Books

A Life Spanning a Century  •  The Portrait Gallery  •  A Mouthful of Stars  •  Papering Over the Cracks  •  Arthur Symons, Leading Poet of the English Decadence  •  Joy, Light, Sorrow and Splendour  •  The Loving Scapegoat  •  Other People  •  Breach: the Art of Commons  •  Via Contemplativa, Via Activa  •  Day Return  •  Fiesta  •  Rimbaud’s Une Saison en Enfer  •  On the Edge  •  Internal Memorandum  •  The Slippery are Very Crafty  •  Diggers and Dreamers  •  First Cut  •  The Chosen One  •  The Foundling and Other Stories  •  The Traitor  •  The Brotherhood of Thieves

A Life Spanning a Century

by Dorothy Mules née Tabb

Reminiscences, short poems and occasional pieces from a well liked Shaftesbury woman whose life covered almost the whole of the twentieth century… Read more

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The Portrait Gallery

by Sebastian Hayes

A striking array of male and female personages, some historical, some fictitious, bare their souls in a taut series of dramatic monologues… Read more

Buy now  •  View Sebastian Hayes’ biography
 

A Mouthful of Stars

by Sylvia Oldroyd

A collection of 58 poems taking a lyrical look at a variety of life’s facets: including language and music, New Forest places and wildlife, family relationships, travels in Europe and world events; beginning with the elements and ending with time and the universe… Read more

Buy now  •  Sylvia Oldroyd’s biography
 

Papering Over the Cracks

by Pam Kelly

A wry and sometimes painful look at how we complete the jigsaw of our lives and gradually put all the broken pieces back together… Read more

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Arthur Symons, Leading Poet of the English Decadence

by Sebastian Hayes

During the Eighteen Eighties Arthur Symons, the ‘English Verlaine’, dominated the literary scene but has since then disappeared without a trace. Sebastian Hayes argues that he deserves to be remembered for his musical, precise and deeply felt poems and as a precursor of the Imagist movement.  Read more

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Joy, Light, Sorrow and Splendour

by Chris Irven

The Benedictine monk introducing this book describes it as ‘the most profound and searching series of meditations on the rosary that I know.’ Lightly combining theological insight with a human touch it engages heart and mind page after page. Far from constraining the reader to follow a rigid form of words it positively encourages the imagination to explore unhurried the events in the life of Jesus, drawing one into the story like a novel. The 200 separate thoughts are gathered into 20 packets called mysteries, each beautifully illustrated in colour, providing a meditation that can last from 15 minutes to an hour depending on mood and time available… Read more

Buy now  • Chris Irven’s biography
 

The Loving Scapegoat

by Chris Irven

In its use of English and its coloured illustrations this book offers a Stations of the Cross in a direct and down-to-earth style. Following the journey of Jesus from Pilate’s Pavement to the Place of the Skull it explores the thoughts and feelings of the man who was also the Son of God. But we the reader find ourselves in the shoes of those he met on his way – from Pilate who sentenced him, to the escort commander, to Simon the stranger, the compassionate women, the brigand dying beside him, the Centurion – each brought into sharp self-awareness by briefly encountering this extraordinary condemned man. Not a book for those unwilling to be challenged, The Loving Scapegoat snaps sound theology into its rightful place in today’s world.… Read more

Buy now  •  Chris Irven’s biography
 

Other People

by Pam Kelly

“Other People” is about innocence and experience and how our lives are shaped and changed by the people that we meet. It starts with the author’s childhood as a war baby and ends with the question we all ask ourselves — what if it had all been different? Read more

Buy now  •  Pam Kelly’s biography
 

Breach: the Art of Commons

By Catherine Simmonds, Rachel Sargent, Justin Orwin and Keith Walton

The Art of Commons is the response of four artists - a poet, a painter, a photographer and a prose writer - to a Dorset Common (Breach Common, Shaftesbury) over a six month period from the shortest day of the year to the longest.  Read more

Buy now  •  Catherine Simmonds et al biography
 

Via Contemplativa, Via Activa

by Sebastian Hayes

“What is this life if full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.”

Present Western society has become all bustle, noise, travel and competitiveness. Is this a good thing?  Read more

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Day Return

by MC Wood

With 44 poems, 'Day Return' covers the range of human experience, from birth to death, from humour to sadness… Read more

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Fiesta

by Pam Kelly

By the author of On the Edge. Poems of varied mood and content written in Andalucia in April and May 2007… Read more

Buy now  •  View Pam Kelly’s biography
 

Rimbaud’s Une Saison en Enfer,
A new translation complete with notes and an essay Rimbaud Revisited 1968—2006

by Sebastian Hayes

This is a very readable new translation of the famous French writer’s most important work complete with extensive much needed Notes and a long essay on Rimbaud, interpreted in the light of twentieth century social and political movements… Read more

Buy now  •  View Sebastian Hayes’ biography
 

On the Edge

by Pam Kelly

20 poems about how one woman sees life, love, sex and death in the 21st century, On the Edge takes reverent and irreverent looks at the way postmodern Britain shapes our lives. Personal, tragic, witty and thoughtful, the poems cover… Read more

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Internal Memorandum

by JC Sledge

There are hopes, achievements and frustrations at work, just as there are in our personal lives. What goes on in one aspect of our lives is bound to have an influence on what happens in the other.

As Martin Brown finds out… Read more

Buy now  •  JC Sledge’s biography
 

The Slippery are Very Crafty

by David Grierson

At a time when China is rarely out of the western media, we have here an opportune and personal perspective on life in the mighty People’s Republic – a country that never fails to fascinate, bewilder, beguile and, from time to time, frighten as well… Read more

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Diggers and Dreamers

by Keith Walton

Rural Languedoc. The South of France. Summer 1976.

‘There is another world, but it is in this one’— and the characters in this novel, in their different ways, mean to find it… Read more

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First Cut

by Keith Walton

The 39 poems, a selection from the work of several years, range widely, from the precisely-observed descriptive to the philosophical, from the lyrical to the (subtly) polemical, from moments captured to stories told… Read more

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The Chosen One

by Sebastian Hayes

A group of middle class intellectuals accompanied by a mysterious South American visitor have just ended an informal dinner party and to pass the time start a session of Ouija. The men present sabotage the attempt though one or two garbled messages start coming through. Then everything starts to go wrong… Read more

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The Foundling and Other Stories

by Sebastian Hayes

Thirteen remarkable tales in which you encounter a girl with gull’s feet, a talking pheasant, a cave of nothing, a universe in creation, a prince imprisoned in a garden of earthly delights… They recall at once traditional folk tales, Calvino’s clever reworkings, biblical and Gnostic parables, creation myths… Each story is thought-provoking and hugely entertaining.

Buy now  •  View Sebastian Hayes’ biography
 

The Traitor

by Arnold Hinchliffe

Is it better to fight against an oppressive regime, or to collaborate with it in order to gain a position from which one can do a little good? This is the dilemma explored in Arnold Hinchliffe’s last play… Read more

Buy now  •  View Arnold Hinchliffe’s biography
 

The Brotherhood of Thieves

by Arnold Hinchliffe

London 1776 “Man is born free but is everywhere in chains” (J-J Rousseau). In America the colonists have just raised the flag of revolt while in France the tottering ancien régime is nearing its end. In London, magnificent and miserable London, a formidably well-organised band of thieves led by Ne’er Hang Jack, terrorise the wealthy, combining violence with deep revolutionary convictions… Read more

Buy now  •  View Arnold Hinchliffe’s biography