Michael Symmons Roberts’s fourth book of poetry, Corpus, was the winner of the 2004 Whitbread Poetry Award, and was shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize, the Forward Prize, and the Griffin International Prize. His sixth collection, Drysalter, was the winner of both the Forward Prize and the Costa Poetry Prize in 2013. He collaborated with Paul Farley on Edgelands (Cape/Vintage) and will do so again in The Deaths of the Poets (Cape, 2017). He has also worked many times with the composer James MacMillan. He has published two novels, and is Professor of Poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Michael Symmons Roberts

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David Bennun

David Bennun had lived in Africa his whole life. At the age of 18 he came to Britain, the mother country. The country he had read about in Punch magazine or seen in films like Chariots of Fire. He was in for a shock. A very big shock indeed: 'I could not have been less prepared had I spent my life up to that point listening to 30-year-old broadcasts of the Light Programme.' 
 
In this timely follow-up to the critically acclaimed Tick Bite Fever, David Bennun shows us our own country through the eyes of an alien. With his brilliantly witty turn of phrase we follow his life as a student, his brushes with Bohemia, his troubles renting and buying property, his discovery of British food and his horrors at entering the world of work. From DIY to architecture, sport to alcohol, transport to music and entertainment, David Bennun brilliantly and with ruthless wit deconstructs all these subjects, many of them so dear to the British heart.

British As A Second Language

Ben Keene

Paradise or Bust is the fascinating adventure story of Tribewanted, a revolutionary eco-tourism project founded by twentysomething Ben Keene. 
 
As featured in the BBC documentary series, Keene's story follows the ups and downs of a global online network of like-minded travellers and an indigenous Fijian community as they attempt to build a new life on a 200-acre island in the South Pacific. All major decisions on the island are voted on by an online tribe that anyone around the world can join. 
 
There are many challenges to overcome. A fire sweeps the island, a military coup (delayed until the end of a rugby match!) brews on the mainland, and a tropical cyclone threatens to wipe out the emerging village. Online there are other storms to fight, as accusations of scam artistry, tribal politics and the regular grind of debates and decision-making among Tribewanted's 1000+ members push the adventure and the business to the very edge. But in the end, with a little luck and a lot of hard work, they might just build their paradise... 
 
Now a major 5 part series for transmission on BBC2 in winter 2008.

Tribe Wanted

My Adventure on Paradise or Bust

Derek Lambert

Tired of his life as a globe-trotting journalist, and desperate to finish his latest novel, writer Derek Lambert decides to settle with his new wife and young son in a mouldering casita nestled among citrus groves inland of the Costa Blanca. 
 
As he sets about restoring his house and learning to live the ordinary life of a Spanish villager, Lambert introduces us to a Spain far removed from the tourist traps and thumping discos of the Costas, and soon discovers that adapting to this new life is not as easy as he imagined. He employs a roofer who's afraid of heights, a plumber confounded by a blocked pipe and bumbles through Spanish lessons with a mocking classmate who challenges him to a public arm-wresting contest. Then just when it seems that nothing more could go wrong, the Lamberts face Spain's first snowstorm in many years. 
 
Written in the jaunty, anecdotal style of Peter Mayle and Bill Bryson, this is a warm, affectionate and often hilarious portrait of life as a foreigner in rural Spain.

Spanish Lessons

How one family found their place in the sun

Rita Gilligan

Meet Rita Gilligan, Hard Rock Cafe’s original ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll’ waitress and international cultural ambassador and MBE. It was 1971 when Hard Rock first opened its doors in London, and Rita was there with her spunky, chatty, and absolutely lovable personality. Over the forty-five years she served at Hard Rock, Rita has collected quite some stories to tell, including her relationship with rock ‘n’ roll celebrities, Hard Rock’s history, and her own personal life struggles. In this book Rita tells her story from being a shy Catholic schoolgirl in Galway to becoming the best known waitress and later ambassador of one of history's most iconic American style restaurants. She also narrates how she met Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, The Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen and many other famous celebrities during her time at the Hard Rock. Written with candid humour and disarming honesty, Rita serves up a brilliantly crafted story about how the Hard Rock, like herself, defied all the odds to become a global phenomenon.

The Rock 'N’ Roll Waitress at the Hard Rock Cafe

Marie Herbert

When her two daughters were approaching the finish of their education Marie Herbert felt the need to mark the end of the child-rearing phase of her life by a rite of passage, a way to find herself a new place in the grand scheme of things. Long drawn to the Native American spiritual tradition, she planned a visit to the United States and an extraordinary journey of personal transformation under the guidance of Native American Healers. However, the end of her time of motherhood coincided tragically with the sudden death of one of her daughters and so her odyssey was to become far sadder and more urgent than she could have imagined. HEALING QUEST is the fascinating description of Marie Herbert's inner and outer journey of the heart. Vivid portraits of the people she met along the way are combined with honest accounts of the change in her feelings - together with ideas about how the readers, too, may learn from what she experienced and so gain insights into his or own life, whether in practical, emotional or spiritual terms.

Healing Quest

A Journey of Transformation

Mimlu Sen

Mimlu Sen is living a bohemian life in Paris when she witnesses an electrifying performance by three wandering minstrels from rural India. They wear flowing, multicoloured robes and play frenetic rhythms on strange instruments made of wood and clay, capturing the many moods of nature and passion. After her turbulent past, including a year in a Calcutta jail, Mimlu instantly knows it is time to set off on the journey of her life. 
 
One of the minstrels, Paban Das Baul, is a gifted young musician with a growing international reputation. Mimlu defies prejudice to travel with him deep into the heart of Bengal, the rural hinterland behind Calcutta where few tourists ever go. In this fascinating and unusual book, she describes how they make their way across country, from shanty town to village, from monastery to festival, perched on the roofs of buses and squeezed inside trains, encountering tantrics and sages, exorcisms and witch sightings, catfish that climb trees and esoteric secrets - and fall in love. 
 
 With Paban's encouragement, Mimlu too performs for alms - 'gathering honey' in the traditional Baul way - and is initiated into a hidden world of song, sensuality and adventure as wild and unpredictable as the landscape itself.

The Honey Gatherers

Danny Wallace

Danny Wallace wanted to write about a place so special and so crucial to our existence that it had never before been tackled: the Centre of the Universe. But then he realised that getting there might be a problem, and when he did, there'd probably be nothing much to write about. Until he heard about a manhole cover, on a small street, in a small town, tucked away in a remote part of Idaho. 
 
The manhole cover had been declared the Centre of the Universe. The mayor had the science to back it up. The town rejoiced. 
 
And the name of the town? 
 
Wallace. 
 
It was a cosmic coincidence Danny couldn't resist...

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