Search results for ""The Conrad Press""

Where are all those movements you made, those passions, those sighs, those sentences, those monologues? They're still here somewhere, in this air, in this space. Things like that don't just vanish. (from Shades of Babel) Goran Stefanovski (1952-2018) was an internationally recognised ex-Yugoslav playwright. Four of his five plays published here have never been available in English before. They all illustrate Stefanovski’s characteristic use of source material, particularly folk tales and myth, to present a striking vision of the human condition, especially in the extreme circumstances of war, exile and political insecurity. Except for the elegiac Sarajevo, these plays are written in the playwright’s favourite genre of tragi-comedy. The short scenes and robust dialogue mark them out as the work of a connoisseur of the language of theatre. The Black Hole, the first play in this collection, is considered by the Italian theatre director Paolo Magelli to be the best European play of the 1980s and is still regularly performed in theatres worldwide. The Conrad Press is proud to be publishing this remarkable, highly engaging, intensely dramatic collection of plays by a master playwright.

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A biography of Beatrice and Sidney Webb

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Ten playlets about gay life

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‘The Subtle Thief’ is a witty, elegant, and intriguing murder mystery set in New York’s sophisticated art world. You won’t find street-wise thugs or master criminals here, but rather a heady mix of writers, curators, collectors, art dealers, and enticing sirens whose world is turned upside down when one of them is found dead in their Manhattan apartment. Enter our partners-in-detection (and in bed): Desmond Fairbrother, a handsome and wealthy connoisseur, and Abigail Higginson, a sassy novelist from Boston, who have both made their mark on New York’s literary and artistic scene. What begins as a sexy comedy of manners within Manhattan’s artistic community quickly turns in a different direction as our two sleuths piece together a series of elusive clues. Abby tells the story and Desi solves the mystery as our sparring couple entertain friends and suspects alike until the action reaches its surprising finale. ’If you like ‘Only Murders in the Building’, you’ll love this intriguing mystery tale. Catty, elegant, sophisticated goings-on in the New York art world: what’s not to like?’ Tim Newark, ‘Daily Express’ commentator ‘Artistry finds its author in the epicurean excess and luxurious prose of this murderous exposure of New York’s high life. Art, sex, and food are at the fore and everyone is a suspect.’ Jeremy Black, author of ‘The Pursuit of Poirot’.

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‘An Insignificant Boy’ is a moving, poetic, evocative tale of a lost boyhood –beautiful, funny, dark, and strange. But ultimately, it is uplifting and full of hope. A secretive father is haunted by the atomic bomb. An ageing mother dreams of escape. Born into the Space Age of Bowie, astronauts, and future visions, Clix is an isolated, imaginative child, growing up in a house full of ghosts – plus a terrible secret. A boy who, aged eight, builds a radio station to ask for help. But there’s a twist: every word of this unique tale is true. It is the final broadcast of Radio Clix.

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'You Were Summer' is a captivating, thoughtful, romantic comedy with sharp, witty twists and turns to keep you laughing until the last page. When Jo Washington's literary agent suggests a brief change of scenery, how could he know she would swap storytelling and London for a house renovation project and the Lake District? With a stray dog in tow and a handsome contractor twenty years her junior, Jo finds herself firmly inside the pages of her own hilarious and often touching tale, with her past and present showing her a future she never thought she'd write about.

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Step into a land of wonder and intrigue unlike any other. ‘Allura and the Hopeless World’ is an enticing story about overcoming your past, forging friendships and finding your way home when all seems lost. Tossed from foster family to foster family, distrustful twelve-year-old Allura Saint-May’s life is changed forever on the day she disappears from the face of the Earth. Plucked from the streets of London by a mysterious light, she finds herself transported to the fantastical world of Orterra, a place where magic and monsters are far more than a thing of fiction. There, Allura is thrust into the centre of a grand mystery that just might determine the fate of both worlds.

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‘Escaping the Dark Shadow’ is an unforgettable memoir that takes the reader on an exciting, highly personal, emotional, and informative journey from the 1950s to the present. It is the true story of a sensitive boy and the man he grew into. This is also the true story of living through a remarkable period of liberation through fashion, Mary Quant’s miniskirts, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, technology, Telstar, and a man on the moon. As well as this, ‘Escaping the Dark Shadow’ is a chronicle of many of the most significant changes in world history since about 1960.

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Down-and-out and living on the skids, his marriage over, his kids estranged, a desperate alcoholic takes refuge in a local park where he encounters an old man. Over a period of summer days, the old man tells him the tale of a king whose insane addiction caused him to destroy his kingdom and how the king regained his sanity by climbing a formidable mountain, The Giant, in the company of his wise and loyal chamberlain. The old man's story and friendship inspires John Robert to summon the courage to embark on a journey to his own recovery.

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‘Two Otherworldly Tales: Uncle Dave’s Car & The Mystery of Betty Moon’ is a remarkable and unforgettable book. ‘Uncle Dave’s Car’ is a highly entertaining and poignant story, set in and around the delightful town of Weymouth in Dorset. When Cordelia Brocklebank, a feisty ex-schoolmistress, takes her dog for a long walk through the Bluebell Woods, she’s in for the biggest surprise of her life. What she discovers is certainly no teddy bear’s picnic, but rather an enigma that sets in motion a chain of phenomenal events, altering her perception of everything and ultimately the course of her life. As we accompany Cordelia on her journey of rediscovery, we are also presented with an eye-opening glimpse into the scarcely believable goings-on of a respectable seaside charity shop, as well as delving into the fascinating world of clairvoyants and spiritualism . . . In the ghostly tale of ‘The Mystery of Betty Moon’, set upon the windswept saltings of the lonely Kentish marshes, we venture forth with the unsuspecting holidaymaker, Neville Cole, through the haunting mist of his recollections into the mysterious world of his childhood friend, Miss Betty Moon.

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In this second collection of poetry, Bridget Nolan explores the human experience in some unexpected ways. Her ability to stir emotions provokes thought, triggers laughter and occasions tears. From the comical title poem ‘When Robert Burns came to Tea’ to the heartbreaking ‘Why would I Imagine?’ Bridget presents a collection of stories in poetic form. In her varied style, she conveys a myriad thoughts and feelings: the joy of love; the pain of a continuing sense of loss; the embarrassment of a hospital visit and the comfort of the natural world are all woven into the narrative of this diverse collection. This anthology celebrates the human condition in all its shades of dark and light.

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Can there ever be a clear-cut, unambiguous moment when life is so unbearable that helping someone to die is not only right, but an act of loving kindness? ‘The Ladder’ begins on a remote Scottish island where Gary, a recent widower, is living under an assumed name. Wracked with doubts and fears, and a grief that often overwhelms him, he decides to design a lasting tribute to his lost wife, a celebration of her life and her love of colour. But will the memorial he creates arouse suspicions amongst the islanders and make them ask questions Gary would rather not answer? Michael Waterhouse’s first novel, ‘Prodigal’, was recommended in ‘The Times’ by Joan Bakewell as ‘a first novel of enormous power. Inspirational.’

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'Talk does not cook rice'. That Asian aphorism, carried across centuries and continents, coyly offers wisdom, with a knowing smile, capped off with wink. 'Kick the World, Break Your Foot' offers hundreds of these timeless nuggets of advice, adorned with wit and brevity. They variously offer piercing admonishment, cautious, and encouragement, yet always with a nod to human nature's endearing quirks. Like this: Straightened too much / crooked as ever. The Buddha himself would hear the voice of his wise grandma saying, sonny, you make something worse by trying to fix it. The more prescient the advice, the harder it can be to accept. (Who wants to be told they've been doing something badly?) But the wisdom of these haiku-like aphorisms is passed along as gently and softly as the brushstrokes of a master Asian watercolorist. So, advice may never be more welcome than when you browse this collection of ageless gems.

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'Flid' is a book about a character. A character with a disability. But forget everything you think you know about disability and meet Kevin. What follows is a moving - and sometimes comic - account of a life lived to the max. No arms, no legs - no problem! Watch as Kevin navigates his way through school, the workplace and university, _breaking barriers at every step. An optimistic and ebullient force, it is only when Kevin unexpectedly finds love again, in later years, that he is called upon to reassess a condition he has long come to accept.

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About the Author: ‘Soap-Stud & Blue-Movie Girl’ are two blisteringly satirical short novels, set in an alternative 1990s Hollywood in which stars such as James Dean and Marilyn Monroe are still alive and working. ‘Soap-Stud’ charts the career of hunky Jason Howl, discovered on a California beach by a talent scout and launched into working as a TV extra. A bit-part on the hit late-night soap Eldorado nudges Jason into the Big Time after some raunchy footage from a nude scene is posted on the internet. ‘Blue-Movie Girl’ is the story of mixed-race beauty Joylene Duchat, the estranged daughter of a ‘flasher’ turned televangelist. Introduced to a different kind of talent scout at eighteen, she becomes Pussy-Kat Kane, the hot new Queen of Adult Movies. But Joylene yearns to be a serious actress. Can she break out of porno into

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Lynne Howard's spell is dazzling, and readers will be powerless to resist it. Nicholas Maes, author of 'Laughing Wolf' In a stunning debut, Lynne Howard's 'Dylan Dover: Into the Vortex' casts a potent reader's charm over all youngsters clamouring for a new supernatural hero. Dylan believes he is a typical twelve-year-old until he stumbles into a vortex that miraculously transports him to the immortal dimension, a parallel universe. Dylan not only learns that he is a warlock, but he also discovers a twin brother, extraordinary powers, and a secret prophecy that seems to have Dylan and his family at its crux. Dylan, along with his brother and their new-found wizard friend Thea, begin to unravel the mystery that surrounds their birth and the danger that threatens immortals and humans alike.

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'Rest Not These Dead’, this final part of the Cellist Soldier trilogy, lays bare terrible guilt over the injustice of war, overlaid by a new era of love. The end of World War One brings no peace for Ben and his Jamaican lover Pearl in post-war London. A horrific racial attack sends her, grief-stricken, back to Jamaica. Ben is desperate to win Pearl back and, nursing a deeper guilt over his failure to prevent the unjustified execution of his cello-playing soldier friend, takes up the horrific job of body exhumation. But will a dramatic collaboration with a journalist in Arras, France, bring Ben and Pearl back together and reconcile the injustice done to his friend?

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The Atenisti’ is a global rollercoaster ride of murder, the quest for justice, and retribution through the eyes of a conscience-driven assassin. Travelling under numerous aliases, Ricci, a member of a secret organisation, finishes a mission in London. Apparently followed, he escapes to Italy. Seeking to avenge the kidnap, rape and murder of a young girl, he is plunged into a battle against a worldwide paedophile ring of extraordinary extent and power. This battle leads Ricci from Italy, through Germany, to India and beyond. Can he take on the might of this criminal network which seems determined to eliminate him?

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‘Next Time, Bring a Bigger Knife’ is an engaging, highly entertaining and often very funny memoir in which the writer takes us from his inner-city poverty in England to qualifying as a solicitor in the law before a chance encounter leads to his downfall involving sex and drugs. Poverty, followed by boarding-school, propels John on adventures at Oxford in the 1970s followed by a career in family law. A chance encounter with a beautiful woman leads to a decade of adventurous and unusual sexual encounters fuelled by every drug available. Multiple sexual partners, bondage and sex toys accompany drug dealers with knives, baseball bats and guns before John spends time in rehab and prison. He then organises events throughout the world before retiring to South Africa, where adventure continues to find him.

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'Unlocking Cousin Daisy's Cabinet' is a riveting, beautifully written and highly engaging compendium of a life well-lived and told in intensely personal yet also widely accessible recollections. It details and highlights the experiences, challenges, and adventures that the author has lived and his grapples with fate and destiny using his determination and all his energies. From a working-class, immigrant neighborhood in New York to witnessing the 'Cold War' Soviet Union, this thought-provoking memoir covers many timely topics. It reveals regional life in the U.S.A., work, politics, prejudice, religion, family dynamics, education, world travel and culture. It also recounts the consequences of the untimely murder of a friend. At times provocative, frequently amusing, it is an authentic portrayal of life's experiences.

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Look Behind You’ tells the utterly gripping story of how a single act of unthinking anger leads to a savage accidental killing. Although the killer is soon identified, in his attempt to evade capture, he commits other crimes that will make your blood run cold. Robert Steele the detective, pursues the psychopathic killer across three countries. There is a astonishing twist in the middle of the story, and an even more surprising one at the end. Look Behind You is a gripping and highly original study in pure evil. After spending thirty years as graphic designer and technical writer, Barry turned his hand to writing short stories, before creating a crime trilogy about his favourite detective Robert Steele. ‘Look Behind You’ is the second book in the trilogy of Robert Steele detective stories.

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‘Rethymnon - A British couple’s true story of love and loss on Crete’ is a book to make you laugh and cry. It is a true story about love, loss and the delights and downsides and of moving to a different country. Readers are taken on an exhilarating journey from South West London to Southern Greece. The book is an account of a decision to migrate and all the other stages of the transition. There was fun and laughter despite the difficulties encountered with Greek bureaucracy. It includes a frank account of the writer's grief over the sudden loss of her beloved husband, how she coped with living in a foreign country on her own and what led to her decision to remain.

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‘The Dying of the Fire’ is a gripping page-turner, full of twists, which immerses the reader in mid-sixteenth century Canterbury, south-east England, as its citizens tread a perilous path through the battlefields of faith and sickness. November 1558. Queen Mary is dying and England is fast approaching a historic and fateful turning-point. Can catholic England survive? Does it deserve to? In Canterbury, John Hewett, an illiterate carpenter, is burdened with a dangerous message from a disturbingly heretical voice claiming to be God. Meanwhile, Archdeacon Harpsfield has arrived in the city, determined to reassert the authority of the church. His young secretary, Francis Coppyn, returns to Canterbury with a mission to uncover the long-buried truth, prevent a second rupture with Rome and continental Europe, and to restore the fortunes of the city.

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'Travellers in the Sand' takes you on an eye-opening tour of the Middle East region, from the River Jordan to the Siwa Oasis and beyond. Discover the genuine cultures of the Old World and sense the indomitable spirit of those ancient lands, with the incredible wealth of tradition within the Arabian Peninsular. Live the experience; from first exposure to the unique socio-agricultural system of an Israeli kibbutz, to another kind of society within the teaming masses camped around Cairo's City of the Dead - the contrasts are extreme, as are the characters you'll meet along the way.

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'Secrets Never to be Told’ is an extraordinary story, compellingly told, which unravels a century and a half of family secrets. It reveals how being born illegitimate shaped the lives of two women – one of them, the author. Starting with a letter revealing a mystery inheritance, the author goes on a five-year quest taking her from Victorian Cambridge to modern Vancouver. She uncovers how her cousin Jessie emigrated to Canada, one of thousands of female domestic servants exported as ‘surplus’ women before the First World War. Woven alongside the contemporary detective investigation on the trail of one immigrant’s untold story, is that of the author’s strange 1960s childhood of social isolation in a Midlands city, obsessed with a world seen through TV - and with the Beatles.

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How do towns and cities divided by the harsh reality of an international border manage to get on with each other when their closest neighbour lives just next door, but in another country? Are they thriving or surviving? Utterly dependent on each other or with backs turned, socially and economically? We visit towns and cities that you may not have heard of or know little about. Places like distant Blagoveshchensk and Heihe, Narva and Ivangorod and Gorlitz and Zgorzelec. But also the better known Nicosia, Europe’s only divided capital, Detroit with its Canadian neighbour Windsor, Geneva and its French suburb Annemasse and the cities of Sarajevo and Mostar, divided not by international borders but ethnic divisions baked into everyday life. This is a fascinating and well-researched study of thirty-_six towns and cities from across the world that are separated by borders. Paul Doe delves into the way in which these divisions came about and how the separated towns and cities manage to get along, or not, buffeted as they are by geopolitics, ethnic differences and historical animosities.

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Gutsy and compelling, ‘Requiem for a Hard Man’ follows one man’s fight for redemption through the crime-filled backstreets of 1970s Manchester. WW2 hero Jackie Dunne has PTSD – re-ignited by his son’s heroin addiction. Unfortunately, fellow war vet Bill Shaw is now one of Manchester’s top drug dealers. When Jackie dumps two kilos of heroin down the drain, Bill vows revenge. A deadly standoff erupts between the army mates. Unable to sort things out with brute power, Jackie breaks the cardinal rule… and talks to the authorities. Will Jackie recognize his need for absolution? Is that possible when he won’t even admit there was a crime?

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‘Buying Your Granddaughter’ is a gripping story of women wrestling power for themselves in First Century Palestine in order to survive at a time when women are traded and sold like chattels. Tabitha needs a man to save Miriam, her granddaughter, but not just any man. She needs Ezekiel, the man she hates most. Ezekiel sold Tabitha’s maid, Tira, into slavery to another Hebrew tribe and Tira was killed. The Romans are hunting Miriam as her husband was a Zealot in the Judean Revolt. Tabitha plans to have Miriam bought as a slave and supposedly sold to a Gentile so that she can be taken to safety. Ezekiel is the only person short of a real slaver who can believably do this. Can they pull off Tabitha’s audacious plan or will their personal enmity destroy the mission?

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‘The Ice-Floe Girl’ is a delightful, beautifully-written and wonderfully observed true story about a nineteen-year-old boy who meets an innocent, angelic Swedish au pair and then hitch-hikes across Europe to join her in Sweden, where she lives at the top of a forbidding villa. She proceeds to take him along with her as an unwitting spectator to her mysterious life in Copenhagen, Stockholm and Helsinki. If good writing is about capturing an inexpressible paradox in words - here it is. This account of an ephemeral beauty presents in precise photographic details a remarkable true tale of people and places, retrieves eternall meaningful passing moments that would otherwise have been lost forever and fixes them to the banner of eternal love. The Ice-Floe Girl is an unforgettable, enigmatic quest stretching from a north London suburb to a small wooden town on the shores of the Baltic.

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After Oliver Twist intervenes to save Jack Dawkins - the legendary Artful Dodger - from transportation to Botany Bay, Jack embarks on what proves to be a perilous quest to discover his roots. Before he can say `Fagin!' he's battling to survive a devastating flood and rescue beautiful black-haired, green-eyed Lysette Godden, the girl of his dreams, from the hands of murderous villains. Jack and Lysette, searching for Jack's parents, head to France and have an adventure there which tests their mettle and mutual love to the utmost and changes their lives for ever. Brilliantly and evocatively written, Jack Dawkins is a worthy sequel to Charles Dickens's immortal masterpiece Oliver Twist.

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'Ada Lovelace: the Countess Who Dreamed in Numbers' is a carefully researched novel that tells the astonishing story of the real-life young woman who saw the coming of the computer age nearly a century before it occurred. Feisty, rebellious and beautiful, Ada Lovelace, born Ada Byron (1815-1852), was also a genius known for writing the very first computer programs. The only legitimate daughter of poet Lord Byron, a man exiled from England for his scandalous poetry, wild sexual exploits and gambling debts, Ada inherited her father's imagination - much to her mother's horror. Desperate to keep her daughter respectable, Lady Byron tutored Ada rigorously in mathematics, hoping to quash any creative impulses her daughter might have. Ada's life grows more complicated when Lord Byron apparently returns to England. She's thrilled when her father begins to visit her in secret, but will he help or hurt Ada's dream of being recognized as a true scientist?

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A married couple, a stranger from far away and a murder that rocks their lives. Desperate to reach England, a bedraggled immigrant clings precariously beneath a couple's motor home as they cross the Channel. Once holidaymakers Bob and Anne overcome their shock at his discovery and their initial reservations, they welcome the friendly stranger into their home in defiance of the law. But their trust is stretched to the limit when the police accuse the smiling twenty-three-year-old of a gruesome murder. Could this man from six thousand miles away be guilty? Or is the real killer still out there? Former national newspaper journalist Tony Bassett tells how Anne turns detective, battling against a mountain of circumstantial evidence and police bungling to discover the truth. This gripping first novel concerning a death in a remote Kentish country cottage is packed with mystery, suspense and occasional touches of humour.

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A non-fiction book about politics

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A novel

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A biography of footballer

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A book of true psychiatric case studies written by a highly experienced professional psychiatrist

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A crime novel

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An epic fantasy novel

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A crime novel

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A collection of short stories by a male author with Locked-In Syndrome

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A non-fiction book about the history of Pembrokeshire in Wales, United Kingdom

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A crime thriller

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'Bracing' is a full collection of poems, mostly about contemporary life, experienced richly, intensely, unsentimentally and with humour. The writing is humane and accessible, wearing its intelligence lightly. There is something for everyone in 'Bracing', even for those who were put off poetry at school. This is a mature, well-rounded piece of work. The subject matter ranges across modern life and beyond - childhood, parenthood, love, lust, loss, shopping, animals (and our connection to them), climate change, the complexities of the human heart and of relationships, spirituality, food, suffragettes, the status of women, homesickness, grief, illness, ageing, dementia, fear, the joy in small things. All the poems are underpinned by a keen eye, a sharp wit and a total absence of self-pity. Simone is a safe pair of hands, writing in an unshowy style, a poet who manages to be heartfelt, humorous and accomplished.

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Set in the early twentieth century, 'Poverty's Pain' is a remarkable novel telling the story of Edna Pain, a young woman struggling with survival. Her resilience against extreme poverty and the life that comes with it, is exciting yet fascinating, as it engulfs the reader and transports them into Edna's world. This is a place in time where people have become marginalised in society and trapped, not only because of the ravages of war, but also due to the era into which they have been born. This is a tale of romance, intrigue, great emotional catastrophe and is evocative of a time which may have been forgotten but for this novel, when life was not soft and cosy, but harsh and a bit wild: a true haunting novel. The reader will become submerged into Edna's search for hope and happiness. Will she ever find true love? Will she ever be truly happy?

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The Fifties were a difficult time to be a married woman and daughters in particular carried the burden of this unhappiness. Forbidden to socialise, Alice, the seventeen-year-old heroine of ‘The Dress’, defies her mother and escapes to a glamorous and glitzy party but is terrified she will be shamed, humiliated and dragged home. She thinks she has got away with it, then something unexpectedly dreadful happens. This mesmerising and unforgettable novel describes what it was like to be young after the Second World War and the tensions in society as the more colourful Sixties begin to unfold.

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‘The Mind of Sky’ is a deep and illuminating story of friendship and spiritual journeying, showing that the unlikely is always possible in the most surprising of ways. In a remote Cornish village, Valentine Sky is losing his mind, and so is his father. Haunted by an unresolved past, and joined by his companions Marx, Freud, and Woolf, Valentine is forced to take care of his dementing and bad-tempered dad, Douglas. Following the suggestion of his best friend, Valentine encounters an eccentric spiritual master, known as the Bhagwan. Will Valentine heed the teachings of the Bhagwan, and come to terms with his troubled past so that he can realise the new love he craves?

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As this remarkable book, 'The Resurrected', shows in an entertaining, highly original and enlightened way, retirement is a life challenge in itself. The busy hubbub of life is ended and there is time to evaluate and make exciting future plans. But if recent bereavement is added to the equation, finding a significant and comfortable future can be very difficult. In this sequel to 'Sacred Memoirs of a Retired Failure', Doug Spencer's life moves on at speed. Doug has made significant strides forward in his new life, helped by a lady who has hopes for more from their relationship. He now has to balance his past life and present challenges, whilst struggling with the yin and yang of his romantic attachments.

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In 1905, a sixteen-year-old Austrian boy falls in love with the music of his compatriot Franz Lehár when he attends the premiere of Lehár’s operetta ‘The Merry Widow’. The boy dreams of becoming an artist in Vienna, has no great interest in politics and shows no signs of anti-Semitism. His name is Adolf Hitler. Inspired by real events, ‘Song of Buchenwald’ vividly portrays Hitler’s transformation into a murderous, racist fanatic, and Vienna’s degeneration into a hotbed of extremism and hate, where Lehár’s Jewish wife Sophie and his Jewish colleagues – including the great librettist Fritz Löhner-Beda – find themselves in grave and constant danger. Yet one fact remains unchanged: Hitler is still a great admirer of Lehár’s music. Can Lehár use this to persuade Hitler to spare Sophie a

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