Maggie Gee

Angela Lamb, a British novelist, has sent her boisterous daughter Gerda to boarding school. Now she can fly to New York to pursue her passion for Woolf, whose manuscripts are in the private Berg Collection there. When a bedraggled-looking Virginia herself materializes in the library one day and is instantly evicted, a stunned Angela follows her hero into the streets of Manhattan. As Virginia scams bookshops with 'rare signed editions', Angela is forced to look after her. Later the two women fly to Istanbul, where Virginia gatecrashes an international conference on - Virginia Woolf.

Virginia Woolf in Manhattan

Frank Cottrell-Boyce

Kate Clanchy

Courttia Newland

Jacob Ross

Kit de Waal

David Constantine

Alexei Sayle

Juliet Jacques

Holly Pester

Stuart Evers

Martyn Bedford

Joanna Quinn

Laura Hird

Matthew Holness

Michelle Green

Sandra Alland

Andy Hedgecock

Francesca Rhydderch

Whatever happened to British protest? For a nation that brought the world Chartism, the Suffragettes, the Tolpuddle Martyrs, and so many other grassroots social movements, Britain rarely celebrates its long, great tradition of people power. In this timely and evocative collection, twenty authors have assembled to re-imagine key moments of British protest, from the Peasants' Revolt of 1381 to the anti-Iraq War demo of 2003. Written in close consultation with historians, sociologists and eyewitnesses - who also contribute afterwords - these stories follow fictional characters caught up in real-life struggles, offering a streetlevel perspective on the noble art of resistance. In the age of fake news and post-truth politics this book fights fiction with (well researched, historically accurate) fiction.

Stories of Resistance

Protest

Funny and poignant tale of power dynamics in an English household.

My Cleaner

Red Children

"The most exhilarating novel I've read all year."--"Scotland"" on Sunday" "A rich story of the heart told through a harlequin pattern of alternating voices, each of which is a work of real imaginative insight."--"Marie Claire" Christopher and Alexandra's passion for each other raises eyebrows and invites envy. This beautiful, blinkered couple do the unthinkable and run away from home, abandoning their two teenage children. Their sudden departure is an act of glorious willfulness. Life in the countries they visit is nothing more than a backdrop to their love affair. Fifteen years later, Alexandra is in remote Bolivia with a lover young enough to be her son and Christopher is in Venice, desolate and alone but for the pigeons and prostitutes. Tormented by past mistakes, neither can accept that they may never meet again.

Where are the Snows

Vanessa Henman, a plucky but accident-prone white writer, flies from London to Uganda for an African writers' conference. She also means to visit her former cleaner, Ugandan Mary Tendo, now the successful Executive Housekeeper of Kampala's up-market Sheraton Hotel. But Mary has her own agenda: her son Jamil is missing, and she has secretly summoned Vanessa's beloved ex-husband Trevor, a plumber, to her home village to build a new well. Vanessa sets off alone on safari to distant Bwindi Impenetrable Forest to see the mountain gorillas. But she quarrels with her driver and a bloody war closes in on Bwindi from Congo. Can anyone save her? Will Mary Tendo find her son? One of her strongest novels to date...fast-moving, energetic, constantly surprising' Hilary Mantel Maggie Gee has never written better' Rose Tremain A tour de force - brilliantly structured, surprising, humane, and suspenseful' Elaine Showalter Brilliant...just brilliant...this book deserves to be published in every language' Hillary Jordan 'Executed with a lovely, light touch ... an immensely enjoyable novel.' Lionel Shriver, Daily Telegraph 'Worldy, witty, enjoyable, impressive' Doris Lessing 'Sparky, funny and terrifically entertaining' Guardian

My Driver

When his sudden illness brings together the three grown children of Alfred White, a London park keeper, tension, racial prejudice, fear, and hatred erupts among the two brothers, the younger a virulent racist, and their sister, who lives with a black social worker. Original.

The White Family

President Bliss is handling a tricky situation with customary brio, but after months of ceaseless rain the city is sinking under the floods. The rich are safe on high ground, but the poor are getting damper in their packed tower blocks, and the fanatical 'Last Days' sect is recruiting thousands ... husband Harold listens to jazz and their ditsy teenage daughter Lola fights capitalism by bunking off school. Shirley takes her twin boys to the zoo. The Government - eager to detract attention from a foreign war it has waged - announces a spectacular City Gala. But not even TV astrologer Davey Lucas can predict the extraordinary climax that ensues.

The Flood

Angela Lamb, a British novelist, has sent her boisterous daughter Gerda to boarding school. Now she can fly to New York to pursue her passion for Woolf, whose manuscripts are in the private Berg Collection there. When a bedraggled-looking Virginia herself materializes in the library one day and is instantly evicted, a stunned Angela follows her heroine into the streets of Manhattan. As Virginia scams bookshops with 'rare signed editions', Angela is forced to look after her. Later the two women fly to Istanbul, where Virginia gatecrashes an international conference on - Virginia Woolf.

Adult children take revenge on their brutal father, but the victim crawls back. Literary black comedy with lashings of thriller.

Blood

Language and the Forbidden

How May I Speak in My Own Voice?

Dying, in Other Words

These exquisitely written stories illuminate the dark corners of people's lives as they struggle to

The Blue

It's the 2030s in Ramsgate and four people who don't look quite human are found sitting, naked, in the early spring sunlight on the quay of the quiet south coast resort. The locals are puzzled – the newcomers are larger and heavier than they are and say they are fleeing the heat. Soon more arrive. Their tall red-haired leader, The Professor, talks to the universe. The locals talk among themselves. Red people appear everywhere, making friends, going into the caves, liked by some but accused of bringing infection by others. Two rivalrous brothers, Liam and Joe, take different sides as one joins a notorious far-right group. Their teacher Monica is the first to warn there'll be trouble. And she's right, there is; but there is also a great Midsummer Festival, laughter and love. Set in a world in crisis, this original, gripping fable about migration and global warming restores belief in the power of human kindness. 'A stylish, intriguing novel. A fable bursting with freshness and foresight, a charming, sparkling jewel of a novel to be cherished and held high as an antidote to modern day bleakness and climate despair.'-- Leila Aboulela ' The Red Children offers a warning and a vision of our past, present and future. This timely, vital and generous book is extraordinary in its courage, and hopeful and brutally honest in its clarity. An essential book for our times.'-- Salena Godden 'Superb. A mesmerising, deeply engrossing work.'-- Irenosen Okojie

The Red Children

Paula is a victim of mysterious harassment. She lives near the railway line that carries nuclear waste through the heart of London and feels curiously, constantly unwell. Grace, her remarkable eighty-five-year-old aunt, deplores the evils of the modern world. When she, too, is plagued by silent phone calls, she escapes to Seabourne on the South Coast, where nothing ever happens except quiet deaths and holidays. Bruno is a sexually quirky private detective who attacks daisies with scissors, germs with bleach and old ladies for fun. If he follows Grace to Seabourne, can anything save her? Inspired by the real-life murder of anti-nuclear protester Hilda Murrell, Grace is a breathtaking thriller that asks whether, in a bankrupt, dishonest, security-mad Britain, courage and love still count for something. 'Excellent' The Times 'Heart-stoppingly exciting' Time Out 'Maggie Gee's excellent novel treads a sure path between love and fear, taking as its starting point sinister and secret happenings in contemporary England. I read it twice, and it was even better the second time.' Anita Brookner, The Spectator 'Full of poignancy and power.' Jeannette Winterson

Grace

Critical Essays

Christopher and Alexandra's passion for each other raises eyebrows and invites envy. This beautiful, blinkered couple do the unthinkable and run away from home, abandoning their two teenage children. Their sudden departure is an act of glorious wilfulness. Life in the countries they visit is nothing more than a backdrop to their love affair. Fifteen years later Alexandra is in remote Bolivia with a lover young enough to be her son and Christopher is in Venice, desolate and alone but for the pigeons and prostitutes. Tormented by past mistakes, neither can accept that they may never meet again. The most exhilarating novel I've read all year.' Scotland on Sunday A rich story of the heart told through a harlequin pattern of alternating voices, each of which is a work of real imaginative insight.' Marie Claire Maggie Gee's immense talent catches passion on the wing a romance of a truth and depth that's never without humour.' Mail on Sunday A remarkable and ambitious book, a tribute to Maggie Gee's imaginative power.' Literary Review More erotic than a thousand blockbusters' Mail on Sunday So rich it is almost aromatic ... an impressive and important novel' Nigella Lawson, The Evening Standard Compulsive reading' The Sunday Times

A futuristic account of human society struggling to survive the collapse of civilisation in a new ice age, this tale of adventure, love and loss examines the relationship between human beings and an ever-more technical society.

The Ice People

"Twenty years seemed like quite a long time at first. . . . To prepare for the ice."

Maggie Gee

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