Bookshop
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!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!- Sale!"Witty, realistic and imaginative. Auden, Haydn and Uccello live in his pages as happily as snooker stars, Tesco and Extra Strong Mints" - Peter Porter, The ObserverSpecial Offer: We are offering this book at 25% off the publisher's RRP.
- Sale!A Poetry Book Society Special RecommendationA collection that brings together for the first time the whole range of Philip Gross's poetry... from prize-winning Ice Factory to the Whitbread shortlisted Wasting Game, but takes the reader also into previously unknown reaches of Philip Gross territory. Text taken from the book cover.Special Offer: We are offering this book at 25% off the publisher's RRP.
- Sale!"Rough Music" is an old English custom of public scapegoating. In this book of disturbing musical echoes, brilliant renewals of carol, charm, folksong and ballad explore violence, loss and belonging.Fiona Sampson is the award-winning author of many books, including A Century of Poetry Review, Common Prayer, which was short-listed for the T. S. Eliot Prize in 2007, and Writing Poetry: The Expert Guide."a very fine poet indeed" – Adam Thorpe in The GuardianSpecial Offer: We are offering this title at 25% off the publisher’s RRP
- Sale!"Born with the gift of lyricism as natural speech" - Clive James"A virtuoso collection” – J.M. CoetzeeSpecial Offer: We are offering this title at 25% off the publisher’s RRP
- Sale!Each story places us inside the desperate world of a child trying to make sense of abuse, and what it is doing to her, or at least to the part of her able to speak.Special Offer: We are offering this title at 25% off the publisher’s RRP
- Sale!Edited by Jo Shapcott & Matthew Sweet"Everyone who inhabits our strange times will want to read it!" - The Guardian"An important... original anthology" - Ruth Padel, The IndependentSpecial Offer: We are offering this title at 25% off the publisher’s RRP
- Sale!"Groundbreaking""A great first collection with breadth and ambition. A book I return to time and time again.” – Amazon"A collection as strong as the gritstone of it's roots. Best poetry I've read for a long time" - Amazon Special Offer: We are offering this title at 25% off the publisher’s RRP
- 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.
- ISBN: 0954791312Genre: FictionPublisher: Tindal Street Press
- Winner of the British Book Award 2022 for Children's Fiction Book of the Year.Winner of the Books Are My Bag Readers Award for Children’s FictionThe Times Children's Book of the Year Litfest Big Read 20251941. War is raging. And Joseph has been sent to live in the city, where bombers rule the skies. There, he will live with Mrs F, a gruff woman with no fondness for children. Her only loves are the rundown zoo she owns and its mighty silverback gorilla, Adonis.
- 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 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....
- 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?
- 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?
- 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.
- 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.
- September 1939. The world is on the brink of war. As his dad marches off to fight, Noah makes him a promise, to keep their beloved family dog safe. When the government advises people to have their pets put down in readiness for the chaos of war, Noah and his two best friends go on the run to save his dog and as many animals as they can...
- Peggy and her dog Beau are inseparable: the only thing that can ever come between them is war. Peggy is evacuated to the safety of the coast, but Beau is left behind in the city. He becomes the most extraordinary and unlikely of war heroes, searching the streets after the bombs fall for survivors. Then disaster strikes when Peggy's parents are killed, leaving her and Beau alone, hundreds of miles apart. But Beau has a plan to reunite them...
- Bryce's two previous prize-winning collections were widely admired for their marvellously seductive music and their speed of thought; Self-Portrait in the Dark widens and deepens the poet's scope, and is her most emotionally compelling collection to date. Bryce's new poems are "slant tellings" that reveal strange and true reflections. - Text from Goodreads
- 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.
- 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?
- 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…
Combining poems of historical depth, human fascination, and personal sensitivity with a willingness to explore the possibilities of poetic form and technique, this compilation produces diverse formal arrangements from Arabic, English, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, and Welsh poetry. As it aims to assimilate aspects of these traditions with the poet’s own voice, this collection pays homage to the lives and works of Primo Levi, Paul Celan, Keith Douglas, Alun Lewis, and Edward Thomas. Intimate and personal subjects are also gracefully explored, including a traumatic experience of spinal injury and disability. - Sale!Blake Morrison’s A Discoverie of Witches is a limited edition green clothbound hardcover book with just one hundred copies produced.First edition, first printing of the standard trade edition.
- When Mary’s father the fisherman is killed in a storm, Mary uncovers a terrible war between land and sea. To save her town from being swallowed by the waves, Mary must face the wild water that took her father and go on a journey like no other.
- 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.
- ISBN: 9780571264919Genre: PoetryPublisher: Faber
- Translated from the Czech by Michael Henry Heim320pp'A modern classic ... As relevant now as when it was first published. ' John BanvilleA young woman is in love with a successful surgeon: a man torn between his love for her and his womanising. His mistress, a free-spirited artist, lives her life as a series of betrayals, while her other lover stands to lose everything because of his noble qualities. In a world where lives are shaped by choices and events, and everything occurs but once, existence seems to lose its substance and weight - and we feel 'the unbearable lightness of being'.
- Translated from the Turkish by Erdag Goknar704ppMy Name is Red is an unforgettable murder mystery, set amid the splendour of sixteenth century Istanbul, from the Nobel prizewinning authorIn the late 1590s, the Sultan secretly commissions a great book: a celebration of his life and his empire, to be illuminated by the best artists of the day - in the European manner. At a time of violent fundamentalism, however, this is a dangerous proposition. Even the illustrious circle of artists are not allowed to know for whom they are working. But when one of the miniaturists is murdered, their Master has to seek outside help. Did the dead painter fall victim to professional rivalry, romantic jealousy or religious terror?'Wonderful' The Spectator 'Magnificent' Observer 'Unforgettable' Guardian
- 304pp'Dark, compelling, beautifully written' Andrew Michael HurleyIn this eerie, atmospheric and mysterious tale, a woman returns to the house in Morecambe Bay where she grew up in the 1960s to find it falling apart, undermined by the roots of two huge sycamores. She is unaware that she has awoken the spirits of her parents, Jack and Nettie Clifford, who watch anxiously as their daughter Annette is overwhelmed by the state of the house and realise too late how far they neglected her as a child.As their memories come alive, the story unfolds of a crucial summer when Annette was 8 and Nettie became too ill to run their boarding house. The lodgers have to go - all except the newly arrived butcher's apprentice, because he seems to have miraculous healing powers and is Jack and Nettie's last, desperate hope.'A disturbing, precisely rendered tale of charisma, misplaced faith and transgenerational trauma, with a touch of the supernatural . . . [it] brings to mind the claustrophobic, suburban world of Dennis Potter's great play Brimstone and Treacle' Alex Clark, Spectator"This marvellous novel is both haunted and haunting, as Ashworth expertly blurs the boundaries between the past and the present, the homely and the uncanny, the quick and the dead. Touching on profound questions of myth, mortality and redemption, it is both sinister and beautiful - and ultimately tender' Sarah Perry, author of The Essex Serpent
- 304pp'Unnerving, absorbing . . . Laurie is a miraculous creation . . . Piercingly human and darkly funny' Sunday TimesOne ordinary morning, Laurie's husband disappears, leaving behind his phone and wallet. For weeks she tells no one, carrying on her cleaning job at the university, visiting her tricky, dementia-suffering father and holing up in her high-rise flat with a bottle to hand. When she finally reports him as missing, the police are suspicious. What took her so long?Laurie can't fully explain her behaviour even to herself, or the strange presence she senses in the flat. Only when she looks back on the ensuing wreckage does she begin to understand, and see how she might repair the damage.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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 . . .
- 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.
- Translated from the French by Robin Buss272pp The Plague is Albert Camus's world-renowned fable of fear and courage The townspeople of Oran are in the grip of a deadly plague, which condemns its victims to a swift and horrifying death. Fear, isolation and claustrophobia follow as they are forced into quarantine. Each person responds in their own way to the lethal disease: some resign themselves to fate, some seek blame, and a few, like Dr Rieux, resist the terror.An immediate triumph when it was published in 1947, The Plague is in part an allegory of France's suffering under the Nazi occupation, and a story of bravery and determination against the precariousness of human existence.'A matchless fable of fear, courage and cowardice' Independent'Magnificent' The Times
- Translated from the Spanish by Anne McLeanWinner of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2004n the final moments of the Spanish Civil War, fifty prominent Nationalist prisoners are executed by firing squad. Among them is the writer and fascist Rafael Sanchez Mazas. As the guns fire, he escapes into the forest, and can hear a search party and their dogs hunting him down. The branches move and he finds himself looking into the eyes of a militiaman, and faces death for the second time that day.But the unknown soldier simply turns and walks away. Sanchez Mazas becomes a national hero and the soldier disappears into history. As Cercas sifts the evidence to establish what happened, he realises that the true hero may not be Sanchez Mazas at all, but the soldier who chose not to shoot him. Who was he? Why did he spare him? And might he still be alive?'This is a masterly parable of political violence, of suffering, but also, and decisevely, of the strange logic of compassion and healing . . . should become a classic' George Steiner'With irresistible directness and delicacy, Javier Cercas engages in a quick-witted, tender quest for truth and the possibility of reconciliation in history, in our everyday lives - which happens to be the theme of most great European fiction . . . a marvellous novel' Susan Sontag'He has succeeded, with one perfectly crafted book, in single-handedly redeeming the epic genre' Alberto Manuel
- Translated from the Korean by Deborah Smith160ppAs cryptic and compelling as a fever dream... Bae Suah is one of the most unique and adroit literary voices working today' Sharlene TeoFinishing her last shift at Seoul's only audio theatre for the blind, Kim Ayami heads into the night with her former boss, searching for a missing friend. The following day, she looks after a visiting poet, a man who is not as he seems. Unfolding over a night and a day in the sweltering summer heat, their world's order gives way to chaos, the edges of reality start to fray, and the past intrudes on the present in increasingly disorientating ways.Untold Night and Day is a hallucinatory feat of storytelling from one of the most radical voices in contemporary Korean literature. '[A] highly original novel, full of unsolved mysteries, repeated motifs and startling prose… Remarkably fresh… Exhilarating… Once I finished it, much of it slipped into my unconscious. All that remains is a sense of Bae's boundless yet precise imagination' Luiza Saum, Daily TelegraphA metaphysical detective story, Untold Night and Day...draws on ideas from Korean shamanism...to venture in style and ambition far from the conventions of mystery narratives...Storylines echo one another and are braided into multilayered fictional universe with extraordinary skill… Bae’s novel complicates the boundaries between self and other reality and make-believe, night and day' Sarah Shin, Observer'Bae Suah is one of Korea’s most radical contemporary writers… Untold Night and Day is a hallucinatory novel propelled by the logic of dreams… Bae masterfully layers [her] themes into an almost hidden code beneath the novel’s meditative surface' Jay G Ying, GuardianBae Suah’s disturbing, beautifully controlled novel Untold Night and Day is a book of doubles, shadows and parallel worlds... a slim yet labyrinthine twist on a “choose your own adventure” story that disarms even as it disorients' Catherine Taylor, Financial Times
- Translated from the German by Michael Hofmann272pp'When Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from troubled dreams, he found himself changed into a monstrous cockroach in his bed.'Metamorphosis, Kafka's masterpiece of unease and black humour, is one of the twentieth century's most influential works of fiction, and is accompanied here by two more classic stories.This collection of new translations brings together the small proportion of Kafka's works that he himself thought worthy of publication. It includes 'Meditation', a collection of his earlier studies; 'The Judgement', written in a single night of frenzied creativity; 'The Stoker', the first chapter of a novel set in America and a fascinating occasional piece, and 'The Aeroplanes at Brescia', Kafka's eyewitness account of an air display in 1909. Together, these stories reveal the breadth of Kafka's literary vision and the extraordinary imaginative depth of his thought.
- Now long out of print and hard to find. Lovely condition, as new.Texas-born, Californian reared, Joan Jobe Smith has a fast-growing reputation for her narratives about her childhood, her marriages and the sisterhood of women who sustain each other through difficult times.
- 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.
- "Superb first collection" - Sean O'BrienThe living and the dead are working side by side in John Challis's dramatic debut collection, The Resurrectionists. Whether in London's veg and meat markets, far below the Dartford Crossing, or on the edge of the Western world, these poems journey into a buried and sometimes violent landscape to locate traces of ourselves that remain.
