Search results for ""Faber Faber""

A PITCHFORK MUSIC BOOK OF THE YEARA radical, literary and intimate insight into one of the twentieth century's most vital vocalists. 'Tongson serves up a number of astute observations about fantasy, projection, longing, normalcy, and aberrance.' MAGGIE NELSON'Deftly weaves memoir, history, and cultural criticism to highlight the dynamic relationship between artists and listeners.'PITCHFORKIn the '60s and '70s, America's music scene was marked by raucous excess, reflected in the tragic overdoses of young superstars such as Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin. At the same time, the uplifting harmonies and sunny lyrics that propelled Karen Carpenter and her brother, Richard, to international fame belied a different sort of tragedy - the underconsumption that led to Karen's death at age thirty-two from the effects of an eating disorder.In Why Karen Carpenter Matters, Karen Tongson (whose parents named her after the pop icon) interweaves the story of the singer's rise to fame in the 1960s and '70s with her own trans-Pacific journey between the Philippines - where imitations of American pop styles flourished - and Karen Carpenter's home ground of Southern California. Tongson reveals why the Carpenters' chart-topping, seemingly white-washed musical fantasies of 'normal love' have profound significance for her - as well as for other people of colour, LGBT+ communities, and anyone outside the mainstream culture usually associated with Karen Carpenter's legacy.This hybrid of memoir and biography excavates the destructive perfectionism at the root of the Carpenters' sound, while finding the beauty in the singer's all-too-brief life.'Engrossing . . . a triumphant delight.' 4COLUMNS'Heartfelt . . . excellent . . . breathtaking.' EXCLAIM!'Will resonate with readers who have never even heard of Carpenter.' LITERARY HUBMUSIC MATTERS: SHORT BOOKS ABOUT THE ARTISTS WE LOVE- Why Solange Matters by Stephanie Phillips- Why Marianne Faithfull Matters by Tanya Pearson- Why Karen Carpenter Matters by Karen Tongson

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The rise and fall and triumphant rise from the ashes of Lenny Henry during the 80s and 90s.'Moving and ebullient' Daily Telegraph 'Relayed with characteristic exuberance and self-deprecation' Guardian Rising to the Surface traces Lenny Henry's career through the 80s and 90s. The 16-year-old who won a talent competition, now has to navigate his way through the seas of professional comedy, learning his craft through sheer graft and hard work.We follow Lenny through a period of great creativity - prize-winning tv programmes, summer seasons across Britain, the starring role in a Hollywood film, and stand-up gigs in New York. But with each rise there is a fall, the most traumatic being the death of his mother. But by the end of the book he has been able to rise through a sea of troubles and breaks out to the surface to accept the Golden Rose of Montreaux for his work in television.

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You can't escape the shadows . . .The Elite are imprisoned, the Reaper King is once again banished from the world and the city of Nubis is trying to return to normal. So is Mia, but it's not so easy. Coming to terms with new powers and being the tamer of two umbra, she's also plagued by nightmares. Is the fear all in her imagination? Or are the agents of darkness somehow planning another assault? Once again, Mia's skills and resilience will be tested to their limit.This is the second book in the sensational Umbra Tales series, illustrated by Ana Latese.

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The launch of an outstanding debut fantasy series.'A fresh, wild, gripping adventure.' Kieran Larwood, author of The Legend of Podkin One-Ear'A thrilling, highly imaginative and action-packed fantasy.' Louie Stowell, author of Otherland and Loki'Thrilling . . . a wonderful adventure.' L. D. Lapinski, author of The Strangeworlds Travel Agency'I absolutely loved it.' Tolá Okogwu, author of Onyeka and the Academy of the Sun'Pulse-pounding action.' A. F. Steadman, author of Skandar and the Unicorn ThiefBeware of the shadows, the Reaper King is coming . . .Mia always dreamed of being an umbra tamer until she met the wild creature on the Nightmare Plains. Since that day, she prefers to stay safe within the walls of Nubis. Safe, that is, until a surprise attack. With her parents captured, Mia's only hope is to travel to the City of Light to find help. But with only her little brother, two friends and one solitary tamed umbra, the journey feels impossible. Mia not only has to overcome her fears, she also has to learn to harness her umbra taming abilities if they are to complete the quest in time.For fans of Amari and the Night Brothers, The Legend of Podkin One-Ear and Nevermoor, this is the first in the sensational Umbra Tales series, illustrated by Ana Latese.

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FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE SECRET LIFE OF COWS'Elegiac, funny, warm and wise, The Wisdom of Sheep will delight country folk and city dwellers alike.' KATHERINE MAY'A wonderful antidote to the hectic pace of modern life.' JAMES OSWALDWe talk about people behaving like sheep, which assumes that sheep all behave in the same way. That has not been my experience.Some are affectionate, others prone to head-butting. Some are determinedly self-sufficient, others seek our help when they need it. And some can be trusted to lead the flock home. They are as individual as we are.Farm animals are familiar to us from childhood stories, but little did we know that their inner lives are full of complexity, deep bonds and family dramas. Rosamund Young has been an organic farmer for over forty years and this is her record of a life at the beck and call of the animals while observing and preserving the abundant wildlife at Kite's Nest Farm. It is a story of joy, discovery, cooperation and sometimes heartbreak. We learn about sheep growing old disgracefully, the intelligence of supposedly 'bird-brained' hens, 'conversations' between cows and why you should never send a text whilst milking . . .'Delightful.' ALAN BENNETT, ON THE SECRET LIFE OF COWS

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The visionary masterpiece, tracing a riverboat crew's dreamlike jungle voyage ...'My new all time favourite book ... A magnificent, breathtaking and terrifying novel.' Tsitsi Dangarembga'An exhilarating experience ... Makes visions real and reality visions ... Genius.' Jamaica Kincaid'A masterpiece: I love this book for its language, adventure and wisdoms.' Monique Roffey'Revel in the inviolate, ever-deepening mystery of Wilson Harris's work.' Jeet Thayil'The Guyanese William Blake . Such poetic intensity.' Angela CarterI dreamt I awoke with one dead seeing eye and one living closed eye ...A crew of men are embarking on a voyage up a turbulent river through the rainforests of Guyana. Their domineering leader, Donne, is the spirit of a conquistador, obsessed with hunting for a mysterious woman and exploiting indigenous people as plantation labour. But their expedition is plagued by tragedies, haunted by drowned ghosts: spectres of the crew themselves, inhabiting a blurred shadowland between life and death. As their journey into the interior - their own hearts of darkness - deepens, it assumes a spiritual dimension, guiding them towards a new destination: the Palace of the Peacock ... A modernist fever dream; prose poem; modern myth; elegy to victims of colonial conquest: Wilson Harris' masterpiece has defied definition for over sixty years, and is reissued for a new generation of readers.'One of the great originals ... Visionary ... Dazzlingly illuminating.' Guardian'Amazing ... Masterly ... Near-miraculous.' Observer'Staggering ... Both brilliant and terrifying.' The Times'The most inimitable [writer] produced in the English-speaking Caribbean.' Fred D'Aguiar'Extraordinary ... Courageous and visionary ... It speaks to us in tongues.' Pauline Melville

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SHORTLISTED FOR THE POETRY PIGOTT PRIZE IN ASSOCIATION WITH LISTOWEL WRITERS' WEEKThroughout these poems, with their roaming sense of first-person, the speakers' minds are cavernous and echoic, primal and sophisticated, observant and raw, in and out of control of themselves. The effect is unpredictable and thrilling, at once a dark art and an illumination of unease and loss and wishfulness. The collection features disquieting songs of a mutable self alongside poignant elegies, interior journeys and subtle (and not so subtle) ripostes to the legacy of Trumpism - while elsewhere encounters with ghostly feet and tongues of fire consort with riffs on Baudelaire, Rilke and Laforgue. These poems twinkle with mischief and humour, making for a pungent and haunting read. Riordan - a poet whose strong, rippling influence is felt by all in his wake - affirms his reputation at the forefront of contemporary poetry.

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THE NEW NOVEL FROM THE WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE"A wildly enjoyable book; the 85-year-old Vargas Llosa is as sharp and mordantly funny as ever." Financial Times"A compelling and propulsive literary thriller." Hari Kunzru, New York Times Book Review"A splendidly rich and absorbing novel." The Scotsman"Compelling . . . full of intrigue, backstabbing and shifting power dynamics." Irish TimesGuatemala, 1954. A CIA-supported military coup topples the government. Behind this violent act is a lie passed off as truth, which forever changed the development of Latin America: that those in power encouraged the spread of Soviet communism in the Americas.Mario Vargas Llosa has written a drama on a world stage, in which some persecutors end up as victims of the very plot they helped construct. Ironic and sensual, provocative and redemptive, Harsh Times is a story of international conspiracies and conflicting interests in the time of the Cold War, the echoes of which are still felt today.

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THE NEW NOVEL FROM THE WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE"A wildly enjoyable book; the 85-year-old Vargas Llosa is as sharp and mordantly funny as ever." Financial Times"A compelling and propulsive literary thriller." Hari Kunzru, New York Times Book Review"A splendidly rich and absorbing novel." The Scotsman"Compelling . . . full of intrigue, backstabbing and shifting power dynamics." Irish TimesGuatemala, 1954. A CIA-supported military coup topples the government. Behind this violent act is a lie passed off as truth, which forever changed the development of Latin America: that those in power encouraged the spread of Soviet communism in the Americas. Mario Vargas Llosa has written a drama on a world stage, in which some persecutors end up as victims of the very plot they helped construct. Ironic and sensual, provocative and redemptive, Harsh Times is a story of international conspiracies and conflicting interests in the time of the Cold War, the echoes of which are still felt today.

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Aside from the fact that they are brothers, Peter and Ivan Koubek seem to have little in common.Peter is a Dublin lawyer in his thirties - successful, competent and apparently unassailable. But in the wake of their father's death, he's medicating himself to sleep and struggling to manage his relationships with two very different women - his enduring first love Sylvia, and Naomi, a college student for whom life is one long joke.Ivan is a twenty-two-year-old competitive chess player. He has always seen himself as socially awkward, a loner, the antithesis of his glib elder brother. Now, in the early weeks of his bereavement, Ivan meets Margaret, an older woman emerging from her own turbulent past, and their lives become rapidly and intensely intertwined.For two grieving brothers and the people they love, this is a new interlude - a period of desire, despair and possibility - a chance to find out how much one life might hold inside itself without breaking.

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** Available for pre-order now **From the author of the multimillion-copy bestseller Normal People, an exquisitely moving story about grief, love and family. Aside from the fact that they are brothers, Peter and Ivan Koubek seem to have little in common.Peter is a Dublin lawyer in his thirties successful, competent and apparently unassailable. But in the wake of their father's death, he's medicating himself to sleep and struggling to manage his relationships with two very different women his enduring first love Sylvia, and Naomi, a college student for whom life is one long joke.Ivan is a twenty-two-year-old competitive chess player. He has always seen himself as socially awkward, a loner, the antithesis of his glib elder brother. Now, in the early weeks of his bereavement, Ivan meets Margaret, an older woman emerging from her own turbulent past, and their lives become rapidly and intensely intertwined.For two grieving br

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Thom Gunn has been described as 'one of the most singular and compelling poets in English during the past half-century' (TLS). This Selected Poems, compiled by his friend Clive Wilmer and accompanied by insightful notes, is the first edition to represent the full arc of Gunn's inimitable career. 'The poetry of Thom Gunn was much admired in his lifetime, and at the same time often misunderstood and underestimated. The scale of his achievement, and its uniqueness - a masterful Elizabethan lyric poet writing in the second half of the twentieth century - is just now becoming properly appreciated. Anonymous in voice, even in the service of the most intimate subject matter, acute in observation, particularly the urban experience, with San Francisco the principal site, Gunn is not merely the poet of the druggy '60s in California or the plague of the AIDS epidemic, but of the deeper-running themes, shared by Shakespeare, Baudelaire, William Carlos Williams and all his greatest exemplars, of the artist's moral and imaginative engagement with the world as it actually is, in the broadest possible sense, not as contemporary fashion might have it be. Which strikes me, who knew and loved the man and poet, as a kind of heroism.' August Kleinzahler'Thom Gunn smuggled the lyric tradition out of post-war Britain, and gave it cool, gracious renaissance in California. His poetry evokes the wild life of the body with madrigal-like elegance.' Fiona Sampson'Gunn's work illustrates with unusual clarity some of the debates poetry in English has pursued in [the twentieth] century - form versus improvisation, diction versus talk, the American way versus the English tradition, even, at times, authenticity versus art. To contain these contradictory impulses and . . . to have generated a body of work which anybody wanting to understand the period and identify some of its best poems will find essential reading - this is quite an achievement.' Sean O'Brien

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Fabulous festive picture book from the creators of the bestselling Santa's New Beard - a perfect stocking-filler gift!Christmas Eve was here at last,The countdown clock was ticking fast . . .But yikes! When Santa turned the key(The reindeer need some help you see)The engine didn't start, it spluttered,'That isn't right', the elves all muttered . . .When Santa's sleigh stops working on Christmas Eve the elves all rally round to help. Maybe they could use a slingshot? Or the owls could help? How about polar bears?Will they be able to sort the sleigh out before it is too late? Things are not looking good until one small elf has a bright idea!Festive and fun, this is destined to become a seasonal favourite.

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An original and profound portrait of contemporary Britain told through the testimonies of its inhabitants.'A spectacularly enjoyable and compelling reading experience . . . funny, moving, surprising and thought-provoking. It humanises literature in this toxic moment.'MAX PORTER, author of Lanny'Seemingly simple yet so deeply profound, The Passengers is an absorbing insight into the lives and minds of so-called ordinary people: their hopes and fears and idiosyncrasies at a specific moment in time.'CLIO BARNARD, director of Ali & Ava and The Essex Serpent'A nation's psyche comes to the surface. The Passengers is not just an oral history of the contemporary moment but, drenched in mood and texture, renders the country itself as a sonic collage.'SUKHDEV SANDHU, GUARDIANBetween October 2018 and March 2021, Will Ashon collected voices - people talking about their lives, needs, dreams, loves, hopes and fears - all of them with some connection to the British Isles. He used a range of methods including letters sent to random addresses, hitchhiking, referrals from strangers and so on. He conducted the interviews in person, on the phone, over the internet or asked people to record themselves. Interview techniques ranged from asking people to tell him a secret to choosing an arbitrary question from a list.The resulting testimonies tell the collective story of what it feels like to be alive in a particular time and place - here and now. The Passengers is a book about how we give shape to our lives, find meaning in the chaos, acknowledge the fragility of our existence while alleviating this anxiety with moments of beauty, love, humour and solidarity.'A magical mystery tour of Britain . . . extraordinary.'DAILY TELEGRAPH'Ashon's gloriously polyphonic book scales the heights. A deeply felt and humane portrait of where we are.'NIVEN GOVINDEN, author of Diary of a Film'This book couldn't have come into my life at a better time. It's a guiding mate. It enters like a cat through a window, ready to take your attention and show you what it needs to.'TICE CIN, author of Keeping the House

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Mstislav Rostropovich, internationally recognised as one of the world's finest cellists and musicians, has always maintained that teaching is an important responsibility for great artists. Before his emigration in 1974 from Russia to the West, Rostropovich taught several generations of the brightest Russian talents - as Professor of the Moscow Conservatoire - over a continuous period of two decades. His students included such artists as Jacqueline du Pré, Nataliyia Gutman, Karine Georgian, Ivan Monighetti and many others Rostropovich's teaching represented not only his individual approach to cello repertoire and instrumental technique, but also comprised a philosophy of life. As soon as he returned from his frequent concert tours, he would launch himself with whirlwind energy into his teaching activities. His lessons, which were conducted as open masterclasses , were awaited eagerly as an event of huge importance. Class 19 of the Moscow Conservatoire, where they were held, was usually packed with students (violinists , conductors and pianists as well as cellists). Often other professors dropped in, as did visiting musicians. The lessons were performances in themselves: Rostropovich - usually seated at the piano - cajoled and inspired his students to give the best of themselves. His comments went far beyond correcting the students in making them understand the essence of the work they were playing. Often this was done through striking imagery, and as such the lessons were addressed to the wider audience present in the classroom as well as to the individual student. Drawing from her own vivid reminiscences and those of ex-students, documents from the Moscow Conservatoire and extensive interviews with Rostropovich himself , Elizabeth Wilson's book sets out to define his teaching, and to recapture the atmosphere of the conservatoire and Moscow's musical life.

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EVERYTHING TO PLAY FOR - A NEW BOOK BY QI ELVES JAMES HARKIN AND ANNA PTASZYNSKI - IS AVAILABLE FOR PREORDER NOW The perfect gift for all those big and little kids in your life who ask 'why...?'. WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY ZOE BALL'QI have outdone themselves!' ALAN DAVIES 'Fabulous . . . A cracker of a book!' SUE PERKINS'The QI Elves are barnstormingly brilliant.' ZOE BALL'Genuinely useful and endlessly fascinating.' THE SPECTATOR'Hilarious.' DAILY MAILThe QI Elves are the brains behind the enduringly popular BBC TV panel show QI.Every Wednesday the Elves appear on The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show where they answer the ponderings and wonderings of BBC Radio 2's most inquisitive listeners.Dive into this splendid collection of listeners' unusual questions and some unexpected answers that are sure to make your head spin on topics ranging from goosebumps to grapefruit, pizza to pirates and everything in-between. Generously sprinkled with extra facts and questions from the Elves, Funny You Should Ask . . . is essential reading for the incurably curious. How much water would you need to put out the Sun?If spiders can walk on the ceiling, why can't they get out of the bath?Why do dads make such bad jokes?Why does red mean 'stop' and green mean 'go'?Can I dig a tunnel to the other side of the Earth?How do plant seeds know which way is up?Can you fill up a black hole?Who popularised the recorder, and where can I get hold of them?For more from the team behind QI, visit qi.com. You can also follow QI's fact-filled Twitter account @qikipedia and listen to their weekly podcast at nosuchthingasafish.comFor more mind-boggling nuggets of wisdom check out the QI FACTS SERIES

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'A rollicking, salty, breath of fresh air.' Hilary McKay'Absolutely adored it!' Emma CarrollBy the celebrated author of The Pear Affair and The Secret Starling - Patch finds adventure on every deck of the 'floating palace' she accidentally stows away on.Liverpool, 1910When Patch runs up the gangway of steamship, RMS Glorious, she isn't planning to hang around. But if she leaves her hiding place the constable might catch her: sitting tight is worth the risk. Too late, she realises the ship is setting sail! Patch has become an accidental stowaway.Luckily, Patch's unconventional past has made her pretty fearless when it comes to fending for herself, and besides there are friends in high and low places to be made onboard.But hiding away becomes less and less easy: her new friends urgently need her help and there's a mystery that needs solving, all before they reach New York . . .With gorgeous chapter head illustrations by Kim Geyer.'Sucked me in like a whirlpool.' Clare Povey'A page-turning adventure.' Nicola Penfold'An engaging historical adventure.' The Bookseller'Full of adventure and fun.' The Book Bag'Exciting, funny and full of warmth.' LoveReading4Kids'Exquisite storytelling.' Jo Clarke, BookLoverJo'A gem of a book.' Kevin Cobane, VIP Reading

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Riveting and revelatory.' Philip PullmanWonderfully vivid and touching.' Literary ReviewWarm, wise and unflinching.' Sunday TimesWitty and heartfelt.' Financial TimesStephen Hough is indisputably one of the world's leading pianists, winning global acclaim and numerous awards.Enough recounts his unconventional coming-of-age story, from his beginnings in an unmusical home in Cheshire to the main stage of the Carnegie Hall in New York, aged just twenty-one.Hough writes like a dream, with an almost Alan Bennett-like eye and ear for the sights and sounds of childhood.' Dan Cairns, Sunday TimesA memoir that is by turn audacious, harrowing, joyous, moving and funny . . . Hough [has a] brilliant ear for language, for rhythm, for silence.' Harriet Smith, GramophoneAn endearingly humorous, entrancingly lyrical writer.' Peter Conrad, ObserverMost memoirs

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'I write about love, I write about friendship,' remarked Thom Gunn: 'I find that they are absolutely intertwined.' These core values permeate his correspondence with friends, family, lovers, and fellow poets, and shed new light on 'one of the most singular and compelling poets in English during the past half-century' (Times Literary Supplement).These letters reveal the evolution of Gunn's work and illuminate the fascinating life that informed his poems: his struggle to come to terms with his mother's suicide; his changing relationship with his life partner, Mike Kitay; the LSD trips that led to his celebrated collection Moly (1971); and the deaths of friends from AIDS that inspired the powerful, unsparing elegies of The Man with Night Sweats (1992).

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Lose yourself in this classic 1950s Cold War spy thriller tracking a British secret agent in Communist Serbia by the celebrated of The Alexandria Quartet, perfect for fans of John le Carre.'A spellbinder ... Desperately exciting.' Daily TelegraphMethuen is a seasoned British secret agent, weary of espionage missions and desperately in need of a break - but he can't resist an assignment to investigate dirty dealings in the Balkans. A fellow British spy has been murdered in Serbia by a guerrilla gang of underground royalists, the White Eagles - but when Methuen arrives, he soon finds himself in a life-and-death struggle, pursued by both the royalists and Communists alike ...Inspired by Lawrence Durrell's own experiences in the British Foreign Office, White Eagles Over Serbia is a classic Cold War espionage thriller: a white-knuckle adventure perfect for fans of John le Carre and Graham Greene.'Exceptionally well written [and] brings back memories of boyhood classics.' Sunday Times'Vivid ... Beautiful descriptions ... Carries us expertly from one excitement to another.' PunchWhat Readers Are Saying:'All spy-novel fans should read this wonderful mysterious portrayal of post-war Balkans. Read it now!''A very good espionage / thriller novel ... Fantastic descriptions of the post war Yugoslav atmosphere ... Durrell could have given LeCarre some competition.''As a setting for adventure and intrigue, the mountains in post-WWII Serbia, are unparalleled.''A good old fashioned spy romp over the mountains.''A spy thriller very much in the British Boys Own style ... Superlative.'

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'Pacey and visceral.' Sunday Times'Imbued with the noirish urgency of a page-turning thriller.' Irish Times'Terrific.' Richard Russo'A revelation.' Megan AbbottBetween looking after her brother, attending night classes, and the combination of jobs she juggles, Lynette is dangerously tired. And when, after years of trying to scrape together enough for a mortgage, her plan is derailed, she must embark on a desperate odyssey through a city of greed.Set over two days and nights, The Night Always Comes holds up a mirror to a society which leaves too many people only a step away from ruin.What readers are saying:'Amazing . . . Vlautin hit the nail on the head with this. I could not stop thinking about the characters and where the story would take them.''WOW. This book hit me hard . . . I was on the edge of my seat.''The book pulls you into the story and you can't wait to find out what happens next.''Fabulous . . . part suspenseful action and part deep character study.'

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From the acclaimed author of Art Sex Music comes a vital meditation on womanhood, creativity and self-expression, and a revelatory exploration into the lives of three visionary artists.'A fascinating tale of the interlinking lives of three legendary trailblazers.'SALENA GODDEN'Re-sisters emanates an enthralling power.'JUDE ROGERS, MOJO'Cosey Fanni Tutti has lived the life and has the stories to tell: not just hers, but those of two other still unheralded female pioneers.'JON SAVAGEMyself , Delia and Margery - a trinity of the sacred and profane , sinners and saints of a kind. Three defiant women with our individual, unconventional attitude to life. Untameable spirits, progressive thinkers living within the inherent societal constraints of our times.In 2018, boundary-breaking visual and sonic artist Cosey Fanni Tutti received a commission to write the soundtrack to a film about Delia Derbyshire, the pioneering electronic composer who influenced the likes of Aphex Twin and the Chemical Brothers. While researching Delia's life, Cosey became immersed in Derbyshire's story and uncovered some fascinating parallels with her own life. At the same time Cosey began reading about Margery Kempe, the 15th century mystic visionary who wrote the first English language autobiography.Re-sisters is the story of three women consumed by their passion for life, a passion they expressed through music, art and lifestyle; they were undaunted by the consequences they faced in pursuit of enriching their lives, and fiercely challenged the societal and cultural norms of their time.'An impeccably researched meditation on womanhood as viewed through the lives of three firebrands.'FIONA STURGES, GUARDIAN'Awe-inspiring. Read these revelatory portraits: this book is for anybody who wants to discover the work of three women who, without fanfare, have enriched our world.'ROBERT WYATT'Passionate, original and fiercely defiant.'RUPERT THOMSON

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A single spy can save thousands upon thousands of lives . . .From Harry Ree, teacher turned saboteur, to Margery Booth, the spy who sang for Hitler, to Scotch Lass, Britain's smallest ever agent, discover twenty-seven of the most courageous and daring spies . . .For as long as there have been secrets to keep, there have been spies, the world over, trying to uncover this classified information. Spying goes on all the time, and everywhere, but some of the most astonishing exploits occur during wartime.The stories in this beautiful collection unpick some of the most astonishing missions undertaken during World War Two - actions that helped to save many lives. Amazingly, many of these tales had to remain a deadly secret at the time and are little known even to this day.Discover twenty-seven of the most courageous and daring, including:Giliana Gerson, Britain's first female spy, Harry Ree, teacher turned saboteur, Margery Booth, the spy who sang for Hitler,Roald Dahl, the spy who became a bestselling author, Noor Inayat Khan, the first woman wireless operator,Scotch Lass, Britain's smallest ever agent,'Major Martin' the man who never wasand many more!

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Set across Bombay and Calcutta, Amit Chaudhuri's stories range from a divorcee about to enter into an arranged marriage to a teengaed poet who develops a relationship with a lonely widower, from a singing teacher struggling to make a living out of the boredom of his students to gauche teenager desperate to hurdle past his adolescence.Rich with subtlety, elegance and deep feeling, Real Time is classic Chaudhuri.

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Winner of the Encore Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for FictionA beguiling, short and yet sweeping prose-poem, Afternoon Raag is the account of a young Bengali man studying at Oxford University and caught in complicated love triangle. His loneliness and melancholy sharpen his memories of home, which come back to haunt him in vivid, sensory detail.Intensely moving, superbly written, Afternoon Raag is a testimony to the clash of the old and the new; arrivals and departures.With an introduction by James Wood

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The definitive account of the first rise and fall of Boy George and Culture Club, and British pop music in the 1980s.NEW EXPANDED EDITION, WITH A FOREWORD BY NEIL TENNANTFEATURES A BONUS CHAPTER ON DURAN DURAN AND A NEW AFTERWORD'Speaks from the centure of pop's beating heart.' DYLAN JONES'Fascinating.' NEW YORK TIMES'A controversial and honest account.' NME'Music journalism at its best.' THE WORDA story of money, sex, stardom, screaming fans and forgotten ideals, Like Punk Never Happened is Dave Rimmer's witty, authoritative, fast-moving and provocative insider account of the roller-coaster ride that was Boy George & Culture Club and the new '80s pop.'Rimmer is among the most entertaining writers ever to pen a rock book.'ROCK AND ROLL CONFIDENTIAL'The funniest, smartest book I know about the connections between pop glitter and real-life human passion, the erotics of fandom, or the dirty details.'ROB SHEFFIELD, author of Talking to Girls about Duran Duran'As sharp a study of British pop as we'll get.'SIMON FRITH, CITY LIMITS

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'A gritty, politically charged mystery.' LA TimesJuniper Song - private detective - has a talent for surveillance, and for knowing when a client isn't telling her the whole story.Rubina Gasparian, Song's latest client, is worried about her cousin, who just happens to be carrying her baby as a surrogate. Something tells Song she's been hired to do more than just follow a heavily pregnant twenty-six-year-old around LA, and soon enough, she finds herself caught in the dangerous underbelly of one of LA's biggest immigrant communities.

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The Late Sun asserts a balance between memorialisation of the recently dead and celebration of the vitality of the living. Early in the collection is a set of poems about the poet's mother, who died in great age after a life of exotic travel, and the poet's own travels, his sense of both place and displacement, are vibrantly explored in other pieces. The city where he lives - particularly, and somewhat unusually, in a sequence titled 'Smells of London' - provides many of the themes, but the civic glades and sparkling vistas of the Mediterranean are just as important, and the book adds up to an affirmation of international perspectives at a time when civilised values are increasingly threatened.

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Why be healthy when the world is so sick? From the author of Perfidious Albion, a darkly comic and profoundly affecting novel about resistance, radicalism and redemption.'Bold, unflinching. exceptional.' Observer'Unforgettable...' Times Literary Supplement'Outstanding...' Irish Times'Enthralling. a blistering critique of 21st century life.' Financial Times'Byers's mastery of tone and attentiveness to every psychological shift confirms him as one of the most accomplished novelists of his generation.' Sunday Times

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**QUIETLY HOSTILE - THE HILARIOUS NEW BOOK FROM THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR - IS AVAILABE TO PRE-ORDER NOW**'Irby might be our great bard of quarantine.' New York Times'SO funny. Samantha Irby makes staying in feel like like a luxury, and reminds you that going out is actually quite annoying. I laughed out loud so much reading this -- I honestly couldn't be more in awe of her.' Sara PascoeStaring down the barrel of her fortieth year, Samantha Irby is confronting the ways her life has changed since the days she could work a full 11 hour shift on 4 hours of sleep, change her shoes and put mascara on in the back of a moving cab and go from drinks to dinner to the club without a second thought. Recently, things are more 'Girls Gone Mild.' In Wow, No Thank You Irby discusses the actual nightmare of living in a rural idyll, weighs in on body negativity (loving yourself is a full-time job with shitty benefits) and poses the essential question: Sure sex is fun but have you ever googled a popular meme?'Samantha Irby is the king of sparkling misanthropy and tender, loving dread.' Jia Tolentino'A laugh. A fart. A snort. Or some combination thereof. Be prepared to totally lose control of the noises that come out of your body while reading the latest essay collection from humor writer Samantha Irby.' Bustle'The only writer who can make me laugh with abandon in public... Her signature irreverence is intact, of course, but it can't mask the heart she leaves bleeding on the page.' Elle'Samantha Irby is hilarious... Nothing is off limits and I love it.' Candice Carty-Williams

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A classic wartime tale of a (real!) cat who saves London's kittens and finds refuge behind the doors of a famous publishing house.'This time we need to get you - get all of the kittens, safe out of London,' said Morgan decisively . . . 'To have a chance for a better life, well, let's just say, I've got an idea.'Morgan is a young orphan who lives off scavenging - until he finds a cosy home at a famous London publishing house. Over time he learns a trade - and soon becomes the very best book cat in the business. And then the Blitz begins. Morgan finds himself training up twenty odd kittens to be book cats, and then there is the small matter of secretly evacuating them out of London. Happily, Morgan has a plan.Set in war-torn London, charmingly illustrated, and full of heart and verve.'Charming.' Sunday Times'A sweet feline twist on the classic evacuee story.' The Guardian'A delightful book.' Books for Keeps

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Triple-Oscar-winning, world-renowned animator and author of the seminal book The Animator's Survival Kit Richard Williams' legendary career in the world of animation is brought to the page here for the first time.Written with his wife and collaborator, Imogen Sutton, Adventures in Animation follows the life and career of this pivotal figure in animated features, from the influential moment when, aged five, Williams saw Snow White, right through his career of more than sixty years. Over those decades, Williams created full-length features, short films, title sequences for films and hundreds of commercials all of which were graced by his characteristically elegant, sinuous lines and magnificent imagination. Williams' place in animation history is assured: he directed the Academy Award-winning 1971 adaptation of A Christmas Carol and perhaps most famously worked as Director of Animation on Who Framed Roger Rabbit, for which he won tw

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NOW A MAJOR SKY ATLANTIC SERIES'Unputdownable . . . fantastic and terrifying.' Nihal Arthanayake, RADIO 5The astonishing true story of 'one of the most startling police corruption scandals in a generation' (New York Times)Baltimore, 2015. Riots were erupting across the city. Drug and violent crime were surging, with homicides reaching their highest level in over two decades. For years, Sgt Wayne Jenkins and his elite team of plain-clothed officers - the Gun Trace Task Force - had been the city's lauded heroes, working to get drugs and guns off the streets. But all the while they had been stealing drugs and money and gaming the system. Because who would believe the dealers, the smugglers or the people who had simply been going about their daily business over the word of the city's elite task force?'A work of journalism that not only chronicles the rise and fall of a corrupt police unit, but can stand as the inevitable coda to the half-century of disaster that is the American drug war.' David Simon

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Public Property was Andrew Motion's first collection of poetry after being appointed Poet Laureate. In it, he negotiates the very space of poetry, moving between private and public realms, pondering each from the other's borders. In the opening series of idylls he conjures the expeditionary narratives of a rural childhood, in scenes as precisely remembered as they are irretrievable. Elsewhere he reconsiders moments from the Victorian past from reticent and surprising angles, and elsewhere again he tackles distinctly contemporary themes and situations. The final section of the book contains a number of elegies and love poems, written in a variety of lyric forms, which provoke concerns that are among the most critical in poetry: What is public art? To whom do our most private sentiments belong?

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Emma Brockes is thirty-seven, lives alone, and wants children. She is in a relationship (good!) but they aren't doing the parenting together (weird!). Emma needs sperm, a doctor, and not to bankrupt herself. And that's just the beginning - there are a million choices to make when taking the untraditional route to motherhood. Then there's the uninvited opinions, scolding and general hysteria that always accompanies a woman's decision to have (or not to have) children. With generous heart and humour, Panic & Joy examines essential questions about motherhood and the modern family.

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FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF SUNBURN AND DREAM GIRL'Gripping' Irish Independent'Lippman writes with clarity and power.' STEPHEN KING'A gritty story, vivid characters and a fast-moving, twisting plot.' Washington IndependentA suburban mother. A secret life.Heloise is a single mum who runs her own business and keeps herself to herself. But Heloise's business is one that takes place in discreet hotel rooms. For the right payment, she can be the woman of your dreams.But now her accountant is starting to ask questions, her long-time bodyguard is hinting at new dangers, and in the local news, a so-called suburban madam has been found dead in her car.With nothing as it seems, can Heloise secure the safety of herself and her son?'A riveting, engrossing, and at times, sordid story.' 5* reader review'AMAZING! I did NOT see the twists coming at all!' 5* reader review'All kinds of surprises in this fun and exciting thriller' 5* reader review'Addictive as always!' 5* reader review

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This new revised edition brings Mike Leigh's career up-to-date, including his film about J.M.W. Turner, Mr. Turner, and his epic masterpiece, Peterloo.Five-time Oscar nominee and BAFTA winner, the only British director to have won the top prize at both Cannes (for Secrets & Lies) and Venice (for Vera Drake) - Mike Leigh is unquestionably one of world cinema's pre-eminent figures. Now, in this definitive career-length interview, he reflects on all that has gone into the making of his unique body of work.In their commingling of bleakness and humour, Leigh's films recreate the tragi-comic world of people whose everyday lives are far from glamorous: a world in which 'the done thing' usually prevails, contrary to our inner hopes, wants or needs. Leigh's work has always reflected its times and entered the vernacular, whether the harsh studies of Meantime and Naked or the humour of the now-legendary Abigail's Party and Nuts in May. Above all, Leigh is an accomplished storyteller, and these films deal with universal themes: births, marriages and deaths, parenthood and failed relationships, families and their secrets and lies. Within these pages Leigh speaks to Amy Raphael more openly than ever before of his life and inimitable working method, revealing himself as passionate, forthright, no sufferer of fools, but the owner of a dry and playful Mancunian wit.

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Paul Auster's novels have earned him the reputation as 'one of America's most spectacularly inventive writers.' He has also brought this sense of invention to the art of screenwriting, producing Smoke, Blue in the Face, Lulu on the Bridge and The Inner Life of Martin Frost.Smoke tells the story of a novelist, a cigar store manager and a black teenager who unexpectedly cross paths. Blue in the Face is a largely improvised comedy directly inspired by Smoke. In Lulu on the Bridge, jazz musician Izzy Maurer is accidently hit with a bullet during a performance in a New York club, propelling him on a strange and frightening journey. The Inner Life of Martin Frost follows the unsettling experiences that befall a writer who borrows a friend's country house.The volume also contains production notes, as well as interviews with Paul Auster about his work in film.

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'Extraordinary, funny, tender, poetic . . . The story that emerges is Britain's.' Times Literary SupplementWith a new introduction by George Shaw In a forensic dissection of Britain's souring landscape Gordon Burn tells the tale of Ray Cruddas, a light entertainer effecting a semi-dignified retreat from a fading career, who returns to the unnamed northern town of his youth.

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'Immaculately written, inspiring, sad and elegiac.' Daily TelegraphWith a new introduction by David PeaceDuncan Edwards played his first game for Manchester United at the age of fifteen and Walter Winterbottom, then England manager, called him 'the spirit of British football'. On £15-a-week, Edwards was the most prized of the Busby Babes. Then in February 1958 came Munich.Half a decade later George Best represented United reborn. 'Georgie' of the boutiques and dolly birds; 'El Beatle' of the European Cup in '68 and European Player of the Year; in the opinion of Pele, the most naturally talented footballer that ever lived. Retired at 27 and reduced to the role of Chelsea barfly and tabloid perennial; George, where did it all go wrong?

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*Includes an exclusive new chapter*'Excellent' Guardian'Hugely enjoyable' Irish Times'Dazzling' LRB 'Fascinating' New Statesman 'An absolute must-read' GQAn NME and BBC Culture Book of the Year 2020For a while, Sweet Dreams were made of this.From the testimony of the people who lived it, comes Dylan Jones' masterful history of the Blitz kids, synth-pop and the style press, from 1975 to 1985. 'Few music scenes have received more opprobrium than the New Romantics. A bunch of fame-grabbing clothes-horses? Certainly. But also, a progressive force that opened new routes for music while embracing most genders, ethnicities and sexual preferences.' MOJO 'Compelling reading for those who lived and breathed the indulgence of the era without realising its significance or contemplating its legacy.' Simon Armitage 'Dylan Jones explains how a bunch of penniless nightclub show-offs morphed into pop royalty in the 1980s . . . An excitable patchwork of interviews, punctuated with gossip and pertinent theory.' UNCUT'It's all here: the swishing, the androgynous preening, the sweetly-dreamt synth-pop splendour of early '80s Britain. Something was happening, and Mr. Jones knew what it was.' Barney Hoskyns

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The naming of Cats is a difficult matter,It isn't just one of your holiday games;You may think at first I'm as mad as a hatterWhen I tell you, a cat must have THREE DIFFERENT NAMES.So begins one of the best-known poetry collections of all time. The practical cats need no introduction, but this stunning new full-colour version, illustrated by Júlia Sardà, is the perfect companion to Old Toffer's Dogs. Whether you are a cat or a dog person, you will be enchanted by Júlia's highly original interpretation.

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Faber Stories, a landmark series of individual volumes, presents masters of the short story form at work in a range of genres and styles. 'I have quite changed my mind. I am going to run away and become a boy.'In these three stories, written by Djuna Barnes under the pseudonym Lydia Steptoe, three characters find themselves on the brink of a sexual awakening - accompanied by guns, whips, and worldly innuendo.A fourteen-year-old girl plans to become 'a virago', until her mother intercepts her first tryst by dressing up as her male lover. A boy of the same age is lured into the forest by his father's mistress. A woman of forty falls in love and longs to kill herself, so unbearable is the return of the youth she thought she wanted. 'Alice', she tells herself, 'be a man.'Barnes makes gender and desire seem slippery and joyful - and makes the fictional Lydia Steptoe seem like a writer for our time.Bringing together past, present and future in our ninetieth year, Faber Stories is a celebratory compendium of collectable work.

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Could peace come after? After what? Who will we be?Easter morning, 1916. Gunshots ring out in the Dublin streets. In her suburban sitting-room Hanna prepares for revolution. Frank walks through the crowds calling for peace, while John recalls the trenches and sees a city soaked in blood. Eighteen-year-old William fearfully reports to the barracks for duty, determined to serve the British army with honour. Inspired by true events, this absorbing play weaves movement and folk song into a stirring tale of militarism, corruption and the power of rebellion.'Vibrant and shocking. A fine new play [with] countless stirring scenes. that boils over with the chaos of war. Nunnery wears her research lightly and expresses her ideas in tumbling poetry, lively dialogue and haunting song. Not a syllable or beat is wasted.' Guardian

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In a hard-boiled city of crooks, grifts and rackets lurk a pair of toughs: Box and _____. They're the kind of men capable of extracting apologies and reparations, of teaching you a chilling lesson. They seldom think twice, and ask very few questions.Until one night over the poker table, they encounter a pulp writer with wild ideas and an unscrupulous private detective, leading them into what is either a classic mystery, a senseless maze of corpses, or an inextricable fever dream . . .Drunk on cinematic and literary influence, Muscle is a slice of noir fiction in collapse, a ceaselessly imaginative story of violence, boredom and madness.

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When eighteen-year-old Michael visits the Hanbury's remote family home he is captivated by their bohemian lifestyle. Years later, when he marries the strong-willed, beautiful Rebecca, he is secretly hoping to create his own version of that free-thinking family, but after the birth of their first child, their marriage begins to flounder. The chance to escape once more to his friend's country house comes as a welcome relief, until he discovers a family changed, and his own romantic notions of country life begin to disintegrate . . .

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Ralph Loman works in an unsatisfying job, for a free London newspaper, when Francine Snaith, a temporary secretary for a corporate finance firm, unexpectedly crosses his path at a party. Her beauty ignites a blaze of excitement in his troubled heart. But Francine is ravenous for attention, driven by a thirst for conquest, and when Ralph tries politely to extricate himself, he finds he is bound by chains of consequence from which it seems there is no escape. The Temporary paints a merciless portrait of the cut and thrust of modern romance, work and life.

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Thomas Bradshaw and Tonie Swann are experiencing the classic symptoms of marriage in its middle years: comfortable house, happy-enough daughter and an eerie sense that life might be happening elsewhere. Then Tonie accepts a big promotion at work and Thomas agrees to become a stay-at-home dad. While Thomas is suddenly faced with the daily silence of an empty house, Tonie finds herself alive to previously unimagined possibilities. And at the head of the family, the ageing Bradshaw parents continue their marital dynamic of bickering and petty undermining.

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