They are caught between two of Glasgow's housing estates, where young working-class men divide themselves along sectarian lines, and fight territorial battles for the sake of reputation. They should be sworn enemies if they're to be seen as men at all, and yet they become best friends as they find a sanctuary in the doocot that James has built for his prize racing pigeons. As they begin to fall in love, they dream of escaping the grey city, and Mungo must work hard to hide his true self from all those around him, especially from his elder brother Hamish, a local gang leader with a brutal reputation to uphold.
The hauntingly atmospheric English-language début from the acclaimed Welsh author: a love story between a young Welsh woman and a Syrian mapmaker, rich with magic, mystery and the wonder of the sea.
Another colourful story about Cadi, and her little brother, Mabon. This time the two are snatched on a boat on the Pembrokeshire coast and learn a very important lesson: people should not be judged on their appearance. But how will they manage to escape from the enormous octopus? An entrancing, hard cover book.
Living in London, Lydia is struggling through her twenties, regretting drunken nights, reflecting on texts and trying her best nor to be late for work. She has a complicated relationship with Wales. Far from home, she questions her identity and her vision of herself as a Welsh woman in the world.
The final title in the trilogy of raw detective novels by Jon Gower (following Y Düwch and Y Dial). Tom Tom and Freeman's relationship is flowering and they begin to plan their future. However, when Tom Tom's nephew goes missing, he travels to Scotland to look for the student and is drawn into a very dark and violent world.
The Philosophy of Modern Song is Bob Dylan's first book of new writing since 2004's Chronicles: Volume One - and since winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2016.
Dylan, who began working on the book in 2010, offers his extraordinary insight into the nature of popular music. He writes over 60 essays focusing on songs by other artists, spanning from Stephen Foster to Elvis Costello, and in between ranging from Hank Williams to Nina Simone. He analyses what he calls the trap of easy rhymes, breaks down how the addition of a single syllable can diminish a song and even explains how bluegrass relates to heavy metal. These essays are written in Dylan's unique prose. They are mysterious and mercurial, poignant and profound, and often laugh-out-loud funny. And while they are ostensibly about music, they are really meditations and reflections on the human condition. Running throughout the book are nearly 150 carefully curated photos as well as a series of dream-like riffs that, taken together, resemble an epic poem and add to the work's transcendence.
In 2020, with the release of his outstanding album Rough and Rowdy Ways, Dylan became the first artist to have an album hit the Billboard Top 40 in each decade since the 1960s. The Philosophy of Modern Song contains much of what he has learned about his craft in all those years and, like everything that Dylan does, it is a momentous artistic achievement.
Visual culture has long been a vital component in the creation and dissemination of this prevalent national brand. The Art of Music describes the visualisation of Welsh music and musicians both in the context of the evolution of the self-image of the Welsh people, and of its influence on outside perceptions of Welshness within Britain and the wider world.
The eleventh laugh-out-loud, fully-illustrated Dyddiadur Dripsyn title from international bestselling author Jeff Kinney! A global phenomenon with 250 million copies of the series sold worldwide! The pressure's really piling up on Greg Heffley. His mum thinks video games are turning his brain to mush, and she wants her son to explore his 'creative side'!
Red Dragons covers the story of Welsh football since its earliest days in the 19th century. It looks at the characters, controversies and developments of the country's clubs, players, and most importantly, the national team. New updated edition for 2022.
'An incredibly important book . . . a beautifully crafted, compelling story . . . which will undoubtedly break your heart but also make it sing' - Mike Gayle
Two children trapped in the same attic, almost a century apart, bound by a secret.
1907: Twelve-year-old Celestine spends most of his time locked in an attic room of a large house by the sea. Taken from his homeland and treated as an unpaid servant, he dreams of his family in Africa even if, as the years pass, he struggles to remember his mother's face, and sometimes his real name . . .
Decades later, Lowra, a young orphan girl born into wealth and privilege, will find herself banished to the same attic. Lying under the floorboards of the room is an old porcelain doll, an unusual beaded claw necklace and, most curiously, a sentence etched on the wall behind an old cupboard, written in an unidentifiable language. Artefacts that will offer her a strange kind of comfort, and lead her to believe that she was not the first child to be imprisoned there . . .
Lola Jaye has created a hauntingly powerful, emotionally charged and unique dual-narrative novel about family secrets, love and loss, identity and belonging, seen through the lens of Black British History in The Attic Child.
'This is important storytelling about issues of race and privilege . . . that will stay with me for a long time' - Tracy Chevalier
Over 15 years ago, The Big Issue began to ask well-known figures from the worlds of entertainment, politics, literature, business and more, one simple question:
If you could write a letter to your younger self, what would it say?
This collection of 70 inspiring, moving and honest interviews includes Billie Piper on feeling burnt out, Monica Ali on self-belief, Mica Paris on sudden loss, Nancy Sinatra on marrying young, Fearne Cotton on battling imposter syndrome, Alesha Dixon on risk-taking and so much more.
ALL ROYALTIES FROM SALES OF THIS BOOK GO TO THE BIG ISSUE.
My name is Gary. I'm a thirty-year-old legal assistant with a firm of solicitors in London. To describe me as anonymous would be unfair but to notice me other than in passing would be a rarity. I did make a good connection with a girl, but that blew up in my face and smacked my arse with a fish slice.
Gary Thorn goes for a pint with a work acquaintance called Brendan. When Brendan leaves early, Gary meets a girl in the pub. He doesn't catch her name, but falls for her anyway. When she suddenly disappears without saying goodbye, all Gary has to remember her by is the book she was reading: The Satsuma Complex. But when Brendan goes missing, Gary needs to track down the girl he now calls Satsuma to get some answers.
And so begins Gary's quest, through the estates and pie shops of South London, to finally bring some love and excitement into his unremarkable life...
A page-turning story with a cast of unforgettable characters, The Satsuma Complex is the brilliantly funny first novel by bestselling author and comedian Bob Mortimer.
