MICHELE ROBERTS

Inspired by Jane Austens heroes and villains, this contemporary short-story anthology has been selected by Michele Roberts from the Jane Austen Short Story Competition 2011 run by Chawton House. When a young lady is to be a heroine... Something must and will happen to throw a hero in her way. Or, if she is unlucky, maybe a villain with a treacherous heart... Whether a Dary or a Wickham, an Elizabeth Bennet or a Miss Dashwood, there is something within these twenty contemporary and original stories for all Austen readers and fans. From Wikram Jayanaths exploits in Mumbai to the antics of a vicars book obsessed wife, there are heroes and villains to suit all tastes.

From the Booker-shortlisted author comes a sensuous, evocative novel exploring the lives of women in Victorian London, for fans of Sarah Waters, Emma Donoghue and Kate Atkinson 2011: When Madeleine loses her job as a lecturer, she decides to leave her riverside flat in cobbled Stew Lane, where history never feels far away, and move to Apricot Place. Yet here too, in this quiet Walworth cul-de-sac, she senses the past encroaching: a shifting in the atmosphere, a current of unseen life. 1851: and Joseph Benson has been employed by Henry Mayhew to help research his articles on the working classes. A family man with mouths to feed, Joseph is tasked with coaxing testimony from prostitutes. Roaming the Southwark streets, he is tempted by brothels' promises of pleasure - and as he struggles with his assignment, he seeks answers in Apricot Place, where the enigmatic Mrs Dulcimer runs a boarding house. As these entwined stories unfold, alive with the sensations of London past and present, the two eras brush against each other - a breath at Madeleine's neck, a voice in her head - the murmurs of ghosts echoing through time. Rendered in immediate, intoxicating prose, The Walworth Beauty is a haunting tale of desire and exploitation, isolation and loss, and the faltering search for human connection; this is Michele Roberts at her masterful best.

Rebellion, revolution, experimental living, feminist communes, street theatre, radical magazines, love affairs - gay and straight - sex, drugs and rock and roll.Michele Roberts, one of Britains most talented and highly acclaimed novelists, now considers her own life, in this vibrant, powerful portrait of a time and place: alternative London of the 1970s and beyond. A fledgling writer taking a leap into radical politics, Roberts finds alternative homes, new families and lifelong friendships in the streets and houses of Holloway, Peckham, Regents Park and Notting Hill Gate. From Spare Rib to publishing her first book, Paper Houses is Roberts story of finding a space in which to live, love and write - and learning to share it.Beguiling, enthusiastic, charming and vivid, this is an autobiography to be savoured Amanda Craig, DAILY TELEGRAPH

From the Booker-shortlisted author comes a sensuous, evocative novel exploring the lives of women in Victorian London, for fans of Sarah Waters, Emma Donoghue and Kate Atkinson 2011: When Madeleine loses her job as a lecturer, she decides to leave her riverside flat in cobbled Stew Lane, where history never feels far away, and move to Apricot Place. Yet here too, in this quiet Walworth cul-de-sac, she senses the past encroaching: a shifting in the atmosphere, a current of unseen life. 1851: and Joseph Benson has been employed by Henry Mayhew to help research his articles on the working classes. A family man with mouths to feed, Joseph is tasked with coaxing testimony from prostitutes. Roaming the Southwark streets, he is tempted by brothels' promises of pleasure - and as he struggles with his assignment, he seeks answers in Apricot Place, where the enigmatic Mrs Dulcimer runs a boarding house. As these entwined stories unfold, alive with the sensations of London past and present, the two eras brush against each other - a breath at Madeleine's neck, a voice in her head - the murmurs of ghosts echoing through time. Rendered in immediate, intoxicating prose, The Walworth Beauty is a haunting tale of desire and exploitation, isolation and loss, and the faltering search for human connection; this is Michele Roberts at her masterful best.

In the early 1800s, Louise, a French peasant woman, fearing she is about to die, calls for her priest. She has a secret to confess. Though the priest is impatient, she wants to tell her tale from the beginning. The story opens in Stoke Newington, London, in the 1780s, with Jemima Boote, arriving at Miss Mary Wollstonecrafts school. Jemima follows her beloved teacher to Paris wanting to be part of the erupting revolution and then - six months pregnant - retreats to the tiny village of Louises youth. Her arrival coincides with that of another young mother-to-be, Annette, who has been sent by her parents to the country to hide her disgraceful pregnancy and to get over her infatuation with William, a young English poet. In an abandoned convent they take up their waiting: waiting for their babies, waiting for their men. While drawing hints and facts from the lives and secret affairs of two of the most famous and passionate figures of the late 18th century - Mary Wollstonecraft and William Wordworth - the intriguing mystery surrounding these two women, is Michele Roberts own fascinating creation.

Playing Sardines - a game in the dark, a game about desire, about wanting, all whipped up in a tale about the erotic allure of recipes: a cook whose obsessive love turns hungry and dangerous; a fan who tries to get into a celebrity novelists sheets; a fanatical dieter and maker of lists working out how to deal with a husband who snores; a faddy eater thrown off-course by a miracle; a child greedy for love who faces up to her demon of jealousy - just some of the characters who shape this wonderful collection. Women yearning for what they havent got - prepared to be wily, deceptive, cunning and perverse - all these strategies for survival in love and life are deployed here to mouth-watering effect.

In her place as maid to Madame Patin in the cafe next to the sea, orphan Genevieve becomes the breathless audience for her mistresss alarming folk stories, beginning with the one about the mermaid - the beauty who is also a monster - who must be killed. Genevieve happily falls into the patterns and ways of Madame Patin and contentedly cooks, cleans, gardens and serves the customers alongside her. Until, that is, Genevieve ripens to siren beauty. To avoid the mermaids fate she must take flight. And she does, to a poet who has the hearts of all his women: his mother, his mistress, his niece, his nieces governess - and before long, his new maids.

Food, sex and God is what Michele Roberts answers when strangers ask what she writes about, and indeed, she has made these subjects her own in her fiction and her poetry. Now we see that extended to non-fiction in this collection of essays, reviews and articles. Ranging over people and places, writing and imagination, books, spirituality, art and food, Roberts shows herself to be a perceptive and provocative commentator on contemporary life. From a funny monologue on would-be writers who prefer last years creative writing teacher (male); to musings on a writers life and work; to reviews of Marina Warner and Jeanette Winterson; to a magnificent piece on autobiographical writing and the imagination, this collection adds to our understanding of her as writer. Her keen sense of the outrageous, her striving for intellectual honesty and her ability to find the sensual in the everyday, leave one in no doubt about a talent that is as original and generous in non-fiction as in her celebrated novels.

Adam is a writer, struggling to come to terms with the death of his painter father, Robert, and his difficult marriage to Catherine. Before he married Catherine, he had been the lover of her sister, Vinny. The classic menage a trois seems about to repeat itself, when Adam discovers his wife's father was less innocent than he had thought. Set mainly in contemporary London, partly in France, the action also harks back to the 1970's. The narrative evokes the style of the nineteenth century novelists and their themes: desire, guilt, pleasure. Pastoral landscapes alternate with those of the inner city and the past's interaction with the present is acted out by ghosts. The dead father haunts his son; in real life Vinny haunts her sister; and the whole novel is haunted by one of its great earliest exponents, Charlotte Bronte, and her passionate search for creative fulfilment.

Chosen as a Fiction Book of the Year in the Daily Telegraph by Maggie OFarrellIn this witty and subversive collection of stories, Michele Roberts explores womens desires, memories and loves as only she can. A jilted woman skirts the edges of time and place as she walks the streets of London at night; another returns to the scene of her honeymoon without her husband; a wife takes apt revenge on her vegetarian husband . . .

Who is Aurora? Every time she becomes a new Mrs (three times when we last counted) she becomes a new woman. Her stepmother thinks Aurora is impractical, romantic and dreamy. The fact that she gets married so often only goes to prove it. Every woman owes it to herself to get married once, but you dont have to make a habit of it.But now, all alone. . . ?Aurora, given the chance to be true to herself, rather than to her trio of husbands, turns out to be a world-class minx. After Hughs funeral, she goes to Italy to visit her old radical-feminist friend, Leonora, now the abbess of the Brigandine convent in Padenza. True to the tradition of convent-educated girls in fiction, Aurora flings herself into a voluptuous life of lunches and lovers. Chiselled phrasing and dancing plot . . . a sizzling firework display of a book Sunday Times.

Adam is a writer, struggling to come to terms with the death of his painter father, Robert, and his difficult marriage to Catherine. Before he married Catherine, he had been the lover of her sister, Vinny. The classic menage a trois seems about to repeat itself, when Adam discovers his wifes father was less innocent than he had thought.Set mainly in contemporary London, partly in France, the action also harks back to the 1970s. The narrative evokes the style of the nineteenth century novelists and their themes: desire, guilt, pleasure. Pastoral landscapes alternate with those of the inner city and the pasts interaction with the present is acted out by ghosts. The dead father haunts his son; in real life Vinny haunts her sister; and the whole novel is haunted by one of its great earliest exponents, Charlotte Bronte, and her passionate search for creative fulfilment.

A unique work of literary and culinary joie de vivre part food memoir part recipe book French Cooking for One is a personal and quirky take on Edouard de Pomiane s classic With over 160 recipes including a majority of vegetarian ones with piquant storytelling and feminist wit this is a working cook s book with French flair bursting with life French cuisine classic though it is still holds delicious surprises worth exploring Whether cooking for one on a daily or an occasional basis cooking well for yourself means cherishing yourself and your appetites joyously giving yourself pleasure opening yourself to new experiences This book will encourage you to do all that From quick bites for busy days to sumptuous main courses for those who enjoy spending more time in the kitchen the focus throughout is on dishes that are simple and fun to prepare and results that are mouthwatering to contemplate and of course to eat Mixed in with the recipes are stories and vignettes of Michele Roberts childhood in Normandy and her life in Mayenne Pays de la Loire plus original ink drawings full of charm and humour