Poet, playwright and novelist Blake Morrison evokes the lives of the Brontë sisters, with a nod to Chekhov's Three Sisters.Against the backdrop of a windswept northern village, three remarkable young women live their lives brightly.In Haworth in the 1840s, in a gloomy parsonage, where there are neither curtains nor comforts, Charlotte, Anne and Emily Brontë light up their world with outspoken wit, aspirations, dreams and ideas. And throughout their confined lives i...

An anthology released to raise funds for the NHS and UK Healtcare workers. Fifty-three stories, 253,000 words of fiction, including several pieces that are original to this volume. A treasury of stories from some of the finest writers of science fiction, literary fiction, fantasy, horror, and more.Introduction by Ian WhatesLast Contact – Stephen BaxterSlink-Thinking – Frances HardingeGossamer – Ian WhatesThe Feather Dress – Lisa TuttleThe...

In any 24 hours there might be sleeping, eating, kids, parents, friends, lovers, work, school, travel, deadlines, emails, phone calls, Facebook, Twitter, the news, the TV, Playstation, music, movies, sport, responsibilities, passions, desires, dreams.Why should you stop what you're doing and read a book?Reading is not an innate human ability. Many people can't read. Many people would rather read a newspaper, a magazine, a blog, a cereal packet, than a novel.But peop...

'Lucid, tender and humane . . . One of the most formally agile and compassionate poets of our age’ Fiona BensonHere you are, on the balcony,the sea serenading you,the sun with its armful of light.In Afterburn, Blake Morrison returns to poetry, his first calling, to offers scenes from his own life and the lives of others. In psychology, 'afterburn' refers to the time before a past event is assimilated – an id...

In recent years Seamus Heaney has earned the reputation of being ‘the most important Irish poet since Yeats’. In this book, originally published in 1982, Blake Morrison identifies the central characteristics of his achievement, uncovering the sources of Heaney’s poems, placing his work within both Irish and Anglo-American traditions and explaining his poetry’s complex relation to the political troubles in Northern Ireland. A lively, personal and carefully researched account by a writer who...

The use of creative writing as a route to personal development is a powerful therapeutic tool - a fact that is recognized in the growing numbers of workshops and writing groups within professional contexts, including clinical, health and criminal justice settings.Writing Works is a guide for writers or therapists working with groups or individuals and is full of practical advice on everything from the equipment needed to run a session to ideas for themes, all backed up by the theor...

Honey the genetically engineered bear starts a revolution on the Red Planet in the new novel from the Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning author of Children of Time.WELCOME TO HELL CITY, MARSJimmy Martin has a sore head.He's used to smuggling illegal data in his headspace. But this is the first time it has started talking to him.The data claims to be a distinguished academic, author and civil rights activist.It also claims to be a...

A LOCUS AWARD FINALIST FOR BEST FIRST NOVEL!The Guardian's Pick for Best Science Fiction Book of the Year!A timely and uncanny portrait of a world in the wake of fake news, diminished privacy, and a total shutdown of the InternetBEFORE: In Bristol's center lies the Croft, a digital no-man's-land cut off from the surveillance, Big Data dependence, and corporate-sponsored, globally hegemonic aspirations that hav...

A collection of some of the best original science fiction and fantasy short stories published on Tor.com in 2015.Includes short fiction by Nino Cipri, Seth Dickinson, Jeffrey Ford, Yoon Ha Lee, Maria Dahvana Headley, David Herter, Kameron Hurley, Noah Keller, David D. Levine, Michael Livingston, Usman T. Malik, Haralambi Markov, Daniel José Older, Malka Older, Kim Stanley Robinson, Kelley Robson, Veronica Schanoes, Priya Sharma, Brian Staveley, Sabrina Vourvoulias,...

Humanity clings to life on a dying Earth in an epic, far-future science fiction novel from an award-winning author.The sun is bloated, diseased, dying perhaps. Beneath its baneful light, Shadrapar, last of all cities, harbours fewer than 100,000 human souls. Built on the ruins of countless civilisations, Shadrapar is a museum, a midden, an asylum, a prison on a world that is ever more alien to humanity.Bearing witness to the...

In Peter F. Hamilton and Gareth L. Powell's action-packed sci-fi adventure LIGHT CHASER, a love powerful enough to transcend death can bring down an entire empire.Amahle is a Light Chaser – one of a number of explorers, who travel the universe alone (except for their onboard AI), trading trinkets for life stories.But when she listens to the stories sent down through the ages she hears the same voice talking directly to her from different times and on differen...

Murderbot—the sardonic, almost-homicidal, media-loving android created by MarthaWells—has proven to be one of the most popular characters in 21st century science fiction.Everything that makes this protagonist (it would be wrong to call Murderbot a hero) beloved offans is on display in Compulsory.While trying to watch episode 44 of The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon, Murderbot is—again,what is it with humans?—distracted by some...