Challenging oppression with objectivity and prejudice with passion, feminist activist and poet Steph Pike confronts the politics of social, economic and gender inequality with a viscerally charged and indisputable truth.Steph Pike is a feminist socialist activist and a committee member of Manchester People's Assembly, part of the national movement against cuts and austerity. She performs regularly throughout the UK, including at many left-wing and feminist demos and rallies, and or...

'Theatre, food, refugees: in Adrian's writing they're all linked up ... If you haven't read his book AA GILL IS AWAY, read it now. It was when he was away that he was at his best' Stephen DaldryA. A. Gill was probably the most read columnist in Britain. Every weekend he entertained readers of the SUNDAY TIMES with his biting observations on television and his unsparing, deeply knowledgeable restaurant reviews. Even those who objected to his opinio...

A new short story by award-winning author Pasha Malla.Set during the summer in a small town on the edge of the Arctic Circle, To Sweep the Light is a love story about solitude and companionship, proximity and distance, and the quest for intimacy between a boy and a girl.

The second collection of travel writing (and other essays) by Britain's funniest and most feared critic.A.A. Gill is probably the most read columnist in Britain. Every weekend he entertains readers of the Sunday Times with his biting observations on television and his unsparing, deeply knowledgeable restaurant reviews. Even those who want to hate him agree: A. A. Gill is hopelessly, painfully funny. He is one of a tiny band of must-read journalists and it is always...

They say that tourist ships to Antarctica, even more than ordinary human conveyances, are loaded down with aching hearts. Deceived wives and widowers, men who've never been loved and don't know why, Russian crew forced to leave their children behind for years at a time … And then there are the married couples: how calm the old ones, how eager the new! – but isn't a couple the greatest mystery of all?Regions of Thick-Ribbed Ice is the tale of a journey to Antarctic...

A startling new work from a Nobel prize-winning author: ten short stories, each a revelation of our interior lives, each entering unforeseen contexts of our contemporary world. In the title story an earthquake exposes both an ocean bed strewn with treasure among the dead, and the avarice of the town's survivors.In 'The Diamond Mine' a woman remembers her first, passionately erotic experience, hidden, in the company of her parents, with a soldier who may not be alive to remember her...

Originally published by Selkirk Lapwing Press in 2007, Andy Hopkins' acclaimed poetry collection, Dark Horse Pictures, is a deep, dark labyrinth of language.

Stories and essays by Claire Aman, Tony Birch, Rjurik Davidson, Michael Giacometti, Marion Halligan, Andy Kissane, Jennifer Mills, Ryan O’Neill, Maria Takolander and Patrick West. With an Introduction by Amanda Lohrey.‘Cracking the spine is not just a deftly curated overview of the contemporary Australian short story, including pieces by ten of the best practitioners at work today. The auto-critical essays that accompany each work gesture even more widely. Literature, life, landsca...

From "one of the greatest modern novelists" comes a haunting tale of angels, art, and modern love (A. S. Byatt).In Lost Paradise, Cees Nooteboom sets out to connect two seemingly unrelated strangers whom he has glimpsed on his travels, and to explore the major impact that small interactions can have on the course of our journeys.A beautiful woman aboard a Berlin-bound flight becomes Alma, a young lady who leaves her parents' São Paulo home on a hot...

From the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Doris Lessing, a short story about a young boy’s coming of age.While on holiday with his mother, a young boy sees a group of older children jumping from a rock into deep sea. He feels compelled to challenge himself to match them, and in doing so will take his first steps away from childhood.An amazingly vivid short story, Through the Tunnel explores the difficulties of childhood and ageing, resonating with many of Doris Les...

Travel adventure, love story and tracicomedy, "Exposure" is about wanting too much, choosing too little, and how a person can spend three weeks solid in Los Angeles buying a sleeping bag. Joel Magarey's life would be fine if not for one thing - his brain. Prey to strange compulsions and grandiose visions, 25-year-old Joel abandons Australia, his job in journalism and his girlfriend, the wise and tender Penny, and sets off on the global journey of his dreams. Those dreams hadn't included nearl...

Love, angels, addiction and death; they're all here in My First Colouring Book, a collection of short stories from award-winning novelist Lloyd Jones. Themed on all the colours of the rainbow - and a few extra - these stories and essays paint a picture of criss-crossing lives. They are spoken by an unexpected variety of voices: a young girl has adventures in the night, a surgeion becomes a shepherd; a middle-aged man seeks love for the last time. And his travel essays, sent from the compas...