Meet Elliott. Elliott is hugely intelligent. He's an incredible observer. He has a beautiful and unusual imagination. To know him is to adore him. But Elliott is also stuck. He lives in an orphanage in 1979. He spends his days in a wheelchair, in an empty corridor, or wherever the Catholic Sisters who run the ward have decided to park him. So when Jim, blind and mute but also headstrong, arrives on the ward and begins to defy the Sisters' restrictive rules, Elliott finally sees a chance fo...

'I blame Literature. All those f*cking lovely writers who made me want to be a writer. Toby Literature.' A Writer's Diary is a year in the life of a man called Toby Litt. Day by day, Toby offers intimate details about his family and well-being, insights into creative writing, and other fascinating reflections, ranging from the immediate surroundings of his desk and study out into the world and on to infinite possibility. As the year unfolds an increasingly urgent narrative starts to build....

Toby Litt's father wanted him to find about their ancestor: William Litt, a champion Cumberland Wrestler.William was one of the greatest ever 'kings of the green' - a man who reigned undefeated in one of the nineteenth century's most popular sports, taking home over 200 prize belts. William had other talents, as well. He was almost certainly a smuggler - and definitely published poet and novelist.But Toby knew that coming to terms with him would be hard. A huge and fascinating man, William...

From Trumpocalypse to Brexit Britain, brick by brick the walls are closing in. But don’t despair. Bulldoze the borders. Conquer freedom not fear. EXIT EARTH explores all life – past, present, or future – on, or off – this beautiful, yet fragile, world of ours. Final embraces beneath a sky of flames. Tears of joy aboard a sinking ship. Laughter in a lonely land. Dystopian or utopian, realist or fantasy, horror or sci-fi, EXIT EARTH is yours to conquer.EXIT EARTH includes the short f...

The size and severity of the global climate crisis is such that even the most committed environmentalists can drift into a state of denial. The award-winning writers collected here have made it their task to shake off this nagging disbelief, bringing the incomprehensible within our grasp and shaping an emotional response to mankind's unwitting creation of a tough new planet. From T. C. Boyle's account of early eco-activists, to Nathaniel Rich's comic fantasy about a marine biologist haunte...

How do you write a novel?Practising novelists and teachers of creative writing reveal their working methods and offer practical advice. Subjects covered range from magic realism to characterisation, surrealism to historical fiction, via perspective, plot twists and avoiding being boring, among many others.This book is forcreative writing studentswriters and readers of novelsteachers of creative writingWith co...

Emotionally compelling and formally innovative, Life-Like is Toby Litt’s most ambitious collection of short stories to date, bringing to fruition themes first aired in his previous books, Adventures in Capitalism, Exhibitionism, and I Play the Drums in a Band Called Okay. Life-Like is a book about our globalizing and atomizing world—with stories set in India, Sweden, Australia, and Iran—that also looks at how we meet and fail to meet and what co...

SARA MAITLAND on NATHANIEL HAWTHORNESEAN O'BRIEN on EDGAR ALLAN POEJANE ROGERS on FYODOR DOSTOYEYSKYBRIAN ALDISS on THOMAS HARDYMARTIN EDWARDS on ARTHUR CONAN DOYLEFRANK COTTRELL BOYCE on ANTON CHEKHOVADAM ROBERTS on RUDYARD KIPLINGSTEPHEN BAXTER on H.G. WELLSSTUART EVERS on SHERWOOD ANDERSONALI SMITH on JAMES JOYCETOBY LITT on FRANZ KAFKADAVID CONSTANTINE on D.H. LAWRENCEALISON MACLEOD on KATHERINE MANSFIE...