We are on the cusp of a reading revolution. Increasingly, research is uncovering an intimate connection between reading and wellbeing. The seemingly simple act of being read to brings remarkable health and happiness benefits. It stimulates thought and memory, encourages the sharing of ideas and feelings, hopes and fears. It enriches our lives and minds. This unique book offers a selection of prose and poetry especially suitable for reading aloud - to your husband or wife, a sick parent or child, an elderly relative. With short introductions and discussion topics for each piece there's something here for everyone - from Shakespeare and Black Beauty to Elizabeth Jennings and Bruce Chatwin. All royalties in full will go to The Reader Organisation, the leading UK charity for reading and health.

This text is more than a translation of von Kliest's "Der Zerbrochene Krug", as the action now takes place in Skipton, in 1810 and is transformed by a tough Yorkshire dialect. The play concerns Judge Adam, Skipton's sole agent of justice, who is far from happy to be visited by the magistrate Walter Clegg, seeking out signs of malpractics. The trial that Walter overseas seems uncomplicated at first - the formidable Martha is suing her daughter's fiance, Leslie, for breaking her jug. However, many family grievances are unearthed and discovering the identity of a mysterious man seen with the daughter becomes crucial to the case.

In this nightmare vision of a not-too-distant future, fifteen-year-old Alex and his three friends rob, rape, torture and murder - for fun. Alex is jailed for his vicious crimes and the State undertakes to reform him - but how and at what cost?

'A cul-de-sac, a dead-end track, A sandbanked strand to sink a fleet, A bay, a bar, a strip, a trap, A wrecking ground, that's Shingle Street.' Blake Morrison's first two collections, Dark Glasses (1984) and The Ballad of a Yorkshire Ripper (1987) established him as one of our most inventive and accomplished contemporary poets. In his first full-length collection for nearly thirty years, Shingle Street sees a return to the form with which he started his career. Set along the Suffolk coast, the opening poems address a receding world - an eroding landscape, 'abashed by the ocean's passion'. But coastal life gives way to other, more dangerous, vistas: a wave unleashes a flood-tide of terror; a sequence of topical poems lays bare pressing political issues; while elsewhere portraits of the past bring forth the dear and the departed. Ardent and elegiac, and encompassing an impressive range of mood and method, this is a timely offering from a poet of distinct talents.

TWO SISTERS publishes on the 30th anniversary of Blake Morrison’s ground-breaking book And When Did You Last See Your Father? which forged the way for a new genre of confessional memoir.

Blake Morrison has lost a sister and a half-sister in recent years. Both are the subjects of this remarkable and heart-breaking memoir, along with a forensic examination of sibling relationships in history and literature.

Blake’s sister Gill struggled with alcoholism for a large part of her life, and her shocking death is the starting point for Two Sisters. Blake returns to their childhood to search for the origins of her later difficulties, and in doing so unearths the story behind his half-sister, Josie.

As he unravels these narratives, Blake deals movingly in the guilt and shame that will be familiar to every person who has struggled with addiction in their family. He is unflinching in doing so, and the result is a book which provides testament to that common struggle, as well as acknowledging the complex, hidden forces on which all our lives are based.

Two Sisters is the extraordinary new memoir from the chronicler of human frailty, Blake Morrison.

ADAPTED INTO A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE, STARRING JIM BROADBENT "A painful, funny, frightening, moving, marvellous book ... everybody should read it" - Nick Hornby And when did you last see your father? Was it when they burnt the coffin? Put the lid on it? When he exhaled his last breath? When he last sat up and said something? When he last recognized me? When he last smiled? Blake Morrison's memoir is a candid, profoundly moving reflection on his relationship with his father, Arthur. Following Arthur's cancer diagnosis, Blake witnesses the slow erosion of the man he once knew. As his father's battle with the disease unfurls, Blake reflects on growing up with Arthur in Yorkshire and their relationship in the years since he left home. From Arthur's penchant for saving money - and the lengths he'd go to do so - to his wayward behavior on family holidays, Blake's fearless account resists an unwavering celebration of his father, showing him to be outlandish and recalcitrant, as well as capturing his humorous and caring qualities. The result is a rich, nuanced portrait of their relationship, capturing the accommodations and resentments that lie cloistered within familial love. And When Did You Last See Your Father? is a classic of the confessional memoir genre; a raw and shimmering interrogation of father-son relationships, masculinity, selfhood and pride. "This luminous tribute to a beloved dad made me laugh until I cried and cry till my nostrils were raw. A masterpiece - one of those books that you treasure forever" - Val Hennessy

The use of creative writing as a route to personal development is a powerful therapeutic tool - a fact that is recognized in the growing numbers of workshops and writing groups within professional contexts, including clinical, health and criminal justice settings. Writing Works is a guide for writers or therapists working with groups or individuals and is full of practical advice on everything from the equipment needed to run a session to ideas for themes, all backed up by the theory that underpins the methods explained. Experienced practitioners in the field contribute detailed illuminating accounts of organizing writing workshops for a wide range of different clients, together with examples of their outcomes. This book will be an invaluable start-up reference for arts therapists and professionals working across the health, social care and caring professions, and one that will be referred to again and again.

'Exquisitely metered, intimate and yet profound, glimmeringly intelligent...A worthwhile, interesting and impressive achievement' Edward Docx, Guardian What matters most: fidelity or art? Marriage or friendship? The wishes of the living or the talents of the dead? Literary executor Matt Holmes finds himself considering these questions sooner than he thinks when his friend, the poet Robert Pope, dies unexpectedly. A trail of clues Rob has left within his archives leads Matt to a series of shocking discoveries that begins to unsettle everything he thought he knew about his friend. Should Matt conceal what he has found or share it? After all, it's not just Rob's reputation that could be transformed forever...

‘A book at once bold, magnanimous, heart-breaking and riveting’ HOWARD JACOBSON ‘Beautiful. Affecting. Erudite.’ SUSIE ORBACH TWO SISTERS publishes on the 30th anniversary of Blake Morrison’s ground-breaking book And When Did You Last See Your Father? which forged the way for a new genre of confessional memoir. ‘She’s gone, that’s all, and though there’s no retrieving her I’d like to make sense of who she was and what she became. It wasn’t just that she changed over time. She could change from day to day. Drink made it worse but the origins went deeper. You never knew which you’d get, the kind and loving Gill or her doppelgänger. Two sisters.’ Blake Morrison has lost a sister and a half-sister in recent years. Both are the subjects of this remarkable and heart-breaking memoir, along with a forensic examination of sibling relationships in history and literature. Blake’s sister Gill struggled with alcoholism for a large part of her life, and her shocking death is the starting point for Two Sisters. Blake returns to their childhood to search for the origins of her later difficulties, and in doing so unearths the story behind his half-sister, Josie. As he unravels these narratives, Blake deals movingly in the guilt and shame that will be familiar to every person who has struggled with addiction in their family. He is unflinching in doing so, and the result is a book which provides testament to that common struggle, as well as acknowledging the complex, hidden forces on which all our lives are based. Two Sisters is the extraordinary new memoir from the chronicler of human frailty, Blake Morrison.

Encouraging the reading of the Bible as literature rather than doctrine, the four central gospels are presented here in the beauty of the Authorised King James Version, with four fresh, modern introductions. The revelatory essays, by A.N. Wilson, Nick Cave, Richard Holloway and Blake Morrison, were commissioned for the groundbreaking Pocket Canons series. They offer piercing, moving and highly personal responses to the most influential story of the last two thousand years: the life of Jesus Christ. Including: A.N. Wilson on The Gospel According to Matthew Nick Cave on The Gospel According to Mark Richard Holloway on The Gospel According to Luke Blake Morrison on The Gospel According to John and the Authorised King James Version of all four Gospels

The marriage of Gertrude and Walter Morel has become a battleground. Repelled by her uneducated and sometimes violent husband, delicate Gertrude devotes her life to her children, especially to her sons, William and Paul - determined they will not follow their father into working down the coal mines. But conflict is evitable when Paul seeks to escape his mother's suffocating grasp through relationships with women his own age. Set in Lawrence's native Nottinghamshire, Sons and Lovers (1913) is a highly autobiographical and compelling portrayal of childhood, adolescence and the clash of generations.

Lancaster Assizes, 1612 - ten people from Pendle in Lancashire are hanged, guilty of the crime of witchcraft. The poems in this book give voice to characters involved in the trials - from the accused to the accusers, from a child who bore witness against her own mother, to the hangman who carried out the final deed.

In the summer of 1936, Agee and Evans set out on assignement for Fortune magazine to explore the daily lives of sharecroppers in the South. Their journey would prove an extraordinary collaboration and a watershed literary event when in 1941 Let Us Now Praise Famous Men was first published to enourmous critical acclaim. This unspairing record of place, of the people who shaped the land, and of the rhythm of their lives today stands as one of the most influential books of the twentieth century.

'A book at once bold, magnanimous, heart-breaking and riveting' HOWARD JACOBSON 'Beautiful. Affecting. Erudite.' SUSIE ORBACH TWO SISTERS publishes on the 30th anniversary of Blake Morrison's ground-breaking book And When Did You Last See Your Father? which forged the way for a new genre of confessional memoir. 'She's gone, that's all, and though there's no retrieving her I'd like to make sense of who she was and what she became. It wasn't just that she changed over time. She could change from day to day. Drink made it worse but the origins went deeper. You never knew which you'd get, the kind and loving Gill or her doppelganger. Two sisters.' Blake Morrison has lost a sister and a half-sister in recent years. Both are the subjects of this remarkable and heart-breaking memoir, along with a forensic examination of sibling relationships in history and literature. Blake's sister Gill struggled with alcoholism for a large part of her life, and her shocking death is the starting point for Two Sisters. Blake returns to their childhood to search for the origins of her later difficulties, and in doing so unearths the story behind his half-sister, Josie. As he unravels these narratives, Blake deals movingly in the guilt and shame that will be familiar to every person who has struggled with addiction in their family. He is unflinching in doing so, and the result is a book which provides testament to that common struggle, as well as acknowledging the complex, hidden forces on which all our lives are based. Two Sisters is the extraordinary new memoir from the chronicler of human frailty, Blake Morrison.

And when did you last see your father? When did you? Was it last weekend or last Christmas? Was it before or after he exhaled his last breath? When was he able to recognize you, or complete a task (changing a lightbulb, fixing your bookshelves) without having to be helped himself? And was it him really, in the fullness of his being - or was it a version of him, shaped by your own expectations and disappointments? Blake Morrison's subject is universal: the life and death of a parent, a father at once beloved and exasperating, competent and inept, charming and infuriating, domineering and terribly vulnerable. But this memoir's central concern is identity. In reading about Dr. Arthur Morrison, we ask ourselves the same searching questions that Blake Morrison poses. Can we ever see our parents as themselves? Or are they forever defined by the lens of a child's or a teenager's eyes? What are the secrets of their lives, and why do they spare us that knowledge? How can we ever know our fathers in their other incarnations - as friends, as husbands and lovers, as employees? And when they die, what do they take with them that cannot be recovered or inherited?

In his masterpiece of family literature, And When Did you Last See Your Father?, Blake Morrison's mother appears as an intriguing but mostly silent figure. This is her startling and touching story - and a son's search to discover the truth about the remarkable Kerry girl who qualified as a doctor in Dublin in 1942, worked in British hospitals throughout the war, and then reinvented herself again to adapt to a quieter post-war family life. At the heart of the book there's a passionate wartime love affair, seen through the frank, funny, furious letters his parents wrote during their courtship. It evokes a surprising picture of life and love in WWII. From the obstacles the lovers faced, to their moments of hilarity and joy Things My Mother Never Told Me is a revealing and poignant anatomy of family conflict, love, war, and finally marriage. Kim Morrison emerges quietly, magically from the shadows, a determined heroine for our times.

Poet, playwright and novelist Blake Morrison evokes the lives of the Bronte sisters, with a nod to Chekhov's Three Sisters. Against the backdrop of a windswept northern village, three remarkable young women live their lives brightly. In Haworth in the 1840s, in a gloomy parsonage, where there are neither curtains nor comforts, Charlotte, Anne and Emily Bronte light up their world with outspoken wit, aspirations, dreams and ideas. And throughout their confined lives intensely lived... they write. With a touch of poetic licence, Morrison shows us the overwhelming humanity, charged emotions and brooding unease which characterise the Bronte household - and that of Chekhov's Three Sisters. Blake Morrison's play We Are Three Sisters was first performed at the Viaduct Theatre, Halifax, in 2011.

Set over a long weekend in East Anglia, this is the chilling story of a rivalrous friendship - as told with deceptive casualness by the narrator, Ian. It opens with a surprise phone call from an old university friend, inviting Ian and his wife, Em, for a few days by the sea. Their hosts, Ollie and Daisy, are a golden couple, and the scene is set for sunlit relaxation. But dangerous tensions quickly emerge, and in the stifling atmosphere of a remote cottage in the hottest days of summer, Ollie and Ian resurrect a bet made twenty years before. Each day becomes a series of challenges for higher and higher stakes, setting in train actions that will have irreversible consequences.