NEW TITLES
COMING SOON:-
TAKEN OVER
John Summerton
One
day, Alistair Carne will win a bet…
One
day, he does…
And
that’s the day he has bet he can spend the night in a mental health
institution and succeeded.
Getting in? Easy peasy!
So getting back out again the next day to collect his winnings will
surely be simplicity itself…
But
this is the 21st Century Britain where simplicity itself is off the menu...
Follow
Alistair Carne’s fortunes as he seeks to escape the Kafkaesque nightmare of
his own making in John Summerton’s hilarious debut novel.
At
turns moving and poignant, but brilliantly funny throughout, a story unfolds in
which the lunatics really have TAKEN OVER the asylum.
Royal
8vo paperback, 200 pages, £9.00 (plus 90p p&p)
ISBN 978 1 904552 29 1
FAERIE DUST
Louise Mary Stokes
Stephen
is at home looking after the kids while Sally is away on a residential course...
Louise
Mary Stokes’ first full length novel, FAERIE DUST, charts the life of Sally as
it unfolds when she does not return home to resume her roles of loving mother
and dutiful wife.
Guided
by her faeries, to whom she is known as Lilac Rainbow, she struggles to be
herself rather than the person others would have her be.
FAERIE
DUST is a powerful novel of self discovery which explores the pressure to comply
and the spirit of individuality, and culminates dramatically as the two clash
and only one can prevail...
ISBN 978 1 904552 30 7
NOW AVAILABLE:-
ALLAN
CHACE AND OTHER POEMS
John Cornfield Junior
The
Black Country Classics series continues with John Cornfield Junior’s Allan
Chace & Other Poems. This work
was first published in 1877 by E.W. Allen, Stationers’ Hall Court, London.
John Cornfield was a native of Bilston .
He was a radical with a strong sense of social justice which is
passionately evident in the epic length title poem that rails against the
iniquities and inequities of the day.
“The writer’s enthusiasm for his subject burns
with a force that makes some of Cornfield’s high profile contemporaries seem
meagre in comparison.”
Paul
McDonald, author of Surviving Sting
Royal
8vo paperback, 108 pages, £7.00 (plus 80p p&p)
ISBN 978 1 904552 24 6
ALL SHOOK UP
Carol Hathorne
The
first part of nationally acclaimed author Carol
Hathorne’s autobiography,
SLURRY & STRAWBERRIES was published by the Black Country Society in 2002 and
covered the early years of her Tipton childhood.
Carol went on to write a further two parts, BREAD PUDDING DAYS, and A
WOODBINE ON THE WALL covering her teenage years.
FIVE
MINUTES LOVE brought
together in one volume all three parts of this incredible story.
SLURRY
& STRAWBERRIES told
of life on Tipton’s Lost City Estate. The
early and junior school years of a
working class up bringing depicting the warmth of family life set against a
backdrop of social deprivation.
BREAD
PUDDING DAYS moved
the story on to senior school, travelling to Wednesbury, broadening horizons,
new friends and old truths.
A
WOODBINE ON THE WALL covered
the rite of passage era in which a young woman and a writer emerges.
Now,
ALL SHOOK UP takes the young Carol into the world of work and relationships...
A5
booklet, 52 pages, £3.00 (plus 50p p&p)
ISBN 978 1 904552 25 3
A POCKETFUL OF MEMORIES - ROSEVILLE
(WARTIME AND THE FIFTIES)
Raymond Smout
RAYMOND
SMOUT, follows on where he left off in his
book about Coseley and describes
his
childhood in the district of Roseville. From his early years when there was a
war on to the 1950s he portrays school and leisure, transport, health and local
charaters. It is a very different
world from today not only in amenities but also in attitudes.
Raymond contrasts these with pithy humour to add another valuable title
to the series and paint a picture of where we have come from.
Royalties
from this book are being donated to Rowans Hospice, Waterlooville.
A5
booklet, 40pages £3.00 (plus 50p p&p)
ISBN 978 1 904552 26
0
THE BOOK CELLAR
Barry Morris
The
first in a collection of sublime, outlandish and supernatural tales. Barry
Morris uses his unique style, taking the reader on frenzied voyages to far-off
lands and fractured time anomalies, and leisurely walks through the everyday
happenings of ordinary people.
The anthology contains a wide variation of
stories including: The Book Cellar, a seemingly condemned bookshop
receives a visit from a mysterious stranger; No Extra Time, a reluctant
Football Association referee is transported back to the killing grounds of the
western front to resolve a long running dispute, and The Importance Of Being
Ernie, a high functioning premium bonds computer acquires sentience after
forming a relationship with a disabled woman. Plus: The Talisman, will an
apparently bogus amulet finally yield good fortune? Gate 17, an enigmatic
messenger takes a disenchanted England football supporter on a nightmare
excursion; Suicide Ride, a shell shocked war veteran replays his final
moments as he heads for an underground station; Stolen Childhood, an
entrepreneur’s identity is threatened after a burglary, and Swansongs,
two lateral stories detailing the history of a 1950’s Buick Sedan and the life
of a Bewick’s Swan as they undertake their final journeys.
The
anthology also includes a collage of chronicles from the author’s life.
A5
book, 52 pages, £8.00 (plus 80p
p&p)
ISBN 978 1 904552 09 3
INDUSTRIAL BIOGRAPHY - THE BLACK COUNTRY
CHAPTERS
(A BLACK COUNTRY CLASSIC)
Samuel Smiles
Samuel
Smiles’ Industrial Biography -
Iron Workers and Tool Makers was first published in 1863.
In this volume are the chapters on the lives of Dud Dudley and Andrew
Yarranton which will be of particular interest to anyone with an interest in
Black Country history.
That Dud Dudley claimed to have
invented the means of smelting iron from sea coal is fairly widely known.
Details of his life are more obscure.
His capture by parliamentarians during the civil war, and his daring
escape on the eve of his scheduled execution are described here.
Andrew Yarranton was an iron
founder who set up a furnace using Forest of Dean ironstone at Worcester, a
project only possible because of the river Severn, but he is best remembered as
a navigation engineer. He saw the
potential in making the Stour navigable down to the Severn to in effect open up
the Black Country. His project
ultimately failed and it was a hundred years before the
Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal made a water connection to the
region a reality.
Andrew Yaranton’s life and visionary endeavours are described in
detail.
A5 booklet, 40 pages, £3.00 (plus 50p
p&p)
ISBN 978 1 904552 23 9
DOCTOR
Greg Stokes
Three hilarious tracks from the Black Country comedy writer.
1) Doctor
- Greg Stokes reads this
favourite from the Lamp Tavern shows. It
starts with Bert and Edna bemoaning the fact that Dudley
Council have started putting sculptures on the car parks now, but soon, a
visitor from th’off needs to see the Doctor...
(First performed at the Lamp Tavern, Dudley, 23/12/05)
2)
The
Reduced War Of The Worlds -
Greg Stokes narrates an alternative War of the Worlds in which the
Martians land on Kates Hill. With
Louise Stokes as Julie, Brendan Hawthorne as Oggler and the many voices of Greg
Stokes as the gunner, the Martians, the Vicar, and many others.
(First performed at the Lamp Tavern, Dudley, 28/04/06)
3)
Doctor
- Greg is joined by Louise
and Brendan for an alternative version of Doctor.
CD, 53min 09 sec, £4.00 (plus 70p p&p) RRT £5.00
TUMMY JONES - ODEBRY MON
Billy Spakemon
Billy
Spakemon is the stage and pen name of Brian Dakin.
Dedicated to the promotion of the Black Country dialect as the core of
our identity, Billy Spakemon’s output of poems, stories and songs
in his ‘mutha tung’ is truly prodigious, reminiscent of the output of
Bob Dylan in his youth.
Billy
has been performing his work across the region for years and is it’s finest
performance poet. This,
his third
collection,
of consists of poems, stories and songs, many of which have been performed live
across
the region.
Again the sweep of subject matter is immense, from love to loss, tragedy
in the tunnel to fun in the fode...
So,
sit back get yer yed in his book, tune into his spake, and enjoy the bard of the
Black Country.
Billy’s
fust tew
books,
Chant of the Mutha Tung and
Cor Yow Shurrup a Minit Billy are
also available from The Kates Hill Press
A5 booklet, 48 pages, £3.00 (plus 50p
p&p)
ISBN 978 1 904552 21 5
THE FORTS OF KIMMY SUE ANNE
Louise Mary Stokes
Kimmy
Sue Anne, from the rough, tough streets of Dudley’s Kates Hill, overlooked as
it is by the town’s ancient castle, waxes lyrical about her love of ancient
military edifices, inspired no doubt by…
Yo!
Guy! It is not those kind of forts, it is the forts that I is finkin innit.
Those are the forts in this book, what I have writ…
The
Forts of Kimmy Sue Anne… Words of wisdom from Kates Hill’s finest chav poet
though innit.
Yo!
Guy! I is da only chav wot is writin
me pwoems…
The
Forts of Kimmy Sue Anne, award winning poet…
Yo!
Guy! Wot award is it I is winnin…
Kates
Hill Press Chav Poet of the Year 2007…
Yo!
Guy! Seein as you is awardin me you can keep your forts…
Kimmy
Sue Anne:-
Just
one of the characters of Louise Mary Stokes.
There’s a whole family of them to look forward to...
A5 booklet, 40 pages, £3.00 (plus
50p p&p)
ISBN 978 1 904552 22 2
CONVERSATIONS
WITH THE FAMILY OF THE GROTEQUE
Louise Mary Stokes
Kimmy
Sue Anne the
Chav Poet:-
Is
just one of the characters of Louise Mary Stokes.
If you thought she was bad enough, there’s a whole family of them…
Nan
- Roz Coalstead,
a sweet little old lady (coughs)
Great
Uncle Dirk O’T’Dea
- Stand oop comedian from oop
North.
Nicola
Goff -
The goth, Kimmy Sue Anne’s cousin, formerly Nicola Heathland Smith but
changed her initials from NHS… her world is bleak bleak bleak.
Pamela
Mary Crabfish -
Dirk’s ex missus, from Glastonbury, wears tartan, drinks baby ham and
black.
Arthur
Stringer Turner -
Pamela’s nephew, Kimmy Sue Anne’s second cousin twice removed
- or something
- angry young man wannabe.
Celestine
- Kimmy Sue Anne’s
eccentric aunt from somewhere exceedingly posh… Solihull
Jean-Stefan
de le Broadbean d’ Urse au Mange Tout -
French
artist, the intended of Nan Roz Coalstead.
Meet
them all in this book…
A5
booklet, 36 pages, £3.00 (plus 50p p&p)
ISBN 978 1 904552 27 7