Taking us across culture and landscapes and evoking other states, Derek Baines’s new collection touches raw nerves and brings humour to some of our most challenging experiences. A lone traveller enjoys hospitality at an ancient Japanese inn, an insomniac artist produces a masterwork from his subconscious, and a marathon runner moves out of his own body. A Most Urgent Task is a compelling story in verse of how we are living and dreaming today.

Charting an international journey through the beauty of nature and art, the starkness of urban life and the honesty of human emotion, Flying Through Cloud evokes both the humour and vulnerability of our condition. Derek Baines, in this first collection, reconciles our thirst for travel with a constant need for home. A singular and accessible voice, luring us to sensuous highs.‘These poems are elegant as a kimono. Indeed, at times they feel slightly Japanese – gentle, beaut...

I choose different ways to do it. I’d rather pen down my émotions in words, instead of acting on them. For some reason, it makes me feel quite weird about things. The whole love-hate thing is entirely a phase of a relationship which leads to two people understanding each other. The words in this book are filled with love. This book is a collection of poems and stories. The words are emotional, especially the ones about love. I went on a ...

In a house on a suburban street in Nagasaki, meteorologist Shimura Kobo lives quietly on his own. Or so he believes.Food begins to go missing. Perturbed by this threat to his orderly life, Shimura sets up a webcam to monitor his home.But though eager to identify his intruder, is Shimura really prepared for what the camera will reveal?Based on real-life events, this prize-winning novel is a moving tale of alienation in the modern world.

Philip Larkin (1922-1985) remains England's best-loved poet - a writer matchlessly capable of evoking his native land and of touching all readers from the most sophisticated intellectual to the proverbial common reader. The late John Betjeman observed that 'this tenderly observant poet writes clearly, rhythmically, and thoughtfully about what all of us can understand'. Behind this modest description lies a poet who made greatness look, in Milton's prescription, 'simple, sensuous and passio...

William McInnes, one of Australia's best-known storytellers and actors, has turned to a subject that is close to his heart. Fatherhood is about family, about memories of his father and the memories he's creating as a dad himself, with his own son and daughter.Warm, witty and nostalgic, these tales are just like a friendly chat over the back fence, or the banter of a backyard BBQ. They will stir your own memories: of hot summer days and cooling off under the sprinkler while Dad work...

Kings, lords, liars, usherettes, goal-hangers, gun-men and prostitutes, Whether or not these stories bear any relation to life as it is lived in Endland (sic) is not my problem and good riddance to all those what prefer to read about truly good, lucky and nice people – you won't like this crap at all.A comical and brutal weave of parables gone wrong, Endland holds a broken mirror to England. In its garish but strangely familiar world of empty tower blocks, 24-hour cyber cafes and bomb site...

This is a first collection of poems by a poet based in Saltdean on the South Coast of the United Kingdom.

What is real and what is fantasy? Is happiness real, or simply a fragmented dream, half forgotten in the mire of consciousness? For some, happiness exists in the form of that one impossible person standing just beyond their grasp...

Can a talisman found in a hospital car park really bring a change to your life?A magical ring ... who knows? Maybe it's symbolic. A ring is a symbol of continuity, of themes repeating through the ages.

One cat’s guide to self-discovery (without ever leaving home).Why go all the way to India when the truth of the universe lies within?Savvy and spoiled, Blossom has been described by her vet as 'high-maintenance', a label she wears with pride. Why shouldn't she be? She deserves it.Through her book, Blossom shares her views on her flatmate (‘Sometimes I suspect she doesn't care how she looks around me.'), on the world outside ('Birds. They think they're so cool flying...

Roger McGough is one of Britain's best loved poets and this collection 'charts [his] passage from youthful exuberance to the wry reflection of his later years. What remains the same throughout the 40 years is the poet's winning wit, accessibility and abiding readability' Independent ----------------------------------'Time has confirmed ... that McGough's talent was much more substantial than many of his long-forgotten detractors suspected. If he was a pop poet it was not in any eph...