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Under The Dam

David Constantine's stories freeze-frame lives just at the moment when the past breaks the surface, or when the present, like the dam of the title, collapses under its own weight.
A girl's body re-appears in the ice where she fell 50 years before - melting the life of the lover who survived her.
A tourist staggers through an Athens marketplace transformed into a vision of Hell.
During a speech a businessman feels his soul abandoning him.
Constantine's landscapes are as alive and fluid as his prose, which swells and surges like unsettled water throughout. His characters are solitary figures drawn against stark and disquieting backdrops. Whether oppressed or emancipated by their surroundings, many seem to be seeking a kind of asylum from themselves or the unsustainable pressures on their lives.

'I started reading these stories quietly, and then became obsessed, read them all fast, and started reading them again and again.... The description of the estuary is one of the best descriptions of the surface of the Earth I have ever read' - AS Byatt, Book of the Week, The Guardian

'A superb collection'- The Independent

 

List Price £7.95
Price £5.00

Details

• ISBN 0954828011
• Publisher Comma Press
• Genre Short Fiction
• Setting Greater Manchester
• Extent 208pp

Sound: Liverpool Pop Quiz Book

What do Elvis Costello, Carol Decker and Guy Chambers have in common? What links Dr and the Medics and the Spice Girls? What about the Lightning Seeds and the Zutons, OMD and Atomic Kitten? There’s one thing all these performers have in common... Liverpool. Sound! celebrates the exceptional success of bands, singers and musicians from Liverpool in handy pocket-sized pop quiz format.

Price £5.00

Details

• ISBN 954843118
• Publisher Capsica
• Genre Non Fiction
• Setting Merseyside
• Extent 96pp

The New York Poets: An Anthology

‘The New York School of Painters’ was a label for the work of abstract expressionists including Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko and Robert Motherwell. Part joke, part assertion of New World supremacy over the School of Paris, it proved effective in promoting the post-war New York artists to national and international audiences. The term ‘The New York School of Poets’ was first used in 1961. The poets were all embroiled in the art world as curators, editors and critics. They worked closely with many artists. ‘New York poets,’ Schuyler said in 1959, ‘except I suppose the color blind, are affected most by the floods of paint in whose crashing surf we all scramble.’

Price £9.95

Details

• ISBN 1 85754 734 9
• Publisher Carcanet
• Genre Poetry
• Extent 224pp

Mancunian Meander

A Mancunian's rythmic meadering search for the soul of the city. A peek behind the net curtains into a world we don't want to look at.

"This is true urban lyrical poetry, flashes of fragile beauty and grime, glimpses of a million Manc lives." - Segun Le French, Apples and Snakes

Price £7.99

Details

• ISBN 0 95369223
• Publisher Cheers Ta
• Genre Poetry
• Setting Greater Manchester

The Mindfield

Diké has been a performance poet for 10 years. The Mindfield is his long awaited debut collection, a book that captures all the energy and ambience of his live performance. Its rhymes are addictive, subjects matter diverse and even if you have never heard him perform his voice clearly comes through.

"The poems carry themselves, even seeming to perform themselves - spoken cadences jumping off the page." - The Big Issue

Price £7.99

Details

• ISBN 0 09536392 1
• Publisher Cheers Ta
• Genre Poetry

On Beckett

Alain Badiou is a rising star whose work on Beckett will set the tone for some time to come. This book is a double first - the first complete collection of all Badiou's work on Beckett, and the first translation of this important material. Badiou presents a Beckett whose work is the work of philosophy itself - a philosophy in the full sense of the word, which works to reduce experience to its essential determinations. Rejecting the stereotype view of Beckett as the dark existentialist of abandoned existence, Badiou focuses rather on what he calls the 'hidden poem' in the prosody and themes of Beckett's work. For Badiou, philosophy expresss itself immanently in culture through the 'procedures of truth' manifested in science, art, politics and love.

Price £12.00

Details

• ISBN 1 903083 30 3
• Publisher Clinamen
• Genre Poetry
• Extent 180pp

Gothic Tales: Manchester Stories 7

From supernatural prophecies to tales of revenge from beyond the grave, psychological uncertainties to the fixed realities of life in the city's underbelly.

Price £1.95

Details

• ISBN 1 85754 813 2
• Publisher Comma Press
• Genre Short Fiction
• Extent 32pp

Ditch-Crawl

Zack is a crawler. He’s been crawling all his life. He has an instinct for it, a skill for cancelling out all those sucking noises you make when your palms and knees rise out of the mud. He has an ear for the ditch’s subtler traffic too: the bubblings, chitterings, chuckles and gasps, the slow drownings and the unexpected surfacings. Zack’s ditch - sometimes a tunnel, a corridor, or the interior of a blood-blister – leads him effortlessly through childhood memories and present experiences alike. The sublime surrealism of his slimy shuffling fits perfectly with the absurdity of his earliest experiences, and the baseness of his present life - the breakdown of his marriage, his petty acts of revenge against his philandering wife, and the beginnings of a new friendship and a new life.

List Price £7.95
Price £5.00

Details

• ISBN 9781857547689
• Publisher Comma Press
• Genre Fiction
• Setting Cheshire
• Extent 240pp

Hyphen

What is the relationship between poetry and fiction? Can poets offer any insights to short story writers? In this unique publishing experiment, 20 leading poets from Britain and Ireland have been invited to step forward into the unfamiliar terrain of the short story (many of them for the first time). Featuring Anne Stevenson, Sean Oân of the short story (many of them for the first time). Featuring Anne Stevenson, Sean O'Brien, David Constantine, Sheenagh Pugh, Ian McMillan, Sophie Hannah, Jean Sprackland, Roddy Lumsden, Gerard Woodward and many more.

List Price £7.95
Price £5.00

Details

• ISBN 9781857547313
• Publisher Comma Press
• Genre Short Fiction
• Extent 256pp

Liverpool Stories: Vol 1

"Sprackland's stories combine narrative energy with affecting compassion for her troubled characters. she has now arrived as a short story writer. Tim Cooke is another extremely exciting author. Bold.and skilled." Time Out

Price £2.00

Details

• ISBN 1 85754 792 6
• Publisher Comma Press
• Genre Poetry
• Setting Merseyside
• Extent 32pp

Ellipsis 1

Featuring: Jean Sprackland, Sean O'Brien & Tim Cooke

The first in a new series of books celebrating the 'short story sequence' - that interlocking daisy-chain of narrative produced when stories knit together to form a continuum of character or theme. Taking its leaf from the Penguin Modern Poets series, each book will feature three authors, offering sequences of five or six stories each. Some of those featured will be established authors, others previously unpublished writers. Part 1 of the series features the first collected fiction of two of the UK's most important poets, Sean O'Brien and Jean Sprackland, alongside new writer Tim Cooke.

"Sprackland's stories combine narrative energy with affecting compassion for her troubled characters. she has now arrived as a short story writer. Tim Cooke is another extremely exciting author.bold.and skilled." Time Out

List Price £7.95
Price £5.00

Details

• ISBN 0-9548280-2-X
• Publisher Comma Press
• Genre Short Fiction
• Extent 176pp

Mollusc

"A new seam opening up in British poetry. Every rift loaded with ore." - Hugo Williams

List Price £6.90
Price £5.00

Details

• ISBN 0 9548280-0-3
• Publisher Comma Press
• Genre Poetry

Bracket

The latest in Comma’s acclaimed series of short story anthologies, Bracket brings together 20 of the country’s most promising, previously unpublished writers. From the cliffs of Flamborough Head to high rise, inner city madness; from lost loves to the last days of civilisation - the settings and scenarios in these stories captivate and unsettle in equal, all the time striving for that most unlikely modern thing, intimacy.

"Fills you with hope for the form" - Time Out

Price £7.95

Details

• ISBN 1 85754 769 1
• Publisher Comma Press
• Genre Poetry
• Extent 172pp

Pray For Us Sinners

The eagerly awaited return to verse by one of Britain's most accomplished poets, Pray For Us Sinners is Joolz's fifth collection of poetry, and first for five years. Read more about this title.

"With words perfectly placed, and spaces perfectly shaped, this poetry lives and breathes as if created by a higher being." - Benjamin Zephaniah "Joolz’s poems mark her out as distinctly as any tattoo or piercing - as a woman of great strength and conviction, of compassion and heart. She’s a gem." - Billy Bragg

List Price £7.96
Price £5.00

Details

• ISBN 0954828062
• Publisher Comma Press
• Genre Poetry
• Extent 80pp

Low Life

Low Life looks at one low down and sleazy day in the life of Ronald "Rooftop" Rafferty, North Mancunian. Rafferty got his nickname not for his contributions to architecture but for one example of his many, constant and varied forays into the world of two-bit desperate criminality. Rooftop is a 100% proof scally

Praise for Mike Duff’s first novel, Low Life:

‘punchy, brash and funny’ - The Guardian

‘It's very fast and very funny, richocheting between caustic social comment and moments of real tenderness.’ - City Life

Price £6.95

Details

• ISBN 0 946745 91 9
• Publisher Commonword / Crocus
• Genre Fiction
• Extent 144pp

Corned Beef Sandwich

The narrator’s gender is as ambiguous as his/her ambition in life, but you can't help sympathising with the insightful and often hilarious take on event

List Price £232.00
Price £6.99

Details

• ISBN 0 946745 37 4
• Publisher Commonword / Crocus
• Genre Short Fiction

Peace Poems

poetic meditations designed to ease the stress of work, traffic, job insecurity, and life in general. Featuring some of the most renowned and admired poets in history, alongside famous thoughts of leading peaceniks the world over, this calming and beautiful little book is perfectly suited for the lunch hours, travelling time and minutes between meetings when we all need a little break. In a world too much war, at last a poetic oasis of calm.

Price £6.99

Details

• ISBN 0 946745 43 9
• Publisher Commonword / Crocus
• Genre Poetry
• Extent 128pp

City Secrets

to follow

Price £0.00

Details

• ISBN 0 946745 32 3
• Publisher Commonword / Crocus
• Genre Poetry

Purple Mother

Pauline Omoboye has been published in many anthologies produced by Crocus, Nailah, Arrival, Stride and Sista Talk as well as in the local press. She has appeared on radio, television (briefly) and in many theatres and schools throughout the region. She was voted the judges' winner of the Manchester Stage to Page Poetry Competition in 2004.

Price £5.00

Details

• ISBN 9 46745 57 9
• Publisher Commonword / Crocus
• Genre Poetry
• Extent 36pp

Crafting The Practice

Diké Omeje is a highly original wordsmith and Manchester's unrivalled Slam Champion. To date, Diké has never appeared on stage reading from paper, though he queries the use of the term, performance poet. Dike's first collection, The Mindfield, was published by Cheers Ta. He performs extensively on stage, radio and TV and his work is available on CD.

Price £5.00

Details

• ISBN 0 946745 62 5
• Publisher Commonword / Crocus
• Genre Poetry
• Extent 36pp

Out of Place

Out of Place tells the remarkable and poignant story of one woman's struggle for independence. Born with a disability in 30's Vienna, Eva evades the horrors of the Nazi 'euthanasia' programme by escaping with a Jewish family friend. She arrives in London with a borrowed identity and a trusting nature. After surviving long years in children's hospitals and the heart blows of family secrets she strives to forge a place for herself in the world. This unconventional family saga illuminates a neglected view of twentieth century history.

List Price £380.00
Price £7.90

Details

• ISBN 0 9467 45 47
• Publisher Commonword / Crocus
• Genre Fiction

A Touch of the Sun

A Touch of the Sun is a jolting ride through the back streets of apartheid South Africa. Simon Brown is obsessed with sex and social climbing, he is embarrassed by his mother's easy way with the local Coloureds and appalled by his school friend's ambition to join the hard core Special Branch. From stuck-up beauty, Elizabeth Carter, to Thandi, the fiery young daughter of the family maid, he keeps falling for the wrong girl. As a cub reporter on the local rag, Simon finds himself propelled into the frontline of conflict. When the government declares a State of Emergency and family secrets threaten to undo him, Simon is forced to choose: preserve his white privileges or turn law breaker?

?The sense of place, the sense of time, the honesty and messy humanity ? I loved it all!? - Jimmy McGovern

List Price £7.99
Price £6.50

Details

• ISBN 9 46745 67 6
• Publisher Commonword / Crocus
• Genre Fiction
• Extent 380pp

Transparency

This anthology, edited by John Siddique, brings together thirteen talented poets from the Commonword stable. Witty and brutal observations of rogue therapists and unhealthy relationships are interspersed with love poems and spiritual contemplation. What these poets share is the ability to articulate emotions in language you can taste long after you've finished reading. Transparency features the work of: Suzanne Batty, Steve O'Connor, Jackie Hagan, Almira Holmes, Sonia Hughes, Hannah Kate, Olga Kenyon, Segun Lee-French, Rosie Lugosi, Martin De Mello, John Siddique, Alan Spencer and Jan Whalen.

List Price £5.99
Price £4.50

Details

• ISBN 0 946745 72 2
• Publisher Commonword / Crocus
• Genre Poetry

The Loss of the Atlantic Conveyor

The Atlantic Conveyor was a container ship owned by Atlantic Container Line, but requisitioned by the government during the Falklands and sent off as part of the British Task Force. The crew were given the opportunity to refuse to sign on for this voyage but none took this option. The story of its disastrous sinking with considerable loss of life is here recorded by its third engineer in poignant detail.

Price £9.99

Details

• ISBN 1 901231 41 0
• Publisher Countyvise
• Genre Non Fiction

Jose Mourinho: Made in Portugal

José �ourinho arrived in London in the summer of 2004. The Chelsea manager has made an immediate, and at times controversial, impact on English football, with his unmistakeable self-confidence, drive and ambition. This fascinating book charts his rise from relatively humble beginnings as assistant coach to Sir Bobby Robson, to become the most sought-after club manager in Europe.

Price £12.99

Details

• ISBN 0-9546843-3-8
• Publisher Dewi Lewis Publishing
• Genre Non Fiction
• Extent 224pp

On Physics

Winner of a Jerwood Photography Award in 2003, Naglaa Walker has established herself as one of the most exciting young artists to emerge in recent years in the UK. Since 2000 her work has been seen in more than 25 exhibitions in the UK, Europe and the United States. Before taking an MA Fine Art Photography at the Royal College of Art, Naglaa Walker trained as a scientist, and worked briefly as a Physics researcher. She draws on this background, using diptyches which juxtapose blackboard images of chalked equations with carefully staged photographic images, enabling the viewer to make connections between the abstraction of physical laws and the reality of experience.

"Selected as one of the 10 outstanding young photographers from around the world who look certain to shape the medium in years to come." - Art Review

Price £19.99

Details

• ISBN 1-904587-15-1
• Publisher Dewi Lewis Publishing
• Genre Non Fiction

Selected Stories

"Maclaren-Ross is one of the great unsung heroes of the literary 1940s and at his best a figure to rank with Orwell, Waugh and Connolly."  D.J.Taylor, author of Orwell: The Life

List Price £9.99
Price £7.00

Details

• ISBN 1-904587-17-8
• Publisher Dewi Lewis Publishing
• Genre Short Fiction
• Extent 256pp

Greenland

Journeys in the fjord region of North East Greenland: There are now precious few places left on earth with which we do not feel familiar, if not from first hand experience then at least from the perspective of the armchair traveller-and fewer till where the camera has not yet prescribed our vision

Price £30.00

Details

• ISBN 1-904587-06-2
• Publisher Dewi Lewis Publishing
• Genre Non Fiction
• Extent 176pp

Chain of Being

Chain of Being is the story of one man's odssey - a journey which is both spiritual and physical and shifts across perspectives of time and geography. This is an epic novel that weaves fable and tradition in an intricate tracery of the imagination.

Price £8.99

Details

• ISBN 1-904587-21-6
• Publisher Dewi Lewis Publishing
• Genre Fiction
• Extent 256pp

The Dodo and Mauritius Island: Imaginary Encounters

The dodo is perhaps our most famous extinct species. Now in this unusual book it is brought back to life.

Price £25.00

Details

• ISBN 1-904587-13-5
• Publisher Dewi Lewis Publishing
• Genre Non Fiction
• Extent 128pp

Homeland

At Guantanamo Detention Camp, criminal physcologist Dr. Lara Ivans interrogates?illegal enemy combatants?. The methods may be suspect, but for Dr. Ivans there is justification in the humilation and torture used to extract dubious confessions ? it is after all her personal route to success and promotion. FBI agent Michael James Dougherty, has his own dilemma. In New York?s JFK airport, he is investigating a Swedish tourist who has become entangled in a web of confusion and suspicion about his past. Coincidence has a strange way of implying guilt. HOMELAND is the gripping and chilling story of the interwoven lives of three characters, all affected by the unforeseen consequences of US government regulations established in the name of security and patriotism. HOMELAND is a powerful indictment of current US policy ? truly a book for our times.

List Price £8.99
Price £6.50

Details

• ISBN 1-904587-12-7
• Publisher Dewi Lewis Publishing
• Genre Non Fiction
• Extent 192pp

Lost and Found in America

Lost and Found in America

Price £15.99

Details

• ISBN 1-904587-11-9
• Publisher Dewi Lewis Publishing
• Genre Art Book
• Extent 160pp

ALAIN BAXTER: UNFINISHED BUSINESS: the biography of Britain’s greatest skier

Alain Baxter is Britain’s leading skier – the only Briton to have won a Winter Olympics medal. Nicknamed ‘The Highlander’ he is a one-off, the greatest skier Britain has ever produced. Baxter began to ski aged 2 on the slopes of Aviemore. By his mid-teens his talent was recognised, and his dream was to challenge for top honours. Yet in Britain no funding was available, and so began a ten yearslog, driving around Europe, living on overdraft, sleeping in hostels, cheap hotels or the back of his car. After a 15-year climb up the rankings, Alain Baxter caused the biggest upset at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics by clinching Britain’s first ever skiing medal. Agonisingly, the ecstasy was short-lived.No sooner had he returned to a hero’s welcome than the call came that he had failed a routine drugs test and would be stripped of his medal. Baxter was stunned and mystified. Baxter fought to clear his name. Bill Taylor QC, prosecutor in the Lockerbie bombing case, represented him pro bono as he took his fight to sport’s highest appeal court. Sensationally, Baxter was cleared but, despite endorsing the verdict, the IOC was steadfast: Baxter would never get his medal back.

Price £12.99

Details

• ISBN 0-9546843-5-4
• Publisher Dewi Lewis Publishing
• Genre Non Fiction
• Extent 224pp

Epoch

Tony Dash?s third collection ? his first since 1982. Developing all sorts of emotional parallels between his own life and the lives of renowned painters, musicians and writers, his poetry is strongest where those parallels converge. He sets a stage for the presentation of poems that operate against a quite illusory backdrop of all the traditional poetic themes; love loss, sex, death, draining from each every single drop of sentimentality, injecting everything he writes with irony, self-deprecation, a yawning air of resignation and a sometimes comic view of the human condition including, of course, his own.

Price £7.00

Details

• ISBN 1 904420 02 8
• Publisher Driftwood
• Genre Poetry
• Extent 56pp

So What?

New poems which, once again, demonstrate his freewheeling inventiveness, providing a comical counterpoint to the sadness of the human condition. The effect is one of great poignancy.

'The poems really hit home.' - Roger McGough.

Price £6.00

Details

• ISBN 1 904420 11 7
• Publisher Driftwood
• Genre Poetry
• Extent 42pp

The Elephant in the Room

“David Grubb’s poems sing out so lustily and irrepressibly… steady, bright, humane.” - Selima Hill

Price £6.00

Details

• ISBN 1 904420 10 9
• Publisher Driftwood
• Genre Poetry
• Extent 42pp

A Homage to Me

Dancing snakes, singing fish, erotic aardvarks and an unusual fruit display are just some of the many experiences shared in David Bateman’s fourth collection of poetry. Bateman has been described by Mersey Radio’s Pete McGovern as ‘A marvellous poet’ His previous collections are The Ideal God Comapnion, From Jelly Beans to Reprobation and Curse of the Killer Hedge.

Price £3.00

Details

• ISBN 1 904420 06 0
• Publisher Driftwood
• Genre Poetry
• Extent 32pp

Tales of Boy Nancy

Roll up! Roll up! Behold a water-drenched tale of marvellous creatures, transgender sailors, sex- changing fish and doomed seals. Tales of Boy Nancy tells the stories of those born in-between - voiced by a Sailor, the Girl who loves him, and an omnipresent Showman.

"Brave, and firmly woven [poems]. Nichols does not tell us what we should think, but delights in allowing us to draw our own conclusions. [The tales are] sensitively told [showing] a very strong sense of humanity. The uncertainty voiced in 'The Train from Chester is on Time' is beautiful and delicately handled. How many of us would dare to ask such relevant questions?. Nichols does indeed speak in tongues." Maureen Almond

List Price £4.00
Price £3.50

Details

• ISBN 1-904420-13-3
• Publisher Driftwood
• Genre Poetry
• Setting Merseyside
• Extent 32pp

The Diet

A simple story in poem form, suitable for complete beginners, along the lines of that all-too-familiar theme of battling the bulge.

"A sweet story we all know too well!" - Arabella Weir, Writer & Comedienne.

Price £4.00

Details

• ISBN 1 84 231 0 17
• Publisher
• Genre Poetry

Who Knows Best: Starting Points for Discussion and Writing

A beautifully produced collection of inspiring writing by parents of children of African descent. Although this book is perfect for use in Family Literacy classes, its appeal reaches beyond the classroom. This is a book that will be enjoyed by parents everywhere.

Price £12.00

Details

• ISBN 0 906253 73 X
• Publisher
• Genre Educational Resource

The Master Con Man: The true adventures of Slippery Syd Gottfried

"There's a very short step between being a master con man and being a very good business man." - London Radio

Price £12.99

Details

• ISBN 1-900486-27-X
• Publisher Headpress
• Genre Non Fiction
• Extent 192pp

The Hunchback of East Hollywood: A Biography of Charles Bukowski

More renowned for his outrageous outbursts than anything he put on paper, Charles Bukowski is one of America owned for his outrageous outbursts than anything he put on paper, Charles Bukowski is one of America's most misunderstood and under-appreciated writers. Charting his vexed relationships with women, employers, friends, colleagues and the tender mercies of the demon drink, The Hunchback of East Hollywood is the first book to study the writer's life and work in equal measure, focusing on the manner in which one impacted on the other.

Price £13.99

Details

• ISBN 1-900486-28-8
• Publisher Headpress
• Genre Non Fiction
• Extent 192pp

Fallen Stars

The decline and fall of screen stars who had it all. What went wrong? Fallen Stars probes the underside of fame to reveal a host of glittering careers stunted by ill-health, alcoholism, drug addiction and egomania. Twenty-one tales of stardom turned sour, these are the tragic final years of some of the world’s best-loved actors and comedians, a latter-day Hollywood Babylon that includes Benny Hill, Diana Dors, Peter Sellers, Carry On legends and many others.

Price £14.99

Details

• ISBN 1 900486 39 5
• Publisher Headpress
• Genre Non Fiction
• Extent 160pp

The Headpress Guide to the counter culture: A Sourcebook for Modern Readers

Overviewing alternative culture by reviewing its literary legacy, The Headpress Guide compiles hundreds of book and zine reviews in an indispensable sampler of the vast assortment of publications which exist as an adjunct to the mainstream press, or which promote themes and ideas that may be defined as pop culture, alternative, underground or subversive. Updated and revised from the pages of the Headpress Journal, this is an altogether enlightened guide to the counter culture.

Price £14.99

Details

• ISBN 1 900486 35 0
• Publisher Headpress
• Genre Poetry

The Unreal City

The Unreal City takes place in Amsterdam. P.C. Evans uses a symbolist technique to analyse Dutch culture, once described by Camus as a bourgeois hell, and to demonstrate the stilting effect of capatalism - particularly the devastation is has wrought on the landscape of the poetslting effect of capatalism - particularly the devastation is has wrought on the landscape of the poets? own homeland, Wales. This first collection contains searing love poems, many set against the backdrop of the Dam?s redlight district, and displays a lyricism with plenty of world to support it.

Price £6.95

Details

• ISBN 1 902096 80 0
• Publisher Headland
• Genre Poetry

The Man I Was Promised

In this new collection, the title poem is a long sequence which searches through expectation, desire and loss. It is told, like the other poems in this book, with a compelling honesty and immediacy that leave the reader breathless.

"Ann Gray writes a sensuous poetry. The sensuality is in the detail, whether informed by the natural world or an urban nenvironment, and spans a whole range of emotions from the etheral to the earthy. Her images are often influenced by myth, especially those of the Mabinogian, the subject of her earlier collection Gronw's Stone (a collaboration with Edmund Cusick)." Patricia Oxley

Price £7.50

Details

• ISBN 1 902096 86 X
• Publisher Headland
• Genre Poetry
• Extent 72pp

Poetry Pool 2

The second anthology of poetry from Liverpool John Moores University's Centre for Writing follows the success of the first in the series. Poetry Pool 2 collects work by new poets - undergraduates, graduates and postgraduates - together with that of well known poets who lecture in Imaginative Writing at the university. The intense individuality of poetry is seen here, a rich variety of forms, themes and voices.

Price £6.95

Details

• ISBN 1 902096 87 8
• Publisher Headland
• Genre Poetry
• Setting Merseyside
• Extent 80pp

KssssS: A Tale of Sex, Money and Alien Invasion

KssssS is a fable for today which takes reality by the scruff of the neck and then leaves us to look again at the world we live in. This is a new novel by Carl Tighe, who was short listed for the Whitbread and winner of the Authors Club award in 2001 for his first novel Burning Worm. The Manchester artist Nick Fry provides the illustrations.

Price £10.00

Details

• ISBN 0 9548519 2 3
• Publisher IMPress
• Genre Poetry
• Extent 118pp

Reinventing the City?: Liverpool in comparative perspective

The city has always been a strong focal point for critical social enquiry, given its undisputed centrality for human life in the modern era. More recently, there has been a surge of interest in the postmodern city, the most popular subject being Los Angeles, and the been a surge of interest in the postmodern city, the most popular subject being Los Angeles, and the ‘global city’ – New York, London, Tokyo – cities linked together through flows of finance. Reinventing the City? addresses the idea of the city using Liverpool, a city recognised neither as ‘global’ nor ‘postmodern’, as its focus. Although Liverpool is the central theme of the book, the contributors give an informed comparative overview of the city in a worldwide context.

Price £45.00

Details

• ISBN 0 85323 797 2
• Publisher LUP
• Genre Non Fiction
• Setting Merseyside

Miss Brocklehurst on the Nile

Antiquities and crocodile hunting, dinner parties and smuggling. This is the engaging travel diary of the redoubtable Miss Marianne Brocklehurst, daughter of Macclesfield's first MP. She arrived in Egypt in 1873, hired a boat and set off on a 1000-mile trip up to the Second Cataract. As she progressed up the Nile, she visited temples, picnicked in tombs, bartered, sketched and shot. And laid the foundation of a fine collection for her museum in Macclesfield.

"A fascinating insight into the mechanics of the Victorian Grand Tour."  The Spectator

"This little book is an absolute delight." Ancient Egypt

"Fit Miss Brocklehurst into your pocket for your next flight to Egypt."  ASTENE Bulletin

Price £14.95

Details

• ISBN 1 902173147
• Publisher Millrace
• Genre Non Fiction
• Extent 144pp

A Bit of Grit on Haystacks: A Celebration of Wainwright

Marking the 50th anniversary of Alfred Wainwright's first Pictorial Guide. As a tribute, Dave Hewitt of The Angry Corrie has edited a collection of specially commissioned new essays. Contributors include the late A Harry Griffin, for 50 years The Guardian Country Diary columnist.

"Hewitt’s idea works beautifully. “A Bit of Grit” is well ordered, the same size as AW’s “magnificent seven” and the eloquent styles of writing do more than justice to the memory of the northerner who seemed to love both Coronation Street and Blackburn Rovers, as well as his Lakeland fells."- Tom Waghorn, Manchester Evening News

Price £13.95

Details

• ISBN 1 902173171
• Publisher Millrace
• Genre Non Fiction
• Setting Cumbria
• Extent 168pp

Climbing Down

A wry, off-beat look at walking and climbing in the British hills, Climbing Down is an excellent read, full of dry humour and unexpected topics. It was Book of the Week in The Guardian (Travel section) and is illustrated with hand-drawn maps by Gerry Dale. As well as the Peak District, the terrain covered includes Scottish hills, the Yorkshire Centurion and an Irish island.

Price £13.95

Details

• ISBN 1 90217 312 0
• Publisher Millrace
• Genre Non Fiction
• Extent 168pp

Remnants to the Underscored Bolivian Huskery

The new collection so from urban guerrilla poet cum baroque chaos theorist, Irving.

"There are plenty of clearly expressed, accessible ideas to be found. Earnestness is nicely balanced with whimsical humour. Communicating ideas is Irving's strongest point. The city has clearly shaped this determinedly unelaborated, approachable collection," City Life

Price £2.50

Details

• ISBN 0 9542816 3 2
• Publisher Flapjack Press
• Genre Poetry
• Extent 32pp

Meatball Panda Thrills

"There are plenty of clearly expressed, accessible ideas to be found. Earnestness is nicely balanced with whimsical humour. Communicating ideas is Irving's strongest point. The city has clearly shaped this determinedly unelaborated, approachable collection," City Life

Price £3.00

Details

• ISBN 0 9542816 4 0
• Publisher Flapjack Press
• Genre Poetry
• Extent 36pp

Karma Veranda

Two of the most engaging performance poets based in the northwest collide in the collegial collaboration that is Karma Veranda.
The tragic and untimely birth of Dermot Glennon in Downpatrick, Ireland, in 1972 robbed the world of one of its best loved person-shaped spaces. A Silver Stake Slam winner and hunter of scandal, Dermot's work has been published in many UK and US magazines. This venture rather scarily brings a job lot together in the same place for the first time.
Adam Irving considers himself a freshly born eager and is a frequent performer on the national poetry circuit. After successfully droplifting several collections of his work, including There's a Light Hat at the End of the Tunnel, The Fury of Seagulls and Muffins for the Sick and Wounded, his first collection from Mucusart Publications - the engagingly titled Coffee Shop Philosophy - gained critical acclaim.

"A shocking collection of humourous, sarcastic and observational poetry," scooptheloot.com

"The contents...make you want to punch the poets, eat the poets and shake hands with the poets. A review would be futile, buy the book," City Life

Samples:

Let's Call the Whole Thing Odd  by Dermot Glennon

You say "Ba-nann-as" and I say "Ba-narn-as",
Who needs a third expert psychiatric witness?
You say potatoes and I say tomatoes,
Good set of rules and call them paper, stone and scissors,
Let's call the whole thing odd
You infer an overtone that doesn't mean a lot to me
Let's call the whole thing postmodernist philosophy

Book by Cover  by Adam Irving

Never judge a book by its cover
Or a cover by its front
Its front by the title or the print by its font

Don't judge the spine by its length
Or the words by their size
An author by their past
Or their face by their eyes

Don't judge a meal by its price
Or film by its cast
But especially try not to judge a poem that doesn't rhyme,
Commit itself to a particular format,
Arrive at any conclusion,
Or have a satisfactory ending.

Price £3.50

Details

• ISBN 0954281675
• Publisher Flapjack Press
• Genre Poetry
• Extent 50pp

Coffee Shop Philosophy

Coffee Shop Philosophy is a collection of poetry from one of Manchesters many young poets. Irving likes to refer to his work as poems for people who hate poetry. He has featured in many magazines and self published four books of surreal rambling before this collection was put together. His work has been compared to Charles Bukowski in the way it is written as thought.

Price £3.50

Details

• ISBN 0954281616
• Publisher Flapjack Press
• Genre Poetry
• Extent 48pp

Secret Shakespeare: Studies in theatre, religion and resistance

Shakespeare's Catholic context was the most important literary discovery of the last century. No biography or criticism of the Bard is now complete without chapters on the paranoia and persecution in which he was educated, or the treason that engulfed his family. 'Whether to suffer' this 'outrageous fortune' or 'take arms' in suicidal resistance was, as Hamlet says, 'the question' that fired Shakespeare's stage. But in Secret Shakespeare Richard Wilson asks why the dramatist remained so enigmatic about his own beliefs, and so mute on the atrocities he survived. Born into an Escher-like world of secret chapels, priest-holes, subterranean passages, false walls and trap-doors, Shakespeare constructed a theatre not of discovery, like his rivals, but of darkness, deferral, evasion and disguise, where, for all his hopes of a 'golden time' of future toleration, 'What's to come' is always still unsure. So, whether or not 'He died a papist', it is because we can never 'pluck out the heart' of his mystery that Shakespeare's writing continues to resist interpretation and retains the secrets of the crypt.

Price £5.99

Details

• ISBN 0 7190 7025 2
• Publisher MUP
• Genre Non Fiction
• Extent 386pp

Roadworks

Roadworks is a startling, often witty, collection of poetry capturing life on Manchester's A6 Corridor. Resident poets lay bare their dreams, frustrations and memories of the area and give voice to the colourful characters you are likely to encounter on the 192 bus route. Sex, drugs and traffic congestion - it's all in here!

Price £3.50

Details

• ISBN 0-95446039-1-
• Publisher Panshine/ Raindog (Magazine)
• Genre Poetry
• Extent 52pp

From Beyond Belief

Gillian thought she had been abducted by aliens, even her husband thought she was insane. The world would never be the same again. This dramatisation is the true story of one man's struggle against his past, present and a future that even he could not have believed possible.

Price £12.99

Details

• ISBN 0 9541875 2 0
• Publisher Patchouli World
• Genre Fiction

Surfacing

William Park was born in Hillingdon, West London, in 1962. He now lives in Preston, where his interests include Buddhist philosophy, World Cinema and jazz. In 1990 he was awarded a major Eric Gregory, and in 2003 he gained an MA in Poetry from Liverpool Hope University College. His poems have appeared in The Observer, Poetry Review and Stand. This is his first full collection.

List Price £5.99
Price £5.00

Details

• ISBN 0 9518978 7 X
• Publisher Spike
• Genre Poetry

A Manner of Speaking

Dinesh Allirajah is a founder member of 'Asian Voices, Asian Lives'. He has performed at venues all over Britain and Europe and been featured on BBC Radio Merseyside and Radio Four. This is his first collection of short stories.

"Dinesh brings his stories to life with a poetic language which paints vivid images that draw you inside.h brings his stories to life with a poetic language which paints vivid images that draw you inside." - Levi Tafari

List Price £5.99
Price £5.00

Details

• ISBN 09518978 8 8
• Publisher Spike
• Genre Short Fiction

The Unsigned Guide

Last Spring saw the publication of first edition of The Unsigned Guide, the only music industry directory complied specifically for unsigned and emerging bands, musicians and their managers. With the support of Musicians' Union, Cultural Industries Development Services, England's North West Regional Development Agency and Manchester City Music Network, mcr: music published the definitive centralised source of information for unsigned bands and musicians. Now the new, fully revised and updated 2004/05 version of The Unsigned Guide is available.

Price £31.50

Details

• ISBN 9 54460 11 1
• Publisher The Unsigned Guide
• Genre Various
• Extent 640pp

Fragile Bodies

"These remarkable poems achieve a restrained lyric intensity, maintaining a delicate balance between the sadness of the body and its tenderly recuperative eroticism.'Âintaining a delicate balance between the sadness of the body and its tenderly recuperative eroticism." - Maurice Riordan

Price £5.00

Details

• ISBN 0 9536989 4 7
• Publisher Wild Women Press
• Genre Poetry
• Extent 32pp

Internet Love Slut

"A rollercoaster of sex, gender, relationships and hyperspace, with a quick wit that can evaporate as smoothly as it is applied.poetry with an unapologetic parental advisory label on it!" - Angela Readman.

Price £5.00

Details

• ISBN 0 9536989 3 9
• Publisher Wild Women Press
• Genre Poetry
• Extent 48pp

The Reckless Beauty

"Glistens in the dark like a pointed end of a spear.sensual and dangerous, reveling in the primal forces simultaneously held and released by each poem.' Charles Bennett. simultaneously held and released by each poem." - Charles Bennett.

Price £5.00

Details

• ISBN 0 9536989 5 5
• Publisher Wild Women Press
• Genre Poetry
• Extent 40pp

Green Dusk for Dreams

"A Journey into another world; one of magic and mysticism. touching without being sentimental." - Maureen Almond

Price £5.00

Details

• ISBN 0 9536989 6 3
• Publisher Wild Women Press
• Genre Poetry
• Extent 48pp

The Gift Returned

Hamish Robinson's first collection of poetry, The Gift Returned, is a bawdy and wry look at the pretensions of modern society in the face of humanity's classic and fundamental faults. From the ghost of Lord Rochester wearily receiving the news of another female celebrity's death, and remarking that old men must now put Their handkerchiefs to proper use, for tears, A tribute more in earnest than appears.

"Robinson displays a formal accomplishment, a mastery of rhyme and metre, a delicate susceptibility particularly to the understated domestic detail." The Times

Price £5.00

Details

• ISBN 1 870787 98 6
• Publisher Wordsworth Trust
• Genre Poetry
• Extent 40pp

Der Ball Ist Rund

Everton is one of Britain's greatest football clubs,but the Blues have rarely done well in European competition. Why? Perhaps it's partly due to the fact that 'Der Ball ist Rund'.

Join the author, a proud Evertonian, in a footballing travellogue spanning five decades and 25 chapters, covering all the clubs' European ties. Drawing on the recollections of some ex players and supporters, it's a fascinating journey, laced with a little humour.

Price £7.99

Details

• ISBN 1901231623
• Publisher Countyvise
• Genre Non Fiction
• Setting Merseyside
• Extent 264pp

A Tale of Two Journeys

The Fry diaries: France and Belgium in the early 1800s. 

Prices, postillions, rapacious landladies… The travel diaries in A Tale of Two Journeys, published here for the first time, give a lively insight into the perils and pleasures of early nineteenth century tourism. The first of the journeys was made in 1814 by Joseph Fry, husband of the famous Quaker prison reformer, Elizabeth Fry. An enthusiastic traveller, he arrives in Paris after touring Belgium, and eagerly prepares to see the sights.

Price £14.95

Details

• ISBN 1 902173 201
• Publisher Millrace
• Genre Non Fiction
• Setting Cumbria
• Extent 152pp

At the Supermarket

I saw a shoplifter at my local supermarket. What was I meant to do? What would you do?

"The story led to a very interesting discussion on crime and punishment. We had very opposing views... Some of us felt sorry for the shoplifter, she's poor and stealing food. Others of us felt she was wrong...

"It's well-written, clear and easy to understand."
Adult Basic Skills students

Price £4.00

Details

• ISBN 1-905688-04-0
• Publisher New Leaf
• Genre Non Fiction
• Setting Greater Manchester
• Extent 161pp

The Echoing Green

Gladys Mary Coles's new collection takes its title from a poem by William Blake, suggesting both a visionary perception of nature and an engagement with human innocence and experience. In The Echoing Green she returns to major concerns of her earlier work, including the Welsh Landscape, the past and literary figures, but with a new intensity, especially in two ambitious and evocative sequences inspired by her strong attachment to the Welsh/Shropshire border country.

The wilderness of the Mosses along the border provides the basis for a spiritual and historical as well as physical journey in 'Kingdom of Sphagnum', while 'The Land Within' is about the Shropshire novelist, poet and mystic, Mary Webb. Gladys Mary Coles is the leading authority on this author, but 'The Land Within' is the response of a poet rather than a scholar to Mary Webb's life and work. These two long sequences frame a section of richly diverse poems, one group stimulated by paintings.

Price £7.50

Details

• ISBN 1-873226-48-9
• Publisher Non-Northwest Independent
• Genre Poetry

The Big Picture

Three writers from the North West of England (Chris Fittock, Pauline Keith, Annie Clarkson) join one from Kampala, Uganda (Jackee Batanda) to find out what happens when they put down their pens for a second and talk. Where do they come frm? What are their shared concerns and common understanding? What is the Big Picture?

Price £7.50

Details

• ISBN 0954088093
• Publisher Litfest
• Genre Various
• Setting Lancashire
• Extent 108pp

The Storey's Story: Memories, Stories, Poems, Images

Affectionate reminiscences of the Storey Institute in Lancaster, mixed with a short story from Rodge Glass and specially commissioned poems from Jacob Polley and Gael Turnbull.

As the magnificent Storey building adapts to regain its place at the creative centre of Lancaster, this book of recollections will help to ensure that those memories live on.

Price £5.00

Details

• ISBN 0954088069
• Publisher Litfest
• Genre Non Fiction
• Setting Lancashire
• Extent 60pp

Hair

From the myth of Medusa to the fraught tale of Samson and Delilah, hair has always been a key component of identity. And never more so than for Black and Asian folk. Hair is surrounded by traditions, legends, folk lore, myths and everyday joys and frustrations.

Twists, dreads, comb styles, weaves, fluffed, afro’d, dyed, treated: every style has its own stories, occasions and meanings. Each one says a different thing about how we present ourselves to the world.
In this feast of a collection, over sixty writers from all parts of the world celebrate the joys and relive the pains of hair.

Some of the most popular hair techniques are also explained and a short section of Agony Aunt problems tackled.

"A brilliant collection that evokes so many memories of joy and tears."

"The roots of hair are deep. This book taps those roots. Both profound and stylish, what a great book!"

"So much to savour and enjoy, for less than the price of a haircut!"

List Price £8.99
Price £6.50

Details

• ISBN 1-905778-01-5
• Publisher Shorelines (including Satchel and Suitcase Books)
• Genre Poetry

The Curry Mile

A jaded Curry King finds his kingdom crumbling as his enemies conspire. His feisty daughter might possibly save him but instead becomes his arch-rival. Old traditions confront new against a backdrop of cut throat business dealings. The Curry Mile is King Lear to a Bhangra beat. A beguiling tale by a stunning new talent.

'Squabbling families with overbearing fathers, neighbourhood business feuds, charlatan mystics, music and mayhem - all human life is there. Suprisingly fresh and brilliant debut.'
- Ziauddin Sardar, New Statesman review - Books of The Year 2007

`This is a revealing `behind the scenes` look at living in the restaurant trade written with soul,exuberance, and pathos.The curry Mile tackles the issues of living in a multi religious, multi generational, materialistic society with singular panache and candour'
- Qaisra Shahraz i was in stitches with the language

It`s revealing and quirky. chick flick cum chappati thriller - Shamshad Khan

"The Curry Mile reminded me of Nobel Laureate Naguib Mahfouz`s Cairo Trilogy: family feuds, infuriating fathers and a strong sense of place. Manchester: along the roads through the rain to the heart of the city."
- Tom Palmer

List Price £7.95
Price £6.00

Details

• ISBN 1905778007
• Publisher Shorelines (including Satchel and Suitcase Books)
• Genre Poetry

Dead Good Poets Society: The Book

Liverpool's monthly poetry night, DGPS has been making ripples for over five years now with its dynamic roster of up and coming talent. This anthology brings together some of the most gifted members to tread its boards, including the award-winning Jean Sprackland and Levi Tefari, Liverpool legend Roger McGouch, as well as emerging poets establishing themselves in the 21st century.

List Price £7.95
Price £6.50

Details

• ISBN 1902096886
• Publisher Headland
• Genre Poetry
• Setting Merseyside
• Extent 128pp

Parenthesis

Rampaging behemoths, giant, washed-up fishtails, mysterious briefcases, role-playing cuddly toys... The world of the short story is a weird and wonderful one, made even stranger by the unique assortment of characters that crop up in them. Incongruity seems to be their secret ingredient - or rather the right kind of incongruity, an artful one that punctuates the flat realism of most literature and inserts an isolated moment, an atomised truth.

Comma's second anthology of new writers showcases 20 of the most imaginative and daring voices taking up the form; writers dedicated to charting the far reaches of this terrain right at the outset of their careers; writers who prove it's best to stay short.

"Reasserts and cherishes the short story form's ingrained oddness, its unique kind of drama and its potential to surprise."
- Laurence Phelan in The Independent on Sunday.

"This book is a true rarity."
- Aethetica Magazine.

"Another outstanding collection of short fiction... Parenthesis? writers are so confident and assured it?s hard to believe they are at the start of their careers. It?s obvious some of them are going to be huge."
- The Leeds Guide

List Price £7.95
Price £5.00

Details

• ISBN 9780954828073
• Publisher Comma Press
• Genre Short Fiction

Ellipsis 2

Featuring: Jane Rogers, Polly Clark and Zoe Lambert

A bank manager arrives at work one day to find himself the new employer of his ex-wife.

In the middle of a shift a divorced bus driver abandons his vehicle, to search for his estranged son.

Two sisters come to terms with their father?s disappearance with the help of a skeleton called Indira.
The stories in Ellipsis 2 explore the inherent dysfunctionality of almost all relationships, their aftermaths, and the lengths people go to to redeem them. From the ingrained resentments of Jane Rogers' parent-child histories, to the twisted claustrophobia of Polly Clark's couples, and the absence that travels beside each passenger in Zoe Lambert's bus sequence - these stories demonstrate the transforming, often alienating affect a relationship can have on the individuals in it, and remind us that being next of kin isn't always kind.

Ellipsis is a unique series presenting linked or themed sequences of short stories by three writers in each volume. All three are previously uncollected as short story authors, two of them in each issue are established (as novelists or poets), the third, in this case Zoe Lambert, is previously unpublished.

 

List Price £7.95
Price £6.00

Details

• ISBN 0954828038
• Publisher Comma Press
• Genre Short Fiction
• Setting Greater Manchester

Extended Family

Extended Family is a sensual celebration of the varied relationships that make up lives richly lived: from the subtle, intimate interactions of close family members and lovers, to the mutual rewards and stresses of relationships with friends, therapists, students and housemates.

The book begins in America, with childhood memories and adolescent love. In the second section, 'Younger Men Have Birthdays Too', a love affair unravels in a sequence of tender, angry love poems. In the final section, relationships encompass casual interactions and the close understandings of friends, loving kindness and the chaos of mental breakdown. Linda Chase's wit and sharp eye for telling detail make this a collection in which, with a wry eye, the poet can express heartbreak, and the narratives of the everyday reveal unique moments of insight.

'Linda Chase has a mature voice, encompassing the weight of experience as well as intensity of feeling...She has a laid-back, conversational style, which can contain a complex and much darker reality...I like Chase's poems for their honesty, their warmth and their wry sense of humour.' - Ambit magazine, 2002.

List Price £9.50
Price £7.00

Details

• ISBN 1 857548 67 1
• Publisher Carcanet
• Genre Poetry

See No Evil

"John G Hall's poetry is both visceral and delicate.
It is haunted by an angry spirituality that never loses its sense of humour or hope. From condoms to Iraq, from Jesus to Alzheimer's, these poems are as brutally honest as they are beautiful."

Aoife Mannix – author of ‘The Trick of Foreign Words’, Irish poet .

'Hall constantly asserts the imagist's instinct – that pared-down thought, the sure gaze. With each line a brush stroke, and framed by what he makes seem acres of white, these poems strive towards the condition of poetic quanta. At their best, they urge themselves into distinctive intensity.' - Mario Petrucci

Price £5.00

Details

• ISBN XXXXXXXXXXX
• Publisher Citizen 32 (Magazine)
• Genre Poetry

When I Grow Up - careers advice for the hard of thinking

When I Grow Up is informative, educational, cynically satirical, wickedly cruel, fatuously irreverent and, as a saving grace, utter nonsense.
Neil Deadman's guide book takes over from where frustrated careers advisers have given up, hit the bottle and cried themselves to an early grave.
Offering information on a breadth of vocations (including such staple dreams as footballer, spaceman and serial killer) the pros and cons are delightfully noted and supplemented by an outline of the skills required and similar job opportunities - whilst further enhanced by Paul Neads's illustrations.

Those of you stuck in dead end jobs or actively seeking employment may never be the same again.

Adult humour.

"A handy stocking filler for someone you're not too bothered about shopping for."

amazon.co.uk

Price £2.50

Details

• ISBN 0954281659
• Publisher Flapjack Press
• Genre Short Fiction
• Extent 36pp

The Noble Savage

Bristling with an accessible mix of urban eloquence, thought provoking pertinence and sly humour, The Noble Savage secures Tony's heartfelt and vibrant performance poetry to the page. He never played for England (or Sheffield Utd for that matter).

Illustrations by Martin 'Visceral' Stannage.

First published by Mucusart in 2007. Re-issued by Flapjack Press, 2012. www.flapjackpress.co.uk

"Tony Curry’s poetry is a window into yesterday. A rhythmic world of skunk, Es and 501s, gorillas, queens and signing on. Historical and poetic. I love it" - Mike Garry

Price £4.50

Details

• ISBN 9780954281625
• Publisher Flapjack Press
• Genre Poetry
• Extent 32pp

Matchbox No.7 (Quietly Random)

Allen's Fisher's Quietly Random is the 7th episode in Matchbox and what a cracker it is. Six new poems, a free gift and cover by Maja Fagerberg Ranten. Get it now at various Manchester stockists and on the web for £1.

THIS ISSUE IS SOLD OUT

Price £1.00

Details

• ISBN None
• Publisher Matchbox
• Genre Poetry

Parameter # 4

Issue 4 of Parameter Magazine, featuring poetry and prose from Manchester and around the world.

Price £3.75

Details

• ISBN 1754-3193
• Publisher Parameter (Magazine)
• Genre Poetry

The Sandals

An invitation to a wedding goes horribly wrong. A beautifully written and stunningly illustrated comic story, simple enough for a beginner to enjoy first time, it also contains all the ingredients to satisfy and delight more advanced readers.

"The situation described is very realistic and believable. It might show a beginner reader that you can make a story out of any everyday object and help them to start writing."

New Leaf Reading Circle

Price £0.00

Details

• ISBN 978-1-905688
• Publisher New Leaf
• Genre Short Fiction
• Setting Greater Manchester

While There Is Light

While There Is Light is a fictionalised account of the events leading up to the arrest of one of the so called 'Bradford 12' - twelve Asian and African Caribbean men charged and imprisoned in 1982 for making petrol bombs as a way of defending their communities against The National Front. As well as taking in a host of still pertinent questions about national identity, the treatment of asian and muslim communities in British society, and the political milieu of the US-propped up General Zia administration in Pakistan, it is also a deeply personal journey of one man seeking forgiveness.

While There is Light marks an interesting departure in fiction about the experience of Asians in Britain....The humour is typical, but Mehmood's work is a far cry from the cuddly charm of the Kumars. He isn't interested in using exotic confusions and cultural confrontations as an occasion for easy humour or satire; instead, he outlines these matters with equal pain and amusement. The effect is a continual balancing of the harassment and discrimination that Saleem experiences in England against the fear and oppression of peasant life in the village. -- The Guardian, Dec 2003

List Price £7.95
Price £5.00

Details

• ISBN 1857547292
• Publisher Comma Press
• Genre Fiction
• Extent 278pp

Dr James Graham's Celestial Bed

This first collection from Huddersfield poet Gaia Holmes mixes the urban with the exotic, with bulletins that cover everything from early morning buses to late night streets, postcards from the Orkneys to illustrations of small town life.

The poems in this debut collection are made from intense sensual experience, bursting with colours, flavours and textures. Gaia Holmes has an eye for the strangeness of things, from 'fat lenses of jellyfish/packed in jigsaws of ice' to the sounds and smells of the steelworks, where 'metal shrieks as it softens and throbs/under the core of heat.' - Jean Sprackland


"There's something in these poems that I can only call 'detailed intimacy' and 'closely-worked humanity'; the language is inclusive but still challenging and draws me into reading after reading. A splendid collection that will grow on you." - Ian McMillan


"Sassy and streetwise, dark and blue, these are poems that are high on words; full of rich imaginings and dislocated love affairs, peopled with ordinary folk made exotic, and with the strange made true. Read them." - Amanda Dalton

List Price £7.95
Price £5.00

Details

• ISBN 0954828089
• Publisher Comma Press
• Genre Poetry
• Extent 80pp

Bad Leg

This debut collection is more of a ‘collected works’ bringing together a life of writing – drawing on much from his previous incarnation as a songwriter, as well as introducing a previously unseen poetic sensibility. His poetry combines Dadaism, absurdist humour and lyrical grace - a wild concoction of minimalist love poetry, self-flagellation and old-school bawdy surrealism.

An Ivor Cutler for the post-rave generation.

List Price £7.95
Price £5.00

Details

• ISBN 1905583060
• Publisher Comma Press
• Genre Poetry
• Setting Greater Manchester
• Extent 80pp

The Book of Leeds

Featuring:
Tony Harrison, Jeremy Dyson, Shamshad Khan, Ian Duhig, David Peace, Susan Everett, MY Alam, Andrea Semple, Martyn Bedford, Tom Palmer.


Millgarth Police Station reverberates with the early adrenalin-rush of a case they won't close for years.


A teenage boy trails the city centre bars of the eighties in thrall to his hero - a Leeds United football hooligan.


A single woman finds her frustrations with men confirmed speed-dating in a city re-invented as a party capital.


Bringing together fiction from some of the city's most celebrated writers, The Book of Leeds traces the unique contours that fifty years of social and economic change can impress on a city. These are stories that take place at oblique angles to the larger events in the city's history, or against wider currents that have shaped the social and cultural landscape of today's Leeds: a modern city with both problems and promise.

List Price £7.95
Price £5.00

Details

• ISBN 9781905583010
• Publisher Comma Press
• Genre Short Fiction
• Extent 218pp

ID: Crimes of Identity

The Crime Writers' Association Anthology

Featuring:

MICHAEL JECKS – BILL KIRTON – PETER LOVESEY – STUART PAWSON – CHRISTINE POULSON – ZOE SHARP – FRANK TALLIS – YVONNE EVE WALUS – CARLA BANKS – TONINO BENACQUISTA – ROBERT BARNARD – NATASHA COOPER – MAT COWARD – MARTIN EDWARDS – KATE ELLIS – PAUL A FREEMAN – EDWARD D HOCH

***Winner of the National Crime Short Story Prize***
Robert Barnard's contributon 'Sins of Scarlet' has been announced the winner of the National Crime Short Story Pize - from a shortlist of five authors including PD James.
Read more.



A woman contemplating suicide on Beachy Head finds a bench dedicated to the memory of herself.

An art lover in Venice conducts a spree of mutilations as a response to the Surrealist Movement.

At Heathrow Airport, armed police take up positions to apprehend the wrong man...

The latest showcase of shorts from the CWA celebrates the ‘who’ in the whodunnit, the psyche behind the psychological profile. Husbands lead double lives, psychologists confuse perpetrators with ex-partners, neighbours reassess the people they thought they knew. It seems if there’s one thing you can’t classify or slap an ID card on, it’s the id.

The collection includes stories by two recipients of the Crime Writers’ Association ‘Diamond Dagger’ lifetime achievement award (Peter Lovesey and Robert Barnard), and an American Grand Master awardee (Edward D Hoch, who has published more crime short stories than anyone else, ever!).

List Price £7.95
Price £5.00

Details

• ISBN 1 905583 001
• Publisher Comma Press
• Genre Short Fiction
• Extent 234pp

Phobic

featuring:
RAMSEY CAMPBELL – HANIF KUREISHI – JEREMY DYSON – MATTHEW HOLNESS – FRANK COTTRELL BOYCE – ROBERT SHEARMAN – CHAZ BRENCHLEY – PAUL CORNELL – CHRISTINE POULSON – NICHOLAS ROYLE – PAUL MAGRS – CONRAD WILLIAMS – EMMA UNSWORTH – LAVINIA MURRAY – MARIA ROBERTS


Where does fear lurk in 21st century life? In a technological age hardwired to keep information flowing and the unknown at bay, what irrationalities still linger for horror writers to tap into? This anthology - the first in a new series from Comma - offers 15 very different responses to the question. From ancient curses kept alive in internet chat-rooms to malevolent children's TV characters acquiring lives of their own, Phobic shines a torch into the unlit areas of the modern subconscious and suggests the more we know, the more we realise how worried we really should be.

List Price £7.95
Price £6.50

Details

• ISBN 9781905583072
• Publisher Comma Press
• Genre Short Fiction
• Extent 234pp

Chloe Poems's Li'l Book O' Manchester

Manchester’s full of stories, tell-tale and multi...

Welcome to an unavoidable delicacy from one of the most accomplished poets performing today: the divalicious Chloe Poems.

Riding the sound waves of Manchester, this bountiful pamphlet is a collection of ideas and “first draft explosions” about the people and places that have stirred creativity and shaped the poet’s muse.

 

Chloe Poems's Li'l Book O' Manchester  also includes first draft illustrations by Paul Neads.

"Ever wondered what a night around Manchester with Chloe Poems as a tour guide would be like? Well, here it is, improvised and filled with the crackling energy that comes from trusting those initial sparks of inspiration."   conor a

"At the end of the last century and over into this one, Chloe Poems held the poetry scene together in Manchester with her own lovely bare hands. She is simply one of the greatest live poets you will find in this country."   Neil Bell

"Chloe Poems is an inspiration. Heroic, poetic and honest."   Mike Garry

Price £5.00

Details

• ISBN 9780954281694
• Publisher Flapjack Press
• Genre Poetry
• Setting Greater Manchester
• Extent 48pp

The Way to Liverpool

This book is fun with laughter and tears, wit and wisdom, and tells the true story of life in the valleys of South Wales with magnolia mice and a colliery with no coal to be seen.

From suburban Cardiff to an up-market Cathedral in Landaff, we meet all sorts and conditions of humanity and another mouse.

Then Bob Evans came to Liverpool and this autobiography is about that journey

Price £5.00

Details

• ISBN 978190123144
• Publisher Countyvise
• Genre Non Fiction
• Setting Merseyside
• Extent 159pp

The Life and Times of Kitty Wilkinson

This is the story of a remarkable woman who fought poverty and adversity to become a legend in her time.

Living in a poor part of Liverpool plagued by disease particularly cholera, she disregarded her own safety to care for the sick and dying, to take in homeless children and to teach that cleanliness was the main weapon against disease, turning her own home into a wash-house for her neighbours' benefit.

Kitty was honoured by the city of Liverpool and by Queen Victoria, and in Liverpool Cathedral there is a window depicting this remarkable woman.

Price £7.95

Details

• ISBN 9781901231854
• Publisher Countyvise
• Genre Non Fiction
• Setting Merseyside

William Charles Cotton MA, 1813 - 1879

A biography of the Reverand William Charles Cotton, vicar of St Laurence Church, Frodsham, Cheshire, from 1857 to 1879.  Throughout his life he had a great passion for bees and beekeeping.  He helped to establish the Anglican Church in New Zealand, and did considerable work in spreading the practices in beekeeping among settlers and Maori alike.

Price £7.50

Details

• ISBN 9781901231816
• Publisher Countyvise
• Genre Non Fiction
• Setting Cheshire

Those In Peril

Winston Churchill perceived that to win the Second World War, Britain had to win the Battle of the Atlantic.

This novel is set against that Battle.  It honours the sacrifice of the Merchant Seamen who died to keep Britain's lifelines open.

A boy from Liverpool finds himself in the Battle, literally by accident.  His eyes are opened to the horrors, sacrifice and courage of what went on in that cruel Ocean at that time.

We also learn of the steadfastness of the civil population of Merseyside during the 'May Blitz' of 1941 and of the devotion of the families of 'those in peril on the sea'.

Price £8.50

Details

• ISBN 9781901231588
• Publisher Countyvise
• Genre Non Fiction
• Setting Merseyside

The Mersey Mission to Seafarers 1856 - 2006

Since the early days of Liverpool, the world has come to the Mersey.  Without these seafarers, the truth is that the world would die.  We depend upon them.

This book is about caring, laughter and tears, and the sheer hard graft of looking out for seafarers for one hundred and fifty years.  It is really the story of Merseyside and the care for the seafarer is needed today as much as ever.  The Port is vibrant and carries more trade today than ever in its past history.  We forget that 95% of this nation's trade is carried by sea. 

That is why the Mersey Mission to Seafarers is still needed today.

Price £10.00

Details

• ISBN 9781901231793
• Publisher Countyvise
• Genre Non Fiction
• Setting Merseyside

Songs from a Liverpool Childhood

"Post-war Britain could be a drab and dreary place.  Twenty years after the blitz on its cities they still hadn't cleared up properly...Then suddenly to the soundtrack provided by the Beatles a transformation began and more optimistic times were promised with Liverpool at the centre of attention.

What was it like for the children growing up at this time, in this place?  This book gives them their voice and at the same time celebrates the timeless joy of childhood portraying a sense of family and community sometimes lacking in modern times."

Price £5.00

Details

• ISBN 9781901231779
• Publisher Countyvise
• Genre Poetry
• Setting Merseyside

A Liverpool Taxicab: The Last Fifty Years

Read about the characters who made the Liverpool taxi trade what it is today.  The local characters who made the job just that little bit more interesting.  Like Peter the gigolo who took John McCormack's cab as far as Chester Zoo while trying to buy a snake to frighten the life out of the old dear he'd married.  Or Taffy Bentley and the trouble he had getting the fare out of his cab.  The unfortunate passenger died before completing his journey and nobody wanted the body.  Read about the quirky things that happen to a cab driver in the normal course of a day.

These and many other stories make the authors account of the taxi trade a thoroughly enjoyable read. 

Price £7.95

Details

• ISBN 9781901231809
• Publisher Countyvise
• Genre Non Fiction
• Setting Merseyside

The Wainwright Legacy

The one hundred and fifty year history of the "Liverpool Voluntary Society for the Blind".

The history of Liverpool Voluntary Society for the Blind (LVSB) and its important work in the City has been thought about by many and at last we are delighted that Margaret Guppy has taken on the challenge to look through the archives and pull together the main events that have shaped LVSB into the organisation that it is today.  A lot can be learned from the history to help us plan the future and in fact our predecessors who took on the challenge of establishing services for blind people throughout the city who faced the same issues that we do today.

Price £5.00

Details

• ISBN 9781901231878
• Publisher Countyvise
• Genre Non Fiction
• Setting Merseyside

Ingimund's Saga

This book is about why the Vikings left Norway, where they settled, their religion, their pastimes, and the legends that have been attributed to them.  Wirral was also probably witness to one of the greatest battles in the history of the British Isles.

Price £9.99

Details

• ISBN 9781901231601
• Publisher Countyvise
• Genre Non Fiction
• Setting Wirral

Damburst

Damburst:

The Birkenhead Dock Disaster, March 6, 1909

In 1909, a coffer dam, holding back millions of gallons of water while an extension to Birkenhead Docks was being dug out behind it, burst killing 14 men.  The author, whose uncle was one of the only 3 survivors, investigates the tragedy and the cover up which followed.  He reconstructs the events of that night of horror and its anguished aftermath.

Paperback, A5, black & white photos

Price £6.50

Details

• ISBN 9781901231748
• Publisher Countyvise
• Genre Non Fiction
• Setting Wirral

Liverpool In A City Living 3 - The Tenements

Once more Ged Fagan has produced a wonderful record of the Liverpool that so many people remember during the latter part of the last century.

There have been many books about the city of Liverpool showing its famous buildings and dealing with a small city centre area, but the real city of Liverpool is far greater than this and Ged has ventured from the area that surrounded the inner city and out to Edge Hill, Wavertree, Tuebrook, Old Swan, the Dingle, Toxteth, Speke and Garston.  This is the real Liverpool to which many thousands will relate.

Price £8.50

Details

• ISBN 9781901231762
• Publisher Countyvise
• Genre Non Fiction
• Setting Merseyside

The School on the Puddydale, 1909 - 1982

For seventy three years the school on Dale Avenue was the source of education for many of the boys and girls of Heswall.  Sadly it is no more and in its place are Red Dale flats.  In the community there are still many of those children with happy memories of the school with the bell on its roof.  As a teacher for almost thirty years, first at the Puddydale and now at the 'new' Heswall County Primary School, the author felt that these memories should be recorded - hence the book. 

Whilst doing her research, she met many interesting people, each with their own stories.

Price £6.95

Details

• ISBN 9871901231885
• Publisher Countyvise
• Genre Non Fiction
• Setting Wirral

Liverpool In A City Living

The author has produced a unique record of life in inner city Liverpoo.  He spent his childhood and teenage years within a stone's throw of many of Liverpool's most famous buildings.

While business leaders made their mark in these prestigious premises only yards away an entirely different world existed, Ged's world, a world many, many Liverpool folk will have shared and even more will relate to the memories he shares with us.

He has been busy with his camera and this book is largely a photographic record of the grand, the not so grand and the derelict.

Price £8.50

Details

• ISBN 1901231518
• Publisher Countyvise
• Genre Non Fiction
• Setting Merseyside

Liverpool In A City Living 2

Ged Fagan's first record of inner city life in Liverpool in the 60s and 70s has proved so popular that he has been persuaded to extend the record with this second volume.

Through the lens of his own camera and by researching the archives he has put together another collection of photographs to which many readers will relate.

Add Ged's recollections of the people: those in the streets and those who became icons of the period; places; well known landmarks and inner city dwellings mostly now demolished; and products; household names then but now no more than memories.

If you enjoyed the first book you'll enjoy this one.  If you haven't read the former why not buy both for double the pleasure.

Price £8.50

Details

• ISBN 1901231569
• Publisher Countyvise
• Genre Non Fiction
• Setting Merseyside

Everton F.C.

A life-long supporter of Everton, the author's love and enthusiasm for the club has driven him through hours and hours of painstaking research into the formation and development of Everton Football Club as well as the Association game of Football on Merseyside.

Tony traces the development of the club from Stanley Park to Anfield then on to Goodison.  His search for facts has led him far and wide and the resulting book contains detailed and factual statistics, some long forgotten, illustrations and undiscovered match reports unearthed from some unlikely places.  They cover Everton's participation in the game before the Football League was formed, during the early League, the Lancashire Cup and the FA Cup.  It covers the travels of the Everton players and their supporters during the 19th century.

A "must read" for every Evertonian interested in the history of this club.

Price £5.95

Details

• ISBN 1901231291
• Publisher Countyvise
• Genre Non Fiction
• Setting Merseyside

One Night In The City

Liverpool - Wednesday 25th May 2005... truly a memorable night.  From being 3-0 down at half-time to a fantastic win, making Liverpool FC a five-times winner of the European Cup.  Liverpool city centre was an exciting place to be that night.

One man (a self confessed Everton supporter) recorded it all.  The author, a gifted amateur photographer was persuaded to bring his daughter, Mel (an avid Liverpool supporter) to savour the sights and sounds of that night.

His photographic record is here for all to share.  Ian has captured the despair, the joy and the rapture of so many of the fans that night.  He has also caught that unique Liverpool humour and sense of fun that makes Liverpool and Merseyside such a special place.

Full colour photographs

Price £8.50

Details

• ISBN 1901231550
• Publisher Countyvise
• Genre Non Fiction
• Setting Merseyside
• Extent 80pp

Liverpool F.C.'s 40 Greatest European Nights

Over the course of 40 years beginning with a low key visit to a modest stadium in Reykjavik to one glorious night in Istanbul, Liverpool have featured in some of the most renowned games ever witnessed in UEFA competitions.

Even years on many are still talked about across Europe and the rest of the world.  Coming back from a 3-0 deficit at half-time against AC Milan was just one of those remarkable nights.

However, there have been many more over the decades and not all involving the lifting of club football's ultimate prize.

As a Kop season ticket holder for many years, author Darren Phillips has soaked up the unique atmosphere and witnessed many of these special occasions first hand.  He has selected 40 of the very best as a commemoration of The Reds anniversary as well as the remarkable achievement of being crowned Champions of Europe five times.

Price £12.50

Details

• ISBN 1901231593
• Publisher Countyvise
• Genre Non Fiction
• Setting Merseyside
• Extent 140pp

Father Nugent's Liverpool 1849 - 1905

Illegal Immigration, Juvenile crime, Inner-city poverty...

He confronted them all

Very little has been written about Father James Nugent's work in Liverpool, yet during the second half of the 19th century there was hardly a household in the city that did not recognise his name.

Price £4.95

Details

• ISBN 1901231399
• Publisher Countyvise
• Genre Non Fiction
• Setting Merseyside
• Extent 68pp

Street Names of the City of Liverpool

Was Battenburg Street named after a cake, a prince or a battle?

What do Old Hall Street and Bankhall Street have in common?

You can find answers to these questions and many more that might occur to you as you pass through Liverpool.

The author examines the reasons why over a thousand Liverpool streets were given the names by which we know them.  His well researched and carefully planned book presents his findings by looking at themes.

Famous local landowners, the slave trade, maritime influences, politicians, religion, royalty - all are included in the 22 categories considered by Steven.

This is a fascinating book, easy to read, full of background information and covering not only streets, but so many family names that it will be of interest to the family historian as well as the local historian.  However, you do not need to be a history student to thoroughly enjoy this excellent book.

Price £5.00

Details

• ISBN 1901231305
• Publisher Countyvise
• Genre Non Fiction
• Setting Merseyside
• Extent 102pp

Street Names of Wirral

Steve Horton's successful "Street Names of the City of Liverpool" was a best seller when it first appeared in 2002.  It is still a popular book.

In this book, Steve crosses the Mersey to give the same treatment to Wirral's street and roads.

Nearly 700 street names are listed with the reason for the names by which we know them.

Many hours of careful research have gone into this book which will have a wide appeal.  Local historians will love it, but everyone will find a great deal of interest in this fascinating book.

Price £3.95

Details

• ISBN 1901231402
• Publisher Countyvise
• Genre Non Fiction
• Setting Wirral
• Extent 76pp

Wirral Vikings: The Wider Context

As its title suggests, the book places the well-known incursion of Irish Vikings into Wirral within the framework of multi-cultural politics and opinions from around the whole of the Irish Sea - and beyond.  Gathering together sources from England, Ireland, Wales and Norway - and further afield - this book places the fact of Ingimund's invasion of 902 AD into its proper, broader, perspectives, and shows how, far from being an isolated event in history, the Viking presence on Wirral was an integral and long-term component of what is now termed "Irish Sea Culture".

Price £5.00

Details

• ISBN 1901231577
• Publisher Countyvise
• Genre Non Fiction
• Setting Wirral
• Extent 76pp

The Indefatigable

The Founding Fathers of INDEFATIGABLE asked the question "What is to be done about the many orphans whose only crime was that they were sons of seamen?"  So in 1864, the Inde was set up for "the training of orphans and boys in poor circumstances."  That was a typical Liverpool response ... "the Inde Way, get stuck in, and get it done!"  With much change, from ship to shore, the School continued until 1995 with its self-appointed task of "turning boys into men". 

This is a fantastic story.  Bob Evans has added yet another piece into the prouond maritime history of Liverpool.

Price £12.00

Details

• ISBN 1901231534
• Publisher Countyvise
• Genre Non Fiction
• Setting Merseyside
• Extent 237pp

Reminiscences of John Jones Griffith

John Jones Griffith was one of that remarkable tradition of Welsh non-conformist master mariners who sailed the seas in the nineteenth century.  Although four of his uncles were ships masters, his own career was not typical.  He was despatched to Australia to be an apprentice to his draper uncle at the age of thirteen, and only became a sailor through his desire to escape the draper's trade and see the world.

Price £5.95

Details

• ISBN 1901231828
• Publisher Countyvise
• Genre Non Fiction
• Extent 99pp

Hilbre: Islands in the Dee Estuary

The three Hilbre islands, Little Eye, Middle Eye and Hilbre are a unique feature of the Wirral landscape.  Situated in the mouth of the Dee estuary one mile out from the Wirral mainland, they are cut off by the tide twice a day.  Now owned by Wirral Metropolitan Council (WMBC), they are managed as a Local Nature Reserve with a resident Ranger and are an important part of the Dee Estuary grade 1 Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), Ramsar site (a wetland of international importance), SPA (Special Protection Area), SAC (Special Area of Conservation) and RIGS (Regionally Important Geological and Geomorphological Site).

The aim of this book is to give a brief look at the history and to act as a guide to the visible natural history of the islands.

260 x 210, full colour photographs

Price £12.95

Details

• ISBN 190123164X
• Publisher Countyvise
• Genre Non Fiction
• Setting Wirral
• Extent 82pp

The Liverpool Windjammers

During the windjammer boom, the period which began after the middle of the nineteenth century, Liverpool was one of the world's major seaports.  This series of publications goes some way into describing a number of sailing vessels that were registered at the port during those times.

180 x 240 mm, illustrated with 10-page colour section

Price £14.95

Details

• ISBN 1901231704
• Publisher Countyvise
• Genre Non Fiction
• Setting Merseyside
• Extent 233pp

A Dog Collar in the Docks

This book is more than a autobiography.  It is an encounter with almost thirty years of Ships and Seafarers in Liverpool at a time when this great Port was adapting itself to the changes and challenges of the tail end of the Twentieth Century.  The people are real, the pain and the laughter compelling, the story is a good read.

Bob Evans is part of that story.  His ministry in the Mersey Mission to Seamen and the Royal Naval Reserve placed him uniquely into every facet of waterfront life.  His "dog collar" seems to open every door and he, too, is surprised at what happens next.

Price £7.00

Details

• ISBN 0907768768
• Publisher Countyvise
• Genre Non Fiction
• Setting Merseyside
• Extent 219pp

HMS Eaglet: The Story of the Royal Naval Reserves on Merseyside

The Centenary of the Royal Naval Reserves in 2004 is the perfect excuse for a 'jolly'...the saga of HMS Eaglet.  This book is proof that history can be informative, uplifting and full of fun.  The only excuse for the nautical nonsense is that it actually happened.  We travel from sail to steam, the trenches in France to Gallipoli, the Battle of the Atlantic to Iraq...and this is the story of people who were there.  Bob Evans is firmly part of it all and has added yet another interlocking piece to the jigsaw of Liverpool's proud maritime history.  This is the story of the Royal Navy in the Northwest.

Price £12.00

Details

• ISBN 1901231380
• Publisher Countyvise
• Genre Non Fiction
• Setting Merseyside
• Extent 362pp

New York to Liverpool

This is the story of a Liverpool man's poor but happy childhood in Liverpool and the springboard for an equally happy but more prosperous adult life.

His career at sea spanned ten years in which he crossed the world on troopships, emigrant ships, merchant ships, transatlantic liners, and finally cruise ships in the West Indies.

His wonderful job opportunities in New York allowed him to meet numerous celebrities from the theatre, cinema, politics, sport - and the underworld.

Finally, on returning to Liverpool, he built a chain of award winning pubs.

Price £7.95

Details

• ISBN 9781906205027
• Publisher Countyvise
• Genre Non Fiction
• Setting Merseyside
• Extent 184pp

Mersey Minis Vol 1: Landing

MERSEY MINIS are set to become the most collectable books of 2007, after an enthusiastic welcome for the first of the series. Five delectable little books, postcard sized and perfect for posting, they are being hailed as design classics as well as full of fabulous reading. Published by Capsica, MERSEY MINIS celebrate Liverpool’s 800th anniversary in considerable style, with an amazing array of writing by writers famous and unknown: poets, philosophers, psychologists, politicians, scientists, servants, sailors and satirists, royals, rogues, rockers and rollers. Volume 2: LIVING will be launched at the end of June, with a delicious cover illustration featuring Bold Street and words by everyone from Matthew Arnold to John Wesley. LANDING, the first volume of Mersey Minis, was published on 27 April to much excitement from the crowd at Capsica’s launch party at BBC Radio Merseyside’s building. Series editor Deborah Mulhearn was presented with flowers by explorer and best selling author Sir Ranulph Fiennes, who has written a piece in Volume 3, following the appearance of his 17th century ancestor, explorer and best selling author Celia Fiennes, in Volume 1. Sir Ranulph wrote his piece for Mersey Minis while waiting at the foot of the Eiger, two days before his epic ascent of the treacherous North Face in March 2007. Volume 3, to be published on 28th August (Liverpool’s 800th birthday) will be 100% new writing, commissioned from famous writers and gathered from a worldwide competition. A birthday present to the city, 20,000 copies will be given to the people of Merseyside – exclusively on that day – not available for sale, except as part of the boxed set (available from mid-November). For much more about Volumes 1 and 2, go to the blog at http://merseyminis1.blogspot.com The books are for sale online at http://www.loveliverpoolbooks.com, or from all good bookshops.

"A wonderful idea and great choice of texts!" -- Christoph Grunenberg, director, Tate Liverpool

"A beautifully produced and fascinating book." -- Loyd Grossman

"I was really impressed with the 'Mersey Minis' book... it is a gem. It's quirky, charming and 'unputdownable'. The woodcuts by Clare Curtis compliment the book so well and give a sense of atmosphere and life to the text." -- Tom Muir, Orkney Boat Museum

"Mersey Minis presents Liverpool in miniature. A wonderful composite of the city – lovely to hold, and a delight to read." -- Margaret Murphy, crime novelist "What a very stylish – and eminently ransackable – collection!" -- Charles Nevin, journalist

Price £3.95

Details

• ISBN 0954843177
• Publisher Capsica
• Genre Various
• Setting Merseyside

Leeds Stories 1

Edited by Isaac Shaffer
Produced in association with Leeds Guide magazine

Comma Press and Leeds Guide launched the first in this series of unique short story 'mini-anthologies' in July 03. Distributed through Leeds Guide, as well as sold separately in Yorkshire bookshops, Leeds Stories 1 featured six specially commissioned stories from new and established Leeds authors.

Price £3.00

Details

• ISBN 0954464133
• Publisher Comma Press
• Genre Short Fiction
• Extent 30pp

Leeds Stories 2

Part 2 of a new series of mini short story anthologies celebrating Leeds writing, featuring Simon Armitage, Joolz Denby, Sophie Hannah, Char March, Andrea Semple and more.

Price £3.00

Details

• ISBN 1 85754 814 0
• Publisher Comma Press
• Genre Short Fiction
• Extent 30pp

Matchbox No.8

'My idea for these poems is that they be like cigarettes. On the one hand, briefly intense and repaying as much focused contemplation as you want to give them -- each is in fact composed according to a rigorous and elided formal logic -- but then also, at the very same time, merely discardable amusements: quickly read and easily forgotten, thrown away without a second thought as soon as they are finished.'

THIS ISSUE IS SOLD OUT

Price £1.00

Details

• ISBN 1234567890
• Publisher Matchbox
• Genre Poetry

Matchbox No.9

Originally seven poems of four stanzas each, arranged two by two, and readable both horizontally and vertically. In this presentation each stanza is to be read individually and/or as part of a 28 stanza sequence; in new two by two patterns (recommended) or in entirely new combinations.

with photographic responses by Simon Taylor (see website for more www.matchbox.org.uk)

Price £1.00

Details

• ISBN 1
• Publisher Matchbox
• Genre Poetry

Newcastle Stories 1

Poets, playwrights and novelists have been specially commissioned to capture the character, and characters, of Newcastle - in stories that range from recognisable quayside drinking dens to the commanding ramparts of the Lit and Phil library, from an anonymous call centre on the edge of town, to a family backyard full of feathers.

Featuring Sean O'Brien, Julia Darling, Fiona Richie Walker, Pauline Plummer, Margaret Wilkinson, and edited by Angela Readman. 

Price £3.00

Details

• ISBN 1857548124
• Publisher Comma Press
• Genre Short Fiction
• Extent 32pp

Occam's Blunt Instrument

Occam’s Razor would have us believe that the simplest explanation is usually the best - but is it?

If the face of a ghastly fiend suddenly appears in your mirror, do you book an appointment with the beauty therapist or the vicar? Ever had an out-of-body experience only to forget where you parked it? Have you ever worried about the chemicals they put into your homeopathic medicines and later been disappointed on looking up “hydrogen oxide” in a reference book? Or, perhaps, you have stared so intently into the darkness looking for ghosts that your eyes have gone funny and actually seen some.

If you are tired of the mundane and decidedly unsuper natural world then this collection of 23 short stories from Dermot Glennon and Paul Neads is the book is for you.

“Utterly superb! I savoured the sheer richness and splendour of the writing like a fine wine (not that I know anything of fine wine),” Marvin Cheeseman

“Razor sharp,” Salford Advertiser

"Short sweet and to a very obtuse point, these short stories had me laughing out loud. Just the right size to digest a quick one over your break, I cannot recommend it highly enough," Dr Christophe M. Turner, amazon.co.uk

“I laughed out loud more than once and smiled quite a lot too. It deserves to be a huge success,” Helên Thomas

“Reminds me of the great Alan Sillitoe,” Tony Curry

“The most insanely convoluted explanation is usually the most amusing”

History records that William de Ockham (Occam as he is now known) stated “Pluralitas non est ponenda sine neccesitate”, in what came to be known as Occam’s Razor - a hugely influential tool to the philosopher. This is normally paraphrased in translation as “The simplest explanation (i.e. the one that makes the fewest assumptions) is the one most likely to be true”. Tragically, he is not recorded as having stated that “The most insanely convoluted explanation is by far the most entertaining”, in what didn’t come to be known as Occam’s Blunt Instrument.
Furthermore, if Aesop was alive today, hadn’t written his well known fables and had instead written sarcastic para-parables, this is almost certainly the collection that he would have written. The facts that he isn’t, he had, he hadn’t and this is almost certainly not the collection that he wrote, have meant that the world of creative writing has lost this treasure trove of literary gems forever… Until now.
Were one to apply Occam’s Razor to the reported phenomena discussed in this book, one would ascribe all of them to the implausible, unverifiable ravings of cranks and dismiss them as pure nonsense. By applying the logic of Occam’s Blunt Instrument, Paul Neads and Dermot Glennon have instead proven them to be genuine phenomena with perfectly logical (if entirely refutable) rational explanations; the simplest thing to do when faced with New Age alternative medicines, superstitions and conspiracy theories would be to debunk them. Instead, the authors attempt the more difficult task of actually bunking them.
Each of these stories follows the simple pattern: listen to clearly erroneous claims made by backwoods weirdoes and notoriety-seeking freaks, pick up the ball and run with it (i.e. fervently believe what they are saying to be true), give a scarcely credible explanation for the phenomenon and finally descend into almost vitriolic sarcasm towards the end of the tale.
By this means, we hope to demonstrate that the truth is not always worth a rat’s ass.

List Price £6.99
Price £5.99

Details

• ISBN 9780954281663
• Publisher Flapjack Press
• Genre Short Fiction
• Extent 120pp

Winter Hands

Shadowtrain books are pleased to announce the forthcoming publication of Winter Hands by Annie Clarkson in September/October 2007.

Winter Hands crosses boundaries between poetry and prose, inner and outer landscapes, intimacy and being alone. In a series of portraits, this collection explores the vulnerabilities and distress of people who seem to be outside the worlds they survive in.

Their relationships are fractured and ambivalent, their voices complex. Annie Clarkson’s rich, evocative images delve into the multi-layered emotions of her characters. As readers, we are invited to identify with these individuals and the situations they create and find themselves in. At the same time, we can delight in Clarkson’s lyrical and energetic use of language.

This book is now available from www.shadowtrain.com

‘Annie Clarkson’s versets – shapes where poetry and prose meet, declare a truce and mingle – generate so much heat and tenderness in equal turns; they read like reports from a twilit, overlooked world, writ in vinegar on chip paper that will stay news.’

–Paul Farley


'Clarkson composes her poetry from tenderness, sexuality and courage, exploring taboo places in the human psyche. That she does so and does so fearlessly is a testament to her compassion and understanding of the everyday fears and uncertainties we experience as humans.’

– Geraldine Green

Price £5.95

Details

• ISBN 9780905127132
• Publisher Shadowtrain
• Genre Poetry
• Setting Lancashire

Instruction Manual For Swallowing

Robotic insects, in-growing cutlery, flesh-serving waiters in a zombie cafe… Welcome to the surreal, misshapen universe of Adam Marek’s first collection; a beastiary of hybrids from the techno-crazed future and mythical past; a users’ guide to the seemingly obvious (and world of illogic implicit within it). Whether fantastical or everyday in setting, Marek's stories lead us down to the engine room that throbs just beneath modern consciousness, a place of both atavism and familiarity, where the body is fluid, the spirit mechanised, and beasts often tell us more about our humanity than anything we can teach ourselves.
 

Adam Marek writes tales of the fantastic, the grotesque, and the impossible – all set in familiar, even mundane worlds. The effect may be unnerving or moving or hilarious, but always there is the gripping sense of an idea gestating to a point just short of revelation. Underpinning Marek's fantasies there is a nagging psychological realism. In this debut collection, the English short story receives an injection of something new and compelling and spooky.
– Alex Linklater, founder of the National Short Story Prize
 
Marek's fabulously meaty, funny writing makes the short story look really exciting again, pulling you, frame by frame, into a bright, strange future.
– Maggie Gee

List Price £7.95
Price £6.50

Details

• ISBN 978 190558304
• Publisher Comma Press
• Genre Short Fiction
• Extent 216pp

Tiny Deaths

Tiny Deaths is a genre-blurring, gravity-defying debut collection from the acclaimed playwright and screenwriter Rob Shearman. Using the full armoury of speculative and science fiction, not to mention the stranger constructions of psychology, to shine light on a raft of our most personal and metaphysical assumptions, to unwind the emotional complexes of seemingly ordinary relationships, and to portray characters discovering themselves all over again. Alien intelligence, universal foresight, imaginary children, and conversations with Hitler’s daschund all conspire to offer an hilarious and continually surprising journey through the most realistic of concerns.

Praise for Rob Shearman

Shearman offers us haunting, nightmare alternatives to our world, worlds that are utterly recognisable as ours, thanks to the way he always picks out the comically mundane among the impossible and the fantastical. The dream-like logic of them - the simple acceptance of this as the status quo, rather than some mood-sapping attempt at explanation - makes each story cling to you; forces you to make sense of it and somehow inhabit it.
– Steven Moffat

A brilliant collection of page-turning twists, an extraordinary comic understanding, even Jesus with jokes.
– Martin Jarvis

List Price £7.95
Price £6.50

Details

• ISBN 978 190558314
• Publisher Comma Press
• Genre Short Fiction
• Extent 224pp

Elsewhere

Featuring:
Gyrdir Eliasson (Iceland) - Frode Grytten (Norway) - Micheal O Conghaile (Ireland) - Danielle Picard (France) - Mehmet Zaman Saclioglu (Turkey) - Ingo Schulze (Germany) - Roman Simic (Croatia) - Jean Sprackland (England) - Olga Tokarczuk (Poland) - Mirja Unge (Sweden)

Following on from Decapolis, Comma’s unique literary cross-section of 10 major European cities, Elsewhere looks even further into the cultural histories and experiences of living in some of Europe’s small, but defining towns.

Elsewhere explores the ambivalent position that the ‘small town’ occupies in the European literary imagination. Home to snug communities and strange, unnerving events, post-industrial torpor and utopian imaginings all at once, the small town environments featured in this anthology will be intrinsic to the stories themselves, not just settings, but part of the fabric of the experience itself.

List Price £7.95
Price £6.50

Details

• ISBN 978 190558313
• Publisher Comma Press
• Genre Short Fiction
• Extent 144pp

Dangerous Driving

Chris Woods has been described by Anne Stevenson as 'a poet of hope for everyday life'. Influenced by his profession as a GP, his verse is both 'observant and unsentimental' (Douglas Dunn) and for all its precision is always driven by compassion and tenderness.

This second collection sees a richer and deeper exploration of key themes: the human exchanges at the heart of his practice as a doctor, the stresses placed on modern parents by a growing family, the impulse towards self-exile and isolation, as well as the means by which even the greatest losses and stresses can be survived.

As with his first book, Recovery, these poems remind us to take time out from our lives, from ourselves, and shares with us both the pleasures and surprises that come with even the smallest skive…

Praise for the Poet

With this new collection, Chris Woods achieves a genuine unity of subject matter and expression. In language that is taut, pared-down, he travels through everyday family life – holidays, music, swimming, TV news, the drive to work - whilst also charting a darker quest for personal metamorphosis – for a kind of release, or new simplicity. His poems are self-effacing and matter of fact yet he dives deep and finally surfaces into space and light. It is a moving and affective journey.
- Amanda Dalton

‘Chris Woods’ poetry always has the sense of a direct hit, of an image or metaphor cleverly retrieved and accurately placed so that, whether he is writing about the mixed pleasures of a family holiday or the claustrophobia or modern living, the reader is able to recognise familiar dilemmas at the same time as relishing their strangeness.’
- Gerard Woodward

‘The things of this world are celebrated here in their fullness, as both ordinary and extraordinary. Chris Woods trails his magic medicine through these poems with precision and humanity’.
- Linda Chase

List Price £7.95
Price £6.50

Details

• ISBN 978 190558315
• Publisher Comma Press
• Genre Poetry
• Extent 72pp

How to Dump Your Girlfriend

Co-written with Henry Pumpkin.

How to dump your girlfriend is a dilemma most blokes face from time to time. So the authors have taken it upon themselves to put this guide together. Much of their research has been road tested by themselves through their own experiences with girlfriends. They have also done
extensive research in bars, clubs, football terraces, chat rooms, speed dating evenings and around the edges of dance floors. The rest they have made up. For those having girlfriend trouble, or those who have a friend who is going through such trouble, this is the book they need. It may or may not solve your problems. But it is guaranteed to put a smile on your face.
Julian Daniel is a stand up comic with a burgeoning reputation on the Northern Circuit. He was assisted by Henry Pumpkin, an award winning BBC comedy writer

Price £5.99

Details

• ISBN 9781905778041
• Publisher Shorelines (including Satchel and Suitcase Books)
• Genre Non Fiction
• Extent 120pp

The Hat Check Boy

Small time con artist, Duncan, aka The Drunk, would never have dreamt up the plan to rob the casino where he works IF it hadn’t been Chinese Moon Cake Day, IF Strange Steve hadn’t found the gun in the empty acid-bath tub, IF the divorce lawyers hadn’t started bleeding him double time, IF his boss Bella hadn’t laid down the final straw with that derisory two cans of lager pay off…

The Hat Check Boy is a moving and tragic comedy of errors – it shows us a man against life’s ropes, clinging on, hoping to land the one knock out blow that will transform him from loser to champ.

Mike Duff was born and raised in some of Manchester’s less salubrious neighbourhoods. He is: the winner of the Poem for Manchester competition in 2004; a die-hard Man-United supporter; a writer of short stories, poems and novels

Praise for Mike Duff’s first novel, Low Life:

‘punchy, brash and funny’ - The Guardian

‘It's very fast and very funny, richocheting between caustic social comment and moments of real tenderness.’ - City Life

Price £7.99

Details

• ISBN 9780946745920
• Publisher Commonword / Crocus
• Genre Fiction
• Extent 224pp

The Suitcase Book of Love Poems

co-edited with Martin De Mello

Various Poets

The Suitcase Book of Love Poems holds a mirror up to the soul of the UK nation.
Bringing together the best of black and Asian love poetry from the UK and beyond, The Suitcase Book of Love Poems is the perfect train journey read. Between the covers are confessional poems, haiku, ghazals, tankas,
jazz inspired pieces, reggae poems contributed by selected UK and diaspora poets at the top of their craft. Added to the mix are a selection of classic poems from black antiquity and urban remixes of some of Shakespeare's sonnets.
The Suitcase Book of Love Poems will provide insight and inspiration.

Editor Martin De Mello talks about The Suitcase Book of Love Poems:
“Suitcase Love Poems is packed with love: UK Asian takes on love, odes from Egyptian times, Shakespeare sonnets recut for urban times, black on black love black on white love, love beyond colour, kama sutra style stuff, agonies of love, foreplay of love, afterplay of love, first love, last love and
the stages in between. The only thing it doesn't have is the Valentines Card stuff. For that you need to go to a card shop.”

Price £6.95

Details

• ISBN 9781905778034
• Publisher Shorelines (including Satchel and Suitcase Books)
• Genre Poetry
• Extent 120pp

Little Jack Horner

A young Asian man is stabbed to death in an alleyway on a dark, wet night. It is a difficult case. There are no witnesses and no apparent motive. Delroy Johnson, of Johnson Private Investigations Bureau is called in by the young man’s family, frustrated at the slow police progress. Delroy Johnson is part time church caretaker, part time womaniser, some time investigator. More used to chasing down infidelity cases, he agrees to do what he can to catch the killer. A strong suspect emerges, but with little solid evidence, Johnson tries to draw him into the open. A deadly cat and mouse game ensues.

Set in a fictional Northern UK town, Little Jack Horner is a modern morality tale for 21st century UK, a story that crosses generations and cultures.

A short film based on private investigator, Delroy Johnson has already been shot and will be released in Spring 2008.

Author Background: Little Jack Horner is the fourth thriller from award-winning, Manchester writer, Peter Kalu. His others are Yard Dogs, Lick Shot and Professor X. He won the Kodak short film award, for the film tie in to Little Jack Horner, and the BBC/Contact Dangerous Comedy Award in 2003 for another script. He is a popular storyteller, with audiences of approx 5,000 every year.

Price £5.99

Details

• ISBN 9781905778058
• Publisher Shorelines (including Satchel and Suitcase Books)
• Genre Fiction
• Extent 200pp

Poems From a Northern Soul

Through poignant homecomings, cinematic street scenes and candid portraits, John Siddique constantly reminds us of human vulnerability, of the short chains that anchor us in this turbulent world. Many of the poems take us to an edge, both physical and emotional, and leave us there to contemplate the view.
John Siddique’s first full-length collection of poetry The Prize was published by Rialto in 2005. His work has appeared in numerous anthologies and magazines in the UK and abroad, and he has held many commissions and residencies including Ilkley Literature Festival, Ledbury Poetry Festival, HMYOI Wetherby, Rainer, Commonword and BBC Manchester. He teaches and mentors creative writing for many institutions including The Arvon Foundation.

List Price £6.95
Price £5.00

Details

• ISBN 9780946745876
• Publisher Commonword / Crocus
• Genre Poetry
• Extent 64pp

The Life and Times of The Black Pig

A biography of Ben Macdui, Illustrated by Colin Brash.

Forget the quick route from the car park. Over 20,000 years and sixteen other ways up, Ben Macdui preserves the fundamental mountain mysteries.

“Ben Macdui is a 500-million year-old lump of magma exposed by erosion and half chewed away by a glacier. But this book is not so much about the summit, as the stories we tell ourselves on the way up there. Some of them are fairy stories, and some are the more serious bits of fiction we call history. Some are the peculiarly plausible stories called science. But the most important stories are about the heroes of hillwalking, the pointless adventure on the Forefinger Pinnacle. These are the tales we tell ourselves to make it all make sense. As you stand below the avalanche, battle the stormy plateau, or cross thawing ice of Loch Avon, these stories are not just serious but deadly serious. In the twenty-first century, self-deception is one of the survival arts. Lose the plot, and end up in front of the TV with a premature heart attack.”

“Mr Turnbull is carving out a niche for himself writing the biographies of mountains—his first was a hymn to Great Gable. His work also serves as a guide, listing routes that’ll help you appreciate his subject at its best. Here, he tells the life and times of Britain’s second highest peak, Ben Macdui. He says it has been criminally overlooked since a certain B Nevis claimed the crown, but claims Macdui is far more interesting than the other fella. Tales include Queen Victoria’s climb of Ben Macdui (she did it in disguise) and an Irishman who cycled up it by accident. Colin Brash provides some gloriously moody illustrations.”
Country Walking, Feb 2008

Price £14.95

Details

• ISBN 9781902173252
• Publisher Millrace
• Genre Non Fiction
• Extent 184pp

Macc and the Art of Long Distance Walking

Macc & the Art of Long Distance Walking first hit the bookstands in May 1998. Its distinctive mix of walks, wit, literature and pubs was such a success that it was reprinted almost at once and has since become something of a minor classic. It includes walks in the Peak District, the Welsh Three Thousanders and the Bob Graham Round. Millrace has brought out a new (2007) edition of Macc & the Art of Long Distance Walking. The text has been updated and a new chapter and introduction added.

Reviews of the first edition:

“Full of unexpected and engaging diversions into mountaineering literature, social history, the right to roam and maps. Dry humour and forthright opinions
thread the book... one of the most refreshing reads I’ve had for a long time.”
Kevin Borman, High

“Once I’d started reading I couldn’t put it down.”
Jerry Rawson, TGO

‘It brings to mind the light-hearted—and well-written—air of the classic
Jerome K Jerome, Three Men in a Boat.’
John Muir Trust Journal

Price £13.95

Details

• ISBN 9781902173245
• Publisher Millrace
• Genre Non Fiction
• Extent 184pp

A Short History of Photography

‘While looking through his contact sheets, Harvey Benge noticed that one of his pictures reminded him of a ‘Friedlander’, another someone else. All photographers do this, and if the photograph in question apes another photographer too closely, it’s usually a cause for rejection. But Benge did the opposite. Picking out his ‘Friedlander’ and his ‘Parr’ and his ‘Baltz’ he decided to make an ‘anthology’ of contemporary photography featuring some of its biggest names. Yet they are all genuine, original Benges. They are also all good pictures, not mere pastiches of the ‘originals’ of which they gently but insistently remind one. This may be a game, but games can be very serious, and this fascinating book is both a serious and light-hearted exploration of photographic style.’ – Gerry Badger

Working from both Paris and Auckland, New Zealander Harvey Benge has established an enviable international reputation with exhibitions throughout the world. He has published over a dozen books and has been a finalist of the Prix du Livre, Arles Festival, France. His work is held in many major collections.

Price £14.99

Details

• ISBN 9781904587514
• Publisher Dewi Lewis Publishing
• Genre Art Book
• Extent 88pp

Bombay Mix

Bombay Mix brings together the street photographs of leading Indian photographer Ketaki Sheth, images taken over a period of almost 20 years. Bombay is a city that never sleeps. Its population (17.7 million) and its geography put a premium on space. A lot of ‘living’ happens on the street, where a disparate and unlikely blend of humanity defines its boundaries in a tightly confined space. The thrill of Bombay is the thrill of contrast. The streetscape of the city is as much psychedelic as it is kaleidoscopic: there is so much to see. What is most difficult to discern is geometry, the internal order
amidst the clutter.

‘Ketaki Sheth’s photographs, so formally interesting, so sharply seen, so deeply felt.’
— Salman Rushdie

‘Sheth’s Bombay is subtle, considered and thoughtful, even when it is outwardly brutal.’
— Suketu Mehta, author of ‘Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found’

‘Stunning photographs…. Her work is terrific, fuelling me with energy and and inspiration.’
— Mira Nair

Price £19.99

Details

• ISBN 9781904587477
• Publisher Dewi Lewis Publishing
• Genre Art Book
• Extent 120pp

On Football

‘The shoes I’d most like to fit at The Independent – but am not fit to lace – belong to James Lawton, the chief sports writer. Even if you’re not a sports fan, treat yourself to one of his columns. All human emotion is there. James’s words educate, inspire and seduce. He is a master craftsman.’ – James Nesbitt, actor

From the age of 19, first with the Daily Telegraph, then the Daily Express, James Lawton travelled across the country and Europe with the great teams of English football, the Manchester United of Sir Matt Busby, the
Liverpool of Bill Shankly, and the rising power, Don Revie’s Leeds United. Along the way he formed lifelong admiration for – and friendship with – such emerging stars as Sir Bobby Charlton, on whose recent autobiography he collaborated, George Best, Denis Law, Nobby Stiles, John Giles and Ian St John.

In 2000 he became Chief Sports Writer of The Independent and his column has become amongst the most admired of sports writing in the last decade bringing him not only a large and loyal readership but also awards
including Sports Journalist of the Year and Sports Columnist of the Year. He is currently Sports Feature Writer of the Year. James Lawton has also written 11 books.

On Football brings together a selection of the best of his writing, giving a powerful commentary on the state of football over the last decade. Lawton never pulls his punches, writing with both intelligence and wit, and with
an enviable knowledge and understanding of the game.

Irish international footballer and football legend, John Giles introduces the collection. Giles began his football career at Manchester United in Matt Busby’s post-Munich team playing for 4 years there and winning an FA
Cup before moving to Leeds where he achieved great success. He is now a sport journalist and football pundit.

Price £9.99

Details

• ISBN 9781905928026
• Publisher Dewi Lewis Publishing
• Genre Non Fiction
• Extent 288pp

A Cairngorm Chronicle

Before dawn on a June day in 1904, three young men set off from the Shelter Stone. By the time they reached the Dell of Rothiemurchus at the end of the day, they had covered 38 miles and climbed 9,300 feet and nine Munros. Such a feat is still a major achievement today but at the time it was almost unheard of. Whyte’s recreation of that summer’s day forms the central part of A Cairngorm Chronicle. The book was put together in the 1940s from writings and memories spanning half a century – a tribute to one man’s favourite mountains - but not published until 2007.

“… full of enquiries and observations – about Gaelic place names, inter-visibility, the source of rivers, how to make a herring bap and the benefits of soaping your socks… What is it with the Cairngorms? They produce literature where other ranges yield writing. The same might be said of Millrace Books, with this well-made and present-sized offering.”

John Muir Trust Journal, Oct 2007

Price £14.95

Details

• ISBN 978 1 902173
• Publisher Millrace
• Genre Non Fiction
• Extent 176pp

Quiet Feather #9

The all-new Issue 9 is out now, with - for the first time in the long and illustrious history of the Quiet Feather - a COLOUR cover, beautifully illustrated by Miss Ping/Julie McDermott.

This issue is loosely themed around 'Light' and we've got articles covering the darkness of surveillance society, the science of light, flaming tea and the tarnished brilliance of St. Tropez along with the usual wide and wonderful selection of poems, stories, drawings and photos.

Price £3.50

Details

• ISBN XXXXXX
• Publisher The Quiet Feather (Magazine)
• Genre Poetry
• Extent 48pp

Redeye 6

The latest issue of the vital magazine for indie comics features interviews with popular Wildermere and Mixy creator Alex CF; the creative team behind the latest Judge Dredd megaepic, ORIGINS : John Wagner, Kev Walker, WR Logan, and Matt Smith; autobiographical cartoonist Lee Kennedy; legendary Zenith artist Steve Yeowell; and critically acclaimed cartoonist for The Guardian and one half of Cabanon Press, Tom Gauld, who also provides the cover.

We also have feature articles including The 2000AD Art of Mike McMahon ; a detailed retrospective of V For Vendetta from sketchbook to DVD release in The Road to Larkhill ; plus an exclusive guest column from the legendary creator Pat Mills on the nature of fandom.

And a first of a ongoing feature, we have an exclusive 10 page preview of REGARDS FROM SERBIA , Top Shelfs' latest book with commentary from the creator, Aleksandar Zograf; plus preview art from upcoming titles, news, and an massive expanded reviews section.

Price £4.00

Details

• ISBN XXXXXXX
• Publisher Accent UK / Engine Comics (Magazine)
• Genre Art Book

Fusion #5

Featuring all new work from Adam Bealby, Ant Mercer, Rodney Blackwell, Will Harris, Garen Ewing, Stuart Young, James Fletcher, Ben Senior, Ben Piggott, and Barry Renshaw, plus THE QUIET MAN (art from Rodney Blackwell, Will Harris) and Preview DEAD LIGHT PART 1 OF 3 (art from James Fletcher).

Price £3.00

Details

• ISBN XXXXXXXX
• Publisher Accent UK / Engine Comics (Magazine)
• Genre Art Book

Brace - A New Generation In Short Fiction

Brace - the latest in Comma Press' acclaimed series of anthologies featuring the best of the UK's emerging short story writers.

...Organ-playing wunderkinds, poets on government re-employment schemes, unlikely celebrity party guests...

While these stories take in a vast array of subjects and styles, they have one thing in common: they demand our participation, urging us to fill in the blanks, the spaces between the words. Whether it's a concealed motivation, a mysterious confederation of the familiar and the far-fetched, or an image with the eloquence to convey what a character could never articulate, it's their very reticence that makes them so compelling.

Featuring: Charlotte Allan, Juliet Bates, Annie Clarkson, Adam Connors, Steve Dearden, Paul de Havilland, Tyler Keevil, Richard Knight, Jacqueline McCarrick, Neil McQuillian, Heather Richardson, David Rose, Guy Russell, Guy Ware.

List Price £7.95
Price £6.50

Details

• ISBN 9781905583225
• Publisher Comma Press
• Genre Short Fiction
• Extent 184pp

We Are Poets!

***The Poetry Kit's "Book of the Month" for June 2008***

The much anticipated poetry collection for children from Helên Thomas, the 2000 Manchester Poetry Festival Slam champion.

The poems in this book have been performed in schools by dynamic performance poetry duo We Are Poets! The duo comprises of proper, posh poet Penelope Page and grubby, street poet Gabby Mouth.

Penelope Page thinks she’s posh. She likes to use her imagination to write poetry about ice cream, fruit bats and lovely toyshops. Gabby Mouth has scabby knees and writes about ladies who burp and people who don’t wash.

All of the poems in this book are written by Helên and feature in the original We Are Poets! show or in the follow up We Are Poets Stuck In The Airport!

With over 20 illustrations by Paul Neads.

"This book of young people's verse will have your sprogs agog with humour both cheeky and endearing. The right side of risky and just a little frisky, We Are Poets! by Helên Thomas promises mirth from the offset. You'd be a bad parent if you didn't buy this book," - Chloe Poems

“I love your poems so much, I think you deserve a treat,” - Year 1 pupil at Holy Spirit Primary School, Merseyside

"Helên sets about planting seeds with this super collection of contemporary poetry for children. She is well known for her entertaining and thought provoking poetry readings and school theatre and with this book sets about translating some of her energy, enthusiasm and playfulness to the page. Playing with structure and form she produces magical poetry which shows how relevant poetry can be. It's fun, it's amazing, it's Helên on top form. Some great illustrations by Paul Neads. This is a collection that should be in every school library," - Jim Bennet, The Poetry Kit

Price £5.99

Details

• ISBN 9780955509209
• Publisher Flapjack Press
• Genre Poetry
• Extent 52pp

if p then q - issue 1, spring 2008

if p then q magazine is published twice a year. This is the first issue. Cutting edge experimental poetry worldwide.

Features poetry by Ceri Buck, Tom Jenks, Andrew Shelley and Tony Trehy. Review of p. inman's 4 or 5. CD = Tom Jenks / Ceri Buck (readings)

Price £4.00

Details

• ISBN 124673qqqqq
• Publisher if p then q
• Genre Poetry
• Extent 31pp

Transmission Issue 10

Cram-packed issue featuring exclusive interviews with Colm Toibin, Rose Tremain and Wesley Stace, who talk to us about creepy Irish folklore, historical fiction and ventriloquist’s dummies.

There is writing guidance from writer and lecturer John McAuliffe (the co-director of Manchester University’s Centre for New Writing) and of course we also bring you the staple diet of the best short fiction and brand new illustration.
--

Transmission#10 is available now:
http://www.transmissionhq.org/buy-online

Price £4.00

Details

• ISBN 1752-3729
• Publisher Transmission (Magazine)
• Genre Short Fiction
• Setting Greater Manchester
• Extent 40pp

A Priori

Tom Jenks first collection is a tour de force. A mixture of the playful and the serious. A Priori is, in some respects, quintessentially English and on the other hand more modern than anything else around; exploring the themes of identity (on and off the internet) and possible futures with the advent of the long tail.

Price £8.00

Details

• ISBN 0955864100
• Publisher if p then q
• Genre Poetry
• Extent 73pp

West Coast, North Hill

From Jan Petersen, Chris Culshaw and Trevor Matthews come prose poems, narrative verse and free verse. Their work reaches across ocean and fell in this wide-ranging volume. The diverse voices of the three poets are accessible, unexpected and revelatory.

These poems come from the landscape, geographic and emotional. Stories of local people, askance images of the seemingly innocent and the pleasures of speech and dialect are all here. And because life is grim enough, there is, at times, a little dry humour,

Edited by Sarah Hymas

"Trevor Matthews combines the rhythmic fluidity and observational intensity of children’s physician/poet William Carlos Williams (whose professions he shares) with the sinewy lyricism and wry humanity of R.S.Thomas. Matthews applies his acute vision, not only to the life and ghosts of the countryside around him in Kirkby Stephen, but to the potential that quite ordinary things have for a deeper meaning."
Josephine Dickinson

"Jan Petersen’s work will challenge everything you’ve come to expect from poetry. Her down-to-earth, conversational writing gives the impression of easy spontaneity, yet is structured for maximum impact. Conversational yet lyrical, down-to-earth yet disturbingly other-worldly, her prose poems are almost filmic in their ability to conjure up shifting pictures, flitting from road-movie to kitchen-sink drama to art-house surrealism to fairy-tale mythology."
Clare Shaw


"Chris Culshaw’s poetry is taut, honest and compassionate. He lights on everyday objects, a pram, someone in a red beret, mother’s face powder and gives them just the right amount of weight, but lets the poems speak for themselves."
Patricia Pogson

Price £7.00

Details

• ISBN 9780955820410
• Publisher Flax
• Genre Poetry

Before the Rain

Mollie Baxter, Thomas Fletcher and Peter Wild prove themselves to be engaging storytellers in this volume where stories are war-torn, sub-marine and forest-ridden. What roots all the stories is the pursuit of understanding. Whether they deal with werewolves, autism or war, these stories unpick dilemmas we can all relate to: love, fear and loyalty.

Sometime uneasy, sometime funny, always compulsively entertaining, the stories come hard and fast, always with a confidence that belies their writer’s experience.

Edited by Sarah Hymas

"Tom Fletcher writes about the dark corners of our lives and environment with unerring and unnerving authenticity and a natural gift for evoking feeling through language. His work is the real deal." Nicholas Royle

"Mollie Baxter is a natural writer with an instinctive facility with words, she is blessed with a sharp ear for dialogue and an impressive descriptive talent. It will be fascinating to see what she does with all this talent." Carol Birch

"Fearless, funny, wise, and moving, Wild slowly works his narratives into a corkscrew of fascinating ideas and situations and then, uncoiling, hits us with such power we are left reeling."
David Gaffney

Price £7.50

Details

• ISBN 9780955820403
• Publisher Flax
• Genre Short Fiction

George

George

Blurb:  George is playing a game on his television when a character, he has named Luke, jumps out of the game and lands on his lap. From then on they are inseparable and share many adventures. George wakes up in bed and tells his father what has been happening to him. He tells George that he has been dreaming. George, however, has proof ...

"A charming and entertaining fantasy adventure story. Children will love this tale."

Julie Parkinson

Teacher of English and Literary Editor

Price £5.95

Details

• ISBN 1901999327
• Publisher Towpath Press
• Genre Fiction
• Setting Greater Manchester
• Extent 88pp

Hunter

Detective chief Inspector Nova suspects he has a 'mole' in his Squad. His suspicions seem to be confirmed when he discovers a large amount of money at the home of one of his trusted colleagues.

Hunter is a thriller that deals with the world of drug smugglers and of the efforts of the police to thwart their activities, written by James Clinch, himself a retired detective.

The author was a Detective Sergeant with the Greater Manchester Police, who on retirement took up employment as Company Security manager with a Nationwide Firm. He also worked in a Solicitors Office in London

Price £5.95

Details

• ISBN 1 901999-22-X
• Publisher Towpath Press
• Genre Fiction
• Extent 150pp

Sleepy Meadow

Sleepy Meadow stars a scarecrow which will enchant children everywhere. It has fun, pathos and some unexpected dramas.

Price £5.00

Details

• ISBN 1-90199929-7
• Publisher Towpath Press
• Genre Fiction

Return to Sleepy Meadow

Those who have already been introduced to Sleepy Meadow's inhabitants will be delighted to meet them all once more. For those children - and their parents - who haven’t yet made their acquaintance; there is a treat in store.

Price £5.00

Details

• ISBN 9781901999358
• Publisher Towpath Press
• Genre Fiction

Rafferty's Rules

A brilliantly funny read, packed full with knowledge of Rugby League. A great one for any sports fan.

Price £3.99

Details

• ISBN 1 901 999068
• Publisher Towpath Press
• Genre Fiction

Mick

A collection of stories following the adventures of
two young boys growing up in 1950s Wigan.

Price £5.95

Details

• ISBN 1-9011999-149
• Publisher Towpath Press
• Genre Short Fiction
• Setting Lancashire

Gernika!

The text explores the impact of the bombing raid on the Basque town of Guernika in 1937, during the Spanish Civil War and the imagery used by Picasso in working on his huge painting. It also considers the continuing resonances that the painting has had with other subsequent conflicts and the way it has grown to become an icon which stands for the rejection of war. Ian Gray talked to the children of Orrell Holgate Primary School and, with them, looked at the painting; re-interpreting its stories, characters and imagery to provide contemporary artwork to accompany the words in the book.

*Price is to be confirmed*

Price £5.00

Details

• ISBN 9781901999341
• Publisher Towpath Press
• Genre Poetry

M.O.

ROBERT BARNARD - MARTYN BEDFORD - ANN CLEEVES - BERNIE CROSTHWAITE - CAROL ANNE DAVIS - MARTIN EDWARDS - JÜRGEN EHLERS - KATE ELLIS - LIZ EVANS - PAUL A FREEMAN - JIM GREGSON - MICK HERRON - SARAH HILARY - ANDRE MAROIS - AMY MYERS - CHRISTINE POULSON - KARLINE SMITH - DOUGLAS STEWART - YVONNE EVE WALUS

A coroner reveals a body’s tell-tale clues to his students, as he unwittingly dissects his own relationship . . .

A breakdown driver turns his roadside routine into a quite different type of pick-up . . .

Two creative writing tutors discuss the merits of ‘hardboiled’ versus ‘cosy’ schools of crime writing, while a murderous student points out that it’s really procedure that counts . . .

The second in this series of anthologies from the CWA picks up the primary scent of any investigation: the modus operandi; the signature that identifies any repeat offender, the ‘how’ that supersedes the ‘why’. From the ex-doctor tenderly administering a final prescription to his victims, to the party of finishing school debutantes exacting revenge on their lecherous host… these stories demonstrate that, even with the most despicable of crimes, there’s methodology in the madness.

Praise for I.D., the previous title in this series:

"The book feels exactly right, with its matt finish and bright pages, the spine picked out in mackintosh-olive-drab; I spent a few minutes coveting the care taken by Comma before I began reading...."
- The Short Review, Jan 08 Read review.

"There isn't one dud. What's most fun is the inventive ways the contributors have responded to the theme."
- The Observer, 24 Sep 06 Read review.

"A sharp and imaginative anthology... they're onto a winner."
- Sharon Wheeler, Reviewing the Evidence, Oct 06 Read review.


This and all other Comma titles can be ordered from any bookshop in the country. Please go to your local store and order it, quoting the title and/or ISBN number (see top of page). If you leave a contact number, the shop will get back to you within a week to say it's come in.

£7.95 or £6.50 if you buy online now.

Price £6.50

Details

• ISBN 978 190558312
• Publisher Comma Press
• Genre Short Fiction

A Personal Rainbow

Gillian Forrester explores the horror, heartache and hilarity of so-called everyday life.

Price £5.00

Details

• ISBN 1901 999181
• Publisher Towpath Press
• Genre Fiction

A Bowl of Laughter

A varied collection of humorous poetry.

"I went to that Irish superstore,
That's just opened up in Leigh.
They have a special offer on,
Buy two, pay for three."

Price £5.99

Details

• ISBN 190199935
• Publisher Towpath Press
• Genre Poetry

The Book of Liverpool

The Book of Liverpool features ten specially commissioned stories set in and around the city, by some of its best loved writers.

Spanning the last five decades of its history (from post-war decline to the Capital of Culture year) every milieu, every shared, city-wide moment is depicted in The Book of Liverpool.

Featuring: Beryl Bainbridge, Clive Barker, Frank Cottrell Boyce, Brian Patten, Paul Farley,  Tracy Aston, Dinesh Allirajah, Margaret Murphy, and more...

Edited by Eleanor Rees and Maria Crossan

Published 28 May 2008

List Price £7.95
Price £6.50

Details

• ISBN 978190558309
• Publisher Comma Press
• Genre Short Fiction
• Setting Merseyside
• Extent 184pp

THE IMPRESSION OF TIME PASSING

Someone, or something, haunts the internal monologues of a group of young friends. Is it, as it claims to be, an evil spirit? Perhaps it is a shared psychotic episode; a group delusion and nothing more? Either way, its persistence and ability to spread is both puzzling and disturbing . . . 

 

 

"'Peep Show' without the social skills"..."The Impression of Time Passing harmonizes then shreds the human multiplex"..."A vivid, horrifying and psychological insight which leads you to consider your own conscience" amazon.co.uk reviews

A chilling and disturbing journey which will leave you ill at ease in company. And more so when alone...

Price £5.99

Details

• ISBN 9780955509216
• Publisher Flapjack Press
• Genre Fiction
• Extent 187pp

aRb (aR)

Joy as Tiresome Vandalism spent one year working together to create this poetry/photo combo. Each month a piece of work (either poem or photo) was responded to. This process went on for twelve months so that in each collection there are six photos and six poems. aRb (aR) starts with a poem. aRb (Rb) starts with a photo. Both these titles are limited editions of 50.

 

Price £13.00

Details

• ISBN 978-0-9558641
• Publisher if p then q
• Genre Poetry

Tops of the North, vol I

Don't mothball those walking boots yet: there's a new, post-Wainwright challenge. Graham Wilson has devised a high-level circular route based on the county tops (old and new) of northern England. Volume I covers the western reaches, starting at Three Shire Head (where Cheshire, Staffordshire and Derbyshire meet) and finishing at Carlisle.

List Price £14.95
Price £13.50

Details

• ISBN 9781902173269
• Publisher Millrace
• Genre Non Fiction
• Extent 176pp

Tomorrow, I Will Go Dancing

"There’s a photo of us in a place we’ve yet to be.
It’s on the last shot of my camera,
the one I’ve still not taken,
I’m saving it for you.
But let’s not rush.
I am in love with the journey."

Master of Ceremonies at Matt and Phred's Poets and Mash, co-host of greenroom's fabulous Freed Up, Dominic Berry is Manchester's premier Queer Vegan Poet. This is his first fiery collection of fruit splattered verse.

With illustrations by Paul Neads.

Beautiful writing. A sharp, unflinching eye"
John McGrath, Artistic Director of Contact Theatre

"Poetry from the heart and head. Carefully crafted, sincere, kinky sexy, often very funny and always immensely enjoyable. A true performer who touches hearts and changes minds."
Jackie Hagan, poet & playwright

"Attending a Dominic Berry performance is effervescent and life affirming. Similarly, reading this book will be a stimulating, uplifting experience."
The Divine David Hoyle

Price £7.99

Details

• ISBN 9780955509223
• Publisher Flapjack Press
• Genre Poetry
• Extent 82pp

Madinah

‘Madinah’ – the Arabic word for ‘city’ – may conjure labyrinthine streets and the hustle and bustle of the souq in Westerners’ minds, but for the inhabitants of the Middle East it is a much more mercurial thing, and one that’s changing today faster than ever.

Here – in ten urban stories set across the region – the city reveals itself through a vibrant array of characters: from the celebrated author collecting an award in the city that exiled him decades before, to the forlorn lover waiting at a rendezvous as government officials raid nearby shops, confiscating ‘wanton’ Valentine’s Day roses.

Whilst engineers race to complete another ‘world’s tallest building’ in Dubai, and American helicopters patrol the Martyrs Bridge in Baghdad, we realise it is the people, and not the landmarks, that define these places; like the language student in Beirut who tries to make a joke of being ‘war-broken’ to her friends, or the Israeli General who invites guests to his office to watch promo videos for the tank that will ‘win the next war’ whilst eating biscuits and reciting poetry.

For all we think we know of the conflict and exoticism of the region, nothing opens more doors to what we don’t than its writing. Here, ten short stories by new and established writers have been selected and translated in English for the first time, to open just such a door…

List Price £7.95
Price £6.50

Details

• ISBN 978 190558320
• Publisher Comma Press
• Genre Short Fiction
• Extent 192pp

The Silence Room

“Sean O'Brien does for libraries what Ursula Andress did for bikinis. Read and rejoice!”
- Val McDermid

Chain-smoking alcoholics, warring academics, gothic stalkers and aspiring writers are just some of the visitors that browse the mysterious library at the heart of Sean O’Brien’s fiction debut. Idlers and idolisers alike can be referenced, in body or in text, among the crepuscular alcoves and dim staircases of this seemingly unassuming building. The secret to a family curse, a dog-eared first edition of Stevens’ Harmonium, the gruesome fate of a feminist literary theorist – all are available to simply take down from the shelf, as are the catalogue of genres and subject areas that O’Brien himself effortlessly deploys: from gothic horror to English pastoral, Critical Theory to Cold War noir.

Take a walk between these shelves. Crack the spine and the blow the dust off lives unlived because, so far, they’re unread. Become, if you dare, as trapped as them…

“Sean O'Brien, like Graham Greene, creates his own instantly recognisable fictional landscape, where crime, mystery and disillusion lurk by the waters of the Tyne or Humber. His stories glint with black comedy and touches of the macabre and surreal. In O'Brien country you may hear the hoot of a train pulling out of the city, but you'll never be on it, because your place is here in the kingdom of backstreet pubs, tired, desirable girls and drowned men. Nothing is ever as it seems: it is much more frightening than that… First-class stories from one of our finest writers.”
- Helen Dunmore

List Price £7.95
Price £6.50

Details

• ISBN 978190558317
• Publisher Comma Press
• Genre Short Fiction
• Extent 224pp

The New Uncanny

In 1919 Sigmund Freud published an essay that delved deep into the tradition of horror writing and claimed to understand one of its darkest tricks. Like a mad scientist, he performed literary vivisection on a still-breathing body of work, exploring its inner anatomy, and pulling out mysterious organs for classification. His aim: to present to the world a complete theory of ‘das unheimliche’, the uncanny.

In the spirit of this great experiment, 14 leading authors have here been challenged to write fresh fictional interpretations of what the uncanny might mean in the 21st century, to update Freud’s famous checklist of what gives us the creeps, and to give the hulking canon of uncanny fiction a shot in the arm, a shock to the neck-bolts...

List Price £7.95
Price £6.50

Details

• ISBN 9781905583188
• Publisher Comma Press
• Genre Short Fiction
• Extent 224pp

Ad Finitum

Ad Finitum continues p.inman’s unique examination of the page, the word and the non-word. What happens when not only syntax is broken down but when words do not always label? What happens when words are beautiful? If this is your first time reading inman get ready for a blast. If you’re already familiar with his work then get ready for a super helping.

Price £8.00

Details

• ISBN 0955864131
• Publisher if p then q
• Genre Poetry
• Extent 112pp

aRb (Rb)

Part two of Simon Taylor and James Davies' collaborative project for JTV

Price £4.00

Details

• ISBN 0955864124
• Publisher if p then q
• Genre Poetry
• Extent 17pp

if p then q issue 2

Features poetry from Scott Thurston, Michael Gibbs, Janis Butler Holm, JTV postcards and a CD interview between Tony Trehy and Robert Grenier

Price £6.00

Details

• ISBN N/A
• Publisher if p then q
• Genre Poetry
• Extent 30pp

Slavers, Traders and Privateers

This is a portrait of Liverpool and its role in the rape of a continent, set against the background of two revolutions. Using extracts from contemporary sources to bring the past to life, it provides a unique window on urban society, slavery and warfare during the reign of George III.

An average of eighty ships a year left Liverpool’s quaysides filled with Indian and Manchester cloths, casks of brandy and wine, muskets and powder kegs, to be bartered for slaves with African merchants and princes. The stark realities of this pernicious trading partnership are revealed in ships’ papers and first hand accounts that are, in part, the subject of this book. However, this is also a story of desperate naval encounters, as told by those involved, and Redcoats struggling against the forces of nature and revolution in America, France and the Caribbean. As Britain’s second major port, Liverpool did not escape the conflicts of the age.

But central to this canvas are its narrow, crowded streets and alleys, the clatter of iron rims on stone, the odour of tallow fat and dung, and a bustle that falls still with the blackness of night. Here we find wealth and poverty living cheek by jowl, and politics at its most corrupt, fuelled by drunken revelry and mob culture. Here, too, immorality in the workhouse, and petty thieves mixing promiscuously in the grounds of the Tower Gaol. For light relief, enjoy a melodramatic performance at the Theatre Royal, but be sure to take a dose of Robberd’s Nervous Volatile Essence before you do.

Price £14.95

Details

• ISBN 9781901231984
• Publisher Countyvise
• Genre Educational Resource
• Setting Merseyside

Cruisers, Cotton and Confederates

In the shadow of a 12th century monastery where the first Mersey ferries plied their trade, a ship took shape in Laird’s Dock No 4. Destined to become notorious around the world, the Alabama sailed out of the Mersey on a morning in July,1862, and entered into history as the talisman of the Confederate navy. Across the river, twinkling through a forest of masts, the lights burned late in the workshops dotted along the Liverpool waterfront, as a host of shipyards worked day and night, feverishly constructing ships designed to break the Northern lockade of the Southern seaboard. Further inland, their chimneys jutting skywards, the Lancashire landscape was dotted with massive, red-brick factories; the original “dark, satanic mills” on which a greater part of the Northern people depended for a living. Just a few short miles from bustling Liverpool, the monolithic cotton mills of the Industrial Revolution stood silent and the Lancashire cotton workers shivered in the shadow cast by a war between States they never knew and places they had never seen. A generation previously, the New World had cast off the shackles of the Old World and boldly declared its independence in the bloody days of the American Revolution. The American Civil War turned everything on its head and the Southern States were forced to return to their origins; to an England in the throes of a revolution of a different kind - the Industrial Revolution. The curious chimera of Confederate America and Victorian Great Britain was a surreal clash of cultures which was to have far-reaching consequences. One of the strangest episodes in the history of Liverpool, polarised loyalties, formed strange alliances and produced a fl otilla of ships bound for varying fortunes and a starring role in the naval battles of the American Civil War.

Price £14.95

Details

• ISBN 9781906823030
• Publisher Countyvise
• Genre Educational Resource
• Setting Merseyside

The Maybrick A to Z

The Maybrick story has everything: sex, adultery, prostitution, drugs, an American beauty, a dramatic murder trial, interventions by Queen Victoria and three US Presidents, and of course, Jack the Ripper. The Maybrick A to Z provides a comprehensive and impartial guide to the two separate yet interlinked stories that made headline news across the world in two different centuries. Did Florence Maybrick murder her husband with arsenic? Did James Maybrick become the world’s first and most infamous serial killer? The book also contains three opening chapters that provide an overview of the story of the lives of James and Florence Maybrick; the evidence and drama of Florence’s trial in 1889; and the controversy surrounding the emergence of the so-called Ripper Diary in the 1990s that made James Maybrick a leading candidate to be Jack the Ripper.

Price £14.95

Details

• ISBN 9781906823009
• Publisher Countyvise
• Genre Educational Resource
• Setting Merseyside

Muir and More

Ronald Turnbull is the first and probably the only person to have walked both California's John Muir Trail and East Lothian's very different John Muir Way in a single season. Along the way he considers the cult of vegetable worship, the paradoxes inherent in the preservation of wilderness, the fascination of 216 miles of granite, and whether in the case of Mt Whitney big is necessarily best. And most of all, John Muir himself – inspired visionary, and tiresome tree-hugger; the exiled Scot who invented the American outdoors.

“Ronald Turnbull is, of course, one of the UK’s most prolific outdoor writers. He is also one of our funniest and most eccentric… So, put these two characters together and we should have a great book. And so we do.”
Andy Howell, The Outdoors Station

List Price £14.95
Price £13.50

Details

• ISBN 9781902173276
• Publisher Millrace
• Genre Non Fiction
• Extent 182pp

The Ugly Tree #20

The last ever issue, #20, is OUT NOW and features an interview with, and previously unpublished poems by, Manchester's premier Queer Vegan Poet Dominic Berry. Plus new work from Helên Thomas, Rod Tame, Phil Isherwood, Tony Curry, Carol Batton, Dermot Glennon, Peter Johnson, Brink, Joshua Seigal, conor a, Al Keogh, Adam Irving, Geoff Stevens, John G. Hall, Neil Campbell, Josh Thompson, Greg Schwartz, Richard Matthews, Mark Farrell, Caroline England, Matt Dennison, Arun Gaur, 'Siva Monsieur, Simon Rennie, Jackie Hagan, Arthur Chappell, Deborah Tyler-Bennett, John Lowndes, Michael Wilson, Tony Walsh, Cathy Bryant, Lucy Lepchani & John Leyland.

Our thanks to all our subscribers and contributors over the past 7 years.

See the what's on guide or visit www.flapjackpress.co.uk for news of our "That's Your Lot" gigs!

Price £4.00

Details

• ISBN 14788349iiiii
• Publisher Flapjack Press
• Genre Poetry
• Extent 56pp

The Shieling

‘Perhaps the finest of contemporary writers in this form’
– The Reader

Many of the characters in David Constantine’s new collection seem driven to absent themselves, to abscond from the pressures of their lives into strange ideas, distant places, even private languages. There are involuntary absences too, in grief and speechless old age. Viewed from without, his characters may appear absurd – like the vicar who starts conversing with the Devil – or unreachably lonely – like the man drowned in the black waters of the Irwell. But such is the force of Constantine’s compassion, we cannot help but enter fully into each peculiar fate. And as we descend through the strata of these different lives, there, in the depths, are forces of hope and redemption also: like the spring starting deep in a quarry that in time will become a lake or the secret haven of the title story, a safehouse for dreams.

'Every sentence is both unpredictable and exactly what it should be. Reading them is a series of short shocks of (agreeably envious) pleasure...'
– AS Byatt, Book of the Week, The Guardian

'Flawless but unsettling'
- Boyd Tonkin, Books of the Year 2005, The Independent

'Constantine is writing for his life. Every sentence and paragraph is shaped, tense with meaning and unobtrusively beautiful, his images of the natural world burning their way into the reader’s mind...'
- Maggie Gee, The Times

List Price £7.99
Price £6.75

Details

• ISBN 9781905583218
• Publisher Comma Press
• Genre Short Fiction
• Setting Greater Manchester
• Extent 240pp

BALLISTA #6

Issue 6, spring/summer 2009, presents chilling new horror & sf from Michelle Howarth, Natalie Donbavand, Steve Richards, Gwen Seabourne, Andrew Knighton, Marshall Payne, James Holland, Lee Callaway, Nik Perring & Neil James Hudson.

Price £4.00

Details

• ISBN issn-17506646
• Publisher Flapjack Press
• Genre Short Fiction
• Extent 60pp

My Life at Speke Hall

My Life at Speke Hall, is a unique look at life inside one of Britain’s most beautiful historic halls.

Written by Tom Whatmore, whose father was the butler to the last owner, Adelaide Watt, in the 1920s, the book captures the Hall’s splendour, fascinating history and ghostly goings on. It is well illustrated with the author’s own photographs, and also contains a detailed study of the surrounding Speke Village during this period.

It is a must read for local historians, visitors to the hall, and any readers interested in a good ghostly tale!

Price £9.99

Details

• ISBN 9781906823177
• Publisher Accent UK / Engine Comics (Magazine)
• Genre Non Fiction
• Setting Merseyside

The Conway Heroes

This book honours the outstanding contribution made by the young men who were trained in HMS CONWAY. It spans the 150 years that have passed since CONWAY was inaugurated. It is written by Old Conways. There are stories of the four Victoria Cross holders, the Albert Medal, the George Cross and George Medal recipients. The memories of countless acts of gallantry across the world are noted. Of special interest are the memories of the Falkland War, written by men who were there. Above all, they pinpoint the task of the Merchant Navy in the conflict and a remarkable story unfolds. HMS CONWAY started its life on the Mersey in 1859 and was finally 'paid off' in 1974 on the Menai Straits ...during its 115 years it is estimated that some 11,000 cadets received their training for a career at sea. The proceeds from this book are dedicated to the CONWAY Chapel in the Scriptorium of Birkenhead Priory.

Price £8.50

Details

• ISBN 9781906823160
• Publisher Countyvise
• Genre Non Fiction

Hillsborough 20 Years On: A Collection of Poetry Dedicated to All the Victims of the Hillsborough Stadium Football Disaster on the 15th April 1989

'Hillsborough 20 Years On' is a collection of poetry documenting two decades of grief, anger, and a brave fight for justice. The many contrasting poems are written by those who were there, by the families who suffered, and by the Liverpool fans that miss their 96 lost friends.

Price £5.00

Details

• ISBN 9781906823153
• Publisher Countyvise
• Genre Poetry

1970 and All That: An Evertonian's Tale

In 1970, Everton were league champions and were at the pinnacle of English football, playing a brand of football that became legendary. The next season they were relegation candidates. This is the story of a triumphant season and then decline. Arguably, this was Everton's greatest ever team.

Price £6.50

Details

• ISBN 9781906823146
• Publisher Countyvise
• Genre Non Fiction
• Setting Merseyside

A Wirral Country Diary

‘A Wirral Country Diary’ is a detailed and beautiful look at the nature and wildlife of Wirral and the surrounding area by a Lancashire lass. Through emotion and humour, the diary format leads the reader from the islands of Hilbre to Thurstaston Country Park and along the coast at Moreton. This is a personal insight into the fascinating world around us.

Price £12.50

Details

• ISBN 9781906823115
• Publisher Countyvise
• Genre Non Fiction
• Setting Merseyside

Planet Young

Welcome to Planet Young, the debut collection from the overwhelmingly engaging Gerry Potter - the poet formerly known as Chloe Poems.

Rich with spell-weaving imagery and rhapsodic concepts, biographical, confessional and gloriously poetic, this lyrical journey thrusts you ever forward on a magical history tour, brake-slamming and horn-pounding through the domestic and fantastic.

Published 29 June 2009. www.flapjackpress.co.uk

"I genuinely believe everything belongs to nobody. I’ve put these musings onto paper and, if you’re reading this, then I sincerely hope in some small way that what I’ve written becomes yours. It’s a world, things happen. This is how I’ve based my whole ethos. I’ve just started writing this and this has happened and I’m not going to change a word. Well, maybe a little.
So, read this book like you’re listening to me talking, I am a performance poet after all, or read it like it’s you talking to me. Dammit, read like you want, who am I to dictate? I do hope you find in it some of what I put there. I must have put it there for something."
Gerry Potter

Price £7.50

Details

• ISBN 9780955509230
• Publisher Flapjack Press
• Genre Poetry
• Extent 116pp

The Madman of Freedom Square

From hostage-video makers in Baghdad, to human trafficking in the forests of Serbia, institutionalised paranoia in the Saddam years, to the nightmares of an exile trying to embrace a new life in Amsterdam... Blasim’s stories present an uncompromising view of the West's relationship with Iraq, spanning over twenty years and taking in everything from the Iran-Iraq War through to the Occupation, as well as offering a haunting critique of the post-war refugee experience.

Blending allegory with historical realism, and subverting readers’ expectations in an unflinching comedy of the macabre, these stories manage to be both phantasmagoric and shockingly real, light in touch yet steeped in personal nightmare. For all their despair and darkness, though, what lingers more than the haunting images of war, or the insanity of those who would benefit from it, is the spirit of defiance, the indefatigable courage of those few characters keeping faith with what remains of human intelligence.

Together these stories represent the first major literary work about the war from an Iraqi perspective.

List Price £7.99
Price £6.75

Details

• ISBN 978190558325
• Publisher Comma Press
• Genre Short Fiction
• Extent 120pp

The Wisdom of the Jumble Sale

Welcome to this dark and dazzling jumble sale, where If you pull aside a jam-stained coat and a frilly night gown, you can enter a secret magical world of drunken carebears and narky buses, where clowns eat spam, sugar and lard butties and if you stand outside Netto for long enough a rocketship will come and fly you away.
A world where the moon is fat on hot buttered toast, wisdom is biro’d on the back of everyone’s hand and the weird and broken puff out their chests with giggling pride.
Come in and meet Cat Diazepam, Bobby Bookshop, Veronica Pop, Mr Pinstripe and their friends and find out who brought Bambi’s mum back to life, in this, Jackie Hagan’s collection of adult contemporary folklore.

JUNK-SHOP-ROCKET-SHIP-POETRY FOR YER BRAIN!

vivid and insightful - City Life / sassy and brash
- Jack Hirschmann, San Francisco Poet Laureate /
language that leaps with bold panache, sparking
sensuous worlds into being - Lucy Lepchani /
a star - Chloe Poems

Price £6.50

Details

• ISBN 9780955509247
• Publisher Flapjack Press
• Genre Poetry
• Extent 98pp

When It Changed

How much of Science Fiction is genuine science? Take away the fantastical clichés of space-travel, time-travel and artificial intelligence, and how much of what remains accurately represents contemporary scientific thinking?

When It Changed is an attempt to put authors and scientists back in touch with each other, to re-introduce research ideas with literary concerns, and to re-forge the alloy that once made SF great. Composed collaboratively – through a series of visits and conversations between leading authors and practicing scientists – it offers fictionalised glimpses into the far corners of current research fields, be they in nanotechnology, invertebrate physiology, particle physics, or software archaeology. From Planck's Length (the smallest indivisible distance) to Plankton (potential saviours of the Earth's ecosystem), from virtual encounters between Witgenstein and Turing, to future civilisations torn asunder by different readings of the Standard Model, together these stories represent a literary 'experiment' in the true sense of the word, and endeavour to isolate a whole new strain of the SF bug.

Featuring:

WRITERS: Justina Robson, Paul Cornell, Sara Maitland, Ken MacLeod, Gwyneth Jones, Adam Marek, Geoff Ryman, Michael Arditti, Simon Ings, Frank Cottrell Boyce, Kit Reed, Chaz Brenchley, Liz Williams, Patricia Duncker and Adam Roberts.

SCIENTISTS: Dr Andrew Bleloch, Dr Rob Appleby, Dr Jennifer Rowntree, Dr Richard Blake, Dr Kai Hock, Dr Vinod Dhanak, Emmanuel Pantos, Dr John Harris, Dr Matthew Cobb, Dr Tim O’Brien, Dr Steve Williams, Dr Sarah Lindley, Dr Steve Furber, Tim O’Brien and Dr Rein Ulijn.

List Price £7.99
Price £6.75

Details

• ISBN 978190558319
• Publisher Comma Press
• Genre Short Fiction
• Extent 288pp

The Journal

The Journal started life as The Journal of Contemporary Anglo-Scandinavian Poetry, but after 10 issues ran out of Scandinavian contributions.

Now approaching its 38th issue, it welcomes contributions of 6 poems at a time. Editorial policy is '...to try to publish those poems — from wheresoever they may come — written with thought to what the poem is saying and to how it is being said. Also welcomed are poems that can travel, that can cross boundaries, that do not assume in their readers a shared knowledge nor a shared set of beliefs. And it will be a rare day when the editor takes a poem about being a poet or about the writing of poems.

Also, because their aim is to keep The Journal secular, any poem containing religious terminology will not be considered for publication.

Submissions (within body of email) [email protected]   www.freewebs.com/thesamsmith/

To order copies of The Journal, or to subscribe, please visit http://thesamsmith.webs.com

17 High Street
Maryport,
Cumbria     CA15 6BQ
UK

Price £3.00

Details

• ISBN 1466-5220
• Publisher Original Plus
• Genre Poetry
• Setting Cumbria

Ballista issue 7

Ballista deliciously presents fresh and inventive tales considering the supernatural, psychological, paranormal, modern horror, mythos, macabre, SF, dark fantasy or just the downright bizarre.

Issue 7 is available now and features chilling new tales from David Tallerman, Neil Beynon, Daniel Wilson, Terence Kuch, Brian G. Ross, Naoka Awa, Mario Milosevic, Phil Kurthausen & Jon Vagg. Sadly, this will be our final issue.

The editor scrutinises the screen of his laptop, trying hard to ignore the gaze of the thing on the shelf, the lamentable rustling of its papery soul. He wonders if he is going mad, whether the conversation he’d just had with it really happened.
After a while, he perceives its insistent whisper again. ‘So that’s it? After all we’ve been through? You’re just ending it?’
He shrugs, trying to conceal his guilt beneath a mask of nonchalance. ‘All good things . . .’ He doesn’t have the heart to complete the excruciating platitude.
There is a shadow around the thing where the damp wallpaper falls across it. ‘But why?’ it seems to whimper...

Price £4.00

Details

• ISBN 17506646.....
• Publisher Flapjack Press
• Genre Short Fiction
• Extent 48pp

Lyric of Dragon Claw Keep

A mad and merciless Queen elf has descended from the dark north mountains and murdered the old King of Dragon Claw Keep.

Within these ancient walls, her brainwashed acolytes have constructed a horrific abuse suite, where all who do not join her army are slowly slaughtered by blood-thirsty goblin mages.

Transported from Manchester, you do not know how you and your loved ones came to be in this strange and deadly land. Can you survive its challenges and traps long enough to discover how to get home?

In Dominic Berry's exciting modern adventure game YOU are the hero. Many have already been killed resisting the Queen elf's cruelty. Where they have fallen, will you survive?

Includes 19 b&w illustrations by the author.

...The three of you are still kneeling, still sitting in a triangle, but instead of carpet, rough pebbles and rock lie beneath your knees. Looking around there is no telly, no walls, the whole flat has gone!
Instead, you find yourselves in a low ceilinged cavern, its walls built from large red boulders, its dull light emitted from small, black metal lanterns hung about the cave's roof. In one corner are three steel trunks. Three large wooden framed doorways are set into the red rock face around you.
In front of one of them is a tall, slim, blue-skinned woman, dressed in tight fitting silver armour. She stands above a bleating, cowering creature, a young man with what looks like goat's horns curling either side of his head...

Price £6.99

Details

• ISBN 9780955509261
• Publisher Flapjack Press
• Genre Fiction
• Extent 208pp

The Light of Other Days

John Hussey examines the motley legions of philanthropists and eccentrics, rogues and chancers, savants and merchants, blackguards and bankrupts, the dedicated, the feckless, the trustworthy and the devious who have at various times left their mark on the city of Liverpool and its fascinating history.

The book begins where Liverpool itself began – on the wterfront. It then moves outward to the city centre and beyond, just as the city itself expanded, and after mandering along various byeways, it lingers in Liverpool 7, before moving out into the suburbs. Topics include Liverpool’s role in the slave trade, the city’s wartime experiences and the history behind Liverpool’s impressive architecture.

Price £14.95

Details

• ISBN 9781906823221
• Publisher Countyvise
• Genre Non Fiction
• Setting Merseyside

Wirral Worthies

The Wirral Peninsular is not a particularly large place, and for most of its history it was not very populous. Despite that, a number of influential and celebrated individuals have been associated with the region, some born here and others who have spent periods of time here. This is a book about those people. Included are soldiers, engineers, writers, a mountaineer, politicians, a lawyer and an entertainer of great talent and longevity.

Price £6.50

Details

• ISBN 9781906823306
• Publisher Countyvise
• Genre Non Fiction
• Setting Wirral

Silveronda

Lucy Harvest Clarke’s poems merge the surreal into the common place. Using a blend of sprung rhythm and jacked up line endings a subtle erotic poise bobs up into and then out of sight like a fairground duckshoot; you keep wanting to have another go, you can't help admiring the trick. Silveronda is her debut collection. Work has featured in Parameter, Greatworks, onedit and The Other Room anthology 2009.

Price £8.00

Details

• ISBN 0955864148
• Publisher if p then q
• Genre Poetry
• Extent 80pp

ntst

ntst collects 750 of Geof Huth’s pwoemrds; one word poems, visual plays, portmanteaus, abbreviations and cuts of regular words. In the lineage of Aram Saroyan’s classic 60s minimalist works these poems show the great maximalism of minimalism and are always both inside and outside.

Price £8.00

Details

• ISBN 0955864155
• Publisher if p then q
• Genre Poetry
• Extent 120pp

Things I Did While I Was Dead

Powerfully articulating themes as diverse as relationships, childhood, serial-killers and gender, this passionate and thought-provoking new collection showcases Rosie's affecting and award-winning poetry. And, as with her previous collections under the guise of alter-ego Rosie Lugosi, it has a deliciously determined bite.

Give me heat. I want to singe my fingers.
I want them sticky, messy, down and dirty,
I want life and all it costs.

- from "Love Bites"

"Rosie has an eye for the unusual detail. Candid, tender and surprising, these are poems about love and longing, myth and mirrors, the self and the other self. Things I Did While I was Dead packs a powerful punch" - Jackie Kay MBE, poet & novelist

"Hugely entertaining, tough-talking … a celebration of female sexuality, of power and liberation" - Carol Ann Duffy, Poet Laureate

"One of the country's finest performance poets" - Apples and Snakes

"She is the mistress of language, whether it's making you laugh or informing your emotions. Here is a courageous artist with guile and expertise in equal measure" - Gerry Potter, poet, playwright & director

"A national treasure" - Dead Good Poets Society

Price £5.99

Details

• ISBN 978095509254
• Publisher Flapjack Press
• Genre Poetry
• Extent 48pp

Wallasey Now and Then

Let us take you on a trip down memory lane, to places you may have forgotten or have never seen. We invite you to visit each of the villages that eventually became the County Borough of Wallasey. Photographs of Poulton, Seacombe, Egremont, New Brighton, Liscard, Wallasey, Leasowe, Moreton and Saughall Massie reflect many of the changes that have already taken place. Most of the new photographs were taken especially for this book during 2009 and 2010. As you turn the pages we hope to rekindle many happy memories of where you and your ancestors once lived.

Price £9.95

Details

• ISBN 9781906823344
• Publisher Countyvise
• Genre Non Fiction
• Setting Wirral

Merseyside in Monochrome

A Wallasey resident for the first 33 years of his life, Mike Priestley taught geography in Birkenhead and the East Midlands, before finding his current post, working with young people with autism. Travelling around the area, as a walker, cyclist, railway enthusiast and amateur photographer, Mike developed a great affection for Merseyside and the Wirral peninsula, in particular. Mike's Dad often added colourful descriptions of his memories of Merseyside in the first half of the twentieth century, from the vibrant bustle of the City of Liverpool to the comparatively rural scenes that still existed in some parts over the waterA". Every so often the family would turn to the photographs, unusually, not dominated by family snaps, but by this magnificent inheritance of local views. They prompted much discussion about familiar landmarks and the pace of change. Mike recognised their importance as historical documents and was grateful that eventually they were left to him for safe keeping. Mike had discussed with his Dad his plans to share the photographs with a wider audience and this collection is the result.

Price £9.95

Details

• ISBN 9781906823351
• Publisher Countyvise
• Genre Non Fiction
• Setting Merseyside

Birkenhead Not So Long Ago

This is a book which harks back to the eighties when the echoes of a post-war period were still strong. Many of the buildings were still standing even though the businesses had long gone - the butchers, the cake shops or the small newsagent. My moving away, then the occasional returns, allowed me to see things differently, appreciate more, time and distance inextricably linked, emphasising the poetry, the sadness. Photographers are often drawn to the texture and the visual drama of old or derelict buildings. I somehow felt the need to photograph the streets of my past; I also thought that many of those buildings would not be there much longer. In this respect there is a political as well as social message within this small volume.

Price £5.00

Details

• ISBN 9781906823313
• Publisher Countyvise
• Genre Non Fiction
• Setting Wirral

True Loyals

FROM hearth and home, they were called to the colours. As Britain faced the threat of Nazi invasion in the desperate summer of 1940, hundreds of thousands of men found themselves urgently being turned from civilians into soldiers. Among them was a motley crew of conscripts from Liverpool, Lancashire and Cheshire, who in July of that year were drafted into the newly-raised 7th Battalion of The Loyal Regiment (North Lancashire). Their military odyssey began inauspiciously at a hastily established training camp in Caernarvon, North Wales, where they had to drill with broom handles because there were no rifles and march in their own clothes because there were no uniforms. But, four years later, that same makeshift unit had been honed into a formidable fi ghting force - the 92nd (Loyals) Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery. On D-Day in June 1944, its troops landed in Normandy with the special mission of protecting Pegasus Bridge and Horsa Bridge, the vitally important canal and river crossings on which the success of the whole Overlord invasion hinged. It was a task they carried out with skill and courage, shooting down the first of up to 70 German planes and going on to serve with distinction throughout the rest of the campaign in North West Europe. In True Loyals, Tom McCarthy charts the remarkable five-and-a-half-year journey of 7th Loyals / 92nd LAA, in which his father served. Using war diaries, official archive material, memoirs, personal documents and extensive interviews with veterans, he tells an inspiring story of ordinary men in extraordinary times. Men who, when the call came, proved themselves equal to it.

Price £8.50

Details

• ISBN 9781906823382
• Publisher Countyvise
• Genre Non Fiction

*

Tom Jenks' second collection is an open system interaction with the world and all its contingencies. Using fragments from mass media, signage, management doublethink and myriad other sources, the work slips between inner and outer worlds as they suggest themselves, with the * symbol acting as a wildcard to select everything that is the case.

Price £8.00

Details

• ISBN 97809558641
• Publisher if p then q
• Genre Poetry
• Extent 72pp

Best of Manchester Poets, Volume One

Sneeze in Manchester and you'll infect a poetic genius, or two. The city that's England's creative capital is home to hundreds of poets. Best of Manchester Poets, Volume 1, is the first attempt in recent times to publish the astonishing and diverse talent of the contemporary Manchester scene, which follows hard on the heels of the Madchester music explosion. Accessible, readable and downright enjoyable, this new Manchester verse isn't your father's poetry, and definitely isn't your grandfather's. Featuring work by Gerry Potter (a.k.a. Chloe Poems), Dominic Berry, Jackie Hagan, Rosie Lugosi, Marvin Cheeseman, Steve O'Connor, Cathy Bryant, Angela Smith, Simon Rennie, Copland Smith, Gordon Zola, John Siddique, Matthew Curry, and many, many more. In total, over 60 of Manchester's finest poets are represented.

Price £9.99

Details

• ISBN 0956581900
• Publisher Puppywolf
• Genre Poetry

Planet Middle Age

Planet Middle Age,
A show on Radio Old.
A repeat with a quizzical demographic
And I am and not quite tuned into
Its frequency.
                                        - from Planet Middle Age

Picking up from where Planet Young leaves off, Gerry’s second instalment of autobiographical poetry intimately explores his own love, grief, friendships, family and journey into Planet Middle Age.

It’s a journey with jostling and lost tickets, the strength and vulnerability of first-hand secrets and seats warm from the strangers that sat there before, and the intensity and passion that takes us from one planet to another.

Published by Flapjack Press on 21st July 2010. 

In his last collection, Planet Young, Potter wrote about killing off his alter-ego Chloe Poems and discovering his Scouse voice. His true voice has never been more expressive than in this latest collection. Middle age has not dampened his talent. Here are poems that will amuse, move, inspire and provoke. Long may he continue.

- Paul Burston

Price £7.50

Details

• ISBN 9780955509278
• Publisher Flapjack Press
• Genre Poetry
• Extent 128pp

The Cleansing

Christmas approaches as a killer haunts the streets of Manchester. This is his reckoning.  DCI Tom Caton and forensic profiler Kate Webb follow the trail from the old mass cholera graves, through the penthouse opulence of the canalside apartment blocks and The Gay Village, to the Victorian grandeur of the Town Hall.

Time is running out for Tom, for Kate, and for the City!

Shortlisted for the LongBarn Books Debut Novel Award

The 1st of the Tom Caton Manchester Crime Series

 

" A good juicy crime read."

dovegreyreader

www.dovegreyreader.com

Voted the UK's Number 1 Literary Blogg 2010

Price £9.99

Details

• ISBN 9781-1-906645
• Publisher Grosvenor House Publishing
• Genre Fiction
• Setting Greater Manchester
• Extent 370pp

The Head Case

Roger Standing CBE, Head of Manchester's Harmony High Academy School, and the Prime Minister's Special Adviser for Education, is dead.  DCI Tom Caton is not short of suspects.  But if this is a simple mugging gone wrong then why is MI5 ransacking Standing's apartment, and disrupting the investigation?  And why are the widow and her son taking the news so calmly?  Something is rotten in the corridors of power.  And the killer is poised to strike again.

 

The second in the Tom Caton Manchester Crime Series

"As a fan of Val McDermid, Ian Rankin and Stuart Macbride, I'll have to add Bill Rogers to my list."  A.Duchmann

Price £9.99

Details

• ISBN 978-0-9564220
• Publisher Caton Books
• Genre Fiction
• Setting Greater Manchester
• Extent 352pp

The Tiger's Cave

Twelve bodies, no motive, the hunt is on.  A lorry full of illegal Chinese immigrants arrives in Hull.  Twenty four hours later their bodies are discovered close to the M62 motorway.  Two young men man and a girl are missing, and their lives are at risk. Supported by the Serious and Organised Crime Agency, Caton must travel to China to pick up the trail.  But he knows that the solution is closer to home in Manchester's Chinatown...and time is running out.

 

The third book in the Tom Caton Manchester Crime Series

"Fast moving,descriptive,well researched and full of intrigue.  An excellent example of the genre."  Alan Wheatley

Price £9.99

Details

• ISBN 9780956422019
• Publisher Caton Books
• Genre Fiction
• Setting Greater Manchester
• Extent 349pp

A Fatal Intervention

A successful barrister, a wrongful accusation, a mysterious disappearance.  It's the last thing Rob Thornton - up and coming Manchester barrister - expects; an early morning knock on the door, arrested for rape.  When his mysterious accuser Anjelita Covas disappears he sets out to find her in London's criminal underworld and then back in Manchester.  A series of rhyming messages arrive each of them signalling a murder.  In tunnels, deep beneath the city lies a heart of darkness, where Rob most confront his nemesis, and make the hardest decision of his life.

 

The fourth in the Tom Caton Manchester Crime Series - can equally be read as a stand alone.

 

"Spellbound throughout.  The tempo was fast and action-packed with plenty of unepected twists."  James Dubois

 

"Pace,intrigue,and twistsa plenty...first class! Joe Capello

Price £9.99

Details

• ISBN 9780956422033
• Publisher Caton Books
• Genre Fiction
• Setting Greater Manchester
• Extent 331pp

1000 Sonnets

The long-awaited full set of Tim Atkins' minimalist sonnets is finally here. First published by The Figures back in 2000 this if p then q collection contains over 100 extra sonnets to total 127. The title alludes to Kenneth Koch's hilarious sequence of short plays/skits 1000 Avant Garde Plays and as ever Tim Atkins' magic is in the spirit of that playfulness. You may have first clocked some of these delights in The Reality Street Book of Sonnets.

Certainly a sonnet is possible in which these words fall in these places. Yet is not clear if anything, in fact, is missing. As such, the text stands mute, ironic, self-amused all at once.
Ron Silliman on Sonnet 91

Price £8.00

Details

• ISBN 0955864179
• Publisher if p then q
• Genre Poetry
• Extent 138pp

Contains Strong Language and Scenes of a Sexual Nature

Irritatingly hard to classify, Cathy Bryant’s poetry hints at what it means to be female and intelligent in the 21st century. Think Carol Ann Duffy meets Spike Milligan. Humorous, ingenious, charming, and punchy — in equal measure — there’s never a dull moment in Cathy’s world. One moment she’s describing the disability of speaking with a middle class accent, while the next she’s berating New Age Man and his decidedly fake lifestyle. In-between you’ll find luscious fantasy, rude limericks, profound love, as well as sex, politics, and veganism. Cathy is the winner of several literary awards and her work has been published in magazines and books worldwide. In 2010 she co-edited the major new anthology, Best of Manchester Poets. Born in Hampshire and raised in the midlands and Lancashire, she has lived in Manchester all her adult life.

Price £6.99

Details

• ISBN 9780956581914
• Publisher Puppywolf
• Genre Poetry

Charlie The Mouse 2

This second book of tails is for children and grandparents, and, I suppose, all those in between.

Charlie the Mouse is generally completely puzzled. And Barney the Dog ...please spell 'dog' backwards ...is rather intelligent. Warning: Only to be read by the young-in-heart.

Price £4.95

Details

• ISBN 9781906205683
• Publisher Countyvise
• Genre Fiction

Light Made Solid

Poet and performer, theatre-maker and activist, Ben Mellor was the BBC Radio4 Poetry Slam champion 2009. Bristling with the wit and wisdom and the energy he brings to the stage, Light Made Solid is his debut collection for the page and features many of the award-winning poems which have propelled him to prominence.

A pure undiluted talent. Concentrated. - Lemn Sissay MBE

Ben has presence and poise combined with linguistic and intellectual agility. - Patrick Neate, Whitbread Prize-winning author 

Price £7.50

Details

• ISBN 9780955509285
• Publisher Flapjack Press
• Genre Poetry
• Extent 96pp

The Book of Istanbul

Featuring:
Türker Armaner - Murat Gülsoy - Nedim Gürsel - Muge Iplikci - Karin Karakasli - Sema Kaygusuz - Gönül Kivilcim - Mario Levi - Özen Yula - Mehmet Zaman Saçlioglu

Istanbul. Seat of empire. Melting pot where East meets West. Fingertip touching-point between continents.

Even today there are many different versions of the city, different communities, distinct peoples, each with their own turbulent past and challenging interpretation of the present; each providing a distinct topography on which the fictions of the city can play out.

This book brings together ten short stories from some of Turkey’s leading writers, taking us on a literary tour of the city, from its famous landmarks to its darkened back streets, exploring the culture, history, and most importantly people that make it the great city it is today. From the exiled writer recalling his appetite for a lost lover, to the mad, homeless man directing traffic in a freelance capacity… the contrasting perspectives of these stories surprise and delight in equal measure, and together present a new kind of guide to the city.

List Price £7.99
Price £6.50

Details

• ISBN 978190558331
• Publisher Comma Press
• Genre Short Fiction
• Extent 120pp

The BBC National Short Story Award 2010

The BBC National Short story Award is one of the world's largest award for a single short story. All five shortlisted stories, including the winner, are published here side by side. The Award is designed to honour Britain's finest short story writers and to re-establish the importance of the short story as a central literary form.
Featuring:
DAVID CONSTANTINE
AMINATTA FORNA
SARAH HALL
JON MCGREGOR
HELEN OYEYEMI

List Price £6.99
Price £5.50

Details

• ISBN 978190558334
• Publisher Comma Press
• Genre Short Fiction
• Extent 112pp

Light Made Solid CD

Poet and performer, theatre-maker and activist, Ben Mellor was the BBC Radio4 Poetry Slam champion 2009. Bristling with the wit and wisdom and the energy he brings to the stage, Light Made Solid is his exciting CD and, like his debut print collection of the same name, features many of the award-winning poems which have propelled him to prominence.

Available direct from www.flapjackpress.co.uk. CD £5, CD+Book deal £10, Book on its own £7.50.

CD [cat no. FPCD002]: tracks 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 & 9 produced & mixed by Adam Menczykowski; tracks 7, 8 & 10 produced & mixed by Dan Steele. Mastered by Adam Menczykowski at Unit Studios, www.unitstudios.co.uk. All tracks written, performed & co-produced by Ben Mellor. Reproduction by Disc Wizards www.discwizards.com.

"A pure undiluted talent. Concentrated" - Lemn Sissay MBE, poet
"Ben has presence and poise combined with linguistic and intellectual agility" - Patrick Neate, Whitbread Prize-winning novelist
"Poetry with soul. Ben Mellor knows What's Goin' On" - Tony Walsh, poet

Originally hailing from Hitchin in Hertfordshire, Ben Mellor has since migrated north to Manchester, from where he performs and teaches at theatres and festivals, schools, colleges and universities, throughout the UK and internationally.
In 2008 Ben performed his first solo spoken word/theatre piece - an ecologically-themed, bicycle-powered show called Voices of Dissent, produced under the banner of his company Moksha.
In the same year he won the Manchester Literature Festival slam and the Diké Omeje Slam Poetry Award, the prize for which was a year-long residency at Commonword. He went on to become the BBC Radio 4 Poetry Slam champion in 2009.
Ben is a founder member of the spoken word hip hop theatre collective Pen-ultimate, whose acclaimed debut show A Night on the Tiles (a play written entirely in verse and exploring the seedy underworld of high-stakes gangster Scrabble) premiered in 2010 at Contact Theatre before embarking on a national tour.
Ben also works with musicians and producers to create backing tracks and soundscapes for his work. He has performed spoken word with jazz fusion band, Current Affairs, legendary drummer Myke Wilson's jazz/hip hop outfit Speech Pherapy, and beat-boxer and percussionist, Jason Singh. Ben also beat-boxes with (and without) a loop station to create beats and soundscapes for his own work and for the songs of singer-songwriter Léonie Higgins.

Price £5.00

Details

• ISBN 643157415053x
• Publisher Flapjack Press
• Genre Poetry

Bluebell Hollow

DCI Tom Caton's world is rocked when he learns of a son by a former lover.  Then the first of the bodies is discovered at the Cutacre open cast mine on the Salford/Bolton boundary.    The victims appear to have addiction in common.  Suspects include a prmiership footballer, a barrister, and just about everyone at the Oasis Rehabilitation Clinic in leafy Cheshire.  A sCaton digs deeper everything begins to fall apart.

 

"As a fan of Val McDermid, Ian Rankin, and Staurt mMacBride I'll have to add Bill Rogers to my list."  A.Duchmaan

List Price £9.99
Price £8.99

Details

• ISBN 9780956422026
• Publisher Caton Books
• Genre Fiction
• Setting Greater Manchester
• Extent 390pp

Thus &

Ted Berrigan’s seminal The Sonnets is renowned for its famous use of cut up technique and reconfiguration throughout the sequence. Derek Henderson’s erasure Thus & eliminates all words and typographical duplications. In addition to the strikingly beautiful, often minimalist, sonnets created by Henderson, Thus & asks new questions of each Berrigan sonnet and the sequence as a whole. Thus & reveals (conceals) not only the clusters of phrases/lines that were cloned by Berrigan but also words which he repeated; many obviously subconsciously. What is left in Thus & is part skeleton, and underbelly, of maître-sonneteer Berrigan’s The Sonnets and part alien remix by techno-magician Derek Henderson.

Price £8.00

Details

• ISBN 9780955864186
• Publisher if p then q
• Genre Poetry
• Extent 88pp

Anthems and Album Tracks

Open the door of this book and step into the universe of Dermot Glennon, and you may not be able to get out again. You may not want to. You may want to get help. Arranged in broadly thematic chapters with style guide introductions and explanations of the underlying ideas and philosophies that led to the writing of the poems within, this book also benefits from a design that fits most standard bookshelves and coffee tables.

Dermot Glennon was born in air and educated in, amongst other places, his clothes. Although he is possibly one of the greatest poets of the last century, by virtue of this being subjective and non-specific as to which one of the greatest, he has often been ignored and

www.flapjackpress.co.uk

"Dermot's poetry is like a horror film. You want to hide but you can't stop yourself looking" - Rod Tame, Write Out Loud

"A mystery ranging from everywhere to nowhere, calling for an intelligent open mind. Funny, hard and relatable" - Lauren Bolger, Paradox

"Dermot Glennon's writing is like a picture by Escher, only funnier. Behind the formal mastery and strong sense of order lies real depth, sometimes constructed from a cleverly realised unreality. And when the harlequin mask is occasionally dropped the illusion is punctured by a startling emotional honesty" - Simon Rennie, Inn Verse

Isn't It Just Like Talking Only More Shit?

Hi, my name's Dermot.
I write macabre poems
all about death.

This one's a haiku,
it's called: 'The Introduction',
it goes like this:

"Hi, my name's Dermot.
I write macabre poems
all about death."

from Anthems and Album Tracks

Price £6.50

Details

• ISBN 9780955509292
• Publisher Flapjack Press
• Genre Poetry
• Extent 112pp

The Men Pomes

Gerry's third collection of theatre-verse explores the intimate nature of men. Here is where dreams and reality are inescapable and inexhaustible. It's where humour liberates and empathy empowers, where dark Catholicism collides with secular provocation and men resonate with melancholy and passion. Here, lives are led.

Gerry's first two volumes of autobiographical poetry, Planet Young and Planet Middle Age, are also available from Flapjack Press.

A favourite son of both Manchester and his home town Liverpool, Gerry Potter is an award-winning poet, playwright, director, actor, workshop leader and the creator and destroyer of the infamous gingham diva Chloe Poems. His previous publications as Chloe included Universal Rentboy [Bad Press, 2000], Adult Entertainment [Route, 2002] and Li'l Book o' Manchester [Mucusart, 2007]. A former writer in residence at Manchester's Contact and Greenroom theatres, he has a reputation for putting his Scouse voice on the line, a soaring sing-song accent, and is strong on poetry and strong on the causes of poetry. The Men Pomes is his third collection of autobiographical, domestic-fantastic theatre-verse for Flapjack Press, and follows the successes of Planet Young and Planet Middle Age.
Facebook: Gerry Potter Poet Fan Page
YouTube: Gerry Potter Poet

Is there a time somewhere I don't know
Where The Man stood alone
Atop his ivory tower and declared to the world
That his voice
Would be the only voice obeyed?
In that same time-space I don't know,
Did all the other men agree?
- from 'Cake'

"Formerly a hero/ine of the poetry circuit as his alter ego Chloe Poems, Gerry now takes to the stage in his own right. This is poetry like nothing you've heard before - asking with a wry smile what it means to be male, Scouse, working class and gay. You don't have to be any of these to find The Men Pomes heartbreaking and heart-mending, with a roar of anger one minute and a roar of laughter the next: a statement of pride, joyfulness and scorn in the face of bigotry. Gerry Potter is a world-class performer at the height of his powers, delivering intelligent, humane and searching poetry that makes us all ask who we are and who we want to be" - Jo Bell, Director National Poetry Day

Price £8.50

Details

• ISBN 9780957014107
• Publisher Flapjack Press
• Genre Poetry
• Extent 144pp

Hoofs

Following on from the short collection Interview Pieces, Hoofs is the first full length book of Pester’s performance scores. Somewhere in between Chopin and Stein the poems are at once hilarious and disturbing.

Price £8.00

Details

• ISBN 9780955864193
• Publisher if p then q
• Genre Poetry
• Extent 80pp

Advanced Immorality

The title of Philip Terry’s book, and the name of one of the seven poems in his latest collection, is an antonymic translation (opposites) of Terry’s own translations of Raymond Queneau’s Elementary Morality. Queneau’s quennet form is further utilised in A Berlin Notebook. Also included are 50½ uproarious synopsises of imagined murder mysteries, the utter destruction of the sestina, Hamlet in four pages and much, much more. From start to finish Advanced Immorality is hilarious, polished, questioning and great fun. Need we say more.

Price £8.00

Details

• ISBN 97809571827
• Publisher if p then q
• Genre Poetry
• Extent 72pp

The BBC National Short Story Award 2011

Featuring:

M.J. HYLAND
ALISON MACLEOD
JON MCGREGOR (runner-up)
K. J. ORR
D.W. WILSON (winner)

Foreword by Sue MacGregor
Themes of desire, envy and disconnection provide recurring motifs for the five shortlisted stories presented here – the extremes that love can endure and what happens when love is not enough. The panel of judges this year included novelist Tessa Hadley, novelist and critic Geoff Dyer, poet and author of Submarine, Joe Dunthorne and BBC Editor of Readings, Di Speirs. The panel was chaired by broadcaster Sue MacGregor who also introduces the selection.

‘We are living through a golden moment in the history of the short story,’ wrote The Guardian recently, and the annual BBC National Short Story Award is both a testament to this, and one of the reasons why we are. Now in its sixth year, the Award supports and showcases Britain’s best new short fiction and continues to champion the short story as a central literary form.

List Price £6.99
Price £5.50

Details

• ISBN 978190558341
• Publisher Comma Press
• Genre Short Fiction
• Extent 128pp

Lemistry

Featuring:
STANISLAW LEM, BRIAN ALDISS, FRANK COTTRELL BOYCE, ANNIE CLARKSON, DR. SARAH DAVIES, JACEK DUKAJ, PROF. STEVE FURBER, TREVOR HOYLE, PROF. HOD LIPSON, TOBY LITT, ANTONIA LLOYD-JONES, ADAM MAREK, MIKE NELSON, SEAN O'BRIEN, WOJCIECH ORLINSKI, ADAM ROBERTS, ANDY SAWYER, SARAH SCHOFIELD, DANUSIA STOK, PIOTR SZULKIN, and IAN WATSON.

We ‘know’ Stanislaw Lem, whether or not we consciously know that we do.

He may only be recognised in the West as the author of the twice-filmed novel, Solaris, but the influence of his other work is legion. From computer games (The Sims was inspired by one of his short stories), to films (the red and blue pills of The Matrix owe much to his Futurological Congress); from the space comedies of Red Dwarf to the metaphysical satires of Douglas Adams… the presence of this masterly Polish writer can be traced far and wide. Nor was his genius confined to fiction. Lem’s essays and pseudo-essays – borne out of the military industrial tensions of the Cold War – have outlived their original context and speak to the most current developments in virtual reality, nanotechnology, and artificial intelligence.

To celebrate his name, as well as his vision, this anthology brings together writers, critics and scientists who continue to grapple with his concerns. British and Polish novelists join screenwriters, poets, computer engineers, and artists, to celebrate and explore Lem’s legacy through short stories and essays - two literary forms that, as Lem knew well, can blend together to create something altogether new.

As one of the barriers to Lem’s fame was language, this book also features specially commissioned translations: three stories never to have appeared in English before.

Lem was always ahead of us. It’s time we caught up.

List Price £7.99
Price £7.00

Details

• ISBN 978190558332
• Publisher Comma Press
• Genre Short Fiction
• Extent 320pp

Wizard

Following a full capacity debut at Contact Theatre, Dominic Berry returns as Wizard, one man struggling to fit in. In a unique world born of Dungeons & Dragons, Japanese RPGs and Greek myths, this heartfelt, honest collection mixes a poetry-spouting kettle, hilarious spell-casting dish rack and the true horror of a broken mental health system.
With b&w thumbnail illustrations by Brink.

"Really very inspiring. I love the seriousness and the humour" - Benjamin Zephaniah, Poet & Activist
"Emotive, intelligent and raw. He meshes the theatre and literature world to produce something quite delicious and totally engaging" - Gwen Oakden, City Life
"Dominic is an exceptional force in the poetry and spoken word scene in the North West. I am always impressed by his desire and determination to push beyond his comfort zone and write work that will challenge himself and his audience" - John McGrath, Artistic Director of National Theatre Wales
"Truly beautiful work, a deep understanding of mythic and magical themes" - Wendy Rule, Singer / Songwriter
"Shakesqueer" - Lynnee Breedlove, Trans Punk Vanguard
"I was taken by his energy, charm and, poetic prowess. Dominic is a committed and passionate artist who not only shines individually but is an advocate for other poets. As an individual Dominic's poetry is at once poignant, personal, profound, and humorous. He is a talented performer who brings a dynamic physicality and theatricality to the realm of poetry" - Baba Israel, Artistic Director, Contact

Price £8.00

Details

• ISBN 9780957014114
• Publisher Flapjack Press
• Genre Poetry
• Extent 128pp

The War Tour

‘You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.’ – Leon Trotsky

From Kandahar to Sarajevo, the forests of Lithuania to the boot camps of the DRC, Zoe Lambert’s stories weave a dark and disturbing web, interlacing documentary accounts with imagined testimonies to give voice to the many silenced casualties of war: an elderly woman on a bus tells a love story drawn from the depths of Soviet history; a soldier returns from his first tour of duty unsure he deserves his hero’s welcome; a Norwegian immigrant pieces together a family history fractured in the aftermath of Nazi occupation. Individually, these stories bear witness to a thirst for conflict that seems both unquenchable and foreign. But together, they bring the question of collusion and responsibility all the way back to the reader’s own doorstep.

‘Ranging confidently across time and place, Lambert’s stories are sharply observed, moving, and continually surprising.’ – Jane Rogers

**Short-listed for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize**
**Long-listed for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Prize**

List Price £7.99
Price £6.75

Details

• ISBN 9781905583287
• Publisher Comma Press
• Genre Short Fiction
• Setting Greater Manchester
• Extent 224pp

It Was Just, Yesterday

On Christmas Eve, a girl stalks an older man through wintery city streets, haunted by their shared past...

In a remote woodland cottage, an eccentric explains to his granddaughter why he shoots cats whenever they make themselves too comfortable...

In a checkout queue, a woman suddenly shows charity to a penniless guy she apparently doesn’t know...

The characters in Mirja Unge’s debut collection are all, in their own way, evading something; whether failing to confront the true nature of an encounter, or avoiding responsibilities as a parent, sibling or friend. Abuse, betrayal and neglect lurk beneath a veneer of mutually maintained ‘normality’, waiting for an opportunity to resurface.

Told, in most cases, through the eyes of teenage girls or young women, these stories exhibit a unique prose style that perfectly captures the conversational rhythms, and preoccupations, of their generation. Unge’s soft, winding syntax ushers the reader across the surface of each encounter at an unalterable pace — like the ever-betraying passage of time — whilst deftly hinting at the violence beneath.

‘A breathtaking and intensive read, full of warmth, humour and darkness.’ — Moa Eriksson, Hallandsposten

‘Mirja Unge has once again convinced me that she is one of the most important writers in Sweden today.’ — Eva Hultin, Nerikes Allehanda

'Unge can do a lot with a little.' - The Guardian, Best Short Stories of 2011.

'It Was Just, Yesterday is both atmospheric and menacing.' - The Manchester Review, Read the full review here.

'Unge has an unusual and arresting style that is worthy of recognition. At times, there is real beauty in her writing which often showcases a deeply poetic style and thrusts you into an atmosphere, a world, or a conflict with ease and immediacy.' - Kate Kerrow, The Short Review

List Price £7.99
Price £6.75

Details

• ISBN 9781905583379
• Publisher Comma Press
• Genre Short Fiction
• Extent 224pp

Fifty

When you are turning fifty, fighting HIV/Hepatitis C co-infections, charged with criminally masterminding the recession and unable to dance - what do you do?

Fuelled by Scouse passion and jangle, Fifty charts a year with honest extravagance. It’s an anarchic journey shared with illness and the adverse effects of its medications, with the long haul of being grassed up to the dole, with lost tickets, tags and tangents.

But there is dancing. There must always be dancing.

Fifty is Gerry’s fourth volume of autobiographical, domestic/fantastic theatre-verse. Some parts of this remarkable story are already “out there”, documented in ITV1’s The Briefs and BBC2’s Britain in a Day, and Gerry pulls no punches, navigating the emotional highs and lows with an absorbing, singular skill.

Although, the remarkable "Outroduction" and story-play, How to be a Better Gay, may just require the help of a certain gingham-clad diva...

www.facebook.com/gerrypotterpoetfanpage

www.youtube.com/gerrypotterpoet

“Gerry Potter is a world-class performer at the height of his powers, delivering intelligent, humane and searching poetry that makes us all ask who we are and who we want to be” Jo Bell, Director National Poetry Day

“[In Planet Middle Age,] Potter wrote about killing off his alter-ego Chloe Poems and discovering his Scouse voice. His true voice has never been more expressive” Paul Burston, journalist & author

Price £8.50

Details

• ISBN 9780957014169
• Publisher Flapjack Press
• Genre Poetry
• Extent 132pp

The Prequel to the Sequel

Working Verse Collective are three lads on a mission and their mission statement is this: Eloquence is fine. But “eloquence is irrelevant when nobody in the room knows what you meant...

Join Dave Viney, Kieren King and Benny-jo Zahl as they expertly weave humour, insight and the unexpected throughout their quest, sourcing fresh inspiration and exceeding their comfort zones. Do they have “The Right Stuff”? What is “The Right Stuff”? Do they actually want it anyway, whatever it is, or should they keep the receipt?

It may be one small step for man, but it’s One Giant Leap for Ladkind.

Dave, Kieren and Benny-jo are hosts of Bang Said the Gun: Manchester. This debut collection includes their acclaimed poetry theatre piece, Amateur Thematics, which premiered at The Lowry, Salford in January 2012.

With illustrations by Brink.

BOOK LAUNCH: Join Working Verse Collective for their launch show and a thought-provoking dose of cutting-edge poetry. With special guest poets John Darwin and compere Jackie Hagan.

Sun 2nd Sept, 8.00pm. The Lowry, Salford Quays, Manchester. Tickets £5.00 from www.thelowry.com.

www.workingversepoetry.co.uk

www.facebook.com/bangsaidthegunmanchester

“Unique and refreshing” Joy France, Write Out Loud

“They’re honest and mischievous, insightful and daft, accessible and poetic and well worth seeing” Jackie Hagan, poet & comedian

"Working Verse are three men who love football, music, pubs, clubs and poems... To read this book is to take a trip through the lives of lads who are not your typical poetic voices" Dominic Berry, Poet & Director of Amateur Thematics

"The boys have given manchester's poetry scene a much needed shot in the arm" Gerry Potter, poet & playwright 

Price £7.50

Details

• ISBN 9780957014152
• Publisher Flapjack Press
• Genre Poetry
• Setting Greater Manchester
• Extent 112pp

Tall Tales For Tall Men Who Fall Well Short

Men, hey? Rumbustious buccaneers and fallible flotsam. They set sail upon calm seas and weather storms; they love, they long, they grieve and hopefully find safe harbour.

From childhood to supposed adulthood, these simple yet complex creatures battle expectation and seek understanding. It's a fantastical voyage in a changing world where a wave can sometimes be mistaken, but where there are still countless treasures to be found...

This book is also intended as a resource to work with young men and men, in enabling them to relate to the different aspects of their lives through the use of planned and evaluated workshops (see www.manchestermenshealth.com).

Illustrated by Brink & Martin 'Visceral' Stannage. Photography by Rik Jundi.

www.flapjackpress.co.uk

"This collection is a journey of care and understanding for men" - Cathy Crabb, playwright

"The 'our town' of Tony's poetry is our town too. The smells that he evokes - fish and chips, beer and cigs, blood and spunk - these are our smells too. This is our poetry, these are our poems. They smell of home and friendship" - Tony Walsh AKA Longfella, Glastonbury Festival Poet in Residence 2011

"Tony's words make great music for the mind. This truly is modern, understandable, smart, real and, dare I say it, male poetry" - Neil Bell, actor & sonic poet

"Tony means it, the words are attached to truth, the truth of hurt and family and friendship. The language rocks us to waking up to the beauty in the pain and the love in the loss. He will come to mind and make you smile and cry, a poet full of the fire of our times. Connect to the terrible now with one of the best poets around" - John G. Hall, poet

Price £7.50

Details

• ISBN 9780957014145
• Publisher Flapjack Press
• Genre Poetry
• Extent 90pp

Dommy B vs The Dragon Who Hates Poetry

Here be dragons! (...and a very hungry were-witch, an evil Queen out to rule the world, a man who loves underpants and an extremely smelly cat!)

Dommy B’s favourite poems and stories written for children are collected here in his first book for younger readers, including his one-person play 'The Dragon Who Hates Poetry', plus an original interactive adventure game where you can be the hero!
Illustrations by Brink.

Published 15 Dec 2012 by Flapjack Press. www.flapjackpress.co.uk

‘One of Manchester’s most enthusiastic, energetic storytellers, whose passion for poetry is infectious. The Dragon Who Hates Poetry showcases Dommy B's talents perfectly whilst reminding everyone that poetry can be an enormous bag of raucous fun!’ - Helên Thomas, poet

‘Dommy B is a well-respected name in live literature who has now turned his hand to, and mastered, the art of children’s storytelling. The Dragon Who Hates Poetry will delight and enthral children everywhere. Read the book, join the fight to tame a dragon with words, and catch the show if you can!’ - Liz O’Neill, CEO, Z-arts

Price £8.00

Details

• ISBN 9780957014138
• Publisher Flapjack Press
• Genre Poetry
• Extent 132pp

Anthropoetry

Anthropoetry [an”thro-po’ĕ-tre] n. A poetic, occasionally humorous journey around the human anatomy, attempting to get the measure of modern life.

Adapted from the hit show written and performed by Ben Mellor with sound design by Dan Steele. ‘Anthropoetry’ premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2012 and received 4-star reviews and a selection on Mervyn Stutter’s Pick of the Fringe.

Ben Mellor is an award-winning slam poet (BBC Radio 4 Slam Champion 2009, Diké Omeje Slam Poetry Award 2008), writer and actor. He has featured on BBC Radio 4, the World Service and numerous poetry podcasts. Ben is a founder member of spoken word/hip hop theatre collective Pen-ultimate, whose debut show ‘A Night on the Tiles’ recently toured the UK and Europe, and also performs spoken word and beatboxes in the band Geddes Loom with singer-songwriter and cellist Léonie Higgins and guitarist and sound designer Dan Steele.

“Elegantly crafted rhymes... always engaging” - The Scotsman
“A fine body of verse” - Broadway Baby
“Slick poetry... and a particularly impressive political and lyrical bent” - Sabotage Reviews
“A talent and attitude that makes him one of the most intriguing spoken word artists out there” - The Flaneur

Price £5.99

Details

• ISBN 9780957014183
• Publisher Flapjack Press
• Genre Poetry
• Extent 46pp

Variant Spelling

Hannah Kate is a North Manchester-based poet, author and editor. Her work has appeared in a number of local and national magazines, as well as an anthology published by Crocus Books. She is a freelance teacher of English, Maths and Creative Writing, and reviews genre fiction and academic writing for a number of organizations. This is her first full-length collection of poetry.

The poems in Variant Spelling evoke a North in revolt; a place of abandoned dyeworks, soot, winter, granite and grease. Through the ‘shifting vowels’ of the title poem they celebrate a world at odds with the imposed culture of the South. It is at its most rebellious in Praise God, where Hannah ‘praises the God of the North’, a place where the ‘air hangs with burning witches’. - Rosie Lugosi, Poet and Performer

Price £6.99

Details

• ISBN 9780957029200
• Publisher Hic Dragones
• Genre Poetry
• Setting Greater Manchester

Wolf-Girls: Dark Tales of Teeth, Claws and Lycogyny

Feral, vicious, fierce and lost… the she-wolf is a strange creature of the night. Attractive to some; repulsive to others, she stalks the fringes of our world as though it were her prey. She is the baddest of girls, the fatalest of femmes – but she is also the excluded, the abject, the monster. The Wolf-Girls within these pages are mad, bad and dangerous to know. But they are also rejected and tortured, loving and loyal, avenging and triumphant. Some of them are even human… Seventeen new tales of dark, snarling lycogyny by Nu Yang, Mary Borsellino, Lyn Lockwood, Mihaela Nicolescu, L. Lark, Jeanette Greaves, Kim Bannerman, Lynsey May, Hannah Kate, J. K. Coi, Rosie Garland, R. A. Martens, Beth Daley, Marie Cruz, Helen Cross, Andrew Quinton and Sarah Peacock.

A refreshing contribution… well worth reading… It’s always nice to read stories with a strong female focus, especially in genres and thematic areas that are traditionally male-dominated where women are sidekicks or something to look at. The she-wolves in this anthology truly are themselves and feel strangely natural. - The Future Fire

Price £8.99

Details

• ISBN 9780957029217
• Publisher Hic Dragones
• Genre Short Fiction

On Euclid Ave

The hottest bar in a hot Southern city. A US State Highway twisting its way into the Appalachians. An overcast afternoon in an abandoned park in Manchester...

Using a mixture of intimate confessions and half-imagined anecdotes, 'On Euclid Ave' is a transatlantic gaggle of modern day folk-tales and quiet revelations. It’s full of the stories you tell people when they ask you where you’re from, and learning that once you leave, you can’t go back. It’s about making a home from the things you have to hand.

'On Euclid Ave' is the debut poetry collection by J. Fergus Evans, a yarn-spinnin’, boy-kissin’, spoken word and performance artist from Georgia, USA. Fergus has collaborated with leading arts organisations including Contact and Comma Film in Manchester, Apples & Snakes, Birmingham Rep, Battersea Arts Centre and Twinhead Theatre in Atlanta, restaging spoken word through video, soundscaping and sculpture. He is also a certified life coach and independent producer.

“An exemplary piece of writing - rich, powerful and deeply evocative. Intimately delivered with warmth, wit, tenderness and poignancy.” Ben Mellor, BBC Radio 4 Slam Champion

“Fergus Evans makes statements from the provocative to the droll.” Atlanta Creative Loafing

“If you haven’t heard of Fergus Evans, you soon will.” The Pink Paper

“Witty, emotive and rhythmic. Fergus Evans’s work drives home a concrete truth coupled with a very poetic need to connect. It’s impossible not to be moved by his intention and skill.” Gerry Potter, poet & playwright

“One to watch.” Manchester Mule

Price £7.50

Details

• ISBN 9780957014176
• Publisher Flapjack Press
• Genre Poetry
• Extent 74pp

Aimee and the Bear

When her mother’s cruelty is too much, Amy holds her teddy bear’s paw and travels to the Other Place—a world where teddies become real bears, where children attend the Night School to escape whatever it is they face at home, where Amy becomes Aimee, and there’s magic in the air. But the Other Place is in danger—the Witch has awoken, and Amy must find the courage to save her baby brother before it’s too late.

A dazzling, heart-wrenching and brutal descent into the world of the imagination. This is not a children’s book. This is not a fairy tale. This is not your average heroine.

"Absolutely brilliant! I’m not usually a fan of ‘magic realism’, but this really works. I think that’s because the realism is very real (this is not a book for kids, despite the cuddly toy element) and the magic is serious, funny and dark. Stone is a superb writer – intelligent, stylish and quirky – who creates very rounded characters. As an evocation of the childhood mind, it’s the most convincing thing I’ve read since Alice in Wonderland." - Amazon Reviewer

"What a fascinating read!! This is, hands down, one of the best books I’ve found in years. Like I said, Wow. No matter what I render as a review, there is nothing left more important than WOW. This author just blew me away with the perfect clarity, perfect flow, perfectly satisfying writing style that made me smile or frown out loud at times. I may have said this before, but this time I mean it when I say that I was captivated from the first 4 paragraphs." - angelsintheunderworld.com

"This is a very unusual book, a contemporary modern day novel with a twist. Amy has a cruel mother and she escapes to another world with her bear to escape her cruel mother, a world with a Night School, strange Teachers and creatures. It is not a children’s book (it is quite dark in parts)or a fairy tale. It is enchanting and pulls you along. This is Toby Stone’s first book according to the blurb, and for a debut novel it is stunning, he has massive potential." - Goodreads Reviewer

Price £8.99

Details

• ISBN 095702925X
• Publisher Hic Dragones
• Genre Fiction
• Setting Greater Manchester

The Iraqi Christ

A soldier with the ability to predict the future finds himself blackmailed by an insurgent into the ultimate act of terror…

A deviser of crosswords survives a car-bomb attack, only to discover he is now haunted by one of its victims…

Fleeing a robbery, a Baghdad shopkeeper falls into a deep hole, at the bottom of which sits a djinni and the corpse of a soldier from a completely different war…

From legends of the desert to horrors of the forest, Blasim’s stories blend the fantastic with the everyday, the surreal with the all-too-real. Taking his cues from Kafka, his prose shines a dazzling light into the dark absurdities of Iraq’s recent past and the torments of its countless refugees. The subject of this, his second collection, is primarily trauma and the curious strategies human beings adopt to process it (including, of course, fiction). The result is a masterclass in metaphor – a new kind of story-telling, forged in the crucible of war, and just as shocking.

'At first, you receive Blasim with the kind of shocked applause you’d award a fairly transgressive stand-up. You’re quite elated. Then you stop reading it at bedtime. At his best, Blasim produces a corrosive mixture of broken lyricism, bitter irony and hyper-realism which topples into the fantastic and the quotidian in the same reading moment.'
– M John Harrison

** WINNER OF THE ENGLISH PEN WRITERS IN TRANSLATION AWARD **
**LONG-LISTED FOR THE 2013 FRANK O'CONNOR INTERNATIONAL SHORT STORY AWARD**
**BOOK OF THE MONTH IN THE SKINNY**

'Perhaps the best writer of Arabic fiction alive...'
– The Guardian.

'Bolaño-esque in its visceral exuberance, and also Borgesian in its gnomic complexity... a master of metaphor.'
– The Guardian.

'Blasim’s vivid prose reflects the way the fantastic and the ordinary collapse into a Kafkaesque jumble during urban conflict.'
– The Financial Times.

'Required reading for a real taste of life in Iraq.'
- The National

'An arrestingly vivid picture of the privation and the terrors of life in Iraq.'
– Herald Scotland.

'His work never flinches from gore, sex, violence, blasphemy or misery – nor do these tropes ever feel exploitative. The rich combination of pitch-black gallows humour and fantastical flights from reality are utterly compelling – more real than anything you have read before about Iraq.'
- The Skinny

'Certainly, Blasim can write a story. But he may also have a flock of sparrows inside him, each struggling in its own direction, needing to tell its individual tale, to peck its way out into the light.'
- Egypt Independent

List Price £9.99
Price £8.50

Details

• ISBN 978-190558352
• Publisher Comma Press
• Genre Short Fiction
• Extent 186pp

Strange World Odd Person

Transported from the Garden of England to the gay clubs of Manchester’s Canal Street, Rod Tame soon finds himself exploring the confounding values of British society. But when encountering murderous denizens of Middle England, fallen saints in Spanish bars, event horizons and perilous next-gen cyborgs, will the nurturing wisdom of Doctor Who, Star Trek and The Avengers (or even Most Haunted) prove enough to win the day?

Originally from the Garden of England that is Kent, Rod Tame now lives in the urban jungle that is Manchester. He hosts the monthly open mic night for Write Out Loud at the Waterside Arts Centre in Sale, Cheshire, and performs regularly at the rich variety of poetry nights in the Manchester area. Gay and a Doctor Who fanatic, he has somehow survived into his thirties.

www.rodtame.com | www.flapjackpress.co.uk

“A voyage of self-discovery, all the way from outer to inner space, punchy, poignant and engaging by turns.’’
- Rosie Garland, poet, novelist & March Violet

“A tour de force of a poet blending romance, sci-fi and tabloid pop culture with generous alliterations, a rhythmic swing and surprising splashes of witticisms. This collection confirms an eloquence on the page, complimenting his elegant stage presence in pubs, coffee houses and theaters on both side of the Atlantic.”
- Regie Cabico, Nuyorican Poet Cafe Grand Slam Champion

“Playfully energetic with a good dollop of the profound.”
- Gerry Potter, poet, playwright & director

Price £7.50

Details

• ISBN 9780957014190
• Publisher Flapjack Press
• Genre Poetry
• Extent 72pp

Livid Among the Ghostings

Love, loss, losing your mind, rummaging armadillos...

Perceptive and affecting, Anna's first full collection is a passionate declaration and features many of her prize and slam winning poems.

Born and raised in Norwich, Anna Percy gained her MA in Creative Writing from the University of Manchester in 2009. A workshop facilitator and literary events organiser, she is co-founder and co-host of Stirred Poetry, Manchester's influential pro-feminist poetry night.

Anna Percy online: www.mostlynocturnalscribbler.wordpress.com, www.stirredpoetry.wordpress.com  & www.soundcloud.com/amdppoet

Cover art and illustrations by Sarah Peploe: www.hiatusgonnahiate.tumblr.com

"An assured and potent exploration in blue of the littoral zones between city and country, love and leaving; the places where light and shadow lay bruised in each other's arms" - Adam Horovitz, poet

"Adventurous and truthful in equal measure and by turns tender, angry, grief-stricken and joyful, sometimes within the turn of a line. These poems will move you and make you think" - Steven Waling, poet & reviewer

"A savage lyricality that lifts the beauty of brokenness and the brokenness of beauty to a transcendence of glorious primary colours" - Dan Holloway, Eight Cuts Gallery

"Full of warmth and insight and connection. This poet sings a deep sexy note, you feel it in your chest, where the heart lives" - John G. Hall, poet

www.flapjackpress.co.uk: exploring the synergy between performance and the page.

Price £7.50

Details

• ISBN 9780957663909
• Publisher Flapjack Press
• Genre Poetry
• Extent 68pp