British author Mick Jackson delves into the complexities of the human psyche and intricate relationships within his narratives. His style is marked by profound insight into character motivations and a meticulously crafted atmosphere. Jackson excels at vividly depicting the worlds his characters inhabit, exploring universal themes such as memory, identity, and the search for meaning. His prose is characterized by precise language and a remarkable ability to draw readers into the depths of human experience.
The second children's book from the wonderful illustrator John Broadley, working with Booker-shortlisted novelist Mick Jackson, following their glorious debut While You're Sleeping. Mick Jackson's poetic prose and John Broadley's detailed and unique illustrations make this a special book to read again and again, and treasure for years to come.
From the author of the Booker-shortlisted The Underground Man and Five Boys comes a brilliant and rare collection of ten sorry tales, evoking the style, verve and imagination of Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected
A newly-widowed woman has done a runner. She just jumped in her car, abandoned her (very nice) house in north London and kept on driving until she reached the Norfolk coast. Now she's rented a tiny cottage and holed herself away there, if only to escape the ceaseless sympathy and insincere concern. She's not quite sure, but thinks she may be having a bit of a breakdown. Or perhaps this sense of dislocation is perfectly normal in the circumstances. All she knows is that she can't sleep and may be drinking a little more than she ought to. But as her story unfolds we discover that her marriage was far from perfect. That it was, in fact, full of frustration and disappointment, as well as one or two significant secrets, and that by running away to this particular village she might actually be making her own personal pilgrimage. By turns elegiac and highly comical, The Widow's Tale conjures up this most defiantly unapologetic of narrators as she begins to pick over the wreckage of her life and decide what has real value and what she should leave behind.
Things have never been the same in the village since the evacuee arrived and the five boys mistook him for a Nazi spy. There have been a host of visitors: the Americans preparing for D-Day and a deserter hiding out in the woods. But it's the arrival of the Bee King who makes the biggest impression.
'They both stop and stare for a moment. Yuki feels she's spent about half her adult life thinking about snow, but when it starts, even now, it's always arresting, bewildering. Each snowflake skating along some invisible plane. Always circuitous, as if looking for the best place to land...' Yukiko tragically lost her mother ten years ago. After visiting her sister in London, she goes on the run, and heads for Haworth, West Yorkshire, the last place her mother visited before her death. Against a cold, winter, Yorkshire landscape, Yuki has to tackle the mystery of her mother's death, her burgeoning friendship with a local girl, the allure of the Brontes and her own sister's wrath. Both a pilgrimage and an investigation into family secrets, Yuki's journey is the one she always knew she'd have to make, and one of the most charming and haunting in recent fiction.
Have you ever wondered what's happening in the world while you're asleep in your bed?
When Mabel Taylor receives a shiny red sledge for Christmas, she can't wait to try it out! But oh. No snow. No snow at all. And there's no snow the next day, either or the next. So, instead, Mabel imagines herself on the most extraordinary of adventures, becoming a bobsleigh champion, a polar explorer, and even Father Christmas! And just when she's stopped waiting and watching for the snow to fall, her world is transformed by a thick blanket of brilliant white.
"A child's imagination takes flight in this charming and poignant picture book. Wouldn't moving house be magical, if your house could move with you? When a boy is told that they are moving house, he envisions his house lifted by cranes, winding its way through narrow streets, and even sailing across the sea... But his mother helps him understand: even if they must leave their house behind, the two of them will still be on an adventure."--Publisher.
„Wir ziehen in eine andere Stadt!“ Das klingt für den kleinen Jungen erst einmal nach einem tollen Abenteuer. Er malt sich in den schönsten Farben aus, wie das komplette Haus von Kranwagen hochgehoben wird, wie es zu Land, zu Wasser und in der Luft reist und schließlich am neuen Ort landet. Als seine Mutter ihm dann erklärt, dass das Haus für eine andere Familie bleibt und sie in ein neues Haus ziehen, wird es dem Jungen mulmig. Das geliebte Zuhause verlassen? Hier kennt er doch jeden Winkel! Aber dann erfährt er, dass ein Umzug trotzdem ein schönes Abenteuer sein kann, solange alle zusammen und vergnügt sind.