- The three biggest challenges facing the world today, in A. C. Grayling’s view, are climate change, technology and justice.In his timely new book, he asks: can human beings agree on a set of values that will allow us to confront the numerous threats facing the planet, or will we simply continue with our disagreements and antipathies as we collectively approach our possible extinction?The solution he proposes is both pragmatic and inspiring.
- It seems like we can’t talk about anything nowadays… Whether it’s war or something utterly inconsequential, the internet is primed for furore. And the results can be horrifying – from online pile-ons and doxing to job loss and, in some cases, death. But how did we end up here?
- Silicon for microchips; manganese for batteries; titanium for missiles.The moon contains a wealth of natural resources. So, as the Earth’s supplies have begun to dwindle, it is no surprise that the world’s superpowers and wealthiest corporations have turned their eyes to the stars. As this new Space Race begins, A.C. Grayling asks: who, if anyone, owns the moon? Or Mars? Or other bodies in near space? And what do those superpowers and corporations owe to Planet Earth and its inhabitants as a whole?
- WINNER OF THE 2023 JAMES CROPPER WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR NATURE WRITINGThe Flow is a book about water, and, like water, it meanders, cascades and percolates through many lives, landscapes and stories. From West Country torrents to Levels and Fens, rocky Welsh canyons, the salmon highways of Scotland and the chalk rivers of the Yorkshire Wolds, Amy-Jane follows springs, streams and rivers to explore tributary themes of wildness and wonder, loss and healing, mythology and history, cyclicity and transformation.
- Winner of the Costa Book Award for Best First Novel (2015)The British Book Awards Book of the Year 2016360ppThe Loney recounts the Easter of 1976 when a group of Catholic pilgrims from London journey to the wilds of Lancashire for a retreat, during which they hope to cure the narrator's mute, mentally disabled brother, Hanny.
- For centuries, the inhabitants of Barrowbeck, a remote valley on the Yorkshire-Lancashire border, have lived uneasily with forces beyond their reckoning. They raise their families, work the land, and do their best to welcome those who come seeking respite. But there is a darkness that runs through the village as persistently as the river.As one generation gives way to the next and ancient land is carved up in the name of progress, darkness gathers. The people of Barrowbeck have forgotten that they are but guests in the valley. Now there is a price to pay. Two thousand years of history is coming to an end.
- After the blizzard of a century ago, it was weeks before anyone got in or out. By that time, what had happened there, what the Devil had done, was already fable. Devil's Day is a day for children now, of course. A tradition it's easy to mock, from the outside. But it's important to remember why we do what we do. It's important to know what our grandfathers have passed down to us. Because it's hard to understand, if you're not from the valley, how this place is in your blood. That's why I came back, with Kat; it wasn't just because the Gaffer was dead.Though that year we may have let the Devil in after all . . .
- Illustrated by Isabelle FollathSigned by Katherine Woodfine96ppThis beloved childhood classic by Lucy Maud Montgomery is now available in a stunning gift book edition with exquisite new art.The relatable mishaps and adventure of Anne are brought to life for a new generation in this enchanting abridgement by bestselling author, Katherine Woodfine, accompanied by Isabelle Follath's engaging and witty artwork.
- Across the planet, the futures of young people hang in the balance as they face the harsh realities of the environmental crisis. Isn't it time we made their voices heard?The Children of the Anthropocene, by conservationist and activist Bella Lack, chronicles the lives of the diverse young people on the frontlines of the environmental crisis around the world, amplifying the voices of those living at the heart of the crisis.
24pp
In these confident and accomplished poems, Clare Proctor explores and gives voice to the experiences of women, particularly those constrained by their context, whether historical, or through art, myth or individual circumstance. They move from the particular to the more general in considering ideas around the body, death, motherhood and family.
“This is a compelling pamphlet that delves into the mythic and the personal, weaving together themes of womanhood, power and rebellion. There is a delicious and sly darkness to some of these poems as we meet witches who keep penises as pets, and women who insist on not behaving as expected. Clare Proctor’s poetry has real emotional depth and this pamphlet announces an important addition to the ongoing lyric conversation about the female body and what it means to be a woman.” Kim Moore
Lilith Speaks is one of three pamphlets selected for publication from the 2024 Litfest/Wayleave Pamphlet competition judged by Ian Duhig and Jane Routh
Buy all three Litfest/Wayleave publications for just £18 in this three book bundle!- Queer, vegan poet Dominic Berry presents his favourite poems for performance from his collections Tomorrow, I Will Go Dancing, Wizard, No Tigers and Yes Life, along with new poetry designed to engage and inspire.An extraordinary and enthralling collection exploring life, personal development and wellbeing by the Glastonbury Festival poet in residence and two-times Saboteur Award-winning Best UK Spoken Word Performer.Dominic Berry is a Manchester-based performance poet renowned for his eloquent yet uncompromising stage shows and a desire to confront inequality. His work has taken him across the continents of Europe, North and South America, Asia and Australasia. He has been Glastonbury Festival's poet in residence, and has won Manchester Literature Festival's Superheroes of Slam and New York's Nuyorican Poets' Cafe Slam. He has also twice been publicly voted Sabotage Review's Best UK Spoken Word Performer.
- 'Williffe Cunliam' was the pen name of the Burnley blacksmith and poet, William Cunliffe (1833-94). During his brief but productive poetic career Cunliffe published fifty-four poems in his local newspaper, the Burnley Free Press and General Advertiser (which became the Burnley Gazette) between 1863 and 1866. The poems lay in the holdings of Burnley Central Library for 150 years, before they were recovered during research for the AHRC-funded Poetry of the Lancashire Cotton Famine project in 2015. The project, led by the University of Exeter's Professor Simon Rennie, published a few of these poems amongst 398 pieces relating to the Lancashire Cotton Famine on a publicly accessible database, but Cunliffe's wider work is remarkably varied in its topics and styles, with dialect and standard English works providing a unique insight into working-class northern English culture in the 1860s.'Rennie pointed to one poet in particular: the wool sorter Williffe Cunliam, who wrote six of the poems uncovered to date. “I think he was a very good poet – a great poet,” said Rennie. “We don’t have enough of his work to say he was a literary star, but he was fantastic; we’ve found very high-quality work"' Alison Flood, Guardian
- The author of She-Wolves chronicles the lives and reigns of Richard II and Henry IV, two cousins whose rivalry brought their nation to the brink of disintegration - and back again.Helen Castor tells this story of one of the strangest and most fateful relationships in English history. It is a story about power, and masculinity in crisis, and a nation brought to the brink of catastrophe. At its heart, it is the story of two men whose lives were played out in extraordinary parallel, to devastating effect.
- In medieval England, man was the ruler of woman, and the King was the ruler of all. How, then, could royal power lie in female hands?In She-Wolves, celebrated historian, Helen Castor, tells the dramatic and fascinating stories of four exceptional women who, while never reigning queens, held great power: Matilda, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Isabella of France and Margaret of Anjou. These were women who paved the way for Jane Grey, Mary Tudor and Elizabeth I - the Tudor queens who finally confronted what it meant to be a female monarch.
- A Telegraph Poetry Book of the YearA Poetry Book Society ChoiceAn Arbitrary Light Bulb is Ian Duhig’s most personal collection of poems to date. It takes its title from the most common type of household bulb – yet one whose name is virtually unknown, like many people these poems celebrate.Duhig finds in the arbitrary an image for the randomness of inspiration and of life, haunted here by deaths of family and friends. He laments the lost but also responds to the glories of our existence, especially among the overlooked, with humour, technical variety and contagious pleasure.
- This eclectic gathering of Duhig’s best work draws on material from his acclaimed debut, The Bradford Count, to the present day: the book collects a number of fine new pieces, including an elegy for the late Ciaran Carson. Duhig is contemporary poetry’s social historian; he has wise and powerful things to say about the relationship between community and family, racism and justice, place and folklore, music and language.
- These are poems on the move in the tapestry of London life – from the hospital ward to the back rows of the bus – where the desire for escape is also, paradoxically, a ‘Herculean search for home’. But & Though is a testament to the kinship ties that bind us together, however fraught they become, and a celebration of the working-class identity that defines the poet’s native south London. With a voice as spiky and irreverent as it is gentle, Jake Hawkey is a refreshing new talent in English poetry.
- This collection of poems springs from an awareness of how landscape and its history shape the way we live in it. The author's maps and charts release islands and seascapes, fells and fens, ancestors, boatbuilders, fruit growers and the odd saint. Her poems offer a different kind of mapmaking, making a different kind of sense.
- After lockdowns have swept calendars clear, leaf-fall, early sunrise and gales are Jane Routh’s measures of time, as she goes about her tasks in the hill pasture and woodlands where she has the luck to live.With sharp, lyrical description and down-to earth understanding, her poems consider the flora and fauna around her, formative moments and lifespans – as well as the dead who won’t be forgotten. Her elegant and informed writing conveys a sense of belonging in a particular place and the care for its future, carrying a universal resonance.
- Here are 100 of the most intriguing thought experiments from the history of philosophy and ideas - questions to leave you inspired, informed and scratching your head, dumbfounded.A collection of short, accessible philosophical quandaries to stimulate, challenge and entertain.
- How we live is shaped by how we eat. You can see this in the vastly different approaches to growing, preparing and eating food around the world, such as the hunter-gatherer Hadza in Tanzania whose sustainable lifestyle is under threat in a crowded planet, or Western societies whose food is farmed or bred in vast intensive enterprises. And most of us now rely on a complex global food web of production, distribution, consumption and disposal, which is now contending with unprecedented challenges.Extracting essential principles to guide how we eat in the future, How the World Eats advocates for a pluralistic, humane, resourceful and equitable global food philosophy, so we can build a food system fit for the twenty-first century and beyond.
- A groundbreaking global overview of philosophy, travelling the world to provide a wide-ranging map of human thought.One of the great unexplained wonders of history is that philosophy flowered entirely separately in China, India and Ancient Greece at more or less the same time. These writings would have a profound impact on the development of distinctive cultures in different parts of the world.
- As politics slides toward impulsivity, and outrage bests rationality, how can philosophy help us critically engage with the world?How to Think Like A Philosopher is a revelatory exploration of the methods, tenets and attitudes of thought that guide philosophy, and how they can be applied to our own lives.
- Sophie and Lil are on their very first case for the Secret Service Bureau in this thrilling adventure. They travel to the seaside town of Rye where – despite its sleepy appearance – they have evidence that a band of German spies are plotting dastardly deeds. Can our two brave detectives navigate smugglers tunnels, make it through treacherous sea mists and decode a secret message to solve the mystery?
- Taylor and Rose Secret Agents Series Book 4Top Secret Agents Sophie Taylor and Lil Rose have set sail to New York City on an elegant ocean liner, ready to face their enemies and settle old scores. These two brave friends will need all of their detective skills, courage and derring-do as they race against time to rescue a beloved friend and save the city - and its inhabitants - from destruction and certain death....
- Taylor and Rose Secret Agents Series Book 1It’s 1911, and the young detectives of Taylor & Rose are turning their talents to espionage. On a case for the mysterious Secret Service Bureau, the daring Miss Sophie Taylor and Miss Lilian Rose must leave London for the boulevards and grand hotels of Paris.But danger lurks beneath the bright lights of the city - and intrigue and murder lie in store. As aeroplanes soar in the skies overhead, our heroines will need to put all their spy skills to the test to face the peril that awaits them...
- Taylor and Rose Secret Agents Series Book 2With Sophie still missing in action after their explosive mission in Paris, Lil decides to take matters into her own hands. On a new mission for the Secret Service Bureau, can Lil find Sophie in misty, mysterious St Petersburg?Can they uncover the identity of their true enemy and can they trust anyone - even the Bureau?
- The Sinclair Mysteries Book 1You are cordially invited to attend the Grand Opening of Sinclair’s department store!Enter a world of bonbons, hats, perfumes and MYSTERIES around every corner. WONDER at the daring theft of the priceless CLOCKWORK SPARROW! TREMBLE as the most DASTARDLY criminals in London enact their wicked plans! GASP as our bold heroines, Miss Sophie Taylor and Miss Lilian Rose, CRACK CODES, DEVOUR ICED BUNS and vow to bring the villains to justice…
- The Sinclair Mysteries Book 2Wonder at the puzzling disappearance of the Jewelled Moth! Marvel as our heroines, Sophie and Lil, don cunning disguises, mingle in high society and munch many cucumber sandwiches to solve this curious case! Applaud their bravery as they follow a trail of terrible secrets that leads straight to London’s most dangerous criminal mastermind, and could put their own lives at risk too....A fast-paced historical mystery adventure with gorgeous Edwardian period detail; perfect for fans of Chris Riddell, Enid Blyton and Robin Stevens.
- The Sinclair Mysteries Book 4The festive season has come to Sinclair’s, and Sophie and Lil are spending the holidays at snowy Winter Hall. But it turns out that this is no ordinary house party....As sinister secrets come to light, our intrepid heroines find themselves faced with a more baffling mystery than ever before! With the help of their friends, can they uncover the truth in time to foil a truly diabolical plot? Or will Mr Sinclair’s New Year’s Eve Midnight Peacock Ball spell disaster for the dauntless young detectives?
- The Sinclair Mysteries Book 3When a priceless painting is stolen, our dauntless heroines, Sophie and Lil, find themselves faced with forgery, trickery and deceit on all sides!Be amazed as the brave duo pit their wits against this perilous puzzle! Marvel at their cunning plan to unmask the villain and prove themselves detectives to be reckoned with - no matter what dangers lie ahead....It’s their most perilous adventure yet!
- Taylor and Rose Secret Agents Series Book 3After the dramatic events of their mission to St Petersburg, Sophie and Lil know the truth - there's a double-agent at work at the Secret Service Bureau. Whilst Lil pursues a dangerous line of enquiry in London, Sophie must set out on a new mission to Venice, following a twisted trail to discover long-buried secrets. But there are villains lurking amongst the city's piazzas, canals and crumbling palaces, and in the shadows an old enemy lies in wait....
- Buy all three pamphlets for £18 (or £7 each). These pamphlets were selected for publication from the 2024 Litfest/Wayleave Pamphlet competition judged by Ian Duhig and Jane Routh.Lilith Speaks by Clare ProcterStill Life by Rebecca BilkauSubcutaneous by Maria Isakova-Bennett
- Shortlisted for the Poetry Prize for First Collection from the Seamus Heaney Centre for PoetryMalika Booker's Pepper Seed is map and compass to a world of distinct yet interconnected landscapes. At home in a number of locales (Brooklyn, Brixton, Trinidad, Guyana, and Grenada) Booker trains a brave eye on the unspeakable and the unspoken. By turns bearing witness, to the interior lives of the characters that people her poems, and laying herself bare, conjuring an immediate and complex vision of the miraculous ordinary.
24pp
In spare and delicately-balanced language Maria Isakova-Bennett's poems about family, loss and the effects of being silenced address her grandfather's enforced migration to England, the secrecy he lived with and its effects on subsequent generations.
“Maria Isakova-Bennett is a truly remarkable poet — she understands how in discovering the past, we discover ourselves. No matter the subject, her poetry is always a celebration of the living world. This breathtaking sequence weaves history, memory and imagination with such skill and precision that the past is given presence.” John Glenday
Subcutaneous is one of three pamphlets selected for publication from the 2024 Litfest/Wayleave Pamphlet competition, judged by Ian Duhig and Jane Routh.Buy all three Litfest/Wayleave publications for just £18 in this three book bundle!- A little babushka is made when you’re young and something happens to you that leaves a scar…Cerys Williams has swapped her village in the Welsh Valleys for art college in London and the spare room in glamorous Auntie Wyn’s flat. Cerys knows there’s more out there for her in the world; it’s the year 2000 – she definitely doesn’t have to just get married and have babies and wear beige and cook stews for the rest of her life, even if Mam thinks she should.But Cerys’s London is not glossy or cool or sophisticated, despite what Adept, her favourite magazine, has told her. It’s lonely and overwhelming and confusing. Until, that is, she meets him…
- Llewella has straight-A grades, a lead in the school play, a prefect badge, a successful blog and a comfortable life. Despite this, she feels like a brown, chubby square peg at a school full of thin, white girls. She's never had a best friend. Could the new student at sixth form - glamorous, streetwise Aretha - be the one?
- This is the perfect guide for young people navigating the digital world.There are three billion people online. Each of those people has their own biases, agendas and issues. It’s little wonder when young people step into the digital world and are bombarded with ‘hot takes’, calls to cancel ‘problematic’ individuals, trolls, fake news and celebrity sales pitches they’re likely to find it overwhelming and confusing.
- At some point in the not-too-distant future, Blake Wilson is 14 and homeless. But in Trundle Hill, it is not uncommon to be a Streetie. Blake and his friends stick together in street camps and survive by trading and foraging. Life is about enduring from day to day.That’s until Blake makes the discovery of a lifetime: a mystical bracelet that turns out to be more powerful than he could ever imagine.
If you were searching for answers about the mysterious disappearance of your father, but were warned that pulling at that thread would put you in grave danger... would you pull at it anyway?The Disappearance of Timothy Dawson is a Young Adult fiction, with dark themes that expose sinister secrets. It takes place in a poor, forgotten seaside town in the north of England, called Granville-upon-sea, a place that was once glorious is now rife with drugs and poverty. The story is a coming of age mystery, following the journey of Tommy, a likeable chap that's been dealt an unfair hand in life.
- Granville is in a mess once more. The streets are infested with Charge, a deadly synthetic drug concocted by an enigma known as The Chemist.It is a young adult fiction book, following Tommy’s difficult battle for justice, in a town where crime rules. A series of teenage deaths triggered by a deadly synthetic drug, thrusts Tommy into the midst of an undercover operation. The targets? The Chemist, creator of the lethal, designer substance known as Charge, and the O’Clearys, a local crime family with their fingers in all kinds of illicit pies.
- When a gang of masked moped thugs rears its ugly head, Tommy becomes a reluctant witness to one of their sickening attacks on the streets of Granville, thrusting him into yet another unpredictable encounter with the police. The big question: are they criminals, or vigilantes?
- A selection of poetry and free verse for teenagers and beyond, penned by Nathan Parker.Take a peak inside this vault of verse to find issue-based poetry ranging from mental health, identity, peer pressure, self-discovery, everyday angst and much more.An ideal place to explore poetry for children and teens, as well as a prompt for discussion and debate within PSHE lessons.
- A vault of poetry and verse for children and beyond. From the sublime to the ridiculous, heartfelt reflections to belly laughter, this book is the perfect introduction for children to explore the realms of poetry.Ideal for primary school age upwards, yet its a collection that will stir the child within us all.
- Translated from the Polish by Antonia Lloyd-Jones336pp In September 1913, a young Pole suffering from tuberculosis arrives at Wilhelm Opitz’s Guesthouse for Gentlemen, a health resort in the Silesian mountains. Every evening the residents gather to imbibe the hallucinogenic local liqueur and debate the great issues of the day: monarchy or democracy? Do devils exist? Are women born inferior? War or peace? Meanwhile, disturbing things are happening in the guesthouse and the surrounding hills. Someone – or something – seems to be watching, attempting to infiltrate this cloistered world. Little does the newcomer realize, as he tries to unravel both the truths within himself and the mystery of the sinister forces beyond, that they have already chosen their next target. A century after the publication of The Magic Mountain, Olga Tokarczuk revisits Thomas Mann territory and lays claim to it, blending horror story, comedy, folklore and feminist parable with brilliant storytelling.
- Farley’s great poetic gift is his ability to switch between the local and the universal, the present and the historical past, with the most apparently effortless of gear changes; he brings to our immediate attention things previously hidden – whether out of sight, in the periphery of our vision, or right under our noses. The Dark Film is a profound meditation on time, on the untold stories of our history, and on the act of human beholding – as well as Farley’s most richly entertaining and rewarding collection to date.
- The Mizzy encapsulates one of poetry’s most capacious and eclectic imaginations. As usual Farley’s new collection is impossible to summarize in terms of theme, as his interests are too various: there’s an air of ‘the innocence of childhood’ being viewed through the corrective lens of worldly middle age, though, and also of mid-life, its creeping self-consciousness and decrepitude, and the distortions of perception that attend it; confusing encounters with tech, modernity and its accelerated rate of change; satirical excursions critiquing the way business and digital communications have debased language.
- A family cohabits with a horse; three riots are tucked up safely in their beds; a tumbleweed takes up a career in comedy; the giant flag crossing a football crowd has a strange effect on those underneath; a rampaging fifty-foot poem brings terror to a city . . .As always in Paul Farley’s work, the quotidian and the cosmic are braided together in surprising, funny, or disconcerting ways. And as always, his poems inhabit and explore intermediate, uncertain spaces; a Farley poem may be filled with recognisable objects and events, but is always alert to wider resonances.
- A laugh-out-loud, warm-hearted picture book about friendship and forgiveness.Blue Monster wants to play with Rabbit – but Rabbit is sleeping and doesn’t want to play. SO... what should Blue Monster do?Blue Monster does something you should NEVER do and then... he does it again and again!
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Image credits: Johnny Bean and Ginny Koppenhol Photography
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