*Early Novels and Short Fiction* is the first of three volumes covering Peter Cowlam's adventures into fiction, dating from the mid-1970s and into the twenty-first century. *Early Novels and Short Fiction* covers the period from 1974 to 1998 (approximately), and opens with *Penumbra*, a collection of short stories, which is followed by the novels and novellas *The Border and Back*, *Bim Shay*, a re-imagining of the detective yarn, *Electric Letters Z*, a satire on literary celebrity, first...

Call Bridgland Jolley follows the fortunes of Michael Grading, an English graduate who has illegally entered Schmutzburg, an exclusive enclave dedicated to European ideals. When Grading does not intend to leave, a committee is formed to discuss and give judgement on his case. He claims his innocence and mounts a vigorous self-defence, and soon sees his case as make-or-break for the elite of Schmutzburg, whose ethos is one of pampered, leisurely debate, and up to now has been uphel...

Set in the late 1990s, in the months up to and after the death of Princess Diana,New King Palmers is narrated by its principal character Humfrey Joel, a close friend of Earl Eliot d'Oc. The earl's ancestry is bound up with the Habsburgs and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. D'Oc is a member of the British Privy Council and a close friend of Prince Charles (now King Charles III) and Princess Diana. In the months preceding Diana's death, d'Oc commissions a young theatre professio...

Winner of the 2018 Quagga Prize for Literary Fiction. The novel is set in the late 1990s, in the months up to and after the death of Princess Diana. It is narrated by its principal character Humfrey Joel, who is a close friend of Earl Eliot d'Oc. The earl's ancestry is closely bound up with the Habsburgs and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and d'Oc is a member of the British Privy Council and a close friend of Prince Charles and Princess Diana. In the months preceding Diana's death, d'Oc comm...

A Forgotten Poet follows the fortunes of diffident and reluctant man of letters, Harold Humber, from his early life in the English Midlands, through his post-war career as economist, jazz aficionado, expert in industrial architecture, and, in the final reckoning, author of four slim volumes of popular verse. While still studying for his degree he is besotted by arts bombardier Hugh Monmouth. Monmouth is determined to see that his Exe Set – the name given his group of poets and writers – is...

Student Marcus Fyer is at odds with both family and campus life, and is about to quit university and just take off. His father arranges a course of therapy to see him through his crisis, though Marcus finds himself at odds with that arrangement too. His therapist can get very little out of him, so suggests he keep a diary recording his reactions to his therapy group. This Marcus does, but what can his diary tell us about his state of mind?

Student Marcus Fyer is at odds with both family and campus life, and is about to quit university and just take off. His father arranges a course of therapy to see him through his crisis, though Marcus finds himself at odds with that arrangement too. His therapist can get very little out of him, so suggests he keep a diary recording his reactions to his designated therapy group. This Marcus does, but what can his diary tell us about his state of mind?

The 1970s. Bruce takes over a financial consultancy firm founded by his father, while student Marisa inherits property. Love, lust and money drive them both, until their relationship ends, with Bruce committed to commerce and Marisa setting off in search of social justice.Twenty-five years after an intense and bad-tempered affair, a chance entry in one of Bruce's business listings shows that Marisa is now boss of the Rae Agency – a media PR concern. Bruce, as he recollects their pa...

Manifesto is a sequence of haikuesque poems. It is aimed as a counter-blast at the political and financial institutions complicit in the deception of the masses, working people exhorted to fund a debt economy, and by that heavy price remain obedient citizens. As a narrative it charts, in its own fragmented way, a programme of resistance drawn up by a group of cyberspace guerrillas, whose agenda is the reversal of institutional propaganda put out as a daily drip-feed by press and television...

A jaded academic and musicologist embarks on a new career as an insurance salesman, though he can't shake off his past as easily as that...

'Opus Thirty Three Bagatelles', a collection of finely crafted miniatures, haikuesque in character, sees each little poem designed to be read as a single screen. 'To be honest / all I recall / of home / is an array / of tiny / fruit trees / grown in endless / tidyrows.'

BOOKER PRIZE FINALIST • From the internationally acclaimed bestselling author The Sense of an Ending comes a "wickedly funny” novel (The New York Times) about an idyllic land of make-believe in England that gets horribly and hilariously out of hand.Imagine an England where all the pubs are quaint, where the Windsors behave themselves (mostly), where the cliffs of Dover are actually white, and where Robin Hood and his merry men really are merry. Th...