Toby Litt

The end of the world doesn?t come with a bang or a whimper, but with the chukka-chukka of a helicopter coming into land... WELCOME TO HOSPITAL! Hospital is about blue murder and saving lives, having sex and surgery, falling in love and falling from a great height, crazy voodoo and hypnotic surveillance ? it?s about the last days and the first days. And the Rubber Nurse knows you?ve been very naughty and is going to teach you a well-deserved lesson. It?s the story of a lost boy wandering the corridors of a strange, antiseptic building, looking and hoping for a chance to get home. And also of a man who won?t wake up despite the best efforts of the hospital staff ? and while he sleeps, a threatening darkness settles over everything...

Always hated liner notes - always hated any kinda writing about rock'n'roll - I mean, why don't ya just shut up & listen to the music? - but here I am now, trying to catch in words what I think & feel about my good friend Clap & about these fine & dandy tales he's spun - tales of life on & off the road with a band called okay - a band in which I am lead singer - & in which Clap is drummer - not the world's greatest, technically, even he'd admit to that - but solid & deep & swingin' & truthful - & I suppose that's what I want to say this here book is - truth-full - if I'd written it, it would be all about high times & honeys - & Clap has gotten down that wild stuff - but he's also told the cold truth about the things you lose along the way - & I think he's done it just about as well as it coulda been done - & believe me, I should know: I wasn't there for most of it. [www.criticaliteraria.com] Stay cool, Syph

Meet Elliott.Elliott is hugely intelligent. Hes an incredible observer. He has a beautiful and unusual imagination. To know him is to adore him.But Elliott is also stuck. He lives in an orphanage in 1979. He spends his days in a wheelchair, in an empty corridor, or wherever the Catholic Sisters who run the ward have decided to park him.So when Jim, blind and mute but also headstrong, arrives on the ward and begins to defy the Sisters restrictive rules, Elliott finally sees a chance for escape. Together, they could achieve a magnificent freedom if only for a few hours.But how can Elliott, unable to move or speak clearly, communicate all this to Jim? How can he even get Jim to know he exists?Patience is a remarkable story of love and friendship, courage and adventure. It is also about finding joy in the most unlikely of settings. Elliott and Jim are going to have fun.

I blame Literature. All those f*cking lovely writers who made me want to be a writer. Toby Literature.A Writers Diary is a year in the life of a man called Toby Litt. Day by day, Toby offers intimate details about his family and well-being, insights into creative writing, and other fascinating reflections, ranging from the immediate surroundings of his desk and study out into the world and on to infinite possibility.As the year unfolds an increasingly urgent narrative starts to build. A Writers Diary becomes a compulsive page-turner, full of stories and characters we have grown to love and fullof questions we need answered. W ill Toby Litt find the perfect pencil sharpener? Will everyone he loves make it through the year? And will he be the same person at the end of it?Blending fact and fiction, invention and memoir with joyful creativity and remarkable ambition, A Writers Diary is a year in a life and a life in a year..

Kumiko saw it first. A heart - a human heart - slithering down outside the window of a train travelling between London Bridge and Blackfriars. Someone must have thrown it out from a carriage in front. Kumiko is determined to find out who - and why.But Skelton was sitting next to Kumiko on the train and he saw it too, so he also wants to get to the bottom of the mystery. Or he says he does, but really he just wants Kumiko back, because she''s walked out on him, just like that, and left him heartbroken.Each for their own reasons, Kumiko and Skelton set out - separately - on a bizarre trail of discovery. Darting between dingy student pubs, the roofs of Borough Market and the corridors and car-parks of Guy''s Hospital, they become embroiled in the seedy world of young medical students, until eventually the gossip and the stories lead them both to the hospital''s infamous dissection lecturer - known behind his back as ''King Death''

Dear Friend, How would you like to come - this August - and stay, completely free, in a lovely seaside house I''ve rented? Good food and plenty of alcohol will also be provided, gratis. But (you knew there''d be a but) afterwards you must allow me to write up the events of the month in a semi-fictionalized form. (In other word: you promise not to sue) At the end of the book, you will have three full pages to say exactly what you like. If you think I''ve distorted things, told outright lies, etc., you can contradict me. I promise not to interfere editorially with your text in any way. Even if it is terribly libellous of me. I am inviting ten other people along, as well. Some of them you know; some of them you don''t. I do so hope you can come. Love, Victoria.

A vast generation ship hurtles away from a violent, troubled Earth to settle on a distant planet orbiting an alien star. Those who set out on this journey are long-since dead. Those who will arrive at their destination have yet to be born. For those who must live and die in the cold emptiness between the stars, there is only the claustrophobic permanence of non-being. Life lived in unending stasis. Then the unthinkable happens: two souls - Auguste and Celeste - rebel. And from the fruit of their rebellion comes a new and powerful force which will take charge of the ship''s destiny. Journey into Space is science fiction at its most classic and beguiling: timeless, vast in scope and daring in execution.

Toby Litts father wanted him to find about their ancestor: William Litt, a champion Cumberland Wrestler.William was one of the greatest ever kings of the green - a man who reigned undefeated in one of the nineteenth centurys most popular sports, taking home over 200 prize belts. William had other talents, as well. He was almost certainly a smuggler - and definitely published poet and novelist.But Toby knew that coming to terms with him would be hard. A huge and fascinating man, William was also troubling. He ended his life in poverty and exile. And as well as having to measure himself up against this apparent paragon of masculinity, Toby would have to uncover uncomfortable memories and hard truths.Would Toby like what he found out about himself along the way? As a novelist, as a son, and as a father in turn? Would he have to get in the wrestling ring? ... Would he even want to?Using the nineteenth century as a guide, Wrestliana asks vital questions about modern-day masculinity, competition, and success. It is a beautiful portrait of two men and their different worlds, full of surprises and sympathy, and a wonderful evocation of a lost place and time.

When Agatha and Paddy decide to leave London and buy a house on the coast, they are full of hope for themselves and their growing family. Three months later, when the builders move out and they move in, things look very different. A personal tragedy threatens to destroy all they have carefully built up and only a small miracle, it seems, will save them ...Ghost Story is a book both haunted and haunting, which asks how we can ever mourn something that hasn''t lived. Emotionally resonant, beautifully crafted and ultimately redemptive, it is Toby Litt''s finest, most mature novel to date.

Toby Litt meets Virginia Woolf meets Big Brother, this novel aims to be "the best beach book ever". Naughty, gossipy, with just the right ratio of tittle to tattle, it aims to provide the right amount of "oomph" while you''re basting in your sun tan oil.

Why does Mr Kipling bake such exceedingly good cakes? Find out the answer to this and more in this journey into the epicentre of the consumer world. This is a place of weirdos and saddos, of over-indulgence in CDs and lottery tickets, and of Michel Foucault and a fluffy pink bunny rabbit.

When Agatha and Paddy decide to leave London and buy a house on the coast, they are full of hope for themselves and their growing family baby Max and a new child on the way. Three months later, when the builders move out and they move in, things look very different. A personal tragedy threatens to destroy all they have carefully built up and only a small miracle, it seems, will save them. . . Ghost Story is a book both haunted and haunting, which asks how we can ever mourn something that hasn''t lived. Emotionally resonant, beautifully crafted and ultimately redemptive, it will take you to the heart of suffering and desire.

The first bullet entered the body of my ex-girlfriend - gorgeous, slightly-famous Lily - two inches beneath her left breast. We were sitting at a table in Le Corbusier, Frith Street, Soho. As the first bullet went into her, I turned to look at the gunman. Wearing Day-Glo Lycra, a helmet, mirror shades and a pollution-mask - just like a bike courier - he had a black and silver gun in his hand. And he was shooting the woman I still loved ...

When Agatha and Paddy decide to leave London and buy a house on the coast, they are full of hope for themselves and their growing family - baby Max and a new child on the way. Three months later, when the builders move out and they move in, things look very different. A personal tragedy threatens to destroy all they have carefully built up and only a small miracle, it seems, will save them. . . Ghost Story is a book both haunted and haunting, which asks how we can ever mourn something that hasnt lived. Emotionally resonant, beautifully crafted and ultimately redemptive, it will take you to the heart of suffering and desire.