The Accidental Memoir truly is for all: writers and non-writers, teachers and students, the perfect book for anyone seeking inspiration or imaginative ways to explore their own life story. The story of you. The Accidental Memoir takes you on a journey of self-discovery, from the origins of your family name and earliest memories, to what you'd invent and how you'd change the world. This beautifully illustrated book is filled with inventive and accessible writing prompts, as well as tips for anyone wanting to document their lives and explore their creativity. Want to flex your writing muscles, exorcise your demons, relive moments of magic, make sense of life, have fun and leave a lasting legacy? The Accidental Memoir will show you how. This innovative concept was developed as an Arts Council project to help people tap into their own lives. Working with diverse groups from refugees to the elderly and prisoners, it has been a resounding success in unearthing stories that otherwise may never have been told.

Jack and Sal, two people drifting in and out of love. Jack searches for clues, for a pattern, for an explanation to life's events. Perhaps the answer is in evolution, in dopamine, in chaos theory, or maybe it can be found in the minutiae of domesticity where the majority of life's dramas unfold. Here, Anthony Cropper has produced a delicately detailed account of a troubled relationship, with a series of micro-stories and incidents that recount the intimate lies, loves and lives of Jack and Sal and their close friend Paula.

At the heart of the modern city we find stories of lovers, stories of people with a desire to connect to someone else, something else. This collection reveals the experience of living through changing times, of people shaking the past and dreaming of better days, people finding their place, adapting to new surroundings, laughing and forgetting, living and loving in the grip of the city. Perhaps there are eight million stories in the naked city. Here are just a few of them. Included are a series of naked city portraits as seen through the lens of photographer Kevin Reynolds and a selection of the very best in new short fiction in a bonus section, This Could Be Anywhere.

Ken sits out back, in the flatlands that surround Old Goole, and watches the weather. That's what he was doing with poor Lucy, that fateful day, sat on the roof of his house, lifting her up to the sky. Lucy's friend. Florrie, she knew what would happen. All this is picked up by Alfie de Losinge's machine, which he had designed to control the weather. Instead, amongst the tiny atoms of cloud formations, he receives fragmentary images of events that slowly unfold to reveal a tender, and ultimately tragic, love story. In this beautifully crafted first novel. Anthony Cropper skilfully draws a picture of life inextricably linked to the environment, the elements, and the ever changing weather.

"Nature's Magician" is a specially commissioned collection which seeks to ask the simplest of questions. Why does ice float? When do birds sing? What do children dream of? These ten stories touch on the beautiful innocence of youth, the spellbinding tension of friendship and the dynamic nature of love. With fiction, as with magic, anything can happen.Anthony Cropper writes with the precision of Raymond Carver, the clarity of Amy Hempel and the ambition of Richard Brautigan. The deceptive ease of his storytelling reveals one of the most accomplished short story writers of the day.

This bumper issue #14 from Route brings together further chronicles of contemporary preoccupations. Presented in three distinct collections: Criminally Minded. Something Has Gone Wrong In The World and Next Stop Hope - this anthology of new writing takes you skilfully through the inner workings of the criminal mind, the nuances of human relationships and our personal connections with an increasingly disturbing world, where hope is hard to find.