Alex Preston

The year is 1742. Goody Brown, saved from drowning and adopted when just a babe, has grown up happily in the smuggling town of Winchelsea. Then, when Goody turns sixteen, her father is murdered in the night by men he thought were friends. To find justice in a lawless land, Goody must enter the cut-throat world of her father's killers. With her beloved brother Francis, she joins a rival gang of smugglers. Facing high seas and desperate villains, she also discovers something else: an existence without constraints or expectations, a taste for danger that makes her blood run fast. Goody was never born to be a gentlewoman. But what will she become instead? Winchelsea is an electrifying story of vengeance and transformation; a rare, lyrical and transporting work of historical imagination that makes the past so real we can touch it.

Winchelsea

'A magical book: an inimitable fusion of ornithology, literary anthology and autobiography' Tom Holland 'Delightful . . . an original look at the literature inspired by Britain's birdlife' the Guardian, Best Nature Books of 2017 When Alex Preston was 15, he stopped being a birdwatcher. Adolescence and the scorn of his peers made him put away his binoculars, leave behind the hides and the nature reserves and the quiet companionship of his fellow birders. His love of birds didn't disappear though. Rather, it went underground, and he began birdwatching in the books that he read, creating his own personal anthology of nature writing that brought the birds of his childhood back to brilliant life. Looking for moments 'when heart and bird are one', Preston weaves the very best writing about birds into a personal and eccentric narrative that is as much about the joy of reading and writing as it is about the thrill of wildlife. Moving from the 'high requiem' of Keats's nightingale to the crow-strewn sky at the end of Alan Garner's The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, from Ted Hughes's brooding 'Hawk in the Rain' to the giddy anthropomorphism of Jonathan Livingstone Seagull, this is a book that will make you look at birds, at the world, in a newer, richer light. Beautifully illustrated and illuminated by the celebrated graphic artist Neil Gower, As Kingfishers Catch Fire is a book to love and to hold, to return to again and again, to marvel at the way that authors across the centuries have captured the endless grace and variety of birds. 'As Kingfishers Catch Fire is a memoir/gallimaufry of ornithological obsession by Alex Preston. He watches birds in the sky and on the page darting between myths, stories and memoir like a swift. The characterful illustrations by Neil Gower add a whole new dimension to this gorgeous book' Damian Barr, Guardian Best Books of 2017

Birds & Books

As Kingfishers Catch Fire

A tale of love, heroism and resistance set against the stunning backdrop of 1930s Florence, In Love and War weaves fact and fiction to create a thrilling portrait of a man swept up in the chaos of war. Desperate to prove himself to his politician father, Esmond Lowndes is sent to Italy to forge ties between the British Union of Fascists and Mussolini's government. He is also escaping the disgrace of a scandalous love affair. In Florence, he discovers art and passion amongst eccentric expatriates and glamorous locals. But with the coming of war, he leaves his past behind and joins the Florentine resistance. He falls in love with a fellow freedom fighter and together they take on the malevolent Mario Carità, head of the Fascist secret police. Esmond is at the centre of assassination plots, shoot-outs and car chases, culminating in a final mission of extraordinary daring. A novel of art and letters, of bawdy raconteurs and dashing spies, In Love and War takes you deep into the hidden heart of history. It is a tale both epic and intimate, harrowing and life-affirming.

In Love and War

The revelations

Charlie Wales left Edinburgh University with dreams of the high-life. Six months later he is marooned in London, unemployed and living a dreary existence in a house he shares with the girl he loves (but who no longer loves him). He finally secures a job at Silverbirch - a hedge-fund based in Mayfair, where he begins to work in the brutal and remorseless world of high finance. When the markets crash, Charlie sees the potential for an escape; but is he already too far immersed in the City to get out? This debut novel does not merely pick over the carcass of the financial markets in the wake of the recent crash. It is also a heartbreaking love story, a withering study of the years of excess, and a touching contemplation of how good people end up doing terrible things.

This Bleeding City

David Szalay

Eley Williams

Kamila Shamsie

The Balvenie Stories Collection

Pursuit

A group of young people are searching for meaning in a dark world. The Course, a religious movement led by a charismatic priest, seems to offer everything they have been looking for: a community of bright, thoughtful, beautiful people. But as they are drawn deeper into the Course, money, sex and God collide, threatening to rip them apart.

The Revelations

Charlie Wales is a young man who wants everything. Fresh from University he's seduced by the excitement of a new life in London that promises sex, sophistication and lots of money. There's Vero, the beautiful French girl who might finally fall for him. Unemployed, there's the lure of art but also the promise of fast money in the City. And his friends are all spiralling into a world of drink, drugs and selfish greed. But as the choices begin to tear him apart, there's also the danger that all the things he desires are on the brink of crashing around him... This debut novel, written by a 30-year-old bond trader, does not merely pick over the carcass of the financial markets in the wake of the recent crash. It is also a heartbreaking love story, a withering study of the years of excess, and a touching contemplation of how good people end up doing terrible things.

In eighteenth-century Sussex, a young girl seeks revenge for the death of her father - an intoxicating historical novel from the acclaimed author of In Love and War.

Charlie Wales è un giovane uomo che vuole conquistare tutto: la ragazza che ama, la metropoli, Londra, in cui si è appena trasferito dopo essersi laureato brillantemente a Edimburgo, il successo nel lavoro e la ricchezza economica. Per questo inizia la carriera finanziaria nella City, e resiste alle difficoltà iniziali, al rapporto travagliato che lo lega da una parte alla bellissima e sfuggente Vero, dall’altra al suo migliore amico e coinquilino, Henry, ai dubbi che lo assalgono e gli fanno pensare che giorno dopo giorno stia buttando via la propria giovinezza. Ma il successo, e anche l’amore, hanno un prezzo, e conquistare Londra per Charlie significherà sporcarsi le mani portando avanti investimenti a rischio, ingannare se stesso e chi gli affida il proprio denaro, mentre il mondo, fuori dall’ufficio in cui passa sempre più tempo, sta per esplodere nella peggiore crisi economica mai conosciuta... Questa città che sanguina, romanzo rivelazione della scena letteraria inglese, racconta dal di dentro – come mai è stato fatto finora – l’attuale crisi economica, riuscendo magistralmente a coniugare un rigore da esperto finanziario e la capacità, propria dei grandi narratori, di rappresentare l’elemento umano che vi è coinvolto e sotteso. Con uno stile che si ispira tanto a Fitzgerald quanto al Truffaut di Jules e Jim, Alex Preston in Questa città che sanguina è riuscito a esprimere in modo drammatico e toccante l’insensatezza della nostra vita contemporanea, divisa tra modelli economici avanzati e un senso sempre più incombente di provvisorietà, e a raccontarci la storia di un uomo che cerca la propria felicità senza riuscire a riconoscerla.

Questa città che sanguina

De jonge en ambitieuze Charlie Wales kan niet wachten om zijn dromen waar te maken met zijn nieuwe baan bij hedgefonds Silverbirch in hartje Londen. Al gauw wordt hij de keiharde zakenwereld ingezogen en behoren drugs, drank en prostituees tot zijn nieuwe werkelijkheid. Is dit waar hij altijd van gedroomd had? Als in 2007 de financiële crisis uitbreekt, ziet hij een uitweg om zijn verstikkende carrière vol corruptie achter zich te laten. Maar is er nog wel een weg terug voor Charlie? ‘Deze bloedende stad’ is het grote debuut van schrijver Alex Preston en ontving maar liefst twee gerenommeerde Britse debuutprijzen in 2010. Inmiddels is zijn boek in meer dan twaalf talen vertaald. Een fantastisch debuut - Waterstones Een boek dat laat zien wat de financiële crisis met emoties kan doen - The Guardian Het eerste insidersverslag over het leven van een trader tijdens de crisis - Evening Standard Alex Preston (1979) is een Britse auteur en journalist met een achtergrond in de financiële zakenwereld, waar hij onder meer bij ABN AMRO werkzaam was. In zijn geprezen debuut ‘Deze bloedende wereld’ beschrijft hij het leven van een jonge bankier in Londen die getergd wordt door de financiële crisis in 2007. Dat boek is in meer dan twaalf talen verschenen en won twee belangrijke Britse debuutprijzen in 2010. Preston is regelmatig te horen en te zien op BBC radio en televisie. .

Deze bloedende stad

What is it to pursue a goal, to strive for an ideal, to follow a dream? These are the questions explored by The Balvenie in this unique collection compiled by award-winning novelist Alex Preston. The stories - from some of the brightest and most exciting voices writing today - tell of determination, endeavour and perseverance against the odds. They range across wildly different contexts and cultures, from the epic to the intimate, in fiction and non-fiction, illustrating and illuminating the outer limits of human character and achievement. With contributions from Max Porter, Kamila Shamsie, Daisy Johnson, Eley Williams, Michael Donkor, David Szalay, Yan Ge and many more.

Neel Mukherjee

Olivia Laing

Helen Macdonald

Jackie Kay

Marina Warner

David Herd

Rachel Holmes

Josh Cohen

Ian Duhig

Caroline Bergvall

Upon changing his religion, a young man is denounced as an apostate and flees his country hiding in the back of a freezer lorry… After years of travelling and losing almost everything – his country, his children, his wife, his farm – an Afghan man finds unexpected warmth and comfort in a stranger’s home... A student protester is forced to leave his homeland after a government crackdown, and spends the next 25 years in limbo, trapped in the UK asylum system... Modelled on Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, the second volume of Refugee Tales sets out to communicate the experiences of those who, having sought asylum in the UK, find themselves indefinitely detained. Here, poets and novelists create a space in which the stories of those who have been detained can be safely heard, a space in which hospitality is the prevailing discourse and listening becomes an act of welcome. All profits go to the Gatwick Detainee Welfare Group and Kent Help for Refugees.

Refugee Tales: Volume II

A group of young people are searching for meaning in a dark and directionless world. The Course, a religious movement led by a charismatic priest, seems at first to offer everything the friends have been looking for: a community of bright, thoughtful, beautiful people. But as they are drawn deeper into the Course, money, sex and God collide, threatening to rip them apart. This gripping novel of ideas lays bare a world where the advancement of a movement becomes more important than the lives of its followers.

Alex Preston

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