex of violence and inhumanity. It’s a gripping and believable account of a crime and a parable filled with complex symbolism. “Nothing since A High Wind in Jamaica probes the depths of innocence with such terror and finesse as Jane White’s novel,” declared Newsday.
Drawing the Head for Artists is the definitive modern guide to drawing the human head and portrait, featuring the classic mediums and methods of the Old Masters. Written by celebrated portrait artist and veteran studio instructor Oliver Sin, this richly informative and beautifully illustrated volume leads readers step-by-step through his method, from establishing a point of view to applying the timeless principles for creating an accurate and expressive likeness. Among the topics covered: Essential Materials & Techniques:Learn about necessary supplies and basic drawing techniques, including hatching, various stroke styles, and blending. Applying the Essentials: Explore how the concepts of si...
With a jangle of keys, a door opened. Herbert clanked in, his arms locked to his sides, his ankles shackled, his face a Hannibal Lecter mask. He was overjoyed to see me. “Marco, I’m jailed day and night with murderous thugs who can’t tell Schiller from Shakespeare. I’m desperate for intellectual stimulus—but you’ll do for now.” TV personality Marco Ocram is the world’s only self-penned character, writing his life in real time as you read it. Marco’s celebrity mentor, Herbert Quarry, grooms him to be the Jackson Pollock of literature, teaching him to splatter words on a page without thought or revision. Quarry’s plan backfires when imbecilic Marco begins to type his first thought-free book: it’s a murder mystery—and Herbert’s caught red-handed by the butchered body of his lover. Now Marco must write himself into a crusade to clear his friend’s name. Typing the first words that come into his head, Marco unleashes a phantasmagorical catalogue of twists in his pursuit of justice, writing the world’s fastest-selling book to reveal the awful truth about the Herbert Quarry affair.
The Quarry presents new and pivotal Susan Howe prose pieces. A powerful selection of Susan Howe's previously uncollected essays, The Quarry moves backward chronologically, from her brand-new "Vagrancy in the Park" (about Wallace Stevens) through such essential texts as "The Disappearance Approach," "Personal Narrative," "Sorting Facts," "Frame Structures," and "Where Should the Commander Be," and ending with her seminal early criticism, "The End of Art." The essays of The Quarry map the intellectual territory of one of America's most important and vital avant-garde poets.
When Martha gains a place at the university, her achievement is met with a mixture of hostility and pride by her uncomprehending family. It is there that she meets Luke (married to her friend Dussie) who is to haunt the years that lie ahead as she struggles to cope with the intellectual and emotional challenges that surround her at work and at home. This is essentially the story of a young woman's journey to maturity and independence, her high ideals, and a slowly-growing awareness of her passionate nature. Nan Shepherd's subtle prose and her understanding of the hidden currents which move people are matched by her intense and memorable descriptions of the natural world, and a dry sense of humour. The book has lost none of its freshness and originality since it met with high praise on publication over seventy years ago - four years before Grassic Gibbon's Sunset Song.
SHORTLISTED FOR CHILDREN'S NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR AT THE BRITISH BOOK AWARDS 2022 'Thank you for being the baddest in the literary game, knowing and loving us Black girls' CANDICE CARTY-WILLIAMS, author of Queenie 'Such a loving and warm guide and ode to black girls, I am so happy the younger generation have this in their lives' BOLU BABALOLA, author of Love in Colour Your big sis in book form, Grown is the ultimate fully illustrated guide to navigating life as a Black teenage girl. With a foreword from the inimitable Spice Girl Melanie Brown and contributions from inspirational Black women such as Diane Abbott MP, Dorothy Koomson and Candice Carty-Williams and illustrations from Dorca...
A guide to repurposing used books and pages into unique, accessible art projects—the perfect gift for artists, crafters and book lovers. In these pages, Jason Thompson has curated an extensive and artistic range of both achievable upcycled crafts made from books and book pages and an amazing gallery that contains thought-provoking and beautiful works that transform books into art. The content encompasses a wide range of techniques and step-by-step projects that deconstruct and rebuild books and their parts into unique, recycled objects. The book combines in equal measure bookbinding, woodworking, paper crafting, origami, and textile and decorative arts techniques, along with a healthy dose of experimentation and fun. The beautiful high-end presentation and stunning photography make this book a delightful, must-have volume for any book-loving artist or art-loving book collector.
'Halls' stories show that even in zero-hour, austerity-battered Britain, the tenderness and warmth of human connection exists. The Quarry is, in the end, a testament to this messy truth - how love, hate, hope and fear have always lived on the same street' GLEN BROWN, author of Ironopolis You can see it in them; all that anger inside, it's toxic. Throw some drink into it and everything bubbles over. People say that they never see it coming, the swing of the fist that kicks it all off, but I can tell. In these interconnected short stories, we meet the men living on the Quarry Lane estate in west London. These are men at work, at the pub, at home, with their families, lovers and friends. Men grappling with addiction, sexuality and the corrosive effects of toxic masculinity. From a bouncer at the local nightclub, to a postman returning to the streets of his youth, and a young man thinking of all the things he'd say and do to the father who left him behind, this startling debut reveals the complex inner lives of individuals whose voices are too often non-existent in fiction. Powerful and impressive, The Quarry marks the arrival of a bold new voice.