Shena Mackay

Many regard this as Mackays masterpiece. A touching, funny novel about childhood in the 1950s: friendship, village life and lost innocence.

En su traslado a Stonebridge, April conoce a la inigualable Ruby, una chica inquieta y vivaracha que marca desde el comienzo su vida en el pueblo. Con ella da rienda suelta a innumerables travesuras, aunque la libertad que les otorga un lugar pequeño queda empañada por los secretos que esconde cada una. Ajenos a lo que acontece, los padres de April se afanan en atender su recien estrenado salon de te, por el que pasaran excentricos profesores de arte, cotillas varios de provincia y el siempre correcto pero repulsivo señor Greenidge. En una fiesta a la que asisten las dos niñas, un incidente destapa la realidad de Ruby, mientras que April mantendra un ferreo silencio sobre los acontecimientos que la afligen y que la marcaran de por vida.Con una mezcla de comicidad, fruto de la complicidad de las dos niñas, y tragedia, impuesta por el mundo de los adultos, esta novela se erige como un magnifico viaje nostalgico a la Inglaterra de los años cincuenta. Finalista del Booker Prize y considerada la obra mas importante de Shena Mackay, El vergel en llamas recrea de forma magistral la indeleble huella de la amistad.

The Nautilus, a strange building shaped like the chambered shell of the same name, was built in South London in the early 1930s. Designed on Modernist and Utopian principles, it was a haven for a floating community of cosmopolitan refugees, intellectuals and artists. Now, at the end of the century, only two of the original inhabitants still occupy their chambers - Celeste Zylberstein, joint architect with her late husband of the Nautilus, and Francis Campion, an elderly poet. Gus Crabb, a dealer in bric-a-brac, is the only other resident until, to the Nautilus, like a hermit crab seeking a home, comes Rowena Snow. Of Indian/Scottish parentage, orphaned, without family or friends, Rowena is in search of her own Utopia - or the Heligoland of her childhood imagination.

FROM THE AUTHOR SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE (1996) AND THE WHITBREAD PRIZE (2003)A national treasure . . . She has achieved that rarest of things for a writerDAILY TELEGRAPHShena Mackay notices a London that passes most writers by . . . PAUL BAILEY, INDEPENDENT She writes like an angel wielding a scalpelGUARDIAN New Zealand, 1909. After weeks at sea the new minister, Jack Mackenzie, arrives from Scotland with his unhappy wife and children in tow. A keen naturalist, he is more enthralled by the botanical - and carnal - delights of Dunedin than in the wellbeing of his flock. In London, eighty years later, Jack Mackenzies descendants are middle-aged, searching for a way out of their loneliness. Olive, embittered with her loveless life, steals a baby from a crowded tube; William, distraught at the death of a pupil, abandons his job as headmaster and struggles to fill his empty days. Jay Pascal, a young New Zealand vagrant of mysterious parentage arrives in London, looking for a place where he might belong.

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.Shena Mackay, who first came to fame before the age of twenty with two novellas, is the doyenne of the short form. In this volume of previously uncollected stories - including those read on radio - she constantly surprises with a view of the ordinary world that is not at all ordinary.A grasshopper determinedly takes up residence on a bathroom ceiling; a gecko hiding in a cupboard brings a strange sort of luck; a woman spies from a distance two older women friends after many long years and a memory of how they gallopedin the playground as Starlight Blaze and Pepperpot plays sweetly, suddenly in her mind; pigs are swaddled in blankets, looking like babies in shawls; luggage is packed with youthful hopes and ideals.She observes how people rub along and reveals the best and worst of us all: a disgruntled schoolboy and his hapless teacher conquer mountains and their antipathy for each other; a girl with green eyes and iridescent hair discovers revenge; a race to be the best mushroom-picker creates only losers; and rotten apples, in the right pair of hands, make a loving pie. Shena Mackay is a generous and keen-eyed chronicler of the everyday; she deftly brings wisdom and humour to the worlds she creates, worlds that we suddenly, excitingly see anew. She is an utterly original writer.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE (1996) The Orchard on Fire is probably Mackays most perfect book PHILIP HENSHER, GUARDIAN A bitter-sweet, gentle novel, not given to grandstanding or preachingTIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT Shena Mackay has brought off something quite rare ANITA BROOKNER, SPECTATOR What made the orchard miraculous was an abandoned railway carriage, set down as if by magic, its wheels gone, anchored by long grass and nettles. Ruby and I stared at it and each other . . . dark-windowed, out of place in a thicket of thorns, it was the perfect hide-out, house, the camp of our dreamsWhen Aprils parents move from London to rural Kent she makes her first best friend. With flame-haired, fearless Ruby, April shares secrets, dares and laughter. But Ruby has secrets of her own - bruises that she hides.Also seeking Aprils friendship is old Mr Greenidge, immaculate in his linen suit, with eyes like blue glass. He follows her around the village with his beguiling dachshund, and wants to learn everything about her.

Mavis is the receptionist at a doctors 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.

In The Thirty-first of October, Claudias 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 cant help noticing many a familiar face from a previous colourful life: fellow novelists, poets and publishers as well as an array of Felixs former lovers and wives. Consumed by memories of the past, Violet blocks out the gawping, gossiping congregation by fondly and sadly reminiscing about their time together.Part of the Storycuts series, these two stories were previously published in the collection The Atmospheric Railway.

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 Mirandas first day at Fashion College, and Harriet is determined to make the most of the peace and quiet. However, when good intentions go awry, Harriets 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. They escape his overbearing presence for an afternoon of Christmas shopping in central London, where Stella cant 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 . . .Part of the Storycuts series, these two stories were previously published in the collection The Atmospheric Railway.

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. 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 mothers deaths, twins Erica and Heather Ling fondly reminisce about when the exotic Beatrice came to stay - much to their fathers displeasure. Meanwhile, Bettys other daughter Catriona resolves to meet the now elderly Beatrice.Part of the Storycuts series, these two stories were previously published in the collection The Atmospheric Railway.

An elderly woman, once an intrepid journalist, is paralysed with apprehension at the thought of meeting the daughter of her dearest friend. A budding writer is taken on a amanuensis by a famous woman novelist, with disastrous results. A would-be biographer visits a home fro retired clowns. . . With her miraculously sharp eye for the telling detail, her nose for the secrets smouldering behind the most staid suburban facades, Shena Mackayss stories combine the macabre and mundane to brillant effect.

Having left his first wife for the then 19-year old Barbara, Ian - now waiting in a cafe for his 18-year old mistress, Laura - clearly has no intentions of breaking the habit of a lifetime. Barbara, meanwhile, burns with feverish guilt at the remembrance of a recent holiday fling with a Jamaican bartender. When Barbaras mother Molly comes to visit her fragile daughter and chaotic grandchildren, it is she who must attempt to plaster over the cracks rapidly widening throughout this family.Part of the Storycuts series, this story was previously published in the collection The Atmospheric Railway.

In The Curtain with the Knot in It, the tube-and-bus journey to the Daffodil ward of Croxted Memorial Hospital consumes Alices existence as she visits her ailing father. But a sinister string of coincidences and self-fulfilling prophecies, triggered by Alices innocent act of kindness towards the strangely infantile staff member Pauline, leads to devastating consequences.In The Laughing Academy, Vincent McCloud, a failed pop-star, leaves his late mothers Glasgow flat for the last time. 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 managers neglected, disturbed wife, thoughts of revenge quickly leave Vincents mind.Part of the Storycuts series, these two stories were previously published in the collection The Atmospheric Railway.

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 towns charity shops.Ennui tells the possible story of an artistic couple from the early 20th century.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.Part of the Storycuts series, these four stories were previously published in the collection The Atmospheric Railway.

When two flamboyant men arrive in a sleepy Kent village in 1956, 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. From these unlikely beginnings, a friendship and sense of solidarity develop between the three; but it is an alliance that will be challenged by a hostile and intolerant community.Part of the Storycuts series, this story was previously published in the collection The Atmospheric Railway.

FROM THE AUTHOR SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE (1996) AND THE WHITBREAD PRIZE (2003)[Her] prose is a joy to read MICHAEL ARDITTI, INDEPENDENT This is a vicious little book, and thus all the more enjoyable PAUL BAUMANN, NEW YORK TIMES A . . . funny, and ultimately movingKIRKUS REVIEWS The Artists Widow is the story of the good, the bad and the untalented. It begins on a hot August evening in Mayfair, at a private viewing of the Last Paintings of John Crane. Among those present are Cranes widow, Lyris, also a painter; her friend Clovis Ingram, a middle-aged bookseller; Zoe, a beautiful young television filmmaker; and Lyriss great-nephew Nathan Pursey, a boorish young conceptual artist. None of them realises that the evening will change their lives forever.The Artists Widow is a novel about the nature of the artistic impulse - about friendship, betrayal, courage and cowardice. It is also a London novel, exploring the mental and physical geography of the city in all its variety.

FROM THE AUTHOR SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE (1996) AND THE WHITBREAD PRIZE (2003)Shena Mackay was a sixties phenomenonGUARDIAN A Christmas story without the mistletoe and the message, but no less movingKIRKUS REVIEWS The story begins as an ambulance pulls away from the butchers shop, taking Mick to the hospital after he has carelessly hacked off a finger while preparing Johns order. Johns wife, Marguerite, and two young children are forced to live with his uncle until he can find work. Marguerite has a brief affair, an escape from the poverty and boredom of day-to-day life - and John, attempting to make amends for Micks lost finger, is chased down by the butchers buddies. These tumultuous events all take place during the first twenty-five days of December, leaving each character facing a Christmas of poverty, impossible love and loneliness.

FROM THE AUTHOR SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE (1996) AND THE WHITBREAD PRIZE (2003)The Mackay vision . . . as rich in history and wonder as a plain Victorian terrace houseGUARDIAN A national treasure . . . She has achieved that rarest of things for a writerDAILY TELEGRAPHA highly original talentTIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT 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 daughters 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 womens bookshop only to find, to her horror, that two of her old schoolfriends are in the audience.