You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
An anthology of 22 stories set in the West Midlands and written by past and present members of the influential Tindal Street Fiction Group. Some authors ( e.g. Annie Murray, Amanda Smyth, Alan Beard, Gaynor Arnold, Joel Lane, Mick Scully, Mez Packer, Jackie Gay) are published novelists or story-writers. Others like Sibyl Ruth, Charles Wilkinson, Roz Goddard and Polly Wright are better-known as poets or dramatists. Fiona Joseph has written biography, Julia Bell writes teenage fiction and Luke Brown and Kavita Bhanot have both been editors as well as writers. New names included are Kit de Waal, Natalie White, James B Goodwin, Anthony Ferner, Georgina Bruce and Ryan Davis. Thje title story by Mick Scully has been chosen by Nicholas Royle for 'Best Short Stories of 2013'.
A boy watches the sinister goings on of an urban estate. A computer specialist in a hospital witnesses a disturbing incident on the roof. The crime career for 'Hot Little Danny' - a teenage tearaway with a teacher girlfriend - is inexorably upward. Infidelity, old friendships and passions haunt the drifting lives of Beard's characters, fuelled by drugs and alcohol, dogged by uncertain employment. You Don't Have to Say is downhearted but finds warmth in people on the edges of the urban landscape, skewering adversity with uncanny empathy and insight .
'Judas Iscariot's here, look. Here comes Judas Iscariot...' Nine-year old Sean has never seen anything like what happens on the day Margaret Thatcher takes power and his grandad discovers his uncle voted for her. So begins the start of a family secret and the end of Sean's idyllic childhood in the industrial Midlands-until, one day, deciding that someone's got to stop the train of destruction, he sets out for revenge. A heartbreaking and timely story of a moment of national crisis as felt by one family, How I Killed Margaret Thatcher delivers a devastating English twist on the dictator novel.
'A delightful holiday read' Daily Mail. Sun-drenched, touching and inspirational, this is your ultimate summer read for 2018, perfect for fans of Rosanna Ley and Victoria Hislop. Gina's life is good. She loves her adopted home in Italy, and she is passionate about her work as a photographer. She's all wrapped up in her latest artistic project, shots of the young men who arrive in Italy as refugees, destitute and vulnerable. One day Sasha, a lonely British teenager at summer school, crosses Gina's path. Sasha's innocent romance creates complications neither of them could have imagined, leading Gina to wonder, can she come to terms with her past? This summer, get lost in the streets, sights and sounds of Rome under the blazing Italian sun.
Sometime in the near future, Lionel, a computer nerd, lives alone with his sick cat, Buddha. His flat overlooks the high street where only a few rundown shops remain in business, including his friend, the old Caribbean gentleman Mr Barber. Lionel, mixed race, born in Kenya, was adopted by a white family. But, apart from his gorgeous, abrasive sister Lilith - his best friend and harshest critic - his family have deserted him. Lionel plays games because he's a coward who can't handle human interaction, Lilith says, before one of her frequent disappearances. But when Lionel puts his headset on, and enters CawrQuest he becomes Ludi, the fighter and the lover. He's free. Here he doesn't need to f...
A young gang leader is found stabbed on a Hackney estate, but two people confess to the murder. Ndekwe, an ambitious, newly promoted Detective Sergeant within a subtly racist police force, believes the more obvious of the two confessions: from McKenzie, a teenager from the estate with a police record of juvenile crime. But why does Jack Shepherdson, an ex-merchant seaman in his sixties, come forward with his own confession? Is he covering for McKenzie, his colleague in the bar they worked at? Or is there more truth in his statement than Ndekwe at first believes? As we listen, with Ndekwe, to their stories, to the lives of the segregated and unheard, a heart-breaking and suspenseful story emerges.
Mark Wilson's whole life has been about the moment when he steps on to Old Trafford to make his first appearance for Man Utd. But when a wayward pass from Ryan Giggs leads to THE WORST DEBUT EVER, Mark's schoolboy obsession with him develops into something more dangerous. Fifteen years later, after a career interrupted by drinking, injury, gambling, RESTRAINING ORDERS and burglary, Mark is now sober, gainfully-employed and looking forward to watching United at their CHAMPIONS LEAGUE-WINNING BEST. Most importantly for Mark, he is reconciled with the mother of his son, little Ryan. But as the old urges continue to struggle for voice in his head, can he keep his eye on the goal?
Graham Young lives a comfortable, gin-soaked existence in Jakarta, even after violent riots overthrow Soeharto's regime. But a meeting with a reptilian ex-pat hurls him into a nightmare from which there seems no escape. Hounded by the police, courted by shadowy figures of political resistance, and visited in the night by military ghouls, he sees no choice but to flee. Can he get out of the country before these forces move in for the kill?
A foodie revenge for a broken marriage; a nosy grandmother takes spying on her neighbours too far; a woman teacher is groomed by an artistic man and his clever son; a brutally short haircut makes a woman reassess her life; a gang-related attack comes back to haunt the perpetrator; a woman revisits the grave of her sister-in-law in Kenya . . . But also: a Roman soldier's lover; a frightened traveller in Jerusalem; a collector of hair in a European country; a teacher in New York is drawn to a girl and her East Asian composer boyfriend; a gay man is swindled during a whirlwind affair; an argument at a coke-fuelled party; three men disappointed at an upmarket sex club; an artist unwittingly precipitates the downfall of David Beckham . . .
Beloved writer Alfred Gibson's funeral is taking place at Westminster Abbey, and Dorothea, his wife of twenty years has not been invited. Gibson's will favours his many children and secret mistress over Dorothea - who was sent away from the family home when their youngest was still an infant. Dorothea has not left her apartment in years, but when she receives a surprise invitation to a private audience with Queen Victoria, she is shocked to find she has much in common with Her Highness. With renewed confidence Dorothea is spurred to examine her past and confront not only her family but the pretty young actress Miss Ricketts.