Showing results for "The Others" in Literature & Fiction

The Midhurst Amateur Dramatic Society are putting on a production of Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit, and Tessa has agreed to play a part. But when she suffers a psychotic episode, Ros, a C-list celebrity and new to the community, takes her place. In this darkly comic tale of psychosis in the Home Counties, the stage is set for a blistering examination of mental illness, how we treat it and why we don’t.

Jojo Harvey is a literary agent whose star is on the rise. In love with both her married boss and her burgeoning career, not much distracts her. Until she finds herself representing two women who used to be best friends. Used to be....

Florence Grimes is a 31-year-old party girl who always takes the easy way out. After a dismal end to her girlband career, she's living in West London, single, broke and unfulfilled with only her son Dylan to keep her afloat. But then Alfie Risby, the ten-year-old heir to a frozen food empire and Dylan’s school rival, mysteriously vanishes on a class trip, and Dylan becomes a prime suspect.

Starship Captain George Cottonhammer (Will Forte), bored by his job, stops his ship in middle space and floats, doing nothing.

As it turns out, an awful lot. Bunny and co are supposed to be keeping a low profile, but nature calls and ironically, one of their party has a hard and fast rule about not answering that call while surrounded by nature. This is how they end up in the wrong bar, surrounded by the wrong people at the wrongest of wrong times. The local right-wing militia has a big week planned, and Bunny and the boys have inadvertently crashed the party. Before they know it, they’re in a desperate fight for survival against a bunch of people who refuse to believe they’re not who they think they are.

A fresh, honest, and darkly funny debut collection about family, friends and lovers and the flaws that make us most human. One woman takes a job selling sex toys in San Francisco rather than embark on the law career she pursued only for the sake of her father. Another realises she much prefers the company of her pit bull - and herself - to the neurotic foreign fling who won't decamp from her apartment.

Can 'no' be a declaration of love? What happens when love is savage, dangerous and all-consuming? In this gorgeous and unsettling collection, women navigate the complexities and cruelties of desire across time and place, from a medieval convent to a Victorian parlour to a 1990s high school. Intensely atmospheric, surprising and darkly funny, this collection is a richly flavoured feast from a brilliant writer in full command of the form.

Golf, like measles, should be caught young. P. G. Wodehouse leads the listener out on to another round of golf stories that always avoid the rough.

In David Sedaris' world, no one is safe and no cow is sacred. A manic cross between Mark Leyner, Fran Lebowitz, and the National Enquirer, Sedaris' collection of essays is a rollicking tour through the national Zeitgeist: a do-it-yourself suburban dad saves money by performing home surgery; a man who is loved too much flees the heavyweight champion of the world; a teenage suicide tries to incite a lynch mob at her funeral; a bitter Santa abuses the elves.

A boy wins $100,000 in a box of Frosted Flakes - only to discover that claiming the winnings may unravel his family. An acclaimed ambulance driver seeks the courage to follow his heart and throw it all away to be a singer-songwriter. A school principal unveils a bold plan to permanently abolish arithmetic. A new arrival in heaven, overwhelmed by infinite options, procrastinates over his long-ago promise to visit his grandmother. We meet a vengeance-minded hare. We learn why wearing a red T-shirt is the key to finding love; how February got its name; and why the stock market is sometimes just...down.

Twenty-six-year-old editorial assistant Nella Rogers is tired of being the only Black employee at Wagner Books. Fed up with the isolation and the micro-aggressions, she’s thrilled when Hazel starts working in the cubicle beside hers. They’ve only just started comparing natural hair care regimens, though, when a string of uncomfortable events cause Nella to become Public Enemy Number One and Hazel, the Office Darling. Then the notes begin to appear on Nella’s desk: Leave Wagner. Now.

Beloved New Yorker writer Lore Segal, at ninety-five years old, is a national treasure. Working at the height of her powers, in this story collection she turns her gimlet eye and compassionate humor on aging and life in the slow lane. From the master of the short short comes a collection of sixteen new stories featuring old friends who have loved and lunched together for over forty years. These erudite, sharp-minded nonagenarians offer startling insights into friendship, family and aging.

My name is Drew Hayes, and for the past six years I've made my living as a writer. In that time, I've published 20 books, written hundreds of thousands of words, and made countless mistakes - most of which I like to think I've learned from. Underqualified Advice (and Other Amusing Diversions) is my attempt to compile those lessons and share them with others, as well as have some fun along the way. Half of the book is dedicated to detailing specifics about writing, maneuvering the industry, and keeping fiscally afloat in largely unstable waters.

Celia Imrie and Toby Jones star in this BBC Radio 4 dramatisation of Gerald Durrell's much-loved comic gem. My Family and Other Animals is the classic tale of naturalist Gerald Durrell's magical 1930s childhood on pre-war Corfu. His descriptions of his eccentric family and his encounters with the local creatures are full of humour and charm, and the book has delighted fans of all ages for 60 years.

Mrs Wood is London’s premier medium. She has survived the competitive world of contacting the beyond where many others have failed, has avoided the slips that revealed others as frauds and hosts packed-out séances with the great and the good of Victorian society. Yet, some of her patrons have recently cancelled their appointments. There are reports of American mediums materialising full spirits and audiences are no longer content with knocking on tables and candle theatrics. Then, at one of Mrs Wood’s gatherings, she hears something terrifying – faint, but unmistakable: a yawn.

The agent, the best seller, and the the unknown: When their fortunes become entangled, it seems too much to hope that they'll all find a happy ending. But maybe they'll each discover that there's more than one side to every story.

I got the call. The dreaded call every child fears. My dad wasn't well, and the man who had always been my everything needed me. There was only one thing to do: pack up and head back to my small hometown. I had finally made my dream life in the city, with the great job and loving boyfriend. But was there really a choice not to go?

Tim Hamlet is the identical twin brother of the famously melancholy Danish prince. Tim has walked away from royal life, hoping to forge his own identity in London. But when tragedy strikes, Tim decides to return home. On his journey, Tim encounters a raging tempest, terrifying demons (of both the personal and supernatural variety), Russian pirates, bad improv, and much more...all while on a collision course with fate.

Contained here are nine glorious episodes from the idyllic world of Wodehouse. There's a crime wave that was to rock Blandings Castle to its foundations which broke out towards the middle of a fine summer afternoon; Ukridge appears on Corky's doorstep at three in the morning, wearing his yellow mackintosh and requesting a whisky and soda; while the Oldest Member warns of the folly of driving into the father of the girl you love.

Have you ever sat and listened to what people talk about when they sit in bars or travel on public transport? Most of it is banal, unfinished sentences talking over each other to get their point across. But every now and then, someone says something that ignites a thought, then that thought becomes an idea and before you know it a brand-new story is born. These 14 short stories were sparked from those randomly overheard conversations. Snippets snatched from the chit-chat of strangers, twisted and turned into surreal tales, sometimes dark, sometimes funny.