Anthology of specially commissioned short stories exploring the weird, surreal, and dream-like. Bringing together some of the best of Northern Ireland's literary talents as well as new and exciting voices, this collection is dark, funny and unsettling. Contributors include Jan Carson, Michelle Gallen, Carlo Gebler, Bernie McGill and Sam Thompson.
Ian Sansom is back with another antidote to the festive season with this brilliant collection of short stories filled with those same emotions we feel year upon year in the most trying and joyous of months - anticipation, frustration, despair and ecstasy. December Stories II will make you laugh, cry and question everything you thought you knew about Christmas, Yuletide, the winter solstice, etcetera. In these stories, Sansom's vivid and varying characters peel back the many layers of the winter month, from a lonely mother to a guardian angel, a pest-controller to a bar-bar-bar owning brother to a baker selling lockdown sourdough kits, these snippets of lives are revealing and beautifully familiar. With the cynical wit and emotional insight we've come to expect from Sansom, get ready to fall in love with this mind of winter, and you might begin to wonder, are December Stories becoming a tradition? 'Happy, Merry, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.' With illustrations by award winning illustrator Fruzsina Czech.
Set against the backdrop of New York City, the narrative explores the journey of a poet and his transformative poem. As the city pulses with energy and the world stands on the brink of change, the story delves into the poet's reflections and the impact of his work on both his life and the society around him. Themes of creativity, identity, and the power of words are woven throughout, capturing the essence of a pivotal moment in time.
This is a playful and provocative collection of 365 extracts sourced from the British Library's collections, encompassing a wide range of great works in literature, poetry, essays and letters, historical and scientific treatises along with a myriad of eclectic imagery.
This is a book about a poet, about a poem, about a city, and about a world at a point of change. More than a work of literary criticism or literary biography, it is a record of why and how we create and respond to great poetry.
From Beachy Head to Brighton, and from Chichester to Rye, Flaming Sussex sees our intrepid trio plunge once again into the dark heart of England 'Beautifully crafted by Sansom, Professor Morley promises to become a little gem of English crime writing; sample him now' Daily Mail
The mix of emotions - anticipation, frustration, heartfelt despair, joyful ecstasy and uncertainty - associated with the Christmas period is laid bare in Ian Sansom's latest collection of short stories. However, it is not a despairing collection. Nor is it all reindeer, eggnog and happy times … that would be just too fictional. A festive collection to make readers stop and think about the nuanced difference between expectation - false and hopeful - and reality. And to wonder how we ever survive this most brutal and magical month.Sansom's stories take us on a multitude of familiar journeys made new: the nativity play; the teacher's Christmas appeal; a Polaroid moment where 1970s Florida meets The Clash; imaginary sash windows; beards; poets; festive apparel; aging drug dealers; professional thieves; airports; the overzealous use of cellophane…
'Beautifully crafted by Sansom, Professor Morley promises to become a little gem of English crime writing; sample him now' Daily Mail
CREAM TEAS! SCHOOL DINNERS! SATANIC SURFERS! Join our heroes as they follow up a Norfolk Mystery with a bad case of ... DEATH IN DEVON.
'Beautifully crafted by Sansom, Professor Morley promises to become a little gem of English crime writing; sample him now' Daily Mail Welcome to Westmorland. Perhaps the most scenic county in England! Home of the poets! Land of the great artists! District of the Great lakes! And the scene of a mysterious crime... Swanton Morley, the People's Professor, once again sets off in his Lagonda to continue his history of England, The County Guides. Stranded in the market town of Appleby after a tragic rail crash, Morley, his daughter Miriam and his assistant Stephen Sefton find themselves drawn into a world of country fairs, gypsy lore and Cumberland and Westmorland wrestling. When a woman's body is discovered at an archaeological dig, for Morley there's only one possible question: could it be murder? Join Morley, Miriam and Sefton as they journey along the Great North road and the Settle-Carlisle Line into the dark heart of 1930s England.