England, 1959: two young soldiers-Drummond and Carter-form an intense and unlikely friendship at "Doom Town," a training center that recreates the aftermath of atomic warfare. The experience will haunt them the rest of their lives. Years later, Carter, now a high-ranking government official, offers working-class Drummond a way to protect himself and his wife, Gwen, should a nuclear strike occur. Their pact, kept secret, will have devastating consequences for the families they so wish to shield. The Blind Light is a grand, ambitious novel that spans decades, from the 1950s to the present. Told from the perspectives of Drum and Gwen, and later their children, Nate and Anneka, the story brilliantly captures the tenderness and envy of long relationships. As the families attempt to reform themselves, the pressures of the past are visited devastatingly on the present, affecting spouses, siblings, and friends. Stuart Evers writes with literary flair and intellect without ever abandoning the pleasures and emotional intensity of great storytelling. He explores the psychological legacy of nuclear war and social inequality yet finds a delicate beauty in the adventure of making a life in the ruins of the one you lived before.

As the 1950s draw to a close, and the Cold War escalates, the shape of Drummond Moore's life is changed beyond measure when he strikes up an unlikely friendship with James Carter, a rich and well-connected fellow national serviceman. Carter leads him to Doom Town – an army base that seeks to recreate the effects of a nuclear war – where he meets Gwen, a barmaid with whom he shares an instant connection.

Set over sixty years of British history, The Blind Light by Stuart Evers is the compelling story of one family as they deal with the personal and political fallout of their times.

Peter Jernigan's life is slipping out of control. His wife's gone, he's lost his job and he's a stranger to his teenage son. Worse, his only relief from all this reality - alcohol - is less effective by the day. And when the medicine doesn't work, you up the dose. And when that doesn't work, what then? (Apart from upping the dose again anyway, because who knows?) Jernigan's answer is to slowly turn his caustic wit on everyone around him - his wife Judith, his teenage son Danny, his vulnerable new girlfriend Martha and, eventually, himself - until the laughs have turned to mute horror. But while he's busy burning every bridge back to the people who love him, Jernigan's perverse charisma keeps us all in thrall to the bitter end. Shot through with gin and irony, Jernigan is a funny, scary, mesmerising portrait of a man walking off the edge with his eyes wide open - wisecracking all the way.

This title features ten stories of allure, betrayal, nostalgia, solitude, seduction, damage, desire and loss; of silence broken by the click of a lighter; insomnia defined by a glowing ember; a magician's trick; a lover's scent; and, a final wish. These are stories that go to the heart of things. 'In this remarkable collection, Stuart Evers winds a course through worlds of yearning, secrets and mortification in prose as lithe as a ribbon of smoke' - Wells Tower. 'Love, loss and recovery are the real themes of these quiet, haunting stories, which add up into an unexpectedly powerful book. An impressive debut' - Aravind Adiga. 'Evers has found possibility in even the bleakest and smallest of lives, with each delicately linked not only by a cigarette but also by a glimpse into how terrifyingly empty a life can be' - David Vann. 'With powerfully understated writing, Evers has an eye for the humor that lives alongside sadness, and above all for the humanity in the smallest of actions' - Evie Wyld.

The twelve unforgettable stories in Your Father Sends His Love explore the complex, baffling, and vital relationship between parents and their children. Set in the past, present and future, they are unified by their compassion, animated by the unsaid, and distinguished by how beautifully they extract the luminous from the ordinary. With wit, subtllety, and uncommon sensitivity, Evers captures the powerful emotions of family life: joy, fear, vulnerability, duty, betrayal, loss, anger, and unconditional love. While his characters often feel more than they can express, they are in the hands of a masterful story teller who gives time to what might otherwise seem incidental. Your Father Sends His Love is a powerful, haunting, and deeply felt work about the most important relationships we will ever know.

Eight authors were given after hours freedom at their chosen English heritage site. Immersed in the history, atmosphere and rumours of hauntings, they channelled their darker imaginings into a series of extraordinary new ghost stories. Sarah Perry's intense tale of possession at the Jacobean country house Audley End is a work of psychological terror, while Andrew Michael Hurley's story brings an unforgettably shocking slant to the history of Carlisle Castle. Within the walls of these historic buildings each author has found inspiration to deliver a new interpretation of the classic ghost story. Relish the imagined terrors at these exhilarating locations: Kate Clanchy, Housesteads Roman Fort | Stuart Evers, Dover Castle | Mark Haddon, York Cold War Bunker | Andrew Michael Hurley, Carlisle Castle | Sarah Perry, Audley End | Max Porter Eltham Palace | Kamila Shamsie, Kenilworth Castle | Jeanette Winterson, Pendennis Castle

INTRODUCED BY STUART EVERS: 'A genuine, fully fledged masterpiece of the twentieth century; one that remains just as terrifyingly relevant and truthful in the twenty-first' An existential, political, literary thriller first published in 1944, Transit explores the plight of the refugee with extraordinary compassion and insight. Having escaped from a Nazi concentration camp in Germany and a work camp in Rouen, the nameless narrator finds himself in the dusty seaport of Marseille. Along the way he was asked to deliver a letter to Weidel, a writer in Paris whom he discovered had killed himself as the Nazis entered the city. Now he is in search of the dead man's wife. He carries Weidel's suitcase, which contains an unfinished novel - and a letter securing Weidel a visa to escape France. Assuming the name Seidler - though the authorities think he is in fact Weidel - he goes from cafe to cafe looking for Marie, who is in turn anxiously searching for her husband. As Seidler converses with refugees over pizza and wine, their stories gradually break down his ennui, bringing him a deeper awareness of the transitory world they inhabit as they wait and wait for that most precious of possessions: transit papers. 'This novel, completed in 1942, is in my opinion the most beautiful Seghers has written . . . almost flawless' - Heinrich Boll

Shortlisted for the RSL Encore Award 2021 'The Blind Light reads like a British Don DeLillo, telling the social history of Britain through two generations of a family.' - Alex Preston, Observer 'A powerful and affecting novel' - Jim Crace, author of Harvest In the late 1950s, during his National Service, Drummond meets the two people who will change his life: Carter, a rich, educated young man sent down from Oxford; and Gwen, a barmaid with whom he feels an instant connection. His feelings for both will be tested at a military base known as Doom Town - a training ground where servicemen prepare for the aftermath of an Atomic Strike. It is an experience that will colour the rest of his - and his family's - life. Told from the perspectives of Drum and Gwen, and later their children Nathan and Anneka, The Blind Light moves from the Fifties through to the present day, taking in the global and local events that will shape and define them all. From the Cuban Missile Crisis to the War on Terror, from the Dagenham strikes to Foot and Mouth, from Skiffle to Rave, we see a family come together, driven apart, fracture and reform - as the pressure of the past is brought, sometimes violently, to bear on the present. The Blind Light is a powerful, ambitious, big yet intimate story of our national past and a brilliant evocation of a family and a country. It will remind you how complicated human history is - and how hard it is to do the right thing for the right reasons.

Rooted in place, slipping between worlds - a rich collection of unnerving ghosts and sinister histories. Eight authors were given the freedom of their chosen English Heritage site, from medieval castles to a Cold War nuclear bunker. Immersed in the past and chilled by rumours of hauntings, they channelled their darker imaginings into a series of extraordinary new ghost stories. Also includes a gazetteer of English Heritage properties which are said to be haunted.

Mark Wilkinson has three names. He left his own behind in the rainy north of England. U.S. immigration know him as Joe Novak. And at the Valhalla, the mysterious complex in Vegas where he sells lofty ambition and dark desires, he goes by Mr Jones. Since the age of eighteen, Mark has been running away, and hard. Away from everything that is flat and dull and ordinary: his market town. Away from disappointment: his vanished mother, his broken father. And away from heartbreak. Bethany Wilder, beautiful goth, carnival queen, partner in dreams, tragic ghost, never made it with him to America. He's thirty now and again it's time to flee - in the opposite direction, towards home. With shades of JG Ballard, Murakami, and Joseph O'Neill, this is an inventive and emotional novel about the power of dreams to destroy, of memory to distort, and of courage, ultimately, to heal.

Short Circuit fills a real gap in the text book market. Written by 24 prizewinning writers and teachers of writing, this book is intensely practical. Each expert discusses necessary craft issues: their own writing processes, sharing tried and tested writing exercises and lists of published work they find inspirational. Endorsed by The National Association of Writers in Education, it became recommended or required reading for Creative Writing courses in the UK and beyond, including Goldsmiths, The University of Kent at Canterbury, Glasgow University, John Cabot University in Rome, Stockholm University in Sweden, Sussex University, Brighton University, Edge Hill University, Chichester University, The National University of Ireland in Galway, and University Campus Suffolk, at Ipswich.

Whatever happened to British protest? For a nation that brought the world Chartism, the Suffragettes, the Tolpuddle Martyrs, and so many other grassroots social movements, Britain rarely celebrates its long, great tradition of people power. In this timely and evocative collection, twenty authors have assembled to re-imagine key moments of British protest, from the Peasants' Revolt of 1381 to the anti-Iraq War demo of 2003. Written in close consultation with historians, sociologists and eyewitnesses - who also contribute afterwords - these stories follow fictional characters caught up in real-life struggles, offering a streetlevel perspective on the noble art of resistance. In the age of fake news and post-truth politics this book fights fiction with (well researched, historically accurate) fiction.

The second in a brand-new series of annual anthologies, "The Best British Short Stories 2012" reprints the cream of short fiction, by British writers, first published in 2011. These stories first appeared in magazines from "Ambit" to "Granta," in anthologies across various genres from publishers big and small, and in authors' own short story collections. They were broadcast on radio and delivered by mobile phone app. They appeared online at "Metazen" and "Paraxis."