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'I cannot think of a time in living memory when this book would
have been more urgent or more necessary' Sarah Perry, Sunday Times
bestselling author of The Essex Serpent 'There are some books which
are necessary and there are some which are enjoyable and heart
wrenching and wonderful; this is all of these things. A book to
give to everyone you love' Daisy Johnson, Man Booker shortlisted
author of Everything Under It doesn't take much familiarity with
the news to see that the world has become a more hate-filled place.
In Others, a group of writers explore the power of words to help us
to see the world as others see it, and to reveal some of the
strangeness of our own selves. Through stories, poems, memoirs and
essays, we look at otherness in a variety of its forms, from the
dividing lines of politics and the anonymising forces of city life,
through the disputed identities of disability, gender and
neurodiversity, to the catastrophic imbalances of power that stands
in the way of social equality. Whether the theme is a casual act of
racism or an everyday interaction with someone whose experience
seems impossible to imagine, the collection challenges us to
recognise our own otherness to those we would set apart as
different. Profits from this book will be donated to Stop Hate UK,
which works to raise awareness of hate crime and encourage its
reporting, and Refugee Action, which provides advice and support to
refugees and asylum seekers in the UK. Contributors include: Leila
Aboulela, Gillian Allnutt, Damian Barr, Noam Chomsky, Rishi
Dastidar, Peter Ho Davies, Louise Doughty, Salena Godden, Colin
Grant, Sam Guglani, Matt Haig, Aamer Hussein, Anjali Joseph, A. L.
Kennedy, Joanne Limburg, Rachel Mann, Tiffany Murray, Sara Novic,
Edward Platt, Alex Preston, Tom Shakespeare, Kamila Shamsie, Will
Storr, Preti Taneja and Marina Warner. 'An impressive cluster of
names' New Statesman'Another superlative anthology from Unbound'
The Bookseller
Badger Bill needs rescuing. He's been kidnapped by two nasty sisters who are about to make him fight a boxing match against three even nastier dogs. The four most depressed llamas in the history of llamas need rescuing too. They are about to be turned into llama pies. But never fear - Uncle Shawn is here! He loves rescuing things. He has a rescuing plan, which involves dancing, and a mole, and an electric fence. What could possibly go wrong?
In October 2007, writers Mike Small and Kevin Williamson launched
Bella Caledonia at the Radical Book Fair in Edinburgh. Since then,
Bella has consistently explored ideas of self-determination and
offered Scotland's most robust political commentary. In the run up
to Scottish independence referendum, international interest grew
and Bella Caledonia had more than 500,000 unique users a month,
with a peak of one million in August - in 2015, the site was named
as one of the top 10 political blogs in the UK by Cision. This
anthology, curated by Mike Small, is a flavour of Bella's output
over these 14 years the editor's pick. Bella is aligned to no
political party and sees herself as the bastard child of parent
publications too good for this world; from Calgacus to Red Herring,
from Harpies & Quines to the Black Dwarf. Under Mike's
editorship, Bella has developed a 'Fifth Estate' as a way of
disrupting the passive relationship of old media, creating
something more active and appropriate for the 21st century - it's
about concentration of ownership, and bringing together radical
coverage with cultural analysis. Hence the plethora of wide-ranging
voices in this anthology, each representing outlier viewpoints in
contemporary society - novelists, poets, bloggers and journalists
publishing in non-mainstream media outlets, and the social media.
"Bella Caledonia has been a flagship for progressive thought in
Scotland, providing a platform for informed and creative writing,
advocating a progressive and independent nation fit for the
future." Stuart Cosgrove "Bella has been to be a constant thorn in
the side of the powerful voices who would prefer that conventional
wisdom went unchallenged, that awkward questions went unasked, and
bold solutions went unheard." Peter Geoehgan
Winston Churchill hated The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, and
tried to have it banned when it was released in 1943. But Martin
Scorsese, a champion of directors Michael Powell and Emeric
Pressburger, considers it a masterpiece. It's a film about desires
repressed in favour of worthless and unsatisfying ideals. And it's
a film about how England dreamt of itself as a nation and how this
dream disguised inadequacy and brutality in the clothes of honour.
A. L. Kennedy, writing as a Scot, is fascinated by the nationalism
which The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp explores. She finds human
worth in the film and the pathos of stifled emotions and
unfulfilled lives. 'If he is unaware of his passions, ' she writes
of Clive Candy, the film's central figure, 'this is because his
pains have become habitual, a part of personality, and because he
was never taught a language that could speak of emotions like
pain.'. This edition includes a foreword by the author exploring
the film's continuing relevance in an age of Brexit, when English
and British national identity are deeply contested concepts.
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Memento Mori (Paperback)
Muriel Spark; Introduction by A.L. Kennedy
1
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R339
R275
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Remember you must die. Dame Lettie Colston is the first of her
circle to receive insinuating anonymous phone calls. Neither she,
nor her friends, wish to be reminded of their mortality, and their
geriatric feathers are thoroughly ruffled. As the caller's
activities become more widespread, old secrets are dusted off,
exposing post and present duplicities, self-deception and
blackmail. Nobody is above suspicion. Witty, poignant and wickedly
hilarious, Memento Mori may ostensibly concern death, but it is a
book which leaves one relishing life all the more. Books included
in the VMC 40th anniversary series include: Frost in May by Antonia
White; The Collected Stories of Grace Paley; Fire from Heaven by
Mary Renault; The Magic Toyshop by Angela Carter; The Weather in
the Streets by Rosamond Lehmann; Deep Water by Patricia Highsmith;
The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West; Their Eyes Were Watching
God by Zora Neale Hurston; Heartburn by Nora Ephron; The Dud
Avocado by Elaine Dundy; Memento Mori by Muriel Spark; A View of
the Harbour by Elizabeth Taylor; and Faces in the Water by Janet
Frame
Brilliantly funny, terrifying, tender and sharp: the best short
stories to come out of lockdown. A vibrant collection of
established and emerging authors, including A L Kennedy, Helen
Simpson, Alison Moore whose novel The Lighthouse was shortlisted
for the Booker Prize, Amanda Huggins (winner of the Colm Toibin
short story award), Richard Lambert shortlisted for The Sunday
Times EFG award, Stephen S. Thomson author of Toy Soldiers and
Sitting in Limbo for BBC 1 . Introduction by Amanda Craig, long
listed for the Women's prize for Fiction 2021. '18 well-chosen
stories, loosely based on the idea of solitude, explore loss,
loneliness and love, and head from the wilds of the Northern
Rockies with an ailing father and an intrepid grieving daughter
(Leadfall by D. W. Wilson) to the cable-tangled, neon-jagged
streets of Bangkok where, in Stephen Thomas's titular story, a
traveller watches the world and thinks the setting is strange to
her, but her thoughts are inescapably familiar.'DAILY MAIL
A Country of Refuge is a poignant, thought-provoking and timely
anthology of writing on asylum seekers from some of Britain and
Ireland's most influential voices, among them Sebastian Barry,
William Boyd, A. L. Kennedy and Hanif Kureshi. Compiled and edited
by human rights activist and writer Lucy Popescu, this powerful
collection of short fiction, memoir, poetry and essays explores
what it really means to be a refugee: to flee from conflict,
poverty and terror; to have to leave your home and family behind;
and to undertake a perilous journey, only to arrive on less than
welcoming shores. These writings are a testament to the strength of
the human spirit. The contributors articulate simple truths about
migration that will challenge the way we think about and act
towards the dispossessed and those forced to seek a safe place to
call home.
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Paradise (Paperback)
A.L. Kennedy
1
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R490
R397
Discovery Miles 3 970
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Almost forty and with nothing to show for it, Hannah Luckraft is
starting to realise that her lifestyle is not sustainable. Her soul
is unwell, her family is wounded, her friends are odd, her body is
unreliable and her drinking is out of control. Robert, a dissolute
dentist, appears to offer a love she can understand, but he may
only be one more symptom of her problem. From Scotland to Dublin,
from London to Montreal, to Budapest and onwards, Hannah travels in
search of the ultimate altered state - her paradise.
The fourth book in a hilarious, heart-warming series for children
from Costa Award-winning author A.L. Kennedy, illustrated by
celebrated cartoonist Gemma Correll. Hold onto your underpants -
there's a mysterious purple bottom explosion problem plaguing the
world, and no one knows what to do! No one, that is, apart from
Uncle Shawn. He knows he and his best friend, Badger Bill, can fix
everything by visiting the Living Fish Tree at the bottom of the
Pacific Ocean. As long as there is no dastardly villain with an
army of evil clockwork clones on the loose, everything will be
fine. And how likely is that...?
LONGLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE Jon is 59 and divorced: a
senior civil servant in Westminster who hates many of his
colleagues and loathes his work, he is a good man in a bad world.
Meg is a bankrupt accountant - two words you don't want in the same
sentence, or anywhere near your CV. Living on Telegraph Hill, she
can see London unfurl below her. Somewhere out there is safety. As
Jon and Meg navigate the sweet and serious heart of London -
passing through 24 hours that will change them both for ever - they
tell a very unusual, unbearably moving love story.
'Charming lessons in life, death and kindness . . . Hugely moving'
Observer This is the story of Mary, a young girl born in a
beautiful city full of rose gardens and fluttering kites. When she
is still very small, Mary meets Lanmo, a shining golden snake, who
becomes her very best friend. The snake visits Mary many times, he
sees her grow and her city change, as bombs drop and war creeps in.
Lanmo wonders, can having a friend possibly be worth the pain of
knowing you will lose them?
'Kennedy is a superb writer and the canniness of her observation
keeps you reading' Sunday Times Humour, fantasy, rage and despair
both help and hinder the protagonists of these stories as they
navigate changing circumstances, accumulating losses, moments of
comprehension and tenderness. Here is the woman, hoping for a quiet
day at the zoo, who finally snaps at a white man's racist tirade
and vents years of fury; the micro-celebrity who practises lines
for a chat show on which he'll never appear; and the woman who
walks out of her honeymoon suite at midnight, perhaps for good.
Unsparing in her close examination of human relationships, A. L.
Kennedy proves once again why she is regarded as one of our great
storytellers. 'Kennedy dissects the small intimacies of inner
thoughts... Her prose is typically direct, her sentences clear-cut
and yet capable of great tenderness' Observer 'An author with a
proven ability to see - truly see - and whose prose can fire like
gunshots across the page' New Statesman
This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger
Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain
imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed
pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we
have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting,
preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger
Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and
hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone
From the prodigiously talented A. L. Kennedy comes a flamboyantly stylish and fiercely emotional novel about fathers and daughters, creation and self-destruction, and love’s paradoxical power to heal its most devastated victims. One such victim is Nathan Staples, a writer whose hilarious contempt for humanity is surpassed only by his corrosive self-loathing. Along with five equally dysfunctional colleagues Nathan lives on an island retreat off the coast of Wales, where he yearns for the daughter he lost years before. Now, in defiance of all his hopes, Mary Lamb–herself an aspiring writer–is about to join him as the seventh member of the colony.
As Nathan tortuously wins the trust of the child who has no inkling of their true relationship, Mary comes to a gradual understanding of her gift. In Everything You Need, A. L. Kennedy combines the mythic resonance of Arthurian legend with a sensibility as lyrical as it is profane.
The ferociously talented author of Original Bliss and On Bullfighting offers this haunting tale of two forlorn people who find in each other a hope and love as genuine and original as this marvelous book in which they come to life.
M. Jennifer Wilson is a mid-thirties radio announcer living in Glasgow. She shares a house with Art and Liz, two typical Scotland thirtysomethings, but her life takes a drastic turn with the arrival of her new housemate, an elusive man who glows in the dark and can't remember his name. He soon reveals himself to be none other than Savinien Cyrano de Bergerac, the famed writer and duelist of eighteenth-century France, and what unfolds is a love story stark and surreal, tender and humane.
The third book in a hilarious, heart-warming series for children
from Costa Award-winning author A.L. Kennedy, illustrated by
celebrated cartoonist Gemma Correll. Uncle Shawn and his best
friend Badger Bill are back for another brilliantly bonkers
adventure. They've seen off the nasty Dr P'Klawz with the help of
their trusty llama pals, and now everything on their farm up on the
sunny side of Scotland is just about perfect. Apart from the moon
needing rescuing and a suspicious lady badger setting her sights on
Bill... What could possibly go wrong?
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Day (Paperback)
A.L. Kennedy
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R514
R415
Discovery Miles 4 150
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Alfie Day, RAF airman and former World War II POW, never expected to survive the war. He may not have even wanted to—choosing to be a tail gunner—exposed, alone and watchful for his skipper and his crew through night after night of bombing missions. Now, five years after the end of the war and more alone than ever, Alfie finds himself drawn to unearth those intense, strangely passionate days by working as an extra on a POW film. What he will discover on the set about himself, his loves and the world around him will make the war itself look simple.
Day is a superbly realized, emotionally charged, deeply affecting drama about the violence of modern life, and the intensity and courage to be found in the closeness of death. Blazing with Kennedy’s characteristic virtuosity, wit and narrative invention, Day is funny and moving, wise and sad, a dazzlingly original performance from one of the most gifted writers of our time.
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Memento Mori (Paperback)
Muriel Spark; Introduction by A.L. Kennedy
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R307
R249
Discovery Miles 2 490
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Unforgettably astounding and a joy to read, Memento Mori is
considered by many to be the greatest novel by the wizardly Dame
Muriel Spark. In late 1950s London, something uncanny besets a
group of elderly friends: an insinuating voice on the telephone
informs each, "Remember you must die." Their geriatric feathers are
soon thoroughly ruffled by these seemingly supernatural phone
calls, and in the resulting flurry many old secrets are dusted off.
Beneath the once decorous surface of their lives, unsavories like
blackmail and adultery are now to be glimpsed. As spooky as it is
witty, poignant and wickedly hilarious, Memento Mori may ostensibly
concern death, but it is a book which leaves one relishing life all
the more.
The world's fascination with New Orleans stems from the allure of
the music of the city_music that owes its origins and development
to many sources. Until now, popular and scholarly books,
dissertations, and articles that attempt to explain these sources
have failed to recognize the unsung heroes of the New Orleans jazz
scene: the teachers in its public schools. Through more than 90
original interviews and extensive research in New Orleans'
historical collections, Dr. Kennedy documents ways that public
school teachers pushed an often unwilling urban institution to
become an important structure that transmitted jazz and the other
musical traditions of the city to future musicians. Music legends
from Louis Armstrong to Ellis Marsalis Jr._who also provides the
foreword_are just two of the many well-known former students of the
New Orleans public schools. Chord Changes on the Chalkboard shows
that, particularly after the 1920s, public school students
benefited not only from the study of instrumental music and theory,
but also from direct exposure to musicians, many of whom were
invited to perform for the students. The impact the teachers had on
generations of musicians and music fans is undeniable, yet their
teaching techniques are only part of the story. In addition to the
successes enjoyed with their students, the teachers' own musical
experiences, recordings, and performances are also examined. The
interaction between teachers and students in New Orleans public
school classrooms opens a new field of research for music
historians, and this book is the first to document ways in which
public school teachers acted as mentors to shape the future of jazz
and the music of New Orleans. An important addition to its field,
Chord Changes on a Chalkboard will provide invaluable information
for jazz fans and historians, music scholars and students, and it
is also useful reading for any public school teacher. A must for
any music library, it should also be a welcome addition to any
collection supporting African-American history or popular culture.
The heroes and heroines of Night Geometry and the Garscadden
Trains, A. L. Kennedy's first collection of stories, are small
people - the kind who inhabit the silence in libraries, who never
appear on screen and who never make the headlines. Often alone and
sometimes lonely, her characters ponder the mysteries of sex and
death... and the ability of public transport to affect our lives.
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