Download or read book A Cruel Bird Came to the Nest and Looked in written by Magnus Mills and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2012-08-01 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Far away, in the ancient empire of Greater Fallowfields, things are falling apart. The imperial orchestra is presided over by a conductor who has never played a note, the clocks are changed constantly to ensure that the sun always sets at five o' clock, and the Astronomer Royal is only able to use the observatory telescope when he can find a sixpence to put in its slot. But while the kingdom drifts, awaiting the return of the young emperor, who has gone abroad and communicates only by penny post, a sinister and unfamiliar enemy is getting closer and closer...A Cruel Bird Came to the Nest and Looked In is Magnus Mills's most ambitious work to date. A surreal portrait of a world that, although strange and distant, contains rather too many similarities to our own for the alien not to become brilliantly familiar and disturbingly close to home. It is comic writing at its best - and it is Magnus Mills's most ambitious, enjoyable and rewarding novel to date.
Download or read book The Field of the Cloth of Gold written by Magnus Mills and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2016-08-09 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Great Field lies in the bend of a broad, meandering river. Bounded on three sides by water, on the fourth side it dwindles gradually into wilderness. A handful of tents are scattered far and wide across its immensity. Their flags flutter in the warm breeze, rich with the promise of halcyon days. But more and more people are setting up camp in the lush pastures, and with each new arrival, life becomes a little more complicated. And when a large and disciplined group arrives from across the river, emotions run so high that even a surplus of milk pudding can't soothe ruffled feathers. Change is coming; change that threatens the delicate balance of power in the Great Field. Magnus Mills's new novel takes its name from the site of a 1520 meeting between Henry VIII and Francis I of France, to improve relations between the countries as the Treaty of London deteriorated. It allegorically suggests a number of historical encounters on British soil: the coming of the Vikings, the coming of the Romans. But The Field of the Cloth of Gold sits firmly outside of time, a skillful and surreal fable dealing with ideas of ownership, empire, immigration, charisma, diplomacy, and bureaucracy. It cements Magnus Mills's status as one of the most original and beloved novelists writing today.
Download or read book All Quiet on the Orient Express written by Magnus Mills and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2011-05-16 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is the end of the summer. The tourists have already gone, and now the sun is abandoning the Lake District's damp valleys. Only a lone camper remains, enjoying the quiet. He plans to stay just long enough to prepare for a trip to the East. But then the owner of the campsite asks him to paint a fence and he innocently obliges. Soon other odd jobs pile up until little by little he becomes ensnared in the ominous 'out-of-season'.
Download or read book The Restraint of Beasts written by Magnus Mills and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2011-05-16 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'A heaving cauldron of black humour ... You'll never look at a stretch of high-tensile agricultural fencing in quite the same way ever again' Time Out 'Extremely unusual, finely crafted and funny' Observer 'Tam and I took hold of Mr McCrindle and lowered him into the hole, feet first. We decided to leave his cap on.' Fencers Tam, Richie and their ever-exasperated English foreman are forced to move from rural Scotland to England for work. After a disastrous start involving a botched fence and an accidental murder, the three move to a damp caravan in Upper Bowland and soon find themselves in direct competition with the sinister Hall Brothers whose business enterprises seem to combine fencing, butchering and sausage-making... The Restraint of Beasts introduced readers to the now much-loved unique voice of Magnus Mills and his surreally comic world.
Download or read book The Nest written by Kenneth Oppel and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2015-10-06 with total page 22 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “The Nest leaves a lasting mark on the memory.” —The New York Times Book Review Steve just wants to save his baby brother—but what will he lose in the bargain? Kenneth Oppel’s (Silverwing, The Boundless) haunting gothic tale for fans of Coraline, is one of the most acclaimed books of the year, receiving six starred reviews. Illustrations from Caldecott Medalist Jon Klassen. For some kids summer is a sun-soaked season of fun. But for Steve, it’s just another season of worries. Worries about his sick newborn baby brother who is fighting to survive, worries about his parents who are struggling to cope, even worries about the wasp’s nest looming ominously from the eaves. So when a mysterious wasp queen invades his dreams, offering to “fix” the baby, Steve thinks his prayers have been answered. All he has to do is say “Yes.” But “yes” is a powerful word. It is also a dangerous one. And once it is uttered, can it be taken back? Celebrated author Kenneth Oppel creates an eerie masterpiece in this compelling story that explores disability and diversity, fears and dreams, and what ultimately makes a family. Includes illustrations from celebrated artist Jon Klassen.
Download or read book The Comic Turn in Contemporary English Fiction written by Huw Marsh and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2020-07-09 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Comic Turn in Contemporary English Fiction explores the importance of comedy in contemporary literature and culture. In an era largely defined by a mood of crisis, bleakness, cruelty, melancholia, environmental catastrophe and collapse, Huw Marsh argues that contemporary fiction is as likely to treat these subjects comically as it is to treat them gravely, and that the recognition and proper analysis of this humour opens up new ways to think about literature. Structured around readings of authors including Martin Amis, Nicola Barker, Julian Barnes, Jonathan Coe, Howard Jacobson, Magnus Mills and Zadie Smith, this book suggests not only that much of the most interesting contemporary writing is funny and that there is a comic tendency in contemporary fiction, but also that this humour, this comic licence, allows writers of contemporary fiction to do peculiar and interesting things – things that are funny in the sense of odd or strange and that may in turn inspire a funny turn in readers. Marsh offers a series of original critical and theoretical frameworks for discussing questions of literary genre, style, affect and politics, demonstrating that comedy is an often neglected mode that plays a generative role in much of the most interesting contemporary writing, creating sites of rich political, stylistic, cognitive and ethical contestation whose analysis offers a new perspective on the present.
Download or read book The Field of the Cloth of Gold written by Magnus Mills and published by Bloomsbury Paperbacks. This book was released on 2016-06-02 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A joyous outing from the writer whose work the New York Times compares to "a Monty Python sketch adapted by Kafka." Shortlisted for the 2016 Goldsmith Prize The Great Field lies in the bend of a broad, meandering river. Bounded on three sides by water, on the fourth side it dwindles gradually into wilderness. A handful of tents are scattered far and wide across its immensity. Their flags flutter in the warm breeze, rich with the promise of halcyon days. But more and more people are setting up camp in the lush pastures, and with each new arrival, life becomes a little more complicated. And when a large and disciplined group arrives from across the river, emotions run so high that even a surplus of milk pudding can't soothe ruffled feathers. Change is coming; change that threatens the delicate balance of power in the Great Field. Magnus Mills's new novel takes its name from the site of a 1520 meeting, between Henry VIII and Francis I of France, to improve relations between the countries as the Treaty of London deteriorated. It allegorically suggests a number of historical encounters on British soil: the coming of the Vikings, the coming of the Romans. But The Field of the Cloth of Gold sits firmly outside of time, a skillful and surreal fable dealing with ideas of ownership, empire, immigration, charisma, diplomacy, and bureaucracy. It cements Magnus Mills's status as one of the most original and beloved novelists writing today.
Download or read book Homeless Bird written by Gloria Whelan and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-10-06 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The National Book Award-winning novel about one remarkable young woman who dares to defy fate, perfect for readers who enjoyed A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park or Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai. Like many girls her age in India, thirteen-year-old Koly faces her arranged marriage with hope and courage. But Koly's story takes a terrible turn when in the wake of the ceremony, she discovers she's been horribly misled—her life has been sold for a dowry. Can she forge her own future, even in the face of time-worn tradition? Perfect for schools and classrooms, this universally acclaimed, bestselling, and award-winning novel by master of historical fiction Gloria Whelan is a gripping tale of hope that will transport readers of all ages.
Download or read book How Literary Worlds Are Shaped written by Bo Pettersson and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2016-09-12 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Literary studies still lack an extensive comparative analysis of different kinds of literature, including ancient and non-Western. How Literary Worlds Are Shaped. A Comparative Poetics of Literary Imagination aims to provide such a study. Literature, it claims, is based on individual and shared human imagination, which creates literary worlds that blend the real and the fantastic, mimesis and genre, often modulated by different kinds of unreliability. The main building blocks of literary worlds are their oral, visual and written modes and three themes: challenge, perception and relation. They are blended and inflected in different ways by combinations of narratives and figures, indirection, thwarted aspirations, meta-usages, hypothetical action as well as hierarchies and blends of genres and text types. Moreover, literary worlds are not only constructed by humans but also shape their lives and reinforce their sense of wonder. Finally, ten reasons are given in order to show how this comparative view can be of use in literary studies. In sum, How Literary Worlds Are Shaped is the first study to present a wide-ranging and detailed comparative account of the makings of literary worlds.
Download or read book The Maintenance of Headway written by Magnus Mills and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2015-05-19 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the Booker-shortlisted author acclaimed as having "no literary precedent" (Independent) comes a gently absurd examination of the systems that trap and frustrate us daily. Fans of dry humor will enjoy this tale of mishap and folly, told from the point of view of a bus driver who's been charged to maintain a precise distance between himself and other buses--a directive that leads him to ignore the very passengers he's meant to serve. Witty, allegorical, and intelligent, this is a novel for all those who have ever run for a bus, only to have it pull away as they reach its doors. Showcasing all of Mills' strengths, it is the perfect reintroduction for American readers to an incomparable talent.
Download or read book Explorers of the New Century written by Magnus Mills and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2011-09-05 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is the beginning of the century, and two teams of explorers are racing across a cold, windswept, deserted land to reach the furthest point from civilisation. It is, they find, 'an awfully long way'. Johns and his men take the western route, along a rocky scree, gossiping, bickering and grumbling as they go. Meanwhile, Tostig's men make their way along the dry riverbed in the east - they are fewer, with just five men and ten mules, and better organised than their rivals. But with Johns' team keeping apace in the distance, the race is on to reach the Agreed Furthest Point ...
Download or read book But Soft we are Observed written by Hilaire Belloc and published by . This book was released on 1928 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Three to See the King written by Magnus Mills and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2002-12-06 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A novel rich in comic menace from the author of The Restraint of Beasts In a setting Samuel Beckett might have found homey lives a man in a house made of tin. He is content. The tin house is well constructed and located miles from the tin houses of his nearest neighbors. Though he seems to have escaped society, however, society finds him. One day, a woman arrives and moves in. Soon a neighbor comes to visit, and then another. Soon, moving figures silhouette the horizon. People dismantling their tin houses and setting off to find a master builder with a revolutionary message. The gravitational pull cannot be resisted. Nor can this novel. Part mystery, part parable, Three to See the King stalks the reader’s imagination and grows inexorably and irresistibly in the telling.
Download or read book The Forensic Records Society written by Magnus Mills and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2017-04-06 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'The Forensic Records Society is like Animal Farm but with blokes for pigs, and much better songs' Guardian Two men with a passion for vinyl create a society for the appreciation of records. Their aim is simple: to elevate the art of listening by doing so in forensic detail. The society enjoys moderate success in the back room of their local pub, The Half Moon, with other enthusiasts drawn to the initial promise of the weekly gathering. However, as the club gains popularity, its founder's uncompromising dogma results in a schism within the movement and soon a counter group forms. Then the arrival of a young woman called Alice further fractures the unity of the vulnerable society. As rifts are forged and gulfs widen, Magnus Mills examines the surreal nature of ordinary lives. The master of the comic deadpan returns for his ninth novel, a spectacularly disingenuous exploration of power, fanaticism and really, really good records.
Download or read book Screwtop Thompson written by Magnus Mills and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2010-10-04 with total page 78 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: All of the Booker-shortlisted Magnus Mills' darkly comic and hugely entertaining short stories are here collected in one book for the first time 'Imagine The Office crossed with Brave New World ... hilarious' Express 'He has no literary precedent, and he also appears to have no imitators. He mines a seam that no one else touches on, every sentence in every book having a Magnus Mills ring to it that no other writer could produce' Independent In 'Hark the Herald', a guest stays at an eerie guesthouse over Christmas without encountering any other residents, despite constant reassurance from the landlord that he would see them if only he arrived for breakfast slightly earlier; in 'Only When the Sun Shines Brightly' Aesop's fable about a competition between the Sun and the Wind to get a man to take his coat off, gets a new look involving a railway arch, a builder and a piece of plastic sheeting. In 'Once in a Blue Moon' a man arrives home to find the family house under siege, with his mother armed, dangerous and firing at the police with a shotgun, and attempts to appease her with an invitation to seasonal hospitality; and in the title story, rivalry between three cousins over a faulty toy gets out of hand as the cousins unwittingly imitate the toy they're fighting over. Magnus Mills has published two collections of stories - Only When the Sun Shines Brightly and Once in a Blue Moon - which are collected here for the first time, along with three new stories.
Download or read book The Scheme for Full Employment written by Magnus Mills and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2011-05-16 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Scheme was designed to provide an honest wage for an honest day's labour. Men driving identical, rust-resistant Univans deliver Univan parts to strategically spaced warehouses. Simple, self-perpetuating and efficient, it seems destined to last forever. But when some drivers begin leaving early and developing delivery sidelines, the workforce is divided into two camps: Flat-Dayers and Early Swervers.
Download or read book The Trouble With Sunbathers written by Magnus Mills and published by . This book was released on 2020-12-07 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There was no doubt that the president was a man of extraordinary ability. His decision to purchase the British Isles was widely acclaimed as an act of genius. It solved our financial difficulties at a stroke. Even so, he could never claim to understand the British people. Not properly.
