Ричард Холлоуэй0.0 The acclaimed writer, respected thinker and outspoken former bishop Richard Holloway recounts a life defined by the biggest questions: Who am I? And what is God? At fourteen, Richard Holloway left his home in the Vale of Leven, north of Glasgow, and travelled hundreds of miles to be educated and trained for the priesthood by a religious order in an English monastery. By twenty-five he had been ordained and was working in the slums of Glasgow. Throughout the following forty years, Richard touched the lives of many people in the Church and in the wider community. But behind his confident public face lay a restless, unquiet heart and a constantly searching mind. Why is the Church, which claims to be the instrument of God's love, so prone to cruelty and condemnation? And how can a man live with the tension between public faith and private doubt? In his long-awaited memoir, Richard seeks to answer these questions and to explain how, after many crises of faith, he finally and painfully left the Church. It is a wise, poetic and fiercely honest book.
Colin Grant0.0 To his fellow West Indians who assemble every weekend for the all-night poker game at Mrs Knight's, he is always known as Bageye. There aren't very many black men in Luton in 1972 and most of them gather at Mrs Knight's - Summer Wear, Pioneer, Anxious, Tidy Boots - each has his nickname. Bageye already finds it a struggle to feed his family on his wage from Vauxhall Motors, but now his wife Blossom has set her heart on her sons going to private school.
In this wonderful memoir Colin Grant looks at his father through the eyes of his ten-year-old self. Colin is Bageye's favourite 'pickney', and often his reluctant companion in his latest attempt to placate Blossom with another DIY project, or a little cash. When he acquires a less than roadworthy old car, Bageye sets himself up as an unofficial minicab service, lack of a driving licence notwithstanding. More profitable are his marijuana deals, until the day he mistakenly entrusts Colin with choosing a hiding place for a huge bag of ganja...
Rachel Cusk3.5 In the winter of 2009, Rachel Cusk's marriage of ten years came to an end. In the months that followed, life as she had known it came apart, 'like a jigsaw dismantled into a heap of broken-edged pieces'. 'Aftermath' chronicles this perilous journey as the author redefines herself as a single woman.
Will Cohu0.0 In 1966 Will Cohu's grandparents moved to Bramble Carr, a remote cottage on the Yorkshire moors. The summers and winters he spent there were full of freedom and light; only after childhood ended was he aware of the price the adults had paid for life in this most romantic of settings.
Navigating family tensions and the trials of growing up, Will describes the close-knit community of North Yorkshire and his family's place within it; shepherd Frank Raw probing the head-high snowdrifts at Fryup Dale for signs of his flock; Bob Robinson, patrician doctor and obsessive antiquarian; John Kenney, pub landlord and hoarder of military memorabilia; Will's glamorous RAF parents; and, at the centre of the story, his beloved but enigmatic grandparents, talented children of the old working classes, searching for a home in a changing world.
The Wolf Pit depicts a rural England that is passionate, funny and frightening; an idyll shot through with drink and disappointment that also offers the space in which we might make sense of what life throws at us. The story moves from children's sledging adventures at Bramble Carr to the emptiness of the Australian outback, where Will's uncle Robert slips from the embrace of his brother into lonely self-destruction.
Exquisitely written, and flecked with sharp wit and tender insight, The Wolf Pit is an enquiring love letter from Will Cohu to his family, and a moving account of our struggle against the elements without and within.
