Other books that might interest you

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  Little Brother

  Mary E Mann

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  Mary E. Mann does not flinch. In Little Brother, she leads us by the hand into a world where hunger is constant, sorrow is routine, and the arrival of a child is met with neither joy nor mourning—just another mouth, another burden, another resignation. Yet even in this bleakness, life goes on, in ways both unsettling and eerily familiar. A stark, unflinching glimpse into the realities of the forgotten, this story is as haunting as it is quietly devastating.

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  The Garden of Eros - Poem...

  Oscar Wilde

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  Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was born on the 16th October 1854 in Dublin Ireland.  The son of Dublin intellectuals Oscar proved himself an outstanding classicist at Dublin, then at Oxford. With his education complete Wilde moved to London and its fashionable cultural and social circles.  With his biting wit, flamboyant dress, and glittering conversation, Wilde became one of the most well-known personalities of his day.  
  His only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray was published in 1890 and he then moved on to writing for the stage with Salome in 1891.  His society comedies produced enormous hits and turned him into one of the most successful writers of late Victorian London.  
  Whilst his masterpiece, ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’, was on stage in London, Wilde had the Marquess of Queensberry, the father of his lover, Lord Alfred Douglas, prosecuted for libel.  The trial unearthed evidence that caused Wilde to drop his charges and led to his own arrest and trial for gross indecency. He was convicted and imprisoned for two years' hard labour.  It was to break him.  
  On release he left for France. There he wrote his last work, ‘The Ballad of Reading Gaol’ in 1898.  He died destitute in Paris at the age of forty-six sipping champagne a friend had brought with the line ‘Alas I am dying beyond my means’.

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  Backstairs Billy

  Marcelo Dos Santos

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  'One can't help where one is born. Or one's station, of course. The trick to happiness is to be content where one is. Or so I am told.'
  1979. Clarence House, London. The Queen Mother's receptions are in full swing and the champagne is flowing. Guiding the proceedings is William 'Billy' Tallon, page of the backstairs, keeper of the keys, holder of the royal corgis – and the royal secrets.
  Outside the palace walls, unemployment, inflation and industrial action are bringing Britain to its knees, and the country is on the verge of changing seismically under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. These two worlds are about to collide, with dizzying consequences for everyone...
  Backstairs Billy examines the fifty-year relationship between the Queen Mother and her most loyal, most outrageous servant, who joined her household at the age of fifteen. Marcelo Dos Santos's irreverent comedy was first produced by the Michael Grandage Company at the Duke of York's Theatre, London, in 2023, directed by Grandage and starring Penelope Wilton and Luke Evans.
  Marcelo Dos Santos was named Most Promising Playwright at the 2024 Critics' Circle Theatre Awards for Backstairs Billy (he was the joint winner of the award with Matilda Feyiṣayọ Ibini).

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  Mrs Delgado (NHB Modern Plays)

  Mike Bartlett

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  Helen, along with sixty-seven million other people, is in lockdown. Unfortunately, Helen's neighbour, Mrs Delgado, is not.
  Mike Bartlett's funny and poignant play for one actor tells a story of desire, control, raised blinds and lowered boundaries.
  Mrs Delgado was first performed by Rakhee Sharma and directed by Clare Lizzimore in December 2021 at the Old Fire Station, Oxford, where Bartlett's play Snowflake premiered to critical acclaim.
  This edition also includes the monologue Phoenix, a powerful story of fire and destruction, self-deceit and the corrosion of trust.
  Phoenix was first performed in 2020 by Bertie Carvel as an audio drama, part of English Touring Theatre and Headlong's Signal Fires storytelling project.

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  Homer's The Iliad and The Odyssey

  Homer Homer

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  "Ah how shameless – the way these mortals blame the gods. From us alone they say come all their miseries yes but they themselves with their own reckless ways compound their pains beyond their proper share.” – The OdysseyExperience the stunning Greek poetry of Homer in this collection of his two major works: The Iliad and The Odyssey. These epic poems are beloved for their presentation of Greek history and belief systems, their strong theming and lessons on Greek virtues, and their continued influence on the literary canon.The Iliad –In the final days of the long-fought Trojan War, the Greek gods begin to interfere with the events of the war. When plagues strike the Achaean army, the fierce leader Achilles uses his connections with the gods to further interfere, which begins a series of events that leads to death and destruction on both sides of the war. This dramatic poem is a commentary on human folly and hubris, while also an in-depth explanation of the warfare styles of the time and a representation of the Greek views on the interference of gods in major historical events.The Odyssey –Following the events of The Iliad, Odysseus begins a journey to return to his home of Ithaca after being away for a decade due to angering Poseidon, the god of the sea. After sneaking away from Poseidon, he embarks on a years-long voyage home during which he is captured and circumvented by earthly and godly foes alike. His journey home is slow and full of turmoil and adventure. Themes in this poem include hospitality, predetermined fate and omens, journeying home, and wandering as a test of faith and resilience.

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  Please make me pretty I don't...

  Tawanda Mulalu

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  The debut collection of an exciting new voice in poetry 
   
   
   
  Please make me pretty, I don't want to die explores tactility, sound, sensuality, and intimacy. Set across the four seasons of a year, these fresh and original poems by Tawanda Mulalu combine an inviting confessional voice and offbeat imagery, and offer an appealing mixture of seriousness and humor. 
   
   
   
  The speaker of these poems probes romantic and interracial intimacy, the strangeness and difficulty of his experiences as a diasporic Black African in White America, his time working as a teacher's assistant in a third-grade classroom, and his ambivalent admiration for canonical poets who have influenced him, especially Sylvia Plath. Juxtaposing traditional forms such as sonnets and elegies with less orthodox interjections, such as prose-poem "prayers" and other meditations, the collection presents a poetic world both familiar and jarring—one in which history, the body, and poetry can collide in a single surprising turn of image: "The stars also suffer. Immense and dead, their gasses burn / distant like castanets of antebellum teeth. My open window / a synecdoche of country."

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