And    THE ROOM OPPOSITE by FLORA MAYOR

DEMOPHON by Forrest Reid

With an Introduction by Michael Matthew Kaylor   

‘Beyond the grave of laurels sacred to Artemis lay a blue, crinkled sea. It glittered dazzlingly in the hot sunshine; and far out in the bay where water and sky met, the dark rocks of Salamis rose like a dream-island, because a God had dropped a haze about them.’

So begins this magical odyssey of ancient Greece, a tale of enchanted seas and islands, where all the world was young; a romance of wonder and adventure, of Gods and men and beasts, of the strange and familiar.

MRS CHRISTOPHER  by Elizabeth Myers

With an Introduction

Coppard’s stories, or tales as he preferred to call them, are frequently compared to those of Anton Chekhov and Thomas Hardy, whose influence Coppard acknowledged, and also to those of his contemporaries H. E. Bates and D. H. Lawrence. Coppard’s prose is eloquently lyrical, its evocation of mood and portrayal of emotion particularly noteworthy.

His tales often combine the ordinary and the extraordinary in unexpected ways. His characters usually are plain people pursuing the everyday business of life when, suddenly, the supernatural or the inexplicable intrudes. Imagination and playfulness are rewarded in this encounter, and both simple country folk and modern sophisticates may possess these qualities.

Coppard often adopted lively colloquialisms. His style is a showcase for playful language; he loved words and relished them for their own sake as well as for the effects they have on his readers. For those who have yet to discover the delights and many pleasures of his work, satisfaction is guaranteed!

THE COMPLETE FABLES by T. F. Powys

With an Introduction by Ali Shaw

If ever Powys’ fatalism makes his writing hard-edged, it is his faith in the marvellous ordinary that steps in to lift the spirit through pure delight in the unexpected.  A corpse in its grave calls happily to his friend above the soil, a wedding is celebrated between a footstool and a pair of spectacles, a dead man is temporarily resurrected to converse with the fleas and spiders dwelling around his coffin, and far more.  Such fantastical but mundane perspectives offer us the greatness in smallness, the extraordinary in the ordinary.  Powys said that, ‘To have the soul and teeth of a lion and the body of a tramp, is the way to tread on this world as it ought to be trodden on.’ And although he believed that a man should never resist his own eventual obliteration, it is my firm hope that this, his fine collection of fables, will persist for countless years to come.

SO TIBERIUS  by ETHEL MANNIN

A story  for ‘those who admire and respect the essential animal characteristics of this most beautiful, interesting and fundamentallly wild creature.’