In 1841 the 'peasant poet' John Clare escaped from an asylum in Epping Forest, where he had been kept for four years, and walked over eighty miles home to Northamptonshire. Suffering from poor mental health, Clare was attempting to return to his idealized first love, Mary, unaware that she had died three years earlier.In 1995, with his life in crisis and his own mental health fragile, Robert decides to retrace Clare's route along the Great North Road over a punishing four-day walk....

Dying, Bereavement and the Healing Arts describes a range of successful programmes pioneered by artists, writers, nurses, musicians, therapists, social workers, and chaplains in palliative care settings. These range from simple painting and writing activities to organized communal activities like writing and performing a play.The arts are shown to offer a means to reflect on memories, hopes, fears and anxieties, and gently explore the emotional, spiritual, and psychological issues ...

A memoir about love and loss, fatherhood and masculinity, class and belonging.In 1841 the 'peasant poet' John Clare escapes from an asylum in Epping Forest, where he had been kept for four years, and walks over eighty miles home to Northamptonshire. Suffering from poor mental health, Clare was attempting to return to his idealized first love, Mary, unaware that she had died three years earlier.In 1995, with his life in crisis and his own mental health fragi...

A deluded mother who invented her past, an alcoholic father who couldn't deal with the present, a son who wondered if this could really be his family.Richard Glover's favourite dinner party game is called 'Who's Got the Weirdest Parents?'. It's a game he always thinks he'll win. There was his mother, a deluded snob, who made up large swathes of her past and who ran away with Richard's English teacher, a Tolkien devotee, nudist and stuffed-toy collector. Th...

LONGLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2014By the author of Four Letters of Love, the international bestseller now a major film starring Helena Bonham Carter and Pierce Brosnan'A love letter to literature and storytelling' Eimear McBride'I am utterly obsessed with Niall Williams' Ann PatchettIn her attic room, with the rain rushing down ...

A SHADES OF LONDON exclusive World Book Day storyOn a cold night, Stephen Dene went to the Eton boathouse to perform a desperate act. But someone stopped him along the way, sending his life in a new and decidedly strange direction--leading him to London, to two new friends, and to a world of shadows and mystery.

'An inspired an original tale ... Jeoffry is the greatest cat in the English language' - Hilary Mantel'Simply unforgettable ... one of the most beautiful and haunting books of recent times' - Alexander McCall Smith'A heart-lifting delight; I absolutely loved it. A triumph' - Alexandra HarrisJeoffry was a real cat who lived 250 years ago, confined to an asylum with Christop...

National Bestseller · Winner of the Books in Canada First Novel Award · Winner of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize (Canadian-Caribbean Region) · Finalist for the Giller Prize · Finalist for the Trillium Book Award · Finalist for the City of Toronto Book AwardIn 1984, Jolene Iolas, a student in upstate New York, encounters Martin Sloane's art while visiting a Toronto gallery. Flush with the confidence of youth, she strikes up a correspondence with the older artist, a...

Collected Poems made publishing history when it first appeared, and has now sold more than two million copies, to an ever-growing readership. This newly expanded edition includes Betjeman's verse autobiography, Summoned by Bells. With a new Introduction by Poet Laureate, Andrew Motion, Collected Poems is the definitive Betjeman companion.

There is nothing unusual about the barrel-organ man who walks into private detective Louie Knight's office. Apart from the fact that he has lost his memory. And his monkey is a former astronaut. And he is carrying a suitcase that he is too terrified to open. And he wants a murder investigated. The only thing unusual about the murder is that it took place a hundred years ago. And needs solving by the following week. Louie is too smart to take on such a case but also too broke to turn it dow...

Staying Alive is an international anthology of 500 life-affirming poems fired by belief in the human and the spiritual at a time when much in the world feels unreal, inhuman and hollow. These are poems of great personal force connecting our aspirations with our humanity, helping us stay alive to the world and stay true to ourselves. The Staying Alive trilogy of anthologies have introduced many thousands of new readers to contemporary poetry.Many people turn to poet...

During the ten years she lived at the edge of Putney Common Jilly Cooper walked daily on this expanse of green. For most of the time she lived there she kept a diary, noting the effects of the changing seasons and writing about her encounters with dogs and humans. The book is a distillation of those diaries: an affectionate and enthralling portrait - warts and all - of life on Putney Common. Never has Jilly Cooper written more lyrically about flowers, trees, birds and the natural world; mo...