Philip Spires Author of Mission, an African novel set in Kenya http://www.philipspires.co.uk Michael, a missionary priest, has just killed Munyasya. It was an accident, but Mulonzya, a politician, exploits the tragedy for his own ends. Boniface, a church worker, has just lost his child. He did not make it to the hospital in time, possibly because Michael went to the Mission to retrieve a letter from Janet, a teacher, and the priest’s neighbour. It is Munyasya who has the last laugh, however.

• Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter by Mario Vargas Llosa
  24/04/2008 | Literature
  Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter is a surreal novel by Peruvian author, Mario Vargas Llosa. In the book, the writer manages to blur distinctions between reality and fiction, between fact and invention, between truth and fiction. It is a book where life becomes a sitcom, where experience becomes plot and where characters come to terms with their lives. Read
  
• Short Story - Strangers
  13/04/2008 | Fiction
  Strangers is a short story, part of a series based on travel experiences. It tells of an overnight stay in a small seaside town in Devon, England. At first sight the setting seems to be a quaint, fairytale, beautiful fishing village. But in the space of a few hours it reveals a different side, a place where everone is a stranger. Read
  
• Short Story - Protesters
  13/04/2008 | Fiction
  Protesters is a short story, part of a set based loosely on a theme of travel. here, a Central American political leader finds himself sharing a green room before a public meeting with an aged writer. They find they have much in common and much in conflict. The story is fictional, but based on a specific historical event where it might have happened. Read
  
• Cultured Tangos
  13/04/2008 | Music
  Cultured Tangos examines aspects of the music of Argentine composer, Astor Piazzolla. The piece was inspired by a performance of Piazzolla tangos by Joachin Palomares, Claude Delangle and Camerata Virtuosi in the Auditori de la Mediterraneo in a Nucia, Spain. Read
  
• On the Yankee Station by William Boyd
  27/03/2008 | Literature
  On The Yankee Station by William Boyd is a book of short stories, its title taken from the most substantial of the series. Set on an aircraft carrier in the Vietnam War, it tells of the ruthless bullying of a crew member by his superior, a pilot drunk on his own status. Revenge becomes a strong motivation. Read
  
• Master Georgie by Beryl Bainbridge
  27/03/2008 | Literature
  Master Georgie by Beryl Bainbridge is a complex novel set in the Crimean War. The narrative is seen from multiple points of view, but everyone invloved becomes caught up in the visceral carnage of war, and all of it without reason. crimea, war, empire, colonial, nineteenth century, photography, Read
  
• The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
  27/03/2008 | Literature
  The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood won the 2002 Booker Prize in 2000. It deals with the histories of two Canadian families, the Chase family in particular, where the rivalry between two sisters, Iris and Laura generates tragedy. Read
  
• Fatelessness by Imre Kertesz
  25/03/2008 | Fiction
  Fatelessness by Imre Kertesz is the story of a fourteen-year-old Hungarian Jewish boy's journey through the concentration camps of World War Two. It is a harrowing tale of starvation and systematic abuse within a context of genocide, but it eventually the main character's optimism and survival that prevails. Read
  
• Willie the Actor by David Barry
  27/02/2008 | Literature
  When Willie the Actor was asked why he robbed banks, his answer was "because that's where the money is." David Barry's book is a fictional biography of the famous bank robber, a figure who is portrayed as both enigmatic and strangely sensitive. Read
  
• July’s People by Nadine Gordimer
  21/02/2008 | Literature
  July's People by Nadine Gordimer examines relations between the black and white races of apartheid South Africa after an urban rebellion has rendered the country ungovernable. A white family's former houseboy offers his employers safe haven and they must learn a new way of living. Read