This autobiography traces Amadou’s early years in Mali, first accepting his blindness, then adapting, to finding a source of joy in music and playing alongside some of the country’s leading musicians. On meeting Mariam at an institute for the blind in Bamako, he discovers they share a passion for music and for life, they fall in love and begin their career as a duo in search of an international stage.

Away from the Light of Day is an inspiring story which reveals the source of this golden duo’s contagious music, threading its way between tradition, religion, hope and superstition.

‘I don’t think there’s ever been a band from Africa with whom people have engaged in quite such a way.’  – Damon Albarn

‘The fizziest afro-pop blues ever bottled.’  – Observer

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Eric the postman is slipping through his own fingers… His chaotic family, his wild stepsons, and the cement mixer in the front garden don’t help, but it is Eric’s own secret that drives him to the brink. Can he face Lily, the woman he once loved thirty years ago? Despite outrageous efforts and misplaced goodwill from his football fan mates, Eric continues to sink.

In desperate times it takes a spliff and a special friend from foreign parts to challenge a lost postman to make that journey into the most perilous territory of all – the past. As the Chinese, and one Frenchman, say, ‘He who is afraid to throw the dice, will never throw a six.’

Features the full screenplay, including extra scenes, sixteen pages of colour photographs, plus introductions from Paul Laverty, Ken Loach, Eric Cantona and production notes from the cast and crew.

‘A surprising, beguiling comedy from Ken Loach, who, would you believe it, has made what’s certain to be his most crowd-pleasing and popular film since Kes, 40 years ago.’ – Jason Solomons, Observer

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Colombia, November 1993: a reconstructed old passenger train, bespangled with yellow butterflies, is carrying one hundred musicians, acrobats and artists on a daring adventure through the heart of a country soaked in violence. The intention is to put on free shows for locals at railway stations along the way: vibrant spectacles involving music, trapeze, tattoo-art, an ice museum and, star of the show, Roberto the fire-breathing dragon. Leading this crusade of hope is Manu Chao with his band Mano Negra.

Ramón Chao is on board to chronicle the journey. As the train climbs 1,000 kilometres from Santa Marta on the Caribbean Coast to Bogota in the Altiplano, Ramon keeps one eye on the fluctuating morale of the train’s eccentric cargo, and the other on the ever-changing physical and social landscape. As the papa of the train, he endures personal discomfort, internal strife, derailments, stowaways, disease, guerrillas and paramilitaries. When the train arrives in Aracataca, the real-life Macondo of One Hundred Years of Solitude, Mano Negra disintegrates, leaving Manu to pick up the pieces with those determined to see this once-in-a-lifetime adventure through to the end.

The Train of Ice and Fire is a book about hope and dreams in troubled times. It is about a father accompanying his son through an experience which will change his life. But most of all it is about Colombia, the flora, the fauna, the history, the politics and, more than any of that, it is a book about people.

Foreword by Ignacio Ramonet

Translated by Ann Wright
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Paperback version includes a set of colour photographs from El Espectador

Hardback Cover
With photos by Youri Lenquette
ISBN: 9781901927375
£8.99

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In Every Word Knows Something of a Vicious Circle Herta Müller describes how living under a dictatorship shapes her work. She outlines how words and writing allowed her to turn humiliation into a type of dignity that takes time to arouse suspicion.

Herta Müller was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2009. This book is a transcript of her acceptance speech and includes a telephone interview and an introduction by Georgia Brown.

Available as epub (iPhone, Sony reader etc) and pdf ebook formats.

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When you hear a certain song, where does it take you? What is the secret that connects music to our lives? Heart warming, moving and laugh out loud funny, Bringing It All Back Home is the truest book you will ever read about music and the things that really matter.

Author Ian Clayton listens to music as a kid to escape and as an adult to connect. In Bringing It All Back Home he has created a book about love, friendship, family and loss – about life and living it. While searching for a soundtrack to his own life story, he has discovered the heart that beats inside us all.

Other links
- Stay in touch with Ian Clayton on Bringing It All Back Home’s Facebook Page
- Postings relating to Bringing It All Back Home on the Route Blog..
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Hardback version

ISBN: 9781901927337
Extent: 272 pages

Do daughters step into their mothers’ shoes? How does this central relationship colour women’s lives? The tales in this anthology address these questions with honesty and vigour, weaving humour and warmth into the telling of small but significant tragedies.

Celebrated poets, the writers showcased here explore daughterhood and motherhood in their own unique styles and offer a distinct set of insights. They speak out in prose that fizzes and crackles, throwing light on this most formative of relationships. You’ll find plenty to uncover in this irreverent but heartfelt take on an age-old subject.

Some Girls’ Mothers have a Facebook page. Click here to become a fan.
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⁺Audio book is unabridged and all stories are read by the authors. Downloads as a zip file with all component stories as Mp3s

*Ebook format is epub, suitable for Sony reader, iPhone and most ebook readers.
Read them on your computer with the free Adobe Digital Editions

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As part of a research process with Jospeph Rowntree Foundation, M Y Alam spent time interviewing British Pakistani men and gathered their views on issues which are generally prone to misrepresentation elsewhere. Over a period of time these sessions became much more than the usual researcher and research subject kind of relationship. In some cases, they developed into full blown conversations amongst friends.

Made In Bradford compiles a series of transcripts from those conversations and paints a vivid picture of everyday life that reads almost as a counter-narrative to the prevailing direction of current debates. Here, men talk about issues such as forced marriage, drugs and criminality, employment, racism, political representation, the fall out from the London bombings, faith and freedom, along with the notion of home and belonging. The openness within the texts is a refreshing antidote to the recent, more widespread and shameful stigmatisation of a people within our own communities. Made In Bradford is an important book of its time.

Here, four sons reveal the bonds that exist between themselves and their very different fathers; they then turn the tables and consider their own roles as fathers and father figures. These tender and heart-warming tales mix memoir with fiction and provide a perfect backdrop to reflect on this most important relationship.

‘Fathers wonderfully brought to life…so many contrasts, and yet so much to recognise.’  – Times Education Supplement

Le Clézio addresses his speech to Elvira, an Amerindian poet of song and myth he encountered in El Tapón del Darién, an oral storyteller who he describes as ‘poetry in motion, ancient theatre and the most contemporary of all novels at the same time’.

In the Forest of Paradoxes is a heartfelt meditation on the genuine power of storytelling and how the sharing of stories across societies is a cornerstone of civilisation.
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‘Take my advice and shove it all up your arse’ – M Y Alam