THE BOOKS
This is our current bookshelf. More titles will be arriving shortly, The books can be bought online from either ourselves at a discount or from Amazon at their advertised price. From the Cart page, links will take you to the relevant Amazon page where all the reviews will be available.
Click the covers to read a chapter
REVIEWS:
A Classic. Far above any of the books I'm told that I SHOULD read, like Wolf Hall etc.. etc...
Sara Jane Harding: Author: My Brilliant Boobs
An intricate and beautifully written tale woven around a beautifully intricate device in a story that catapults the reader through the Centuries. If you thought the Da Vinci Code was entangled, try the Mekanismo Series.
Bryony Doran: Author: The China Bird, The Sand Eggs, Home Front
'THE speculative fiction that all WOMEN should read.'
MEKANISMO
JOURNAL I
Keepers of
The Bell
By
William Allerton
MEKANISMO
JOURNAL II
ARGO NAVIS
By
William Allerton
MAGPIE
By
Bill Allerton
What a great read! It starts off as a warm, gentle, funny, quaint and quirky story about 2 old ladies. I thought it was going to be a gorgeous hug of a book, like being wrapped in a snuggly duvet. And it was, at first. But there are constant surprises and with each surprise it gets deeper and darker and the pace picks up until it's quite a page turner. There are so many "issues" in here too, it could keep a reading group going for absolutely ages, although the main "issue" is religion. Really enjoyed it.
Annette Morris
My Brilliant Boobs
Sara Harding
ISBN 978-1739264376
A must-read book about battling breast cancer one blog at a time
'Upfront, honest and heartbreaking' Sir Lenny Henry
'Sara is the Bridget Jones of Breast Cancer' Pink Ribbon Foundation
'Comedy - you won't read many other books about Breast Cancer like this one' Julia Bradbury
'Sex and the City with chemo' Sharon Ali, BBC
Sara Harding - music journalist and creative writer for Sir Lenny Henry had it all - brilliant boobs, a great job, fabulous friends, caring family, money in the bank, a new boyfriend and was living her best life. But that all changed four years ago when she was diagnosed with invasive breast cancer.
This debut is a modern mash up of blog/book/diary/advice/memes/socials/testimony and photos making it a must read for whether you've had cancer or not.
'During my cancer journey, I've experienced it all. I've gone from fabulous TV producer to foraging in food banks, being sick to Take That in the supermarket, an addiction to Jaffa Cakes, life saving treatment from the very sexy Dr Love, Sex, Drugs, Rock and Chemo, waiting room dramas, operation day disasters, Gemma Collins diva moments, wig woes, the shits, the pukes, hair loss, hallucinations, creepy dolls, council dinners, been told that my cancer wasn't 'on brand' and crying. Lots of crying'.
Cancer is no laughing matter but humour is definitely a way to get through this horrific disease. So I've created this 'blook', which is part diary and part advice. This blog style book is for everyone - for friends, family, colleagues and carers. My mission is to get everyone to check their lumps and bumps, help us all get over the scary bits and laugh at the good times.
The Sand Eggs
Bryony Doran
This collection of short fiction takes us without mercy or compromise to the places where civilisations collide, unveiling the dislocation, suppression and shared intimacy amongst women of all kinds.
Winner of the First Hookline Book Prize with her stunning debut novel, 'The China Bird', Doran's prose projects our vision across the chasms of cultural divide.
A Rare Glimpse... Berlie Doherty
Unflinching compassion... David Swann.
ISBN 978-0-9930424-4-7
Firelight on Dark Water
Bill Allerton
They're all in here... Seasons, Life change, Wishes, Cookery, Love, Sex, Death & Obsession, Giving, Hope, Need, Guile, Motorcycles, Guns, Trees and Bananas plus a smattering of Old Japanese Brake Parts.
This collection of short fiction has been a long time coming... written over a period of years they have now been reworked and collated for the first time in this edition. If you wish to be surprised (and I hope delighted) by the change in direction presented in each story, then this is the book for you. So sit back, and travel with me along unfamiliar paths of discovery... (Bill Allerton)
ISBN 978-0-9930424-3-0
A Day for Tigers
Bill Allerton
…it’s 1955 and you’ve just moved home. You go to the local newspaper shop for your Beano and find that they have a rack filled with ‘Astounding Science Fiction’, ‘Weird Fantasy’, ‘Wonder Stories’, ‘Mandrake the Magician’, with the occasional ‘Green Lantern’. To top it all, they have ‘The Eagle’, with its truly sensational drawings by Frank Hampson illustrating the stories of ‘Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future’.
Sci-Fi, I Love You. There. I’ve said it. And now there’s no going back.
In this book I have tried to recreate something of the sense of discovery that I felt when I first encountered this kind of story so, if, like me, you are still seven at heart, and also, like me, fell in love with the grand and the not-so-grand of Sci-Fi and Fantasy, then I hope you’ll find your heart again within these pages.
Warrior Girl
Pauline Chandler
Sumptuously written and described with great skill, this multi-layered story of the events surrounding Joan of Arc in the medieval France of the fifteenth century will leave you breathless by its scope and ability to pull together the politics, the violence, the aspirations of an oppressed people and a genuine atmosphere of the time. Chandler handles History from inside out, showing us the personal triumphs and great tragedies of people fighting within circumstances beyond their control. This book is un-put-downable, and the final resolution is so right it will make you gulp.
ISBN 978-0-9930424-0-9
The Fox & The Fish
Bill Allerton
Welcome to The Shoal…
Take a tour of the world through the eyes of Julius McEarly ...a man escaping from the consequence of Life Itself …where the border between reality and his own imagination may be no more than a line scratched in the earth with a sharp stick…
Beset from all sides by Foxes, Lovers, Coffins, Friends and Tinkers …armed only with an anarchic vision of Freedom, Love and Immortality …he is finally trapped by the worst enemy of them all …Himself.
ISBN 978-0-9548373-2-7
Watch & Wait
The Anthology of Short Fiction
An anthology of the finest short fiction today, from Authors such as: Marina Lewicka, Susan Elliott Wright, Danuta Reah (aka Carla Banks), Bryony Doran, Rony Robinson, Lesley Glaister, Judith Allnatt, Ian McMillan, Kirstin Zhang and Berlie Doherty plus ten other contributions.
All proceeds from this book are gifted to The Lymphoma Association UK, Charity no. 1068395
ISBN 978-0-9548373-1-0
The Jeweller's Skin
Ruth Valentine
ISBN 978-0-9548373-4-1
1946, and England is recovering from war. Change is everywhere. Even Holywell, a Victorian asylum outside London, has ambitions to reform.
Narcisa Humphreys, resident Cook at the hospital, has created a life of hard work and routine within the closed community of staff and patients. She has begun an affair, but still remains detached. Now her past is coming to light and that threatens not only her livelihood, but her hard-won sanity.
Reaching across the first half of the twentieth century, and from Kosovo to London, The Jeweller’s Skin is a story of exile, trauma and recovery, told with insight and humour in vivid, luminous prose.
Sir Tingly & The Time Mouse
Bill Allerton
This very special book is a 'Flip Book'. You decide which is the front and which is the back!
Start with Sir Tingly in The Quest for The Dargon and read through to the end of the story at the middle of the book where you will find everything turns upside down, but...
Now, turn the book over in your hands and the front cover will now be 'The Time Mouse' where you will find an adventure story with Costello, the Time Mouse, and Cheryl with all her cuddly toys as they battle Fearsome Wotchits to save a young boy trapped in a Bubble in Time! Or... you can start the other way around! The choice really is YOURS!
Foxes, Frogs & Rice Pudding
Bill Allerton
Foxes, Frogs & Rice Pudding contains a series of compelling stories and poems initially imagined by children themselves and written to fullness based on their ideas by the author Bill Allerton. The content encompasses a compendu=ium of characters such as Dragons, Magic, Unicorns, Dinosaurs, Giants, Lions, Tigers, Foxes, Frogs, Fish, Girls, Boys, Moths, Rockets, Dentists, Pirates, Vampires, Dogs, School, Trees; Birds, Cats, Witches, Wizards, and Rice Pudding.
The China Bird
Bryony Doran
Seeing beauty in Edward’s twisted spine, a young art student begs him to sit for her. Dubious but flattered, Edward is awakened from years of apathy, and experiences emotions he cannot suppress. But vulnerability can bring strength. This tale of secrecy, love and eventual understanding explores our perceptions of beauty and abnormality.
Chosen by book groups to win the Hookline Novel Competition, readers said:
"A very enjoyable read. I was with the characters throughout and wanted to know what happened to them." - Clapham Library Reading Group
"A fascinating read showing realistic reactions to disability and Edward's emotions."-South Woodford Library Reading Group
Love In The Time Of Britpop
Tim Woods
England, 1990s. Cool Britannia takes over the world and Britpop leads the charge.
The easiest thing for Chris would be to submerge himself in the music, but with girls like Lou around, it's not that simple. And she's not the only one distracting him from his beloved bands ...
When he most needs help, will compulsive climber Rob, or Mike, a PhD student who's OCD on coffee, show him the way? Maybe Cecilia, or the unforgettable Chemical Joe with his in-depth knowledge of gangster films, can come up with the answers?
Caught between bad advice, an overwhelming desire for sex and an opportunity to see Blur, the one big Britpop band he's missed, Chris has life-changing decisions to make.
As the 90s come to a close, is this finally the time to go it alone?
Love In The Time Of Britpop is an unromantic comedy about great loves, incredible music and awkward sex, all set to the finest soundtrack the UK has ever produced.
Home Front
Bryony Doran | Jehanne Dubrow | Elyse Fenton | Isabel Palmert
Home Front is a quadrilogy of book-length sequences by four female poets living in a state of separation from sons or husbands who are in a war zone and permanent danger – or so they feel – as well as from an everyday world of people who have no idea of what anxieties and fears grip them every minute. They also find themselves switching back and forth between two time zones, between the present moment and what might have been happening several hours ago in the Middle East.
The poems in Bryony Doran’s 'Bulletproof' tell a chronological story, from her son’s joining the army through his tour in and return from Afghanistan. Covering every emotion from fear to fury, yet lifted by humour and details of everyday domestic life, these are poems written to preserve a pacifist mother’s sanity as each day plays itself out. They show her coping with The News, her fantasies, his short spells of home leave, and her realisation that both are imprisoned in a modern myth.
My Crazy Brain
Sylvia Wright
Sylvia Wright has had progressive multiple sclerosis (MS) since 1994. She was also born with two half-wombs and one kidney. She met her husband Steve in 1999 when he sold her a mobility scooter.
She didn't believe she could have children or carry to term, but in 2005 her son Marcus was born.
From 1998, she recovered in a major way and took a leap of faith (literally!) by doing a tandem skydive and by changing her diet and attitude. This new positivity helped her battle MS for years. Despite this since about 2009 the MS has progressed, to the stage where she is now severely disabled and need lots of care and help. Don't feel too sorry for her though, as she's in a better position now, thanks to the NHS, than she was in 2012, when she weighed less than six stone and was on the way out.
To repeat, she's in a better position now. This being despite:
1. Multiple operations, including the insertion of a baclofen pump (for pain relief), cutting her hamstrings to ease the pain of muscle spasms and removing bladder stones.
2. Being hospitalised multiple times for septicaemia, sepsis (caused by kidney stones) and pneumonia. On top of all this, being rushed to hospital after overdosing on water - yes water - as she had a compulsion that meant she drank and drank.
3. Having to be brought back by the Crash Team in December 2018.
These events all sound pretty major but in many ways they pale into insignificance when compared to Sylvia making it through her everyday life; everyday life that has got substantially harder over the years and much, much, worse since Steve passed away in August 2020 from non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
If you are looking for negativity from Sylvia or from her situation, you will not find it here. Nor will you find a person who sits and lets Life and Love fly past them like straws in the wind.
Miss them if you will, and be depleted by that.
Sylvia won't.