Human Croquet (43 page)
Playing Human Croquet, showing how two players link hands
to form hoops. Other players, blindfolded, are balls
.
to form hoops. Other players, blindfolded, are balls
.
WHEN WILL THERE BE GOOD NEWS?
Kate Atkinson
‘Genius . . . insightful, often funny, life-affirming’
Sunday Telegraph
Sunday Telegraph
In a quiet corner of rural Devon, a six-year-old girl witnesses an appalling crime. Thirty years later the man convicted of the crime is released from prison.
In Edinburgh, sixteen-year-old Reggie, wise beyond her years, works as a nanny for a G.P. But her employer has disappeared with her baby, and Reggie seems to be the only person who is worried. Across town, Detective Chief Inspector Louise Monroe is also looking for a missing person, unaware that hurtling towards her is a former acquaintance - Jackson Brodie - himself on a journey that is about to be fatally interrupted.
‘Funny, bracingly intelligent. . . Kate Atkinson is that rarest of beasts, a genuinely surprising novelist’
Guardian
Guardian
‘An exhilarating read. Her wry humour, sharp eye and subtle characterisation are a constant joy’
Daily Mail
Daily Mail
9780552772457
EMOTIONALLY WEIRD
Kate Atkinson
‘Funny, bold and memorable’
The Times
The Times
On
a
peat and heather island off the west coast of Scotland, Effie and her mother Nora take refuge in the large mouldering house of their ancestors and tell each other stories. Nora, at first, recounts nothing that Effie really wants to hear, like who her father was - variously Jimmy, Jack, or Ernie. Effie tells of her life at college in Dundee, the land of cakes and William Wallace, where she lives in a lethargic relationship with Bob, a student who never goes to lectures, seldom gets out of bed, and to whom the Klingons are as real as the French and the Germans (more real than the Luxemburgers). But strange things are happening. Why is Effie being followed? Is someone killing the old people? And where is the mysterious yellow dog?
a
peat and heather island off the west coast of Scotland, Effie and her mother Nora take refuge in the large mouldering house of their ancestors and tell each other stories. Nora, at first, recounts nothing that Effie really wants to hear, like who her father was - variously Jimmy, Jack, or Ernie. Effie tells of her life at college in Dundee, the land of cakes and William Wallace, where she lives in a lethargic relationship with Bob, a student who never goes to lectures, seldom gets out of bed, and to whom the Klingons are as real as the French and the Germans (more real than the Luxemburgers). But strange things are happening. Why is Effie being followed? Is someone killing the old people? And where is the mysterious yellow dog?
‘A truly comic novel - achingly funny in parts - challenging and executed with wit and mischief
Meera Syal, The
Express
Meera Syal, The
Express
‘Sends jolts of pleasure off the page . . . Atkinson’s funniest foray yet... it is
a
work of Dickensian or even Shakespearean plenty’
Catherine Lockerbie,
The Scotsman
a
work of Dickensian or even Shakespearean plenty’
Catherine Lockerbie,
The Scotsman
9780552997348
NOT THE END OF THE WORLD
Kate Atkinson
‘Moving and funny, and crammed with incidental wisdom’
Sunday Times
Sunday Times
What is the real world? Does it exist, or is it merely a means of keeping another reality at bay?
Not the End of the World
is Kate Atkinson’s first collection of short stories. Playful and profound, they explore the world we think we know whilst offering a vision of another world which lurks just beneath the surface of our consciousness, a world where the myths we have banished from our lives are startlingly present and where imagination has the power to transform reality.
is Kate Atkinson’s first collection of short stories. Playful and profound, they explore the world we think we know whilst offering a vision of another world which lurks just beneath the surface of our consciousness, a world where the myths we have banished from our lives are startlingly present and where imagination has the power to transform reality.
From Charlene and Trudi, obsessively making lists while bombs explode softly in the streets outside, to gormless Eddie, maniacal cataloguer of fish, and Meredith Zane who may just have discovered the secret to eternal life, each of these stories shows that when the worlds of material existence and imagination collide, anything is possible.
‘I can think of few writers who can make the ordinary collide with the extraordinary to such beguiling effect... left me so fizzing with admiration’
Observer
Observer
‘Exceptional . . . sharp, witty and completely compelling’
Daily Mail
Daily Mail
‘An exceptionally funny, quirky and bold writer’
Independent on Sunday
Independent on Sunday
9780552771054
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