First published in 1978, The Victims of Love was the last in a quartet of novels by Colin Spencer concerning the Simpson family and their charged relationships across the generations. Now we are in the 1960s, as Sundy Simpson attempts a reclusive existence as a single mother and Matthew struggles with the aftermath of a superficially civilised divorce and the continued rage of passion within. In a new preface Colin Spencer recalls how he drew inspiration from his own life and the lives of others, intending 'to be as honest to my experience as I can be, to be ruthless in my vision of others as I have been to myself'. 'Affecting, hilarious, and grave . . . [the Generation Quartet] is a tapestry of unforgettable characters in all their seaminess and sadness, their idealism and desires. It is a delight to meet them again.' Sir Huw Weldon

First published in 1967, The Tyranny of Love was the second in a quartet of novels by Colin Spencer concerning the Simpson family. At the forefront of this story is Matthew, only son of Eddy and Hester Simpson. He loathes his lecherous father and wants to avenge his mother's misery. He begins an obsessive, sexless relationship with Jane, the girl next door, but his driving passion tends in another direction, and threatens to cause chaos. This edition of the novel includes a new preface by Colin Spencer. '[The novel] has a passionate feeling for the sensuous world; the characters live at full blast, a family driven by dark and uncontrollable forces, but always flesh and blood people.' London Illustrated News

First published in 1970, Lovers in War was the third of a quartet of novels by Colin Spencer concerning the Simpson family. This volume finds brother and sister Matthew and Sundy Simpson suffering fresh emotional turmoil. Sundy has divorced her philandering husband, Reg, and is living with Jamey Best-David, whose Catholic wife will not grant him a divorce. Matthew, resisting the homosexual world to which he feels drawn, has married his boyhood sweetheart, Jane. But when Reg resurfaces, both Matthew and Sundy succumb again to his incorrigible charm. This Faber Finds edition includes a new preface by Colin Spencer wherein he reflects on 'how the ethics of loving, its agonies and joys, are so unchanged'.

'A marvellous and remarkable book.' Melvyn Bragg 'A life-affirming novel.' Telegraph First published in 1963, Anarchists in Love was the first of a quartet of novels by Colin Spencer concerning the Simpson family. This volume centres on Sundy Simpson, who, on a warm May evening in Brighton, runs into Reg Pearson in a bar. They begin an affair: she paints, he writes, and on the surface they seem well matched. Reg, however, is a keeper of secrets. In a new preface to this edition Colin Spencer recalls the controversy that attended its first publication, and his wish to celebrate Brighton, 'which appeared to me in my twenties to be as complicated as the human soul'.

Though the word vegetarianism was not coined until the mid-nineteenth century, the vegetarian diet has been around as long as man has. Vegetarians have included in their number: heretics, humanists, Hindus, Christian fundamentalists, radicals, agnostics, philosophers, founders of religion and even an Emperor. Not surprisingly vegetarians have often been discriminated against sometimes tortured, even killed for their beliefs. So the history of vegetarianism is also a history of dissidence and revolt. Colin Spencers comprehensive book, reissued in paperback for the first time in fifteen years explores the psychology of abstention from flesh and attempts to discover why omnivorous humans at times voluntarily abstain from an available food. The result is a thorough work of scholarship, entertaining in places, horrifying in others. The breadth of Spencers research is quite outstanding and makes for a truly erudite read. He begins in pre-history and ends in the present day. Colin Spencer is one of the countrys leading food historians but his prolific output has not been limited to this field alone. He has written nine novels, a dozen cookery books, has had six plays produced, as well as writing for television and film and was food columnist for The Guardian for thirteen years. He has also written two other Grub Street titles: British Food (9781908117038) and From Microliths to Microwaves (9781908117007).

Until the middle of the nineteenth century, English cuisine was known throughout Europe as extraordinarily stylish, tasteful, and contemporary, designed to satisfy sophisticated palates. So, as Colin Spencer asks, why did British food "decline so direly that it became a world-wide joke, and how is it now climbing back into eminence?" This delectable volume traces the rich variety of foods that are inescapably British -- and the thousand years of history behind them.

Colin Spencer's masterful and witty account of Britain's culinary heritage explores what has influenced and changed eating in Britain -- from the Black Death, the Enclosures, the Reformation, the Age of Exploration, the Industrial Revolution, and the rise of capitalism to present-day threats posed by globalization, including factory farming, corporate control of food supplies, and the pervasiveness of prepackaged and fast foods. He situates the beginning of the decline in British cuisine in the Victorian age, when various social, historical, and economic factors -- an emphasis on appearances, a worship of French

cuisine, the rise of Nonconformism, which saw any pleasure as a sin, the alienation from rural life found in burgeoning towns, the rise and affluence of the new bourgeoisie, and much else -- created a fear that simple cooking was vulgar. The Victorians also harbored suspicions that raw foods were harmful, encouraged by the publication of a key cookbook of the period, "Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management."

However, twenty-first century British cooking is experiencing a glorious resurgence, fueled by television gurus and innovative restaurants with firm roots in the British tradition. This new interest in and respect for good food is showing the whole world, as Spencer puts it, "that the old horror stories about British food are no longer true."

'Seediness, obsessions, sex and violence, glimpses of underworld Brighton - all this might sound like Greeneland Revisited, but Colin Spencer's "Panic" is strong enough to stand on its own feet without invidious comparisons.... As an imaginative achievement Mr. Spencer's success in seeing the killer from the inside is especially impressive.' - "Observer"
'This is a disturbing, beautifully imagined novel, serious in intent . . . and written with a great sense of commitment.' - "New Statesman"
'Spencer indulges his taste for the lurid, the grotesque and the macabre to the full in "Panic" . . . a writer of brilliant talent.' - "Sunday Telegraph"
'It is a book written with deep compassion and understanding. It is a firm statement, the like of which far too few novelists dare make.' - "Time Out"
'Colin Spencer creates a vivid and authentic world of nightmare, governed by outrage and violation, and concealed from the authorities by fear.' - "Times Educational Supplement"
One year ago, Rod Johnson's life was shattered by the kidnapping and murder of his young daughter Lucy and the suicide of his wife. Convinced that the police are not doing enough to find the man responsible, Rod has become obsessed with tracking down the killer himself in an effort to understand how anyone could commit such a heinous crime. His quest leads him to an array of strange characters: Emma, a young woman on the run from her past, her uncle Woody, an old man with a dark secret, the dwarf Jumbo and his accomplice in crime, Trigger, a lesbian burglar. Told alternately from each character's point of view, it is a bizarre story of unprecedented panic . . .
First published in 1971, Colin Spencer's "Panic," with its seedy Brighton setting, drew comparisons to the works of Graham Greene and earned widespread critical acclaim for its psychological insight into the mind of a killer. This edition features a new introduction by the author.

This absorbing collection of photographs and ephemera illustrates life as it was for the coal-level miners of Gwent throughout its industrial past. Accompanying the images are detailed and informative captions that allow the reader to fully understand levels mining in the region. This book begins by examining the coal levels that were operational in the 1980s, including fascinating photographs of men, mines and horses. The second chapter explores the older levels, including their owners, numbers employed, wages and deaths. The final chapter takes a look at the last remaining working levels in Gwent, and reminds us that the current generation may be the last to extract coal using the methods of their forefathers. Colin Spencer is a retired coal miner with twenty-six years' experience in the industry. Here he provides an expert insight into levels minding, using rare images to portray the stark realities of the profession to the reader. This book promises to fascinate anyone interested in mining of the Gwent region.

The aim of this book is to explore "the psychology of abstention from flesh and to discover why omnivorous humans at times voluntarily abstain from an available food." Spencer begins in pre-history and ends in modern times.