Poet & post-punk heroine Eileen Myles has always operated in the art, writing, & queer performance scenes as a kind of observant flaneur. Like Baudelaire`s gentleman stroller, Myles travels the city--wandering on garbage-strewn New York streets in the heat of summer, drifting though the antiseptic malls of La Jolla, & riding in the van with Sister Spit--seeing it with a poet`s eye for detail & with the consciousness that writing about art & culture has always been a social gesture. Culled by the poet from twenty years of art writing, the essays in The Importance of Being Iceland make a lush document of her--and our--lives in these contemporary crowds. Framed by Myles`s account of her travels in Icel&, these essays posit inbetweenness as the most vital position from which to perceive culture as a whole, & a fluidity in national identity as the best model for writing & thinking about art & culture. The essays include fresh takes on Thoreau`s Cape Cod walk, working class speech, James Schulyer & Bjork, queer Russia & Robert Smithson; how-tos on writing an avant-garde poem & driving a battered Japanese car that resembles a menopausal body; & opinions on such widely ranging subjects as filmmaker Sadie Benning, actor Daniel Day-Lewis, Ted Berrigan`s Sonnets, & flossing. ...

Despite inhabiting a great city renowned for its impeccable restraint, the extended family of 44 Scotland Street is trembling on the brink of reckless self-indulgence. Matthew & Elspeth receive startling
- & expensive
- news on a visit to the Infirmary, Angus & Domenica are contemplating an Italian menage a trois, & even Big Lou is overheard discussing cosmetic surgery. But when Bertie Pollock
- six years old & impatient to be seven
- mislays his meddling mother Irene one afternoon, a valuable lesson is learned: that wish-fulfilment is a dangerous business. Warm-hearted, wise & very funny, The Importance of Being Seven brings us a fresh & delightful set of insights into philosophy & fraternity among Edinburgh`s most loveable residents.



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If you`re intrigued by the fact that Jack the Ripper was left-handed, or that Heinz ketchup flows at 0.7 miles per day
- &, more
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` Elegantly written & cogently argued.. . His book is founded on a deep respect for, & love of, his subject`s curious greatness` Paul Bailey reviews Richard Bradford`s earlier Larkin biography First Boredom, Then Fear in The Independent The most widely read British poet of the twentieth century, Philip Larkin was also a keen amateur photographer & through his life he made images of the people, places & things that meant most to him. Publishing ahead of the thirtieth anniversary of the poet`s death in December 2015, The Importance of Elsewhere gathers the best of Larkin`s photographic work, divided into short thematic chapters arranged in chronological order. Written by Richard Bradford, the acclaimed author of the Larkin biography First Boredom, Then Fear, the book shows how Larkin, as an individual, as a writer & indeed as a photographer, developed an acute sensitivity to all aspects of the world around him, from his love of open uninhabited landscapes & empty churches to his mixed feelings about crowds. There are also fascinating portraits of those people who were closest to Larkin, including his lovers, his mother & his literary peers. The book beautifully reproduces more than 200 images from the Larkin archive at Hull: the majority have never previously been seen in print. A substantial foreword by Mark Haworth-Booth, formerly curator of photography at the V&A, explores what it meant to be a serious amateur photographer of Larkin`s generation. Together with Larkin`s literary works & his letters, these images make up the third, so far unseen, constituent of the material upon which our future perceptions of him will be based. ...

Burt Darwin is a writer & world religions specialist. Lady Chanel Mallory, a former hand model, has married into the aristocracy & loves romance novels. Her husband Lord Percy, a natural cynic, mistakenly thinks she`s French. Sister Mary dresses like Mother Teresa & hopes to be a nun one day. Four passengers on a cruise ship, thrown together by chance, experience the mysteries & contradictions of contemporary Africa when they take an ill-judged trip into the interior. As each is exposed to ancient African mythology & belief, their hypocrisies, petty jealousies & venality are revealed
- with hilarious & unforgettable results. The Importance of Manners is a slapstick, satirical comic novel for adults in the vein of Alexander Mc Call Smith, Evelyn Waugh & PG Wodehouse, from an acclaimed YA author.
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Much discussed & often maligned, precious little is known or understood about North Korea, the world`s most controversial & isolated country. In ” The Impossible State” Victor Cha pulls back the curtain, providing an unprecedented insight into North Korea`s history, the rise of the Kim family dynasty, & the obsessive personality cult that surrounds them. He illuminates the repressive regime`s complex economy & culture, its appalling record of human-rights abuses, its belligerent relationship with its neighbours & the United States, & analyzes the regime`s major security issues
- from the seemingly endless war with its southern counterpart to its terrifying nuclear ambitions
- all in the light of the destabilizing effects of Kim Jong-il`s recent death. How has this enigmatic nation-state continued to survive when it regularly violates its own citizens` inalienable rights & has suffered severe famine, global economic sanctions, a collapsed economy, & near-total isolation from the rest of the world? Cha reveals a land facing a pivotal & disquieting transition of power from tyrannical father to inexperienced son, & delves into the ideology that leads an oppressed, starving populace to cling so fiercely to its failed leadership. With rare personal anecdotes from the author`s time in Pyongyang & his tenure as a White House adviser, this engagingly written, authoritative, & highly accessible account offers much-needed answers to the most pressing questions about North Korea & ultimately warns of a regime that might be closer to its end than many might think
- a political collapse for which the Western world may be woefully unprepared.


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” We killed Americans. We are killing Americans. We will kill Americans”. (North Korean schoolchildren conjugating verbs). In North Korea, citizens found humming South Korean pop songs risk being sent to a gulag for six months of hard labour. Jail sentences are handed out if portraits of the late Kim Jong-il are not properly dusted. Shoot-to-kill orders are in effect for anyone caught trying to cross the Yalu or Tumen Rivers into China. Yet despite this, an oppressed, starving populace clings fiercely to its new Dear Leader, Kim Jong-un, & signs with the revolutionary slogan We Have Nothing To Envy line the streets of Pyongyang. So how did North Korea become this Impossible State? What does the future hold for a regime with terrifying nuclear ambitions & a seemingly endless war with its southern counterpart? Former White House adviser Victor Cha pulls back the curtain on the world`s most isolated country to provide an unprecedented & timely insight into North Korea`s history, present & future. ...

When Adam moves into an abandoned house on the dusty edge of town, he is hoping to recover from the loss of his job & his home in the city. But when he meets Canning
- a shadowy figure from his childhood
- & Canning`s enigmatic & beautiful wife, a sinister new chapter in his life begins. Canning has inherited a vast fortune & built for himself a giant folly in the veld, a magical place of fantasy & dreams that seduces Adam & transforms him absolutely, violently
- & perhaps forever. Damon Galgut`s magnificent novel evokes a hot & cruel & claustrophobic world, in which sex & death are never far from the surface.


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This is a book with no practical purpose whatsoever. As any fan of Dave`s would probably guess, a book by him won`t make you a better sailor, & it won`t provide any instruction on boat maintenance. But it will entertain
- his light but observational writings tap the rich well of all those things that sailors know but few dare admit. The Impractical Boat Owner is a collection of Dave`s columns for Practical Boat Owner magazine, expanded for the book, & with additional ` Lessons Not Learned` hints & tips boxes, all accompanied by Jake Kavanagh`s wonderful cartoons. Taking us from Dave`s first flounderings afloat to more recent, er, flounderings afloat, themes covered include:
- first attempts at sailing
- how not to sail singlehanded
- mysteries of maintenance
- how not to sail with a dog
- the impenetrable mysteries of navigation & weather
- how not to race The Impractical Boatowner is an antidote to all that`s written about expensive shiny new yachts, self-improvement, the quest for qualifications & practical skills.






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LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILEYS WOMEN`S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2016 When lovelorn Annie Mc Dee stumbles across a dirty painting in a junk shop while looking for a present for an unsuitable man, she has no idea what she has discovered. Soon she finds herself drawn unwillingly into the tumultuous London art world, populated by exiled Russian oligarchs, avaricious Sheikas, desperate auctioneers & unscrupulous dealers, all scheming to get their hands on her painting
- a lost eighteenth-century masterpiece called ` The Improbability of Love`. Delving into the painting`s past, Annie will uncover not just an illustrious list of former owners, but some of the darkest secrets of European history
- & in doing so she might just learn to open up to the possibility of falling in love again.

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