Bøger af Andrew Liddle

Churchill: The Scottish Years tells the incredible story of how the god-fearing teetotaller Edwin Scrymgeour fought and won an election against Britain's most famous politician. The story begins with their first electoral contest in 1908 and follows their political rivalry over the next five elections until Scrymgeour's eventual victory in 1922.

Andrew Liddle's poetry has appeared widely and Green Thoughts In A Green Shade won critical acclaim. Brooding Luxuries is a new collection of poems written over four decades, reflecting the author's interests in the odd corners of human experience, his contempt for overweening authority and his great love of life. A frequent performer at open mic sessions and at poetry events, he is fond of underscoring his readings with jazz rhythms when a keyboard is available.

How Sylvia Plath spent her last night on earth and what drove her to suicide, while her children were sleeping soundly, will never be known. Brag Of My Heart is a sympathetic and imaginative exploration of her final hours. It captures her mental turmoil, vividly, as she battles her demons, reliving the best and worst of times while communing with herself, her parents and her estranged husband, Ted Hughes. Drawing on her poetry and journals for insight into the creative chaos of her mind, her mood swings and self-loathing, it is above all an original interpretation of what might have occurred and a dramatic - at times terrifying - scream of consciousness.

Andrew Liddle's poems range widely in style and subject. Many have an old fashioned charm, especially the tender love poems which rhyme and scan traditionally. He writes often about human frailties and foibles and life's great uncertainties, waxes lyrical about nature's harmonies and, occasionally, plumbs the depths of despair when coping with loss. The ironies of life are an obvious source of inspiration and his ire is reserved most for those who persecute others. Intriguingly, we find him, at times, adopting other 'voices', writing as though he were somebody else. Though a good many of the poems have been published in magazines, there is a huge tranche of material here which has never seen the light of day. Ordinarily, he observes the traditional poetic conventions, and where he has departed from these, it has generally been on the advice of editors who will publish only their approved configurations.

Everything changes for Judy Manners the moment Mum runs off to an artists' commune on a remote Scottish island. Overnight, she goes from being happy and normal to depressed and introverted - even before a Polish Punk moves in with Dad to compound her misery. Taking herself in hand, Judy begins to write down her experiences, trying to make sense of her chaotic emotions. Soon, she starts to piece together all the clues and make some sense of what is happening. Trusting her instincts and encouraged by her boyfriend, Milo, she embarks on a fantastic coming of age journey of discovery, following in Mum's footsteps, using Dad's psychological skills to guide her. It is a dangerous quest that takes her to the dark heart of London's drug scene and, through Glasgow's mean streets, eventually to the safe haven of the Isle of Mull, where it seems Mum is leading an idyllic existence. Then tragedy strikes - but might it actually lead to her parents being reunited? This is a warm and tender work of teenage fiction that captures all the heartache and joy and the strength and vulnerability of being young and romantic.

Cheers, Mr Churchill tells the incredible true story of how the god-fearing teetotaller Edwin Scrymgeour fought and won an election against Britain's most famous politician. The story begins with their first electoral contest in 1908 and follows their political rivalry over the next five elections until Scrymgeour's eventual victory in 1922.