Other books that might interest you

• 

  The Political History of Smack...

  Ed Edwards

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Crackling with anger, humour and authenticity, Ed Edwards' play The Political History of Smack and Crack chronicles the fallout for communities crushed by the heroin epidemic at the height of Thatcherism.
  Shot through with home truths about the road to recovery, this is an epic love song to a lost generation inspired by the playwright's own personal experience.
  The Political History of Smack and Crack was shortlisted for the Theatre503 Playwriting Award. It was first performed in Paines Plough's Roundabout at Summerhall at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2018, before transferring to Soho Theatre, London, produced by Most Wanted and Offstage Theatre in association with W14 Productions, Alastair Michael and Soho (co-commissioners).

  Show book

• 

  Where The Dead Men Lie And Other...

  Barcroft Boake

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Where The Dead Men Lie And Other PoemsBy Barcroft BoakeCollected and edited by A. G. StephensNarrated by Denis Daly and Amy SoakesIn his short life Australian poet Barcoft Boake completed thirty poems, the most famous of which is the pastoral lament, Where The Dead Men Lie, which was first published in the The Bulletin in December, 1891.This collection was prepared and edited by critic and anthologist, A. G. Stephens, who also appended a detailed memoir of the poet.Production copyright 2021 Voices of Today

  Show book

• 

  Next Door to the Dead - Poems

  Kathleen Driskell

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  “A collection of poems that are bold, inviting, charming, different, humorous, and irreverent. Often, they slip the bonds of common expectation.” —Northern Kentucky Tribune 
   
  When Kathleen Driskell tells her husband that she’s gone to visit the neighbors, she means something different than most. The noted poet—whose last book, Seed Across Snow, was twice listed as a national bestseller by the Poetry Foundation—lives in an old country church just outside Louisville, Kentucky. Next door is an old graveyard that she was told had fallen out of use. In this marvelous new collection, this turns out not to be the case as the poet’s fascination with the “neighbors” brings the burial ground back to life. 
   
  Driskell frequently strolls the cemetery grounds, imagining the lives and loves of those buried beside her property. These “neighbors,” with burial dates as early as 1848, inspire poems that weave stories, real and imagined, from the epitaphs and unmarked graves. Shifting between perspectives, she embraces and inhabits the voices of those laid to rest while also describing the grounds, the man who mows around the markers, and even the flocks of black birds that hover above before settling amongst the gravestones. 
   
  Next Door to the Dead transcends time and place, linking the often disconnected worlds of the living and the deceased. Just as examining the tombstones forces the author to look more closely at her own life, Driskell’s poems and their muses compel us to examine our own mortality, as well as how we impact the finite lives of those around us. 
   
  “Driskell has written her path to the Kentuckian sublime.” —Shane McCrae, author of Sometimes I Never Suffered

  Show book

• 

  Daddy Long-Legs

  Jean Webster

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Jerusha Abbott, an eighteen year old orphan, faces an uncertain future in the charity home where she has lived all her life. On reaching adulthood, the orphanage can no longer offer shelter to its inmates. Her anxiety leads her into wild speculation when she is summoned to the matron's office. But a surprise awaits her. One of the visitors, a wealthy Trustee of the orphanage, has offered to fund Jerusha's college education and fulfill her dreams of becoming a writer. The only condition he makes is that he remain anonymous and that she write to him regularly about her progress.    Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster was first published in 1912. It follows an epistolatory format and traces the story through a series of letters exchanged between the youthful heroine, Jerusha and her mysterious benefactor whom she has privately nicknamed Daddy-Long-Legs based on a brief glimpse she caught of him once. The book is a young girl's classic coming-of-age tale, a genre that includes the Little Women trilogy, the Katy series and the Anne of Green Gables books. Apart from being a heart-warming story, it also reflects the author's social concerns and her interest in women's issues and the suffragette movement. It is in a way a Beauty and the Beast fairy tale that reflects the transformation of the characters and their attitudes towards each other and life.    Jean Webster was born in New York into a literary family. Her father, Charles Webster was Mark Twain's business manager and head of Twain's publishing company, Charles Webster & Co. Her mother was a strong, independent woman, Mark Twain's own niece, who came from a family of forceful matriarchs. However, after initial success, the publishing business and the relationship with the famous author deteriorated and the family moved back to their old home in Fredonia. She began writing columns for local newspapers while traveling on holiday in Europe and published her first book, When Patty Went to College in 1903. Daddy-Long-Legs is Webster's most famous and popular novel and first appeared as a serial in the Lady's Home Journal.    So great was its popularity that Jean Webster was commissioned to adapt it for stage in 1913. She toured with the theater company and enjoyed even greater success. Daddy-Long-Legs dolls became all the rage in that era!    She died tragically in childbirth in 1916.    Daddy-Long-Legs has been adapted to film, stage and television several times all over the world in many different languages and the century-old story still has the power to keep readers, young and old, enthralled.

  Show book

• 

  A Handful of Stars (NHB Modern...

  Billy Roche

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  A gripping but warm-spirited snapshot of life in a small southern Irish town.
  In the sleepy Irish town of Wexford, where shotgun weddings are outnumbered only by random acts of violence, the pool hall is Jimmy's sanctuary. But will such a place embrace his bright ambition, or bring it down, burning, to the ground?
  Originally part of Billy Roche's The Wexford Trilogy, A Handful of Stars was first performed in 1988 at the Bush Theatre, where it won the John Whiting Award and the Plays and Players Award for Best New Play.
  This edition was published alongside the play's first professional stand-alone revival at Theatre503, London.
  'Simultaneously mean and warm, stifling and nourishing, comic and sad' - The Times
  'Funny, rueful and tender... has the potency of truth' - Telegraph
  'Carefully observed... almost unbearably honest' - Time Out
  'A nice balance of comedy and tension... [has] a great deal of warmth' - A Younger Theatre

  Show book

• 

  Raging: Three Plays Seven Years...

  Deirdre Kinahan

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  A trilogy of landmark plays commemorating seven years of warfare in Ireland, from the 1916 Easter Rising to the Civil War which began in 1922.
  Wild Sky is a story of interlocking lives: of the politicised Josie Dunne, and of Tom Farrell, who is driven only by his love for her. As the Rising plays out, there are unforeseen consequences for everyone involved...
  Embargo focuses on a pivotal moment during the Irish War of Independence in 1920, when dockers and railmen refused to transport armed troops or handle any weapons arriving from Britain.
  Outrage follows two sisters, Alice and Nell, who play key roles in organising civic resistance and the propaganda war. Like everyone else in Ireland, they become deeply conflicted as the country spins toward a devastating Civil War.
  Each of the three plays was first performed a century after the event which it depicts, and they were commissioned and performed by companies including Fishamble: The New Play Company, Meath County Council Arts Office, Dublin Port Company and Iarnród Éireann.
  Together, they challenge the historical narrative, mixing true-life testimonies with powerful drama to create a theatrical hurricane of empathy, action and truth.

  Show book