The living and the dead are working side by side in John Challis’s dramatic debut collection, The Resurrectionists. Whether in London’s veg and meat markets, far below the Dartford Crossing, or on the edge of the Western world, these poems journey into a buried and sometimes violent landscape to locate the traces of ourselves that remain. Amidst the political disquiet rising from the groundwater, or the unearthing of the class divide at the gravesides of plague victims, the veil between th...

The rural terrain of John Challis’s second collection provides a new lens for exploring history, class and work, our relationship to the natural world, and cycles of growth and decay.Much of his debut collection The Resurrectionists concerned working lives in the city: his father a London cabbie, his grandfather a market porter. Here his focus shifts to a crumbling stately home in Northumberland brought to life through the voices of the grounds as well as ...

Former lovers Pam and Merv open a cyber section in their Vodka and Veggie Café in this BBC comedy seriesWhen Merv and Pam got divorced, that should have been the end of their relationship. But here they are, trying to turn a veggie-and-vodka bistro in a cyber cafe, while Merv is still living in Pam's front garden in a small caravan.Merv's dreams of being a rock star failed a long time ago, so the Cyber Pass is now his only hope - although his customers main...

A modern dramatisation of Dracula performed by a full cast 'in the dark'.

Melville’s epic tale of one man versus a great white whale will delight Melville devotees as well as those who have yet to sail on this adventure in this mesmerizing new recording read by Jonathan Epstein.The mountain whose whale-like shape first gave Melville the idea of writing Moby Dick rests in the Berkshire Hills, Massachusetts, a short drive away from The Alison Larkin Presents recording studio. “I’d been wanting to produce Moby Dick ever since I moved to Western Massachusett...

The 1966 prize-winning debut poetry collection from the Irish Nobel laureate, "the best Irish poet since W. B. Yeats" (Robert Lowell)."His words give us the soil-reek of Ireland, the colourful violence of his childhood on a farm in Derry. The full-blooded energy of these poems makes Death of a Naturalist the best first book of poems I've read for some time." —C.B. Cox in the Spectator

From his life’s work so far, spanning more than four decades, Les Murray has selected these 100 poems, his personal best. Including classics such as ‘The Broad Bean Sermon’, ‘An Absolutely Ordinary Rainbow’ and ‘The Dream of Wearing Shorts Forever’, this elegant hardback is guaranteed to delight Murray fans and introduce new readers to his work. This is a wonderful gift, and a treasure trove of the best poems ever written in Australia.‘No poet has ever travelled like this, whether ...

** LONGLISTED for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize 2018 **M. John Harrison is a cartographer of the liminal. His work sits at the boundaries between genres – horror and science fiction, fantasy and travel writing – just as his characters occupy the no man’s land between the spatial and the spiritual. Here, in his first collection of short fiction for over 15 years, we see the master of the New Wave present unsettling visions of contemporary urban Britain, as well as supernatural par...

In this informal guide to Wales, Griff Rhys Jones rediscovers "the land of his aunties." Born in Cardiff but raised in Essex, Griff is returning home on a mission to explore the real Wales: the one beyond the tourist trail that exists in the deep beautiful countryside, full of hidden treasures and eccentric characters that make this country so unique. With help from a hidden hand, Griff is set a number of quests in eight distinct regions that not only test his knowledge of his homeland but...

**A Globe and Mail Best BookA debut collection from a startling new voice in Canadian poetry.**The poems in Admission Requirements attempt to discover what is required of us when we cut across our material and psychic geographies. Simultaneously full and empty of its origins, the self is continually taxed of any certainties and ways of being. The speaker in these poems is engaged in a kind of fieldwork, surveying gardens, communities, and the haphazard cit...

'A firework display of technique, versatility and passion.' Independent on Sunday'The crafted sincerity of this potent, lyrical collection, in which an absolutely contemporary voice concisely expresses common concerns, is everything that poetry should be.' Times Literary Supplement'The first poet of serious artistic intent since Philip Larkin to have achieved popularity . . . it is possible that he will attain the sort of proverbial status Larkin now occup...

In this hilarious and heart-warming collection of essays, the bestselling author reflects on a life spent exploring the British countryside on foot.From the splendor of the Pennines and the Lake District to the drama of the Dorset coast; from the canals of the Midlands to wildest Scotland, this book is an attempt to explain a passion for walking and the delights it can bring.Culled from Stuart Maconie's monthly column in Country Walking, it's full of...