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"McNeil's deeply felt observations offer a transporting, thought-provoking lens on nature. It's captivating stuff." Publishers Weekly"Meditative and sumptuous… Latitudes is a rich, textured portrait of the natural world and a plaintive reflection on the destruction of climate change." Foreword Reviews"Full of lived experience, this book ponders the question of our own animal relationship with the planet, between what we know and what we feel, between mind and body, instinct and intellect." Julia Bell, author of Massive and Hymnal"Her shimmering prose brings into sharp focus the beauty of the remote places where we can glimpse – and sometimes hear – what our planet was like before us. And what it might be in the silence that will come after the frenzy of human dominance." Margie OrfordRelating thirty years of living in and writing about some of the world's last remaining wild places, Latitudes is a thrilling and thought-provoking exploration of a changing planet. At once memoir, journal and travelogue of Earth's wildernesses, Latitudes ranges across the Antarctic, the Arctic, the savannahs and deserts of Africa, the Southern and Atlantic oceans and the boreal forests of Canada.Latitudes is a powerful, innovative book of creative non-fiction that tracks one writer's life-long experience of reckoning with an age of dramatic ecological loss. It shows us the importance of listening to the living world that is speaking to us, if we open ourselves to hear its voice.

A startling, character-driven debut of skilled writing and intelligence, Arx: City of Broken Minds is a standalone epic of grimdark fantasy.In Arx, no-one remembers anything. Not the Flame Protests. Not the Sightless executioner. Not even themselves.The story unwinds through the tales of three young characters:Caelan: His memories have been stolen. All he has left is instinct and fear. Fear of the Fog-Eyes, mindless and drooling. The emptiness that lies in his future unless he can quiet the nameless voice screaming in his head. And he will burn Arx to ashes to avoid it.Samantha: an asexual blacksmith and perpetual paternal disappointment, knows exactly what she'll be remembered for: Callisteel. A mythic metal that can pierce reality, it waits for her beneath the smog that scars the sky black. No matter the cost.Ruairi: a famer boy with a twisted spine, heads to Arx desperate to avoid being pitied. On the way, he rescues a man with violet eyes. His reward is a nightmare of blue fire and blood that pushes him to the edge of what his broken body can take - and beyond.Mindbreakers walk once more in Arx, drawn to the spire of unbroken metal that hangs like a blade against the rotten heart of the city. Now their master has returned, it is only a matter of time before it awakens and slices the connection between reality and memory for good...

The Cellist of Dachau is an acclaimed and “masterful” novel of the Holocaust— the legacy that haunts us, and the music that binds us.In 1938, Otto Schalmik, a 19-year-old musician from a Jewish family in Vienna, is arrested by Nazi police. Transported to Dachau, he is summoned to the home of the camp’s Adjutant, who forces him to scrub the floors and play Bach on a priceless looted cello.In 1990s California, Otto, now a world-famous composer, and a young Australian musicologist, Rosa, discover the ways in which their lives are linked through music and history. Weaving together stories from both sides of Nazi Germany, The Cellist Of Dachau explores the ongoing impact of war and the power of music as a transcending force to heal and rebuild lives.

Poems about the universe: from the sub-atomic level to the cosmic, from bacteria to complex life and exoplanets.The physicist Richard Feynman challenged poets to step aside from metaphor and capture the stark magnificence of the universe. Spurred to action, James Thornton opened himself to wonders and dived deep into the intricacies of science.Let his poetry open your eyes.Complete with an essay on Poetry and Science.

A relentless nautical drama that would define, or end, men's lives.The English port city of Hull was home to 'three day millionaires' - trawlermen on brief shore leave. They were spilling cash from record catches. With months out working fierce seas, who knew if the next trip would be their last?The St Finbarr was set to change all that.She was built as the perfect trawler, no cost spared. She was the future of the industry. She was on her thirteenth voyage.The Grand Banks, Christmas Day 1966.No holiday for the crew. They weren't fishing. They were battling for their lives. Who can survive a fireball at sea? The families of the crew had a cruel wait to find out. Ships hit the fierce seas off Newfoundland to join a two-day rescue mission. From first sparks to gut-wrenching heroics, The Luckiest Thirteen tracks a true story from the far reaches of what fishermen can do.

A steamy psychological thriller set in Mallorca, that uncovers the living trauma of the Spanish Civil War

Waymarks tracks one man through significant encounters with the natural world, around the globe. An Ethiopian lake, an Australian rainforest, an American desert, an English beach: the stage keeps changing, but the intent stays the same. A poet enters a deep dialogue with birds, animals, people, plants, seas, and all the forces that threaten and churn this mix of life.James Thornton is a zen priest, and Waymarks sits alongside other classics of metaphysical writing in which poets bare their soul. Teachings from great figures along the way permeate the collection: a West Coast poet, a Japanese Zen Master, a spiritual leader, and the Dalai Lama.'Waymarks is a beautiful collection of poems which act as a bridge between human spirit and the spirit of nature. These poems are elegant, simple and profound. When I read these poems I feel uplifted and inspired. They touch my heart and move my spirit. James Thornton is a poet of deep wisdom and love!' - Satish Kumar, Editor Emeritus, Resurgence & Ecologist and Founder of Schumacher College'These poems are wonderful! They sing with passion and integrity, and make clear why James Thornton is such a vital ambassador and guardian of the planet' - Baroness Rosie Boycott

- Richard reclaims the Jewishness and the humanity of many biblical characters in this novel.- It's an excellent historical fiction that captures an especially turbulent time in Jerusalem, under Roman rule and heavily influenced by Greek culture.- The Lost Gospel of Lazarus poses thoughtful philosophical questions on the nature of amnesia, love, friendship, faith and destiny.

MORNING STAR BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020A genre-busting, gender-bending Vatican thriller. What happens when everything you know is thrown into doubt?And you're the Pope?The recently elected Irish Pope Patrick has plans for his future Church. Then he is attacked in St Peter's Square. Cardinals turn against him. Shocking revelations threaten his traditional status and his faith. In this novel where nothing is as it seems, Catholicism and modern morality are held in tension. Pope Patrick has to face challenges and make choices he could never have imagined.'This is a strange and strangely touching novel and it is also written with great elegance and authority. It tackles head on some of the most challenging issues for the Roman Catholic Church around gender and sexuality and at the same time has some of the loveliest, most persuasive, writing about personal prayer that I have ever encountered in fiction.' - Sara Maitland'Virgin and Child cleverly merges crime with Catholicism and piety with a dangerous love. Pope Patrick, the Irish Pope, is famed for his humanity but unaware of the subversive forces plotting his destruction. The novel is wonderfully original and absorbing, from the halls of the Vatican to its explosive conclusion.' - Mary Flanagan

What if the end of the world is the best thing that's never happened?'A REMARKABLE AND PEERLESS READ.' Morning Star'GRIPPING, FUNNY AND HOPEFUL.' The Times'WILDLY IMAGINTIVE.' Scotland on SundayIn the central Scottish town of Dundule, residents of the Busy Bee Flats ¿ Donna and her eight-year old daughter, dour ex-miner Douglas, big Giorgio the chip shop fryer, young druggies Tam and Mac ¿ struggle like everyone else.Then the lights go out.Winter, and it¿s a global blackout.Now¿s the choice. Go wild and raid the streets, or come together and build something new in the ruins of the old.But there's no paradise yet. Botched deals, armed survivalists and dwindling resources threaten to destroy progress. And the occasional screech of a fighter jet reminds them that nuclear oblivion still looms¿Disnaeland mixes tenderness with broad comedy during the end times. Shifting from the deeply personal to the visionary, D.D. Johnston brings us an extraordinary and prophetic novel.Some blogger reaction:`A brilliant exciting roller coaster ride... the best dystopia I have ever read.¿ @ladyreading365`Refreshingly original¿ thought provoking¿ surprisingly uplifting. I laughed, I cried¿ and I enjoyed the ride.¿ @librarylove2781`What a read! Heart-breaking but heart-warming, morbid but hopeful.¿ @herandherbooks`It took me exactly one chapter to be obsessed with this book... quirky, morbid, uplifting and hilarious.¿@mybloodybookstsagram`Laugh out loud funny with great characters.¿ @candygirl73reads`Memorable characters and an interesting set up¿ one of my top dystopian books.¿ @whatyoutolkienabout`The novel¿s radical premise is elevated by vividly drawn characters and its compassionate and hilarious storytelling.¿ @reecetagram`Disnaeland is as witty and warm as it is dark and dingy.¿ @swordinthesloan'Sharp-witted humour and a writing style that reminded me of Christopher Brookmyre, I was engrossed in this distinct wee novel.¿ @pap3rcut__

THE 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION OF MARTIN GOODMAN'S WHITBREAD SHORTLISTED NOVEL'Goodman writes with flare and panache, and the narrative fizzes along. Goodman's novel soars.' The Times 'A perceptive, moving novel. Martin Goodman takes fierce delight in cutting through the easy cliches about the "e;new"e; Europe.' Christopher Hope'Goodman's quirkily charming novel interweaves a young man's search for selfhood in provincial Britain with the mysteries of his mother's German past. ~ Natasha Walker, VogueThe Second World War is over, but the Europe's wounds have not yet healed.Tomas is half-German, he is taught by English war veterans. He walks the ruins of Coventry with his English Gran, the city still crumbling from the blitz.When he nears adulthood, Tomas goes to Germany to stay with his blind uncle. The enigmatic old man was once a German soldier. They explore the drastically changed Berlin, leading one another to places new. Out in Dresden, a city decimated by Allied firebombs, Tomas has more family still. What might a young man make of all this?ON BENDED KNEES explores the inheritance of war guilt in a post-war Europe. It considers how the next generation can reconcile the sins of the last; a timeless dynamic in the modern world.What might we inherit from the wars of our elders, and how might we move on?'The emotional tact of Martin Goodman's ON BENDED KNEES slips down like a milky cuppa. Yet Goodman's plot unfolds against a backcloth of even deeper red. Tomas grows up with his German mother in the postwar Midlands, a place of oozing war-wounds where a gung-ho film or a World Cup tie can split his heart in two. "e;We carry old deaths within us,"e; warns his dying teacher and Tomas must turn pilgrim in Dresden to make peace with his family's past. This quiet and subtle study of reconciliation tends to stick with English understatement and eschew German grandeur. No matter, Britain has squads of youngish writers trained to squeeze the last drop of moral juice out of the Second World War and its aftermath. It takes a braver soul, like Goodman, to hint that postwar babes should try instead to lay these ghosts to rest.' The Observer'A professional combination of rite-of-passage novel and cultural quest.... Berlin is brilliantly seen through the hero's eyes, as is the character who effectively steals the novel, the blind and autocratic Herr Poppel. The novel comes most to life when Tomas and Poppel are taking their walks around the divided city's streets and parks... A very impressive debut.' Colin Donald, The Scotsman

A compelling fable from an award-winning indigenous writer. Drawing on ancient tribal tales from Nagaland, northern India, SPIRIT NIGHTS is an exciting UK debut for Easterine Kire. It tells of a prophecy fulfilled when a number of villages are enveloped in an endless darkness. 'A rich festival of storytelling - playful, poignant and profound. Easterine Kire reimagines marvels for new audiences, shining fresh light on ancient wisdom and revealing truths that have united humanity for centuries. A beautiful read.' Ann Morgan, Reading Around the WorldA terrible taboo has been violated in the spirit world. A wise elder feels the village crumble as her people are isolated and frightened. She knows that only through acting with wisdom and courage, and journeying into unknown realms, can the people get the light back.But who would dare to do that?Lockdowns, Spirit Visions, Eternal Darkness - Spirit Nights delivers a unique, timely tale from Nagaland.'To read Easterine Kire is to fall under the spell of an easeful, velvety, pitch-perfect storytelling. This book is especially memorable for a powerful female protagonist whose ageripened wisdom is needed to save a community on the verge of being engulfed and erased by darkness.' - Gayathri PrabhuSpirit Nights also includes informative notes, and an essay about real 'Dark Time Accounts' - tribal stories of periods when the world tumbles into seemingly endless night time.

Science Fiction Book of the Month - The Times: 'Weaves a gloomy, gripping, spiritual spell all of its own.''A subtle and provocative meditation on the nature of faith and hope in the face of despair and chaos.' - AurealisIt's 2096. Scientists work to protect a baking planet. What a drought-stricken Europe needs is rain. What it gets is a messiah.Eli is born in a suburb of Prague. A rainstorm heralds the birth. Perhaps this messiah is for real. Eli's father abandons the family to become the dictator's right-hand man. Eli's elder brother Marek guides Eli through his short and powerful life.Can tales of a messiah be enough to heal a ravaged planet in which few babies are born? Marek works with the zeal of a prophet. Aged 72, he's still going strong. A new follower joins Marek's community, young Natalia. She awakens the old man to the joys of the body. But what's the worth of a human love when the environment is collapsing? Marek sets out to find his answer.My Brother the Messiah is a story about daring to seed the future of our planet.

A great Frankenstein sequel, shortlisted for the Saltire Literary Society's SCOTTISH FIRST BOOK OF THE YEAR. Lovereading says: 'This gripping gothic thriller manages to put an imaginative new spin on the Frankenstein story. The doomed and mournful scientist is on Orkney seeking to fulfill his pact with the monster and make him a wife. The terrible tale unfolds through the eyes of poor Oona, his housemaid and now accomplice. Horsley combines a deft literary touch and an ease with the intricacies of the weird, with a powerful feminist angle, in this retelling of a much-told story with striking originality. More than yet another attempt at a sequel to a classic, this is a fiercely accomplished fever dream.' We Love This Book says: 'The Monster's Wife is an absolute must read for any gothic fans and especially for lovers of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.'

Longlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize. A Morning Star 'Radical Book of the Year'.The Deconstruction of Professor Thrubb is a radical trek through twentieth-century history. It's also a brazan campus comedy, a medical drama and a cheery ride through the Scottish Highlands.A PhD student tracks the biography of Elsie Stewart from her job as a London maid and to the Spanish Civil War while true love runs far from smooth. His neurotic supervisor, Professor Thrub, is a bewildering mentor with secrets of his own.

A dystopian novel set around London's disused Heathrow Airport. For sixteen years the Earth has baked and no girls have been born. Karen's the last girl. Steven's her gay twin. Dad turns their home into a fortress as women take their chance to rule the world. Their eyes are on Steven. Perhaps, with a little medical interference, he could be the saviour of the world. The boys of teensquad run the streets, insects clog the skies, and scientists are cooking up a brand new Eden. Ectopia takes themes of gender, feminism, climate change, cloning, psychedelics, racism, and genetic modification and mixes them into a 21st century BRAVE NEW WORLD. 'If you are a connoisseur of dystopias, this will be one for you' - Henry Gee, Occam's Typewriter

A self-help memoir that takes an unflinching look at a young man's undiagnosed anxiety disorder and OCD."e;'THIS IS WRITING AT ITS MOST FEARLESS.' Matt Bright, Everybody's Reviewing'WESTOBY GIVES A VOICE TO TEENAGERS UNABLE TO COPE WITH EVERYDAY LIFE... THIS IS AN ESSENTIAL READ.' Paul Taylor-Mcartney, Writers in EducationChris Westoby takes us inside his past self, a teenager from a small English town. He's trying to be a good friend, student, son and boyfriend, but he struggles to be in company without wanting to hide. And things only get worse: it's nearly impossible to take the bus to college without catching the next bus home. His obsessive germaphobia begins to destroy his life. How can one boy overcome all this? Chris offers am unflinching, raw account of his troubles and offers what he's learnt.This book an outstretched hand to those fighting these same battles, or to anyone who's watching someone else go through the same. The Fear Talking does not promise to solve your problems, but it shows you that you're not alone. That's all Chris ever wanted, really; to unflinchingly capture the warmth and darkness of the teenage years.Some Expert Reactions'Read this book, and you will never forget it. As a narrative it's fascinating. As the memoir of a life lived with anxiety, it's incomparable.' Peter Draper, Emeritus Professor of Nursing Education, UNIVERSITY OF HULL'Anxiety is the most common form of mental distress and of course overlaps with normal human emotion. Yet it can be overwhelming and disabling and a gateway to other mental ill health notably depression and self-medication with alcohol and other substances. This engaging account throws a spotlight on how anxiety impacts on everyday life and relationships.' Patrick McGorry, Professor of Youth Mental Health, UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE'In The Fear Talking, Chris Westoby achieves the well-nigh impossible, giving us a fully immersive account of adolescent anxiety, allowing the reader to feel and experience with the narrator. If one of the main aims of the memoir form is to induce empathy in readers, Westoby's memoir succeeds brilliantly. The reader comes away with a new and profound understanding of what mental illness feels like from within.' Jonathan Taylor, Associate Professor Creative Writing, UNIVERSITY OF LECEISTER

Red Hands is a deeply compelling tale of a woman caught inside the destruction of a Communist regime. Iordana is a normal girl, brought up with all the perks of Romania's corrupt government. Then she falls in love and marries the eldest son of her parents' arch-rival, Romania's monstrous dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. They become the in-laws from hell, but she brings them their only grandson. And then there's the 1989 revolution, when crowds will kill anyone with the Ceausescu name. In all the blood and chaos, can Iordana keep her little son alive?Drawn from eighty hours of unique interviews and told in Iordana's own voice; this true-life tale spins readers into the pleasures, excesses and horrors of late twentieth-century Europe.'An astonishing work, brilliantly told. In Iordana Ceausescu, Colin Sargent has given us a fascinating window into the brutal regime of Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu and their near destruction of Romania. A cautionary tale for our times.' - Nancy Schoenberger, author of The Fabulous Bouvier Sisters'Red Hands is uniquely unsettling and a standout read... a page-turner fuelled by intrigue, blind greed, and staggering accuracy.' - Victoria Rowell, author of The Women Who Raised Me'A fascinating look at Romania - nowa staunch NATO ally - as it emerges from the Cold War. Centred on the story of a close relative of feared dictator Ceausescu, it provides a uniquely human frame to the dangerous turbulence of that dynamic and complex period in Eastern Europe.' - Admiral James Stavridis, USN, Supreme Allied Commander at NATO (2009-2013)

The Irish-American poet James Thornton is known globally as a world-leading environmental lawyer working to save the planet. In this second collection he returns to the same French Pyrenean village every Spring. Over 25 years he has settled at his desk, the flanks of hillsides beyond his window, and captured in verse the life and nature of the French Pyrenean village that is his second home. James's poetry conjures the lives of ancient villagers. snakes, turtles, fish, birds, flowers, crops, insects, hogs and children.

Pansy Boy is a stunningly beautiful picture book about a child's journey to overcome bullying and be proud of who he is. Told as rhyming poem, the story comes to life with vivid graphic art.Out in the natural world, a boy is in love with its beauty. Flowers and birds in flight amaze him. But school beckons, and with it bullying from other children. How can he defend himself? Pansy boy learns the language of the flowers. Where bullies pinned his life with their hate, he plants a pansy. He hopes his plan will empower the school to value what is delicate and different.Pansy Boy is inspired by the childhood of author and illustrator Paul Harfleet, the founder of The Pansy Project, a worldwide movement which plants pansies at the sites of homophobic attacks around the world. The book comes complete with a field guide to the flowers and birds contained in its pages."In the garden of Kew he read for hours, and learned the language of the flowers..."

A contemporary classic from the Czech Republic. To support his family, a man submits himself to a solo science experiment in the High Andes. A cosmic adventure story of big ideas and murder. 'I loved it: simple as that. I started reading thinking I'd start with a few chapters and pace it over a week or two, but I found I couldn't stop. A potent and haunting novel of black holes, solitude and the sublime, it is never less than immensely readable and absorbing.' - Adam Roberts, winner of the BSFA Award for Best Novel and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. Your business is dead. It seems like a deal - leave your family behind in Prague for a year, isolate yourself in a research station in the Andes, and come home with a fortune. With a treatise on black holes for company, Jakob settles in at altitude. The air is thin. Strangers pass by on dangerous pilgrimage while his young wife and kids take life in his mind. In mountain starkness, the big questions take shape - like what happens to love inside a black hole?

Winter 1968. Three Hull trawlers sink. One fishwife vows to change the law. A powerful story of death and survival. In the harsh Arctic seas of 1968, three trawlers from Hull's fleet sank in just three weeks. 58 men died. Lillian Bilocca put down her filleting knife, wrote a petition, and stormed into action. With her army of fishwives she took her battle to the docks and led a raid on Parliament. They changed the shipping laws, 'Big Lil' became an international celebrity. The lone survivor of the tragedies made headlines too. In a tight fishing community, it's dangerous to stand out.