Traditional or cultural fiction and true stories, tales and retellings
Batsford Ltd Anglo-Saxon Myths: The Struggle for the Seven
Book SynopsisEnchanting tales of the gods, kings, and monsters that populated the Anglo-Saxon world. An atmospheric collection of 30 folk tales exploring stories of cosmology, monsters, conflicts and courtship from the Seven Kingdoms to Middle Earth. This is an entertaining portal into a world overflowing with mythology, magic and all manner of beguiling creatures, which has inspired everything from the Lord of the Rings to Game of Thrones. The book is divided into 3 parts: • Scop is a set of stories told by the Anglo-Saxon storyteller Scop, from the creation to the destruction of the world. It explores what remains of the gods and monsters of the Anglo-Saxon cosmology. • Wreccan is pagan stories exploring self-discovery and development through exile. Variations of these tales would have told by the Anglo-Saxons themselves, including Sigemund's rebellion and the trials of Beowulf. • Bretwalda stories revolve around Bretwalda the chief Anglo-Saxon king who ruled over the majority of the Seven Kingdoms. These stories reflect a period when both the old gods and Christianity existed simultaneously. Remarkable illustrations by Jesús Sotés breathe new life into these tales of the past.Trade Review‘It is easy, reading Stratford’s vibrant retellings, to understand where Tolkien drew his inspiration from and this fine book should find a similar, enthusiastic readership’ Observer Alexander Larman ‘Grab yourself a cuppa, open the covers and enjoy the atmospheric tales told within’ The CountrymanTable of ContentsScop – the Age of Gods Moon over Middle Earth Tue and the Binding of Helle Woden and the Wyrm Thunner, Dinne and Heofenfyr Frig and the Elven King The Burning Time of Waellende Wulf The Vessel of Death Wreccan – the Age of Heroes Of Sheaf & Shield, of Geat & Mathilde Sigemund Victory-hand Heremod, Hoarder of Rings Wada’s Dream Wade Waefre Wade in the Water Weyland Smith The Dance to the Music of Mimming Finn’s Last Stand The Stallion and the Horse The Harm of Grendel What has Ingeld to do The Death of Beowulf Bretwalda – the Age of England The Beginning of Wonders The Avenging of Arilda The Altars of Raedwald Penda’s Hoard The Rumwold Prophesy The Hind of Domne Aefe Snake-stone and Cattle-song The Urith Sacrifice Cuthbert’s Demons The Evengloom of the Gods Osgyth and the Stag The Vision of Dryhtehlm Guthlac turns Wodwo
£14.44
Batsford Ltd Celtic Fairy Tales and Legends
Book SynopsisFrom mermaids to dragons, 16 ancient Celtic fairy tales retold with their histories The Celtic cultures of the British Isles – Ireland, Scotland and Wales – have produced some of the richest traditional tales in Europe. Three words best sum up their themes and flavour: adventure, enchantment and romance. In this book, Rosalind Kerven has revived the best Celtic fairy tales for a new generation. The stories are sourced from old folk tale collections from all three regions, alongside selected medieval Welsh and Irish texts. • Visit mysterious Otherworlds inside the hills and below the sea – including a land where only the truth is ever spoken. • Meet iconic characters such as the first great Welsh poet, Taliesin, and the mighty Irish hero, Fionn mac Cumhaill. • Cheer on bold Scots lasses such as Mallie Whuppy, as she outwits a fearsome giant, and Kate Crackernuts, who rescues a prince from bewitchment. • Encounter witches, fairies, a bogle, talking animals and strange underwater beings. Each story is retold from the medieval texts and oral storytelling traditions of Ireland, Scotland and Wales, with fascinating background notes and a long list of sources and further reading included. The background notes feature a list of source material, analyses of themes, and examples of similar legends from all over Europe. Trade Review'A gorgeous hardback.' Author of Times Bestseller 'SISTERSONG' and 'Song of The Huntress' Lucy Holland
£13.49
Bodleian Library Aesop's Fables
Book SynopsisFor 25 centuries, the animal stories which go by the name of Aesop’s Fables have amused and instructed generations of children and adults alike. They are still as fresh and poignant today as they were to the ancient Greeks who composed them. This beautifully illustrated edition contains some of the best-loved fables, including the Boy who cried Wolf, the Lion and the Mouse, the Goose that Laid the Golden Egg, the Hare and the Tortoise, and The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse alongside many of the lesser-known tales. These timeless stories are illustrated with 35 wood engravings by Agnes Miller Parker (1895–1980), one of the greatest British wood engraving artists of the twentieth century. Parker was influenced by the art of Wyndham Lewis and the Cubist and Vorticist movements which flourished in the period between the wars. Her distinctive work is strikingly stylised and deceptively simple. Commissioned in the 1930s by the fine press publisher, Gregynog Press, for their edition of the work, these exquisite wood engravings inspired by the fables are among Parker's finest.
£28.50
Poetry Wales Press The White Trail
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£8.54
Vintage Publishing The Tale of the Unknown Island
Book Synopsis"A man went to knock at the king's door and said, Give me a boat. The king's house had many other doors, but this was the door for petitions. Since the king spent all his time sitting by the door for favours (favours being offered to the king, you understand), whenever he heard someone knocking on the door for petitions, he would pretend not to hear..." Why the petitioner required a boat, where he was bound for, and who volunteered to crew for him and what cargo it was found to be carrying the reader will discover as this short narrative unfolds. And at the end it will be clear that what night appear to be a children's fable is in fact a wry, witty Philosophical Tale that would not have displeased Voltaire or Swift.Trade ReviewSaramago writes possibly the most beautiful but certainly the most precise and differentiated Portuguese prose of our time -- Walter Haubrich * Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung *Saramago is a writer, like Faulkner, so confident of his resources and ultimate destination that he can bring any improbability to life -- John UpdikeNo candidate for a Nobel Prize has a better claim to lasting recognition than this novelist -- Edmund WhiteHe was the equal of Philip Roth, Günter Grass, Thomas Pynchon and Don DeLillo. His genius was remarkably versatile - he was at once a great comic and a writer of shocking earnestness and grim poignancy -- Harold BloomSaramago is a writer of formidable talent and extraordinary imagination * La Repubblica *
£13.49
Crescent Moon Publishing Beauties, Beasts and Enchantment: Classic French
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£17.99
Hachette Aotearoa New Zealand The Fairies' Easter Egg Surprise
Book SynopsisWe have waited for Easter for quite a long while.''Off you go,'' say our parents, with a kiss and a smile.Already dressed, we eat fairy bread on the run and hurry outside to hunt out some fun.This Easter, join a group of curious forest fairies as they spread festive cheer around their fairy village, and get up to mischief along the way!The Fairies'' Easter Egg Surprise is a joyous, rhyming Easter book from Sarina Dickson filled with beautiful illustrations from Hilary Jean Tapper.''If you''re looking for an enchanting book to gift at Easter, look no further! This a beautifully illustrated rhyming read aloud about a group of curious fairies who spread festive cheer throughout the forest. A sweet and whimsical, (non-religious) Easter read'' - Lucy, @LoveFourReading
£10.44
Saros International Publishers The Singing Anthill: Ogoni Folk Tales
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£16.49
Spinifex Press Cowrie
Book SynopsisCowrie travels to Hawaii and as she circles the island in an old pick-up truck we discover the tokens of her heritage. Sensual and sexual language brings the earth to life, and Cowrie too as she tests the limits of her endurance and explores her erotic connection with the earth. Island life erupts through the descriptions and you can taste the tropical fruit, the fish cooked in banana leaves and coconut, and smell the sweet fresh ginger.Trade Review"There is freshness, humour and honesty in the writing ... It both charms and enlightens." --"Canberra Times"
£13.46
Spinifex Press Building Babel
Book SynopsisEvery retelling of a myth is a reworking of it. Every hearing or reading of a myth is a recreation of it. It is only when we engage with a myth that it resonates, becomes charged and recharged with meaning. And so it is in Building Babel, a book that re-engages with myth through the cyberworld, where worlds intersect and are transformed.Trade Review"Suniti Namjoshi is an inspired fabulist." --Marina Warner
£13.46
Spinifex Press Rumours of Dreams
Book SynopsisFrom the author of the acclaimed 'Godmothers' comes a new and startling novel. Beginning in the South Pacific and stretching back to a Mediterranean past, Sandi Hall explores a friendship that could affect the history of the world. When Dory Previn asked Did Jesus have a sister? Sandi Hall discovered that he did.Trade Review"Move over, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John: this is a Gospel for the new millennium." --Denis Welch, "NZ Listener"
£10.76
Spinifex Press Song of the Selkies
Book SynopsisThe Edinburgh Festival brings together artists from all over the world, and Cowrie is among them, telling stories and giving readings. But even Cowrie can’t anticipate the chemistry that will begin when a group of traditional storytellers sets off to the Orkney Islands with Ellen, to stay at her coastal family cottages. For Ellen turns out to be Morrigan, and Morrigan is a selkie, living in the sea and on land. As an ancient mystery unravels, Cowrie and Sasha must turn detective to discover the truth behind Morrigan and the song of the selkies.
£11.66
Oratia Media Favourite Maori Legends
£18.80
Padwolf Publishing Shards of the Glass Slipper: Queen Alice
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£13.50
NeWest Press Wonderfull: A Novel
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£14.39
Laitman Kabbalah Publishers Juntos por siempre
£10.84
Glyndwr Publishing Black Bart Roberts - The Greatest Pirate of Them
Book SynopsisAn entertaining and well-researched volume tracing the highly exciting life of Bartholomew Roberts or Black Bart (1682-1722), the Pembrokeshire-born last great pirate whose travels from Britain to America and from the West Indies islands to the African coast caused much fear and gained him much notoriety. 13 black-and-white illustrations and 3 maps.
£11.06
Whittles Publishing The Mountain of Light
Book SynopsisThis is a mixture of folk-tale, magic, myth, love story and hymn of praise to the natural world of Scotland's high and low lands, their landscapes and creatures, and the poet-guardians who timelessly maintain their care for them. It is the legend-story of the mysterious Wanderer, who comes from the North to Striveling (Stirling) and its great Castle Rock, and the tales he tells to the five men and a woman who befriend him there. Who is this Wanderer, who seems ageless, who has profound affinities with animals and birds, who can take on the shape of swans and what is his mission to the South? Who are these friends, whose friendship becomes more, as they begin to realize that they are part of the strange, timeless and mythic destiny of a country older than civilization? What is the meaning of the unearthly love of the Wanderer and the mysterious Bella?
£6.99
Lexus Ltd Quatre Contes Populaires Ecossais: Four Scottish
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£7.59
Lexus Ltd Cuatro cuentos populares escoceses: Four Scottish
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£9.49
Luath Press Ltd Brainheart: A Salutation in Rhyme Metrically
Book Synopsis"Brainheart" is a collection of fifty eulogies celebrating great innovators; from politicians and inventors to architects and musicians, all of Scottish heritage. Composed in a style that Paraig calls 'metrical mirror,' the verses emulate heroic verse in a new voice that combines English with Scots in an authentic and engaging manner.
£6.64
CFZ Press Death on Dartmoor
£12.84
Short Books Ltd Ice Land
Book SynopsisIce Land is an epic tale of forbidden love infused with the rich history and mythology of Iceland.Trade ReviewNot just a good story, but one of the greatest - beautifully told. * The Times *Tobin combines the sensuality of Angela Carter with a profound feeling for a violent unstable and fascinating landscape... this world pulses with subversion and unexpected passion. * Saturday Telegraph *Tobin's novels are dark and bloody, sensual and mythic. They are also set in a past that, thanks to her skill at inhabiting her characters, seems often more immediate than the world around us... * Observer *A lyrically written epic inspired by the beauty and history of that island, and the rich world of Norse mythology that infuses it... * Sunday Telegraph *Triumphant * Time Out *
£7.99
Archive Publishing The Birds Who Flew Beyond Time
Book SynopsisA retelling of the Sufi parable, "The Conference of the Birds", a poem written in the thirteenth century, in which the birds of the Earth face seven invisible monsters in order to save the world.
£13.49
Archive Publishing Seeding the Wind: The Stellaster Archive Volume 2
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£11.66
Checkpoint Press THE Awakening of Navi Septa Book Two: The Mountain Mouse
£13.31
Mandrake of Oxford Sacred Mountains: Stories of the Mystic Mountains
Book SynopsisOn the mountains of truth you can never climb in vain: either you will reach a point higher up today, or you will be training your powers so that you will be able to climb higher tomorrow. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche What mountains mean to me: in one word, awe-inspiring. Although we can measure them, our minds are incapable of actually grasping the very small or the very large things in nature: neither atomic particles nor astronomical distances. How big is a mountain, how much does it weigh? Our limited minds can only cope with subjective assessments such as how difficult is it to climb, how dangerous would an avalanche be? So the feelings it produces are awe, a little fear, and possibly exhilaration if and when we think that we have conquered the mountain - but in reality we never can. ~ Professor David Hunt All the stories presented in this collection contain shamanic elements, so the obvious starting point is to explain what is meant by this. The term ''shaman'' is a controversial one. Initially employed by early anthropologists to refer to a specific category of magical practitioners from Siberia, the term is now widely used to denote similar practitioners from a variety of cultures around the world. This application of an originally culture-specific term to a more general usage has caused problems with regard to definition, with disagreements among scholars over whether certain features, such as soul flight or possession, or certain types of altered states of consciousness, should or should not be listed among the core characteristics of shamanism (Wilby, 2011, p.252). Introduction What are Mountains for you? Soul Captivation on White Bone Mountain The Magic Brush and the Golden Mountain The Legend of Amirani The Story of Jumping Mouse The Children of Hamelin: A Shamanic Journey into Mount Poppenberg The Crystal Clear Waters of Mount Elbruz The Vision Quest, Mount Sinai, and a Dream Fulfilled Mount Ararat Mount Koya-san, the Hermit''s Cave, and Fujiyama Sacred Towers The Fool on the Hill and the Book of Mysteries The Tobacco of Harisaboqued The Princess of the Tower Appendix: The Baal Shem Tov - Rabbi, Religious Formulator or Shaman?
£13.50
Skylight Press The Romance of the Faery Melusine
Book SynopsisSpringing from the heart of medieval France, The Romance of the Faery Melusine tells the story of Raymondin of Poitiers who accidentally kills his uncle while out hunting, and fleeing deep into the forest, encounters a faery by a fountain. Falling deeply into a mutual soul-love, the faery Melusine agrees to help Raymondin and to become his wife, on condition that he makes no attempt to see her between dusk and dawn each Saturday. On this basis the house of Lusignan thrives and prospers, until a series of treacherous events tempt Raymondin to violate his promise and shatter the magic which holds his faery wife to the human world. First rendered into written form in a text by Jean d'Arras in 1393, the legend of the Faery Melusine is well established in France, where she is credited with having founded the family, town and castle of Lusignan. However, it is very little known in the English-speaking world, despite the fact that Melusine originally hailed from Scotland. This new retelling by Gareth Knight translated from Andre Lebey's 1920s novel Le Roman de la Melusine captures the freshness of Lebey's telling of the legend and brings the benefit of Knight's expertise both in French literature and in the esoteric faery tradition.
£13.00
Luath Press Ltd Scotland the Brave Land: 10,000 Years of Scotland
Book SynopsisFrom bold heroines to clan battles, standing stones to castles, there is hardly any aspect of Scotland’s heritage that does not feature in our storytelling traditions. This collection of stories from all parts of Scotland, and from all periods of our dramatic – and often truly heroic – history is both an introduction to and a journey into Scotland’s rich cultural heritage. Covering the same themes as Disney-Pixar’s new fairytale film, Brave, this book provides the next step for those wishing to delve deeper into Scotland’s culture and traditions.Trade ReviewWith its captivating and often gruesome tales of heroic warriors in battle, bold heroines, deceitful aristocracy, and supernatural creatures this is a journey into the cultural heritage of a nation. SCOTTISH REVIEW OF BOOKS Scotland the Brave exposes the beating heart of Scottish storytelling. EDINBURGH LIFE Sept/Oct 2012 Stuart McHardy’s new collection of tales beautifully renders the mythology that has flourished in the oral tradition, alongise and in response to Scotland’s awe-inspiring natural landscape. EDINBURGH LIFE Sept/Oct 2012
£7.59
Peirene Press Ltd Of Saints and Miracles
Book SynopsisMarcelino lives alone on his parents' farm, set deep in the beautiful but impoverished countryside of northern Spain. It's the place where he grew up, the place where he doted on his beloved baby brother and protected his mother from his father's drunken rages. But when Marcelino's brother tricks him out of his house and land, a moment of anger sparks a chain of events that can't be reversed. Marcelino flees to the wild peaks of rural Asturias, becoming a cult hero as he evades authorities. Into this unconventional crime story, Astur weaves fables about the sun and the moon, tales of death and love, and reveals a community and a way of life that may soon be lost. Of Saints and Miracles is a sensuous and poetic portrayal of an outcast's struggle to survive in a changing world, and a seamless blend of the tragic and the majestic.Trade Review'Meticulous and vivid ... mesmerising.' ASYMPTOTE; 'Ambitious and unpredictable - the best kind of new spin on a timeless story.' WORDS WITHOUT BORDERS; 'An astonishing novel that marks Astur out as a novelist of unique brilliance.' LUNATE; 'Melancholic and somewhat unnerving ... a beautiful book.' EUROPEAN LITERATURE NETWORK; 'A fierce, passionate book - at home in every genre.' PATRICK MCGUINNESS; 'An extraordinary feat of writing.' SOPHIE HUGHES; 'This literary novel has the seal of determined originality, and is the admirable work of an author worth following.' EL CULTURAL;'With a sensuous style that produces an almost physical effect, Astur plays with time, earth, and violence, weaving together a plot that finds its logic in disorder, like every real tragedy.' ABC CULTURAL; 'One of the most exquisite writers of Spanish literature.' THE OBJECTIVE
£11.69
Ragz Books Touched by Darkness
£15.69
Pan Macmillan English Fairy Tales
Book SynopsisFairy tales are written both to entertain and to educate. Published in the shadow of the First World War, F. A. Steel's retellings of forty-one English fairy tales form a classic collection of stories, ranging from the familiar - 'Jack and the Beanstalk', 'Little Red Riding-Hood' and 'The Three Little Pigs' - to the perhaps less well known - 'The Black Bull of Norroway', 'Nix Nought Nothing' and 'The Red Ettin'. Originally published in 1918, it reflects the nationalistic concerns of the period. Steel takes the reader on a journey, from Cornwall to Bamburgh Castle via a palace by the sea, as well as high into the sky, where a giant lives. The magical tales in English Fairy Tales are brought to life by one of the best-known illustrators of the time, Arthur Rackham.Designed to appeal to the book lover, the Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of beautiful gift editions of much loved classic titles. Macmillan Collector's Library are books to love and treasure.
£13.92
Luath Press Ltd The Guga Stone: Lies, Legends and Lunacies from
Book SynopsisPlace one guga [almost fully grown gannet chick] and one stone in a pan of water and boil. Once you can pierce the stone with a fork, the guga is ready for eating…Meet Calum.In 1930, the last remaining St Kildans evacuated their isolated outpost 100 miles off the west coast of Scotland. Calum returns a few years later, alone and troubled, the sole guardian of the islanders’ abandoned homes. Haunted by the memories that linger there, he begins to re-live the experiences of residents long past.Acrobats, airmen, cormorants, cragsmen and angels leap, climb, shimmer and swoop through the pages of The Guga Stone.With subtle humour, Donald S. Murray mixes mythology, fiction and history to recreate St Kilda’s tales and legends for our time.Trade ReviewThis is a wonderfully eclectic collection of poems and prose by a gifted Scottish writer. - THE GUARDIAN
£8.54
Luath Press Ltd Tales of Edinburgh Castle
Book SynopsisEdinburgh Castle is one of Scotland's most awe-inspiring and striking landmarks. A site of human habitation since the 9th century BC, it has a rich and varied history and has been a crucial strategic military site for thousands of years. A new title in the popular 'Luath Storyteller' series, Tales of Edinburgh Castle is a salute tk the ancient tradition of storytelling, painting a vivid picture of the castle in bygone times, and the rich and varied characters to whom it owes its notoriety.Trade Review.
£5.99
Luath Press Ltd Tales of Loch Ness
Book SynopsisThis book helps you explore the myths and legends surrounding one of Scotland's most famous locations. The home of the fabled Loch Ness monster, or Nessie as she is affectionately known, is a favourite tourist spot. Every year thousands flock to her shores hoping for a glimpse of the mysterious creature. But hers is not the only story Loch Ness has to offer. It is home to a wide range of tales that reflect the dramatic history of the Scottish Highlands. Here memories are long and some stories have survived for well over a thousand years. From Irish priests and Pictish kings to tales of clan feuds and great love, faithful warriors and real heroes, Tales of Loch Ness will bring the legends of Scotland to life.Trade Review.
£5.99
Luath Press Ltd Tales of the Picts
Book SynopsisFor many centuries the people of Scotland have told stories of their ancestors, a mysterious tribe called the Picts. This ancient Celtic-speaking people, who fought off the might of the Roman Empire, are perhaps best known for their Symbol Stones – images carved into standing stones left scattered across Scotland, many of which have their own stories. Here for the first time these tales are gathered together with folk memories of bloody battles, chronicles of warriors and priestesses, saints and supernatural beings. From Shetland to the border with England, these ancient memories of Scotland’s original inhabitants have flourished since the nation’s earliest days and now are told afresh, shedding new light on our ancient past.Trade Review.
£5.99
September Publishing Foxfire, Wolfskin: and Other Stories of
Book SynopsisDrawing on myth and fairy tales found across Europe - from Croatia to Sweden, Ireland to Russia - Sharon Blackie brings to life women's remarkable ability to transform themselves in the face of seemingly impossible circumstances. These stories are about coming to terms with our animal natures, exploring the ways in which we might renegotiate our fractured relationship with the natural world, and uncovering the wildness - and wilderness - within. Beautifully illustrated by Helen Nicholson, Foxfire, Wolfskin and Other Stories of Shapeshifting Women is Blackie's first collection of short stories.Trade Review'A book for all the wild women ... Foxfire, Wolfskin is simply the most perfect thing. I love each and every placement of each word. Love the wildness, the shapeshifting, the fearsomeness of it.' - Jackie Morris | `A deeply evocative and haunting collection . . . Part rally cry, part warning, part manifesto and all parts enchanting, Sharon Blackie's Foxfire, Wolfskin is a deeply evocative and haunting collection. I want to press this powerful book into the hands of everyone I know and say listen.' Holly Ringland | `Sharon Blackie has wrought a new-old magic for our times: glorious, beautiful, passionate myths. They show who we could have been, and they give us a glimpse of a world-that-could-be.' Manda Scott
£14.99
Country Books Land of Hope & Story: A celebration of rural
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£7.59
Letterpress Publishing The Fragrant Concubine
£15.73
Carn Publishing ltd Folk Tales of Ayrshire
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£13.30
Triarchy Press The Pilgrimage of Piltdown Man
Book Synopsis“Once upon a time…there was the Weald. Much of the Weald was smoke and flame – a place of blast furnaces and molten iron – and the mine pits; still, deep, dark cooling pools, from which would come the hiss of steam when white hot iron was plunged in.And scattered throughout the Wealden forest there were those charcoal burners’ enclosures – the hut and the kiln, the piles of cut limbs and branches, and the solitary, wrinkled charcoal burner.And when the charcoal burner died, as often as not his body rotted away in solitude and there was no-one to miss him, as the forest retook the enclosure – and the hut and the kiln subsided back into the ground. Sometimes bits of body were collected – no-one knew by whom. Someone dark. Someone with a book. Bits of body were fixed together – bits of this, that and the other. Higgledy piggledy wiggledy. A brain animated by a spark of fire from a bloomer – an ancient blast furnace; a clay chimney – or fluxed into awareness and motion by an organism usually associated with rot and decay – the body jerked into some sort of life...”Here begins the story of Link, a cryptid, a knitted-together Piltdown Man, whose pilgrimage takes him up the South Downs, staggering along the A27 and the M27, through Southampton, through Amesbury, past Porton Down, to Glastonbury, Dartmoor, the west of Cornwall and Brittany.Mike O’Leary has been a professional storyteller for 25 years and his post-fairy tale vividly knits together the knuckers, hags, wisht hounds and dragons of folklore with more contemporary concerns of roadkill, hitch-hiking, migration and abuse. The result is a very adult story that investigates the whole idea of story in our lives and in our search for meaning.
£9.50
Quercus Publishing Of Men and Angels
Book Synopsis'Arditti is a master storyteller who uses his theological literacy sparingly to deliver a challenging but enthralling read' GuardianAward-winning, bestselling author Michael Arditti's tenth novel, documenting the history of homophobia and religion.God's vengeance on the wicked city of Sodom is a perennial source of fascination and horror. Michael Arditti's passionate and enthralling new novel explores the enduring power of the myth in five momentous epochs.A young Judean exile transcribes the Acts of Abraham and Lot in ancient Babylon; the Guild of Salters presents a mystery play of Lot's Wife in medieval York; Botticelli paints the Destruction of Sodom for a court in Renaissance Florence; a bereaved rector searches for the Cities of the Plain in nineteenth century Palestine; a closeted gay movie star portrays Lot in a controversial biblical epic in 1980s Hollywood. With its interrelated narratives and interwoven documents, Of Men and Angels is both formally inventive and imaginatively rich. Abounding in characters as vivid as they are varied, from temple prostitutes and palace eunuchs, through fanatical friars and humanist poets, to Bedouin tribesmen, Russian exiles and, of course, angels, this is a novel of breathtaking scope, penetrating insight and profound human sympathy.Trade ReviewAnyone who is afraid that the English novel is sliding into a backwater of domestic anecdote should find their anxieties assuaged by the writing of Michael Arditti * The Times *A Graham Greene for our time * Spectator *Arditti succeeds in creating fiction that is morally serious, moving and intense * Times Literary Supplement *Arditti is a master storyteller who uses his theological literacy sparingly to deliver a challenging but enthralling read * Guardian *
£9.49
Black Wolf Edition & Publishing Ltd ELAZAR
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£12.34
Black Wolf Edition & Publishing Ltd THE MYSTERIES OF THE ISLAND OF THARA: 2020
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£5.94
The Indigo Press Pearl: Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2023
Book SynopsisMarianne is eight years old when her mother goes missing. Left behind with her baby brother and grieving father in a ramshackle house on the edge of a small village, she clings to the fragmented memories of her mother’s love; the smell of fresh herbs, the games they played, and the songs and stories of her childhood. As time passes, Marianne struggles to adjust, fixated on her mother’s disappearance and the secrets she’s sure her father is keeping from her. Discovering a medieval poem called Pearl and trusting in its promise of consolation, Marianne sets out to make a visual illustration of it, a task that she returns to over and over but somehow never manages to complete. Tormented by an unmarked gravestone in an abandoned chapel and the tidal pull of the river, her childhood home begins to crumble as the past leads her down a path of self-destruction. But can art heal Marianne? And will her own future as a mother help her find peace?Trade ReviewAn interview with author Siân Hughes: ‘the heart of the mystery is this dangerous ground of motherhood’ – Lucy Writers Platform -- Rym Kechacha * Lucy Writers *
£10.79
Fairlight Books The Piano Room
Book SynopsisSandor Esterhazy is descended from a long line of talented pianists, but has no desire to play. So, one snowy afternoon, he promises his soul to the devil in exchange for a life of his own choosing. Afterwards, he laughs it off as a joke, but that night the devil arrives dragging someone - or something - with him. Uncertain what to do with the bewildered creature, Sandor locks it in the basement, allowing it out only once a night to visit the piano room - the creature, who he names Ferdi, is desperate to play. Sandor slips easily into his new role of captor, but as Ferdi learns what it is to be human, tensions between the two escalate, and Ferdi escapes into the world...Trade Review'Like a beautiful melody played on the very edge of hearing, The Piano Room demands your attention while remaining elusive. Utterly captivating' —Lynda Clark, author of 'Dreaming in Quantum and Other Stories'; 'A dark and beautifully written tale, seeped in music, yearning and breathless intrigue' —Edward Vass, author of 'Milton in Purgatory'
£13.49
Design For Today Hansel and Gretel: A Nightmare in Eight Scenes
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£23.75
Design For Today Beauty & Beast
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£36.00
