The Seven Paperweights is set in 1982 and takes the main character, Eve Watson, through a reflective journey spanning over thirty years whilst contemplating the seven paperweights bought from a fairground gypsy. Each paperweight is sold with a gypsy’s warning. The action commences on Christmas Eve, her birthday, where she finds the paperweights hidden away in the loft while sorting out the matrimonial home following divorce proceedings.
This emotionally haunting and beautifully written young adult debut delves into the devastating impact of trauma and loss, in the vein of Laurie Halse Anderson’s Wintergirls. Seventeen-year-old Stevie is trapped. In her life. In her body. And now in an eating-disorder treatment center on the dusty outskirts of the New Mexico desert. Life in the center is regimented and intrusive, a nightmare come true. Nurses and therapists watch Stevie at meal time, accompany her to the bathroom, and challenge her to eat the foods she’s worked so hard to avoid. Her dad has signed her up for sixty days of treatment. But what no one knows is that Stevie doesn’t plan to stay that long. There are only twenty-seven days until the anniversary of her brother Josh’s death—the death she caused. And if Stevie gets her way, there are only twenty-seven days until she, too, will end her life. Paperweight follows seventeen-year-old Stevie’s journey as she struggles not only with a life-threatening eating disorder, but with the question of whether she can ever find absolution for the mistakes of her past…and whether she truly deserves to.
With nearly 400 color photos of Scottish paperweights from 1835 to the present, along with a history of weight-making and important weight-makers and glass houses of Scotland, this study offers a detailed guide to a beautiful art form that has enthusiasts throughout the world. A substantial glossary and price guide are included.
A wide selection of Fry's journalism, including comment pieces, reviews and criticism. It includes 22 selected wireless essays of Donald Trefusis, the aging professor of philosophy brought to life in Fry's novel The Liar, and the best of Fry's weekly column for the Daily Telegraph. The book also includes the script of a play, Latin! (or Tobacco and Boys.), an early work by Fry set in a public school, which won the "Fringe First" prize at the Edinburgh Festival in 1980.
Join an eccentric novelist on the run from his obsessive would-be biographer in this comic farce by the radical Nobel Laureate and author of Lord of the Flies. Why should I conceal the fact that I had found a full professor of Eng. Lit. rifling my dustbin? Fame, fortune, alcoholism, a failing marriage: for novelist Wilfred Barclay, his final unbearable irritation is his would-be-biographer, the young academic Professor Rick L. Tucker, who is determined to become The Barclay Man. Locked in a lethal relationship, the two men stumble across Europe, shedding wives, self-respect and identities in a game of literary cat and mouse - and the climax of their odyssey, when it comes, is as inevitable as it is unexpected . . . 'A complex literary comedy from an extraordinarily powerful writer, which holds us right through to the end.' Malcolm Bradbury 'Rich as a compost heap . . . It moves you and at times it can shake you.' Melvyn Bragg '[Golding's] splendid comic gift is used to often hilarious effect, running the whole gamut of comedy, from irony to farce . . . Hugely enjoyable.' Daily Telegraph
This is a dystopian social science fiction novel and morality tale. The novel is set in the year 1984, a fictional future in which most of the world has been destroyed by unending war, constant government monitoring, historical revisionism, and propaganda. The totalitarian superstate Oceania, ruled by the Party and known as Airstrip One, now includes Great Britain as a province. The Party uses the Thought Police to repress individuality and critical thought. Big Brother, the tyrannical ruler of Oceania, enjoys a strong personality cult that was created by the party's overzealous brainwashing methods. Winston Smith, the main character, is a hard-working and skilled member of the Ministry of Truth's Outer Party who secretly despises the Party and harbors rebellious fantasies.
