We publish Sussex books and other fiction and non-fiction titles, and specialise in self-publication
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FictionThese books can be bought direct from Pomegranate Press via Paypal. Free postage and packing to UK addresses only - contact us for a price to send books elsewhere. |
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BOYHUNT These three novels packaged in a single volume (The Frozen City, A Flight of Bright Birds and Shadows in Crimson Colours) move with a confident historical sweep from the last quarter of the 19th century to the 1930s. They’re recommended to readers of fantasy and a general audience from about 13 years upwards. At the outset young Tom’s desperate search for his father leads him into the stronghold of the vicious Red Blade – and thrusts upon him a destiny that will haunt his family for generations to come. The stories are set in a kaleidoscopic range of locations, from an isolated monastery and a mountain health spa, through the rural theatres visited by a troupe of travelling players to the laybrinthine creation of a modern architect and the dangerous streets of a city in the throes of a bloody revolution. As the turbulent action moves steadily westwards across Europe, each of Tom’s descendants must decide for himself whether to take up the challenge and risk his life for a cause which generates both bravery and violent opposition.
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THE EYE & THE BLADE TRILOGY It's the 14th century – the age of Chaucer's pilgrims, of the Black Death and social unrest, of the Lollards, Miracle Plays and the Peasants' Revolt – and a young lad is fleeing for his life the length of England. The evil Baron Fulke has devised a terrible sport. His nephew Ranulph, the rightful heir to his dead father's northern possessions, is to be hunted to death for a trumped-up crime. All that can save him is the discovery of a precious religious relic, a phial of Christ’s blood. Ranulph journeys south, danger always at his heels, via Lindisfarne, York, Lincoln and Coventry, and with a growing band of colourful companions: Henry, the would-be monk; Christopher, the affectionate idiot boy; Janie, the travelling minstrel; Brother Walt, the ex-hermit, and his bothersome goat; Avelina, the peasant girl with her mysterious potions; and Swinke and Swonken, a pair of Siamese twins. In London, where he witnesses the death of Wat Tyler at Smithfield, our fast-maturing hero has an agonising decision to make – should he return north to claim his feudal inheritance or choose instead to embrace the excitements and uncertainties of an age still struggling to be born?
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MARACAS IN CARACAS Here's evidence that the short story form is alive and kicking. David Arscott, first published in Ian Hamilton's prestigious New Review back in the 1970s, brings us a collection set in that period and displaying a kaleidoscopic variety of styles, themes, locations and atmospheres. In these beautifully crafted tales, we meet a hunted revolutionary confronting his fear in a remote jungle hideaway; a besotted English portrait painter pursuing an elusive subject across two continents; a resentful Methodist preacher tussling with his faith in the pulpit; a young Mexican stunt diver dealing with a sexual predator; two subtly ferocious Oxbridge dons locking horns across wine glasses and canapés; an American draft-dodger caught up in a wild Venezuelan carnival ...
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CULTIC CYPHERS FROM CELTIC CYPRUS (7,5) Pity an afflicted crossword compiler seduced by the shameless promiscuity of the English language, by the shifting syllables that whirl within his word-choked brain! Complete with its own grid and set of clues, this remarkable novel moves fluidly between playfulness and anguish – the most elaborate suicide note in literary fiction. Writing the definitive manual for cryptic puzzle solvers, Douglas O’Dale finds himself betrayed by the subtle intricacies of his own verbal sorcery, and forced to confront the horror of what happened on a hot summer night long ago.
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LEGACY This two-act play explores the life of Dorothy Whitney Elmhirst, social activist, arts patron and co-founder of the social experiment at Dartington Hall in Devon in the 1920s. She formed inspiring friendships with Mahatma Gandhi, Eleanor Roosevelt, Martha Graham, Cecil Beaton, Benjamin Britten and the actor-director Michael Chekhov, among many others. Legacy is the first full-length stage play by Martin Sharp, who has been writing, directing and producing for theatre, film and television since the early Nineties, and who is an award-winning film maker recognised at the New York Festivals for his documentary film Any Body Can Dance. A production of Legacy is reviewed in the British Theatre Guide.
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BLUEPRINT ‘Architecture is the new aphrodisiac,’ pronounced the International Herald Tribune – and in this exhilarating novel the sexiest of the arts at last gets its sexy treatment. Kizzie French explores this glamorous and viciously competitive milieu through the ambitions of the feisty Calla Marchant, who aims to make her mark on the new millennium by pitching for one of the profession’s glittering prizes – offered by a man with more than a passing resemblance to the Prince of Wales! As the action swirls with a cinematic sweep between London and New York, Paris and Rio de Janeiro, Calla is forced to come to terms with the consquencies of her own turbulent love life as well as the ploys of her unscrupulous rivals. French’s vividly drawn characters range from British aristocrats to US entrepreneurs, while their criss-crossing lives take us beyond architecture into the fields of fashion magazines, professional photography, art galleries, show jumping and powerboat racing.
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KNUTT IN OIL Introducing Warren Knutt who, seeking a roof over his head, three square meals a day and the ability to travel the world at someone else’s expense, finds himself bound for the Persian Gulf on a tanker. The trip is the epitome of life as a young merchant seaman in the early post-war years. He and his shipmates face life at sea and ashore with a mixture of caution and recklessness, but his survival kit contains a sense of humour sufficient to get him off the hook before a situation gets out of hand. Beneath the brash exterior lurks a sensitive romantic, although Knutt would strenuously deny that. He and his shipmates share a world of boredom at sea and licentious ‘dungaree runs’ ashore. The prudish may well deplore the explicit sex and strong language, but the young men of the sea were never meant to live sheltered lives. More than 30,000 British merchant seamen lost their lives in World War 2, virtually as sitting ducks. Those who survived never knew when a run ashore might be their last. Perhaps Knutt and Co felt obliged to honour that legacy.
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SANDIES IN THE BEACH HUTS This delightful collection of original short stories will appeal to children aged from five upwards. Based on real-life events along the coast, these enchanting tales combine detailed observations with a magical sense of humour. Sandies are engaging characters who, unknown to the owners, live under the floorboards of beach huts along the promenade. They come out at dusk and are tiny – no bigger than your middle finger “including the nail”. Their hair colour echoes the huts under which they live, “so you might meet, for example, an egg-yellow sandy or a sky-blue sandy or even a bottle-green sandy, but never a coal-black one or a shiny-white one as no-one ever paints the doors these colours”. The book is illustrated in black-and-white by the popular artist Emma Ball.
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HELLO AGAIN SANDIES!! The Sandies are back again in this eagerly awaited sequel to Sandies in the Beach Huts. Their adventures, once again attractively illustrated by Emma Ball, involve surf-boarding on cuttlebones, making a coracle from a broken bicycle basket and coming across a message in a bottle. Life can be scary for the little people – but the stories always have a happy ending.
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WILBUR, THE DUCK WHO HATED GETTING HIS FEET WET Another one for younger readers. It’s difficult being a duck if you don’t like water, but fortunately young Wilbur has good friends about him.There’s Orville, the kindly woodpecker who has problems of his own (a pair of goggles soon sorts him out), and there’s six-year-old Victoria Jane over at the farm who stirs up the delicious drink called Supasip. Finally there’s the lovely female duck Donna, who takes a shine to Wilbur and teaches him how to build a nest. Before you know it there’s a brood of little ducklings on the way – and those rather ridiculous red wellies have been long forgotten!
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THE TWITCHES/THE TWITCHES ON HORRIDAY Two for the price of one here, because once youngsters have finished the first tale they turn the book round the other way and start the second one from the other end! The Twitches are gruesome twin witches with disgusting habits, who like nothing better than mess and mayhem. Fortunately, perhaps, they’re not quite as good at their spells as they’d like to be. Lavishly illustrated in black-and-white, and just right for early readers. |
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