Albion's Secret History compiles snapshots of English pop culture's rebels and outsiders, from Evelyn Waugh to PJ Harvey via The Long Blondes and The Libertines. By focusing on cultural figures who served to define England, Guy Mankowski looks at those who have really shaped Albion's secret history, not just its oft-quoted official cultural history. He departs from the narrative that dutifully follows the Beatles, The Sex Pistols and Oasis, and, by instead penetrating the surface of England's pop history (including the venues it was shaped in), throws new light on ideas of Englishness. As well as music, Mankowski draws from art, film, architecture and politics, showing the moments at which artists like Tricky and Goldfrapp altered our sense of a sometimes green but sometimes unpleasant land. 'The most illuminating odyssey through lost, hidden or forgotten English pop culture since Michael Bracewell's England Is Mine.' Rhian E. Jones, author of Clampdown: Pop-Cultural Wars on Class and Gender

It's unusual to find a young male writer who can write with such sensitivity and maturity. Guy Mankowski's portrayal of the ballerina Yelena is wholly convincing, taking us inside her thoughts and feelings as she describes the course of her life, from harrowing childhood to professional success, punctuated with turbulent emotional crisis. This is clearly a writer of great talent. Dr. Andrew Crumey, Longlisted for The Man Booker Prize My letters to you, my darling Noah, will be maps, in which I hope I can be found.' Yelena, a brilliant but flawed Ukrainian ballerina, comes to the UK to fulfil her dreams and dance in one of ballet's most prestigious roles: Giselle. While researching content for his new book, Yelena meets Noah, and here begins a journey of discovery. Life takes an unexpected turn, and the two write letters in which they try to provide a blueprint of their lives and find their way back to each other. But during this process, Yelena visits the darkest corners of her life and, before she knows it, her past begins to catch up with her in ways she can't control. A dark, intricate labyrinth, Letters from Yelena explores the depths of one woman's own inner torment, the extremes to which we can be taken, and whether or not there is a way out.

A clever conceit and a compelling narrative. Edward Stourton, BBC Radio 4 An intricately wrought and enchanting first novel, The Intimates is a measured, literary piece of work as hauntingly evocative of its setting and characters as Marilynne Robinson's Pulitzer prize winner Housekeeping. Abigail Tarttellin The Intimates believe they are the epitome of glamour. For this group of eclectic friends, life is a playground as they sing, act, and write their way to their dream lifestyles. But not is all as it seems. Invited to celebrate one evening together, there is a sinister undertone that threatens to expose each of these brilliantly talented failures. Dark secrets unravel, and ugly truths are revealed as each person desperately tries to hide what s buried beneath the shimmering surface. Each trapped in a pristine image their masks begin to slip and, for some, start to disintegrate in a way that will alter their lives forever.

In the 1980s Robert Wardner, eccentric frontman of post-punk band 'The National Grid' became famous overnight after committing an act on Top Of The Pops that shocked a nation. But a year later he had vanished, leaving a 'masterpiece' record abandoned in his wake. More darkly, rumours grew that his disappearance was due to him having brutally murdered an obsessed young fan. Twenty-five years later word has spread that the singer is alive and scheming to re-emerge. Sam, a journalist who helped first bring his band to the public eye, is commissioned to track Wardner down so he will at last tell his story for a book. Finding Wardner is the only way for Sam to save his collapsed career and relationship. But it gradually becomes apparent that by cornering his quarry Sam may in fact be planning his own murder.