Crossing the Border / Trouser Ladies (Storycuts)

Neville is captivated by the story of his distant aunt, a Victorian woman who set up a school for sickly children.

Alle artikelen van Shena Mackay

Shena Mackay is one of the very best short-story writers in the world. The Atmospheric Railway contains not only thirteen… Meer. Here is a wonderful collection of short stories by the writer known for 'the Mackay vision, suburban - as kitsch, as… Meer.

• Crossing the Border / Trouser Ladies (Storycuts)!
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An elderly woman, once an intrepid journalist, is paralysed with apprehension at the thought of meeting the daughter of her… Meer. In 'Nay, Ivy, Nay', a mean old mycologist, who has fostered a beautiful white holly tree, denies his neighbour a sprig. Alle prijzen zijn inclusief BTW en andere heffingen en exclusief eventuele verzendkosten en servicekosten. Elektronica topcadeaus Korting op parfum Cadeauwinkel Cadeaukaarten Kerst voordeel. Alle artikelen van Shena Mackay. Shena Mackay The Artist's Widow. Shena Mackay The Orchard on Fire. Shena Mackay Barbarians Storycuts. Shena Mackay An Advent Calendar.

Shena Mackay Redhill Rococo. Shena Mackay The Laughing Academy. Shena Mackay Old Crow. Shena Mackay The Atmospheric Railway. Shena Mackay Dancing On the Outskirts. Type boek Korte verhalen. Nieuw of tweedehands Tweedehands Nieuw. Studieboek of algemeen Algemene boeken. In A Bowl of Cherries Shena Mackay tells the story of twin brothers whose lives are inexorably intertwined: Rex, a self-absorbed and successful writer, and Stanley, a minor poet who works as a dishwasher.

Rex lives on the family estate being the older of the twins by one minute with his unhappy wife, Daphne, who writes children's books.

Shena Mackay - Author

Their overweight daughter, Daisy, lives nearby, and as a result of a guilty secret of her own, has married an overbearing, misogynist, and skinflint husband, Julian. Rex's illegitimate son, Seamus, 14, discovers Daisy quite by accident and their relationship blossoms despite the many flawed characters that surround them.

He carries a family secret that proves to be devastating, but which ultimately releases his half-sister Daisy from her torments. The two trade insults daily as they exchange the mail that so often ends up in the wrong letterbox. The tension increases when the owners find that they have adopted the same stray cat. Here is a wonderful collection of short stories by the writer known for 'the Mackay vision, suburban - as kitsch, as unexceptional, and yet as rich in history and wonder as a plain Victorian terrace house, its threshold radiant with tiling and stained-glass birds of paradise, encased in leaded lights' Guardian.

In stories as intriguing as their titles - 'Pink Cigarettes', 'Electric Blue Damsels', 'Other People's Bathrobes' - Shena Mackay demonstrates her uncanny ability to expose the menace of everyday life with humour and haunting accuracy. Harnessing Mackay's darkly comic vision, an astonishing originality and vibrant prose, these remarkable short works provide 'novel-worthy dimensions in a few pages' New York Times Book Review. The Laughing Academy is as witty, black and compelling as anything Shena Mackay has written. From antiques fayres to Cloud-Cuckoo-Land, geriatric wards to Crystal Palace, this collection offers a journey around the bizarre yet familiar characters and settings that Mackay has made her own.

There are Roy and Muriel Rowley, the fun-running charity-junkies who give blood by the gallon offending their daughter's religious principles ; we meet Gerald Creedy who only loves three beings - his twin brother, Harold, and his two tortoises, Percy and Bysshe - and the mysterious lodger Madame Alphonsine who has the strange powers to make things including tortoises disappear; and then there is the rather arrogant bestselling novelist who gives a reading at a women's bookshop only to find, to her horror, that two of her old schoolfriends are in the audience. In 'Nanny', Professor Campbell Forsythe gives his lecture on metamorphosis in the dull little town of Ditcham, where events from his past come back unexpectedly to alter him forever.

In 'Radio Gannet', Norma chances across a strange pirate radio station, only to realise that the voice issuing from the speakers belongs to none other than her elderly, ramshackle sister Dolly. Part of the Storycuts series, these three stories were previously published in the collection The Atmospheric Railway. But he still keeps his old parrot, a bird who has an illustrious past himself. In 'The Heart of Saturday Night', Alex spends his weekend contemplating the decline of his writing career and his love for his colleague's wife.

In 'Jumbo Takes a Bath', Eloise recognises a kindred spirit in her date. In 'Shalimar', Mrs de Vere, living alone in a house by the sea, has an interesting past.

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But an accident involving her animal-loving little nephew reconfigures her entire world view. Part of the Storycuts series, these four stories were previously published in the collection The Atmospheric Railway. In 'Nay, Ivy, Nay', a mean old mycologist, who has fostered a beautiful white holly tree, denies his neighbour a sprig.

In 'Wasps' Nest', will the wasp nest survive the pest controller? In 'Windfalls', picking up the windfall apples with his grandson and remembering his own son as a boy brings Martin true contentment. In 'Swansong', Louisa has returned to her home town to attend the funeral of a friend, but she is distracted by memories of a man she once knew and the sheer number of swans in the town's charity shops.

In 'Bananas', a timid grandmother finds herself increasingly embarrassed by the attentions of the exuberant local foreign shopkeeper whom she has secretly christened 'Bananas'. In 'Where the Carpet Ends', Miss Agnew lives in the rafters of an Eastbourne hotel, amongst eccentric characters drawn together in their 'reduced circumstances'.

Stifled by her stale and impoverished surroundings, she dreams of change. In 'Pink Cigarettes', a schoolboy grows tired of his relationship with an aging poet, who is becoming a greater draw on his time by the day. But when it looks as though his behaviour will break the old man's heart, he must listen closely to his own feelings. Part of the Storycuts series, these two stories were previously published in the collection The Atmospheric Railway.

Books by Shena Mackay

In 'The Most Beautiful Dress in the World', recovering alcoholic Harriet steps out into the garden of her grey, dilapidated house on an autumn day. It is daughter Miranda's first day at Fashion College, and Harriet is determined to make the most of the peace and quiet. However, when good intentions go awry, Harriet's initial optimism disintegrates into a caustic mixture of despair and self-loathing, building to a terrible and violent crescendo.

In 'Cardboard City', Stella and Vanessa are young sisters who live in the shadow of their hated stepfather.

Shena Mackay

They escape his overbearing presence for an afternoon of Christmas shopping in central London, where Stella can't help wistfully searching for their estranged real father in a nearby bar. The crowded streets of the city soon exhaust their money and patience, and they decide to return home, but not before Vanessa spies a familiar face on an escalator at the station. In 'Dreams of Dead Women's Handbags', crime writer Susan Vigo ponders death as she travels by train to give a reading of her latest book; specifically, the kind of death awaiting the characters of her next heavily-anticipated novel.

But an unpleasant encounter with a fellow passenger sparks a chain of recollections which throws our author's obsession with the macabre into a shocking light. In 'Other People's Bathrobes', Adam is frustrated by his borderline-anorexic girlfriend, and finds himself obsessively reliving childhood memories of tinned soup and spaghetti at inappropriate moments. A compulsive thief by nature, when Barbara goes out to work Adam trawls her apartment looking for hidden fragments which might reveal her deepest secrets.

However, when he finds remnants from Barbara's unhappy childhood, it is Adam who undergoes an unexpected transformation. In 'The Thirty-first of October', Claudia's family is long-departed and her talents as a writer fading; she has gradually come to cocoon herself within her chilly cottage.

Her misanthropy grows with every unpleasant encounter with her petty neighbours and their ungrateful and cruel daughters, who regard Claudia as a fairytale witch. But just as Claudia reaches breaking point and begins to descend into a dark mess of jagged thoughts, we witness the redemptive power of even the smallest act of kindness. In 'Angelo', Violet Greene glances around the room at the funeral of her first husband - celebrated poet, Felix - and can't help noticing many a familiar face from a previous colourful life: Consumed by memories of the past, Violet blocks out the gawping, gossiping congregation by fondly and sadly reminiscing about their time together.

In 'The Curtain with the Knot in It', the tube-and-bus journey to the Daffodil ward of Croxted Memorial Hospital consumes Alice's existence as she visits her ailing father. But a sinister string of coincidences and self-fulfilling prophecies, triggered by Alice's innocent act of kindness towards the strangely infantile staff member Pauline, leads to devastating consequences. Stewing in bitterness and grief, his mind focuses on the smug face of his former manager, Delves, who is the cause of his dying career. Nursing his anger, Vincent decides to pay a visit to Delves' Bexhill home. However, when he arrives at Delves' abode and is greeted by the manager's neglected, disturbed wife, thoughts of revenge quickly leave Vincent's mind.

In 'Crossing the Border', Flora is in the process of writing a biographical account of a famous ancestor. She sets out to interview her great-uncle Lorimer, who - as one might expect from a celebrated ex-clown - now resides in a home for retired circus-folk.

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Upon arriving at the home, however, she is informed that Lorimer sadly passed away only a few hours earlier, and that he has left her a perplexing yet fitting memento. In' Trouser Ladies', 'Aunty Bea' is remembered by the red-haired daughters of Betty Ling, a lady for whom Beatrice secretly nursed a life-long, unrequited love.

Following their mother's deaths, twins Erica and Heather Ling fondly reminisce about when the exotic Beatrice came to stay - much to their father's displeasure. Meanwhile, Betty's other daughter Catriona resolves to meet the now elderly Beatrice. In 'Death by Art Deco', successful author Andrea Heysham regrets agreeing to judge the 'Untapped Talent Short Story Competition' the very minute that submissions start pouring through her letterbox. After tarnishing most of the manuscripts with red wine and cigarette ash, she finally chooses one, by year old Lily, to be her winner - but her fellow judges disagree and she is out-voted.

Outraged and humiliated, Andrea decides to approach the star-struck but vulnerable Lily with a proposition. In 'The Index of Embarrassment', Freddy visits his Uncle Bob, a misanthropic recluse who has spent decades compiling an 'index of embarrassment' - a collection covering everything from song lyrics to the human body.

When Bob's neighbour, Dennis, is found hanged in his apartment, Bob dismisses the tragedy and is more concerned with retrieving the stepladder he had lent to the deceased. Alarmed by this latest display of cold cynicism, Freddy resolves to endure all manner of embarrassment in the name of human kindness, lest he end up like his uncle.

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Neville is captivated by the story of his distant aunt, a Victorian woman who set up a school for sickly children. But visiting the part of London where he grew up stirs up memories of his own childhood and personal history, causing him to re-assess his outlook in the present day. Part of the Storycuts series, this short story was previously published in the collection The Atmospheric Railway.

Mavis is the receptionist at a doctor's surgery and an incorrigible busy-body. When she unwittingly discovers an illicit affair, an appointment is made with calamity. What follows is a bitter-sweet and beautifully observed account of thwarted love. Part of the Storycuts series, this story was previously published in the collection The Atmospheric Railway.

When two flamboyant men arrive in a sleepy Kent village in , it does not take long for the duo - in their colourful corduroy jackets and jeans - to gain notoriety. Local child Joe, in a burst of irrepressible curiosity, is discovered by the pair after breaking into their cottage in order to spy on the 'bloody pansies'.