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A Signed & Dedicated Hardback of 'Shadow Voices: 300 Years of Irish Genre Fiction: A History in Stories' edited by John Connolly. The First Edition of this book is completely sold out - the hardback supplied will be from a later printing. A PERSONALISED MESSAGE CAN BE ADDED BY JOHN CONNOLLY AT NO ADDITIONAL COST - WE WILL EMAIL YOU ONCE YOUR ORDER IS PLACED TO CHECK FOR PERSONAL DEDICATIONS. The story of genre fiction – horror, romantic fiction, science-fiction, crime writing, and more – is also the story of Irish fiction. Irish writers have given the world Lemuel Gulliver, Dracula, and the world of Narnia. They have produced pioneering tales of detection, terrifying ghost stories and ground-breaking women’s popular fiction. Now, for the first time, John Connolly’s one volume presents the history of Irish genre writing and uses it to explore how we think about fiction itself. Deeply researched, and passionately argued, SHADOW VOICES takes the lives of more than sixty writers – by turns tragic, amusing, and adventurous, but always extraordinary – and sets them alongside the stories they have written, to create a new way of looking at genre and literature, both Irish and beyond. Here are vampires and monsters, murderers and cannibals. Here are female criminal masterminds and dogged detectives, star-crossed lovers and vengeful spouses. Here are the SHADOW VOICES. Please note : At 1184 pages this is a hefty volume! We do not currently have an exact weight but we expect it to weigh approx 1.6kg which means increased postage rates will apply - sorry! We have reduced postage as much as we are able whilst covering our postal costs. ISBN 9781529394665 -
We read because we want to experience lives and emotions beyond our own, to learn, to see with others' eyes. The 32 is a celebration of working-class voices from the thirty-two counties of the island of Ireland. Edited by Paul McVeigh, this intimate and illuminating collection features memoir and essays from established and emerging Irish voices including Kevin Barry, Dermot Bolger, Roddy Doyle, Lisa McInerney, Lyra McKee and many more. Too often, working-class writers find that the hurdles they come up against are higher and harder to leap over than those faced by writers from more affluent backgrounds. As in Common People - an anthology of working-class writers edited by Kit de Waal and the inspiration behind this collection - The 32 sees writers who have made that leap reach back to give a helping hand to those coming up behind. Without these working-class voices, without the vital reflection of real lives, or role models for working-class readers and writers, literature will be poorer. We will all be poorer. ISBN 9781800180246 -
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Vol 8 of Winter Papers, Ireland’s annual anthology for the arts, is published by Curlew Editions. It offers fiction, non-fiction, poetry, photography, visual arts, along with craft interviews and in-conversation pieces on writing, film, theatre, photography and music. – ‘a treasure trove of soul fuel with deep roots in Irish soil’ Irish Times – Picked as an ‘Irish art book of the year’ Sunday Times Ireland Edited by Kevin Barry and Olivia Smith Kevin Barry is the award winning author of the novels Night Boat to Tangier, Beatlebone and City of Bohane and the story collections That Old Country Music, Dark Lies the Island and There are Little Kingdoms. Olivia Smith has published widely as an academic. ISBN 9780993302978 -
Why have women been treated differently, and discriminated against, in the literary world? Why has gender been a 'problem' in the writing, publishing, funding and reviewing scene? And why does it matter? Éilís Ní Dhuibhne asked 21 writers who were born in mid-twentieth-century Ireland, north and south, to write about their literary lives. They tell it like it really was, and is. Collectively, thеse vivid, original essays provide us with a fascinating picture of Ireland's literary landscape from multiple female points of view. Poets, fiction writers, playwrights, impresarios, writers in Irish and English, have written accounts which are funny, tragic, philosophical, angry, but all are lively, stunningly-honest testimonies of the writing life during a pivotal period in the history of Irish literature. These writers came of age when legislation for gender equality was beginning to be enacted. They are growing older on an island where a great deal has changed, for the better, as far as women are concerned. They have participated in, and created, new and more egalitarian literary scenes through their activism, but above all with their writing. They were movers and shakers when it really mattered. They are literary survivors. Contributors: Éilís Ní Dhuibhne, Catherine Dunne, Lia Mills, Medbh McGuckian, Evelyn Conlon, Mary O'Malley, Liz McManus, Mary O'Donnell, Moya Cannon, Celia de Fréine, Mary Dorcey, Anne Devlin, Mary Rose Callaghan, Mary Morrissy, Áine Ní Ghlinn, Sophia Hillan, Ruth Carr, Cherry Smyth, Máiríde Woods, Ivy Bannister, Phyl Herbert. With a foreword by novelist Martina Devlin and an afterword by Arlen House publisher Alan Hayes, this book is essential reading for anyone with an interest in how Ireland finally began to value the voices of women. Here is, in their own words, the story of the women who are the way-pavers of modern and post-modern Irish literature. There has never been a collection of essays like this. ISBN 9781851322510 -
'We asked listeners to be honest, creative, funny, engaging and evocative in their writing ... to try to make us laugh, cry and think. We never imagined we would get the quantity and quality of entries that we did for A Page from My Life.' - Ray D'Arcy In the midst of the Covid crisis, the Ray D'Arcy Show invited RTE Radio 1 listeners to send in 'A Page from My Life': 500 words on a memorable event, or a story simply worth sharing. The response was overwhelming. Ray and his team were inundated with over 2,500 entries, from authors of all ages and all walks of life. And what those entries created was an extraordinary picture of Irish life in microcosm. Funny and heart-breaking, poignant and surprising, they told a series of unforgettable stories ... moments that changed everything, and where life itself seemed to hang in the balance. Quiet reflections on the meaning of love and loss. Hilarious tales of everyday mishaps, chance encounters, and feats of pure imagination. It was a timely reminder of the experiences and values that unite us, even as circumstances contrived to keep us apart. Introduced by the Ray D'Arcy Show judges - bestselling authors Donal Ryan (The Spinning Heart), Emilie Pine (Notes to Self), Emer McLysaght (the Aisling series) and Eoin Colfer (Artemis Fowl) - A Page From My Life gathers 150 of these stories to form an exhilarating and moving testament to the wonder of everyday life. ISBN 9780008447922 -
Following her own brilliant short story collection Multitudes, Lucy Caldwell guest edits the sixth volume of Faber's long running series of new Irish short stories, continuing the great work started by the late David Marcus and subsequent guest editors Kevin Barry, Deirdre Madden and Joseph O'Connor. Contributors to this richly diverse collection include: Kevin Barry, Eimear McBride, Lisa McInerney, Stuart Neville, Sally Rooney, Kit de Waal and Belinda McKeon 'BEING VARIOUS has a brilliant array of writers making waves in the twenty-first century, from lauded names to newcomers ranging from their twenties to their sixties; Irish by birth, by parentage, or residence.' Lucy Caldwell. ISBN 9780571354108 -
This richly illustrated anthology gathers together classic short stories from masters of supernatural fiction including M. R. James, Sheridan Le Fanu and Arthur Machen, alongside lesser-known voices in the field including Eleanor Scott and Margery Lawrence, and popular writers less bound to the horror genre, such as Thomas Hardy and E.F. Benson. These are damnable tales, selected and beautifully illustrated by Richard Wells. They stalk the moors at night, the deep forests, cornered fields and dusky churchyards, the narrow lanes and old ways of these ancient places, drawing upon the haunted landscapes of folk-horror - a now widely used term first applied to a series of British films from the late 1960s and 1970s: Witchfinder General (1968), Blood on Satan's Claw (1971), and The Wicker Man (1973). But as this collection shows, writers of uncanny fiction were dabbling in the dark side of folklore long before. These twenty-two stories take the reader beyond the safety and familiarity of the town into the isolated and untamed wilderness. Unholy rites, witches' curses, sinister village traditions and ancient horrors that lurk within the landscape all combine to remind us that the shiny modern, urban world might not have all the answers... ISBN 9781800181823 -
Truman Capote makes whisky-soaked fruitcake in Alabama; Laurie Lee slides across a frozen pond in Gloucestershire; and Shirley Jackson is outwitted by a wily Santa Claus at the bank. Ghosts haunt the Christmases of Muriel Spark and Elizabeth Bowen, while Dostoyevsky, Daphne du Maurier and Italo Calvino take a cynical view of the season and Selma Lagerlof and Angela Carter celebrate its miracles. Ranging from Cork to Lagos to the Wild West, and from Paris to San Paolo to outer space, this is Christmas as imagined by some of the greatest short-story writers of all time. -
From the islands of Scotland to the coast of Cornwall, the mountains of Galway to the depths of the Fens, these forgotten folktales howl, cackle and sing their way into the 21st century, wildly reimagined by some of the most exciting women writing in Britain and Ireland today. Includes stories by Daisy Johnson, Kirsty Logan, Emma Glass, Eimear McBride, Natasha Carthew, Mahsuda Snaith, Naomi Booth, Liv Little, Imogen Hermes Gowar, Irenosen Okojie and more. 'A thoroughly original package that has a hint of Angela Carter' The Times. ISBN 9780349013596 -
The perfect gift this Christmas season: a generous selection of some of the greatest festive stories of all time - now in a beautiful clothbound edition. This is a collection of the most magical, moving, chilling and surprising Christmas stories from around the world, taking us from frozen Nordic woods to glittering Paris, a New York speakeasy to an English country house, bustling Lagos to midnight mass in Rio, and even outer space. Here are classic tales from writers including Truman Capote, Shirley Jackson, Dylan Thomas, Saki and Chekhov, as well as little-known treasures such as Italo Calvino's wry sideways look at Christmas consumerism, Wolfdietrich Schnurre's story of festive ingenuity in Berlin, Selma Lagerlof's enchanted forest in Sweden, and Irene Nemerovsky's dark family portrait. Featuring santas, ghosts, trolls, unexpected guests, curmudgeons and miracles, here is Christmas as imagined by some of the greatest short story writers of all time. ISBN 9780241455654 -
A stunning collection of new short stories originally commissioned by The New York Times Magazine as the COVID-19 pandemic swept the world, from twenty-nine authors including Margaret Atwood, Tommy Orange, Colm Tóibín, Kamilia Shamsie, David Mitchell and more, in a project inspired by Boccaccio's The Decameron. When reality is surreal, only fiction can make sense of it. In 1353, Giovanni Boccaccio wrote "The Decameron": one hundred nested tales told by a group of young men and women passing the time at a villa outside Florence while waiting out the gruesome Black Death, a plague that killed more than 25 million people. Some of the stories are silly, some are bawdy, some are like fables. In March of 2020, the editors of The New York Times Magazine created The Decameron Project, an anthology with a simple, time-spanning goal: to gather a collection of stories written as our current pandemic first swept the globe. How might new fiction from some of the finest writers working today help us memorialize and understand the unimaginable? And what could be learned about how this crisis will affect the art of fiction? These twenty-nine new stories, from authors including Margaret Atwood, Tommy Orange, Edwidge Danticat, and David Mitchell vary widely in texture and tone. ISBN 9781398502147 -
A special reissue from Head of Zeus's bestselling anthology collection of the very best Irish short stories, selected by Sinead Gleeson, author of Constellations, winner of the Irish Book Award Non Fiction Book of the Year 2019. There have been many anthologies of the short story as it developed in Ireland, but never a collection like this. The Art of the Glimpse is a radical revision of the canon of the Irish story, uniting classic works with neglected writers and marginalised voices - women, LGBT writers, Traveller folk-tales, neglected 19th-century authors and the first wave of 'new Irish' writers from all over the world now making a life in Ireland. Sinead Gleeson brings together stories that range from the most sublime realism to the downright bizarre and transgressive, some from established literary figures and some that have not yet been published in book form. The collection draws on a tremendous spectrum of experience: the story of a prank come good by Bram Stoker; Sally Rooney on the love languages of the new generation; Donal Ryan on the pains of ageing; Edna O'Brien on the things we betray for love; James Joyce on a young woman torn between the familiar burdens and oppression of her home and the dangerous lure of romance and escape; and the internal monologue of a woman in a coma by Marian Keyes. Here too are vivid and less familiar stories by Chiamaka Enyi-Amadi, Oein De Bharduin, Blindboy Boatclub and Melatu Uche Okorie. Sinead Gleeson's anthology is a marvellous representation of a rich literary tradition renewing itself in the 21st century. Large Paperback Edition - 768 pages. ISBN 9781800249691 -
A special reissue from Head of Zeus's bestselling anthology collection of 100 scary stories to read with the lights on, selected and introduced by award-winning author Louise Welsh. Haunted houses, mysterious counts, weeping widows and restless souls, here is the definitive anthology of all that goes bump in the night. Hand-picked by award-winning author Louise Welsh, this beautiful collection of 100 ghost stories will delight, unnerve, and entertain any fiction lover brave enough... Here are gothic classics, modern masters, Booker Prize-winners, ancient folk tales and stylish noirs, proving that every writer has a skeleton or two in their closet. The all-star cast of authors inlude: Hilary Mantel, William Faulkner, Kate Atkinson, Henry James, Kazuo Ishiguro, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Franz Kafka, Ruth Rendell, Edgar Allan Poe, William Trevor, Helen Simpson, Haruki Murakami, Dylan Thomas, Bram Stoker, H.P. Lovecraft, Lydia Davis, Sir Walter Scott, Annie Proulx, Bram Stoker, Angela Carter and Stephen King. Large Paperback Edition - 816 pages. ISBN 9781800249677 -
I cannot remember my father or my mother; oh, wretched that I am! Had I either? My memory goes back three months – no further. Every day, I live those three months over and over again. A mystical battle between foreign gods and local saints is unleashed as idols are mistaken for garden ornaments; an ambiguous wizard spies on his neighbours from an invisible tower; a cursed duelling pistol influences its owners to commit suicide. Edited and introduced by Jack Fennell, this collection of lesser-known works of classic Irish fantasy – with strange combinations of occultism, electricity, magic and playfully Biblical archetypes – illuminate a side of Irish literary history that is often overlooked. ISBN 9781916291409 -
80 of the funniest stories ever written, selected and introduced by Paul Merton. From Anton Chekhov to Ali Smith, from P.G. Wodehouse to Nora Ephron, the greatest writers are those who know how to laugh. Here, award-winning comedian and broadcaster Paul Merton brings together his favourite funny stories of all time. Whether it's the silly, surreal, slap-stick or satirical that makes you smile, there's a story here to tickle every funny bone. From prize-winners and literary giants, to stand-up comedians and the rising stars of funny literature, this brilliant anthology is guaranteed to cheer your day. ISBN 9781838939021 -
FROM THE CREATORS OF THE HAUNTING SEASON COMES A DAZZLING COLLECTION OF NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN GHOSTLY TALES. Featuring new and original stories from: Bridget Collins, author of The Binding. Imogen Hermes Gowar, author of The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock. Kiran Millwood Hargrave, author of The Mercies. Andrew Michael Hurley, author of The Loney. Jess Kidd, author of Things in Jars. Natasha Pulley, author of The Watchmaker of Filigree Street. Elizabeth Macneal, author of The Doll Factory. Laura Purcell, author of The Silent Companions. Susan Stokes-Chapman, author of Pandora. Laura Shepherd-Robinson, author of The Square of Sevens. Stuart Turton, author of The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. Catriona Ward, author of The Last House on Needless Street. The tradition of a haunted tale at Christmas has flourished across the centuries. These twelve stories - authored by some of today's most loved and lauded writers of historical and gothic fiction - are all centred around Christmas or Advent, boldly and playfully re-imagining a beloved tradition for a modern audience. Taking you from a haunted Tuscan villa to a remote Scottish island with a dark secret,, these vibrant haunted stories are your ultimate companion for frosty nights. So curl up, light a candle, and fall under the spell of winters past... 'I absolutely devoured The Winter Spirits. Every story is a gem' LAURA SHEPPERSON 'Another dazzling collection. Chilling, moving and incredibly satisfying' AMANDA MASON 'Eerily macabre, hauntingly propulsive' JOANNE BURN -
Anne Doyle has a dark side: an affinity for the ghoulish, unexplainable and supernatural. Reincarnated as the mistress of macabre, Ireland's best-loved newsreader delights in presenting Tales of the Otherworld, a fabulously frightful anthology of Irish ghost stories that have thrilled, unnerved and, for better or worse, stayed with her over the years. Discover the very best of Irish ghost writing, from national treasures such as W.B. Yeats and Bram Stoker to contemporary work from Deirdre Sullivan and Roisin O'Donnell, each accompanied by charming, witty commentary from Anne herself. Reading this collection is like having an ice cube plucked straight from Anne's vodka soda and dropped down the back of your neck. -
LGBTQ writing from ancient times to yesterday selected by award-winning translator Frank Wynne. Drawing together writing from Catullus to Sappho, from Arthur Rimbaud to Anne Lister and Armistead Maupin, translator Frank Wynne has collected eighty of the finest works representing queer love by LGBTQ authors. These pieces straddle the spectrum of queer experience, from Verlaine's sonnet in praise of his lover's anus and Emily Dickinson's exhortation of a woman's beauty, to Alison Bechdel's graphic novel of her coming out, Juno Dawson's reflections on gender and Oscar Wilde's 'De Profundis'. With stories, poems, extracts and scenes from countries the world over, Queer is an unabashed and unapologetic anthology, which gives voice to those often silenced. ISBN 9781803287393