Positioning himself as autobiographer, literary critic and pianist, James Holden presents an homage to Marcel Proust's A la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time). "One night I came across the recording of a piano work that I had composed whilst still at school. The strange thing was, I had no recollection of it whatsoever. As I sat and listened to it, it revealed to me, or so it seemed, a self that I had no connection with and a past that I had not lived." In Search of Vinteuil is an attempt to gain access to all of the lost and impossible experiences the music piece pointed towards. ... A first critical act is to turn to the passages in Proust's long novel that deal with music, focusing in particular on the descriptions of the fictional composer Vinteuil's 'Sonata for piano and violin' and 'Septet'. Analysis reveals the role of memory in musical appreciation, and music's ability to lay before us different worlds. Armed with this engagement, literary tools emerge to understand this personal, uncanny experience and how to respond to it. After an original critical response to both Proust's novel, and classical works where themes of memory, lost chances, music and piano predominate, James Holden moves from the role of literary critic to amateur pianist, as he describes his first proper return to the keyboard in almost a decade and his hesitant steps towards the composition of a new work. This musical experience finally promises to bring out the psychological mechanisms inherent in the acts of listening to and playing music. ... This highly original and compelling work represents a significant contribution to literary scholarship.

Questions and Answers is a collection of thirteen contemporary stories about relationships: the love, sex, longing, betrayal, euphoria, pain, pleasure, comprehension and incomprehension that we have all at one time experienced. They are love stories but, unusually perhaps, they are mostly written from a male perspective: Dan in 'Highlands' runs away from a cycle of failed love-affairs to the mountains of Ethiopia; Robbie in 'Bleed' struggles with the complexity of an indistinct relationship; Finn in 'Favourites' blurs the line between friends and lovers; Sam in 'Cracks in the wall' experiences the fragility of love; the protagonist in 'The menu' considers the consequences of infidelity. In all relationships there are questions and answers but - like people in relationships and those in these short stories - they are not necessarily connected to each other.

King Arthur has rested in Avalon for 1500 years, destined to return in Britain's hour of need. Francis Drake also vowed that at the sounding of his drum he would return when the nation's freedom is threatened..... Their hour has come. Britain's two European Commissioners have conceived a plot to seize power and turn the Island of the Mighty into Europe's rubbish bin. To complete the coup and ensure the country will fall, their Private Secretaries steal the ravens from the Tower of London. Twins, Jess and Max, help the returning heroes make sense of a much altered world and join them in their quest to save the country and their people once again as they did of old.... Destiny is awakened!